Clarke Family Adventures

Not what you usually hear scouts say...

2009-11-30T14:06:00.000+01:00

Jordan and Nathan are in a scouts group (part of a larger organization) that meets at the Catholic Middle/High School where Andrew and Cameron go to school. Yesterday Jordan was telling me about the game they played where his age group (10-11 year olds) was split into 2 groups. One group went out on the grounds to "hide" while the other group waited inside. Then the "seekers" went out to find the other group, while the hiding group tried to sneak back to the building without being seen. If the seeking group saw the other group before they could sneak back to the building, then they were to yell "What the F***" and both groups would race back to the building - the first group with all it's members back wins that round. Can't believe they used that for calling out the other team! And they played this game a bunch of times.

It's always surprised us how much the "F-word" and "S-word" are used here, especially when they're used by younger kids. My kids hear these words on the playground all the time, even by kindergarden-aged kids! I know when I was a kid we'd say "caca" for the s-word, it wasn't as bad as the s-word and was used more regularly. But we didn't use it all the time. The words don't have as much meaning to the kids here, but I know most teachers at the school dole out punishments if they hear a kid using one of the English swear words.

So, Jordan thought it was pretty funny they got to yell what they got to yell for the game, though he told me he didn't say it - he nudged whoever he was with if he saw the other group and the other kid would yell "WTF". From what I know of Jordan, I believe him. I even told him he can use the phrase everyone else if using if that's the game, but he needs to know it's not license to use the word anywhere else since the words have a different meaning for us English speakers. Of course, as the boys grow up they'll all have their time experimenting with certain words. It's natural. But, hopefully our years here won't create a bunch of "potty mouths"!

Krant Artikel

2009-11-20T16:03:00.007+01:00

Below is an English version of an article which ran in the sports section of a regional newspaper, Krant van West-Vlaanderen.

In the Clarke family, which will return to Oregon next year, Andrew, Cameron and Jordan play with Olbak-Bissigem

"We will miss Belgium"

Kortrijk - Kevin Clarke works for Barco and came to Belgium 2 years ago for a 3 year period with his wife Stephanie and four children Andrew, Cameron, Jordan and Nathan. Adapting in Europe was a big challenge because no one spoke dutch. Athletics, skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, soccer with FC Marke and, most of all, basketball with Olbak-Bissigem fill most weekends of this sports-oriented American family.

"I was offered the chance to come for 3 years to work in Belgian Research and Development of the Medical Imaging Division of Barco," Kevin starts the story. "We work hard on the optimalization of the displays of computers in the medical area. With cancer diagnosis, for example, it's very important to see the smallest details."

"We saw Europe as a great opportunity for the children to learn other languages and to better learn about the world. They'll develop skills for learning, face challenges and have opportunities to travel," says mama Stephanie. "We've visited not only neighboring countries around Belgium, but we've also visited Italy, Greece and more."

Just Like Chinese

"Andrew (15), Cameron (13), Jordan (11) and Nathan (8) had it tough at first. The 2 oldest took longer to learn the language because their fellow students could speak to them in English. The younger two only heard dutch and learned the language more quickly, " mama Stephanie.

Andrew found learning dutch "pretty hard", mostly because he started in the first year of junior high. "I had to start with 3rd year french and I learned it through dutch. A tutor helped me get through the first months, but it took a year before I started to be comfortable with it," says Andrew.

"With help from my teacher I understood most things by the Christmas vacation and I could help myself," remembers Cameron, who attends Don Boscocollege with his older brother Andrew.

The youngest two go to the elementary school.

Jordan: "After 3 months the dutch was easier, it's <<> Chinese. It took a while before I could say the "eu" and "uu" vowel sounds. I couldn't hear the difference.

Nathan: "Dutch wasn't too difficult. Before the February vacation I got used to it, thanks to my teacher. After a year and a half I was pretty fluent."

One or more sports

In the US the four boys enjoyed doing a lot of sports.

Andrew: "I wasn't used to playing basketball through the whole year. And, in the US we would make plays, here it's mostly cut and run. In America I also played baseball."

Cameron: "2 years before we came to Belgium I didn't play basketball. I did gymnastics and played lacrosse, a sport that is popular in the US. Basketball is a cool sport, but it's hard work. I like playing only one sport through the year instead of two or three. You can get better faster. I also like to run, like my dad. I might join the sports club in Marke. The 400 and 800 meters are good lengths, I think."

Jordan: "Basketball here doesn't seem that different than in the US, but here kids play the same sport throughout the year. In the states we can play a different sport each four months. It was soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. I miss getting to play different sports."

Nathan: I play soccer in Marke, but I want to try American football when we go back to Oregon.

Cirque du Soleil

Because of all the busy sports activities of Andrew, Cameron, nathan and Jordan, the weekends are very full.

"The weekend days often begin pretty early," nodded father Kevin, who is also athletic and took up skateboarding when he was 40. "We take the boys all over and when there are free times sometimes I go with Cameron to skateboard in the skate bowl on the Leie."

Papa Kevin: "Cameron let us know that he would be happy to return to Europe after he's done with school. In the summer vacation we'll go back to the States. Then it will be a new adjustment for the kids. He dreams of being an acrobat in the Cirque du Soleil and has a natural talent for circus techniques, like juggling and unicycle riding. I also have a unicycle and I'm learning to ride it."

One thing is certain: the Clarke family of Rodenburg in Marke isn't bored for a moment. Surely not when the grandparents came for a visit.

"It was fun to have the grandparents here. They didn't stay long, but it was good for them to see their grandchildren doing their activities."

Naar Ice Mountain

Andrew: "The coolest things in Belgium are fries, chocolate, my friends, steak with mushroom sauce and going to see the Cirque du Soleil in Brussels last year. That was cool. The coolest time we've had was a long weekend with our grandparents, in the forests in Wallonia and going to a city with a castle."

Cameron: "Belgium is cool and there are fewer rules than back in Oregon, like at swimming pools. Here you do what you want at the pool, no one cares. The coolest thing was when my cousin Travis came for a visit and I showed him all about our life here. Just like Andrew I'm looking forward to seeing my friends in America, but I would be okay with staying in Belgium. My favorite places in Belgium are Paradisio, the coast and Ice Mountain, the indoor ski slope in Komen."

Mama Stephanie: Where we live in America there are mountains so we ski and snowboard every winter. We miss that here, which is why Ice Mountain is such a good place for them."

Jordan: "I love it in Belgim but I miss my friends in Oregon and our house and other things. Luckily there's the internt and computers to stay in contact."

Nathan: "My opinion of Belgian foods: I like taartjes. My favorite places are Planckendael and Ice Mountain, but I'm looking forward to going back to Oregon. I want to come back here sometime to come visit my friends."

Father Kevin: "We want to thank everyone for the support and especially our neighbors who are always available to help."

Visitors

2009-11-18T15:28:00.000+01:00

One of the fun things about living in Europe is visits from friends and family. This fall we have 3 sets of visitors.

The first visitor, in late September, was my friend Renée. She and I have been friends since we were in jr high and having her here was great! It's fun to play tour guide around our town and the unique towns in our area. And having someone to show around is a great excuse to go to all my favorite cities, restaurants and cafés. Renée and I spent time in Kortrijk and Marke (where we live) and also in Brugge (2 different days, it's such a special town) and Ieper. But the HIGHLIGHT of her visit was a 4-day girls weekend in Paris! We caught the fast train to Paris (with less than 2 minutes to spare before the wheels started rolling!) and made it to Gare du Nord, checked into our hotel and were walking up to Montmartre by 11:00 Thursday morning. (First pic is us having (expensive) coffee, tea and croissants on the main corner in Montmartre.)

Between then and Sunday night at 8, we walked all over, went in a few places, had lunch at small cafés, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, out to Verseille, and hung out. Some highlights of the weekend were our champagne toast and half hour hanging out at the top of the Eiffel Tower, going into Sacré Coeur and St. Chapel, walking the Latin Quarter, touring Montmartre at night, and finding little cafés for lunch each day. We laughed until we cried more than once, took an insane number of pictures (especially considering almost all were taken of the two of us, always in the same position, at arm's length. Our running joke was that we'd have all these pictures of us that looked the same except for the touristy thing behind us), and we enjoyed everything.

We managed to get to the Musée D'Orsay on Sunday when it was free entrance, we had an unbelievably short line when waiting to go up in the Eiffel Tower, and the day we went out to Verseille, which was supposed to be the rainiest of the weekend, ended up being the most sunny of the weekend. Everything seemed to go our way. Sunday night we headed to the train station feeling like we did all we had hoped to do and more!

