“Belgium: St. Truiden to Brussels to Lommel to Overpelt back to St. Truiden back to Overpelt back to Brussels back to Overpelt…”

The roller coaster of emotions I have felt during my first week abroad greatly correlates with the spontaneous ride I have been taken on throughout Belgium.

Excitement to fear to uncertainty to anticipation to exhaustion back to bursts of excitement back to deep fear back to scary uncertainty back to happy anticipation as of right now…

Belgium is wonderful. The people, the scenery, the chocolate, the waffles…I absolutely love this country and am so glad it is where Big Media Group is headquartered. The first weekend I was here, I stayed in a nice apartment in St. Truiden, a charming, small town about an hour outside of Brussels. I was able to figure out how to head into Brussels from the train station, and met up with one of my best high school friends, Coop, and some other guys I know for a night out in Brussels. Familiar faces and boot-size mugs of beer in one of the most legendary bars in the world, Delirium café, was just what the doctor ordered.

Best thing about the past week..waffles in Brussels!

The next day, my other roommates and fellow trainees arrived from the airport. I was extremely excited to meet them, as I know often times the people can undoubtedly make or break an experience. I LOVE them. Three from America, one from Holland, one from Australia, one from Colombia, and one from Bulgaria. I have only known them for a week, but I know we will stay lifelong friends. Whether I am talking about friends and family in Spanish with my Colombian roommate, or listening to my Bulgarian roommate tell us about her childhood during a communist regime, or making fun of my Australian roommate for his love of Vegemite (gross), I feel as if I learn something new from one of them every second of the day. We often joke that Media Plus has planted webcams in our apartment and that we’re actually on a European reality show, or they are just flying us over here to harvest our organs (just kidding, Mom). But I do like that they feel just as “out-of-the-loop” as I do - we are all in this crazed, extraordinary, life-changing transition together.

Outside our apartment in St. Truiden

We moved to Overpelt on Monday, another adorable Flemish town that reminds me of somewhere Hansel and Gretel might live. I scored the bedroom suite in our new house, complete with skylights and my own little den (woohoo). There was little time to relax, however; the following will explain why...

One word for my sales training in Lommel, Belgium: INTENSE.

Wake up, turn on my swagger in a stiff suit, get picked up by our driver Renee (who I swear is in on the training evaluation of us all), chug 3 cups of coffee at the Big Media Group office, and get ready for a day of grueling sales workshops and on-the-spot call-outs. Basically, we have learned how to handle all the responsibilities we will have once we are placed in our first assignment. Our objective as sales consultants is to sell sponsorship space in whichever media outlet we are promoting at the time (BMG owns about 20 different media sources, from the European Times to British Airport Magazine) by negotiating directly with the CEO’s of the nation’s top 100 companies. How do I do that as a 21-year-old with no sales/work /real WORLD experience? Now you can see why training has been so extreme…

First, along with a partner, I will have to research anything and everything I can on the country I will be sent. I must work with the “openers” here at BMG to schedule meetings with as many government ministers as possible, and start calling the top 100 companies in the country to make appointments with their CEO’s as well. After successfully meeting with the government ministers of the country, gaining their support for our publication, and receiving their insight into which companies we should sell our publications to, I continue contacting various companies via telephone or in-person PR visits. To summarize, my work days will consist of planning, entering country information into BMG's database, calling about 20 companies/ministers per day, actually conducting about 3 meetings throughout town per day, and reporting back to my field coach and recording daily progress.

Cherish, Francisco, Elliott, me, Mwongola, and Lydia at training!

My kind of job. I am so excited to be doing something so active; I love the idea of waking up to a completely different work schedule every day. The sales trainers have definitely reiterated though that the work hours will be long and hard, especially at first, and that this position is more of a lifestyle than a career. Needless to say, I won’t ever be bored…

After training each day, my roommates and I go running on one of the many scenic trails around our apartment or house (wherever we are living that day J); I swear Belgium has more running trails and beautiful parks than buildings! You can imagine how much I love that aspect, and the fact that all my roommates are runners. (The Aussie even ran track at FSU!) We then either cook dinner all together or go out on the town, or study our sales manual to prep for the day ahead!

Just yesterday I gave my memorized hour-long sales pitch to the head of recruiting, who taped it as well. Along with my week-long evaluation and sales exam grade, she is going to use it to determine where and IF I will be placed.

The next post should be interesting…!