Starting our Blog...

Instead of writing so many e-mails, and for fear that I'll forget some big piece of drama here, I'm going to try my hand at blogging. Not sure how it will work, but I'll give it a try. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Week 2 in Brussels
So here are some of the idiosyncracies I've noticed:

• No garbage disposal
• No take-out coffee
• You pay for your trash by the bag. Regular trash bags are more expensive than bags for recyclables (hence, the more you recycle, the more you save by using fewer trash bags)
• Few processed foods, and few food mixes (no cookie dough, brownie mix, cake mix, rice-a-roni)
• Everyone brings their own bags to the grocery store, and you bag your own groceries, and you have to pay 1 euro for a cart (which you get back at the end when you return the cart in line).

The grocery stores sure aren't like the ones at home, where you can buy light bulbs, medicine and other non-food things. There's very little of that sort available at the stores here. There is a store called Carrefour (which I guess is like a Wal-Mart) and one called Brico (like Home Depot) that aren't too far away and that cover those other things we need for the house and daily living. We haven't been there yet, and I've heard the lines (even on a good day) are an hour long.

We got good news that our water shipment is on the way and should arrive in Antwerp on the 31st. We've gotten along quite well without most of our things, but there are some things that I can't wait to get (trash cans, some baking dishes, The Little Mermaid, the iPod dock, a cozy sweatshirt), but we've been pleased at how well we've gotten along without everything. (Makes us realize that we certainly own more than we need to.)

We've gotten along rather well with just one car. I can walk with the kids to the grocery store when needed (though I can't pick up that much). People buy a lot of "shelf milk" and "shelf juice" because there just isn't much room in the fridge for the fresh stuff. So I buy a few small containers (no gallon jugs over here! or even quarts, for that matter) of the fresh stuff and more of the shelf drinks to keep on hand. The good news is, with the shelf drinks, we should never be out of milk. No skim milk here, either. We finally found 1 1/2%, which is about the best we'll do.

Cooking
I made my first "meal" last night -- an improvisational "dairy dinner" (a big comfort food from home -- kindof like a lasagna). All the ingredients here were slightly different (cheddar cheese is hard to come by -- no shredded cheddar at the grocery, but all the cheap emmenthal and gruyere you could want), but it turned out to be a reasonable facsimile.

Luckily, with the market (rotisserie chickens, ribs, quiches) and with Jose the Mexican Food Delivery Guy (he will make and deliver a full mexican meal to us once a week for just 5 euros a plate) -- so I may never have to really cook!

I heard that the cuts of meat aren't as good as at home, but that the Belgians love their sauces, and that really makes the meat. So I'm going to pick up a Belgian cookbook and try my hand at some local meals.

Weather
The weather has been OK. A lot of rain, but mild temperatures (it's getting colder now -- into the 30s). We have radiator heat throughout the house (which is annoying, because one is always going out, and a "3" setting on one isn't the same as a "3" setting on another). But it seems to do the trick. No air conditioning here or any sort of central fan. Despite the rain, I think it's dry in the house, as Jack consistently wakes up around midnight coughing. A shot of saline spray and the humidifier seem to help.

Time to let Amelia watch "The Little Mermaid" tv show on Slingbox, then it's off to the Ste. Alix market for cheap flowers (20 tulips for 3 euros), fresh fruits, hot waffles, and tonights meal. I hope to take pictures and will post them later.

The two pictures below are of Ste. Alix church/square and today's market in the square.