Random Thoughts

I often say, "Oh, I should blog about that." But in reality, I probably don't have enough thoughts or opinions for every topic to have a whole intro, body and conclusion (not that mine always have all that), so I'm just going to write the bases of some of my thoughts recently:

--I hate it when you have to take off your shoes at a person's house. Trust me, I have gross feet. In the wintertime, they probably smell a little (after being cooped up in my shoes all day). In the summertime the undersides are really ugly and rough. I understand that there is so much dog poop in Brussels that there might be a chance you have some on your shoes, but at least give me the option that if I don't have any on my shoes then I can keep them on. The only place I felt ok taking my shoes off was at the house of a friend who had lived in Singapore previously. She had a basket of clean slippers that you could wear instead.

--It is really confusing when you greet an American here because back in the U.S. I would just hug them, but here people kiss on the cheek. So are we supposed to hug or kiss? It is awkward every single time I greet someone.

--Although I have gotten more used to it this summer, it is still hard to get it through my mind that everyone is "on holiday" for most of July and all of August. I am serious when I say everyone. Restaurants just shut down for a whole month. Kyle's suit and jacket were locked behind closed doors for a few weeks because the dry cleaners closed and I hadn't picked them up before they left. There is a big sink hole (about the size of a sewer lid) on the street adjacent to ours. They have had to shut down the street because it is right in the middle of the road and very dangerous. Obviously not too dangerous though, because the police just put up a road block and told my friend that it won't be fixed until September, when all of the public workers return from their holiday.

--I used to kind of look down on people who weren't good with directions. It just seemed that if I knew where we were and which way to go to get somewhere then everyone should be able to understand it. Well, I am now changing my tune. I have some friends here who are just much better at French than I am (they also try a lot harder too). Although they don't exactly say it, I always get the feeling that they look down on me for butchering my way through a meal, etc. a year and a half after being here. I am now much clearer on how some things just come more naturally to some than others.

--Technology is incredible. My sister is in China for ten day and she had forgotten to cancel an appointment in the States this week. She wrote me an e-mail from China, asking me to call Atlanta over the internet to cancel an appointment from Belgium. Between my sister in China and my parent being at the beach, I miss talking to my family!

Emily d'wingfieldo

So the delivery guys finally came today. It was hot outside and the overweight guy was really breathing hard after he had brought the washer up the stairs. He mumbled something between breaths, and since I had no clue what he said, I just assumed that he said something about the heat or being tired etc. Just to be nice and go along with him I said, "Oui, oui" to which he turned to me and in perfect English said, "You speak Italian?" Wow, I am so fluent in French that I can't even tell when someone is speaking Italian or French!

Over the Barrel

Nowhere is the phrase "They've got you over a barrel" more appropriate than when you live in a foreign country and barely speak the language. A man who has just moved here and is busy working was willing to pay me to just sit at his house and wait for his washer and dryer to be delivered. He had already waited there all day Tuesday (when it was supposed to be delivered) and they never came. So he asked me to wait there on Wednesday. At 9:30am I called one number to even attempt to figure out a time range when I might be able to expect them, but they just gave me another number to call. I called the next number four times before I got an answer and then all I could understand the guy to say was "afternoon." Now afternoon can be interpreted pretty broadly, so I still felt like I needed to be at the house from noon onwards. I got there at 11:30 and waited and waited and waited. By 4:30 I got this man's secretary to call and try to understand what the delivery guy was saying. It turns out he had been telling me that I was number 14 out of 18 on his delivery list and he was only at number 10, so it would be another 2-2 1/2 hours before he would get there. I had dinner reservations at 7:30, but I figured that I would wait as long as I could and hopefully he would make it there. I called at 7:15 and he told me it would be another hour, so I had to tell him not to come and now I am going to have to go through this whole fiasco again on Friday.

Kyle was telling me the many ways he would yell at the customer service department if it where in English, but then he said that since it is in French (and customer service is non-existent here) I am just going to have to bring another good book and wait again Friday. Ugh.

My fears have come true

Note--Kyle thinks this blog entry is a little too much information, but anyone who knows me knows that I have no filter and would most likely tell anyone any detail of my life. So in case you don't feel like you know me personally, maybe after this you will.

I feel like all I have done recently on this blog is complain about the heat. But today, my fear of how hot it would get (and how my body would react) came true. I must have eaten something bad yesterday or have some cold that has taken effect on my stomach, but I was really not doing so well this morning. After an hour I thought I was feeling a little bit better. I had plans to meet a friend across town to go to the market, eat lunch, shop and then go to our bookclub. Because I hate it when people cancel, I hate to cancel on people myself. So I thought I could just tough it out -- I was wrong. I braved the 95-degree weather and took one tram across town for about 20 minutes. I had waves of not feeling great, but I thought they would soon stop. I transferred to my next tram and things started to go downhill fast. I started shaking and then had to quickly get off the tram because I thought I was about to throw up. I waited 20 minutes for the next tram and then had to get off three stops later (and only four stops from my final destination) because again I thought I was about to throw up.

