Three-legged dog, oh my!

Moving to a new place is hard, whether its to a new city or a foreign country. It is exciting to be here, but I do miss having my friends around and people to call up and make plans with for the weekend. So what did I do to cheer myself up? I went shopping, of course!

I started my day off having breakfast at a nice little cafe in my neighborhood and saw the best thing I've seen since I've moved here ... a 3-legged dog hobbling down the street. I wish to God I had gotten a picture of it ... it was awesome. As everyone looked on, I couldn't help but think that if this was the U.S., that dog would have a prosthetic leg by now. And then I wondered why there isn't an "Extreme Pet Makeover" show yet where the experts come in and makeover the pet that's had a hard life (abandoned by his mother, hit by a car and lost a leg, finally adopted by loving owner, gets cancer and loses all of his fur, now on the brink of recovery) ... just a thought.

So I again walked around the neighborhoods ... this time with shopping as my goal ... and ran across two street fairs. The one in the picture is in Marolles, a part of town with a big immigrant population. I don't think you can tell from the picture, but the guy was selling "As seen on TV" products. It made me laugh.

I ended up in Zara and Espirit, and actually bought the few things I set out to buy ... a trench coat, flats and some new jeans. And a cute little sweater for good measure. Since I don't have anyone to show off my new purchases too, I've put a picture of them below. I did go to the Mango, but yikes ...

Last night, I had after work drinks in Place Luxembourg with my colleague Rebecca. Apparently, it is the place to go for anyone working in the Parliament or having anything to do with EU relations. It was a sea of suits of all nationalities! Rebecca's great and it was a lot of fun getting to know her better. After that, I met up with Jeremy, my friend Jerry's friend who lives here in Brussels. Yay, Jeremy! It was so nice to hang out with an American and just socialize for a while. I am happy to know Jeremy (and his girlfriend Femke) so that I've got some outside of the office contacts here.