The grass isn't always greener (only the mucus)

There is a story in my family that when my mom was pretty far along into labor with my sister my dad said, "Think of the boys in Vietnam, Kath." Obviously not exactly what you want to hear at that time, but I think that shows where I get my tendancy for thinking of someone in a worse situation.

When I have a coughing fit I think of all the people with cystic fibrosis. At least I know there is an end in sight, whereas they have to live with that coughing for life.

It is 2:34am and I woke up shivering, even though our apartment is perfectly warm. My first thought as I was shaking in bed was, "Think of all the men that died in the Battle of the Bulge. They were outside in sub-zero conditions fighting. Yeah, you are shivering, but you are under a warm blanket."

I tell all of this to Kyle and he just shakes his head. Poor thing, but at least he doesn't have a wife that complains alot!

Dusty Days

Whew, we have had a busy Christmas, but I feel great about everything we have gotten done. With the baby coming in about a month and Kyle having a few days off in a row, we took this time to do lots of projects around the apartment.

Thursday we had a nice Christmas morning just the two of us. I feel odd saying this, but we actually didn't get each other any gifts. We have been trying so hard to clean out the apartment to make room for the baby that the thought of bringing anything else in and having to find a place for it was just not appealing. That afternoon we headed to our friends Richard and Michelle's for lunch. We know them from church and our other friends Katie and Stephen were there too. What started out as lunch lasted for over six hours as we played Wii, hung out, played some Christmas trivia and enjoyed each others company.

L-R, Nicole, Katie, Stephen, Michelle, me, Kyle and Gabrielle, with Richard taking the photo.

That night we headed over to another church friends house to watch Wall-E. The beauty of being an expat is that no one has their family around so you end up feeling much closer to each other than just a normal 'friend' relationship. Over the course of the holiday we ended up spending time with several different friends and each of them I feel close enough to that I could call them in a pinch and they would drop everything to help me out. Throughout our four years in Brussels we have really developed a wonderful support group and I feel so lucky to have so many great friends here.

Friday we went to Paola and Mat Heim's for Christmas tea complete with mince meat pies and cakes from Marks and Spencer topped with clotted creme.

Saturday we re-arranged our rooms to make room for the baby. Kyle and I are now going to stay in what used to be the guest room. In our old bedroom, we have pushed the bed into the corner and managed to sqeeze in the crib, changing table and glider on the other side of the room. I'll post photos once it all looks finished. Right now, we have everything in place but are at the awful stage of having to find homes for lots of little, random things, so it all still looks pretty messy.

I absolutely love our apartment, but the one thing I will not miss about it is the dust. I have never seen dust accumulate like it does here. Someone pointed out that since we only have wall radiators, the air never get circulated so the dust never gets moved around. To compound the problem, we only have hardwood floors and no carpets to absorb the dust. And then to top it off, we live in the city where there is just a lot of dirt and grime all around. All this creates the Perfect Storm for Dust. As Kyle and were moving everything around, we vacuumed every possible thing and area that we could. And yet, one day after doing all that, this is what the top of our desk looks like...

A combination of stirring up all that dust and being around a friend who later found out she has bronchitis has left me sick. Since I am pregnant, I can't really take anything so I have just been laying around feeling pretty miserable. I have a few homeopathic things I can take which have actually helped more than I thought they would. Belgians really don't like to give out anti-biotics unless you are on your death bed so I doubt I would be taking anything much stronger even if I wasn't pregnant. As much as it would be nice to kick this thing quickly, I also appreciate the fact that in the four years I have been here I have never taken an anti-biotic. I think sometimes they can be a bit overprescribed so I am glad to have given my body some time to fight things on its own.

Kyle has been taking great care of me while I've been so sick. I was watching a silly romantic comedy movie earlier today that was only showing love as wine and roses with long walks in the park and not a problem in the world. As I looked at myself wear a hat, scarf, huge pajamas, fuzzy slippers, and glasses, with a tissue sticking out of my pocket I thought about 'for better or worse, in sickness and in health' and how Kyle is definitely sticking to those vows right now.

And since I have just given you such an awful mental image of me, I'll try to leave you with a better one where I at least have makeup and lipstick on...

Merry Christmas!

This will be our third out of five Christmas spent here in Belgium. Although being just the two of us on Christmas day feels a bit like any other weekend it is also nice not to be running around in the last minute Christmas rush. We will definitely miss seeing our families but since they all live so close together in Georiga, sometimes it can feel like we are driving around all day and stuffing our faces rather than just relaxing at Christmas.

Tomorrow we are going to a British friends house for a "proper Christmas roast." I'm not even quite sure what that means, but it sounds good. We are headed to another friend's house for tea on Boxing Day. I have lived here four years and I still needed to get her to translate what day and time that meant (apparently it is December 26 at 5ish for a light supper).

This weekend we went to Strasbourg, France and Trier, Germany for their Christmas markets. We have decided that hands down, if you want a good Christmas market, go to Germany. They really know how to do those things right. Strasbourg was a pretty city filled with split timbered houses, while Trier was a much smaller town but well kept. We hit the 'perfect storm' of the Trier Christmas market -- it was the weekend before Christmas and it was a Sunday (so everything else was closed and it was the only thing open). The gluvine was flowing, all the booths were covered in greenery, bands were playing Christmas carols and there was plenty of good food. We went back Monday and as Kyle perfectly summarized, "This feels like we are in the hangover of the Christmas market" -- the greenery was down, no music was being played, everyone seemed tired and worn out. All this to say, we are glad we went on Sunday and we are just trying to forget about Monday. Our strategy for eating in Trier was to split everything and eat every hour and a half. By doing this we were able to taste sausages, fried potato cakes with apple sauce, mini-pancakes with powdered sugar, and a brick oven style pizza. It was all delicious!

The French version of what I should call my kitchen.

Kyle in Strasbourg.

Our church recently showed a very interesting video that I really liked. I think it is great to give presents when you have found something that you know the person would really like, but I hate it when you are standing in the store just thinking, "What can I get this person? Maybe bath soaps, a candle or some other generic thing so that I can just check it off my list?"


As we were driving through France I heard this song and have now decided that it will be "our" Christmas song. The words are perfect and express exactly what I feel with getting to spend Christmas with Kyle, as well as every other day of my life. After four plus years of marriage and almost eight years of being together, I still pinch myself and wonder how I got so lucky to find such a wonderful person to share my life with.

Merry Christmas!!!

Blogging is like exercise (or I guess pretty much anything in life) -- if you make it a habit, you keep up with it, but when you take time off, it is sooo hard to get going again. I still have all these thoughts of blogs I want to write, but I just can't bring myself to sit in front of the computer and actually do it. Since writing a long blog keeps making me delay writing anything at all, I'll just do a brief re-cap of what has been happening since I last blogged...

