Love It, Hate It, Miss It

So this particular blog will probably turn into a series over the time that we are here. Keith and I have realized that whenever we talk to people from home we always get three questions. 1. What do you love about living there? 2. What do you dislike there? 3. What do you miss the most? So we've both been doing some thinking about these questions now that we've been here 3 + months and thought it was time to share. Keith will probably do his own post and some of ours will most likely overlap but you'll get the idea.
Here are some of my refections.

Love It:
No cookie cutter homes, resturants, strip malls: One thing that has started to frustrate me at home is that no matter where I go in the US there is the same strip mall in every town with the Target, Barnes and Noble, Maccaroni Grill, and Old Navy. I you look across the street there is the same community development with identical McMansions. It makes traveling within the US less interesting when you know you are going to see the exact same strip malls. Don't get me wrong I spent a lot of time in those strip malls, and know plenty of people with very nice and lovely McMansions. However it's been great to be in a place where every house is unique, there are no strip malls, and resturants can easily be confused with somebody's home. When I walk Bailey through our neighborhood it's fun to look at all the different houses that all have interesting features. Finding resturants outside of the city center has actually been a challenge because they blend in with the neighborhood, but when we have found one, they are great places to eat. It's pretty cool that on our trips to other parts of Belgium each town looks different, except for the standard large church in the center of town, it makes traveling pretty exciting.

Lack of SUV's: Keith has mentioned that the gas prices here are pretty outrageous, I think something like $8.50 a gallon.... I still have a hard time with the litter/gallon conversion...so the popular style of car is the hatch back. The only large cars, SUVs and MiniVans, are all owned by US military who have had their cars shipped here from the US. Again I am not trying to be a hypocrite, I loved my small Saturn SUV, but I've been really impressed with the smaller cars so far, we've taken one on several trips, made a couple IKEA runs. I just have to admit I enjoy being on the road with fewer SUVs.

No traffic: Ok so we don't live in Brussells, I am sure there is traffic in Belgium, but we really don't have any traffic where we live. I drive Keith to work most days and the roundtrip take me less than 20 min. When I was working in McLean I was working 11 miles from home and it would take about 45 min to get to work. Getting home could easily take an hour. I don't miss random traffic on 66 on a Saturday. I just don't miss traffic, I think it's going to be the hardest thing to readjust to whenever we return.

Hate It:
Wearing 3 outfits a day: So the weather in Belgium is goofy. Actually since it's been spring it's been pretty nice but it is not crazy to think that I would change three times a day. It can still be pretty cold in the morning, for awhile I still needed a winter coat but by the middle of the day I wanted a short sleeve shirt, and capris. Then by evening it would cool off but not nearly as cold as the morning. Since I didn't bring my entire warbrobe with me the broad ranging weather in a day has presented a clothing challenge.

Everything closed on Sunday: So I think Keith and I have mentioned on previous blogs that everything is closed on Sunday....... but it's pretty annoying. I mean seriously, IKEA is closed on Sunday! It's not a relgious thing, basically, Belgium reguires that employers pay their employees 3x their salary on a Sunday so instead of forking over the money they close. We think that's why a lot of cafes and resturants are open on Sundays, because they are all family run. It's mostly a challenge just to make sure we have enough groceries...... it's not really a problem, it's more annoying than anything else.

Miss It: So to be honest I really don't miss much other than friends and family. This section will probably be shorter than the rest.

Meeting Maya: The hardest part so far about being here has been not getting to meet Maya, Wendy and Brian's baby girl. She is closest thing I have to a neice, and I couldn't be more excited for them. It's been great to see her via webcam, but it's just not the same as getting to hold her. In fact lots of our friends are having babies and it's weird not being there to meet them. At least I know I'll be around most of her life :)

Lowrey Visit

Sorry this is a bit late - Parents visited May 3rd to May 8th.

Keith was right, I was down right giddy for my parents visit. It's not like it's been that long since I've seen them so it's hard to explain why I was so giddy. I am not really homesick at all, I guess I was just so excited to show them where we live, what our place is like, what are some of our favorite places to eat. I was also overwhelmed reflecting on the idea that my parents were living in Europe 30 years ago, when I was born, and now 30 years later they are here visiting me living in Europe. Just cool. They arrived at a small airport about 30 min from our place Saturday evening on May 3rd. They had been on a two week trip to Spain with a group from their church and decided to tack on a trip at the end to see us.

Their visit was really great, it didn't rain once while they were here and every day it was about 75. The first night we took them into Mons, which was really alive and upbeat, we ate at our favorite place Steak on a Rock (I don't know the real name) and then had dessert and coffee at a cute little cafe. On Sunday the whole family, yup Bailey too, headed for the Netherlands. We headed to a place a friend of the family had told us about, the Keukenhof gardens. The gardens are only open three months of the year, March, April and May and they say that the flowers are only in peek bloom for a couple of weeks. Well we clearly made it there for the peek. The gardens grounds were enormous, and the flowers were amazing. I've never seen so many types, varities, and colors of flowers, some of them were as high and my waist! The whole place was a photographers dream. It was great to have Bailey with us, she did really well, very little pulling and seemed comfortable with the crowds. What's really great about Europe in general is just everyone's acceptance of dogs. We sat for a coffee and were giving Bailey some water out of make shift dish when one of the staff came out of nowhere with a dog bowl filled with water just for Bailey. Our neighboring table was playing with her, and then the staff returned with some treats for her. Just hard to imagine any place like this at home allowing dogs, let alone going out of their way to make her comfortable.

