Hi out there. This happened on Monday and I was going to let it go but it just keeps popping up in my head as being blog-worthy so, here it is. You’ve all seen my pictures from various locations here in Belgium and I think we can all agree that there is a definite color scheme to Flanders in general. The colors on the palette mainly consist of brown, black, navy, brownish green, grey, dark grey, and brown-have I mentioned brown? Cause there’s a lot of brown. I took a few more pictures on a random trip to the grocery store today to illustrate my assertion here:
Behold, the drab that is Belgium
Well, I guess blue jeans can be considered an exception to the rule
Here in the centre they add some gilt to some of the buildings, so at least it’s a shiny brown
Anyway, before I came to live with CB he was very very concerned that I be sure to get a waterproof coat as the norm in Belgium is rain, rain and more rain. My mother and I took a look in some catalogs for plus sizes, cause that’s what I am currently (even if I was a normal size, my boobs would still strand me way out in the land of the large) and we found a reasonably priced, warm-looking, water-resistant coat. The options for colors in my size were fuschia or lilac. Well, if you look up there at the title of this blog you should be able to guess which color I opted to go with.
After about a month of wearing this coat I decided that it was sort of puffy and made it hard for me to squeeze between tight places in the house and also into cramped spaces between people on the bus. Also (and dammit, this should have been a red (lilac?) flag) I was getting a bit tired of being the classroom example for learning/practicing to say and use the word for purple (paars…see, now you know some Dutch).
So on Monday I switched over to my non-water resistant coat along with my new hat and went to class. Afterwards CB and I planned on having lunch together at the student restaurant. I headed towards the restaurant and saw my illustrious Belgian standing there waiting for me. I was pretty close to him before I saw any recognition and as he leaned in to give me a kiss he blurted out, “Oh, you look much better….”
pause
“…um, in that jacket…”
pause
“I mean, I meant to say you look more Belgian.”
So I’ve been thinking here that this means I’ve been walking around Gent looking like a total reject (or a bloated grape, you decide) and my boyfriend has either been too afraid to hurt my feelings to clue me in or he has just been watching me walk out the door and into the city of no color, all the while chuckling to himself and hoping for the day when I’d finally put my black jacket on so he could tell me how much more “Belgian” I looked.
I’ll go with the first one….for his sake.
Oooh, yes I used a naughty word in my title. Did it get your attention? I’m almost afraid of what sort of traffic will be herded this way from a Google search, but such is life. If just one person from that search actually reads this post and agrees to go along with it, it’s something I have done to better the global community.
Here’s the dilly yo (I can’t believe I just used that one in a sentence either…totally unbecoming a woman on the dark side of her twenties, I know):
Lotus over at Sarcastic Mom has a great idea and I would like you, my following, to please consider joining Lotus’s
The gist of it is this; while taking a walk Lotus, trying to relax and find peace in nature, was instead rather overcome by the amount of filth and litter she saw scattered everywhere. She plans on taking her son and husband back to the place she was walking and they’re going to clean up the area. After a resounding approval from her commentators, myself included, Lotus came up with Project Support Beauty in Nature. So, in two weeks I plan to blog not only about how we try to do more for the environment in this house (dammit, that means walking out to the composter every day now…it’s not the twenty or so steps to the composter and back that get me, it’s the chance of encountering a garden spider *shuddercringeshudder*) but also about what we, yes I am committing you too Cabana Boy, will do to clean up our neighborhood environment a bit more.
I encourage you to do the same. For those of my readers who do not have a blog, but wish to have your efforts known both here and at Sarcastic Mom’s place, tell me what you do to support beauty in nature for the next two weeks. Leave a comment here and/or e-mail me your ideas/plans/actions/photos and I’ll be sure to post them here and send them on to Lotus. We can make the world a more beautiful place, but only if we aren’t afraid to try.
Today was fantastically perfectly gorgeous. Last night CB and I went out on the town for a night of revelry and a slightly early celebration of me living here for a month and us being together, in person, and still being just as smitten as we’ve been for over a year now, if not more so. He brought chocolate covered cherries (my absolute favorite), creme brulee (eating that probably in an hour or so), and Pecheresse, a really good peach beer that tastes like champagne. We made tandoori chicken and sauteéd zuchini, eggplant and mushrooms for dinner, put a serious dent in the chocolates and headed out to the city centre. We went to the Dreupelkot for some jenever and then to Trefpunt for a few beers. We stopped at a pita place (translation- greasy meat carved off a skewer accompanied by a side of fries and often topped with some sort of mayonnaise based sauce… I know, I know, but after 2 jenevers and 3 Belgian beers I am easily persuaded to stray from my healthy eating habits) and then headed home. Obviously that left little time to blog, but that’s what I was up to yesterday.
Today CB’s dad came over to work some more on the heating system and CB was helping so I headed to the city centre to run some errands and do a little personal shopping (woohoo). I stepped outside and into the most perfect almost-spring day I have experienced in quite some time. The sky was a water color shade of clear blue and the breeze was blowing just enough to keep the air fresh and cool. Everything was bright and cheerful and I strolled down to the bus stop smiling to myself and sorry that CB and his dad were spending the day inside covered in dust and paint fumes.
Once at the centre I stopped into Hema and got some household items then headed over to Yak & Yeti, a very very cool store with sort of a Nepalese kind of theme and got a new hat, earrings (I can wear those now, no kids around to yank them out) and a cool leather bag. I finished up with some groceries at Colruyt and GB and did some chores. All in all it was a nice, relaxing, beautiful Saturday. Much needed as I have an oral presentation this upcoming Thursday.