--Election Night, see the post below for photos

--I went to the US Ambassador's residence for an AWCB coffee. It is always fun to use napkins with the United States crest in gold on them.

--I went to two bookclub meetings (Mistress of the Sun and My Name Is Red). I really like the girls in my bookclub and we always have a lot of fun together.

--We celebrated our four year anniversary of moving to Belgium on November 13. I feel so old when I tell people we have been here for four years. In expat time that is an eternity. I can't quite decide what has been the best experience of my life, but so far doing Arch Society, going to Australia/NZ, and moving here are in my top three.

--I went on a tour of the Presles Chateau through the Women's Club.

--We had a spend the night party with our friends Katie and Stephen. They live an hour away from here and had something on both Saturday and Sunday in Brussels so they stayed with us to avoid having to do the drive twice. It was funny to hang out in our pajamas all together but we had a great time.

--I've still been going to my French classes twice a week. I have also started meeting with a girl my same age who is trying to improve her English. We speak in English for awhile and then switch to French and each correct the other along the way. I have realized that almost all the problems I have with the french language she has the same ones with English.

--We went to the Essen Christmas Beer Festival. I always love seeing true Belgians enjoying their beer.

--I went to the Modave Chateau with the Women's Club. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas and really got me in the mood for the season.

And the biggest news of all is that I am pregnant! Over time, after hearing from lots of friends about their experiences of birth both here and in the States, I decided that I wanted to have a baby in Belgium. I'll write a post soon about all the positives of giving birth here, but for now, the details are as follows:

-I am due February 3, 2009 so I am in my eighth month.

-We aren't finding out the sex, so it will be a surprise.

-We have a list of names for both a boy and a girl but we haven't decided on anything yet.

-I have felt great throughout the whole pregnancy. Only now am I really starting to feel and act pregnant -- I waddle and seem to groan every time I get up off the couch. This is giving me great sympathy for older people that have bad aches and pains!

-My doctor speaks perfect English. She is wonderful and we both really like her. She is Belgian but her mother and brother live in California. This is especially nice for us because she understands certain things and ways about Americans and can explain to me when and why she does something different to how I have heard it is done in the States.

-The thing I am most worried about is speaking french in the hospital. Yes, my doctor speaks perfect English, but she will only be there for the very end of the birth. Up until that point and after the delivery I will be with a nurse. Everyone assures me that there are plenty of people that speak English in the hospitals but I am still worried about it. Kyle and I just sat down with a woman to get a tutorial of 'hospital French' for such words as blood, needle, crib, diaper etc. Now we will just have to see if my brain remembers all of it in between contractions.

-We have attended a wonderful childbirth class through the Brussels Childbirth Trust. There were seven other couples from all different nationalities there. Over eight sessions we learned all about labor, delivery, infant CPR, breastfeeding, and life with the baby. We had so much fun in these classes and are really looking forward to going through this process with all the other couples. Six of the eight couples all live in our same neighborhood so I definitely think we will be getting together once all the babies arrive.

It has been interesting to learn about how birth is handled in different countries. Everyone's nationalities from left to right -- Malaysian, German, British, British, German, German, Polish, Polish, American, American, Swedish, Swedish and the two Australians, a German and a Dutch person were missing from this photo.

I don't love the side ways shot so I haven't taken one in awhile, but here is the most recent view. (The skinny woman on the left is our teacher).

And since I know I will look awful after the baby is born, you can just imagine me looking like this instead...

And I guess in a few more years I'll look like this...

Whew, well now I don't feel so bad for not blogging -- I forgot how many things how many things had been keeping me busy in the last few months. We are off to Strasbourg, France and Trier, Germany for the Christmas markets and then plan on spending a quiet Christmas here in Brussels setting up the crib and changing table. Merry Christmas!

Election Night

I am obviously way behind on posting this, but I did want to at least record it in our blog, even though we already know the outcome.


I love that Kyle both works for a company and has a job that people have heard of. It is so nice to be able to say where you husband works and people actually know the company (well, at least most people). It is always a bit awkward here to meet people and ask where they work. Most often the response is something to the effect of "LQN Resource Advancement. I handle the alternate processing of the YP chip in the plastics technology." and you are left thinking "I have no clue what you just said. I have never heard of your company and even if you explain what they do I have a feeling I still wouldn't get it. So what do I say now?"


Kyle laughs at me when I say this because he is from a town of 30,000, but one of the reasons I love Brussels is because it feels like a small town to me (even though it has a population of one million). But when you hang out in the English speaking circle, the population dramatically decreases and you end up seeing the same people often. This was the case on election night. We got to see lots of friends at the big party hosted by the main English magazine here. Apparently Kyle must be the only American editorial writer in Brussels because for the past several months he has been asked to speak often about the election, including at the election party. There were estimates of between 1800-2200 people in attendance. It will never cease to amaze me how interested Europeans are in American politics. Obviously I understand why, because what the US does affects the whole world. However, there is a difference between just knowing who our president is versus attending debates and parties having to do with the election in a country that is not your own.



When Kyle spoke it was 11pm and the crowd in the room where he was speaking was a bit rowdy so probably more like 50 people actually heard what he had to say. But I was one of the 50 and I can tell you that he did a great job!




Double click to see his name on the program that was published in the local English magazine.

The crowd in one of the many rooms where the party took place.

Kyle's article in Le Soir that was published the day of the election.

Back in Brussels

We returned from the States a few weeks ago and are finally settled back into our life here. I was telling someone recently that I feel like it takes two weeks of planning the details prior to the trip, then three weeks spent in the States and then another week here in Brussels getting unpacked and re-organized. No wonder this trip had felt like six weeks instead of three!

We spent a week in NYC visting Kyle's sister Rebecca, our friends Tim, Lynn and their baby Matty, and our friends the Carneys. In between all of that Kyle was working and I was running around and shopping. We flew to Atlanta and were able to make it up to Athens, GA for the UGA/TN game. Kyle hadn't been to a UGA game in four years so he was one happy Bulldawg (especially because we beat Tennessee). Next we spent some time in Kyle's hometown (Dalton, GA) and then back in Atlanta. Along the way we were able to visit with lots of family and friends. Every time we come home for a visit we are always amazed because even though a year has passed, everyone and everything still seems to be the exact same. We talk about the same topics with people, we visit the same restaurants. I am sure there are many subtle changes, but if you look at pictures from our visit three years ago, the photos would probably look the exact same as this years. However, we still take the photos and still eat at the same places because I guess it is consistency in life that is also what is so comforting about being home.

Speaking of photos, click here for the ones from our trip.

