Pay It Forward

One good and bad thing about being an expat is that you don't have your family around to depend on for all of life's curveballs. Instead, you depend on your friends and acquaintances to help you through the tough times. Something that has struck me here is how many opportunites one has every single day to help others. I think I could honestly spend 40 hours a week doing kind deeds for others. When I was in Atlanta, I might have done one nice thing for someone else only about once a month. Part of the many opportunities we have here are because we are more involved in a church, so we hear about more needs. But I also believe that I am in a more "giving" mindset here. Because we as expats are somewhat removed from the US rat race and are all so vulnerable without our major support network here, people are more open about their problems and where they need help. I really have time to think about my friends and how I can help them rather than just racing to the next function. I will also note that I do have more time to help because I don't have a full time job, but I hope that when I return to the States I will remember that work should not be the only thing that fills my time.

I am giving the following example not to toot my own horn, but to show how easy it is to work giving into your everyday life. I had heard about someone who just had surgery so I offered to make her a meal. I went shopping and prepped some of the stuff yesterday. Today I babysat from 8-4pm. On my way home I picked up a few more food items and then started cooking. I have an easy chicken recipe that also doubles well, so since I was at it, I doubled the recipe and gave some to a single friend here who I know eats a lot of Ramen noodles and might like a home cooked meal. As I was driving to drop the food off I realized that I was close to a friends house who was about to walk 15 minutes in the rain to meet up with us for drinks. I gave her a call, swung by here house and picked her up instead. All this to say, I only put out a little more effort and hopefully helped three other people have a better day!

Busy Bees

There haven't been many posts recently because Kyle and I have both been so busy. He has actually only been home five of the last fourteen nights. Work has taken him to Istanbul, London, Milan and Paris. He rarely has to travel for work, so this has given us a taste of what so many other couples deal with when one spouse travels often for work. Yesterday I spoke to a woman who said her husband has traveled for work every single week since January! I have kept myself busy with lots of babysitting, errands and meals with friends. The Free Spirits (part of the AWCB) took a bike tour through Brugge and out to a town 5 km away called Damme. Twenty American women on bikes through Brugge was quite a sight! Kyle had the camera with him in Turkey so these are Yvette's photos. Click here to see them.

I've been doing lots of stuff with Yvette because she is about to head back to Australia in July. She has been a great friend and everyone she knows will miss her dearly. One thing I like about meeting new people is when they remind you of friends from previous times in your life. Yvette is very similar to my good friend Beth Laney, so when I am with Yvette, not only do I get to enjoy my time with her, but I think of Beth Laney too! Click here for photos of Yvette teaching Maggie and I how to make sushi. (Photos by Maggie).

This past week I did an overnight babysitting job for a three and five year old Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. They were really sweet girls, but I have a whole new understanding of sibling rivalry from the adult perspective. As I saw them fight over a toy I had memories of my sister and I doing the exact same thing. Thursday and Friday I babysat for my "regulars" (a 1 1/2 year old boy). Seeing a baby develop from nine months old to 1 1/2 year old has been such a neat experience. I love seeing his mind work as he figured out how to sit up, crawl, and now walk. This week has also been a good reminder for me of how long the days can seem with a toddler, but how quickly kids grow up and then say, "No, I can do it on my own!" (at 3 years old).

Happy Third Anniversary!!!

Apparently leather is the appropriate gift for the third anniversary, but since Kyle and I didn't know this, we just went to London instead. We had a great time seeing the plays Wicked and Chicago, along with touring the Tower of London, The Imperial War Museum, Windsor Castle and The British Museum. Click below to see the photos.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=121a73ha.8jgviy7i&x=0&y=vaue7j

Art Nouveau

Click here to see Tylene's blog about Art Nouveau houses in Brussels. The last picture is just eight doors down from our apartment. It is good to be reminded of how lucky I am to live in such a neat area. I absolutely love living in the city and being able to walk everywhere. When I babysit, it is so nice to walk the baby around and just be able to slowly explore every street and all the tiny details architects put into the houses so many years ago.

