Lilac Colored Glasses

This past Sunday I asked for people to leave any questions they might have for me in the comments. Well, two inquisitive people did (thanks ladies) and I’m going to start with the first ones from Dallas:

What things do you really love about living in Belgium?  How have you changed?  And if/when you move back to the states, what aspects of Belgian life will you take back and continue with you?

Hrm, ok. What things do I really love about living in Belgium.

• I love the ease of transportation- At first, having driven my own car everywhere from the time I was 16, I was more than wary of taking public transportation. The buses in Pittsburgh aren’t always clean or safe or on time and there is no metro system like in NYC or D.C. or Toronto. So I can’t say I was thrilled at having to take buses, trams and trains to get around. But now? I think it’s fantastic! Depending on the time of day it can get crowded, of course, but the trams and trains especially are a great way to avoid traffic and get to your destination quickly. The buses are usually very reliable and you can go practically anywhere using any combination of buses, trams and trains. Gent doesn’t have a metro, but after taking the one on Brussels on Monday, I was equally as happy with that form too.
• I love the appreciation for food – Belgium is Burgundian and there is value here in the quality and presentation of food. Cheeses, wines, beers, apperetiefs…these are all things I used to see as snooty (except for the beer…that I used to see as sort of low class till I moved here and Belgian beer made me snooty) but now I see them as a part of a nice meal. I have rarely had poorly cooked or low quality food when eating in a Belgian establishment (pita, kebap and late night fry shacks don’t count).
• I love the appreciation of culture and art – It’s relatively easy to find cheap or free art exhibits, at least in Flanders. Right here in Gent we have a museum of modern art (SMAK), a museum of classical art, a museum of “folk art” (het Huis van Alijn), the Vooruit which often hosts small bands or plays, a little museum with random art in the Patershol, the castle museum, and the Gentse Feesten (in July). There are often random sculptures,pieces of art or outdoor exhibits as well.
• I love the “oldness” – I love the twisty, turny cobbled streets and crooked stone trapgevels. I love the open markets in the squares of the towns and the golden dragon on top of the Belfort. I love the secret cloisters and hidden courtyards and quiet forgotten corners covered in moss and crawling with history.
• I LOVE the Kerstmarkt!! - Maybe I love this cause it’s such a new and novel thing to me, but I doubt it because I always loved Christmas time back home too (until they started marketting for it right after Halloween). I love the glühwein and hot chocolate and lights and warm little huts all lit up and full of different wares. It almost strikes me as Dickensian, though I couldn’t tell you why exactly. But I can’t wait for Christmas time this year (we may go to Cologne to see the biggest Kerstmarkt in the world this year).

How have I changed? Well, there’s that whole partially fluent in Dutch thing…and I actually enjoy riding a bike now. I do miss my car when it’s pouring rain or when we need some large groceries that can’t be carried by bike, but for the most part I really enjoy walking or biking for most of my transportation. I’m also much more careful with money, but I think that’s more from being unemployed than being in Belgium. I’m learning not to take certain things for granted. For example, I used to hate it when I’d go to a fast food place or a 7-11 and the person working there spoke really bad English. Now I think back and envy that person because they were able to get a job, even with shaky English. It’s a lot harder to do here. People really want excellent Dutch…or they want you to be an enthusiastic and super thorough cleaner, which I learned the hard way.  Not that I think anyone should half-ass it on learning the language of the country they are in, but I guess I never realized how many of my skills and interests were language based until I moved here.

If/when we move back to the States, what aspects will I take with me. Definitely I’d like to continue to bike and minimize using the car as much as possible. I used to think I’d want to live in the suburbs but I’d like to keep the closeness to town that we have here so that we could be waking distance from shopping and parks and the library. I’d also like to continue the environmentally friendly things we do here like compost and reuse shopping bags and use energy saving light bulbs and water saving toilets. And Dutch, of course. CB and I plan on speaking some Dutch at home if we move to the U.S. so that I don’t forget it and so that our kids can talk with all of their relatives in Belgium.  Sadly, most of the aspects I would want to take back with me are simply bound culturally to Europe and so we can’t bring them with us, but I guess we’ll do our best when/if the time ever comes.