Almost two weeks

So I've almost been in Belgium two weeks and still really excited that we are here! Not much exciting to report yet, we've mostly done things to get settled in. I am getting a lot more confident about driving and grocery shopping. So much is familiar, but it's those small differences that can create a lot of anxiety. Figuring out where to weigh fresh vegetables was an obstacle, and finding a cake or cake mix for Keith's birthday was interesting. But with patience and willingness to comprise it's pretty cool. I got Keith a Flan cake that was awesome! They truly have an obsession with fries. There are whole aisles dedicated to frozen bags of fries. Don't get me wrong I love fries but you'd think it was a crime to not have them with every meal.

Keith and I made a trip to IKEA in Brussels last weekend. Pretty cool, really easy to get to, it's right next to the nuclear plant :) Not surprisingly it was exactly like the one at home, but surprisingly everything we bought did fit in our little diesel car!

So far the people are pretty nice. It's hard to describe.... although people don't really smile, don't offer help, and really do seem to get cranky if you don't speak French, they still seem to be nice enough and willing to help when asked. Just different from my trips to Ireland, UK, and even France where people seemed much more outgoingly friendly. Hard to know how much of that is because the town we are in is pretty depressed, few jobs, and I am sure they resent so many people not speaking french, and possibly some anti American sentiment? I am interested to see as spring/summer approaches whether more people will be out and about, and what parts of the city "open up".

In the meantime Keith and I are trying to take advantage of some of the things offered at the base. Last week we went and saw a play put on by the SHAPE players. The production was great, customs and sets were fantastic, however the acting and singing could have been better. They have auditions for Grease in mid March. Not sure if I want to do that, but it might be nice to have something where I can interact with people who speak English. If I can't get a part it might be fun to work on the production. We've also seen a couple movies. Pretty basic theater, but nice for getting a chance to do something familiar.

Keith mentioned it before but I am truly amazed by the paperwork debacles. His clearance still hasn't come through, which makes his job very frustrating. We keep getting told any day now, but we just don't know. Dealing with the DMV at home is a joy compared to all the weird steps, and processes we have to deal with here. Most of it is a pain because we aren't military or military civilians. Since Keith is a consultant we have a lot of paperwork to get us both set up at SHAPE but also in the town we are in and of course there doesn't seem to be a consistent way of doing things. It's weird to get bills in another language and just hoping that we are paying them correctly. They don't really do checks so it's primarily online banking, which is cool for us, but difficult in another language.

Now that the house is in order, a lot of the paperwork is started, and the curtains are pretty much done :) we should be breaking out a little more and starting some traveling. Perhaps Bruge this weekend?