Jared's First Workshop

For Jared's project his first trip was to Brussels for a workshop. He met with a service consultant to go over project plans and documentation. They worked all day and met up for dinner later that night. Jared had the pleasure of driving into the center of Brussels which was quiet an adventure. It would make New York City look tame. Picture an intersection with 10 different ways to drive through it and a train heading straight for you. It was definitely an interesting drive for his first European driving experience. At the restaurant they started them off with the pre-appetizer of goose liver over mixed veggies. He said he wished they hadn't told him what was in it until after he ate it. But it wasn't anything special. For dinner he had tuna which he said was excellent.

After dropping off a coworker Jared had to find his was back to Maastricht, with no map, no gps, no cell phone and no help. It was sure an adventurous trip. After a few wrong turns and little bit of panic, he made it back safe and sound.

So of all times for this to happen, today on our way to dinner after Jared got back from his workshop, we ran into one of Jared's old bosses Christine. She was talking in a small group as we were crossing the walking bridge ( which a boat was crossing under so it the bridge was rising as we were talking) and Jared stopped to say hello. We couldn't believe it. Of all the places to see someone you know. Crazy!

Tonight we went to dinner at a place called La Bonne Femme. Before our meal and appetizers they brought out this "soup made of carrots" he told us. It was a very small cup and I swear, it smelled like baked carrots just out of the oven. It also tasted like liquified baked carrots? I couldn't believe it. It was amazing. For our food we started with this delicious, warm bread that I thought was going to come with some dipping oil, but actually came with tapas I guess, which was this chopped/paste of spices, oil, olives and some other things that you spread onto the bread that was actually very good. I was nervous at first but I ended up eating a good amount of it. Jared had a French onion soup, that was different from home but good all the same. For dinner I had Brochettes Van Scampi which (was pretty adventurous for me) and it was delicious! It was a kabob with shrimp and scallops on puréed potatoes mixed with tomatoes and more and zucchini and red peppers and onions yummy! Jared had a pasta shrimp scampi with linguini and red sauce and some mystery seafood mixed in. Was pretty good. I really enjoyed the people, the atmosphere and the whole place all around. It was a nice quick, but a bit cold walk back to our temporary apartment. Only a few more days here and then we'll be off to our new apartment.

Tomorrow we are going to try to go to Monschau, and Aachen for our first mini trip. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures and fun stories.