Just under 2 weeks later, Kevin's parents came for a visit. They had spent a week in Provence, in the south of France, before coming north to Belgium, so they were over jet-lag and ready for 5 days with us. We had our normal busy weekend full of sports and they were able to see nearly all the boys' games. We played games and hung out between matches. Monday, when Kevin was at work and the boys were back at school, Shrimp, Tricia and I went to Antwerp for a few hour of touring. Tuesday we made sure to go to the market so they could stock up on Belgium chocolates to take back with them and Wednesday morning they took the train back to Brussels for their return flight. It was a very fun visit.

Next up my mom will be here with us for the holidays. We're very excited to have Grammy here, and to spend our first Christmas in Belgium. (We went back to Oregon for our first Christmas after moving here and were in Egypt last Christmas.) She'll be here for 2 weeks and after the boys are out of school and Kevin takes time off work we plan to go to some of the cities around here to see their Christmas lights, we'll go ice skating, and enjoy all the hoopla. On Christmas day we'll go to mass at a church in town where Jordan and Nathan's school chorus will be singing. Should sound beautiful in the stone church.

As of now, there aren't any visitors scheduled to come after the new year. Hopefully things will come together for others to visit, and we still have a few trips on our wish list to try to make before we move back next summer.

Things are heating up

2009-10-15T20:32:00.000+02:00

Cameron came home from school today and told us about the circus training all the kids in his year are participating in at school. Today the kids got to try out all the cool stuff - unicycles, juggling equipment, huge balls to walk on - so the circus coordinator could assess the kids' talents. They will work toward each kid showing 3 different "circus acts".

Cameron was juggling clubs while riding a unicycle and the coordinator told him he was good at juggling the clubs. So he asked Cameron if he'd like to try juggling flaming torches (while standing still). He said he could teach Cameron to do it. Cameron (of course) said "Oh yeah!" And when the coordinator asked 2 teachers if it would be alright if he did it, they said they thought he should be able to do it. So, we're supposed to pick up some juggling clubs so he can practice at home and then later the guy will teach him how to do it with lit torches. The shows are at the end of February. I'll keep you posted!

Rome/Tuscany trip

2009-09-10T17:07:00.000+02:00

Wow, our 2 weeks in Tuscany, beginning the last week of July, were about the best time we've ever spent! We had the time to see a lot but also took time to relax and play at our rented villa and in the pool. It was such a great balance!

(For pics of our trip: www.flickr.com/clarke-family. There were too many to choose from for me post them in the blog.)

We flew into Rome and spent 2 days exploring the city. It was 100+, but we managed to keep from melting with frequent water breaks and a water spray bottle - we kept spraying the boys and the little breeze cooled us off (for about 5 minutes!). We walked all over, from the Coliseum to the Pantheon and from the Trevi Fountain (where we threw coins in, of course - so we'll be going back) to the Spanish Steps at night. We went to the Vatican, saw the Castel St. Angelo and crossed the Bridge of Angels. It was a quick 2 days, but we weren't going to be in Rome at all originally, so it was a bonus.

We drove north out of Rome to our villa in San Giovani Valdarno, in the heart of Tuscany. After two days touring Rome in the sweltering heat, we gave ourselves the next 2 days off. We stayed at the villa, swam in the pool, played games, got groceries and hung out! We were really ready for touring again on the 3rd day and we spent it in Florence.

We managed to miss the train to Florence (the trains after commuter hours don't run as frequently, and we were not awake during commuter hours) so we drove up. We went first to the Basilica di Sant Maria del Fiore (with it's Duomo). We walked around the outside, checked out the huge golden (replica) doors of the baptistry and then climbed (463 steps) to the top of the cupola. The frescos on the inner wall of the duomo are pretty amazing, especially viewed from the walkway that passes in two places on the way to the top. The view from the top was a good way to see the layout of the city.

After climbing down, we walked through the markets in the surrounding streets and squares. After picking up a few things we found a pizzaria and had lunch and a rest. Afterward we headed to the Academy and home of Michaelangelo's David. The boys were amazed at the size of the statue. Jordan remembered learning that David holds the stones for his slingshot in one hand and he pointed them out on the statue. The boys also thought it was cool to see the unfinished statues, with the figures "emerging" from the stones they were cut from. There were other interesting sculptures and paintings, and a photo exhibition, too. The rest of our visit we wandered the streets a little. Because we planned to return another day we head back to our villa before too much longer. Everyone was in the pool about 10 minutes after we got back. The next day we had "off" from touring and swam and hung out at the villa.

Our next day of touring took us south, toward Orvieto. We had seen the city on it's rocky crag on our drive north from Rome. We drove up to the central square near the "zebra stripped" cathedral with beautifully intricate, colored mosaic patterns along the outside walls. We wandered into the heart of the town from there, looking at all the ceramic displays and charming alleyways. We wound our way to the old caves where pottery was once made. That explained why most stores sold ceramics (not leather goods like some other towns). From the caves we headed across the city toward St. Patrick's Well, which is, well, a well. It was made when the pope was somewhat in hiding in Orvieto and wanted a source of water in the case of a siege. So a very big well was carved out of the volcanic tuff, with 2 corkscrewing passagways big enough for a donkey and cart to pass through them. This was done so one could be descending and another ascending at the same time. It's amazingly precise and detailed, and simple and deep. We hiked to the bottom (which was very cool and refreshing) and back out again (to where it was 100+). From there we walked back into town, had granitas (think slushie) to cool off, bought a few ceramics and headed on to Civita di Bagnoregio.

Civita is a very small town (12 official residents) and sits on a sort of rocky peak. The surrounding area is lower, making Civita stand out like an ant hill. It's a quaint town with lots of ivy and plants softening the stonework of all the buildings. Very picturesque and unique!

The next day was another day of "rest" and swimming, and had the added bonus as being the "boys and dad cook dinner" night! They picked lots of tomatoes, some zucchini, onion and garlic from the garden at our villa, and with some pasta cheese and sausage from the store made a lasagna from scratch. It was fun to watch them figure it out with Kevin's help and all had a hand in putting it together. It turned out delicious, too! It was the best lasagna we'd ever eaten. They made another one during the 2nd week.

After our play day and yummy lasagna dinner, our next touring day started with Siena, in the heart of the Chianti region. As we crossed over the hills from where we were staying, it was amazing how suddenly we were in obvious wine country. Vineyards, wooden casks at driveway entrances, and old-looking wine estates. We first headed to the main square. It is sloped and shaped almost like an arena. There's a horse race each year around the square where riders wear medieval costumes styled like the old ones worn to represent the prominent families. At the lower end of the square is the city hall and tower. The tower in Siena is one of the highest we've climbed. And, it has parts that are barely wide enough to get though and low enough that Andrew had to duck to keep from hitting his head. But the climb was worth it for another great city view from the top of the tower.

Next we walked around Siena's "zebra church" and decided to go into it. The floors were covered with marble scenes, huge paintings were hung along the walls and there were statues and carvings everywhere. There was a "library" which had large books with large print and musical scores. We think these were medieval song books. They were precise and beautifully illustrated, with vivid colors. The walls and ceiling of the library were covered in frescos.

When we'd seen enough of Siena, we continued on our way to the small, walled city of Montereggioni. This was a defensive post for Siena to guard against armies from Florence. The city wall is still in tact, as well as many of the 14 towers along the wall. We were able to walk along a section of the wall and see what the soldiers saw as they scanned the horizon toward Florence watching for signs of an attack.

Last on our day's agenda was San Gimignano, another medival, walled city north of Montereggioni. San G. is larger and has many buildings with their towers intact. The story there is that the big families of the town started building towers bigger than their neighbors, to show their "larger" status. At one time there were 70 towers, about 14 of which are still standing. Because the "one-upsmanship" was getting out of control, the city put a limit on the height of new towers being built. (Of course, some ended up higher than the limit anyway.) San G had lots of shops and felt pretty "touristy". Kevin and the boys think they had the best pizza of the trip there from a shop on the main street. We drove back late in the day along the Si-Fi (road between Siena and Firenze/Florence). Late at night, below a full moon, we had an almost-midnight swim in the pool.

We headed back to Florence for another visit next. This time we parked along the south side of the Arno, not far from the Pont Vecchio. A class of painters was just setting up along the river, angling toward the bridge. There were about 8 women and a man who seemed to be the instructor. We crossed another bridge and went toward Piazza della signoria. This piazza is filled with sculptures and fountains. The great thing was that some of the statues were of references the boys know and that tied it in for them better than some other random "art" we've been seeing. One well-known character was Perseus with Medusa's head (which Cosimo put up as a warning of what would happen to anyone who thought about attacking his city). There were also pieces with Hercules, a centaur, and a fountain with Neptune surrounded by water nymphs (tribute to Florentine success at sea). An interesting series of statues of women depicts the women of Florence through time, each with a different style of dress and head piece.

