Who knew ? Before heading out to Europe I made a point to learn a few french phrases that I deemed would suffice should I need to speak french (I used the app Duolingo which was suggested by Amber.. my teammate.. in case you were wondering). Upon my arrival everyone spoke English. Lol who knew.And in the city I was in the people spoke Dutch. So the few french phrases I did learn I never even used.

My flight there was 10 long hours of me sleeping and watching movies. Somehow I adjusted to the time change fairly well (I slept through every single breakfast while I was there). Before the flight I met Chris, don’t exactly remember his occupation but it was something fascinating that he didn’t want to talk about because it was stressful.. Now that I think about it I think he was an engineer… I could be wrong. I do know his son Ashley was a music producer.. or made music. One or the other. Either way its cool. He also had a daughter who is pretty much awesome and works in the hotel industry. From what I gathered she speaks tons of language (I could be making that up) and has traveled and lived all over the world (true statement). Sounds like an awesome life to me !

About the plane. That was the sickest plane I have ever been on ! It was amazing. I felt like a kid in the candy story lol Everyone else was clearly use to riding planes like that and I probably looked like that MIchael Jackson fan that passed out in the stands (you know the girl they always show passing out when they play the M.J documentary.) Lol I was in awe and my eyes were wide ! I mean the plane was huge ! And they fed us lmao I ‘ma stop. It was a great experience.

Upon landing, Chris offered to take me to my final destination (no pun intended).  And off we went to start the beginning of my European tour.

Tracklife

They had dorm style accommodation style for us once we were all checked in. Which was nice. I like meeting new people (even though I’m shy.. not exactly sure how that works out) ! I had 3 other roommates from all over the world, a jumper, a 800 runner and a thrower. Two are pictured above. Not sure where the 3rd was when we were taking this.

The food was amazing.. shout out to the cooks that hooked our meals up !! Um french fries in gravy tastes amazing by the way !!

Meet Day in Memorial Leon Buyle

Finally it was meet day. Meet 1 of 2 in Belgium. I was ready ! Who would have known I would run into some fellow Aggies ! Pretty cool running into old teammates at an international track meet. I always wonder if I’m going to know someone at a meet when I travel.

Before I forget. All of the commands where in Dutch.. So I had no idea what they were say. Kinda just went along with the flow.

First race I got out well ! Took second to Michelle Jenneke (The Australian girl who got famous for her pre-race dance). This qualified me for the finals round.

Finals round came around and I had another amazing race.. Hit hurdle 7 but some how powered through and took the W !! First European win. Whoop Whoop ! I was extremely shocked I won seeing as how there was a girl seeded faster than me in my race. But I guess everyone has their race. I didn’t run the time I wanted to run but I was consistent with my first run that day.

First meet in Belgium down and then I was off to the Brussels Grand Prix.