Keith took Monday off work to spend some more time with my parents but to also pick up our new car. See the car blog for more details on that adventure. So once we had the car we (minus Bailey) piled in and headed for Brugge. Overall a very easy going sight seeing day, lunch, a canal cruise, and window shopping. We did discover a shop that sells every Belgian beer and it's corresponding glass, so Keith was in heaven! I am sure we'll be making some return trips there.

Tuesday Keith headed back to work, and the rest of us used the day to relax, do some much needed grocery shopping and most importantly nap! That evening we showed them the base and went back into Mons to show them the church and other landmarks. But overall just a nice day around the house. Wednesday the three of us headed down to the local train station and took a ride into Brussels. After unknowingly wandering in the right direction we made it to a museum that had a painting "The fall of Icarus" that my dad wanted to see. Although the specific artwork there really didn't do much for me, I really enjoyed seeing several art students sitting and painting throughout the museum. They seemed to be copying or focusing on certain aspects of the paintings, doing a portrait of a secondary figure. We also headed into the Grand Place for lunch and a chocolate waffle. We called it a day and took the train home.

After a great deal of reflection on our parts we all agreed we wouldn't change a thing about their visit. We got a lot of sightseeing in but also found time for relaxing. With everything ending on a high note, I took my parents back to the airport of Thursday morning, and of course their flight back to Madrid was delayed. Because they had flown as part of a group they had to fly out of the same airport in order to keep the group rate so unfortunately they couldn't fly directly out of Brussels but had to return to Madrid. Long story short they missed their flight out of Madrid and had to stay for two additional days in Spain. So although our visit was fantastic, their trip home was a bit of bummer.

Mont St. Michelle & Normandy Part 2

After our stay at the hotel of many noises and smells we headed out for Omaha beach pretty early on Friday morning. It was only about an hour and half drive from our hotel to the beach and it flew by in the beautiful weather. Overall I can tell I am going to have a hard time with this blog because so much of what we experienced is pretty hard to describe, a very emotional experience. The beach itself was beautiful and peaceful but also overwhelming to think about all of what had happened on there. We walked a bit and collected a few sea shells and just stood for awhile enjoying the weather and trying to take in the realities of what took place there. I was impressed, the memorials were very tasteful and did not detract from the overall experience.

We headed from the beach up to the WWII cemetery on the cliffs overlooking the area we had just come from. It was one of the most emotionally difficult places we have ever been. Everything was so perfectly manicured and the location despite the tourists was extremly tranquil. The simple design of the rows of the headstones was very similar to Arlington Cemetery and very powerful. Frequently during our visit Keith and I reflected on the differences between WWII and the Iraq war. Although it was so difficult to see how many lives were lost, we found comfort in the fact that these men died for a real purpose, an important goal, and to the benefit of the entire world. We moved though the grounds to a few of the headstones to pay our respects and reflect on what they must have faced.

Our final stop was at Point du Hoc, which I was totally unprepared for. We walked down a path from the parking lot through some brush out onto the cliffs looking over Omaha beach from the other side. The cliff was completely littered with blown up concrete and grass covered fox holes. Hole after hole where there Germans laid to attack the soliders arriving by boat and plane. The complex structures for the large guns were still there. With all of the signs of war around us it was difficult not to imagine what it must have been like for the soliders involved. It was weird to be able to walk through one of the German structures to see the gun holes and stand in the bunkers that they had built.

After a very powerful day we headed home. We wanted to get home and settled in since my parents were coming on Saturday. On a side note Keith and I are feeling really lucky to have found the vet we have. She is really wonderful, and clearly loves Bailey, so we know she is in good hands whenever we go on these extended trips.

Mont St. Michelle & Normandy - Part 1

Keith had Thursday May 1 and Friday May 2 off work for Ascension Day.... 40 days after Easter. May 1 was Ascension day, and Friday was the day after ascension day, so naturally he had both days off work, which we planned to use to drive through the French countryside. We decided against a trip to Mont St. Michelle when we were on our honeymoon but thought this would be a great opportunity. From looking at the map we realized how close we would be to Omaha beach so we thought we would tack on a side trip to the beach and WWII cemetery. We dropped Bailey off at the very friendly vet Wednesday night so that we could head out bright and early on Thursday. Crossing into France was pretty fun, the border is about 20 minutes from our place, and they still have the checkpoints from pre-EU when they still had border checks although they are clearly not in use and have been overtaken by grass. This was our longest road trip so far, about 4 hours and 45 min. We both noticed that they don't really have billboards here, which is nice, nothing to detract from the beautiful countryside. They do however have these neat signs for each town that are picture representations of what you can find in that town. You'll see in some of them in the pictures.

