Sorry I have sucked lately, been extremely busy…which is a GOOD thing!
I have tons of photos to upload but let me leave these to wet your appetite.
I found this absolutely fascinating. In case you are craving bread in the middle of the night and it happens you run out, you’re in luck. We don’t have 24 hour grocery stores here, but thats ok! We don’t need them. We have the bread vending machine!
It seems like the last month has been non-stop. Our weeks have been very busy and on the weekends we are trying to just chill out but there is so much to do. We haven’t really done anything cool to tell you about.
I finally found a hairdresser thanks to a friends recommendation. So, I got my hair cut and highlighted and I couldn’t be happier about it. We will try to take some family pictures soon.
We put up a christmas tree last weekend and this weekend I baked some. This week I am going to be brave and take some cookies over to my neighbors. I have yet to meet them and I’ve decided that armed with goodwill cookies, I will go with me my two words of french and a well-crafted note to introduce myself. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes 
Oh… and those Xmas cards i was preparing a couple of weeks ago.. yeah.. they are still on my desk. So, it looks like you will get them after christmas. Better late than never I suppose.
The days are getting colder, wetter, and much shorter here. The sun usually rises by 8 am and sets by 5 pm. But with winter upon us…that means it’s CHRISTMAS TIME!
Our Christmas won’t be very extravagant, but it will be nice. Last year, Drew was in Iraq and the year before, it was less than a month before he got sent over. So, this year will be sweet and we are all very grateful to be together.
We’re going to pull out all of the decorations soon and get a tree probably next week.
Autumn here was really beautiful, but I’m looking forward to winter. Here is a pic i took out of the sunroof when i was driving home one day.
I suppose this living in Europe thing has it’s perks as it seems I am getting cultured. During some of our Grown-Up Time we’ve managed to get out and sample some of the local foods and local shops.
We recently went to a production of Oliver! (which was great) a little while ago we went to a museum in Lille, France, called the “Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.” I’m not much of an art museum person, so i knew I wouldn’t be able to spend all day there; Drew appreciates that kind of thing more than me. But we spent about 90 minutes there and for me, it was perfect. We got to see some works by Raphaël, Donatello, Van Dyck, Goya, Rubens, and Picasso (just to do a little name-dropping there). Alot of the paintings were pretty neat, although I think I was most impressed with the building itself.
This sketch by Picasso was my favorite.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family! Our Thanksgiving was as typical as it can be for living in a country that doesn’t celebrate it!
Our day started by getting up early as usual and taking Ian to school. No, he doesn’t get the day off. Drew took him and I cleaned the kitchen from the night before (we baked coffee cake and pumpkin cheesecake ahead of time). It is a real pain in the ass to cook over here b/c our dishwasher does not work and our sink is tiny and we run out of hot water pretty easily; so it seems we wash dishes all day long as the hot water returns.
Anyway, after the dishes I started getting ready for the day. I decided to make an apple pie so I peeled apples and had enough to make two.. so two i made
The next thing I need to make was rolls. They don’t have rolls here like we do in the states and a baguette of french bread really isn’t the same. I have never made rolls before so I knew it was going to be an experience; but what the hell. So, I got my yeast and made my dough; i thought i was pretty cool kneading my dough (just call me Sara Crocker). I made my balls and set them down to rise. An hour later I go to check on them and they haven’t risen. Not one bit. sigh.. I decide to cook them anyway. They rise to about the width of a golf ball and about half the height. They look really cute :). Luckily they taste fantastic, so I guess in this case, size doesn’t matter.
We deep fry our turkey and it turns out perfect. There is no way the turkey could fit in our oven. It is tiny! But we had a good day and just hung out together.
I hope everyone else’s day was good. I’ll be sending out Christmas cards on Monday so hopefully everyone gets them in time.
Something we’ve definitely taken advantage of here in Belgium is the Child Development Center (CDC). Almost every friday night they have a “parent’s-night out” where they will watch the kids from 7pm-midnight. We’ve used it 4 times already and will do this at least once a month. It’s so nice to have because when you are new somewhere, you don’t know anyone to watch the kids, but you still want to get out and go to a bar or a museum, etc.
My goal is to get Drew to take at least one day off each month while the kids have school and he and I can go venture around town doing grown-up things. So far so good.
I have been here for four months now and have yet to see a cockroach. Normally, I would not complain. I would marvel at my cleanliness and good living, but I know that has little to do with the scurrying little jerks finding their way into my home. So where are they? I think I have found out!!
The Belgians, and Europeans as a whole, have given up on doing this sort of thing themselves.. and have thrown their lot in with the Robots!! That’s right. Robots.
You may ask yourself, “How does he know this stuff??” Well, I have seen it. They have robo-dogs, cats, people, brooms and cars (and mopeds, more about that later). And now, we see the RoboRoach.
From the Times in London, ”
Yes, it’s the Roboroach!! Despair!!
I think this one is scarier…
So that’s why I don’t have a roach problem, now if I could get rid of the mopeds… I would be golden.
Last week when I was searching for concerts in brussels, I saw that Dave Matthews was coming in March. the tickets went on sale yesterday and I scored myself a pair. It is him solo and will be an acoustic performance so I can’t wait. I’ve been wanting to see DMB for quite some time and him solo is just fine with me.
It just sucks that I have to wait until March; but that is just a minor detail!
Most everyone knows I listen to hard rock and alternative music so it’s been quite a change to experience the bee-bop club music that seems to be played on the radio; even stranger is the fact that i find myself bopping my head to it. I usually listen to my iPod in the car though so I can listen to the music that I want to.
Last night, I was reading a german magazine that had published tour dates of my favorite band, Tool, on it. So, I was thinking..germany is close, maybe they are coming to Belgium. And they are. Except the shows are tonight and friday night and are both sold out. Can you say, letdown? That’s okay though. I see there are several good bands coming and I love live music of most types so I’m determined to catch a show. I got to go to a concert last April and I’ve been wanting to do it again since then!
If there are any local belgians reading this and can point me in the direction of a good local radio station please do. Throughout the day I typically have satellite radio playing through the Internet so I’m open to anything!
BTW (by the way for you non-chat people), how’s everyone doing? Paris pictures coming soon!
Another Halloween has come and gone for the mighty Smith Clan. I thought that we took it seriously, but in reality the Belgians go hardcore and don’t stop. They take a whole week off after the “blessed” day, and do nothing. They actually are celebrating all saints day (the day AFTER Halloween), but I don’t have to acknowledge that and neither should any of you. They do take the whole week off though… which is good because it makes driving around easy. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I was lucky enough to be home for Halloween and got to see the boys walk from house to house saying trick or treat. Abe of course trampled every flower in every front yard we went through and little mister E told on him the entire time. So there you had Anakin Skywalker and Chewbaca walking around a truly international comunity and people actually recognized them for who they were supposed to be. Another triumph for American pop culture!!
I think that it could have been better only by my being dressed as a Mad Cow or something equally offensive. Maybe an Insane Clown from the posse. Where do I get this stuff? Who knows? I have hit my head on the various low hanging parts of this Belgian house five times this week!! Crap… double crap!! Maybe that is where it comes from.