From the piazza we headed down to the Pont Vecchio. It was very crowded and lined with jewelry shops. Along the open parts of the middle of the bridge, we saw (not for the first time) locks attached to the low wrought-iron fence surrounding a statue. Not just a few but large clusters of locks with couple's names written on them. One was even engraved with a couple's names and a recent date - like a wedding date. We got into a conversation with another visitor and a local and found out that couples put their names on the locks and lock them to the bridges or other places around the city and the legend is that if you do that the couple will always stayed "locked" together. There must have been thousands of them - every so often city workers will come and cut all the locks off, and then there's room for new ones to be added.

At the other end of the bridge we stopped to look at the paintings a woman was starting to put out for display. We liked 2 small ones of different styles but couldn't choose between them. So we bought both and took a pictures of the boys with the artist.

We continued from the end of the bridge toward the Baboli Gardens, but unfortunately it was closed (it was the first Monday of August and they close the first Monday of the month). So we steered back into the middle of town to find the gelato shop owned by the family who owned our villa, Gelato Caribe. Others told us that their shop is where the locals go for the best gelato. And it was the best we had in Italy (we had some nearly every day). It's a small shop but the consistency and flavor of their gelatos was delicious. Because we were renting the villa from them, we were given 2 containers of it each week with 2-3 flavors in each. We were very spoiled!

When we headed back to our car, we were happy to find that the painting class was still there after 4.5 hours! We took some time to look at each of the paintings. It was cool to see the difference between the styles of all 8 paintings! A few were very realistic and others were more impressionistic. Some seemed better than others. One woman had done her piece in pastels on black paper and it had a very unique look to it. Very intense, dense colors.

On the drive out of town we wound up to the top of a hill on the south side of the Arno. From there we had a fantastic view of the city skyline, the Pont Vecchio, Baboli gardens and the river. Very impressive.

Two days later we headed west out toward the Mediterranean Sea. We planned to be in Pisa in the evening for a trip to the top of the tower, but we wanted to start our day swimming at the beach. Our landlords recommended we go to Castiglioncello and we found the "beach" there. (The beaches in no way resemble what an Oregon would think of as a beach. It was small, crowded, and rocky. But it was also warm, light blue water, and in Italy, so we dealt with it.) We spent some time at along the rocky beach, swimming in the water. Then we moved to another area with some small cliffs where the boys spent hours jumping off. They loved being able to jump off/dive off/flip off the cliffs with some other kids. And it was a beautiful setting! We could see Alba (Napoleon's exile) and another small island off the coast, and the water was such a vivid lighter blue.

Later in the afternoon we showered off and packed up for the drive to Pisa. We were able to drive into the walled city area to park and walked over to the leaning tower. It was fun to see the boys reactions as they realized just how much the tower is leaning. We had time to walk around, watch people pretending to push the tower over for photo opps, check out the surrounding area and get some dinner. Around 7:30 we were in line, tickets in hand, to go up in the tower. Groups of 25 or so are allowed up in the tower for about 20 minutes. We all marched up the spiral steps, peeking out as we rose toward the top. It was fun to notice the the pitch as we wound up - on one side it felt like we were going almost flat and on the other side it would seem steeper. On the "sides" we pitched either left or right. The stairs are worn to one side or the other from everyone "leaning" their way up. The boys commented on how weird it was to be up so high, on something that was leaning, with only a small railing to keep us from falling. We had timed out tour to be at the top a little before sunset. It was a beautiful night and the city was glowing. Gorgeous view! Before long the guard was ushering everyone back to the stairs for the climb down. We could have stayed at the top for hours!

The next 2 days we enjoyed hanging at the villa and driving through some small nearby towns. In the evenings we drove up into the hills, one night using "the force" to find a way to the top of the hills near our villa. We were able to get to a tiny town, way up high, where there seemed to be a youth event, a party or dance in a central building. There were 5 or 6 old men sitting on benches along the side of a small square, talking and watching the night unfold. As we started back down the hill we had a wide view of the valley, with light twinkling here and there in the dark. We stopped at Loro Ciufeena, a small town perched on the steeply cut edge of a stream/river. There were a couple of stone bridges crossing over to the main part of the town and a gelato store was at the foot of the bridge. The owner had lived in England for years and then came back to Loro Ciufeena, where she and he husband grew up, and now had the gelato store and 2 bars in the town. There was an old mill a little further down the way, but it was too dark to see much detail on it. The town had good out-of-the way vibe and we went back the next night, too.

On our last day in Italy we drove back south toward the airport in Rome. We made one stop on the way to see the city of Arezzo. We started at the basilica of Francesca, where Piero della Francesca painted a cycle of frescos depicting the Legend of the True Cross. The frescos are impressive and full of symbolism. All the walls of the basilica were covered in frescos, but unfortunately not all are in good condition, with huge portions having fallen away over time. We walked throughout the city, looking out from the walled gardens at the high end of town, past the cathedral and through a couple of squares. We didn't have a long time, and needed to continue on to Rome, where we caught our flight back to Belgium.

Our two weeks in Italy were great. It was such a good pace, to have the play days in between the touring. And although it was extremely hot (hovering around 100 most of the time) the heat was surprisingly bearable. Truly a unique experience.

A sunny September day

2009-09-08T14:21:00.001+02:00

I'm feeling like such the "hip" European chick today. It's one of those beautiful September days - blue skies, a few whispy clouds, cool breeze. I slung my green suede Prada knock-off "mail bag" over my shoulder, hopped on my bike and spent an hour and a half biking my errands around Marke (our little town) and into Kortrijk (the bigger city).

I went to our local post office to mail some insurance doc.s, stopped by the bank for some rolls of euro coins, dropped Andrew's Baptism certificate to the church office (from his confirmation last spring) and popped into the bike shop. I've been having trouble with one (crank shaft?) coming loose and it needed replacing. The guy was able to do it while I waited. (He's seen a lot of business from us in the last 2 years, nice guy.) Then I rode along the back way into Kortrijk. I headed to the library first. I had about a dozen books I've read in the last year that I liked but won't read again so they were donated to the library. They have a pretty sizable English section (a lot of books from English writers, but others, too) and I've been very glad for it! While there I put in a request for the english copy of The Little Prince from the library in Gent. We have it in French, by I'm too rusty to read/translate it for the boys, so the English one will help. From there I continued further into town and found some socks for Andrew and a belt for me in one of the shopping districts. I peeked in a couple of clothes shops, but I'm not ready for the warm fall fashions on their racks. Next I headed for the grocery store to pick up the soap I forgot in my big Monday shopping trip yesterday, and on the long ride back out to Marke I picked up a baguette at a small bakery and added it to my basket. I felt pretty Euro, with my baguette sticking out of the basket on the front of my bike.

Being the beautiful day it was, I passed many other bikers enjoying the day. Lots of smiles and head nods on a day like today. I could do a morning like that every day! Loved it!

Hoarfrost (Jan '09)

2009-09-02T22:00:00.001+02:00

Last winter we didn't have as much snow as in the NW, but we did have a long, cold winter. Weeks of freezing temperatures, clear blue skies and frozen ponds. There was a week or two when we had thick hoarfrost most mornings. (Marine are coming in off the North Sea?) The frozen "spikes" were sooo long. I went out to get some photos. I kept meaning to put a couple in the blog, but better now than never?

Views from a few Belgian Teens

2009-08-28T08:36:00.000+02:00

Last spring I went to an 8th grade English class as a guest speaker. I was asked to tell them a little about myself and then we opened it up for them to ask me questions they had prepared. The majority of the questions had to do with what life was really like in America, especially for teens. At the end of the time, I had a few questions for them, including how they would describe their life in Belgium to an American teen and what they think life is like for American teens. It was at the end of the class time, so it became an assignment the teacher had them work on before the end of the school year. I had an email from the teacher yesterday - she'd gone back to school to get ready for the new year and found 3 of the assignments and enclosed them in the email. They're below, just how they were written by the kids...

P.S. The kids are in only 2nd year English. They learn English quickly partly because they hear so much of it in music and in movies (played in the original language with Dutch and French subtitles). Because of the sources, they know and use English swear words a lot, even at young ages!

**********

Hi Stephanie!

I'm Alex. It was nice to meet you! I'm 14 years old ans I live in Kortrijk together with my parents and my brother. I don't have any sisters.

My dad is a booking agent, he's the manager of several American music bands. So I have a lot of contact with American people.

My life is all about music, sports and friends. I'm perfectly happy with the life I have and I would never want to change it.

I play soccer, my 8th year allready, at KV Kortrijk. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have soccer practice and every Saturday I have a game.

When I come home from school I do my homework and in my sparetime I go out with friends or chat with them on the computer.

In the weekends or vacations, most of the time I go out with my friends to parties, gigs and/or festivals or just chill out somewhere in the city of at their places.

My favourite food is steak with French fries. I could eat it every day, I love it!

And of course, I love fastfood too, but I wouldn't eat it every day. I'd become wy too fat :P

I'll end my letter here. If you want to know more about what I do or how I live, shoot your questions!

See you!

