Third in a running series answering the questions, what do I love about living here, what do I hate or dislike and what do I miss. Here are some more of my reflections:
Love It
Location: So we put down the little town we are in quite often. Just get Keith started and he’ll tell you all that is depressing about our part of Belgium, but we both agree that our town has a great location. In less then two hours driving we can be in four different Countries...France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. By train and plane the list is extraordinary. We live less then five minutes from a train station and just minutes from the major highway so it’s very easy to get around. We came here for the opportunity to travel and our location has been really perfect in allowing us to get all over Europe. My favorite part is the fact that the highway sign by our house says “Paris” on it, a pretty nice change from “Richmond”
Cafés: I know I’ve talked a lot about us heading into the Grand Place to sit at a café, or that we’ve gone to a café for dinner...but it’s hard to explain how much we both love the café atmosphere. Town centers filled with tables under awnings, people out to have a beer or a coffee, and in no hurry. It’s a big adjustment from any eating/drinking experience in the States. Service is terribly slow, they don’t really check in on you, and it takes forever to get a bill, so why do I love it? Because you can sit for hours and just soak up the atmosphere watching people. You can order one drink and never be bothered or given a dirty look to hurry up. Even in the winter they have heaters under the awnings so you don’t miss a moment of the Christmas Markets. Cafes are just such a great part of the European lifestyle that I am enjoying so much while we are here.
The patient stare: So this actually used to be a Hate It topic about the Bureaucracy in Belgium, but discovering an answer has made it a love it or tolerate it. Basically Belgium has a standard response to any question...“no”. However, we have now discovered that "no" does not mean no, it means ask again, someone else, or be more persistent. We learned within our first weeks here that if at first you don’t get the response you want try, try, try and try again. In fact when I first arrived and needed an ID to get on the base I was given the standard no, and circular logic….“you need to get this badge first” which of course those people told me I needed my ID first. Finally I just stood at the window and stared, not angry, just waiting for some guidance, waiting, staring…. VIOLA! Success, “ok, just this time I’ll give the ID and will fix it in the system.” Not long after Keith and I attempted to get our drivers licenses, which surprisingly was not met by no, but instead the insistence that they would have to keep our American licenses. Again I simply, kindly, stared at the woman and said “No, that is not possible”. A day later we had our licenses without surrendering anything, all with a simple pause. Over and over this tactic has worked. It is still somewhat frustrating to always be met with an immediate no. It feels like people would rather spend an hour resisting or making excuses for doing work then just taking the five minutes to do a simple task. But I love knowing how to overcome it!
Hate It
No Websites: One of our biggest frustrations here is that almost none of the businesses here have websites. Those that do are very limited and have only the most basic of information. Surprisingly, the fact that they are in French isn’t really the problem, we’re pretty adept at translating information so that hasn’t really been the issue. I think we’d be more likely to try more restaurants and stores nearby if we could check them out a bit more online. We have been able to do all our banking and bill pay through the web, however, so we’ve been lucky that way.
TV: It’s like they are taunting me! They have a lot of great shows here on TV like The Simpsons, Friends, Lost, etc. but they are all in French. No subtitles, everything is dubbed in French. We get a few channels in English, CNN, BBC, and then there are some Dutch stations that play some shows that are in English with Dutch subtitles. So I can watch Star Trek the Next Generation, Monk, Magnum PI, etc. We even get the North American Sports Network that covers all the major games of the week, so we have been able to catch some Hokie games! But in the grand scheme of things English TV is limited.
Miss It
A Dishwasher: Overall our house has been great, a nice size, nicely furnished, and has all the modern conveniences we need minus one….a dishwasher. I really didn’t think I’d miss having one so much but it gets tiring doing dishes all the time. There are just times you want to throw everything in the dishwasher and walk away. We’d probably only have to run it once or twice a week but it’d be nice to keep the counters cleaned off in the meantime. Our kitchen is pretty dinky so it’s not really an option let them pile up. One can dream.