Cheers!

We had a tons of fun trying some new wines with friends recently. We have picked up a great book, Great Wines Made Simple by Andrea Immer Robinson. We have only read the first section, but when we got to where you do wine tastings, we thought it would be more fun to have a group compare the wines with, rather than just the two of us. So our friends Cindy, Beth, Tim and Susannah each brought over a different bottle and we had a great time trying them all. We are all about the same age, not too far out of college, and all have about the same simple palate, so they all tasted great to us!

“Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip.”

My Dutch friend just mentioned to me that she and her husband are stressed about their upcoming vacation. They do not have a car, so they are borrowing one from a friend and going camping with their two daughters. However, (I hope you are sitting down for this one) they are stressed because they can only borrow the car for 12 days and they think that will rush their vacation too much.

By no means am I am making fun of my friend -- instead I am laughing at myself because even after being here 2+ years and thinking that I was somewhat adjusted, my jaw still hit the floor when she said that. And by no means are these 12 days their only ones of vacation. She has mentioned a few other holidays to me that they have taken already this year.

According to USA Today, "The United States, with an average of 13 annual vacation days, follows Japan, which offers employees 25 days of vacation annually and Italy, which offers an almost unfathomable 42 days of vacation to its citizens. In fact, most of Western Europe gets a month off of work, give or take a week depending on the country."

43 Things

I just came across this website called 43 things. On it, people list 43 goals they have for their life. The homepage has a list of how popular some of the goals are (ex. losing weight). One of the most popular goals is "Travel More." Because Kyle and I are in a great situation to travel often, I always have a voice in the back of my mind saying, "Use this opportunity better, travel mor." I feel guilty when we have a few weekends in a row that we stay in Brussels, rather than being out seeing Europe. However, I was reminded today of why we don't travel every weekend (and why traveling seems popular to people that are not the ones doing it).

Kyle is on his way to Istanbul today. He woke up this moring at 8am, got ready, finished packing and headed to the airport at 9:15 for an 11am flight. It is now 6pm and he just got to his hotel. So for a three hour flight, he was in transit for 9 hours. For as wonderful as it will be once he finally gets to see a few sights, he has spent his entire day traveling and will most likely not be out on the town until 7pm. The bottom line is that for as great as traveling is, it also takes lot of time and energy.

Mirror, mirror

One thing I have defintely caught on to among my friends that have children is that all parents seem to live with a constant sense of guilt that they are not doing enough for their children. I am here to let parents know that I am sure most of them are doing the best that they can, and in the end, some of those things you harp on your kids about really do sink in.

Just like any mom, my mother would say certain phrases over and over again. She probably thought they were falling on deaf ears (and at the time, they might have been) but amazingly now, I hear her words in my mind all the time. If I leave something on the table I hear, "A place for everything and everything in its place." If I drop my purse and coat right by the front door I hear, "It would take less time to just put it up the right way the first time than to have to come back here and hang it up later." I actually now find myself saying to Kyle what my mom used to say to me, "Making up the bed makes the entire room look cleaner."

A phrase of hers I always heard growing up was, "It is all about presentation." My mom is incredible at the details and presentation of an event. Just check out all her little touches at the baby shower she hosted! Not only did she do the flower arrangements, she planned a menu that would be colorful, arranged all of it and made adorable little duckie nametags to boot!

Recently we had another couple over for lunch. After all the years of thinking I was ignoring my mom, it was like she took over my body as I entertained. I poured the water into a pretty glass pitcher so the Brita was out of sight. I baked the quiche in a nice dish so that it could be served from the table. I served the quiche with a salad and strawberry vinegrette dressing so that there was some pretty green and red on the plate. And when I found myself slicing strawberries so that they could be fanned out on either side of the cookies and then adding a dollop of whipped cream to accent the colors of the dessert, I could only think of the saying, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all."