By this point, I was shaking, sweating, about to throw up and "going over the edge" mentally. I called Kyle and asked him to pick me up, but not before I laid down on three stone steps in the shade because I thought they might cool me off. I must have looked crazy and passed out enough that a man stopped and asked if I was ok. I told him Kyle was on his way to come get me. It turns out though, that the friend I was meeting lives very close to where I had gotten off the tram. So instead, she came and took me to her house where I laid down for 45 minutes with the fan on me and then she took me home in her air-conditioned car. I have just been laying around the house since then, and still don't feel great. A nap with two fans on me and a cold bath have helped, but I my stomach still really hurts. I think today was a combination of being sick to begin with, and then going out in the heat. However, at least now I don't feel crazy for fearing the heat -- there is a reason I should dread going outside.

Fear of the Known

So I made the mistake of checking what the weather is supposed to be for this week. It is going to be 96 on Wednesday and 98 degrees on Thursday. I actually wish I didn't know how hot it is supposed to get because now I am just living in fear knowing that I will be spending the latter part of the week sweating in 98 degree weather with only fans to cool me off.

Hide and Seek

Kyle and I seem to only really clean the apartment when we are having people over. Lucky for us, we have visitors/guests at least once to twice a month, so the apartment doesn't get too dirty. The only problem is that if we are in a last-minute scurry to clean up, things get thrown in any and every drawer, closet, and cubby hole. After our guests have left, we often forget to get the things out because we are so happy the house looks clean and de-cluttered. So here I am two weeks after the Wingfields have left and five weeks since we did our massive cleanup for them and I am trying to remember where we hid everything. So far, I can't find my knitting, a few picture frames, a vase, a train ticket, and a doctors receipt. Maybe we will discover these things as we attempt to clean up for the next guests.

Ice Ice Baby

I have reached a new low. Yesterday I purposely went to the grocery store just because I know that it is *slightly* air conditioned. While there I pretened to be comparing products in the frozen food section just so I could stick my head in the freezers for a few minutes. I take at least two cold showers a day just to cool off, but that only helps for about five minutes. The other 23 hours and fifty minutes I just sweat.

I feel like I am always complaining about the weather here. However, my cousin and his girlfriend just came to visit and the heat hit them as hard as it has hit us, so we aren't just wimps. When the Wingfields were here they bought a fan just for their hotel room in Paris because it was so hot. When you sweat constantly from morning until night and then all through the night to the morning again you just never feel like doing anything. Poor Kyle has eaten his fare share of fruit, salad and sandwiches just so I don't have to turn on the oven, but I think I have run out of non-cooked food ideas. Does ice cream count as a meal?

Growing Pains

I just went to a lovely going away party for a friend of mine. It was thrown by a Irish/British woman and we had a true tea with scones, clotted cream and jam, and tea sandwiches. I loved it! While there, a few *topics* came up. Because I have such a wide age range of friends from the AWCB (many of whom were there), I have learned a lot about what is to come with each future birthday. Wow, I am not looking forward to getting older!!!

Between all my 26-34 year old friends, I have learned more about child birth, breastfeeding and "tearing" than I ever wanted to know. And then my 40-50 year old friends tell me all about informing your kids on the 'birds and the bees' and the ups and downs of being married for 15-20 years. And then my 50-65 years old friends tell me all about menopause, and hot flashes and everything I have to look forward to. One of them has recently been divorced and another just lost her husband.

In one way I feel very lucky to know what is to come so that I won't be surprised. But in another way, I just dread getting older. I never used to be one of those who 'worried about getting old' but the more I know about it, the more I do! However, one of the good things about knowing what is to come is remembering to enjoy what I have now. I recently complained about putting on a few pounds, but after seeing this website (warning: some of the most disgusting pictures I have ever seen, but everyone should click on this to see what women go though!) I am thinking that a few more pounds is nothing! My cousin is here visiting with his 21 year old girlfriend. I was looking over at her yesterday in her size 2 mini-skirt and thinking "Honey, I used to look like that too and you have no clue what is to come." I wonder if that is what all these other women think when they look at me...

A wet t-shirt contest with the Wingfields

I have been MIA recently because we have been traveling and entertaining lots. We wrapped up a great trip with Burt and Sherrie Wingfield (Kyle's parents) last Saturday. They were in Europe for 16 days and they definitely saw a lot! They started out in Brussels for a few days, were off to London for four days, slept in Brussels for a night, and then we all headed to Normandy and then Paris. I was definitely 'toured' out by the end.

Normandy was wonderful and I would highly recommend it to everyone. It was especially touching to be there close to the Fourth of July and to be reminded of all the freedoms Americans have fought for, not only for ourselves, but so that the world can enjoy the same freedoms we have.

