Learning More and More

I've been taking a "Hints" class for living in Belgium, and it's been reassuring. I've met some other women who are new to Brussels, and we've been learning a lot. Today's class was all about cleaning products (the water is very hard here, so you need to add salt to the washer and the dishwasher. Plus the washing machines heat their own water, so a cycle takes forever to run.), driving in Belgium (they have some very odd rules), and how to get rid of trash (you think it would be easy, but it's not).

You buy special bags for your regular trash (slightly expensive), bags for your paper recyclables (less expensive than trash bags) and bags for your cans and plastics (also less expensive than the trash bags). So the idea is, you don't want to spend all your money on trash bags, so you'll recycle as much as you can. For bottles, you have to take them to a special bottle bank (they're located all around town) and you drop them off there. If the trash men see something in your trash bag that doesn't belong, they'll put a red sticker on it and will leave it. Then it's up to you to figure out what you did wrong. So far, we haven't had any trouble, but I know we will.

We found a local pediatrician today for the kids that we like (Jack got his all-clear after his ear infection), so that's good news.

My folks did a mission of mercy for me today, getting our marriage certificate and my birth certificate apostilled. We've had all sorts of trouble with those documents, and my parents took it upon themselves to get it done, and they did so with grand success. So that means we can register in the commune (the town) and get our residency card.

Our water shipment is well on its way and should arrive Jan. 29 in Antwerp (2 days early!), and should be down to us a week or so later. Keep your fingers crossed. Last week, you may have seen pictures of a similar container ship that ran aground off of England, and many containers washed ashore, spilling their contents. TJ and I envisioned people sifting through our container, wondering what they would pilfer... Luckily, our ship is still sailing well.

These past two weeks have included probably been the least amount of shopping I've ever done. Shopping has only been grocery shopping or buying our wireless modem. There are lots of shops in Stockel, which I hope to visit one Saturday when I can leave the kids at home. By law, there are sales only 2 times a year in Brussels (didja hear that, Macy's??) , and now is one of those sales. Of course, I don't know what a good/bad price for things is, but I'm sure willing to go out and look.

Amelia is excited because I told her that there are zebras by TJ's office (it's some sort of animal park that is a breeding ground for the Antwerp Zoo), and she is just beside herself to see the zebras. We've been driving with TJ to work on Tuesday and Thursday so we can have the car to go to my Hints class, and she keeps telling me to keep my eye out for zebras. With luck, we'll be able to take her there one weekend soon.

Tomorrow (Friday) is the Stockel market. I'm hoping that the weather will be warm enough to walk down there. Amelia really wants to buy some white tulips for her ponies (and at 3 euros, how can I say no?).

The weather has definitely turned colder (in the 30s today), but supposed to warm back up to the 40s tomorrow. The radiator heat is keeping us warm (we have no forced air circulation nor any AC), but the radiators still take some getting used to.

That's all for today. Hope all is well with everyone. I've included some pictures from our house -- one of the park across from our house and one of the "skyline."