"That's Belgium"

Funny line in an article in SI, about a recent race in which Lance Armstrong competed. Author Austin Murphy writes: 

"The first three stages were contested in rains ranging from steady to pelting to torrential - and temperatures that seldom rose above 50 (degrees). "That's hard," admitted Andrew Messick, president of AEG's Sports, which puts on the TOC. "I mean, that's Belgium."

I have to say, that's not always the case! It's been sunny daily since Saturday. But the line made me laugh...

Wildplassen

Okay, there's this thing here. The term for it (because they have a word specifically for it) is wildplassen. It refers to peeing outdoors. With 4 boys, we're no strangers to the occasional need to make a pit stop between rest stops, but some Belgians take this to a new level! Men do it all over the place. Truck drivers do it along the highway - again, not too unusual - but they do little to be descrete while doing it. I've also seen someone out for a bike ride do it - while he was still on his bike, standing with his bike between his legs, just turned a bit to the side to "aim away". Then there are the men who are at rest stops, nice rest stops with bathrooms available, who park along the chain link fence at the side of the parking area and let 'er go through the fence. Do they just not have the extra few minutes it would take to use the facilities? Or do they not have the 30 euro cents for use of the bathrooms? At one rest stop/gas station there were 3-4 men parked in a line all standing at the fence. Like an outdoor version of men lined up at urinals in an indoor bathroom.

Related to this is the type of porta-potties we've seen at large civic events (like the Gentsefeest - big party in Gent every July). For men, there are porta-urinals. Our friend, Lode (a.k.a. Neo) used the one pictured. These are basically 4 urinals backed up to each other with plastic walls seperating them. Men can step up to the urinal, with the sides (somewhat) blocking their "business" and their back to passers-by. There are no doors or screens, just their backsides blocking the view. Almost like a voting booth. Lode did use the side facing the building, helping shield him from our camera.

There are also the public urinals where there is a curved screen from about knee height to above a man's head blocking view of the urinal. There is one in Brugge next to a church. My guys thought it was amusing one day to see a man behind the screen who was nearly on his tip-toes. It was a funny scene, like something you'd see on a hidden camera show.

Guest Speaker

I had a lot of fun yesterday giving a little talk about America to each of the 3 first grade classes at the boys' school. Nathan's teacher from last year, Juf Linda, asked me last week if I might come in and tell about some of the differences that our family has noticed between Belgium and the US. I put some notes together, had my neighbor help me edit the things I wanted to say, and printed out a few images from Google including North America, the White House, Thanksgiving turkey, and houses built with wood. The biggest challenge was speaking to them in dutch!

The kids were really cute and attentive. I started out saying that dutch was not my first language and I asked them to tell me if they knew what my language would be if I come from America. Most knew it was English. Some of the things I talked about were:

* Belgium has a king; the US has a President. Their king has a crown, our President doesn't ('cuz he's not a king).

* The US is a very big country; my state is one of 50 states and it's the size of 8 Belgiums!

* We speak English, which has many words which are similar the dutch words because both come from the same language, German.

* Many houses in America are built mostly with wood, unlike Belgian houses which are built with bricks.

* In America, if a family has their child make their first communion, they usually attend church most Sundays every year. In Belgium, families don't usually go to church, but have their child attend for the year when they prepare to make their first communion. (This relates to the fact that all the kids in the first grade classes will make their first communion in May. It's a public Catholic school)

* We celebrate holidays, too. We have an independence day on July 4, like Belgium's national  holiday July 21, and celebrate it with parties and fireworks. Many Americans celebrate Christmas as is done in Belgium. The kids in America don't know Sinter Klas (Belgian "Santa") who comes to Belgium December 6, but they know of Santa Claus who comes the night before Christmas. Both Christmas-men bring children presents.

* Some stores in the US are open 24 hours a day!

* We eat corn on the cob. (Some children in Belgium don't know what corn is because corn here is mostly for feeding the farm animals.) We don't usually have cereals with pieces of chocolate added. (In Belgium, cereals like granola and even Special K have versions with Chocolate pieces added - in the box with a "2 weeks of Special K and you'll be slimmer" program!) We probably eat more pasta than potatoes. (Belgians love potatoes!) And we eat yummy American Chocolate Chip Cookies. (The kids liked the cookies I brought for them, but thought they were unusual.)

