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…