Paris was incredibly hot, so when I think of that part of the trip, all I think about it sweating. Before we could even start sweating though, Kyle had to drive us through Paris. I knew going in that this part would be stressful, but I don't think I could have imagined how bad it could really be. Kyle deserves a medal for his driving skills, especially when he had to do almost a full circle around the Arc de Triumph's six lane round about. On the first night in our hotel, the bathroom had a leak coming from directly above. It conveniently hit exactly on the front of the toilet seat, and was leaking sewage, so Kyle and I had to do some creative bathroom maneuvers before we had a chance to get to the front desk. While in Paris we saw the Arc de Triomphe, sweated, shopped on the Champs Elysees, sweated some more, saw the Eiffel Tower, drank 3 gallons of water trying to cool off, saw Notre Dame, and each sweated through the shirts we were wearing. I know it is hard to understand if you are living in the South and every person you can think of has air conditioning, but in Paris, NO ONE has AC, so there is just no relief from the heat. This is especially bad when it is 91 and 95 degrees respectively the two days you are there.

From Paris we were back in Brussels for two days. Just enough time to do laundry and repack. Then we drove to Dusseldorf, Germany, where the Wingfields were flying out of. We dropped them off at the airport and then went to the other airport in the city to catch our own flight to Barcelona. We were there for two days visiting with our friends from UGA, Amy (Mulkey) and Trey McGowan. They are moving to Boston because Amy is about to go to business school, so it was nice to see the husband as the "trailing spouse" for once! I had never been to Barcelona before, so it was a real treat for me. It is amazing how much more comfortable I am in a Spanish speaking country, just because I took a few years of it in high school. Kyle took Spanish in both high school and college and I was really impressed with how much came back to him as soon as we stepped off the plane. If only we knew that much French!

I'll post the pictures soon, but in the meantime I am getting ready for my cousin Bennett to visit for a few days. We figured out recently that in the last year and a half we have had 14 sets of visitors. Pretty impressive, but pretty exhausting too :)

Wearing Me Down

For some reason this past year I have really been feeling older. Actually, my young, cute lifestyle has been going downhill for the past two years. I guess one reason is that back in Atlanta everyone I worked with was into fashion, so you just wanted to feel cute to keep up with them. You were inspired to dress up because everyone else was. It was actually fun to go to work each morning just to see what everyone else was wearing.

Then we moved to Alabama. My job at Auburn University of Montgomery had me running all over campus. Not only that, I was also shlepping food, drinks, coffee makers and carts of supplies all around between several buildings in the heat of summer. This caused me to dress down and it was then that I bought my first pair of Naturalizers. Ugh. I did try for a little bit to continue looking cute, but when I wore my Coach high heels to a meeting and the other woman was there in a jogging suit, I knew should just accept that I was in a different environment.

And then we moved to Belgium. When you don't have a car, you live up four flights of stairs, all the streets you walk on everyday are cobblestone and you live in a place where it is either overcast and cold all winter or hot with no air conditioning in the summer you just start looking a little worse for the wear. I used to always think that Southerners were some of the most beautiful people. Then I realized it was just because they didn't have any harsh elements to deal with like the Northerners did. I could wear high heels here, but then I would look like a drunk two year old walking down the street because I have to walk so slowly and carefully that it would take me an hour to get anywhere.

Yesterday, as I was thinking about how old and dowdy I feel, I decided that I would try and look cute for when Kyle came home. Keep in mind, this is hard to do because last night he didn't get home until 9:30 and the night before that it was 10pm. So at 6:30 I still had my outfit and earrings on and was looking fairly cute. Then I talked on the phone and my earrings bothered me, so I took them off. While still looking cute I started to make dinner, but then I was worried about the food splashing up on my new top, (and I sure didn't want to have to wash it yet because washing over here takes so long), so I changed into a tank top. Then I started to do the dishes and my hair was getting in my face, so I put on a headband to keep it back. Well, by 8:30 I was hot from having cooked dinner and then doing all the dishes, and my jeans were just too much, so I changed into running shorts. So Kyle gets home at 9:30 to a wife in a tank top that doesn't quite fit, with her bra strap hanging out, running shorts and an ugly red headband pulling back her hair. I only looked a step above Britney Spears. So much for that great plan.

I think I am also starting to feel old because I read way too many gossip websites and magazines (People, USWeekly etc). I love seeing what celebrities are up to, but I do have to really work on reminding myself of how much plastic surgery and airbrushing goes on in those pictures. A perfect example are Madonna's hands in a recent photo. I was in an aerobics class yesterday and the teacher was incredibly fit. The stamina and energy she had for the whole class of jumping jacks, lunges, situps and man style push up was amazing. However, the funny thing is that her body really had no definition to it. I need to keep reminding myself of that when I see how skinny and muscular Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker and so many other celebrities are. It is sad to think that if these images can eat away at a logical, well educated 26 year old's self confidence, what are they doing to an impressionable 14 year olds one?