Greets

Alex

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I think it's a bit like in the movies: a place where the people eat a lot of fastfood and where there are a lot of big people. I also think that there is a big change because Obama is the new president. I really think it's a good thing that he's the president now.
I think that there are a lot of big shopcities where you can sometimes buy expensive brands for a less exensive price, but there are alos shops that are really expensive.
I really hope that I can visit the US to know if my conclusion is right or wrong. I do think that our view on America is determined by movies like The Simpsons: The Movie and stuff. I also know that my view is a bit exagerated and that probably isn't right, but I still stay with my conclusion because that is a proof that we really think that the American life is like in the movies. (Lisa)
**********
Hello, I'm Merel ans this is what my life looks like. I live with my parents and brother in Bellegem. My brother is 12 years old. i have 2 rabbits ans 4 guinea pigs (but 2 are my brother's). Every Wednesday I go to the art academy and on Sundays I go to BlueBerryHill (That is an indoor climbing club). At school I am also busy with art.
Actually, I'm glad that I live in Belgium because I don't like it if it's too hot. There is also a disadvantage to living in Belgium: everywhere you hear it is going bad with Belgium (crisis, the earth, environmental disasters,...) Later on all those things will be ours to deal with. Sometimes they call us the All Gore generation because we are growing up with the warming up of the Earth.
To conclude with, I like animals and street theater. I hope that I sketched an image on how my life looks like exactly.

Ice Mountain

2009-08-25T15:01:00.000+02:00

We (finally) went to Ice Mountain, an indoor skiing/snowboarding facility 20+ minutes from our place. We've driven past the big, supported ramp (looks a bit like a huge airplane wing) but only Cameron had been there before, a few months ago. We got there as the evening rates started - 21 euro/person for unlimited access between 5 and 11 p.m, including equipment rental. Not a bad deal! Cameron was decked out for snowboarding, Jordan, Nathan and I suited up for skiing. J and N have skied before but not often. The inside of the facility is pretty cool, especially for snow boarders and beginning skiers. There is a large "hill" with a snowboard park (jumps, rails and other things to "grind" on) on one side and a flat hill on the other side, with tow ropes on either side. Then there is a smaller hill, with a slower tow rope for beginners.

As soon as he was geared up, Cameron was out the doors to the snow and headed up the tow. He spent the next 4 hours (minus a dinner break) going up and down the hill. He's a natural snowboarder and after getting good air on a big jump a bunch of times, he tried the bigger jump - with a 5-6 foot gap between the take-off and landing - and cleared it without problem. He was in his element. The younger two started on the smaller hill, to get used to skis again and to get used to the pull of the tow rope. It didn't take long for them to get their ski legs going and they moved to the big hill with the fast tow. They were very happy to ride up and zoom down, making only enough turns to keep from crashing. There was a jump at the bottom of the run and they went for it every time. They could have stayed for days!

Starting on the ride back and over the last few days, I can't count how often they've asked when we'll go back and if there's a chance we'll go again next Sunday night. They obviously loved it, so we'll be going back. For me, having skied since I was in 4th grade, it wasn't much of a challenge and there wasn't much variety. When we go back I think I'll go for snowboarding, it'll be more challenging. (I've done it before, but not often and it's been a while.) But, it was a pretty cool place (pun intended), especially when standing at the windows at the top of the big hill and looking out at the green, warm, summery countryside below (windmill included).

Even after 2 years!

2009-08-15T17:02:00.002+02:00

Even after 2 years, we apparently still don't know when stores are open or not around here! We've come to know they're not open as much as we were used to in the US. But, we didn't think twice about going to shop for some dress clothes for Kevin on a Saturday afternoon. The mall was closed! We called our friend who informed us it was August 15 (we knew that much) and that it was a national holiday in honor of Mary ascending to heaven. So every store is closed for the day! Every Belgian knows this, like they know Dec. 25th is Christmas and July 21 is their "Independence Day". But we had no clue.

We also planned to get some dinner things, but we'll have to make due with what's in the fridge. All we could do was laugh - we still have no real clue about the store hours even when we think we've got it figured out. Oh well.

Later this weekend I will get the Belgian holiday schedule out and make sure I have all the days on my calendar!

Home

2009-07-23T05:45:00.007+02:00

I'm going to take advantage of my jet lag - so bad this time for some reason - and add a post about our trip. We returned Monday morning from 17 days back in Oregon. It was SO great to see family and friends, it's always good for our souls. We brought our neighbor, Charlotte, from Belgium, who was a great travel companion and a real trooper.

We flew in Friday, July 3 and headed on down to my mom's beach house that night. 24 hours of travel door-to-door. We adjusted to Oregon time over the weekend at the coast with my mom. We watched the local parade - 100 years this year, so classic - and participated in the games on the beach. Nathan joined in a "coin hunt" in the sand and the other kids ran in 50-yard dashes, horse races and relays. Kevin even ran in the dash for "boys over 30". Such a fun small town 4th of July atmosphere. We had a bonfire on the beach with s'mores (of course) and watched the fireworks. Loved it.

Monday it was back to Lake O, all of us staying at my mom's condo. - Kudos to my mom for dealing with 7 extra bodies for 2 weeks. She does so much to help make our stays enjoyable. Getting favorites like root beer and Chai tea, supplying towels and other utility stuff and making yummy meals (when we're not out running around). - We spent Monday doing some errands and miscellaneous things, and Kevin and the boys went to the West Lynn skate board park.

Tuesday after lunch Kevin and the 4 boys went to his parents' ranch for a visit. They stayed until Thursday afternoon. (He'll add more about that in another post.) While the boys were gone, it was time to get some shopping done. Charlotte had a list of things to get while in America. So she, my mom and I went out Tuesday afternoon - to Target and some places in Washington Square. Wednesday, Charlotte and I headed to NW Portland, starting the day with chai tea, hot chocolate and pastries at St. Honore's with my friend Marissa and her daughter Bella. Charlotte and I walked and shopped around NW 23rd for a while and then took the trolley to the Pearl. We had lunch at Piazza Italia, very yummy pastas, with ice cream next door for dessert. From there we headed to Powell's Books before meeting up with my mom for a ride back to LO. We did a little more shopping Thursday morning. Between all the trips we managed to find nearly everything on her list, and a few extras!

Thursday the boys came back from the ranch and we all went to our house - the Levin's house for now - for play/swim time and a BBQ. It's always fun with the Levins and the boys were very happy to get back in the canal. They jumped in, floated on rafts, kayaked, canoed, swam and jumped on the Keating's huge water-trampoline. After a delicious dinner, we boated over to the other side of the lake for ice cream at Tillamook Ice Creamery (I think it has a new name?) It was a such beautiful night! (Thanks Levins!)

Friday morning we hit the road to Seattle to see all the cousins' families. We stayed with Eric and Ann-Marie's family and spent Friday catching up with them. Saturday we went to watch Travis' game - they won - and I spent some of the time with myfriend Noemi. I got to see her new home and catch up. Afterwards we were back to E and A-M's and had such a great night eating outside on the patio, talking about everything and nothing, and feeling very much "home" with them.

Sunday was the big Foster/Clarke cousins' reunion. We headed over to my brother, Jack's, house. There were 22 of us - my mom and aunt, me, my brother, and Kevin's 2 brothers' families. 11 cousins aged between 14 and 8. We had a big brunch at Jack and Renae's beautiful home and then went to see the M's play against the Rangers. It was a blast to be there all together, and it was Charlotte's first experience with Major League baseball. (She learned lots of details about the game from Kevin's brother, Eric, while watching Travis' game Saturday.) She was a super Mariner's fan, foam hand and all. The kids had fun throwing popcorn at each other, goofing off and walking around during the game. Oh, and watching the game, too. After the game we drove back to LO.

Monday morning we dropped Kevin at the airport and then spent our week meeting up with friends. The boys had lots of time with their buddies: there were a bunch of sleep-overs; we spent a few afternoons at the swim park; we went to a 1 am showing of the new Harry Potter movie; I had a couple of good hikes and lunches with girlfriends. It was a great week of catching up with a bunch of our favorite people. There are some people we were hoping to see that we just didn't find a chance to see. It's always tough to try to get in as many visits as we can while staying sane and not overdoing it.

Overall it was just what we needed in the way of a touch of "home". While we'll make the most of this last year ahead in Belgium, we'll be very happy to move back next summer!

Mother's Day

2009-06-05T15:08:00.009+02:00

This year Mother's Day was on a Saturday for me. (Kevin was in Oregon that weekend and on Sunday one of the boys had a basketball tournament all day). So we made an adventure of it one day early. The boys and I went to Paradisio, an hours' drive south into the French-speaking half of Belgium. Paradisio is a huge nature and animal park. A couple of the boys had been there for a school trip and raved about being a very cool place.