Love It
Location: So we put down the little town we are in quite often. Just get Keith started and he’ll tell you all that is depressing about our part of Belgium, but we both agree that our town has a great location. In less then two hours driving we can be in four different Countries...France, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. By train and plane the list is extraordinary. We live less then five minutes from a train station and just minutes from the major highway so it’s very easy to get around. We came here for the opportunity to travel and our location has been really perfect in allowing us to get all over Europe. My favorite part is the fact that the highway sign by our house says “Paris” on it, a pretty nice change from “Richmond”
Cafés: I know I’ve talked a lot about us heading into the Grand Place to sit at a café, or that we’ve gone to a café for dinner...but it’s hard to explain how much we both love the café atmosphere. Town centers filled with tables under awnings, people out to have a beer or a coffee, and in no hurry. It’s a big adjustment from any eating/drinking experience in the States. Service is terribly slow, they don’t really check in on you, and it takes forever to get a bill, so why do I love it? Because you can sit for hours and just soak up the atmosphere watching people. You can order one drink and never be bothered or given a dirty look to hurry up. Even in the winter they have heaters under the awnings so you don’t miss a moment of the Christmas Markets. Cafes are just such a great part of the European lifestyle that I am enjoying so much while we are here.
The patient stare: So this actually used to be a Hate It topic about the Bureaucracy in Belgium, but discovering an answer has made it a love it or tolerate it. Basically Belgium has a standard response to any question...“no”. However, we have now discovered that "no" does not mean no, it means ask again, someone else, or be more persistent. We learned within our first weeks here that if at first you don’t get the response you want try, try, try and try again. In fact when I first arrived and needed an ID to get on the base I was given the standard no, and circular logic….“you need to get this badge first” which of course those people told me I needed my ID first. Finally I just stood at the window and stared, not angry, just waiting for some guidance, waiting, staring…. VIOLA! Success, “ok, just this time I’ll give the ID and will fix it in the system.” Not long after Keith and I attempted to get our drivers licenses, which surprisingly was not met by no, but instead the insistence that they would have to keep our American licenses. Again I simply, kindly, stared at the woman and said “No, that is not possible”. A day later we had our licenses without surrendering anything, all with a simple pause. Over and over this tactic has worked. It is still somewhat frustrating to always be met with an immediate no. It feels like people would rather spend an hour resisting or making excuses for doing work then just taking the five minutes to do a simple task. But I love knowing how to overcome it!
Hate It
No Websites: One of our biggest frustrations here is that almost none of the businesses here have websites. Those that do are very limited and have only the most basic of information. Surprisingly, the fact that they are in French isn’t really the problem, we’re pretty adept at translating information so that hasn’t really been the issue. I think we’d be more likely to try more restaurants and stores nearby if we could check them out a bit more online. We have been able to do all our banking and bill pay through the web, however, so we’ve been lucky that way.
TV: It’s like they are taunting me! They have a lot of great shows here on TV like The Simpsons, Friends, Lost, etc. but they are all in French. No subtitles, everything is dubbed in French. We get a few channels in English, CNN, BBC, and then there are some Dutch stations that play some shows that are in English with Dutch subtitles. So I can watch Star Trek the Next Generation, Monk, Magnum PI, etc. We even get the North American Sports Network that covers all the major games of the week, so we have been able to catch some Hokie games! But in the grand scheme of things English TV is limited.
Miss It
A Dishwasher: Overall our house has been great, a nice size, nicely furnished, and has all the modern conveniences we need minus one….a dishwasher. I really didn’t think I’d miss having one so much but it gets tiring doing dishes all the time. There are just times you want to throw everything in the dishwasher and walk away. We’d probably only have to run it once or twice a week but it’d be nice to keep the counters cleaned off in the meantime. Our kitchen is pretty dinky so it’s not really an option let them pile up. One can dream.
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