After a 7 hour plane ride, we finally made it to Belgium on May 13, 2012! We collected our baggage and traveled to the Irish College in Leuven where we will be staying for the next five nights.  Next, we settled in, and began a tour presented by Professor Piet Sercu who teaches at the nearby Katholieke University (KU) of Leuven.  Although it had been a very long day for all of us, we were all very excited to learn about the history of the Irish College and landmarks of the city.  

We found it interesting to learn that the founder of the Big Bang Theory and Porter`s Five Forces studied in Leuven.  We toured the Oude Market which is a strip of restaurants and pubs that students and residents enjoy spending their free time in during the day.  It was also very interesting to see the student dorms and class buildings.  Many of these buildings are hundreds of years old.  For instance, the business building was built in the 1400s.  We found the architecture of the buildings to be very unique, especially the ones that were constructed in the baroque style.  We concluded the tour at a local cafe where the KU-Leuven sponsored a cheese and wine tasting.  Everyone is having an excellent time on the trip, and it has only been one day.