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Ruprecht’s Magical Mystery Guest Post

April 28th, 2009 Lilacspecs 5 comments

Better late than never I hope, here’s the post Ruprecht sent me (on my Lilacspecs mail, hence the lateness…and then I forgot to schedule it to post, hence the uberlateness). I met Rupe through Plurk (although I no longer Plurk much myself although I do still occasionally tweet) and I think it’s great that he reads and comments here. He usually has a comment that is pretty much the opposite view of what the majority of the people who read here have, so I like to see what his input generates.

Rupe volunteered to blog in Lilacspecs’ absence.

Amazingly, she accepted.

Answer the items below. Extra points for originality. Winner gets a prize.

…………….. Ruprecht

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You’re standing in front of three garbage cans holding a sack full of trash. Which can do you deposit your load in? Explain.

There are three forks in the road and you have to get to your destination quickly. Which fork do you take? (You’re right – this IS a trick question. Answer carefully.)

There are three sides to a coin. Name’em?

The past you’ll forget, the present you might remember and the future holds the unknown. Where do want to go and why?

How long is a Chinaman?

If you can’t snow the snowman ….. what, then, do you do?

You lose three of your five senses. Which ones?

One, two or three? Explain.

Lastly: You can take three things with you. What are they and why?

To people who have noticed my extended absence: I’m almost ready to come back and start writing again. I had to just take a bit of time away from the computer and away from writing. But no worries! My brain has started pumping fresh material lately, so I think it’s just about time to get back to regular blogging.

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A Bit on Belgian Weddings…From an Actual Belgian

April 23rd, 2009 Lilacspecs 3 comments
Here’s a quite relevant post from a Belgian blogger known as Goofball. Goofball is, amongst other things, an interesting person, not only to bounce multicultural ideology off of but also as a person with more than a fair amount of knowledge in flemish culture. Obviously most Flemings know a great deal about their culture, but Goofball often goes out of her way to explain the meanings behind her culture and she’s often a terrific resource when I want to get facts straight or want to know more about certain culural aspects I encounter here. So on that note, here is another informative piece for you regarding weddings here in Flanders.
“Are you going to have the ceremony outside”
“2 wedding ceremonies, huh, what do you mean?”
What seems total obvious to me often causes confusion when I am chatting with some foreign friends. I think I might have an idea what a North-American wedding could look like for as far as the many foreign movies and series on tv.
I picture a church or a beautiful outside park or … with a minister (or anyone authorised to marry 2 people) waiting in front and a nervous groom with his groomsmen. Then music starts and multiple bridesmaids walk down the isle and the bride follows with her dad as last.
Belgian weddings aren’t fundamentally different. Yet we have one big contraint: the only legally accepted wedding is the “civil marriage” at the town hall executed by an authorised civil servant. If you want a religious ceremony….great, go ahead AFTER the civil marriage. But as church and state are seperated, Belgium only considers you as a married couple by that civil wedding. This dates back from the Napoleontic laws and is still a current rule in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Turkey, Argentina and Russia.
Each city can have its own regulations as when these civil weddings can take place. In Leuven for example you can marry on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. In the city I grew up, all weddings were on Friday afternoon with some rare exceptions on Saturday morning. As for the location: that is the wedding hall in the city hall (of the city one of the partners is registered?).
You must apply for your wedding at least 2 weeks in advance and maximum 6 months in advance (whereas you must book your wedding venue a year in advance on average!). Your ID, birth certificates and all other necessary documents get checked.
…and you must answer the question “will you exchange the rings then or later? ” , which is basically the question whether this is going to be your only wedding ceremony or not.

In the past all wedding applications were posted on a bulletin board in the city offices to make them public and enable anyone who’d oppose to this wedding to make an objection. Much to the chagrin of the old gossip ladies in town who’d enjoy such bulletin boards, this measure isn’t executed anymore. Our administrations have figured out there’s probably more modern ways to find out when a wedding is about to be fulfilled whereas these boards might not quite be as efficient anymore in a global world.

The actual civil marriage is a quite boring brief ceremony where in many cases only the wedding couple, their 2 witnesses and the close family show up. It’s not uncommon that the next wedding couple walks in already when the previous couple is leaving the room. Some cities have the courtesy to book a gap of 5 to 10 minutes in between 2 scheduled couples. In Leuven the wedding conveyer belt starts a new ceremoney every 15 minutes. You are officially not allowed to have a toast inside the city hall building because you need to move on.

