Some Observations

I just wanted to write about a few interesting observations I've made so far...

If you go to the grocery store, you are expected to not only bag your own groceries, you should also bring your bags with you. No matter how much you buy, they assume you will put it in your own bags by yourself. If you don't bring your own bags, they're about 15 cents per bag. However, most people don't buy large amounts at a time. Instead, they buy dinner for the evening on their way home from work. I assume that this is due to the fact that almost no one has freezers, and most refridgerators are tiny by US standards.

People here love to yell. Every evening after about 9:00, there are groups of people standing in the main square yelling at the top of their lungs to no one in particular. I went to a bar tonight and several times people randomly erupted into loud chants. Even on the NATO base, people often great each other with bird like noises. I don't know how else to explain it, but it's very strange.

Cell phones are much better in Europe. My initial provider that gives me great access to Belgian phone calls was 1 Euro / minute to call the US. So, instead of switching providers, I purchased a new SIM card for my phone that lets me call home for .11 / minute. I just switch access cards in my phone when needed to get me the best rate for the place I'm calling. Everything is pay as you go, so you only pay for the minutes you use...very nice.

People dress very different out here. Tonight I saw three guys dressed in white pants, white shoes, and a white coat. If they're not wearing all white, it's all black. If you wear tennis shoes, you stand out like a sore thumb. Also, I would estimate that 60% of the women here wear extremely short skirts, black tights, and knee high leather boots. The other 40% wear bizzare combinations of leather, jeans, and mini skirts in patterns that would never been seen in America outside the red light districts. Everyone is generally more formal than the US, but you also see strange outfits that would never be socially acceptable back home.

Taxi cabs are incredibly expensive. The starting charge for a cab is 6 Euro and it goes up quickly. Also, if you are riding alone in the cab, usually people ride in the front with the driver. I found this very strange and frankly uncomfortable the first few times. Also, if you show any interest in the driver, they will talk your ear off in French (or poorly spoken English) for the entire ride. I usually just nod and smily politely as if I understood what they were trying to say.

As I go to more shops, I've found that many people speak a little English, and all of them are willing to teach you French if you show some interest. In general, the people here are extremely friendly. I go to the little grocery store next to my hotel most evenings, and the clerk there teaches me a new French phrase each night. He's eager to hear about life in America and in exchange for stories, he helps me with my pronunciation.

Anyway, that's just a few of the many cultural differences I've noticed so far. I'm sure I will have more as time goes on...

Work: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

First just a quick update to the house hunt post. I have uploaded pictures of a few of the places I looked at. You can view them on the picture site that I sent out earlier. Pictures 10-21 are of the house I picked. Now...on to work.

The Good: The people at SHAPE are extremely friendly. I'm the first American on the team, so they're all interested in hearing about how things work in the US. Everyone speaks English well, but it can be very difficult to understand the accents. By boss is from Turkey, and believe it or not, his son is a fellow CS grad from Virginia Tech, class of '04! What a small world! My temporary mentor is a very nice guy from Hungary. My future mentor is from Slovania...I will meet him next week. We also have a Bulgarian, a German, and two Danish guys. It's a very intersting bunch. We take two official coffee breaks per day, plus a 1 hour 15 minute lunch. We play a high-low game based on the serial number of a Euro bill to see who will pay, and so far I've received quite a few free coffees. The building is a true military base and not very welcoming, but I feel important as my office is in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe. Sounds cool, doesn't it?

The Bad: Due to lost paperwork, I have to go to the security building each morning and wait in line for my temporary ID card. They said I should have one by the end of the week, but it's pretty annoying. Then, due to some issues with my clearance transfer, I can't get into the secure area where my office is without an escort. I can't even go to the bathroom without a Hungarian guy following me. Both issues should be corrected soon, so it's not too bad.

The Ugly: The job is not at all what I signed up for. Basically I will be documenting someone else's code, and improving the build process. As my fellow developers know, that's about as boring as it gets! I can't believe they shipped me all the way from the US to do this type of work.

To sum it all up, the location and people are great, the job is awful. I spoke to my boss today and he's going to try to get some development work for me, but he can't promise anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

House Hunting

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on the TV assuming that 5 minutes of Belgian TV would put me right out. Instead, I found that the Superbowl was being televised. It was quite strange though, the announcers spoke German and they didn't take a single ad break. Usually the ad-free game would be great, but I generally enjoy the Superbowl ads, so I was a little disappointed. It was nice to see the game though, it made me feel a little more at home. I stayed up to watch the whole game, which ended around 4:00am, so I was pretty exhausted for my home search today.

Today was apparently the typical Belgian day, 47 degrees and raining. A pleasant lady named Ms. Vreedenburgh (no, I don't know how to pronounce it) picked me up at my hotel this morning and drove me around to 3 houses and 3 apartments in the Mons area. During our 6 hour tour, I discovered that she was born in Germany, grew up in the Netherlands, lives in Belgium, and has lived in Brazil, USA, Colombia, and Uruguay. She speaks 5 languages fluently and can speak enough German to get around. Overall a pretty amazing resume.