Mont St. Michelle is by far one of the most fascinating and beautiful things that either of us has ever seen. We were both struck immediately by how picturesque it is and just overwhelmed by it's location. We really couldn't take enough photographs, despite the rain and wind. As we entered the island and started up the hill Keith and I were quickly disappointed to discover how touristy the interior is, the walkways lined with cheesy souvinier shops and resturants intending to rip you off. We continued all the way to the top only to discover that the abbey built at the top was closed. The banner hanging outside said that the abbey was open from September 1 through April 30. We missed it by one day! In the end it really didn't matter, we still had fantastic views and just enjoyed being there. Before calling it a night we drove around the local towns for a bit and discovered that they are well known for their cider, so of course we had to get a bottle to try :) On a side note, one of the things that frustrates Keith and I is that we are use to American sized drinks.... large and larger. Here they only have small and smaller. It's tough even to find glasses for your home larger than a small juice glass. We ended up buying beer glasses (the only drink they do large) for our regular drinking glasses. Thus the idea of Starbucks Grande, Vente really doesn't exist, instead you get tiny tiny little cups of coffee. Keith's regular coffee's come in these little itty bitty cups, but apparently it is very strong. Anyway Our night finished with an interesting hotel stay, loud noises and sewage smell so needless to say we were excited about heading out the next day for Omaha beach.

We'll write soon with Part II of the trip and our experience in Normandy.

Car Buying

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks. I had a few days off so we took some time to travel, Elizabeth's parents came to visit for a few days, and we bought a car. In the last week we've been to six different cities in Belgium, France, and The Netherlands. There are lots of things to tell, so the next few blog entries will bring everyone up to date. Also, just as a reminder, you can see all of the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/keith.schaffer.

First I will start with our car purchase. It took almost three full months, but I finally received my Belgium ID card, which was required to purchase a car. So, we drove down to the Ford dealership where a coworker told me about a nice Belgian guy who spoke English well. We were greeted by a skinny little Belgian guy with a cigarette in his mouth and a nice black toothed smile and a wandering eye. He had a high squeaky voice that didn't match him at all, kinda like Mike Tyson. He is a very nice guy, but very odd as well. During one of our discussions with him we happened to ask where he learned to speak English so well...to which he replied, "I lived in Thailand for a few years..." and nothing else, as if this was a perfectly logical answer to our query.

They had two used cars on the lot, one was a newer BMW...way out of our price range...and a 2004 Ford Fusion. Ironically, the Ford is the exact same car that we have had as a rental for the last month, and we already knew we liked the car. So, we asked Eric if we could drive it. We got the standard Belgian answer that we have heard so many times, "They are not here, can you come back tomorrow." Now, this was 1 1/2 hours before they closed for the evening, and the person who was in charge of the test drive license plate had already gone home. So, we went back on Saturday to drive it, everything checked out, and we told him we would like to buy it. Then the fun part begins...

First, we had to pay a deposit of 500 Euro. Easy enough. Then, we had to wait a few days while he had the car inspected and a form stamped. On Tuesday, we went back to the dealership to pick up the form to register the car. You can't register a car in Belgium until you have insurance, so it was off to ING to purchase auto insurance. That was actually pretty easy, I bought the policy online and drove to their office the next day to have my form stamped. (I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Belgians LOVE stamps on their forms. No form can be turned in without a minimum of three stamps, probably more. This applies to everything, everywhere you go.)

Once I had my form stamped by the insurance company, it was off to the DIV (Belgian DMV) to request a license plate. I arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon, and as always in Belgium, the office was closed for lunch. I waited in a huge line for about 30 minutes until they were done with their lunch break and they opened the doors. Of course, the second the doors opened the once orderly line turned into a mob scene. (The concept of a line doesn't exist here) I finally pushed my way in and grabbed ticket number 88. I looked up to see that they were now serving 22. Ugh. I waited 90 minutes in a hot, tiny room full of Belgians who clearly don't shower often and smoke heavily. When my number was finally called, an angry little lady who didn't speak a word of English took my forms, stamped them a few more times, typed some things into the computer, and then handed me a license plate. One plate down, but you are required to have one on the front and the back here.

So, you take your newly received plate to yet another completely separate building, where for 10 Euro they stamp you a second copy. I can't figure out any good reason for this procedure other than to give this poor schmuck a job. Now that I had my two plates, it was back to the bank to pay for the rest of the car. Unfortunately my English speaking lady was on holiday, so it took me a good hour to communicate what I wanted to another lady there. After about 45 minutes, I figured out that she was trying to give me a loan....so I had to start over. It was a struggle, but I finally got the payment made.

Overall, the purchase took me to 5 different buildings over ten days...but at least we have a car. It's a diesel (diesel fuel is about 1 Euro / gallon cheaper) and gets 5.4 litres / 100 km...or roughly 42 mpg to you Americans. At $7.10 / gallon for diesel ($8.25 / gallon for regular), the mileage is very important. Yeah...you read that right...no complaints about gas prices in America yet. As you can see from the picture, it's nothing like the Fusion back in America. It's much smaller, but it meets our needs here. One more step down!