There were a few times when I had to check a word with the teacher or have the teacher translate one of the children's questions. But, for the most part they seemed to understand more than I thought they would. For each class the last part was for them to ask questions. It was fun to hear what they were curious about. The questions ranged from whether we had a cat in America to whether there were still cowboys and indians and lots of gold. (They've watched some old westerns apparently.) I told them there were still cowboys and indians in America, but the battles between cowboys and indians that they might have seen in a film refer to things that happened in the past, when people were headed "out west". That also ties into the gold question, and about the miners. It's interesting to hear their notions about America that they hear from films or their parents. They also asked if our wood houses would be blown away if a tornado came. I told them houses in areas where tornados occur are probably built more with stone, but that there aren't tornados in all of the US.

The kids really were so cute listening and asking questions. When I asked them if they knew things (like where the President lived) a few very excitedly stuck their hands in the air. Quite a few of the kids knew answers to questions like that. It was a really fun afternoon and I'm so glad I got to do it! As an added bonus, the teachers gave me a traditional Belgium "thank you", a box of chocolates! Not a bad afternoon's "work". ;-)

Jordan's 10-year-old-trip-with-mom

Jordan and I went on his "10-year-old trip" last weekend. It was a great time with just the two of us and I have to say he's a great travel buddy.

First we flew to Carcassonne, France. (Jordan wants me to mention the nice French man we sat with who shared his package of malted milk balls with Jordan.) We hopped in our rental car and headed toward the Pyranees mountains and Andorra. We had Google directions that didn't always match the road signs, and my GPS charger was nowhere to be found before we left home, so we made a few wrong turns. But we managed to find our way with help from an old man out to walk his dog and smoke a cigarette at night. It was a long and very winding road up into the mountains and we kept wondering what we would have been able to see if the sun hadn't gone down already! At the end of our loooong drive, we crossed from France into Pas de la Casa, Andorra. We pulled over to get a picture of Jordan by the Andorra sign, then continued into the area. I told Jordan we needed to find our hotel. He asked "Is it the Hotel Centrale?" And I said, "No, I don't think so, it's the (grabbed my notes) Hotel Centrale! What made you guess that?" And Jordan said "Because we just passed it, it's right back there!" Jordan would prove to be an excellent co-pilot and navigator throughout the trip. 

Friday morning we woke up to blue skies and powder! We were on the hill before 9 (after renting equipment and getting lift tickets) and started on the easy slope. Jordan had only skied a couple of times before and had a lesson 2 years ago. He got his "ski legs" back quickly and by the time the chair lift was open he was eager to ride further up the mountain. He was tentative at first (the top of the run was the steepest part) but finished the first run with no problems. We skied for 5 hours, with a short lunch break, and Jordan got more confident through the day. By the time we stopped he'd even tried a jump. I was proud of his daring and great attitude! We spent the rest of the late afternoon driving further into Andorra. We tried to get to the "Iglu Dorf" - igloo village - in Grau Roig but found out too late you had to ski into it. Oh well. 

Saturday morning we walked around Pas de la Casa looking for some things to take back for the brothers. Because Andorra is a duty free country, there were perfumeries, tobacco shops and designer clothing stores where tourists stock up on goods, but we couldn't find any fun t-shirts! We did finally find a few things to bring back and headed out of town mid-morning. 

The drive back to Carcassonne was more interesting in daylight. We passed some old, small French towns, saw castle ruins in the hills and beautiful countryside. We only got off track once on the return drive. Well, we also didn't have directions to our hotel, just to Carcassonne in general, so we made some circles while figuring out where our hotel would be. I was pretty sure the hotel description said it was in the small medieval city, so we parked near there. After going through the gate we were surrounded with the cobbled streets, old-style shops and medieval atmosphere. Within 5 minutes walk we noticed the sign for our hotel - only 2 blocks from the Count's Castle entrance! It was cool to be able to stay within the walls. We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday wandering through the city, cathedral and castle, and checking out all the little shops. Jordan thought the audio tour of the Count's Castle was great. And the chocolate chaud (hot chocolate).

All in all it was such a fun 4 days and went by too fast. Jordan and I had a lot of fun and he was a great companion. Enthusiastic, interested and easy going. We both have great memories from our trip.