The first thing we did was to walk through the area with at least 20 large bird cages. There were so many types of birds with the

most vivid colors! Dozens of vibrant, rainbow-colored parakeets, bright yellow canaries, goofy-looking black and white birds that jumped from branch to branch in their cages. Bright pink flamingos burning red, pointy-billed birds, lapis colored ones, emerald green shimmery ones. We walked through a "tropical rainforest" enclosure with wildly colored birds. It was pretty amazing.

In the tropical bird enclosure area, there was an access to the rope bridge which traverses the park. It spans from one end to the other and has stops along the way with "Japanses-style" towers (Cameron's description) and stairs down into other areas of the park. When lots of people were walking on a section of the bridge, it really started bouncing. It was hard not to hold onto the sides to keep from loosing balance. The boys thought it was great and, of course, tried to make it shake as much a possible to jostle each other's balance. Thankfully the people in front of us were far enough in front of us that I don't think my guys caused them any harm. (No one yelled at us, at least.)

After passing out of the bird area the bridge lead us out over the japanese gardens. There was a river-like pond of koi swimming around and exotic birds roaming the edges of the water. Along the winding "river" was a Chinese-styled covered walkway, complete with pointed, curved ends on all the roof sections. It was covered with blue tiles and the woodwork was very stylized.

The first stop along the rope bridge was at the massive playground area. It had plenty of the standard playground fare - regular swings, tire swings, climbing walls, rope netting towers for climbing, and teter-toters.

And then there were things hadn't seen before - beyond seesaws. The had standing platforms the kids could stand on, and in addition to going up and down, they pivoted on the center stand!

The boys spent an hour or more running from one thing to another, pairing up to ride these balancing structures. There was an area for older kids with higher bars and more possibilities for really flying. There was also a climbing pole with a standing pad that would slide down if perfectly horizontal. But if the person standing on it pushed down with one foot to make it diagonal, then it would grab and not slide. It had a "handle" piece that did the same thing and, once he figured out how to make it work, Cameron was able to make it to the top of the pole. It was a tough challenge!

There were so many animals. The next ones we came across were the small climbing creatures. They were roaming freely in their areas, with no fences or bars to keep them away from us and vice versa. Once area looked like a safari camp" and there were a few very small monkeys climbing on and around the buildings and coming down to see if anyone had something tasty for them in their hands. Next was a lemur area, with a group of lemur mamas and babies hanging out in the shade of the bushes. The gaggle (or whatever you call a group of lemurs - anyone, anyone?) was only 3-4 feet away from us. I was able to video a couple of the youngest ones playing chase and trying to knock each other from the low branches of a nearby tree.

In the rest of the park we saw kangaroos, bats, penguins and birds of prey. There was also a tide pool area with urchins to hold and live shrimp, starfish and baby shark eggs. We didn't have time to go into the marine exhibit building - there was just too much to see. We can't wait to get back there later in the summer to see some of what we skipped and to show Kevin the cool things we did see. It was a GREAT way to spend the day with my guys.

Giving directions (also about language)

2009-05-19T09:40:00.000+02:00

I get asked for directions often. One time when I was out for a run, a guy pulled over and asked for directions in French. As I tried to answer, he picked up on the English tones. He was originally from Mexico and learned English while working in LA. We ended up talking French and English because he was originally from Mexico, but married a French girl so now he lives in France. His English was spotty, like my French. But between the two languages we managed to communicate pretty well. He said it fun to speak English because it was more like being "home" on the other side of the world. I've tried to put him in contact with another Mexican friend of mine who married a Belgian guy and lives here now. Haven't heard if they connected.

Last week while out for a long run, a big truck pulled over and the older man driving asked for directions. Because he was in the dutch speaking area, he asked for directions in dutch. But when I started to tell him where to go (since I've gotten lost enough to know some of the roads now) he muttered "Oui, oui", which showed me he was normally French speaking. (I've come to the conclusion that the language people use for their little words, like yes and no, when talking about something else, is usually their mother tongue.) So, when he used the "oui" I finished giving him directions in French. He seemed to understand me. Hopefully he found Dottenijs.

Another time 2 ladies, who sounded like they might be Italian, came right up to me and asked, in English, if I could tell them how to get to the center of town. I wondered if I looked English-speaking, and asked them how they knew to ask in English. They said they'd asked a few people and English seemed to be the language the locals understood. (They didn't speak dutch.)

One guy I gave directions to asked me what we were doing for lunch. I turned him down, but it made me grin.

There was a time, early on, when I gave directions and as soon as the guy drove off I realized I'd given bad advice. Oops. I try to only give directions if I'm really sure I know the roads.

Vormsel (Confirmation)

2009-05-19T09:39:00.009+02:00

Andrew and Cameron had their Confirmation Saturday, May 16 at our small, local chapel. Cameron is in the year kids do their confirmation in Beligum and we had Andrew do it also since he'll be past the age for it when we return (I think). It was more interesting for them to go through the process together.

The boys were in a small group which met every 2 weeks or so throughout the year. Their group leader was Joske, a lively, friendly woman who was a fun leader for the boys. They had things to discuss in their group and then did outreach things like helping selling at an Amfar World Store, visiting elderly people at care centers and helping out at a soup kitchen downtown.

As the confirmation drew closer, all the groups met in the chapel to practice singing for the mass and the order for the service. The group of women who put it all together did a good job of getting the kids involved in the mass. They sang, brought things to the alter, gave readings and two girls played violins.

All the kids wore robes for the service. We didn't try Andrew's robe on until the morning of the confirmation. (I know, not smart of me not to do it sooner.) Because he's older (and taller) than the other kids, the largest size of robe didn't go past his shins. This wouldn't have been a problem except that he put it on over his long, nice shorts (that all the kids were wearing) and I took one look at his skinny ankles sticking out the bottom and realized he'd look much better with long pants. Except his only long pants these days are jeans! So I grabbed a pair of Kevin's dress slacks, had Andrew put them on and he used his belt to cinch the waist. We all had a good laugh at Andrew in Kevin's bulky (on Andrew) pants!

The priest in red in the picture below is a Dom at a monestary and served as the Vormheer (confirmation bestower?) at the mass. (He stepped back onto the alter to reach Andrew's forehead to make the sign of the cross on it. Everyone chuckled at that.) Our neighbor, Jan, (also in the photo) stood in as godfather for both boys. He took the boys and Kevin on a day trip of river rafting the day after the confirmation. The boys told me it was one of the best days they've had since we've been here. Jan's brother arranged for the boats and had all the gear, and Jan's daughter, Charlotte, went too. (More about the raft trip in another post.)

The regular priest, Priester Michael (below), presided over the mass. Very nice man.

The whole group after the service.

Andrew's getting an A in English!

2009-05-12T13:00:00.001+02:00

English is added here in 8th grade. So, this year Andrew has his only "easy A" in English, and he spends that class time in the library working on his dutch. He only needs to be in class for the exams or presentation days. At the beginning of the year, his English teacher told him she won't "correct" his pronunciation to the British English they teach here, since he'll be returning to the US. However, because of his American pronunciation, he's not able to get 100% for the class. A 95% still helps to off-set his scores in dutch, which naturally will always be lower!

Lost in Translation?

2009-05-11T21:03:00.010+02:00

Okay, I think language (or languages!) is going to be a recurring. Multiple languages spoken in one small county, with other countries and different languages with in a few hours' drive, lends itself to a comedy of language errors.

There are lots words in dutch which have the same or similar spelling to the corresponding word in English. There are many, many words that are completely different. Then there are the words that are virtually the same, with a similar definition, but not the same meaning. 2 have come up lately:

The word normally translates to normaal in dutch, but the meaning is a little different. When we use normally, it's to show what is normally done, in contrast to what will be done in a certain situation. As in an answer to "Where do we find this item?", someone might say, "Normally it's over there, but now it's on the other side of the store." But here, normally is how things will be done. Kevin once asked when a meeting would take place, and he was told that "normally it is in the afternoon", leading Kevin to ask when it would actually take place. Again he was told "normally it is in the afternoon".

The other word is aggressive or agressief in dutch. Kevin was at Cameron's basketball game and yelled "Come on guys, get aggressive!" Another dad, who yells things out during games, looked over at Kevin with a surprised look, laughed and said, "Ya, okay, be aggressive!" That seemed fine. But at another game Kevin again yelled for the boys to get aggressive and he got a funny look from a more quiet dad sitting next to him. Kevin told the man he thought aggressive might not mean what he thinks it means. The guy told him it means something more like get brutal, more violent. Not as appropriate for a basketball game.

A few months ago, Kevin told the boys to go "borst" their tanden, conjugating borstelen, the dutch word for brush. But borst is breast. So he basically told them to "go breast your teeth". The boys had a good laugh at that and still use it as a joke.

