Thursday, June 14th

Today was a great day, especially since I got to sleep in! My bed did not want to let me go this morning. I started the day off socializing in the lobby of the hostel where I met a really nice group of people from England who were also here school related. I fell in love with their accent! Some other students in the TnCis program asked me did I want to join them on the hop on hop off tour that I missed yesterday but I was in the middle of a convo with one of the receptionist and found out he was a local. I had been looking for a local to interview all week and really wanted to get this done! He was a really nice guy from Guinee that grew up in Brussels and told me a lot about the Belgium culture and traditions. Today we had Roger Hoogwijs as a guest speaker, and he gave us a lot of valuable information about the shipping industry. I didn't know the freight market was as bad as it is. I also learned about the HUGE vessels, I had no idea they were that enormous! I was great hearing from someone who worked in the industry for many years and learning about the different branches and companies involved in the industry first hand!