Wandering Woman

One of my favorite sayings is, "Not all who wander are lost." I do a lot of wandering around and I think it is great. As my grandmother Moa would say, I "piddled" around all day Sunday and had a wonderful time. Kyle was in the States this past weekend, so I had the house to myself. Of course I missed him, but I must also say that I also thoroughly enjoyed just doing exactly what I wanted when I wanted and not telling anyone about it.

Sunday I woke up and went to the brocante down in Waterloo (about 30 min. outside of Brussels). A brocante is like a flea market and this one is set up outside with over 100 vendors selling nick-nacks. I had a nice time browsing at a leisurly pace, but only came away with a two euro scarf, so now I can practice all of the scarf tying techniques I learned recently. Afterwards I went to a precious breakfast place/farm where all of their eggs are fresh and they bake their own bread. It was so quaintly European that I could hardly stand it. (However, it was also so European that the quiche I ordered had some weird hairy looking little fish on it.) I had a nice breakfast while reading my book and taking in the atmosphere. Next I headed to a glass show just a few kilometers away. In case you don't know, I absolutely love glass, especially blown glass. I had a nice time wandering around and seeing so many beautiful things, but I didn't buy anything.

On my way home, I decided that it was just too nice outside to not go on a walk, so I pulled over and took a walk through the forest. Brussels has an incredible amount of forest and there are great walking/biking paths throughout. One of the best things about the day was really observing so many typically Belgian/French things. As I got out of my car to go on the walk I saw a big group of people all in horse riding clothes opening a few bottles of champagne near a picnic table. It turns out they had been on a ride and were taking a break. Talk about a great way to spend a Sunday -- riding through the beautiful forest only to stop and have a glass of champagne with your friends in the middle of it all!
After my walk it was still too nice to go inside, so I went to a restaurant, had a glass of wine and read my book some more. I was amazed to really see just how laid back and family oriented Belgians are on a Sunday. There is an area next to the restaurant patio where kids can roller skate. It was fun to see how the kids would go off to skate while the parents (and their dogs) would sit and have a drink, then their meal, then dessert, then coffee, all while the children would check in periodically and then continue to skate. It really looked like it could be an all day affair.

After reading a bit, I came home, checked a few e-mails and then was off to church. We go to a pretty unique church. It was started here by four American couples, but many of them have lived in Europe and even farther abroad before. Their goal is to appeal to people who have a negative idea about church, which is part of the reason that our services take place in a brasserie (basically like an upscale bar that serves food). It is a very laid back, but close knit group. Never before in all my years of going to church have I actually known the names, faces and stories of so many of my fellow parishoners. I have definitely never known my minister and his family as well as I do here. I took a photo of our friend Richard and his daughter. Richard is on of the best dad's I have ever seen and every time I see he and his daughters together it makes me miss my dad. It is really cute because his girls are about 9 and 11 and are both really tall for their age, so seeing them run around and try to curl up in his lap, they look like big puppies.

After church I went to a dinner paty my new friend Meredith was hosting. It is amazing how many people I have met here just through friends at home that put us in touch with each other. Meredith was a college roomate of our friend Katie Wells. Thanks to Katie passing along our information, now Meredith and I are friends too! Meredith works at the Embassy, so she knows a variety of people I would not normally get the chance to meet. I love meeting people that are here for the US Embassy or NATO. Because the majority of them were working at an assignment in a much rougher place before this (ex. Baghdad, Haiti, Mali) they all think Brussels is the most wonderful and easy place to live. It is refreshing to hear their positive attitudes after hearing a few negative ones from women at the AWCB (who I don't think have it too rough :) ).

I am trying out a new photo service, but so far I haven't been too pleased. Has anyone else had good luck or problems with PhotoShow? I know a few of my photos have typos in them, but I can't get the program to make my changes. Ugh. Anyways, turn on your speakers enjoy the photos (they may take awhile to load).