Most of my trouble comes from having French in my head from living in France for 6 months in college. Here I've focused more on dutch so I can get around and talk to the boys' friends when they come over. But I find that if I need to use French in a situation, I tend to mix it with dutch. My mind isn't great at keeping the two separate. It lumps words for both in the single category of "foreign language". The good thing is that people here know both languages, but as someone pointed out - it's not easy for them to listen and know which language to listen for when I accidently mix them. But it's fun to be in Wallonia (the French half) and be able to rattle off a bit in French. The boys were pretty impressed with this at first. Then they learned enough french in school that Cameron told me once "I used to think you spoke pretty good french, but now I kind of know better". Ouch! (Nothing like humble kids, eh?) And of course the boys blow Kevin and me out of the water when it comes to speaking dutch. They translate for us now. It's a little weird to have times when you need your kid to help you understand something or to be understood. Makes me think about all the people who move to new lands for a better life and they're in the same situation of not being able to communicate. Only I know I'm only here for a few years. If I were here permanently I think I'd do more to immerse myself so I could be more comfortable. Hmmm....

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAVIS - 13 TODAY!!

2009-04-28T09:50:00.000+02:00

Travis (Revisited)

2009-04-28T09:30:00.007+02:00

A few more photos from Travis' time here, now that all the photos are in the computer.

The guys spent a lot of time on the trampoline (until it broke),

We made a trip to a small but full-of-variety candy store,

Travis and Cameron rode with Kevin on one of his runs,

And we had a fun day playing at the beach and riding funky bikes.

Trampoline Drama

2009-04-28T09:18:00.004+02:00

While the boys' cousin Travis was here for spring break, our trampoline sustained an injury. (It was less related to Travis being here and more related to all the times there are too many people on it at once.) The timing wasn't great since we had some sunny days the second week of their break and they complained more than once about not being able to jump. Surprisingly, the replacement parts were less than 5 euro and Kevin swapped out the bent pieces yesterday. I'm happy to report that the trampoline is back in service! It just has to last another 14 months of abuse!

Cameron's a Teen

2009-04-28T09:10:00.002+02:00

Though Cameron has been acting like a teenager for a while now - 'tude, cockiness, longer hair - he officially turned 13 last Sunday. Teen-moments aside, he's a great kid and has grown up a lot in the last year or two. He headed off this morning for a 3 day school trip which should be a lot of fun. Friday there is no school, Saturday 4 of his buddies come over for a night of pizza, movies and goofing off - and jumping on the rehibilitated trampoline. Life is good!

Mountain Dew

2009-04-17T12:29:00.003+02:00

There are some things the boys miss from America - one is Mountain Dew. After nearly 2 years, we stumbled on a place that recently started carrying Mountain Dew. We bought out their 12 can supply while my nephew was here. The only other time we've seen Mountain Dew while in Europe was in Egypt - the can looks similar, but with the arabic text, the name slants the other direction.

Lode Redux

2009-04-15T18:04:00.006+02:00

I'm adding some photos of our friend Lode - after using a picture of him in my porta-urinal entry I thought I should add some of the cooler shots we have of him. We've gotten together with Lode and his wife and daughter a few times and we think they're great people. They showed us around the Gentsefeest (where the urinal was) and it was a fun afternoon seeing all the music groups, entertainers and crowds. Another fun time with them was when they came over one afternoon for dinner about a year ago, and Lode treated us to some of his "circus tricks". These included juggling while on a unicycle

juggling with machetes (kinda rusty machetes),

juggling hatchets, juggling with fire sticks,

and the big finale - breathing fire!!

Needless to say we were all amazed, mesmerized and I was a little worried Cameron was going to want to try all! We watched with our mouths hanging open - it was the coolest thing we've ever seen!

Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-15T04:09:00.007+02:00

My friend and neighbor, Carla, arranged an egg hunt for our kids and the 3 young children of our other neighbor, Nele. Carla planned things and picked up lots of chocolate eggs (the size of real eggs) and she had some painted decorative eggs, too. I went over with Andrew and Cameron to find hiding spots for them Sunday morning.

Then we all went over to Nele's house to tell her kids Jordan had heard something and he thought it was the paashaas (easter bunny). Nele's son, Tristan, thought he had heard something and his sister, Aglae, thought she heard "sniff sniff" (bunny sounds). So we all went in the empty yard between their houses and the kids started finding eggs.

Nele's youngest, Guitan, is not quite 2 and he found a chocolate egg next to the fence of the chicken yard. He looked at the egg and looked at his mom and said "kippen" (chicken). He realized eggs come from chickens. (Smart guy.) He wanted to put the egg through the fence to give it back to the chicken! So Nele unwrapped the egg so he'd see it was chocolate and gave it back to him. We laughed about him wanting to give it to the chicken. Then Nele realized it wasn't in his hand and thought he must have eaten it very quickly - but no! He had put the chocolate egg through the fence and it was on the grass in the chicken yard! The chicken didn't seem to appreciate his gesture and wasn't interested in the egg.

The other kids had fun "hunting" and in little time found all the eggs (with a little hinting from my guys). The yard has trees and garden things and eggs were in all the branches and bushes, nooks and crannies.

Nele's daughter had a knit cap she was collecting the eggs in and the rest of the eggs were collected in a big bag. When the kids had found all the eggs, they put them all on a table and took turns choosing some to keep. It was very sweet.

While the older kids did this, Guitan was interested in the fish swimming in the little pool in Carla's yard. He and Jan, Carla's husband, had a lovely discussion about the fishes.

It was fun to see the smiles on the little ones!

Travis was here!!

2009-04-15T03:28:00.006+02:00

We had a fun time last week with a visit from Cousin Travis (Cameron's age) from Seattle. He flew in early Friday morning the 3rd and after sleeping until 2 p.m. started his visit going to get the boys at school - it was the start of the 2-week spring break here! He settled into Cameron's room (Travis is on the left in the photo). That night he went and practiced with Cameron's basketball team. He thought the training was easier than his practices and he had fun. The coach speaks some English and 2 other boys besides Cameron speak English and translated things for him. Otherwise he just watched and followed what the guys were doing for drills.

The boys had a sunny weekend to catch up with their cousin - jumping on the trampoline, hanging out, shooting hoops, biking, and generally goofing off. Cameron and Travis spent one night in a tent in the back yard, on the trampoline. They made it until about 7 am then came in the house. They figured they'd had about 4 hours of sleep.

Then we had some rainy days. We went to Technopolis (like OMSI) near Brussels, we watched some movies, the guys played some games (including on the computer). Andrew, Cameron and Travis met a friend of Andrew and Cameron's to play pool and go bowling one day. Andrew slept in Cameron's room with Cameron and Travis and 2 nights Cameron and Travis moved into Andrew's room. There was a lot of laughter! We introduced Travis to wursten, Beglian chocolate, chocolate breads for breakfast, stofvlees, frites, and more.

The sun came out again at the end of the week and Friday we headed to the North Sea for the day. It was a perfect beach day - sunshine, light wind, and not too crowded. The guys were in heaven, playing paddle games, jumping off a sand dune, a couple even made it into the (freezing) water. Then we rented "low-rider" bikes for some of the guys and a 4-seater for 3 of us and we rode along the waterfront. (We took our neighbor/friend Charlotte with us, too. She's coming to Oregon with us on our visit in July!)

Easter morning, Travis had a long day flying and was back home, unpacking and telling stories that night. We're glad it worked out to have him come visit, it was a fun treat for all of us and something he and our guys will never forget!

Greetings

2009-04-05T09:09:00.001+02:00

I really like how the people around here make a point of greeting each person in a group when they arrive somewhere. I did that "back home" with hugs for friends or head nods for others. Here, usually everyone at least shakes hands, kisses the left cheek of friends or gives 3 kisses (left-right-left) when meeting the relatives of friends. (3 kisses is more formal and less familiar.) Older kids do this, too. I was reminded of the greetings yesterday when I took Cameron to his game warmup. His cousin Travis who's visiting this week was with him and as they walked to the entrance, 3 of Cameron's teammates held the door and waited for them. Cameron shook hands with each teammate, as usual, and they each extended a hand to Travis, too. The parents of the teammates on the boys' teams have been very kind and welcoming to us and greet Kevin and me mostly the same way they greet each other (even though we're new and not as well known). I'm still not always sure about who to shake hands with and who to kiss, but it works. The only time one of us has had trouble with it was the time Kevin went to shake the hand of the (short) mother of one of the boys' teammates. As he put his hand out, she leaned up to kiss his cheek and managed to accidentally grope her instead. - Can't say we're not friendly!

From what I hear, it's 4-kisses in France; however I saw men on the same basketball team greet each other with 2-kisses, starting on the right. They were in the French-speaking part of Belgium, so maybe that's the difference. So many "protocols" - it's part of the fun of being here and trying to learn the customs.