As you might have noticed, this mandatory civil marriage lacks a tiny little bit the possibility to personalise the ceremony or cater your personal wishes and style.

So although the Belgian population is becoming ever more secular, a lot of couples opt for a second (religious) wedding ceremony, most often a catholic service in church. Weddings outside in parks etc are still quite rare. But having 2 wedding ceremonies is on the other hand quite common.
Since the legal requirement states that the civil marriage must take place before any other wedding ceremony and it’s not always easy to execute the 2 ceremonies on the same day, it’s quite possible to have couples that have their civil marriage a couple of days, weeks, more than a year before the other one. The big party with all invited guests usually takes place then the second day. Sometimes this is also done for practical reasons such as mortgage negotiations and fiscal benefits.
Anyway we had booked our wedding location and church 15 months in advance. That’s truly how you determine your wedding date in Belgium, not in the reverse order. Much to my relieve in January I heard at the city administration that there were still free wedding slots on our wedding day so we will combine both ceremonies at the same day.

…counting down!

Categories: Guest Post Tags:

The Dutch and The Steagles

April 22nd, 2009 Lilacspecs 3 comments

This one is coming ‘atcha via Bubblewench, a fellow Pennsylvanian, although she hails from the Portland area originally I believe. Probably the first thing that caught my eye about Bubblewench is that she loves pirates as much, if not more than I do. Also, I guess I’ll add here that Flemish Belgians speak Dutch but are Belgian, so CB is Belgian or Flemish (so that #3 doesn’t confuse anyone).
I’ve never done this ‘guest post’ thing before and honestly, I almost forgot. Then I remembered so here I am. So while Lilacspecs is in PA, planning for her wedding, you’re stuck with me.

Orignally (when I first lovingly volunteered for this) I had an idea. That idea was that I would write all about Lilacspecs home vs. My home. Or as the voices in my head kept saying: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles. who back in 1943 were known as The Steagles! (you can go research that yourself, I’m already educated in that area).

Ok, sounded great.. moved on.. and got grander.. so the voices said “Hey take that a step further!” and the grand plan was hatched (in my head).

Head came up with a plan.. remember how the Dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding was able to connect everything back to Greek? No matter what.. I could, no, I couldn’t… YES I should try to connect everything Steagles back to the Dutch! Why the hell not?

Sounds good huh? Sounded awesome for my first guest post ever. Knock em dead with my knowledge of NFL history!
Right off the bat I learned a few things quick..
1. I don’t know shit about NFL history except for the Eagles.
2. No amount of research (oh.. a good 2 minutes) would I be able to connect anything about the Dutch to The Steagles … because..

3. I don’t know shit about the Dutch except that sometimes they make Lilacspecs life a living hell, and some Dutchdude (hi CB) makes it a pure joy.

Oh crap. I’m screwed. So there’s me & my head trying to come up with something.
Here’s what I came up with.. all the things that ran through my head when I thought of Dutch
Little blonde boys… (LEGAL ones pervs!)
Dykes.. both kinds.. oh la la!! (Where do I stick my finger?)
Candy (and I have no clue why I make that connection)
Wooden shoes
Is Dutch the same as Netherlands?
Isn’t Dutch like Holland?
Dutch Oven (still giggling!)
Dutchie, ya know that song.. Pass the Dutchie.. right?
Do dogs bark in Dutch and cats meow in Dutch?
Damn, I don’t know anything ‘real’ about the Dutch

Besides just flat out entertaining myself with all that (Dutch Oven, hee..hee..snort.. snort), I still really had nothing. So I turned off the Head Google and tried the real one, and here the top 5 things I learned about the Dutch:

Boy I am a tardo… Holland IS the Netherlands, and Holland all at the same time! WHOA!  *ok, I lie, I did know that, I know EXACTLY where Amsterdam is*
I failed Spanish and German. There is no way in hell I’d ever try to learn Dutch. Holy crap Lilacspecs! How the  hell!
That awful movie Dutch back in 1991

The Dutch had really cool submarines in Royal Netherlands Navy. You know those dudes were underwater Pirates! Aarrrgggghh!! Glub glub glub….rrrgggh!

And there are about 200,000 results if you type in Dutch, I still don’t know shit about the Dutch
After that, I decided to just let it go, and do the best I can as a guest. It’s just space filler til Lilacspecs comes back anyway.

One dumb American’s thoughts and search on the Dutch (Dutch Oven, tee..hee..tee hee.. snort.. snort), hoping to find NFL glory and some damn Dutch connection to the Steagles.

Maybe some other time.

Categories: Guest Post Tags:

From Jientje

April 21st, 2009 Lilacspecs 8 comments
This post was written by Jientje, a Belgian blogger who also blogs in English, cooks fantastic meals from scratch and takes beautiful pictures. I don’t think I have ever met a more optimistic, cheerful person (in real life or via blogging). Anyway, Jientje sent me this post early on in the vacation but I had some picture downloading issues so it had to wait till I got back. Thank you Jientje!
Hey there, dear readers of Korie’s blog, AKA Lilacspecs. Allow me to introduce myself.
I’m Jientje. Okay okay wait. Here’s how you pronounce it: like the boys name Gene, followed by chu, Gene-chu, that’s how you pronounce my name, that’s what you wanted to know right?)
I’m the guest blogger for today. Let me tell you, I think that’s quite an honor!
She’s such a good writer, but you’ll have to settle for my scribbles today, okay?
I’m not even sure what I would like to talk about yet.
Oh well, I guess I’ll make it up as I go along.
I have not met Korie in real life yet, but I’m sure we will, eventually.
The things we have in common is that we both live in Belgium, we both love to blog, and our favorite color is purple. Oh, and CabanaMom is a friend of mine.
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Speaking of Belgium.
I know YOU heard of that tiny country somewhere in Europe, because of our blogs.
But to a lot of Americans Belgium is just a break between Paris and Rome on their trip to Europe. If they’re lucky they get to see Bruges and Brussels all in one day! And if you did an interview and ask about Belgium on their flight home, they would happily tell you our country is named Brussels!
Korie has been living here for over a year now. I have lived here all my life.
You know it’s funny sometimes. Some of the things she writes about are things we’re so used to that we don’t even notice them anymore.
I had no idea fall looks different here than it does in her home country?
I had no idea our country looks so BROWN?
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Her observations on the Santa’s dangling from balconies and windows all over the country at Christmas made me chuckle. I have to admit, they make ME smile too!
I so admire her determination in her struggle with our language as well as trying to ride the bicycle. Both of them, are SO complicated. But I know she’ll get there.

Belgium is a multi cultural mix, really. I guess we’re all still wondering what our true identity is.
Take a piece of France, a slice of Holland and a nibble of Germany, and you spice it with some Turkish and Moroccan flavors, and there’s your Belgian sandwich!
And all of that in a tiny country, about the size of Maryland!
To top it all off, we speak three different languages and a multitude of dialects. People in the North don’t speak the same language as those in the South, and even if they do there’s a fair chance they don’t understand each other because of a thick accent or a very different dialect!
So yes, I can imagine Korie getting confused from time to time yeah. Wouldn’t you?

Now I won’t go into detail about politics, because that’s even more confusing!
Getting official paperwork done is NOT a simple task here in Belgium.
But we Belgians like to think that it’s far worse in France!

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Life in Belgium is not that bad. Okay. The weather could be better. But then again, it could be worse! Blue skies and warm summers are something to be grateful for I’ll admit to that!
But you know what? You tend to enjoy it all the more …

Because of the multi cultural influences throughout the ages, we have a great cuisine.
We’re world famous for our chocolate, our waffles and our fries.

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Now, SPEAKING OF FRIES … You know there IS something I really NEED to get off my chest.
Fries, often referred to as French fries, are NOT French at all! In fact, if you go on holiday to France like I’m used to doing each year, you’d know that there is no such thing as French fries. The French don’t know how to make decent fries, for crying out loud! The closest thing they have to real Belgian fries are Mc Cain’s!! Now that is NOT the same thing, I’ll tell you!
It’s often the first thing we crave when we come back to Belgium, a good old steak with fries!
Belgian fries!!!
Oh well, all things considered, Belgium is not so bad.
Great people.  Like me?  ;-) AHUM …
Great food.
Great nature, and great cultural history. It’s beautiful.

At least …  I seem to think so!

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