Some quick thoughts from NYC:

--The amount of people walking around with take away coffee is incredible. Keep in mind that in Brussels it has only been within the last two years that you have even seen take away coffee. However, I just can't imagine that consuming that much liquid and caffeine can be good for a person. I remember when I was in college and my mom pointed out that students should try to drink as much water as they do beer. I have a feeling some New Yorkers would balk at drinking three ventis full of water in a day but that is about the amount of water a person should actually consume (a venti equals 20 oz).

--I can't decide if it is better to be in Belgium where stores don't care at all about customer service, but at least you know that going in, or to be in the US where they act like they care, but then anytime you ask a question, no one has any clue of the answer. However, in the US, instead of telling you they don't know, they just give you a run-around answer and seem to hope you will go away. I have decided that it doesn't really matter if a place has customer service if the employees don't know anything about the products, so perhaps I shouldn't complain so much about Belgium's lack of customer service.

--I hate how much waste there is in the US. I think we received more plastic bags in two weeks in NYC than we had in the last two months in Brussels. In NYC they packaged everything as if it were take away, even if you were eating there (at a breakfast/lunch type of place). It was all so unnecessary.

--I thought that after being back on American soil I would get away from the language issues that plague me every day here, but I was wrong. At one point I had to ask a man four times to repeat himself because he spoke in such mumbled, incorrect English. Another time the person that was manning the dressing room only spoke to me in Spanish. Maybe I should be spending my time learning Ebonics and Spanish instead of French.

As always, I come back from a trip to the States and realize that there are things I love about each country and things that bother me about each one. The nice part about seeing the good and the bad in both is that I am reminded to enjoy the good while I can and that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the ocean.

The Good Life

We are getting ready to head to NYC and I am so excited! I recently told Kyle that this is what people with multiple houses must feel like. I am going to a place where I am really comfortable, know my way around, and get to visit every year or two. I have been there enough that I don't feel the need to do the touristy stuff and instead I can just wander around and enjoy the real city. New York City, here I come!!!

I received this forward recently and it has really stuck with me. Especially when I almost flipped a guy off just as we were driving home from church on Sunday. (To explain, the guy had been tailing us for awhile and then layed on his horn and passed us on a two lane street. After we honked back at him after he had passed us he slammed on his brakes so that we almost rear-ended him).

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, along with dropping her cell phone and makeup. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, ' I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him.' I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker , the 'Choose Life' license plate holder , the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker , and the Christian fish emblem on the trunk; naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car '

Under Construction

I was trying to do some changes to this blog because I am tired of seeing the same layout and design for almost four years. However, after I did the first step to change it, now Blogger is broken for the second step and there doesn't seem to be anyone on their end really working on fixing the problem. All this say, keep reading, but know that this is not the finished product!

City Living

I absolutely love where we live. We are an area of the city that has both family homes and apartments, but the apartments only have about 4 flats in each of them. Even though I don't talk to my neighbors in the other buildings, I love the community feel of living close to other people. Just tonight a man came out on his terrace and started playing his trumpet. Neighbors came to their windows or terraces to see what was going on and people walking on the street stopped to hear him play. Even though we never speak, it is fun to see the young blonde woman, the older married couple, or the young African guys all looking out with me at the same time to see what is going on in our neighborhood.

Guilds

Pictures of the guild houses on the Grand Place.

I recently went on a great tour of the downtown area of Brussels, which focused on the guilds that used to be here. Guilds were basically unions from the 13th to 16th centuries. After trading became organized and moved into actual commerce, the sellers got together to coordinate their activities. Anyone who did a trade had to belong to a guild in order to sell things. The guilds regulated prices, weight, and set the standards for goods. Because guilds were such a big part of life for so many peoplethere are a large number of historical things about them throughout Brussels.

I feel bad because we have had 17 sets of visitors in our time here and only now after this tour do I know lots of fun facts about Brussels! In case any of you out there wanted to know some interesting tid bits about Brussels, here they are:

--Tapestries were the main export for Belgium. The general rule was that someone could weave the size of one hand in one day.

--The tapestries were woven horizontally to strengthen the fabric because they would be hung vertically from the wall.

--Four to five weavers would sit down the length of the tapestry and weave at the same time, each working on a different part of the tapestry.

--Tapestries were actually woven from the back side while the weaver looked into a mirror to make sure everything looked ok on the front.

--The drawing and painting of what the tapestry would eventually look like was called the cartoon.

--Mannekin Pis has 812 costumes and when they put a new costume on him he pees beer for awhile.

--The Grand Place is 2.5 acres in size.

--Back then people didn't have their own ovens so they all had to use a community one if they wanted to bake anything. The name of the street where Mannekin Pis is was the street where the community oven used to be.

--When you walk down Rue du Boucher (the pedestrian street with all the restaurants on it) you will see a few tiny alley ways on your left and right (one on the right has the word Toone on it). This was the butcher's street and the alley ways used to lead to small grassy fields where the animals were kept grazing. Because they did not have refrigerators back then, when you ordered your meat, the butcher would go out to the field and kill the animal right then and there so you had the freshest meat.

Sweet Home, Atlanta, Georgia

We are planning a trip back to the States in October. I did event planning in my previous job, and thank goodness I did because I am having to use every single one of my skills to organize flights, hotels, train tickets, doctors appointments, lunches and visits with family and friends. Of course we love every minute of it, but we always leave with the mixed feeling that no one got enough time and yet we are completely exhausted.

Throughout the year I really don't get homesick too much (although I know I did just have a little bit of it a few months ago). However, as we start to plan our schedule in the States and figure out who we can see when, I start to realize just how long we have been gone. At times it feels like the blink of the eye and at other times it feels like an eternity. It still shakes me up a little to tell people that we are just finishing our fourth year here in Brussels. As Kyle points out, we have lived in Brussels for as long as we were in college. Knowing what a formative time college was, I can't help but wonder about how many different ways I have changed in these last four years. Perhaps it will take the hindsight of time to realize all of the changes because the changes in me in these last four years have seemed much more subtle than the ones at UGA. It comforts me to go home and realize that not too much has changed (so I don't feel like I have missed out on too much) but I can't help but wonder what I have missed out on that I will never even realize.

Summer Days, Driftin' Away

I wrote this towards the end of August but just realized that I never published it...

When you are new to Belgium people tell you that summers here are very quiet. But I don't think anyone can prepare you for just how quiet they are, especially when you come from a place that has lots of stores open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Our first summer here was a real shock to the system. Our dry cleaners shut down for a month (but luckily they warned us early and often about it so we got Kyle's suit out in time). We always had to have at least two to three restaurants in mind for dinner because there was no telling which one would be closed (it is very common for restaurants to close for a whole month at a time). Traffic is really light, parking is easy, but the trams also come much less frequently. (To clarify, not everything shuts down for the exact same amount of time, but many stores and restaurants will be closed for some large portion of July and/or August).