Cameron's Roesty Spetter wedstrijd

2009-04-03T12:54:00.002+02:00

Cameron is a finalist in an art competition connected with the Ieper Kattenstoet. I hadn't heard of this before, but it's a big celebration around cats with a cat parade in the city of Ieper (and has been for 42 years or more) and during this year's event, Cameron will participate in the 2nd stage of an art competition. It sounds like I'm not completely sure what exactly the competition is, aside from it being art related, because I'm pretty clueless about it all. I did google it and found the following YouTube video of a past parade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKUJsRtLFls

Cameron was given a letter by the school Director (principal) from the Kattenstoet saying that Cameron's entry was one of 60 finalists from all over Flanders, and he was the only one at his school to be in the final. From what Cameron tells me, the kids designed/colored a drawing of a cat. He added a baseball cap to his (maybe originality was a plus?). For the 2nd phase of the competition, we take him to Ieper on the 26th (his birthday!!) where he will be given a plaster cat to paint/decorate like his drawing. He'll have 45 minutes to get it done. Then the 60 statues will be judged and awards will be given in different catagories. I have no idea what the catagories are, but I get the impression there is more than one. What little I know about all this I've gleaned from a first read through the congratulations letter Cameron brought home. Being that it's in dutch, I'll be asking my neighbor for help with translating it later so we know all the details. And if/when there is something more to tell about it, I'll post it. With pictures. Wish him luck!

"That's Belgium"

2009-03-19T10:25:00.001+01:00

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

2009-03-17T09:14:00.005+01:00

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

2009-03-13T13:59:00.006+01:00

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

2009-03-04T13:06:00.020+01:00

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.

Good Deed for the Week

2009-02-20T09:31:00.003+01:00

I remembered 2 days ago that for a while I was trying to make sure I went out of my way to do a good deed at least once a week. This was to be something out of the ordinary, daily stuff. I don't know when I forgot about the habit, but I was inspired yesterday to get back to it. I was reminded of it because often my good deed was to pick up the beer cans littered along the roads I like to run on. Sometimes I've had the boys come with me after school with their bikes and we'd clean up the whole route. When I headed out for a run Wednesday I was disappointed to see how many cans were along the road. Within about 5 minutes, I passed a plastic grocery sack with 3 empty beer cans in it. I picked up the sack, crushed the cans and continued carrying the sack to put any more empties I saw into it. Before I finished my run the sack was full to bursting - and I had stomped down all the cans! Belgium doesn't have a refund program for cans. Bottles of beer and wine are refundable here but for some reason the cans are not so many get thrown out of car windows along the roads.

Het is jammer! (It's a shame!)

Dancin' at School: the Belgian version of Hokey Pokey

2009-02-13T15:24:00.005+01:00

I parked at the school a couple of Fridays ago to pick up the boys. All the kids in the school were out on the playground with music playing and everyone was pacticipating in the moves for the songs. The first song I heard when I got there was something in dutch, with certain movements (like sleeping, waking up, brushing teeth, running, swimming, skiing....) like all the things you do in a day. The Hokey Pokey was next, first the Belgian version and then the English one. It was very fun to see the kids not quite sure which arm or leg to put in (right or left) when the English one was on. Then there was another English song with dance steps called out (The Cha Cha Slide). The kids cha-cha'd, jumped, stomped and did the slide for that one. It was so fun to see all the kids laughing, dancing and enjoying the dance time with their teachers joining along.

(Zwarte) Kattentocht

2009-02-13T10:14:00.004+01:00

On a recent Friday the boys' school had a (Zwarte) Kattentocht. This event, usually done near halloween, is partly in lieu of trick-or-treating. Plans to have it last October fell through and it was rescheduled for February. During the Kattentocht, groups of kids and parents make a circuit around the area surrounding the school and stop at stations for activities or performances. At the first stop, next to a barn a parent was dressed in a Hello Kitty costume and music was playing for the kids to dance. Then the kids were given stuffed "black cat tails" to put in the back of their pants (like, well, tails). The game is to see how many tails they can grab off each other. Most kids ended up with one tail "caught" but a couple of the older girls got 2 or 3. All the kids were given a prize (a red flashing bike light with the school logo) which they wore as they continued on their way. Then it was through the fields to the second stop where a moving truck with it's back end open was set up as a theater with benches for the kids to sit on to watch. There was a thick white sheet stretched across the other end of the truck, with dark blankets along the sides and parents put on a shadow puppet show to music. It was pretty cool. The third stop had 2 parts: first a drinks, fanta for the kids and a shot of flavored Jeniver for the parents (no OLCC here), the second part was a short play about a black cat that follows a wizard around until he gets a great wizard to come and take it away. This was done in a nature resource site shaped like a huge, white dragon-fly, adding to the mystique in the dark. The last stop I can't describe because Nathan was running ahead with other kids and we didn't get there. He was hurrying to get back to the playground where a frituur (fries maker) was set up. The Belgians like fries with everything. There was also a bar with beers and wine, something the parent group sets up at all school functions (again, no OLCC). The procedes from the bar help cover the costs of the events. Overall it was a fun night, especially since it wasn't raining and the moon was just past full. A good night to be out wandering - it felt like October.

Vacations/Vakanties

2009-02-13T10:08:00.004+01:00

We really like the vacation schedules here in Belgium. Because one of our main reasons to move here was to be able to travel around Europe, the longer vacations really work to our advantage. Instead of lots of long weekends in the school year with 2 weeks off at Christmas and 1 week for Spring break (as it was in Oregon), we have only a couple of long weekends with two 2-week breaks and two 1-week breaks. For example, next week we have the week of "Krokus Vakantie" off school. We aren't making a big family trip that week (Kevin will be in Oregon for work the first part of the week) but Jordan and I will be able to take his 10-year-old-trip-with-mom toward the end. In April we have a 2-week spring break. In the fall there's a 1-week fall vacation and 2 weeks off at Christmas. All together there are 6 weeks of vacation during the school year. The school year is longer, running until the end of June. This made last summer see short, but we'll take it so we can take advantage of the long breaks to make trips to places like Egypt for Christmas.

Driver's Ed

2009-02-10T19:03:00.006+01:00

It's been interesting to drive here.

First I had to get used to driving a stick shift again. (nearly everyone drives stick shifts here.) It came back to me pretty quickly, but given that I'm driving a stick shift mini-van it's a bit different than my old Honda Civic.

The other thing I noticed back when I first started visiting here was that traffic really flows. There are more round-abouts and merges than hard stops, so the traffic really seems to keep moving. There's still traffic and slow going during the rush hours, but otherwise you can slow and roll through most intersections. In fact, not moving is what throws things off. Whenever I was tentative in the beginning, that got me into trouble on the road. Once I saw a small car turned into because it didn't merge when a big truck assumed it would go.

There's a "no right turn at a red light" thing here. It drove me crazy at first to sit at one of the few stoplights and no be allowed to turn when there were no cars coming! I've only forgotten that once.

The idea that "the person to the right has the right of way" is very strong here. There's a clear outlook here on who has the right of way in any situation and people will go out of their way to make sure their rights are not usurped. This includes on neighborhood streets, unless there are triangle marking that denote when one street yields to another. There are streets that are the "through" streets, but on them you have to give way to side streets that come from the right. This doesn't make sense to me and I've seen it ignored many times.

At the same time, there seems to be greater respect for other drivers' rights. There are a lot of streets which are barely wide enough for 2-way traffic. Then people park on the sides of the roads making room for 1-way at a time. For vehicles to go either way, one car has to give way to the other. I find most people are "fair" about whether they wait or go. I think it's because they have to do it so much around here that it would really cause trouble if too many people didn't follow the rules. So, if the parked car is on your side of the road, you give way to the oncoming car. Similarly, if another car is already coming between parked cars (where there is room for only one car to get through) you allow that car to continue. The times I've messed up on this I've been amazed at how determined the other drivers can be about making sure I know that I'm the one who needs to get out of the way. One woman kept driving toward me until I backed up a car length or two to make room for her to get by. (The parked car was on my side of the road, after all. I didn't get past it quick enough.)

When there is doubt about who should go, the signal here that you're letting the other person go is to flash your headlights at them. This caused me some confusion when we first moved here. I kept wondering what I was doing so wrong that would make people flash their lights at me! I kept thinking that I should have the right of way, but they were flashing at me. I didn't realize they were agreeing with me. In fact, people flash their lights a lot to other cars, to bikers or walkers. It also helps keep things moving.

When I was in Oregon last month I know I sat at a red light when I could have gone ahead and turned. (Okay, it probably happened more than once.) And I had to remind myself to make full stops at stop signs. Oh, and I kept trying to hit the clutch when coming to a stop and after I got back to Belgium I kept forgetting to depress the clutch when starting or stopping my van. Habits are hard to break.

