Een Maand

It has been one month since I packed up three suitcases and moved my life to another country. I will be honest and say that things have not been easy. The language barrier makes everything an extra struggle. If you think you don't like doing laundry try doing it with this machine:

I attempted to google translate and came up with "bow tie dry" and "cabinet dry" I have always been a fan of bow ties so that was the obvious choice.

The language barrier struggle has carried over to the grocery store. Luckily the cheese and beer here is delicious and language does not hinder the decision process. The square near my apartment (flat) also has a fantastic market every Sunday morning. I walk down and get my produce for the week at a good price.

Win for being vegetarian.

I am getting closer to being less of a tourist over here. I am forcing myself to learn one new word a day in either French or Dutch. I am meeting more people who speak French so that is my preferred language at the moment. In addition to learning a new language I now have a metro card. I am not longer the woman that has to purchase a metro pass every morning. I feel so much more "local" when i just swipe my card as i walk past the gate in the morning. The crazy part was that to get a card I had to get a picture and go to a designated office. It felt like the DMV. I had to pull a number and wait in a lobby with a bunch of other people feeling like they were wasting their Saturday. I think this was a rare moment when I actually did not feel like I live in a foreign country.

 Keeping positive thoughts that it will begin to be less of a challenge and more normal.

Mayonnaise.

So I will be back soon to fill you in on some of my newest adventures. For now I leave you with this thought: MAYO.

Do you love or hate this creamy condiment?

I myself despise this addition to food. It does not thing but ruin a meal and force me to place it directly in the rubbish bin. Belgians have a different opinion on the condiment. They feel like it should be added to EVERYTHING. Their favorite thing to add it to is frites (fries). I know this is not completely uncommon but it still makes be gag every time I see it. I purchased a caprese sandwich the other day thinking I would be safe, I was wrong. They slapped mayonnaise all over that beautiful baguette. No food is safe.

Love it or Hate it or Hate it

Belgain Beer Festival

I am learning a little bit about Brussels everyday. What I learned this weekend is that the LOVE festivals. This weekend alone I was told about 4 different festivals. There was the cartoon, balloon parade, thai food and of course the Belgian beer festival.

It was my goal to make it to the beer festival and also the balloon parade. I met up with a neighbor of mine that had been to the beer festival the day before and was going to be my tour guide. This was going to be a day of firsts for me and I could not wait for the adventure to begin. I mean there was a festival of beer how could I not be excited.

I will tell you now before you get too excited that we missed the balloon parade, it gives me something to look forward to next year. And when I saw balloon parade think Macy's day parade without the high school marching bands, bad C list pop stars on floats and off Broadway numbers.

The beer festival however was EVERYTHING that I wanted it to be. My list of firsts started before we got to the festival. As you know I frequent the metro. I had not been on the bus yet. We took the bus to Grand Place, the centre of Brussels. This was another first for me. The archieticure in the area is divine. I can't wait to go back and see it without the rows of beer tents. I am not saying the rows of beer tents were not a beautiful sight. I do not know how many brewers were there but we bough enough tokens so we could try 4. I would love to tell you which ones we tried but of course when you are at a beer festival you do not remember what you are drinking, that is a sign of a good beer festival.

Grand Place

 I know that I enjoyed every beer that touched my lips. In hopes of seeing the balloon parade we went to get a coffee and walk to the next town center. He suggested Starbucks and even though hesitant I was looking forward to something familiar. This is when I learned that my name sounds like Juri to Belgians.

With coffee in hand we went on our merry way. This next town was so lively and playful. The streets were closed and we found people playing "lawn" games. There was giant chess, ping pong and petanque.

Since we were in search of the balloon parade we felt like we were on the right path when we kept seeing little old ladies about to float away like the house from UP.

The research that we did online told us that we had until 18h for the balloon parade to reach us. This left us time for more beer! We navigated our way through some very narrow streets until we found the Delirium cafe. If you know beer this should sound familar. We each had a delicious pint and head off to satisfy our inner child.

Even with missing out on one of the days activities I went to bed feeling satisfied with my Belgian beer adventure.

PROOST!

Morning Commute

So I have quickly reverted back to my city girl ways when it comes to getting to work in the morning. I take the metro to get to work which is their subway system. I start my morning with a walk to the metro with my coffee in hand. Depending on which way I walk my commute is more interesting. On one occasion I passed 5 men(soldiers) with automatic weapons protecting buildings. I live near the European Union so now need to worry about the fact that I walk by so many armed men. I try to smile at them like a true southern lady but they do not return the gesture.

I sit on the Metro for my ten stops either reading my kindle, listening to music or my Dutch podcast. People like to come on the Metro and panhandle on the cars. So far I have seen a woman rapping into a speaker on wheels covered in duct tape and an older man playing a melodica.

Once I have made it my ten stops I get off the Metro and begin my next walk. This time through a more country town and a quaint neighborhood.

Total each day I walk about 4km 300m, pass two frites stands and more coffee/patisseries than I can count.


AND now for my commute in pictures:

 

Metro escalator goes FOREVER

Even the street signs are different.

The houses are too cute for words

Walk through the greenery.

Does a hobbit live here!?