The first house that we went to scared me to death. It was built in 1825 and looked like it was straight out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The paint was peeling off the exterior and it even had an old creaky metal gate in front. However, once we went inside it was just amazing. It was completely redone, and had all new appliances and hardwood floors. Despite the renovation, much of the original marble and antique fixtures were still in good shape. I don't remember the exact number, but I would guess it was over 2000 square feet. As much as I would have liked to stay there as a bed and breakfast, it was just too old fashioned for my taste.

Next, we went to a nice little apartment in the heart of Mons. It was very small, but everything was fairly new and it was quite cozy. The current resident was there, and he was a fun Japanese man who gave me a tour while the real estate agent just stood there. I had to take my shoes off and put on little slippers with Japanese writing on them. He told me that he was moving back to Japan and couldn't take all of his stuff, so he offered to give me quite a bit of furniture as well as a refrigerator and a washing machine. It was a very nice offer, and I really liked the apartment anyway, so that just sweetened the deal.

Next up was one apartment and one house that were nothing special and were too far from either Mons or my new job.

We went to another apartment in Mons, about a 5 minute walk from the center of town. It was brand new and beautifully furnished with items that looked straight out of a Crate and Barrel catalog. It was 4 stories and had a balcony on three of them overlooking a nice little park in the center of the complex. It was absolutely perfect....until he mentioned the price. 2500 Euros / month ($3700). Just a little out of my price range.

Finally, on the last house, I think I found a perfect fit. We met the owner of the house who was a pleasant older lady who spoke a little English. By a little I mean her English was about as good as my French. It was a completely redone home with a little yard and garden, and a two car garage. It's very small but cozy, and it's the most bizarre and interesting architecture I've ever seen. The entire downstairs is open and you can look down from the upstairs. It's all glass and so it's very bright and welcoming. It's about a 10 minute drive to Mons, but only about 5 minutes to my new office. She even offered to furnish it for us with IKEA furniture for a small monthly fee. It has a dishwasher and a washing machine, both very rare in Europe.

Hopefully I can finalize the lease in the next few days and move in as early as next week. I have some pictures, but my Internet connection isn't cooperating right now. If I can get it working I will add them to the blog.

After I got back to the hotel, I ventured out on my own to get a cell phone. There are four cell phone shops within a 2 minute walk of my hotel, but not a single one of them had a clerk that spoke any English. So, I blindly bought a phone and a "sim card" which is what gives you a phone number. Instead of service contracts, you buy this little microchip that stores all of your contacts and text messages, and has a phone number associated with it. It came loaded with 20 euros worth of phone calls, and I think I can recharge it, but the website is all in French so I'm not quite sure how to do that yet. It's a neat way of handling phone service, I just hope I can figure out the website soon.

Tomorrow is the first day of work, so I should have more fun stories after that. Wish me luck!

Day One

After an uneventful flight and cab ride, I finally arrived at the Hotel Infotel in Mons. Goal number one was to get on the Internet and let friends and family know that I had arrived safely. Unfortunately that proved a little difficult with the very poor Internet access in my hotel. After a little trial and error, I found that if I sit on the right side of the foot of the bed, I can get a decent connection. So as long as I don't move, I can stay on long enough to type an email.

I have to admit, my first thought after arrival was "what I have gotten myself into?" The town isn't much to look at, almost no one speaks English, and I couldn't even get on the Internet to email friends and family. To top it off, the only English speaking TV stations are CNN news and BBC World, which seems to only show soccer...oops, I mean football. However, I finally took a walk around town and I'm feeling much better about things now. It may not look like much at first glance, but the town is busy with people and there are many shops, restaurants, and bars. I'm can't wait to start tasting the Belgian beer and cuisine. The only real problem is that I haven't found a single waffle stand! I'm in Belgium and I can't find a waffle anywhere!

I found a very nice little grocery store next to my hotel, so I stopped in and picked up some things to make a ham sandwich, Coke Zero, some delicious little chocolate crackers, and a bottle of wine...all for the low low price of 25 Euro, roughly $36. Ouch. I wanted to try some of the local cuisine, but since I paid so much for my ham and bread, I feel like I should finish that off first.

Tomorrow the relocation company will be picking me up at my hotel to show me several apartments in the area. Hopefully I can be in my permanent home by the end of the week. I'm also going to try to get a cell phone, which could prove very difficult unless I can find a English speaking clerk. I guess that's all part of the experience of living abroad though.

Overall, so far so good. It's pretty lonely right now until Elizabeth and Bailey join me, but I brought some movies to keep myself entertained. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some news on housing, and a phone number in case anyone wants to chat.