Zen Master

I have changed in so many ways since coming here that I can't really even keep count. However I do know that one way I have definitely changed is being more laid back about "being Belgianed" as our friends Hal and Anna coined it. Being Belgianed is when you get screwed over by either a citizen of Belgium or just the country itself. If you really look for it, you can see examples of it every day. Just four examples from today that even made it to my radar screen:

1. I stepped in dog poop.

2. I was driving down a narrow two-lane road (that is also a bus route) and a construction van decided to stop in front of an empty parking place and rather than parallel park into the spot, they just left the spot open, stopped right in front of it, put their hazard lights on and started unloading things. This resulted in the cars and buses playing chicken to see who could drive down the one open lane.

3. I was waiting in line behind seven people at the grocery store, there was one person checking people out and two employees sitting having their coffee break and watching us wait in line. Neither of them ever got up to open up another register, even though the line just kept getting longer.

4. I was the first person to order something at a lunch place today. After waiting 45 minutes and seeing two other tables get their food, I tried to signal my waitress but she just waved at me and said "In a minute." After another five minutes she told me that the kitchen had had problems with the gas stove which is why my food took so long. Finally after an hour my hamburger came out and was completely raw in the middle. However, since I was so hungry and figured it could take another hour to get it right, I just scraped away the raw part and ate it.


I mention all of these situations because as much as I was frustrated about them, they really didn't faze me much. When we first moved to Belgium I would become outraged that these types of non-existent customer service and plain selfishness could occur so often. But Belgium has broken me down, just like it breaks down every other person who lives here. If you don't learn to shrug your shoulders, sigh and deal with it, then you might die of a heart attack. Luckily for me, I can avoid the heart attack and just die of e. coli instead.