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 :)