I recently spoke to a woman who was experiencing her first summer here. The funniest part is that as she was telling me about her shock and disbelief that an entire city could shut down for so long it reminded me that I too once thought like she did. But just like everything else, Belgium has worn me down and now I love how quiet the summers are! I have time to catch up on things I have been putting off and the city is so easy to get around. I have also widened my group of friends enough to make sure that I always have someone to hang out with, no matter how many people are on vacation. As school is starting and the Women's Club is getting going again I find myself wistful for the quite summer.

12 Angry Men

The movie 12 Angry Men came on TV yesterday and I had forgotten how much I loved it. The basic synopsis is that a jury of 12 men are trying to decide the fate of a Spanish-American juvenille accused of killing someone. The movie covers racism, stereotypes, discrimination, assumption and so many other interesting topics. It really reminded me that no matter where or how you pick a group, there is always a person in the group that has each of the following personality traits -- mean, meek, loud, talkative, know-it-all, rule oriented, bossy, lazy and probably a few others. That is probably why I always hated group projects!

Last semester there were two South American girls in my French class. They both only spoke Spanish and French, but their accents were so thick that I only understood about 10% of anything they ever said. And even though we rarely communicated, I could tell that I really liked one of them and that the other one got on my nerves to no end. Remember, we probably only spoke 10 words to each other, but just by smiles, frowns, pestering, laughs, cheating and body language I could tell which one I would have wanted to be my friend and which one I never wanted to see again.

I don't know what this proves except that even if you can't communicate with someone, you can still figure out whether you like them or not. And no matter what the association, or even the language, there are annoying people in every group.

Bob, would you call this color "grape" or "aubergine"?*

As I have mentioned earlier, Kyle has spent a fair amount of time these past three Saturdays watching football. One weekend he had our friends Tim and Stephen around to discuss the game, but on the other two weekends it has just been me. I enjoy football, but only in about five minute increments so usually I sit by Kyle and watch it with him, along with reading, knitting, and thinking non-football related thoughts. Sweet Kyle doesn't seem to mind too much, but I am sure he woud enjoy watching it more with some guy friends around.

I'll let you guess which of us said the following this past Saturday night:

--TACKLE HIM!!!!!

--I don't like that the announcer wore a black shirt and a black tie together.

--He was wide open, how could he have missed that!!!!

--Wow, it looks like it would be really hot to be watching the game in the stadium right now.

--I hate Gamecocks!!!!

--I don't like it when the players dreadlocks come out from under their helmet.

--INTERFERENCE!!!!

--I don't like that Tony guys personality on Sports Center. He annoys me he seems so pompous.

--INTERCEPTION!!!!

--Mark Richt is so cute, but he has a huge forehead.

*From Steel Magnolias when Clairee is doing color commentary in the football locker room and starts talking about the color of the new jerseys.

Beer Marches On

I mentioned awhile ago that it is bittersweet to go to the Grand Place for yet another event and be reminded of all the friends we have shared fun memories with there, and have then had to say goodbye to. This past weekend was our fourth Belgian Beer Festival. We got nostalgic remembering all the fun times we have had, so I thought I'd share a few photos from previous beer festivals.

Our first festival was with Amy & Nate Chan and Jason Mann (who came down from London). This was probably our rowdiest beer festival. I became friends with a girl in the portapotty line just because I heard her speaking English. I left our group alone and came back from the bathroom with a new couple as friends! As the day wore on I met three US Air Marshalls who ended up taking us all to dinner on the US tax payers dime (we figured we had been paying taxes over here for a year and never getting any benefit from it, so we took them up on it).

The next year Amy and Nate had moved, but Tim & Lynn and Hal & Anna joined us instead. And Jason was back for more of the best beer in the world. You can see why Tim makes us laugh. The Beer Festival weekend always coincides with the first UGA game of the season so basically this is the best weekend of the year for Kyle. You can see in the following pictures how he gets a bit more exicted to start watching the Dawgs (he was barking for them).

For the third beer festival, I was back in the States. I think it was a good thing that Kyle didn't think to bring the camera to that one...

And below is our picture from this year. Tim and Lynn have moved back to the US, but he was here for a wedding and was able to squeeze in one more Beer Festival. Katie and Stephen have been here for a year, but already know that they will probably only be here for one more year. And so next year we will be hugging new friends on the Grand Place as time marches on. At least there will always be Belgian beer...

Click here to see photos from the weekend.

The Real World

29 years old and still taking first day of school pictures!

Contrary to all the worrying I did, my French class went well. My teacher seems to be very kind and I sat next to a nice girl from Russia who happens to live just a few streets over from us. The teacher had us stand in a big circle and go around saying our names and where we were from. Because we did this a few times, I had a chance to let my mind wander and the thought it came to was, "Wow, there are very few white people in this class." I know I have very pale skin, but since most people I know are as white as I am, I don't really think about it that often. After standing in that class, I felt like a ghost.

Some quick statistics I came to during class:

--There were 27 students in the class.

--6 out of 27 had white skin, everyone else had some sort of darker pigment to their skin.

--3 out of 27 owned a car (or at least used one to get to class).

--I was the only person from North America.

--I was the only person who spoke English as their mother language (although I am sure many of the people in the class speak English as a second or third language).

Because America is so big, it is so easy to get wrapped up in things only going on in our country (I know I sure did). But standing in that class as everyone said where they were from really reminded me of just how big the world is. A sampling of the countries of my classmates -- Sweden, Bolivia, Japan, Russia, Macedonia, Phillipines, Bulgaria, Thailand, Spain, El Salvador, Turkey, and Brazil.

Without realizing it, I usually just stay in my little bubble of church, friends and Women's Club stuff. But just often enough I used public transportation or take a class like this and am reminded of just how many other people there are in the world, and how in reality, I am the minority.

If there was only 100 people in the world, here is how it would be broken down...

-57 would be Asian

-21 Europeans (including Russia)

-12 from North and South America

-8 from Africa

-2 from the middle-east

-52 would be female

-48 would be male

-70 would be non-white

-30 would be white

-70 would be non-Christian

-30 would be Christian

-89 would be heterosexual

-11 would be homosexual

-59% of the world's entire wealth would belong to 6 people. And all 6 people would be living in the United States.

-80 would be in substandard housing

-70 would be unable to read

-50 would be suffering from malnutrition.

-1 would have a college education

-1 would own a computer

According to the United Nations, there are now 6.5 billion humans on the planet. By 2050, that number is projected to be around 12 billion. More than half of the world's current population lives in just 6 countries. Nearly 45% live in either China or India. Women outnumber men in every country except in China.

Ecole

It's not back to school time for just the little ones out there. Tomorrow I start my French classes for this semester. I keep trying to remind myself that the entire semester is just 96 euros, I'm not getting a grade, and that it doesn't really matter how I do in the class. However, by the way I feel and how nervous I am, you would think I am about to present my PhD thesis. (Of course, I am blogging right now instead of cramming so I must not be that nervous).

I have recently been beating myself up about not taking enough French classes in my time here. However, as I am getting my calendar ready for the year, I am reminded why I haven't taken more classes -- they get in the way of my social calendar!!! This semster I am taking French Monday and Wednesday from 9-12:30pm. Yes, I could skip some classes, but missing three and a half hours of class time really does make you feel behind. Do you know how many events I have already realized my class will conflict with? Although I get frustrated with not knowing more French, I have to remind myself of all the other things I have been doing in the past four years with my time instead of studying. I have met great friends, visited chateaus, taken cooking classes, traveled all over and had a great time. It kills me when I meet someone who will only be here one or two years and is taking intensive French classes for most of that time. I just think of how many opportunities they are missing to actually get out in the country and really see and experience things, rather than just learning the words for them. I guess there is no perfect way to approach the language here, I just wish I had been born bi-lingual!

Franglish

I have a wonderful but also horrible trait of always being able to think of someone who is in a worse situation than I am. This is great because I rarely feel sorry for myself, but it can also be annoying because somedays you just want to have a bit of a pity party. Recently I was getting frustrated with my lack of French and then I met a woman from Japan. This poor woman speaks a little English but no French. She moved to Brussels with her family in July and her teenage daughter has just started at one of the international schools here. However, her daughter speaks no English. Imagine being 15 and having to go to school all day in a language you don't speak. Her mother was trying to make some changes to her class schedule but was having trouble explaing the problem to the school. I can't even imagine what it has been like for them trying to set up cable, electricity, heat etc. So the next time I feel down about my French I will just be appreciative that I can at least get by in English.

And if you wonder what I probably sound like when my French is translated, go to http://www.engrish.com/

The Other Side

In my previous jobs I did event planning for both business meetings and continuing education classes. Both were great jobs, but they each definitely entailed a lot of printing nametags, greeting people, cleaning coffee pots, early mornings (5:30am at the office for breakfast meetings!), room setup, agendas, powerpoint presentations and information packet compilation. So today when I went to the international school to be the speaker for the Adjusting to Life in Belgium presentation it was so nice to be on the other side of things. I got there at 8am and the room was set up, the powerpoint was ready to go, there was a pot of hot coffee, nametags were printed and 50 information packets were ready to go. It was wonderful! The best part is that after it was all done I was able to just enjoy the lunch and head home without having to clean up one thing. The meeting room was up 100 stairs (it was in an old chateau) and my heart when out to the event planner knowing how many times she had gone up and down those things with laptops, projector cords, adaptors, folders, drinks, cups, and so many other little things. Maybe event planning is in my future when I go back to the States, but for now I am enjoyoing life on the other side!

This photo makes me laugh because of the title of the slide. Although trash doesn't seem like it would be that stressful, piled on top of all the other changes newbies are experiencing, it can feel like you are having a panic attack on trash day just trying to figure out all the different colored bags.

Random Musings

We enjoyed watching the Olympics. However, out of the channels they were on here, we could only watch them in French, Dutch, German and Italian. You don't quite realize how much you rely on the commentators to understand stuff...until you can't understand them. Kyle and I took over the role of commentators for each other, but since we really don't know anything about most of the sports, we spent most of our time making things up. We know that a big splash is bad for diving, so we based the whole dive just on the size of the splash. What made me laugh the most was the confidence with which we would say, "Oh, well the reason the judge took off for that was because..." As if we have any clue about anything to do with pole vaults, high jumps, gymnastics or any other Olympic sport.



I am beyond sick of my fall/winter clothes. Although I have beefed up my cold weather wardrobe considerably since living here, I can't stand to see another one of my blazers, pants, or knee high boots. Last year we had a beautiful April, but after that it was cool throughout the summer then straight into fall and winter. This summer has had some nice days, but I still have probably only been able to wear shorts for a total of three weeks. The average temperature of August has been 64 degrees. Although I do enjoy the slightly cooler weather, it means that I have been wearing the same clothes for over twelve months straight -- and we are just about to start fall and winter! The good news is that I shouldn't feel guilty spending money on clothes since I definitely know I will get a lot of use out of them.

Surprise, Surprise

Wow! I recently installed Google Analytics on my blog and am shocked at the results. I honestly thought the same three people (my mom, Kyle's dad, and Kyle's grandmother) checked my blog each day. Apparently about 40 people a day check in to see what is going on over here in Brussels! Now I feel a lot more pressure to post often! I know how frustrated I get when I am trying to waste time and no one has written anything new, so I will try and give you something to help you procrastinate just a little more. The best/worst part is that I have over 50 posts I have started and just not finished (can you tell it is part of my personlity that I like to start things but hate finishing them?) I'll work on finishing those so you have something to read here more than just once a week.

'Tis the Season

It is that time of year again. The time when our lives become scheduled around football games and SportsCenter. I think Kyle should count his lucky stars that I was born in the South and have a slight understanding of just how important football is to him. If I happened to be from anywhere other than the South then I might think he was crazy for being this obsessed. I count my lucky stars that he only likes football and not hunting or fishing because then I would never see him on weekends in the fall. Thus far, football started on Saturday and he has already gotten up on two different nights at at 1:30 and 3:30am to do his Fantasy Football draft. When UGA has a evening game he won't be able to start watching it until at least midnight our time which means he will be up into the wee hours of the morning cheering on the Bulldogs. Let the craziness begin...

The two places where I can find Kyle every Saturday for the next four months.

Instructions for Females in a Relationship with Men That Love Football

These will become effective Thursday Aug 28. Extremely important recommendations for wives, girlfriends, fiancées, mothers, sisters and daughters.

1. From the first weekend in September until the end of the bowl season, the television is mine, at all times, without any exceptions.

2. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, for an important reason such as preparing snacks or getting me a beer, I don't mind, as long as you crawl along the floor.

3. During the football season, read the sports section of the newspaper so that you understand who I'm yelling at during the season. As a tip, check the box scores for the referees' names too.

4. During the games I will be drunk as CooterBrown. You cannot expect me to listen to you, open the door, kill any spiders, answer the phone, etc. It ain't gonna happen.

5. It would be a good idea for you to keep at least 2 six packs in the fridge at all times, as well as plenty of things to nibble on, and please do not make any funny faces to my friends when they come over to watch the games. In return, you will be allowed to use the TV between 12 am and6 am, unless they replay a good game that I missed during the day.

6. Please, please, please!! if you see me upset because my team is losing, DO NOT say "get over it, it's only a game", or "don't worry, they'll win next time."

7. If a great play occurs while you are in the room, you may be required to freeze or repeat your act for the rest of the game as good mojo. If my team wins, you will be showered with gifts for the next 6 days. If they lose, you will be blamed repeatedly for moving, blinking or secretly not believing in your heart of the power of mojo.

8. Tell your friends NOT to get married, have any babies, or any other social related parties or gatherings that requires my attendance because: I will not go, I will not go, and I will not go. However, if a friend of mine invites us to his house on a Saturday to watch a game, we will be there before the Coors Light bottles reach "Code Blue".

9. You are welcome to sit with me to watch one game and you can talk to me during halftime but only when the commercials are on, and only if the halftime score is pleasing me. College Gameday and the highlights on Saturday night are just as important as the games themselves. Even if I curse Lou, Herbie, and Corso like the anti-SEC, biased dogs that they are, I still want to hear what they say.

10. And finally, please save your expressions such as:"Thank God the football season is only during the Fall." I am immune to these words, because after this comes the NFL playoffs, the Pro Bowl, AFL, AFL2, the CFL, and the replays on the college sports channels.

The race is on

It cracks me up how absolutely sure people are that they know who will win the U.S. election. If you ask any European, they are 100% positive that Obama will win. From talking to them, you would think the race has already been decided and Obama is ready to be sworn in as soon as the logistics get settled. However, if you ask a fair number of Southerners, they are sure McCain will win. As of yesterday, a Gallup poll showed that 45% of registered voters would vote for Obama and 44% for McCain -- obviously neither is the clear winner just yet.

Personally, I can't wait for a new president to be in office, and not for the reasons most people seem to have. I am so sick of every European bashing George Bush. I don't even care about politics and have no real opinion about what Bush has or has not done. But the way people feel completely free to just trash him gets on my nerves. Most recently I have heard people here referring to Bush as Hitler. Now Bush might have made some bad decisions about things, but to compare him to Hitler is just ridiculous. Has Bush built concentration camps and set out to eradicate an entire race of people?

Kyle recently pointed out that people seem to never be at a loss for words criticizing Bush, yet they don't have nearly as much to say about Putin or the communist regime of China. Perhaps it is because they would be thrown in jail for saying anything negative about the government if they were living in either of those countries. I think if we are fortunate enough to live in a country where you can criticize the goverment, then people should at least do so in a civilized, thoughtful manner, rather than just throwing out slurs left and right just because it is the popular thing to do.

Sometimes I am embarrassed to admit that I really have no interest in politics. However, I feel like a much more honest person than the majority of people I meet who wholeheartedly love or hate a politician. If you asked them to really specify the details and specific points on a stance the politican has taken, then the person would be at a loss for words. It really used to drive me crazy when you would drive around Athens, GA, (home of UGA) back in 2004 and all you saw were "W. The President" stickers on every college kid's car. I have a feeling about 98 percent of those kids didn't have a clue about Bush's position on anything.

If people are well-informed about why they like or don't like a certain candidate then I enjoy hearing their discussions. But when people take a strong stance and then have no clue what their candidate actually stands for, that really bugs me.

My Turn

I am turing 29 on Friday. I am embarassed to say, but if Kyle hadn't reminded me I think I would have forgotten it was my birthday! The combination of life being pleasantly busy, often not even knowing the date any other day of the week, and me not being that into holidays, add up to almost missing my own birthday! Kyle will be turning 30 in October so he has been reflecting on age recently. I feel like I should say I should have all these deep thoughts about getting a year older. However, the truth is that I am quite happy and content with where I am for my age.

Whenever I see that people have lists of '101 things I want to do before I die' I kind of feel bad. I am not much of a goal person so I definitely couldn't think of 101 goals. As of right now, the only things I would like to do better in my life are know French and grow closer to God, and I haven't done much work towards either of those goals so I can't really complain that they haven't been attained. I know many people work well with goals, but I am not one of them. I try to take advantage of any opportunities that come my way and I am always on the lookout for something interesting, but past that life just seems to happen and I go with it. Without having had a list, I think I am in a pretty good place for not having set any goals to get here!

I recently came across my journal from college. I only wrote in it every few months but it was so fun to look back on what things were happening each year from parties to dates to summer plans (although not too much about school :) Even though I did get mono at one point from staying so busy, past that I am happy I took advantage of every opportunity that I came across. One of my favorite quotes is by H. Jackson Brown Jr. "Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did." And I think because I have taken advantage of every opportunity, I don't worry about turning a year older. I really feel like I have fit in almost as much as I possibly could in 29 years so there is nothing left to regret.

I recently watched the movie Postcards from the Edge. I was touched by the scene where the mother (who was an older movie star played by Shirley MacLaine) says the following to her daughter (who was a young movie star struggling with drugs and men played by Meryl Streep)
"I think I'm sort of...jealous of you. And that is because, well... it being your turn and all. I think I find it tough to face...that mine is almost up. It's real important to enjoy your turn. And it would help me a lot if I knew...that one of us enjoyed our youth."

I had never thought about my 'turn' really ending, but after thinking about people I know at various stages of life I can see what the quote meant. In high school and especially in college my ride was going 90mph. I can already feel it slowing down as bit as I settle into being married and having a routine. Although I am still in the midst of my turn, it is a good reminder that life isn't always this busy and fun. One day my turn will slowly come to an end and it will be time for someone else to hop on. It makes me happy and content to know I enjoyed my turn then and I'm still enjoying it every single day so that when the ride does stop, I will have no regrets.

Tool Time

I recently wrote about how nice it is to live in an apartment and not have any home projects to do over the weekend. That is still very true, but the only problem is that when we do have a project to do, we have to improvise our equipment. Earlier this year I locked my bike in the hallway and then proceeded to loose the key. We borrowed a power tool from our friend to cut the wire, but he stressed we needed to wear protective eye gear and gloves. Since we didn't have either of those things, we came up with this instead...

Yep, Kyle is wearing my swimming goggles and his winter gloves. I was on the other side of the camera wearing my sunglasses as my protective eyewear and trying not to laugh too hard.

Georgia On My Mind

Titso with her favorite pal Joelle in Brussels.

Something I really like about living over here are all the people I meet from so many different countries. Sometimes I don't take an interest in the news because it is about another city in another place that I have no relation to. However, after living in Europe, oftentimes I now have a friend or acquaintance that I think of when a city is in the news and it makes it so much more personal. This week I am thinking of our friend Titso who we know from church. She is from Georgia (the country, not the state). Titso came to Brussels nine years ago to try and find a better life. She only speaks broken English so we are not sure of her whole story, but it seems like she has had a really hard life and yet she keeps going. She is willing to do any type of work and shies away from any handouts of charity. It broke my heart to think of her when I heard that war had broken out between Georgia and Russia. For months, Titso has been planning a trip back to Georgia for this Thursday. While there, she was going to get to see her granddaughter, whom she hasn't seen for the last nine years. Now, I am not sure if she will be able get home and it makes me so sad for her.

I had been a little homesick recently and hearing stories like Titso's always reminds me of just how appreciative I should be that we are to be able to afford the time and money it costs to make a trip home, no matter how short or long a time it is between visits.

Wonderful Wednesdays at Chatelain

My absolute favorite thing about living in Europe are all the outdoor markets. Any time I go to one, I know I will enjoy myself. The best part is that there is a wonderful market every Wednesday that is just one block from our apartment. It takes place from 2-7pm and is equal parts food market and "meet" market. There are several wine stands and young people fill the streets sipping on wine and eating their charcuterie and fromage (an assortment of meats and cheeses) until late into the night. Although I brought my camera with me this past Wednesday you really have to be there to experience the feeling in the air of carefree, young, summer fun.

I have been biting my tounge for the last few months as I read about how outraged people in the States are about the rising price of gas and food. I understand that most people don't want to hear someone who gets to live in and travel through Europe complaining about anything, but I just can't take it anymore.

Here are just a few comparisons of what things cost in the States compared to what they cost in Brussels. (I found the US prices on the web and then converted Brussels prices to dollars):

A gallon of gas in the US -- $4.00
A galon of gas in Brussels -- $9.21

Pound of chicken in the US -- $5.25
Pound of chicken in Brussels -- $8.23

Gallon of milk in the US -- $3.78
Gallon of milk in Brussels -- $5.94

The reason I have lost my tolerance with hearing people complain about the rising costs is because it is all about choices. Kyle is paid in US dollars. With the current exchange rate that means that for every dollar he gets paid, it is only worth .64 cents to us in euros and yet everything here is much more expensive. I am not allowed to work here so we are only living off his income.

And somehow not only are we able to still live comfortably, but we put money into our savings account every month, we have no debt and we are still able to take wonderful vacations. And it is all because of the choices we have made.

--We don't eat out often. (I don't think people recognize that even grabbing some fast food during the week adds up in the end).

--We only have one car and it is not the top of the line, fully loaded newest release. In fact, it doesn't even have air conditioning or electric windows.

--We take public transportation often.

--I cook dinner almost every night and Kyle brings leftovers to work for lunch several times a week.

--I have cut back on buying meat and try to cook more vegetarian (thus lower cost) meals.

--We are content with the clothes in our closet and rarely go shopping.

A combination of American media and culture have brainwashed us into thinking that it is embarassing to cut back and be frugal. We feel that we deserve everything and should never have to say no to any of our hearts desires. Instead we are constantly told that we should buy whatever we want whenever we want and not feel bad about it because "we deserve it." The fact is that we don't deserve anything. We are incredibly lucky to live in a country that offers the most freedoms in the world. There are ample opportunities for education and work. We have more free time than ever before. We are all so fortunate and instead all many people do is complain about their lives and blame the government for everything (while sitting in front of their big screen TV with their Suburban in the driveway). It is time everyone started counting their blessings instead of counting all the things they don't have. It is the choices one makes about things, more than the economy that dictates a life.

Bon Appetit!

Only in Belgium...can you burn the breadcrumbs but freeze the salad when making dinner. I was trying to make my own breadcrumbs tonight and ended up burning them. Since our refrigerator is so small the salad ended up touching the back of the fridge and freezing while I was dealing with the breadcrumbs. So we had frozen veggie burgers for dinner instead.

The Good Life

When my sister came to visit she kept commenting that she couldn't get over how calm and slow-paced our lives here were. I am glad she pointed it out -- to us it was just everyday living but because she reminded me of the normal pace of life in the States, I have since been really appreciating just how slow everything is here.

Kyle hates that we throw money away renting and is anxious to buy a house when we return to the States. Although I know logically we are wasting money by renting, I still love renting. I love being able to call the landlord with any problem. Yes, our bathroom has seen better days, but since it is not ours, we don't feel the pressure to re-model it. I keep trying to remind Kyle that as soon as we buy a place our weekends will be spent on never ending home projects. Because of all of this, I wanted to document our weekend because I have a feeling once we have kids and own a home, I will look back on this and think, "We actually had this calm of a lifestyle?!?"

Saturday we got up early to take Meredith to the airport. We got home and I read for a bit while Kyle was on the computer. Since I had nothing else to do and it was pouring rain outside, I took a three hour nap while Kyle read and did a crossword puzzle. After I got up, we had lunch together and talked for a while and then got ready to head outside (where it was finally sunny). We walked to a local bar that specializes in Belgian beers and sat outside for two hours eating cheese, drinking beer and playing Cribbage. By 7pm it started to get cool so we walked to dinner and ran into a few friends along the way. After dinner we walked home and watched the movie Troy on TV.

We slept for 11 hours and this morning we have gotten up, read, watched the news and I am now piddling around the house cleaning up a bit while Kyle is reading. Even if we wanted to do a household project, all the stores are closed because it is Sunday so we are subtly encouraged to just stay at home and relax. This afternoon we are meeting up with our church friends at a park to hang out and let their kids play. Afterwards we are going to a meet a friend for dinner and then probably just read and hang out a bit more before bed. Even though I have been missing the States recently, I sure don't miss going to Wal-Mart, Target, Publix, the mall and Home Depot this weekend.

This little piggy

I have figured out one way to cure homesickness -- eat a lot of American food. Since I have been missing the States I decided that eating some typically American food might make me feel better. In a twisted way, eating the food made me feel better about not being home because it made me feel so sick to my stomach.

Yesterday I ordered pancakes for breakfast. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of the first pancake. But by the second and third ones my stomach started to hurt after consuming so much sweetness, especially so early in the morning. (I have been to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) and think every item on the menu must equal three times the recommended daily amount of anything you should consume. Their portions are just ridiculous.) Of course I finished all of them just because I don't get pancakes very often, but by the end I kept thinking, "How do Americans consume this much sweetness in one sitting???"

And because we had been talking about it for awhile, Kyle and I went to Hector Chicken for dinner tonight. By no means is it Chic-Fil-A, but it is as close as you can get to it while still being an ocean away. It is now two and a half hours after we ate and my stomach still hurts! How did I used to eat a Chic-Fil-A number 1 value meal in one sitting? When I asked Kyle this, he pointed out that everyone usually feels a bit overly full and sick after eating most American things and yet we still go back again and again. (I don't think it is possible to leave a Mexican restaurant just pleasantly full and not stuffed to the gills and moaning just a little).

