5 Things I Love About Beligum and 5 Things I Hate

In no particular order.....

Love:

1. Radiators, or more specifically the way they make a room feel warm and cozy without being smelly, messy, dangerous, sucking all the moisture out of the room or requiring any attention other than to occassionally adjust the knob

2. Italian coffees (with Amaretto), available pretty much anywhere, perfectly acceptable after any meal and almost always obscenely strong

3. Roundabouts, or 'rondpunts', no more sitting at lights and less U-turns!

4. n-ch-n-ch-n-ch-n-ch....it is a 24x7 party here on the radio and there are a million stations ranging from pop to electronic to terrible French music. They will play and/or re-mix anything. I have heard Welcome to the Jungle back to back with Lionel Richie and then straight into Katy Perry or the latest Kings of Leon. And starting on Friday night they take it up a few notches to full-blown rave all the way through Sunday morning when they count down the top 50 of the week. And besides the radio, there are at least 8 non-stop music video channels. Which leads me to ask: Are they Belgians, or are they dancers? (If you were listening to Belgian radio on a daily basis you would totally get that reference.)

5. Bottle refunds, specifically beer bottles. You can buy a case (24) of either Jupiler or Stella Artois for around 9 Euros and when you bring the bottles back they give you 4.50 Euros back! Granted they are 25cl bottles (8.4 oz) but you can also get them in 33cl (11.15 oz) for a couple Euros more.

Hate:

1. City Hall, or at least the people who work there and specifically the girl I talked to yesterday. She was a snotty bitch and I walked out knowing little more than I did when I came in and having no idea what I am waiting for or for how long, just that I have to wait.

2. Cheese Croquettes, or 'kaaskroten'. Or any other kind of kroketen for that matter. This sounds like something that I would put on the other list, but somehow they have managed to make the joy of deep-fried snacks into a mushy, flavorless mess.

3. Parking lots, all of which have clearly been designed for mini-coopers and the like. I am forever making 3 point turns to get in and out and am always squeezing through the door.

4. The Metric System. I don't care if the entire world uses it, I am over it. Don't ask me how long, how fast or how heavy something is because I am tired of doing so much math in my head.

5. Emmental (Swiss cheese). Apparently this is the only choice for 'melting cheese' in the entirety of Belgium (and maybe France). Yes, there are tons of great soft cheeses, fresh mozarella, gouda and on and on and I'm certainly not complaining about those, but they know nothing of Cheddar, or any other cheese that would go on nachos or into macaroni. It's Emmental, or nothing. Have you ever had beef tacos with Swiss cheese? I don't recommend it. It's depressing.

We are going to London in the morning for the weekend with some friends. I'm excited except for the part where we are underwater on the train for an hour. Being someone who holds their breath for the two minutes that the L train goes under the river to Brooklyn, I am just trying not to think about it. Kookai will be with us so I'm hoping she might keep me occupied.

Sint Niklaas and Zwarte Piet

I know.

I have alot of catching up to do.

I think of things I want to put on the blog all the time but somehow posting on the blog is the one thing that never gets crossed off of my to-do list.

I'll start where I left off:

December 6th is Sint Niklaas Day and some of Andy's friends arranged a gathering in the pub across the street for their kids, and friends' kids. Andy agreed to play Zwarte Piet (one of them, there are usually six to eight, but there were only two travelling with Sint Niklaas to Kortrijk this year).

Once I got over the initial shock of people (my boyfriend) actually wearing blackface in public, it was pretty fun. (OK, I didn't really get over it but everyone seemed baffled and/or bored by my friendly but strenuous explanations of why it was not OK to wear blackface, so I finally just shutup and went along.)

There were 15 or 20 kids and they had basically the same reaction that kids do to any costumed person - some were thrilled, some were terrified. Lots of candy was handed out and lots of photos were taken with SinterKlaas (which is Sint Niklaas' other name - the man that comes at Christmas here looks exactly like our Santa Claus but he is called the Kerstman - translated = Christmas Man - and he doesn't bring anything for the kids).

The transformation:

Don't forget the red lipstick!

And the aftermath. After lots of scrubbing. Nice eyeliner:

Oh Yeah...

I found sweet potatoes in the Colruyt the other day!!! Andy has never had them - can you believe that?! So we had roasted sweet potatoes with garlic tonight (they got a thumbs up). Next on the list: black beans. They are not new for Andy - he discovered them in Guatemala - but they are seriously hard to find. I think I'm gonna have to check with the owner of the Mexican restaurant.

And I'm gonna attempt to make a pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner. They make lots of pumpkin soup and fresh pumpkin is easy to find, but the idea of making it sweet and/or into a pie is totally foreign.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about Sint Niklaas and Zwarte Piet. Here's a preview:

I Have a Job!!

I signed a contract today - I am officially an IT Consultant! The company is called Unipartners. I'll be meeting with them in the next couple of weeks to choose a project so I don't have any idea about location/duration yet, but it will be some form of Java programming project.

Also, I was finally able to submit my visa application a few days before we left on vacation. We won't have an answer until the end of April, but in the meantime they will give me a registration number that allows me to stay here legally until then and also to get a work permit. Right now I'm waiting for the police to come by and verify that I actually live at this address (this will be their second visit). Once they've filed their document with the City Hall then I will get my number. Thanks again to those of you who ran around getting documents for me - you made this step forward possible!

La Republica Dominicana

We're back!

We had a nice time but 8 days at a resort was a little too much for us. It's kind of like being on a cruise ship, but bigger and with a beach. It's all you can eat and/or drink (alcohol included) all day long, and nothing to do but the beach or the pool. Just the thought of having to eat the breakfast buffet again makes me a little queasy.

Luckily we were able to leave a few times for day trips.

Once I have Andy's photos from his camera I'll make a slideshow. Here are a few that I like: