Our trips to Paris and the Belgian coast

Hello everyone! As usual, the past 2 weeks have been crazy but very fun!

Let’s start with 2 weekends ago. Every other year in Brussels in August, an enormous "flower carpet" is set up in the Grand Place for a few days. Using nearly 1 million colorful begonias, the ground in front of the Grand Place is covered in flowers that are set up in patterns, and the display covers around 19,000 square feet. The first flower carpet was made in 1971, and due to its popularity, the tradition continues, with the flower carpet attracting a large number of tourists. On Thursday (August 12th), Jackie and I and her boys ventured down to watch them place the flowers – it was really cool and amazing how quickly they work! On Friday, Brent only worked a half-day so we could go see the Flower Carpet and pack for Paris. We have a habit of always being super stressed before any type of trip, so we’re trying to minimize that now. :-) We went down about 16:30 and even met up briefly with a friend named Bekah from a church we have been to. The flower carpet was really neat! We went up to the 3rd floor of a building in the Grand Place for a better view as well. See pictures at right – it’s hard to explain the Flower Carpet, but it was beautiful! That night, we tried a new Indian restaurant near our apartment (Spicy Grill) that Brent’s co-worker had suggested and it was delicious. After dinner, we went back down to the Grand Place to see the evening light and sound show with the Flower Carpet – again, very beautiful. It’s things like that that make us just love living in Europe – we have had so many cool experiences!

The next morning, we got up early and left for Paris by 9:00 am. The drive took about 3 hours and unfortunately is a very boring drive. The French countryside is beautiful, but there are no cities between Brussels and Paris, just flat land. We arrived at our hotel, checked in, and headed out to a French café to enjoy some amazing French onion soup. We had a gorgeous view of Notre Dame and our café was right on the river Seine. Almost as soon as we sat down, it started to rain, but we didn’t mind because we were sitting at a lovely café in Paris. After we finished eating, the rain had let up a bit, so we walked over to the flower market. A year and a half ago, I had bought a purple flowerpot from “La Maison de l'Orchidée.” I almost always had orchids in it in San Diego and we also brought it to Brussels. I had wanted to buy a French orchid to finally put into it, but the rain picked up again and neither of us felt like lugging an orchid back to the car. Instead, I bought another lime green flowerpot to match our purple/lime green theme at our apartment. :-) Next time though, I’m definitely buying an orchid!

After the flower market, we dropped the flowerpot off at the hotel, dried off for a few minutes, and luckily by then it had stopped raining. We walked from Notre Dame all the way over to the Eiffel Tower. We stopped along the way in the Jardin des Tuileries and rode on the huge Ferris wheel (La Grande Roue) that is only in Paris during the summer. What fantastic views we had from up there – and it was way cheaper than hiking up Notre Dame or going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe! It was really fun! On the way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped and got a baguette, some cheese, and a small bottle of wine to enjoy in “our spot” in the Parc du Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, where Brent proposed. Upon returning to the bench where Brent proposed, we learned that during the summer when the trees are all in full bloom, you can’t see the Eiffel Tower at all – he proposed in the winter when there were no leaves on the tree. Nevertheless, we still celebrated 11 months of marriage with some cheap French wine and delicious baguette/French cheese.

After our little picnic, we went back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner. We had picked out a few restaurants, but upon our arrival in Paris, we learned they were closed for summer holidays. We picked out a highly rated seafood place (Le Bar à Huîtres) instead, which was right next to our hotel. We enjoyed crab, lobster, shrimp, and French wine of course. After dinner, we were exhausted, but we decided to go look at Notre Dame at night. You know how much I love old churches! Notre Dame is my absolute favorite church too – it is just stunning. I love how it looks all lit up at night as well! As we got closer to the church, we noticed lots of people standing around and heard some noise. We joined the people lined up on the rail overlooking the river Seine, and noticed a parade of priests making it’s way towards us. We then remembered that the following day was Assumption Day. Since we’re not Catholic, we didn’t know tons about Assumption Day, but from what I understand, it is a Catholic holiday commemorating the death of Mary and her assumption into Heaven. There were tons of police offices guarding the priests as they marched into the church around 23:30. There was also a parade of people following the priests, some holding candles, and most of them praying. We saw that they were headed into the church, so I instructed Brent to get in line, keep a solemn face, and follow them! I wasn’t about to miss a midnight mass in my favorite church in the world – not that I had ever been to a Catholic mass in my life anyways though. ;-) We filed into the church and took a seat in the back, not knowing what to expect. Notre Dame is amazing at night – it was a bit eerie but also so cool to look up at the ceiling and into the stained glass windows in the dark. We stayed for part of the service, which was more of a prayer and worship time. There was a huge sheet/screen set up in the front of the church and they played a story mixed with a song – all in French of course. It was still amazing to be there though, worshipping with all of those people. Afterwards, we watched some late-night street performers in front of Notre Dame and headed back to the hotel well after midnight for some much needed rest.

On Sunday morning when we woke up, it was raining. We ate breakfast and thought maybe it would stop raining like the day before…but it didn’t. We decided to go see the Catacombs (a famous underground ossuary), since it is underground and away from the rain. We drove up to the Catacombs and discovered it was closed for Assumption Day. Ooops. I’ve been to Paris six times now and have never seen the Catacombs! We then decided to just take a driving tour of Paris since it was a Sunday and there weren’t a lot of people out on the roads. We drove over to the Eiffel Tower, over by the Louvre, and then headed back to Notre Dame for some lunch. We ate one of my favorite things, which sounds very simple, but I swear it’s good: a hot dog smothered in cheese, served in a baguette. Brent can vouch for these hot dogs – they are yummy! I think it’s mostly the French cheese and baguette though. By then, it was 15:00 and still raining, so we decided to just head back up to Brussels and come back again some time when the weather was nicer. Unfortunately it rained the entire drive back, but we made it back safely and were thrilled to put on some warm clothes and just curl up on the couch with some Thai soup. I think we were both a little disappointed that the weather wasn’t a bit nicer in Paris, but that’s the wonderful thing about living so close – we can always go back!

During the week last week, I mostly just hung out at the apartment and ran errands. I met up with Jackie a few times as well, which is always nice. Our weeks really aren’t super exciting – Brent works and I cook and plan our adventures. :-) I still am enjoying being “retired” as well – but I keep busy during the day! My pet-sitting business keeps me busy, as does trying to navigate grocery stores and research fun vacations and day trips.

Last weekend, we decided to head to the Belgian coast on Saturday to enjoy what was likely the last weekend of sunny and somewhat warm weather. We only live about 100 kms (~60 miles) from the beach on the North Sea…it’s just a very different beach from San Diego. We left around 11:00 am and what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive turned into a 2.5 hour drive. When the weather is nice, the entire country heads to the beach! We eventually got there though and parked ourselves on the beach. The water was probably only in the 60°’s, but we still hopped in the ocean. We definitely did not get in higher than our waist, but there were people out there swimming and surfing! We really enjoyed just laying on the beach, relaxing, and listening to the waves crash. We did do a bit of beach hopping as well. The Belgian coast is about 65 kms (~40 miles) long, so we decided to try out a few beach towns. We started in Blankenberge, then went to Zeebrugge, Knokke-Heist, and finally drove back down to Oostende. We really liked Knokke-Heist and Oostende in case any of you ever decide to take a trip to the Belgian coast. We ate dinner at a lovely new restaurant in Oostende. We stepped in because it looked decent, and it turned out to be amazing! We headed back to Brussels around 21:30 and again, enjoyed just curling up on the couch and watching some TV before bed. It’s really nice to finally be mostly settled in, in our own apartment and not live out of a suitcase.

On Sunday, we tried another new church and unfortunately, it also just wasn’t for us. Trying to find a church here has been exhausting and stressful to say the least. We know we won’t find anything as wonderful as what we had in San Diego, but we’re just looking for something we both feel comfortable with. As always, the people were very nice, but it just wasn’t the church for us. I think we’ll try 1-2 more, and then just make a decision. We have met some incredibly nice people though at various churches, which is encouraging. We spent the rest of Sunday running errands and preparing for the week.

This week, Brent is in the city of Leiden, Nederland. This wasn’t exactly a planned trip – he actually found out he’d be going while on a client call last Friday. Unfortunately, I was already committed to pet-sitting a cat, so I couldn’t go with him the entire week. I did spend Monday-Tuesday with him though. Leiden is actually a very cute city in the Netherlands, in between The Hague and Amsterdam. On Monday night, we discovered an amazing sushi restaurant (Oni) in The Hague – quite possibly the best sushi we’ve had in Europe! We didn’t really get to see much of The Hague because Brent worked a bit late. On Tuesday, I walked around Leiden during the day – see pictures at right. It’s a university town, so it’s quite fun with lots of people milling about. I wish I could’ve stayed with Brent all week (we’re still newlyweds and hate being away from each other!) but I had to return to Brussels to check in on the cat. I’m actually writing this on the train back from Leiden to Brussels!

This weekend, we’re hoping to drive to Luxembourg for the day on Saturday. It’s about a 2-hour drive – we’ll see how the weather is. The weekend after that, we have a dinner to attend in Antwerp hosted by the tax team from Brent’s office. And the weekend after that, we head to Croatia for our one-year anniversary!!! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since we got married – it seems like just yesterday! A few days after we return from our trip to Croatia, I fly to Atlanta to finish my clinical hours for graduate school. I finally booked my ticket to Atlanta and will be there September 17th-October 14th. It’s going to be a very busy 4 weeks as I just found out my big culminating project is due October 4th! My classes start this Saturday, August 28th – and while I am so excited this is my last semester, I am not quite ready to start up again. Just a few months though and I’ll be all done – and this semester should be a bit easier since I won’t be working full time!

Ok, that’s all for now. I will try to keep my blog updated at least 2-3 times/month while I am in grad school! :-)

Moving time!

So today is August 9th. That date might not mean anything to a lot of you, but if you look back at an invitation to our wedding, you’ll remember why it’s an important day to us! August 9th was our original wedding date – before Brent’s heart surgery surprise last summer. We will always celebrate August 9th as a reminder that God has a perfect plan for our lives and is in control of everything. I hope many of you will take a second to pause with us today and thank God for everything that happens in your life, even the bumps in the road that seem impossible to overcome – because those just serve as a reminder that God has something better planned. And in just 5 short weeks, we will celebrate our 1-year wedding anniversary! I vividly remember August 9th of 2009 – we took our engagement pictures that day in Atlanta – and it was extremely hot. Our photographer kept asking us to get closer and we didn’t want to because we were so hot! I know God had a better plan because September 13th was a much more beautiful, cooler, and perfect day for a wedding. ;-)

The past 2½ weeks since we’ve returned from Africa have been spent decorating our home, packing, and moving! I think we’ve been to Ikea and a few other furniture stores at least 5 times in the past 10 days. We had previously bought a TV, washer/dryer, mattress, and couch before Africa, but we just bought our bed frame, dressers, and curtains – so we’re still sleeping on the floor on a mattress, patiently waiting for our bedroom set to come in. Our bedroom is really bright – there is a HUGE window in it, so we can’t wait for our curtains to be finished! Brent and I had never had to buy curtains before, so we didn’t realize how expensive they could be.  Our window is 4 meters across our room (~12 feet) and 2 meters down (~8 feet) overlooks a big traffic circle in Brussels. It’s not very loud, but it’s very bright. Our beautiful purple curtains should be ready in about a week. Brent let me pick the colors to decorate with, so I chose lime green and purple. Our apartment is very open and white, so I wanted some bright colors – and he actually agreed! Don’t worry; the purple curtains are a dark purple – very manly. :-) We also are loving the views from our apartment and the awesome location!

Our boxes arrived last Friday, August 6th and we were VERY excited to get the rest of our stuff. We’ve been living out of suitcases since the first week of May, so we’re anxious to be all settled in to our new apartment – which will probably still take a few weeks, but we’re getting there.  Since I couldn’t find a few lime green and purple items I wanted, I sent my mom to numerous Targets and Ikea in Atlanta before she shipped our boxes. :-) Luckily she found everything I needed! Our apartment is really coming together – we just need some pictures on the walls now. So to solve that problem, we’re going to Paris this weekend! Paris always has cheap art vendors lining the river Seine – I can’t wait to find some big pictures to put up in our home! Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe this is real – I am living in Europe and get to go to Paris to find beautiful artwork. What a dream come true!

I have also started a pet-sitting business to help earn money and contribute to savings. So far, I have quite a few clients and it’s been fun! This past weekend, we watched an adorable Jack Russell terrier named Gus. His owners told me he barely barked and he was fine to be left alone. I left him alone for about 10 minutes on Friday to go let the FedEx man in and I could hear him howling all the way down on the ground floor outside. So we decided not to leave him alone. Luckily he is small and portable and loves being in the car, so it was no big deal. Oh, and Brussels does not experience extreme heat during the summer – we wear sweaters here – so Gus was probably cold in the car. I do miss the California sunshine and the beach! I’ve also been pet-sitting numerous cats at their own homes and I walk a dog named Sully about once/week. It’s a fun job and I get to make my own hours – I just hope I keep finding new pets to watch because we definitely rely on the extra cash!

So here are a few highlights from the past 2 weeks:

The Friday night after we got back from Africa (July 23rd), we were craving Mexican food so we went to Chi-Chi’s - yes, there really is a Chi-Chi’s in Brussels. I cannot recall ever eating at a Chi-Chi’s in the USA, but any sort of Mexican food in Belgium sounded good. Dinner was decent – it was very different tasting Mexican food, but it still satisfied our cravings. After dinner, we decided to wander around the Grand Place for a bit, which is the central touristy area of Brussels. We enjoyed an amazing piece of chocolate (which is one of our favorite things to do – taste new chocolates!), watched some street entertainers, and then wandered back through the Grand Place. We noticed a lot of people hanging around and wondered what they were waiting for. About 30 seconds later, the lights went dim and a really cool light and sound show started in the Grand Place. It was so awesome to see the lights reflecting in this huge square off of such old buildings – it was beautiful! We love stumbling upon things like this in Europe – it really made our night! And now we know that at 22:00, 22:30, and 23:00, there is a cool sound and light show on the Grand Place. Another reason to come visit us!

About a week and a half ago, a new American accountant from Brent’s company also moved here. Brent’s boss had told him when he accepted the job in March that she would be hiring another manager in their department and he has finally arrived! His name is Scott and his wife’s name is Jackie. They have 2 adorable sons as well, Will (3.5 yrs) and Beau (18 months.) We have hung out with them a few times and they are really cool! Jackie is a nurse as well. We even offered to babysit last Friday night for them because it was Scott’s birthday and we knew they wanted to go out and explore the city. The kids were very well behaved and we just hung out and played with them and decided we are still not ready for kids. ;-)

About a week ago, we decided to try a new sushi restaurant I had found in Leuven, which is about a 20-minute drive from Brussels. I had read there were a lot of restaurants in this one area of Leuven called the “Oude Markt”, so we decided to venture out and see the area. What a wonderful decision that was! Leuven is a really neat suburb of Brussels! The Oude Markt is a huge square with like 30 restaurants! We ate at a delicious sushi restaurant – we have finally found some decent sushi. It’s still nothing like our favorite restaurant in San Diego, but it’s much more similar. We were very happy campers – you know how we are with food. We had a really fun night wandering around in Leuven as well.

I apologize for not blogging for so long, but we did not have Internet at our new apartment for a few days and we have also been so busy with moving! It seems like every night, we have to run a few errands and by the evening, we are both exhausted. I have seen quite a bit of the city having to take the tram and metro everywhere during the day so that has been fun too. We’re very excited to go to Paris this weekend – we haven’t been back since Brent proposed to me there a year and a half ago. We’ll be celebrating our 11-month wedding anniversary there this weekend. :-)

As soon as we get our bedroom set, curtains, and a few paintings, I promise I will take some pictures of our apartment and post them! We still have a few boxes and random stuff lying around though, and I am a very neat and organized person, so I can’t have you all seeing our apartment unless it is spotless. Hope all is well stateside!

Africa!!!

Africa!

So we are back from our mission trip from Africa – our trip went by so quickly!!! As promised though, let me start with our 4th of July weekend, which feels like forever ago!

On Saturday July 3rd, we went to a patriotic celebration on the military base here in Brussels.  It’s not very often that civilians are invited on base, so we decided to go check it out and eat a hot dog.  It was a nice, big celebration, but we didn’t know anyone there so we only stayed about an hour. It was also very weird to be there, in the middle of Brussels, and hear everyone speak English. It was almost like we had reverse culture shock! We were exhausted that Saturday from a long day of shopping (remember there are only 2 sales/year in Belgium – one in July and one in January!) so we decided to go grab dinner somewhere and call it a night. On Sunday July 4th, we went to a 4th of July party at the huge clubhouse owned by the American Women’s Club of Brussels.  It was really fun! They had a huge barbecue and so much food! We actually know a few people from the American Women’s Club, so that was much better. We hung out at the clubhouse for about 2 hours, and then headed off for more shopping! Before we left for Africa, we bought a washer/dryer, couch, and a mattress. Since we’ve returned from Africa, we’ve bought a TV. Eventually we’ll have everything we need! :-)

The week before we left for Africa was crazy! We had to prepare, buy snacks, pack – and we also had to sign our lease, try to get our apartment situation squared away, and finish registering with the city of Brussels as residents. We were both very busy! We finally left on Wednesday, July 7th around 13:00 to fly to London to meet our team.  It was quite the ordeal dragging our packs and 2 trunks on the metro, then transferring to the tram, and then transferring again to a bus. Brent and I were in charge of bringing 30 soccer balls and 15 pumps, which filled 2 large trunks.

Here’s a side story about the soccer balls. On our drive back from Breda, we accidently made a wrong turn (boo GPS!) and while we were stopped at a light, I randomly turned around and saw a huge sports store in the middle of Belgium! We had not yet bought the soccer balls/pumps but we had planned on going to various stores around Brussels that weekend. Well, we stumbled upon the largest sports store in Belgium by making that wrong turn and purchased all of the soccer balls/pumps. It was definitely a God thing!

So back to the airport…we arrived at the Brussels airport with plenty of time because we had never flown out of Brussels before and didn’t know how long we’d need. We learned it’s a small airport…so we decided to eat lunch. While eating, a guy was walking around putting flashlights on people’s tables with a note. The note read “I am deaf and poor, please help by buying a flashlight.” Normally Brent and I would politely say “I’m sorry, but no thank you” but we decided we were on a mission trip and an extra flashlight couldn’t hurt on an island with no electricity! So we bought one and the guy was very happy. And of course, somebody on the mission trip’s flashlight broke and she needed that one. God really does have every tiny little detail planned out!

From here on, I am just going to take bits and pieces out of my journal to share in the blog. To give a little background information, Gethsemane Garden Christian Center (GGCC) is a Christian boarding school for children who come from dire situations on Mfangano Island in Lake Victoria. Many are orphans and watched their parents die, some have HIV, and all had essentially no hope before being enrolled at GGCC.  Our mission team from Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC is involved with the school.  Brent and I went on this mission trip to do HIV/AIDS education with other secondary schools on the island, while other members of our team held a pastors’ conference, built homes for widows, provided medical services, and various other service projects. GGCC is the main organization the church is involved with on Mfangano Island, but we go to witness to the entire island since GGCC is already an established Christian center. If you would like more information about GGCC, check out their website http://www.ggcckenya.com or blog http://ggcckenya.wordpress.com.

If you want to donate to GGCC, email me and I’ll let you know the various ways you can help this amazing foundation! So here is my journal…but it is only parts of it because I wrote about 50 pages in total. :-)

July 8th: So here I am again, 2 years later, back on Mfangano Island. Yesterday before we left Belgium, I had this overwhelming joy that I was going “home”, back where I belonged, back where God called me to serve Him. This year there are 12 of us on our mission team, including Brent and I. I went with 6 of the same people 2 years ago, so it was wonderful to see old friends! The excitement I felt when we arrived in Nairobi is indescribable. I could not wait to get to Mfangano Island. We collected 20 boxes, 5 trunks, and our luggage and headed to the smaller airport where we’d catch our Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane. The flight was a little over an hour – and we couldn’t see anything until we flew over Lake Victoria.  We did a low fly-over of the landing strip to clear the cows, donkeys, and children off of it, and to make sure it was safe. The landing was incredibly bumpy, just as I remembered. Immediately when I looked out the window, I felt a rush of joy I hadn’t felt in 2 years – seeing hundreds of kids run up to the plane to greet you is the happiest feeling in the world. It’s almost as if I could feel God patting me on the back, saying “thank you for listening to me Rachel – thank you for returning, this is where you belong.” The children just rush up to you right when you hop off: smiling, jumping up and down, and curiously staring. I must have hugged 50 kids in like 5 minutes…and it was hard to not cry out of happiness to see their beautiful faces again. After we made our way through the sea of children, we greeted Napthaly Mattah, the founder and head of Gethsemane Garden Christian Center. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met and receiving a big hug from him and finally introducing him to my husband was wonderful. We hung out by the school for a bit and eventually made our way over to camp.  After awhile, I asked some of the local women around camp where my baby Ashley was. (Ashley was a small baby 2 years ago and her mom used to always give her to me to hold. I held that baby constantly in 2008! In my journal from 2 years ago, I remember constantly praying for that adorable baby, asking God to bless her life.) I was looking forward to seeing Ashley as a toddler and giving her a big hug! The women told me Ashley died. It was like somebody had slapped me back to the reality that I was in Africa. I just kind of stared at the ladies in shock because in the western world, we are not used to babies dying. I didn’t know what to say to the women except “Oh wow - that is so sad.” But the mother said, “We rejoice in everything that God does, it is ok.” I guess now I will wait and give baby Ashley a big hug in heaven.  Dinnertime the first night was also a reminder of the millions of lake flies we would be spending time with while on the island. You eat your rice and beans and don’t look at what’s on your fork because you know you are eating flies…but it’s ok because you can’t taste them! There are constantly flies in your nose, eyes, mouth, ears etc at night. It’s hard to get used to, but by the end of the week, you barely notice them! We went to bed at 8:30 pm, because there is no daylight or electricity. We sleep in mosquito nets on thin mattresses, but we still get amazing sleep – except when I find huge spiders in my net! ;-) I am trying to just close my eyes and not look at the bugs and frogs in our cabin. It is so great to be back on the island, reunited with old friends, experiencing this with Brent, and enjoying the peacefulness in Africa. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for this week.

July 9th: It poured down rain last night – like a monsoon! I got up this morning and enjoyed my first icy cold shower. Luckily Brent was showering on the guys’ side at the same time, so we talked to each other through the walls – it somehow made the water feel not as icy. It’s amazing how quickly you can really shower when you’re freezing! Today we did a lot of training and unpacking in preparation for the 2 missions teams time here over the next month. In the afternoon, we walked up to GGCC to meet the child we sponsor – an adorable 12-year-old girl named Mary. She is very shy, but it was so great to meet her. The construction team was able to complete a widow’s hut today as well. We had a long day, but we are all ready and prepared to start work tomorrow!

July 10th: Today was a long day! At 7:30 am, we loaded up the boat with our team plus about 30 students/staff from GGCC to go over to another island to pass out tennis shoes from Samaritan’s Feet.  The other island is called Ringiti Island. Ringiti is an incredibly poor island, many people there are infected with HIV, numerous exiles live there, and the people there really need the hope that only Jesus can provide. It’s about an hour boat ride from Mfangano…and it’s not an easy boat ride as you’re in the direct sun, packed in like sardines, sitting on a wooden plank. Everyone always has a positive attitude though and the ride goes fast. When we arrived at the island, we saw numerous young children in tattered, filthy clothes, running around barefoot in garbage. We walked up to the local school to explain what we were doing there today. Brent and I were in charge of sorting shoes. There were 12 stations where we washed the children’s feet and shared the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in the bible. Each child was told about Jesus, was prayed for, and then given a brand new pair of socks and tennis shoes. These kids were ecstatic – they were running around, smiling, and showing off their feet. It took about 2 hours to hand out around 150 pairs of shoes. Afterwards, we all gathered to sing and pray. It was a wonderful celebration on Ringiti Island! We headed back to the boat in the afternoon, exhausted, and ready to head back to Mfangano. After about 40 minutes, the motor stopped! We were out of gas. The wind pushed us into some tall reeds, and the boat driver had to push us out and paddle us to the nearest beach to go buy more gas. At this point, we were all very hot, very tired, and had very sore backs from sitting in the boat for so long. We finally got back to camp and drank a lot of cold water! We spent some time praying, journaling, and enjoying God’s beauty. Brent and I led evening devotion. It’s such an amazing blessing being here, serving the Lord, and seeing how He is working on the island.

July 11th: Today we went to church at GGCC! The GGCC church is mostly student led and when we arrived, the students were all singing, which always sounds so beautiful. There is nothing more amazing than hearing 400+ adorable African children praising the Lord or seeing them cry out to God in prayer. Church lasted about 4 hours, and at the end they invited their American friends to come up and dance and sing with them. It was so much fun! In the afternoon, we did our first educational presentation to the GGCC secondary school kids on HIV/AIDS. It lasted about 2 hours, but the GGCC kids will be the most attentive of any on the island, so it was great practice. In the afternoon, we played with the kids – painted their fingernails, played “duck duck goose”, played soccer, etc. The kids are so much fun - I love being around them! After dinner, a few of us headed to Napthaly’s house to watch the World Cup final! Napthaly actually has a satellite and a TV and put up a huge projector for all of the children to watch in the yard. We were shocked that we would actually get to watch the game on Mfangano Island. There must have been 100 kids just crammed into his small living room and then another 100 kids outside, desperate to catch a glimpse of the game. It was so cool – and such a treat for the kids! By the end of the game, we were drenched in sweat and exhausted from being in such a crowded room, but we were so glad we went and had that experience!

July 12th: This morning we walked to Kakimba Secondary School to educate the students about HIV/AIDS. It was quite a long, hot walk to Kakimba! When we finally got to the school, the younger primary school kids all came running towards us and grabbed our hands – it was adorable. At the school, there were hundreds of students! They did not seem that interested in our presentation, but hopefully we impacted some of them. One boy in particular, a boy named Enoch, came up to Brent and I afterwards to ask us some questions. He really wants to go to university and asked us how he could do that. We tried to give him some helpful advice and then prayed with him. It’s so hard to see a young boy so desperate to go to university, yet he will probably never have that opportunity. I don’t know any other 18 year olds who are so excited to learn – so desperate to further their education. He told us his family laughs at him and doesn’t understand why he wants to go to university – but he told us he has nothing – no parents and no hope except to attend university. I pray he does not give up and I wish we could’ve helped him more – but in Africa, you can’t save everyone, you just give hope. Later in the afternoon, we went to Sena Secondary School to give another presentation. All 8 of us rode in the sole car on the island – an old, beat up SUV. Brent and I sat in the trunk and I now have a bruised tailbone! There are no such things as paved roads in Africa – just big rocks and bumpy rides. We were so grateful to get out of that car – never again will I complain about walking in the equatorial sun! The kids at Sena were much more attentive and it’s a smaller group. Brent’s part of the program is telling the bible story of Joseph and trying to encourage the kids to resist temptation, dream big, and never give up on God. He does such a wonderful job – all of the kids are very interested when he speaks. My part of the program is to review information about HIV/AIDS and field questions, since I am a nurse. They sure do have some interesting and tough questions! I was asked today if HIV came from the USA – if it was a disease Americans created to wipe out Africa. They truly believe that here! Afterwards, another student approached me and asked me “What if I have HIV and I want to get married and have children?” That was tough – I didn’t know what to tell him except to trust that God has a plan for his life and has a perfect wife for him. It’s encouraging talking to the children – yet it’s sad too. It’s so hard to give them hope but we do the best we can. We’re all looking forward to the rest of the week, doing more of God’s work. Even if we only impact and save one child’s life, it will be completely worth it – but I pray we get to party in heaven with these kids one day and that they become a light on this island!

July 13th: Today we went to Mauta Secondary School. Once again, all 8 of us piled into the car for an hour long bumpy ride to the school. The car rides are a bit scary at times – I am surprised at how fast Jacob drives and the size of the rocks we go over! At one point, we drove over a small creek and then up a big hill and I was sure we were going to die. :-) Once again, we were so relieved to get to the school and get out of the car! There were about 40 kids there and they were pretty attentive. When I presented, one of the kids asked me if you become a Christian, would God heal you of HIV? It’s hard to answer their questions! I think the students at Mauta are less informed about HIV and more sexually active…the school is a bit more remote. On the drive back from Mauta, about halfway back, we finally got a flat tire. We waited about 45 minutes in the hot sun for our driver Jacob to fix it. While we were waiting though, we played with some adorable kids that seemed to come out of nowhere when they saw us. These children barely had any clothing, had scabies, worms, and just looked malnourished – but they never stopped smiling. We also had a lot of cows and goats milling around us. We gave the kids some balloons and I’ve never seen a kid’s face light up so much! They squealed in delight and they also loved having their picture taken. We finally piled back into the car and headed back to camp, but not without the realization that God plans every mistake – and this time we had the opportunity to give 10 kids joy on the side of a road.

July 14th: Today our HIV/AIDS education team split up. Three team members went on a very strenuous hike with Napthaly to present at a secondary school on top of the mountain. Brent attended the pastors’ conference, and a few of us worked on service projects at GGCC. I went with Marybeth to talk to speak at the pastors’ conference in the morning. It was so encouraging that the pastors want to learn, but again so discouraging how misinformed the pastors are. We had a long discussion why mosquitoes don’t transmit HIV and if an HIV man should infect his wife. A pastor also came up to me and asked if Kenya made abortion legal if it would eliminate HIV. I had to defer a lot of questions to pastor Jim. It almost seemed like the pastors were making excuses to have sex – and many of them are married men. :-( We eventually left and walked back to camp to get some stuff to take to GGCC. The guards at camp had found a black cobra while we were gone – yikes! Marybeth has been involved in some research with an anti-malaria provector. The provector is a plastic flower-looking device that has an insecticide tab in the middle that attracts and thus kills mosquitoes.  It has been proven 90-100% effective in parts of the world where malaria is prevalent. Marybeth obtained about 70 provectors to put up at GGCC and in homes on the island. When we got to GGCC, we gathered all of the dorm parents together and educated them about the provector and why we were hanging them up. In June alone, over 100 students at GGCC got sick with malaria. We’re hoping to reduce that number to zero! I was so excited to get involved with this research project with Marybeth! I love community health evangelism and hope to come back with her in 6 months to replace the insecticide tabs and see if malaria infection is being reduced. I really hope the provectors work because these kids need a break from illness. We hung them up in the dorms and then headed back to camp to sort more shoes for Samaritans’ Feet for next week’s outreach. Later at evening devotion, we found out that the group that hiked up the mountain had a very successful trip and so many children gave their life to Christ! It was so neat to see how God split us all up today to further his kingdom on the island!

July 15th: This morning after breakfast, one of the women who helps prepare our meals asked me to see her son because he was sick. I listened to his heart rate, did an assessment, and felt he was extremely warm – I told her I thought he had malaria and he needed to go to the clinic immediately. I walked away, thinking it would be ok but then when I asked a guard if she would take him, he said she couldn’t afford it. I asked the guard how much it cost to go to the clinic and he said it was the equivalent of $1.80. Brent and I gave her $5.00 to cover all of her expenses – she was so grateful. It’s sad that kids are dying of malaria in Africa because they don’t have $2.00 to go to the clinic. I realize we can’t save everyone, but I hope Brent and I at least helped that family. Today, we traveled to Ouzi Secondary School today by boat – thank God we didn’t have an hour-long bumpy car ride! We took the boat to a small, dirty fishing village where the car picked us up to take us up the hill to the school. The presentation at the school went well – there were about 100 kids and they were definitely listening. Other questions we were asked were if circumcision prevents HIV and how effective condoms are. Such a tough subject! The program went well and I think the students were pleased we traveled so far to speak to them. We had to walk back down the hill because the car broke down and then when we eventually got on the boat, it was caught on a rock. The beauty of being in Africa is that nothing ever goes according to plan and nobody ever stresses about it – people are just so peaceful here. Today was a very long day! I love hearing at evening devotional about the other projects our team is working on – many widows’ huts have been built and pastors are being educated!

July 16th: Today was our last full day on Mfangano Island. We went to 2 secondary schools today: Nyakweri and Wakula. Both were only a short boat ride from camp and we had to do short presentations at both. At every school, we give the kids soccer balls and pumps as well – these 2 schools seemed particularly excited to receive new soccer balls. The programs went well today – I am kind of sad our time is coming to an end! We have educated nearly 1,000 secondary school students – we went to every single secondary school on the island this week! It’s amazing that we reached so many students, but I wish we could reach every student on every island in Lake Victoria…HIV is rampant in this part of the world and lives are at stake! Tonight, we had a big celebration at GGCC. The staff was so grateful to have missionaries here – they made us a big feast of rice, chicken stew, fish, bread, and fruit, which was a nice change of pace from the rice & fish we normally eat. Several groups of kids sung to us as well – they had a whole program prepared! We sat outside in a tent (and battled lake flies!) and watched hundreds of students and staff praising the Lord. It was so fun! I love being with the children at GGCC…and I am so sad to leave them tomorrow.

July 17th: We packed this morning and headed over to the airstrip to wait for the plane that was bringing the second team from Calvary. It was so sad to get on the boat and watch the camp disappear from site…all of our Suba friends from camp waved goodbye to us! We played with the kids at GGCC until the plane arrived and then the emotions set in. I was crying so much I could barely speak while hugging Napthaly, Bill & Debbie, and Marybeth goodbye. We’ve had such a great time and I’ve shared so much with these people on the past 2 mission trips I’ve been on to Mfangano Island. It’s a bond that nobody else can understand and they hold a special place in my heart. Everyone was crying – it was such an emotional day! We finally boarded the plane as the team went back to camp. The kids all went running down the runway back to the school and we just sat there on the plane, trying to compose ourselves. My consolation is I know I’ll be back. I left a part of my heart on this island 2 years ago and I know God has called me here for a reason. I always dreamed when I was younger of becoming a missionary and now I am. God doesn’t call the qualified - He qualifies the called. There’s a reason God called me to be a nurse – he was qualifying me to be a missionary. Brent is so supportive of my heart for missions as well and he has proven himself to be an amazing missionary! I know he’ll be sending me back too, even if he can’t come. :-) We finally took off and watched the island disappear in the distance. Arriving in Nairobi was bittersweet. Of course we appreciate warm showers and food besides fish, but it’s hard being back in civilization. We rested the rest of the day in preparation for a long day in Nairobi tomorrow.

July 18th: We went to Nairobi Baptist Church today and enjoyed a great sermon. NBC is a beautiful big church in Nairobi and I get the feeling there are always a lot of missionaries coming through. It was nice to worship in English. After church, we headed to Nyumbani orphanage. All of the children at Nyumbani are HIV+ and have been cast out by their family or orphaned by their parents dying of AIDS. The kids range in age from 3-24 and there are extensive clinic facilities on site. The kids go to school during the day and live in dorm-like homes. We were there to play with the kids for a few hours and enjoy lunch with them. The children are adorable and outgoing! We split up and we all ate lunch with a different dorm. While I was asking a girl about her favorite movie, she rushed to the bathroom because she was sick – and it all became very real that these innocent children have HIV. I remember thinking how unfair it was that not only do they have HIV, but they have no families. Nyumbani is a wonderful place though – they take care of these kids and make sure they get the proper medications. We had a good time playing with them and encouraging them. I hope they all live long, happy lives!

July 19th: Our last day in Africa was our “free” day! We all decided to pay and go to Nairobi Game Park in the morning to go on a mini-safari! We spent about 4.5 hours driving around the park and saw lions, giraffes, zebras, gazelle, water buffalo, impalas, rhinos, ostriches, monkeys, crocodiles, impalas, etc. It was so cool and very exciting – especially when the rhinos were running at us and when an armed guard had to escort us to see the crocodiles! :-) It’s always nice to have a day of relaxation on the last day with your mission team. We spent the afternoon driving around and did a little shopping, and then we headed to the airport to fly back to London. I think at this point, we’re all exhausted but sad to leave each other. We took an overnight flight to London where Brent and I said goodbye to our team on July 20th. I know we’ll see these amazing people again though! What a wonderful, amazing, life-changing trip we had!

So that’s it! I only took bits and pieces out of my journal, but we had an amazing time. I truly wish everyone could experience Africa – God is doing great things there. We thank you all so much for your love, support, and donations for our trip! Brent and I spent 2 days in London after Africa seeing some sights and relaxing. Wednesday, July 21st was a Belgian holiday so we decided to stay overnight in London. We enjoyed some delicious Indian food, saw Big Ben, watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, toured Westminster Abbey, walked a large portion of the city, and enjoyed shopping at some familiar stores with everything in English! We also enjoyed a bug-free hotel room with running water and electricity. :-) We move into our apartment this weekend in Brussels, so we are very excited about that. I’ll blog again later this week, but I think I typed enough for now!

Off to Africa!

Hello everyone! I apologize for not blogging for almost a week, but we got back to Brussels and had a LOT to take care of before our mission trip to Africa. I promise I will tell you all about 4th of July weekend in Brussels and our Africa trip in a few weeks when we get back! And I hope everyone stateside had a wonderful holiday weekend! :)

So here's our itinerary: today (July 7th), we fly to London and meet up with our team. They've already been traveling for 18 hours as I write this while we're still packing in our apartment, so I am sure they're exhausted! We fly to Nairobi tonight at 8:00 pm London time (3:00 pm EST) and we arrive in Nairobi at 6:00 am Kenya time! Pray we get some sleep on this flight! We then transfer to a smaller airport where we fly to Mfangano Island! We'll be on various islands in Lake Victoria for 9 days, then we spend 3 days in Nairobi visiting churches/hospitals, then we return to London on the evening of July 19th. We arrive in London on July 20th at 6:00 am.

Brent and I are spending the night in London on July 20th because July 21st is a Belgian holiday - so we're excited to spend 2 days exploring London! When we return to Brussels, we only have to spend 10 more days in our corporate housing apartment and then we finally get to move in and start to really settle in here.

Expect a long blog post in about 2 weeks! :) Please pray for us and our mission team over the next 2 weeks - I am SO incredibly excited Brent finally gets to experience Africa and the amazing work God is doing on Mfangano Island!

Until later.....

Amsterdam!

Last Friday afternoon, when Brent got off of work, we headed up to Amsterdam for the weekend! Amsterdam is about an hour drive north of Breda. We stayed at a hotel called the Moevenpick Hotel, which I scored a great price for off of Priceline – and it was a very nice hotel! It was about 2 kilometers from the city center (Dam Square) but that was an easy 20-minute walk – and we walk everywhere! On the drive up, we did spot a few windmills, but I didn’t have time to take any pictures. Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful drive…just very flat and green. We arrived in Amsterdam around 18:00, parked our car outside the city (Amsterdam is not very car-friendly) and took the tram to our hotel. We quickly checked in and headed out to meet some friends for dinner! I have a friend from high school (Jonathan) who has lived in Amsterdam for 2.5 years and then another friend (Erin) who was traveling through Europe for one of her grad school classes. We were all on swim team together at Norcross High School. I hadn’t seen these friends in years, but Jonathan and his wife Jennifer were so welcoming and it was great to see Erin as well! Jonathan and Jennifer also patiently answered all of our random questions about living in Europe. :-)

On Friday night, the 5 of us went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant (Puri Mas) and enjoyed what is called a rijsttafel. A rijsttafel is a Dutch word that means “rice table” and it is an elaborate meal adapted by the Dutch from an Indonesian feast. A rijsttafel consists of many side dishes served in small portions, accompanied by rice prepared in a few different ways. Since Brent and I love Indonesian food, we were in food heaven.  It’s a great meal to enjoy with a group and the food was so flavorful! We also tried a few beers that I was never a fan of in the USA (Heineken, Guinness) but Jonathan and Jennifer insisted beer tastes fresher here in Europe – we were both pleasantly surprised. Beer really does taste different over here! After dinner, we headed over to Leidseplein (Leiden Square) to catch the end of a World Cup game and just hang out. It was so fun to catch up with old friends and enjoy Amsterdam together – what a great evening!

Brent and I decided to walk back to our hotel from Leidseplein because Brent had never been to Amsterdam before. I told him he needed to experience Amsterdam at night because it’s crazy! We headed back to Dam Square, split another beer, and then wandered over to the Red Light District. The Red Light District was full of guys, tourists, and gawkers like us. :-) It’s always entertaining to walk around the Red Light District in Amsterdam. At night, Amsterdam really has a very distinct smell to it – Brent is convinced we probably were high just walking around for an hour…I think he’s crazy. Anyhow, Amsterdam is a very cool city at night – the people watching is amazing, it is always crowded, and it’s just a really neat city.

Saturday morning we slept in – Brent had a long week at work and I always love to sleep – and then we headed out on foot to explore the city some more. I was super excited because the sun was shining and it was warm! I even got to wear a sundress. We walked over to the floating flower market (Bloemenmarkt), although it’s really not floating – just happens to be on a canal. I love all of the canals in Amsterdam! It’s a very pretty city when the sun is out and everyone is boating out on the canals! We wandered around the flower market, enjoyed some great sandwiches for lunch, walked around the shopping streets, and then went back to the hotel to change. We wandered around the city for about 4 hours, which was really fun! We hung out at the hotel for about an hour, and then headed back out for dinner and to watch the USA vs. Ghana game! We ate dinner at a restaurant called Sushi Me. Sushi is different in Europe, but it’s still good. In fact, it’s probably healthier because it’s essentially just fish and rice – no high-calorie spicy mayo sauce, no crunchies, and no cream cheese. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d do anything for a Pink Roll from RK Sushi in San Diego right now, but we have to make do with what is offered over here. ;-) Dinner was actually quite good and definitely gave us our sushi fix.

After dinner, we wandered over to a bar called Coco’s Outback Pub to watch the USA game with my friends. The bar was packed out with Americans! I was surprised how many people showed up – and a bit jealous too since we haven’t made many friends in Brussels yet. Granted, we’ve spent more time in the Netherlands than in Belgium, so that could be why. Oddly enough, a guy that Brent had talked to on the phone while still job-hunting in the USA is friends with Jonathan, so Brent got to meet this guy he had talked to forever ago while looking for a job. Small world! This guy was very happy that Brent had found a job with PWC as he also works for PWC. The way Brent found his job was through major networking – he talked to about 8-9 people overall, each one giving him a different name/number of someone in Europe to call until Brent eventually talked to a girl who was leaving her job and said she would give Brent’s resume to her boss. Lo and behold, that is how Brent got his job in Belgium. He was extremely persistent and whenever he talked to anyone in Europe, each person almost always said, “Oh, you should try this person, maybe they know of a job opening!” Anyways, the guy in Amsterdam was near the beginning of the chain of people Brent talked to and he was a very nice guy. Ok, so back to the game! It was really fun to watch the game with such a large group of Americans! Even though the USA lost, we had a really good time talking to everyone and meeting new people – watching the World Cup in Europe is a really cool experience.

While at the bar, we met a really cool couple that is friends with Jonathan and Jennifer and after the game, they invited us out on their boat for a bit to ride around the canals. It was super cool of them to invite us when they had so many other friends there! So the 6 of us headed out on their boat. It was so beautiful being out on the canals at night in Amsterdam – and so cool seeing the city from that perspective! We went all over the city; it was a very pretty night with a full moon, the water was like glass, and there were even swans out! We really liked just talking with friends, cruising around, and looking up at all of the people out in Amsterdam. Afterwards we thanked Jonathan and Jennifer for such a wonderful time in Amsterdam and assured them we’d be back. We really had a great experience because of them and their friends! Brent and I walked back to the hotel again after the boat ride – it was a really nice night and it was a fun walk. I think we walked like 15 kilometers on Saturday, so it was nice to finally get back to the hotel and sleep!

Sunday morning, we headed out for more exploring, but this time we had more of a plan. We ate breakfast/lunch at a place called Pancake Bakery. The Pancake Bakery boasts more than 75 different kinds of pancakes and omelets. We got there right after they opened at 12:00, so luckily we only had to wait a few minutes to be seated. This restaurant gets pretty packed out! The pancakes are more like crepes, but they were delicious. I had a pancake with ham, cheese, and pineapple in it; Brent had a pancake with bacon and apple. They had yummy maple syrup jugs on the table too – which obviously didn’t taste good on mine, but it was great on Brent’s! I highly recommend the pancake bakery if you’re ever in Amsterdam! After lunch, we wandered around the city some more and we went on a canal boat tour at 15:00. The canal tour was really cool and we got to go all over Amsterdam. I took tons of pictures, see column on right. I loved seeing the city from the water – Amsterdam has a lot of old churches, crooked houses from the canals, and there are flowers and bicycles everywhere. Everyone has a bike here and it’s basically the only way to get around. I wish more cities were like that – I have really enjoyed not having a car in Europe! After the boat tour, we went to the Anne Frank house. I think this was my 3rd trip to the Anne Frank house, but I always love it and Brent had never been. It’s just fascinating and so sad that she spent all of that time cooped up in that house and then died a month before the liberation. The Anne Frank house is the only museum we went to in Amsterdam, but it is my favorite. We spent about an hour touring the house/museum and by then it was about 17:30, so we headed back to the hotel to get our bags. We dropped our bags at our car and then took the tram back into the city to eat dinner before heading back to Breda. We ate at an Argentinean restaurant (there are tons of Argentinean restaurants in Amsterdam!), took the tram back to the car, and headed back to Breda. We had a really great weekend in Amsterdam – it was so fun walking all over the city, shopping, going out on boats on the canals, spending time with friends, trying new restaurants, and just hanging out in the sunny weather. When you all come visit us in Brussels, we’ll take you to Amsterdam – it’s only about 2 hours by train. :-)

So now it’s Wednesday and we’re in Breda. Monday was fairly uneventful, I hung out at the hotel most of the day, caught up on emailing, and did some preparing for our Africa mission trip next week! Tuesday, I had to rent a bike to go into town to do laundry, which was not so fun. The laundry made the bike heavy and then I had to sit there and wait for the laundry, which was kind of boring. Plus trying to figure out how to actually do the laundry was interesting because the instructions were in Dutch. I think Brent and I are both very ready to get back to Brussels in 2 days. We have a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our Africa trip – we leave one week from today!

I can’t believe we’ve already been living in Europe for a month – time sure does fly!

June 24th!

In honor of June 24th (which is a day to celebrate!), I want to thank all of you for your never-ending prayers, support, love, and encouragement one year ago today. I would not have made it through last summer without you all and Brent definitely needed those prayers. I have to specifically thank Chris & Kelly Reynolds for sitting with me at the hospital that day – I am not sure I would have stayed sane without them by my side – I love you guys! Looking back, I can say I have started to see why God planned it all out like that - our wedding day was perfect and it wasn't 100° outside. :-) Plus what Brent and I went through made us so much stronger as a couple - and we really sought out our dream to live in Europe...and here we are! So thank you for loving us and being there for us on June 24th, 2009 – and might I add I am very glad it’s 2010 and last summer is behind us!

Now on to 2010 and our current adventures!

There hasn’t been too much excitement in Breda. Brent is currently working with a client which is a big American fashion corporation – without saying their name, I'll just say they own a few big brands, one being a large clothing company with well-know underwear/bra ads. He informed me yesterday there are very racy pictures all over the office of half-naked men and women…very large pictures too, like floor to ceiling. It sounds like an interesting work environment. He is working somewhat long hours, but he’s usually back to the hotel by 19:30, so that’s good.

On Tuesday evening, we had to drive back down to Brussels to finalize our apartment plans. We did finally pick out an apartment! We can afford it, but it is slightly out of our original price range, so click on the ads on my blog please...I think I get like 0.50¢ for click. ;-) The reality is I will need to find some sort of job and work at least once/week, which is fine because I will be bored in a few more weeks anyway. So far I have posted ads for babysitting and pet sitting – I have no idea how to go about getting a nursing job here. Since I do not speak French or Dutch, my job opportunities are quite limited. We do however love the apartment we picked out! It’s in a great location – there is a metro stop right out the front door of the apartment building and it’s only about 5 kilometers from Brent’s office. It also comes with an oven, dishwasher, washing machine (no dryers here, only clotheslines), parking spot, small storage cellar, and cool view of Montgomery circle. We’ll be on the 2nd floor (which they call the 1st floor as the ground floor is zero.) The walls are all painted yellow, so it makes Brussels seem a bit brighter as well. The deciding factor for the apartment is that we can walk everywhere due to the great location and it really is a beautiful apartment. I wish it was about €200/month cheaper, but we had to make a decision and the apartments that were cheaper were a bit…cramped. We’re happy with our decision and we’re very confident God will provide me with some sort of odd job to make up the difference. If not, rest assured we’re still in excellent shape with our budget – Brent’s a finance nerd after all! I think it’s also important to mention that as we were standing outside the building taking a picture of the exterior of the building, we noticed there’s a cardiology group in the ground floor of our building – there are 3 cardiologists with offices directly below our apartment. Who knows if any of them will end up being Brent’s cardiologist, but it is still kind of ironic. I’ve certainly never lived in an apartment with a large medical office on the ground floor!

So Tuesday night, we headed back up to Breda. I have spent a lot of time the past few days emailing back and forth with our apartment agent and still tying up loose ends in the USA. Whenever Brent gets home and asks me what I’ve done all day, I always wonder where my days go. I feel like there are always things to be done though – important things like watching the Bachelorette online. ;-) Although, I do sleep until 9:00 – and while I occasional feel lazy, I spent 3.5 years in San Diego getting up at 5:30 – so I figure it’s ok for now as I’m just catching up on years of lost sleep. :-) We have found that in the Netherlands, there are a lot more TV options – there’s the Discovery channel, National Geographic, and Animal Planet in English (with Dutch subtitles) in addition to BBC channels. There are about 6 English-speaking channels here! Sometimes I think it’s nice not having the TV on all the time, other times we’re bored and enjoy watching an old episode of the Deadliest Catch or Monkey Island. It’s truly amazing what you’ll watch on TV when your options are so limited. If only Netflix would get with the program and stream movies online outside of the USA!

So today we are celebrating the fact that Brent is one-year post heart surgery by going out to dinner. Tomorrow after Brent finishes work, we are headed up to Amsterdam for the weekend and we will be meeting up with some of my swim team friends from high school as well! One friend lives there, the other is visiting. I am so excited to go to Amsterdam – and it’s only an hour drive from Breda too! So in honor of June 24th (or whatever day you are reading this), I hope you all celebrate life and remember to always thank God for your health…and maybe throw in a prayer that God will continue to watch over Brent’s heart for many, many years to come! ;-)

Rotterdam, back to Brussels, and now Breda!

Last Monday, we headed up to Rotterdam (in the Netherlands) for a few days. Rotterdam is about 150 kilometers north of Brussels and is the largest port in Europe! Rotterdam was a very cool city, and walking along the water really reminded me of San Diego – except it was only like 50°F. Brent had some big business meetings/trainings in Rotterdam with a lot of tax partners from the USA, all over Europe, and Africa. I think it was kind of a big deal he was invited because he is a manager and everyone else there was a partner. His boss wanted him to network and meet people.

We wandered around Rotterdam Monday night and finally decided on dinner at an Italian place. We stayed at a very nice Novotel about 4 km outside of the city center, so we had to take the very expensive metro (€4.90 roundtrip) into the city. We only then learned parking is much easier in Rotterdam than most cities in Europe so we wished we had driven. Parking in most cities in Europe is near impossible – we’ve had a few frustrating nights driving around looking for parking and cursing ourselves for not taking the metro! Tuesday was not very exciting, so not much to say about Tuesday. Brent had business meetings all day and a big dinner at night, so he was gone all day. I spent the day hanging around the hotel, catching up on some TV online, and finishing up a few things we never took care of before we left the USA. I ate dinner at the hotel – it was neat because the hotel restaurant had these little cubby tables where you could listen to a headset and watch TV while you eat dinner – they must get a lot of solo travelers.

Wednesday I set off on foot to go explore Rotterdam. It was about a 4 km (2.4 mile) walk into the city center, but it was a very beautiful walk along the water! When there was no wind and I could feel the warm sun, I thought for a second I was in San Diego walking along the harbor. As much as we wanted to move to Europe, I think we both miss San Diego a lot. Don’t get me wrong, traveling all over Europe is so amazing – but San Diego is our home, where we met, where we both spent our post-college years, and we left some close friends behind.  So feeling like I was back in San Diego for a second while walking in Rotterdam was bittersweet. Ok, back to reality. So I walked down to the main part of the city, ate a delicious sandwich, and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Brent so I could show him the beautiful views of the city. Walking 5 miles/day is tiring – but good for weight loss! I need some better shoes though. The problem is, in the USA, I felt completely comfortable running errands in exercise shorts/pants, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. In Europe, you can’t wear your exercise or comfy clothes out anywhere without getting weird looks. I know I’m clearly not Belgian and everyone knows it anyway, but I still don’t want to stick out – so tennis shoes are a huge no-no. Walking 5 miles in flats or sandals is not always fun.

When Brent returned from work on Wednesday, we headed back out to Rotterdam, this time via car. We took some pictures (see column on right), admired the city, and decided on dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We miss Mexican food and sushi. You can find “Mexican” food and sushi here, but we have yet to find anything similar to what they’re serving in the states.  Brent ordered a burrito and it had some sort of minced meat, zucchini, baby corn, and carrots inside of it. It was kind of like a weird stew wrapped up like a burrito. When he gave me a bite of it and I saw the baby corn sticking out, I realized we probably shouldn’t get our hopes too high about Mexican food in northern Europe. ;-)  After dinner, we walked back to the car, discovered a parking ticket (it’s impossible to know where to park and how much or when you need to pay if you can’t read Dutch!), and headed back to Brussels. The drive from Brussels to Rotterdam is very flat and green, much like the Midwest USA.

Thursday was pretty low-key, I did some grocery shopping, got a Belgian cell phone number (yay!), and did a few other errands. Brent worked. :-)We’re still apartment hunting, so I spend a lot of time looking for apartments. I do have to say though, there are certain items that I can find in grocery stores here that I will be bringing back to the USA. A can of Thai green curry sauce for €1.00 = awesome. Such an easy meal, just add chicken and veggies! And it’s way better than my homemade curry sauces. Another item is the pre-made but not yet baked baguettes - you can keep them for like a month, pull them out of your pantry, bake one for 6-8 minutes, and voila, fresh baguette! Yum! On Thursday evening, Brent and I went out for a walk to see the locations of some of the apartments we had been looking at and see what was in the area. We discovered an area near the Georges-Henri metro stop that we really liked – lots of cool cafes, bars, and restaurants. The Georges-Henri metro stop is about half a kilometer from where we want to live, by Montgomery Circle. We really like the Montgomery Circle area. We left for our walk at like 21:30 – and the sun was still shining bright, which is very confusing for your body. We ended up walking 5 miles – but this time in tennis shoes, phew!  When we got home close to 23:00, it was finally dark…normal people don’t walk that late at night, but everyone was still out and about. Again, I’m dreading the short winter days!

Friday was apartment-hunting appointments, round 2. The agent that PWC assigned us (her name is Annekien) made appointments for me from 11:00-19:00. I spent 8 long hours looking at apartments, all by myself. But let’s start with Friday morning! Brent and I are going to Africa on a mission trip in about 2 weeks. We did not get yellow fever vaccines in the USA because the vaccine plus a doctor’s visit was about $200 each, and we had to pay for part of our mission trip, so we try to save money wherever possible related to the trip. While we were still in the USA, I suggested to Brent that we not pay $400.00 and wait to see how much yellow fever vaccines cost in Belgium. Since I am a nurse and Brent is a life-long patient, we are very impressed with the healthcare in Belgium. We did not have an appointment at the clinic we went to, so we got there early, expecting to wait a few hours because that is what we are used to in the USA. We waited about 15 minutes. Sweet! We then spoke with a very nice Belgian doctor who very thoroughly went over travel precautions with us for where we will be in Africa, asked us a few questions, and then handed us over to the nurse for our vaccine. We were in and out of the clinic within 1 hour, with no appointment. Here is the best part – the yellow fever vaccine was €16.00 ($20.00) each. We saved $360.00 by waiting to get our vaccines in Belgium and the whole process was so simple! Brent and I were like in a happy state of shock about how amazing healthcare is here. I couldn’t stop talking about it all day. I think the reason government-run healthcare works so well in Belgium is because it is a small country, but boy do I wish the USA could get it together like this! When we told the doctor and nurse how much a yellow fever vaccine + consult was in the USA, I am sure they thought we were lying. I promise you they did not believe us that it was so expensive. Anyways, we were very happy campers after our clinic trip!

Ok, on to “House Hunters International”, Weinberg Belgian edition, part 2. If any of you have seen that show on HGTV, I can guarantee you it’s impossible to pick a house out in one day in a foreign country, and with only 3 options. I think they really look at like 15 and only show the top 3. Things are so different here – we definitely have to make some trade-offs. I won’t bore you with the details of all of the apartments I saw, but instead give you some highlights. I saw one apartment with a guest room included on the ground floor…no idea why, but this particular apartment had a separate bedroom included in the price on the ground floor. Unfortunately it was on a very busy street and was in like a 110-year-old building. The apartment was beautiful, but I already lived in an old house in a loud area – it was cool, but I want something a little more modern now. Another apartment I saw had a small balcony, and when I opened the door to look at what I thought was a storage closet in the balcony, I discovered a toilet. Yes people, there was a small, fully functional extra toilet outside on the balcony. I have no idea why it was there, neither did the real estate agent, but man I wish I had taken a picture! One of the other apartments I saw was also very nice, but the outside of the building looked like a hospital. Overall on Friday, I again walked 5+ miles in my flats, but did have some success in the apartment search. I found one apartment I liked, but we’ll get to that later.

The most exciting thing that happened on Friday is my lunch and our dinner. In case you can’t tell, Brent and I are foodies. We love to try new things, I love to cook, we’re very adventurous eaters, and we love food. Who doesn’t? :-) On Friday for lunch, I wandered into a place that I believe was called Food Concept, near Georges-Henri metro, also where I was looking at apartments. It was just a simple sandwich/deli type restaurant, but it was a great find. Ok realistically, it was probably like every other sandwich/deli shop in Brussels, but it was the first one I found. I know you are picturing a Subway type place, so stop that image and instead imagine a cute little café that serves cheap French food. I enjoyed a delicious smoked-salmon Panini that came with a small side-salad for €4.50. Oh and by the way, Belgians don’t tip – for anything. Not having to tip is amazing. When you see prices for a meal, you add that up and that’s what you pay. When you see a price for a haircut, that’s the whole price. In our minds, it makes things cheaper, but we all know the service charge is already included in the price. I just like it better that way. Ok, back to the sandwich. It was delicious and the perfect amount of food. I didn’t feel stuffed or groggy, I felt healthy and happy. :-) I also realize part of the reason I thought this sandwich place was amazing is because I love smoked salmon. I LOVE that smoked salmon is available everywhere here, prepared in so many different ways, and so cheap. I cannot wait to take Brent back to Food Concept for lunch sometime!

For dinner on Friday, we went to a place in the same area where I had lunch and near where we had walked to on Thursday night. I had read about an Italian restaurant called Mare E Monti (which means Sea & Mountains in Italian) so we decided to try it out. It was fantastic! It is definitely our current favorite restaurant in Brussels – which I am sure will change, but we certainly were excited on Friday night. After dinner, we enjoyed a delicious crepe topped with chocolate and cherry ice cream, headed home, and called it a night. We did mention on the way back to our apartment though that we would love to curl up on the couch and watch a good movie. Instead we watched BBC. Yay for British news.

So Saturday was June 19th, which was a somewhat significant day for us. June 19th, 2009 was when Brent went in for a routine cardiology appointment (which was 7 weeks before our original wedding date of August 9th) and found out he needed another heart surgery. Not only did he need another heart surgery last summer, but he was also extremely lucky to have that cardiology appointment in June. His appointment was originally scheduled for August, so we scheduled the appointment earlier rather than later since we were getting married in August. His actual heart surgery was June 24th, but I will always remember June 19th because Dr. Johnson put his arm around me and pointed out to me on the ECHO exactly what was wrong...and he knew our lives would be forever changed. I still sometimes feel robbed of our last summer in San Diego, but at the same time, God gave us this amazing opportunity to live in Europe and thank God Brent went to the doctor when he did. I’ll never forget June 19th – I remember it like it was yesterday! I also have a happy memory of the day though, because we went to the San Diego county fair that night with our awesome friends Chris & Kelly Reynolds and Aaron & Melissa Betschel. I can’t imagine spending that night any other way than with amazing friends at the SD fair. Those 2 couples really were a lifesaver that day – we love you guys!

Saturday, we got up and continued the apartment search. We looked at one more apartment and really liked it. I had found one on Friday afternoon that I liked, and then we both liked the apartment on Saturday. They are only about half a kilometer apart, one near Montgomery Circle (Friday apt), one directly on Montgomery Circle (Saturday apt.) There are little things about both of them I like and it’s very hard to make a decision. One has a great location and the metro stop is outside the front door of the apartment building, the other has a better layout, is quieter, and has nice views. They both have their positives and negatives. We have arranged to re-visit the apartments on Tuesday evening, so we will make a decision then. Picking out a place to live for 2 years is tough! And we’re not exactly looking forward to driving back down to Brussels tomorrow from Breda.

Saturday afternoon, we went shopping and ran into Brent’s boss at the mall. I asked her and her husband their opinion about the apartments, which was helpful. After the mall, we went to a bunch of furniture and electronic type stores to start figuring out how we’re going to decorate/furnish our apartment. We had originally planned on renting a furnished apartment, but after looking at a few furnished apartments, we realized that was definitely not going to happen. We checked out beds, couches, washers, curtains, etc. It was nice to figure out which stores sell what – and of course Ikea will still be our #1 place for the majority of our apartment furnishings.

Saturday evening, Brent took me to a delicious restaurant he had been to for a work lunch. I had an amazing filet with béarnaise sauce, salad, and fries for just €16.00. We also enjoyed an amazing smoked salmon appetizer – yum! Brent and I have found that food here is slightly cheaper than what we were used to in San Diego – and much better quality. Also, everything comes with fries, which is probably not the healthiest, but Belgian fries are delicious! We drove around for a bit on Saturday evening because we had nothing else to do, and called it a night.

Sunday we got up, packed, and headed off to Breda. Breda is in the Netherlands, right on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. Brent is working on a client up here for the next 2 weeks, so we’re staying at another Novotel. We are headed to Amsterdam this weekend though, which will be fun! On the way to Breda, we stopped in Antwerp to check it out. Antwerp is only about 30 minutes from Brussels and is beautiful! There is an American food store in Antwerp, so we of course stopped there. We bought a few things – low-calorie salad dressing, some Goldfish, cornbread mix, and instant oatmeal. Most things we eat we can find in grocery stores and markets in Brussels, but for things like salad dressing, we like to eat the low-cal stuff and sometimes we have no idea what we’re buying because it’s in French or Dutch. It’s nice to know where the American food store is and what they sell, but I doubt we’ll make tons of trips to Antwerp just to buy food there.

We wandered around Antwerp for a bit and walked in a beautiful old church called Cathedral of Our Lady. It is a beautiful church – about 650 years old. Remember I love old churches and cathedrals. :-) We didn’t spend tons of time in Antwerp, because we kind of wanted to get to Breda and get settled in, and Antwerp is so close to Brussels. We did of course enjoy a snack of frites and one delicious chocolate each in the main square. After Antwerp, we headed off towards Breda and had yet another adventure. Brent’s company provides him with a car and a gas card. You can only use the gas card at Shell stations in Belgium. The client Brent is working with this week is actually about 25 km from Breda, but there are apparently no hotels/restaurants there, so his boss recommended we stay in Breda. Since Brent is going to be driving so much this week and we’re going to Amsterdam this weekend, we needed to start the week off with a full tank of gas – and remember the gas has to come from Belgian Shell stations. I had found a Shell gas station somewhat close to the border from Shell’s website. So we drove about 15 minutes off the freeway to the address, and discovered it was not a Shell, but some other random gas station. We were a little frustrated, but we had to get gas, so we found another Shell about 20 kilometers away in our GPS. After about 20 minutes of again driving out of the way, we found the Shell station. Well, Brent’s gas card wouldn’t work and eventually the attendant wandered over and told us they don’t take Shell credit cards at that gas station. By now, we were very frustrated because we had no idea where we were in Belgium, nor how far out of the way we had gone. We found yet another Shell station in our GPS and headed off. After another 20 minutes, we finally had success and Brent filled up the car. At least now we know where the closest Shell station is to the border of the Netherlands, but yesterday we were a bit frustrated and tired. :-) Luckily after we got gas, it only took us about 40 minutes to get to Breda. Also, in driving around small towns in Belgium, we passed a lot of farms with massive cows. I mean, I am convinced they give their cows growth hormones or something. Brent thinks they were a different type or breed of cow – all I know is they were huge and I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures. Look for pictures in the future though, of the giant Belgian cows!

Last night (Sunday), we settled into our hotel, drove into the main city center of Breda, and ate dinner. We had these massive burgers – they had bacon, an egg, cucumbers, cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and onions on them. It was a massive burger – it’s 15:00 on Monday and I’m still not hungry! Breda is actually a very cute little Dutch town – there are tons of restaurants, bars, and cafes. It should be fun to explore this town for the next 2 weeks! It’s a bit cold here, which I am still getting used to. Gone are sundresses and shorts in the summer – we wear jeans, sweaters, and scarves in Belgium and the Netherlands in June. It’s a far cry from San Diego sunshine! I did not realize how cold and gray northern Europe is – it is definitely taking some getting used to, but in 2 short weeks, we’ll be burning up in Africa anyways. I have to think maybe it will warm up some in the later summer months too.

Ok, off to explore Breda!

Our first full week in Brussels!

What a week!

It all started on Monday, when I decided I wanted to make Mexican food for dinner. I believe in an earlier post I mentioned I should be ok finding all of the ingredients I normally cook with in the USA here in Belgium. I had some slight problems this week! We went to Cora on Monday night (Cora is like a Super-Target) and found all of the ingredients I needed...except refried beans. I found Mexican rice, flour tortillas, salsa, tortilla chips...everything but beans! They even had baked beans! Belgians don't eat a lot of refried beans I guess. I was extremely frustrated - we love Mexican food and I didn't know what else to cook for dinner because we have no oven...and beans are kind of a staple ingredient if you're making bean & cheese burritos. We eventually decided on take-out Chinese food (yum!) and I vowed to find refried beans the next day. Nothing else exciting really happened on Monday. It was raining, so I hung out at our apartment most of the day. Really, the main thing I remember is how angry I was I couldn't find refried beans! Silly huh?

On Tuesday, I set out to find the elusive refried beans...and get some exercise. I walked 4 miles and went to 3 different grocery stores. In the third grocery store, I found them! They cost €2.75 a can, but I was ecstatic. I made my purchase and headed home. We have already started a list of things for me to bring back from the USA when I am there in October...I might need to bring back some big suitcases! ;-) Eventually Brent got home from work Tuesday night and we enjoyed some delicious Mexican food. We have discovered a Dutch-speaking TV station (VIJF TV) that airs English-speaking movies every night around 9:00 pm. It is great! They are all totally romantic comedies, so not so great for Brent, but when it's your only option, you'll watch anything. :-) Later on Tuesday night, when Brent crawled into bed, I saw his back and immediately asked him if he'd had chicken pox! We'd been leaving our windows open at night because we have no AC, and apparently we'd been getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had some bites on my legs, but didn't realize how bad it was. Brent looked at my back, which was also covered, and next thing I knew, I was up googling "bed bugs" at 1:00 am because I had no idea what was going on. Luckily we do not have bed bugs, just mosquitoes! Brent emailed his incredibly nice boss Janet and asked where we could buy a cheap fan, and by Wednesday morning, she had offered to let us borrow one. Phew!

Wednesday was apartment-hunting day! Our agent's name is Annekien - and I have no idea how to pronounce her name. She is not really a real estate agent, but she works for a "settling in" company for expats - she's kind of like the middleman. She had found 13 properties for us to look at, which was exhausting! We had given her our budget and criteria a week prior and we were anxious to see what she had found. I had looked at the addresses of all of the properties on Tuesday night and already decided only about 5 were really in areas we wanted to live, so that was unfortunate. We tried to go into Wednesday with an open mind though. In Belgium, the typical lease is a 9-year lease. Obviously we will not be here for 9 years, but that is the type of lease we will sign anyway and then we will most likely have to pay a fine (or rather PWC will reimburse us) for only staying for 2 years - it's weird to us, but that's how it works in Belgium. So we have to really like where we live - we will be there for 2 years, no matter what! Anyhow - our day started early and was long! The first 2 properties we went to, I had already ruled out due to location. But once we saw them, I really ruled them out! They were both on the 4th floor of buildings with no elevators. I am sure I would be in better shape walking up so many stairs every day, but it would also get annoying fast. Plus the thought of carrying groceries and such up so many stairs every day doesn't seem fun - or what if you forget something in your house - you have to run all the way back up the stairs! Also, the first 2 apartments were "loft-style", so the bedroom was on the "second floor." This would potentially be ok if there were actual stairs - instead they have extremely steep stairs that are like ladders. If I got up in the middle of the night, I'd probably fall down. Needless to say, we were a bit discouraged.

The rest of the morning, we saw the following: an apartment with a toilet with no door in the middle of the living room (the toilets are always in separate rooms here, not actually in the bathroom), numerous apartments with no ovens, an apartment with a bedroom up in a loft like you'd have in college (you climb up a ladder and can't sit up in bed, the bed is like a foot from the ceiling), and some very tiny apartments. We also heard Annekien say once "Your colleagues might tell you this is an unsafe area, but plenty of people enjoy living here!" Brent and I just looked at each other like "is she seriously going to show us an apartment in this area!?" At this point, we were extremely discouraged. We re-grouped with Annekien at lunch and told her we had to have an oven, no apartments under 60 square meters (roughly 650 sq ft), no "loft-style" apartments, and a few other things. One apartment she showed us was cool, except there was no separate bedroom - the bed was just kind of sitting next to the couch with a short wall in between. At lunch, we also clarified for her our exact budget - it seems she was looking at apartments that were actually a little lower than our range - and trust me, we could tell. :-)

After lunch, Annekien canceled some appointments since the apartments were clearly never going to work for us, and then she took us to a grocery store to show us around a bit - which was WAY more helpful than apartment hunting! We told her about our mosquito problem and she told us about these things you can plug into the wall that emit some sort of smell that deters mosquitoes. We didn't really believe her since there is no such thing in the southern USA - which is like the mosquito capital of the world! Sure enough, we walked in, she asked where they were in French, and then she showed us how to use them. I haven't seen a mosquito since...I have NO idea why the USA doesn't have these plug-in devices - or do they and I am just not aware of them? It looks kind of like a Glade plug-in. We've been living in San Diego the past 5 years, so we haven't had to worry about mosquitoes. Annekien also showed us the different types of milk, cheese, butter, and types of beer - all of the staples of course. I have found some of the beers here are very tasty – they are all fruity of course. There’s a cherry beer called “Kriek” that is delicious!

After our grocery store trip, we saw a few more apartments and called it a day. The last apartment we looked at was amazing - it was a penthouse on the 8th floor of a building. The elevator essentially opened up into the apartment and it had 2 huge terraces that were bigger than our entire house in San Diego! We fell in love with the terraces - beautiful views of Brussels - and so cool! There was one terrace off of the bedroom and one off of the living area. The only problem was that the kitchen and living room were tiny - and we just don't think we can make it work. :-( We were pretty bummed though - what a beautiful penthouse! It even included a parking spot, which most apartments don't. Good thing we got a mini-Cooper!

We decided to go to Ikea after apartment hunting on Wednesday night to see exactly how much we would spend on furniture. Luckily, we're going to be ok! It's weird to feel at home in an Ikea, (which is a Swedish furniture store chain) in Belgium...but it was just like the Ikea in San Diego! :-) Wednesday was a very exhausting day, so we were excited to head home and relax afterwards! Thursday & Friday, I spent a lot of time online doing my own apartment hunting. Annekien had told us to look at a few websites and pick out apartments that we thought were interesting. I also spent some time on Skype calling back to the USA to get things straightened out.

On Friday, I went to a luncheon hosted by a member of the American Women's Club of Brussels (AWCB). I learned the AWCB is one of the largest clubs belonging to the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas (FAWCO). It's like a massive sorority of women living overseas with different chapters. The women were all very kind, but I was by far the youngest woman there, by at least 25 years. They assured me there were younger members though, so I can’t wait to meet some of them! :-) It was nice to speak English for a few hours though and the woman answered a ton of my questions. They also told me all about the clubhouse – the AWCB owns a big, beautiful house in Brussels where they have tons of activities – a myriad of classes, social lunches, fun activities, volunteer projects, etc. It’s their sorority house. ;-) Anyways, I will probably join the AWCB because it’s a great way to meet people and socialize with other Americans when we want to. I truly did have a good time at lunch and met some nice women.

Friday night was sushi and World Cup football night! I scouted out a few sushi restaurants in Brussels, and we picked one called Wasabi Sushi Lounge. The sushi here is nothing like in the USA. It’s fairly basic – no crazy rolls with multiple types of fish, sauces, and toppings. We really miss American sushi – especially our 2 favorite sushi restaurants in San Diego – RK Café and Harney Sushi. We ordered a few rolls and some miso soup and still enjoyed it though! Our rolls were basically just rice and one type of fish, occasionally there was cucumber inside or there was some avocado or salmon on top. I will keep looking though – we will find the best sushi in this city! The fish was pretty fresh though – and as always, the beer was cheap. In addition, the World Cup is on every TV in Europe, so we got to watch the game during dinner.

After dinner, we met up with some of Brent’s friends from work (John and Simi) to watch the France vs. Uruguay game. John and Simi are a super cool couple! They moved away from the USA about 5 years ago – they spent 3 years in Amsterdam, 1.5 years in Dubai, and they have been in Brussels about 3 months. We enjoyed hanging out with them, asking them questions about life here, and hearing about their experiences. It’s always great to make new friends. We headed home on Friday well after midnight and Brent fell asleep on the couch watching “Miami Vice” in French.

Saturday was fairly uneventful…rainy as usual here. I’m doing ok with the rain so far, but at times I definitely miss sunny, beautiful San Diego! Last weekend we had found a suit that fit Brent so well and was a great price, so we went back and purchased it Saturday. We also wandered around the mall some more, tried a Quick burger (Europe’s version of McDonalds), spent some time at H&M, and talked to a few mobile companies about my cell phone. We are probably going to wait to buy a cell phone and plan for me until we get our apartment. In Belgium, a cell phone plan is usually included (and much cheaper) with your Cable & Internet, so it’s worth it to wait. I may even be able to get an iPhone – woo hoo! We also walked to Cora on Saturday – remember when I walked there last week and it took me an hour? On Saturday it took us about 10 minutes to walk there – live and learn I guess. Saturday night, we watched the USA vs. England game at a crowded sports bar near the city center – people here are fanatical about football! We had a late dinner of Thai food – yum! The only other people in the restaurant were a large party of French-speaking people who were having a great time – they kept speaking to us in French (they were a tad bit drunk) – but then when I told them we didn’t speak much French, they laughed and carried on. It was actually quite entertaining – and when we left, they wished us a good night. I can’t wait until my French improves!

So today is Sunday and our 9 month wedding anniversary! :-) We did not go to church this morning – we’re still looking for a church home. I think next Sunday we will try to attend an English-speaking church and see what we think. We did however go to the Gare du Midi market, which was awesome! This particular market takes place every Sunday at the huge Gare Du Midi train station in Brussels. The market is rumored to be the biggest in Europe, and I can assure you it was massive. There were stalls there selling everything imaginable – fresh fruit, clothing, meat & fish, kitchen utensils, shoes, pastries, flowers, leather goods, spices, electronics, pickled vegetables, CD’s, cheeses, dishes, sausages, etc! We had so much fun wandering around for hours – and the food prices were fantastic! Since we’re going to Rotterdam this week, we didn’t buy much food, but we did buy a cool paper towel stand that looks like a bicycle – check out the picture of it in the column on the right. I know we’ll definitely be spending more time at the Marche du Midi! I can’t wait until we have our own apartment and we can go back and buy some flowers and plants – and I think I might buy quite a few of our groceries there – much cheaper than the grocery stores!

After spending a few hours at the market, we decided to wander back to a different metro and see more of the city.  We passed some gorgeous churches, parks, museums, and fun parts of the city along the way. We stepped in a church called Notre Dame de la Chapelle. Construction began on this church in 1210 – so needless to say, it’s quite old! It was beautiful too – I love old churches and cathedrals! I am not a huge museum person, but I love architecture, especially churches and cathedrals. It’s just so neat to think about how many people have worshipped God in old churches over the years – and I think churches are just amazing! We also worked through the Parc de Bruxelles, which is the largest urban public park in the center of Brussels. The park is surrounded by the Royal Palace of Brussels, the Belgian parliament, and the American embassy. It’s funny because when we were walking, I asked Brent if he knew where the American embassy was, and he said he had no idea and we should look it up. Well, when we got home, I read about how the American embassy borders the Parc du Bruxelles – we were literally right next to it while we were discussing it, but we still don’t know which building it is. We eventually took the metro back to our apartment and have just been hanging out and doing laundry ever since.

Tomorrow we head to Rotterdam until Wednesday – Brent’s got meetings all day Tuesday & Wednesday with partners from his tax group from all over the world! People are flying in to Rotterdam from as far as South Africa, the USA, and Turkey – so it’s a very important few days. Brent is excited he was invited and to meet some very important people from PWC. Work is still going really well for him – sometimes I forget that’s why we’re here because we’ve just been having so much fun so far. :-) I’m excited to explore Rotterdam this week! Until next time…