I didn't realize how my stomach has shrunk over here, but it must have gotten used to smaller/healthier portions without me realizing it. I haven't felt this full or sick after eating a meal in a very long time. Now I just hope I can remember that it is not normal to feel like this after eating -- and also remember what type of food it is that made me feel this way.

A good day

Meredith has packed her bags and is heading home soon (she is flying standby so she has to wait and see about flight availability). Whenever someone visits us and then heads back to the States I always get a bit homesick. I keep thinking things like, "In 24 hours they can eat as much mexican food as they want with all the free ice water they can drink in a place that has good customer service. I can have all of that when we go home to visit in . . . three more months." It is especially hard when I walk a guest into the airport and see the Delta line for the daily flight to Atlanta. It makes home feel so close, but yet so far away.

For some reason the homesickness has hit me a little more this time. Of course I still love living in Europe, but because my life has slowed down with the women's club having summer hours and so many of my friends being on vacation I just have more time to miss things about America. I try to remind myself of all the things I don't miss (the heat, the traffic, being overwhelmed by so many choices and the pressure of keeping up with the Joneses etc). But then I think of all the family and friends we haven't seen, all the foods I miss and most especially being able to function in English all the time!

We have been here long enough that nothing is very "new" to me so I have more trouble remembering to appreciate the bread, the markets, and the slower pace of life and instead just see them as part of every day ho-hum life. But God must have known about my homesickness because I had the nicest European afternoon. I took the tram to meet my friend Amy for lunch at what is now my new favorite lunch place. The owner is actually a violin maker and prefers to spend his time building and repairing violins but has opened the cafe to supplement his violin shop. Because of this, right in the middle of the dining room is his workshop complete with violins, tools, and strings everywhere. The weather was perfect, we were sitting outside in the shade on a cobble-stoned street and we even had a few musicians serenade us throughout the meal. I had a great panini followed by cheesecake and then we were joined by an acquaintance who happened to also be eating there. It always makes me feel good to run into people I know when I am out and about. I walked home through the Petite Sablon and then sat in a beautiful park for awhile just enjoying the weather. It was a great reminder of why I shouldn't be homesick and just how lucky I am to live over here.

Apartment Inventory

I was recently going through old Excel documents and came across the inventory I did for our apartment before our move over here. We had to list and put a price on every single thing in our apartment and then list where it should go (to our parents house, to Brussels, or to a storage unit in Atlanta). We were very lucky to be able to move many of our belongings over here -- many people just have to live in furnished housing for three years. But we still had to leave about a quarter of our things in storage. For the first year, I could list almost everything in storage just off the top of my head since I had been the one orchestrating all the details of the move. But after being here over three years, I can only name a few things that I think are in the storage unit. As I look over the list now, I can picture what most things look like but there are a few that I have no clue about (vases, pitchers and bookends that I don't even remember owning).


Of course, this begs the question, "Do we really even need these things if we have been able to live without them for almost four years and now can't even remember what they are?" Some things have sentimental value which of course I would never want to get rid of -- I still have the shirt I wore on our first date and the shirt I wore the day Kyle proposed, even though both no longer fit :( But I do wonder if I really need all the rest of that stuff in storage. We have no idea where we would move next, but NYC is a possibility. As I look around our apartment now I know that in NYC we would definitely be in a smaller place, so I try to think of even more things we could live without. Living in a small place (and assuming you will eventually move to somewhere even smaller) really helps to keep me disciplined with my shopping. When there is absolutely no more space to put things it makes it much easier to not be tempted to buy new things.

My mother-in-law Sherrie was recently commenting that if they ever built a new house they would not build as many closets into it since when you have closets, all you end up doing is filling them with stuff. I think many people's problems with over-spending, credit card debt, and consumerism could be helped if they just lived in a smaller space with less storage. A blogger I read (Crazy Aunt Purl) has made a resolution to not buy anything non-essential for the next six months. She has done this once before and during that three month period she kept a list of anything she wanted to buy (but didn't). At the end of the resolution period there was only one thing on her whole list of 'wants' that she actually still wanted. Although I love her plan and think it could help many people, I think even walking away from a purchase and just waiting a week to reflect on it can often cure you of the "Oh, I must have this now (even though I never even knew it existed before I walked into this store)."

The Harney Cousins Take Europe!

My cousin Meredith has been staying with us for the past two weeks and she will be here another two weeks before heading back to Atlanta to start her senior year of high school. She is pretty fluent in French (at least it seems to my untrained ear) and she has been doing a great job of practicing it over here as well as experiencing a bit of the European lifestyle.

This weekend we went to the small country of Luxembourg (it is about the size of Rhode Island) to see the town of Luxembourg and and the town of Vianden. On the way home we stopped by Bouillon, Belgium. Our good friend Beth Schepens joined us and we had a great time visiting castles and just wandering through the towns. I'm working on uploading the photos, but in the meantime, here are a few...

A typical image of the Belgian countryside. I absolutely love how beautiful it is to drive through Belgium.

A view from the top of the Bouillon castle. This kind of summarized the Ardennes -- hills, trees, water and old buildings.

Surviving Serve the City

I did it! Cooking for Serve the City is finally done! I am very proud to say that I oversaw the menu, grocery shopping and cooking for 1200 meals over six days. We only spent 1600 euros, which I have to say I am pretty impressed with -- that equals only 1.33 per meal.

Kyle was absolutely my right hand man during all the cooking. He was so wonderful about being willing to do anything, from hauling stuff to washing some really dirty dishes to chopping 36 onions. I was also really fortunate to have a wonderful couple, Jackie and Richard Griffin, help me out with almost every meal. Jackie was just the mother figure I needed around when the recipe wasn't going quite right and I needed some experienced cooking advice.

I have learned something about myself throughout the whole process:

--I am very bad about asking for help.

--When I am in a tough situation I just put my head down and keep going. Although I definitely got frustrated at points (and Kyle was my sounding board), for the most part when people asked how I was doing I don't think I could even honestly answer. I just felt like I was in a zone -- I knew what needed to get done and I just kept going through my lists and checking things off.

--I have no desire to ever cook for numbers that large again!

What a team!

What it looks like to mix Asian coleslaw for 500.

We had some great volunteers helping out. However, it was much more stressful than I had ever realized to keep ten people constantly busy with a task in the kitchen.

Chicken Pasta Salad for 200.

Men at work. Graham is chopping 168 scallions and Kyle and Richard are hard at work peeling and mincing 56 cloves of garlic.

What baked beans for 250 people look like. This pan filled up a whole industrial size oven -- and this was only half the recipe!