A great time was had by all when my mom and Susan came to visit nearly two weeks ago. They were both a little overwhelmed by jet lag (and I was more than happy to experience sympathetic jet lag and nap right along with them) for the first day or two, but they were real troopers. Of course, they had little choice, with Jack and Amelia up early every day and jumping on the "magic bed" (the sleeper sofa) to rouse Sugar.
I quickly introduced them to the joy that is the bakery, and they were happy to have lots of chocolate bread and other goodies. I took Susan to Carrefour, where she marvelled at the entire supermarket aisle devoted to chocolate and variations thereof. I think her favorite was the "Sexy" chocolate bar. We're not sure what makes it sexy, but with chocolate, how can you go wrong?
I went with them to Bruges on Saturday (T.J. stayed home with the kids), and we had a great time. I had been to Bruges about 12 years ago, just for the day, but it was NOTHING like I remembered it. It was a really bustling place -- lots of shops, tons of restaurants and even more tourists -- but when I was there on a tour, we were in a very quiet, green section of town. They had failed to take us to the main part of town. It was very pretty -- several canals and gorgeous old buildings. Susan and I enjoyed a huge cappuccino...and big waffle. We took a canal ride and did some shopping. Bruges is famous for its lace and tapestries.
On Sunday, we took them to downtown Brussels and walked around. We lunched at a pizzeria and had crepes and waffles at a place where T.J. and I had gone every morning when we were doing our househunting tour (and where he had been several times without me, when he was doing business trips). Surprisingly, the waiter recognized us. He let Amelia help scoop her own ice cream.
We also encountered our first plumbing problem during their visit. The pipes from the master bath were clogging somewhere, and water was overflowing on our terrace. We jokingly referred to the flood every morning and tried to see who could create the most overflow. Luckily, a bottle of Belgian Drano seems to have taken care of it.
They headed south toward Italy after visiting with us, and had a great time there. So much so, that Susan's luggage opted to stay an extra day in Rome. Luckily, it showed up back in St. Louis only a day late.
Persistent Pinkeye
We're still battling pinkeye. One week after Amelia got it, Jack got it. One week after Jack got it, I got it. So off I trundled to our doctor yesterday, who thankfully gave me one prescription for my eyes, and gave me another prescription for the kids, as I can't seem to get rid of the virus. Despite my best sanitizing effors and repeated laundering, it seems to persist. I'll be glad to get rid of it, as I haven't enjoyed having to wear glasses...
Circus Time
It seems like it's never-ending activity here. First the "carnival" then the puppet show. (That disappeared over the weekend, thankfully. Even though Amelia didn't understand one word of it, she kept insisting that she wanted to return. And poor Jack still doesn't get that the carnival is gone. He says "ride" everytime we head up to Ste. Alix, and is disappointed when he sees the rides are gone.)
But signs started popping up 2 weeks ago that the circus was coming to town, and it would be set up in an empty field across the street from the Carrefour (and directly on our way to school every day). The circus starts tomorrow, and when we drove to school today, we saw them setting up tents and we saw all the trucks. Under one tent, we saw some horses and some camels. Apparently, there will also be tigers involved. I'm noticing that things are much more lax over here in general (roof contractors drinking beer on the job; moms leaving babies in cars while taking their kids up to school), so I'm admittedly a little nervous about how they're going to corral tigers. (Especially because I think things will be in a tent .... across the street from major shopping.) You all had better keep an eye on CNN. I see us being a crawl in the near future.
But of course I will take them to the circus.
How Times Change
We just found out that one of T.J.'s coworkers -- and whose wife provided me with all sorts of valuable information as we were preparing for our move and was a true godsend -- is being transferred back to Houston effective June 1. Surprisingly, my first thought was "They must be devastated" rather than "They're so lucky to be returning to the U.S." Quite a change from me sobbing on the phone to my parents that I didn't want to leave. Truly, the hardest thing about being here is being so far from family and friends. But I really am loving daily life over here. I mean, they'd never have a circus across the street from Wal-Mart in the states -- at least, not without some sort of class-action lawsuit first.
I am now also equipped with a child seat on my bike (and also a nice removable wire market basket on the front), so the whole family can go for excursions. We took a nice ride to Stockel on Saturday morning for pastries, and T.J. took Amelia out on Sunday for more. I've taken Jack out in the mornings after Amelia goes to school, and it's been very nice. To be able to not have to drive everywhere is wonderful, and the bike ride is easy. I only wish Amelia's school were a little closer, where we could walk or ride.
Back to Neunreiter
I've learned that in Belgium, I go back to being Julia Neunreiter. When I go to the doctor, that's who I am. When I sign things for school, it's all Neunreiter. I'm not sure why they do it that way, but it's taken some getting used to. Let's just hope Aetna can keep it all straight when I submit medical claims!!
Happy Mother's Day
I don't think I'll post again for a while, so happy Mother's Day to everyone.
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