"Language Arts"

2009-02-08T14:24:00.006+01:00

It's pretty amazing how kids can absorb a new language. Our boys have been exposed to the dutch language in school for 18 months while we've been in Belgium. They hear it every day for 7+ hours and they talk to their friends mostly in dutch. (Some of the older boys' friends like to practice their English, too.) It's to the point now that at times, when they are telling us something (in English), they get stuck on a word that their brain has come up with the dutch version for and they can't think of the English word for what they want to say. It goes something like this:

Cameron: "In school yesterday we were doing something in our W.O. lesson. We read information and made observations and then we ... had ... to .... to... we had to... "

Mom: "You can't find the word in English, can you?"

Cam: "No."

Mom: "What is the word in dutch?"

Cam: "Uitrekenen"

Mom: "You had to figure it out?"

Cam: "Yeah, we had to figure it out!"

This has happened a few times lately and I'm sure it'll happen more in the next year and a half, especially when they're talking about things they do in school. It's pretty cool that they are so comfortable with the second language. For Andrew and Cameron, they've also added French in school, 2nd and 4th year levels. It's a pretty cool thing how multiple languages are just part of life here and everyone is able to converse in 2-3 languages minimum. Of course, when the next country over can be less than 1 hour away and uses a different language, it's important to be able to communicate!

Nathan-O-Lantern

2009-01-28T20:46:00.006+01:00

Nathan has been losing teeth, too bad it's not close to Halloween - a little orange face paint and he'd be all set...

Bread

2009-01-26T16:59:00.007+01:00

Most of the bread here in Belgium is very fresh and preservative-free and can be bought for under 2 euro ($2.50 or so). It took us a little while to get used to the drier texture, but we soon grew to prefer it to the breads we used to get at Albertson's. Most people here are pretty particular about their bread. They like it fresh, usually same-day fresh. Without preservatives, it doesn't stay fresh more than 2-3 days. So many people buy their bread each morning. It's wonderfully fresh from the bakery (another difference, there are lots of bakeries - they're like Starbucks). Fresh bread is such a big thing that if the stores are closed (which they are more often than in the US), there are options for getting bread. There are bread machines. I'm not talking about the kind where you put in the ingredients, plug it in and a few hours later you have a home-made loaf. I'm talking bread vending machines. At a gas station not far from our house there are 3 vending machines: one with "drank" - cans of beverages (including beer), one with "snoep" candy and snacks, and one with "brood" loaves of bread. When I told some Oregon friends about this, not surprisingly someone asked "how good could that be?" But you'd be surprised - it's actually not bad at all. Because if it was bad or stale, no one would buy it! So the machine is refilled each day with fresh bread. It's not the best we've had, but it certainly cuts it for sandwiches or to go with spaghetti on a Sunday night.

A different kind of week

2009-01-26T15:48:00.005+01:00

Last week was not a usual week for our family. Kevin was in Belgium working and taking care of the boys without me. The guys all had a good week - they made it to practices and games, survived the week and had some fun without me. And they missed me a little.

I was in Oregon having a testosterone-free week seeing my mom and girlfriends. Aside from saying hello to a couple of the husbands, I spent the whole week having chai teas, lunches, dinners and visits with most of my favorite women! It was so great! I love all my guys, but do feel outbalanced by the men I live with. It was such a treat to spend so much concentrated time with all women! I knew it would be a good thing when I was making the plans, but I underestimated just how much it would feel like I'd recharged my batteries. Thanks to everyone who made time to get together with me in Oregon; I'm thankful for every visit and all the time I spent with my girlfriends. Living out of the country these 3 years is a great thing and we're doing all the things we hoped to do while on this family adventure. But it's nice to know, it's heart-warming to know, that all my close friendships are still intact, as if I hadn't moved. It's a great feeling!

Ieper

2009-01-12T21:33:00.003+01:00

We walked on a frozen moat last Sunday!

Last weekend, after so many weeks at or below freezing, some of the local ponds and small lakes froze over enough to go out on. This included the moat around the walled city of Ieper (Ypres in french). With the youngest 2 boys at scouts, Kevin, Andrew, Cameron and I went up to Ieper and walked on the moat. There were lots of people out on the ice walking, ice skating, sledding and playing. It was such a festive atmosphere! And the sunset was beautiful. We talked to a man who was with his granddaughter. She was using a chair/sled her grandfather had made for her mom when her mom was little! She sat on the sled and had 2 poles with nails on the end that she used to propel herself along the ice. (You can see some photos at www.flickr.com/clarke-family. The girl on the home-made sled is the first photo.)

I also took the boys and some friends to one of the small lakes on the way to the boys' schools. The guys were in heaven sliding around and using a skateboard deck (just the wood) on the ice. By Monday morning a warm front had come and none of the water was safe to walk on anymore. It's good we went when we did.

We were jealous of all the snow in the NW (though we know it was a little much for some and hindered travel plans). But it looked like a lot of fun and the week off of school in LO had them lamenting that we weren't there this Christmas. We were thinking of all our family and friend in the NW!

It's FREEZING!

2009-01-06T08:03:00.005+01:00

We haven't had much of the fluffy white stuff, but it's not because it hasn't been cold enough. This morning it's unofficially -8 c (according to the temperature gauge on my Opal Zaphira). The kids biking to school look sooo cold! We've had cold temps for so long the ponds have a 6-7 inch layer of ice on them! Brrrrrr!

Egypt for the Holidays

2008-12-31T13:18:00.005+01:00

We spent last week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula for Christmas. We had sunshine every day, temperatures in the low- to mid-20s (celcius) and lots of time in the pools and Red Sea. We saw some cool fish and blue-lipped clams while snorkeling. The boys lived in the water, playing water polo, going on the slides and generally being fish in the pools and the sea. It was nice to relax, play and hang out together. Sitting on the beach, looking out at the deep blue water and lighter blue sky was great, though hearing Christmas songs, like "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" while in a swimsuit felt a little strange.

We attended a Christmas Eve dinner with a few hundred other hotel guests in a huge tent across the street from our hotel. There were rugs on the floor and colorful Egyptian materials hanging between the poles holding up the tent. There were lights strung all over and buffet tables along 3 sides of the tent. It was all pretty impressive.

The boys learned the art of "haggling" over purchases in the souvenir shops. They were able to negotiate good deals on their treasures. Andrew and Cameron each came back with colorful paintings on papyrus which they spent a long time choosing. Jordan found a cool frog that opens up to hold special things and he and Nathan liked the clear pyramids with a scorpion in the middle. The base of the pyramid even glows in the dark!

All in all it was a great week and went by very quickly. We'd certainly go back, if the opportunity presented itself, though there are still so many other places we'd like to see.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (in spite of the NW winter storms). Happy New Year, or as the Belgians say - Good End to the Year!

Snow days in Oregon

2008-12-17T08:55:00.003+01:00

We keep hearing about the snow days in Oregon! The boys wish they were back in LO, staying home from school and playing in the snow with friends! We had a big snow in November, on Andrew's birthday (a Sunday) but it was gone by Monday morning. Good playtime!

Where have we been?

2008-12-17T06:40:00.005+01:00

The schools here have longer vacation times with fewer long weekends, so we have 6 weeks of vacation in 1 or 2-week blocks during the school year. This works well with taking trips. Some of our "big" trips have been to Interlachen, Switzerland with a stop through Luxembourg (1st summer); Mallorca, Spain (October 2007, Kevin and I); back to Oregon for Christmas '07; London and Bath, England (visited the Lautzes, fun to see them and their area); Paris (Kevin and I) Provence, France (I got to go with a friend and her family); Koln and Heidelberg, Germany (summer 2008 with another stop in Luxemberg); Ardennes (in southern, French-speaking region of Belgium). Next up: A week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for Christmas!

Locally we've been to a lot of the small and not so small cities within an hour's drive around this area. Brugge is a favorite, as well as Lille, France. Lille is home to the closest large book store with English books. Sometimes we just need some fresh English reading material. Ieper has a lot of charm with a lot of history, tragic history. The coast along the Nord Zee is a favorite - my boys love a beach anywhere. We've been over the boarder to Holland while at the coast and want to explore further along the dutch coastal area more next summer. Gent is a larger city with lots to see. We've been there a number of times, including the Gentsefeest - a large, city-wide celebration with performances all over in the city squares and streets and parks. There are multiple things going on all the time for the week or two that the Gentsefeest runs. They build a stage over the canal in the main area with big musical acts. We will definitely go back next summer. We've been to Brussels a few times (more to the airport) but haven't spent enough time there. So many towns have things to see and do. We keep finding new place to check out. We get around partly when we head to other towns for basketball games or events.

We've loved all the places we've been to so far. It's great how close the countries are and how much each holds onto it's uniqueness. Even within Belgium the different areas can have a distinctly different feel.

I'll fill in some details about the places in another post. All part of catching the last 18 months.

Belgium "Did you know..."

2008-12-12T10:19:00.003+01:00

We've learned some interesting things from our friends and acquaintances in Belgium.

* Some interesting trivia (which may or may not stand up to scientific validation):

* Chocolate is part of a balanced breakfast (or lunch or dinner)

* Chocolate croissants and donuts are okay for lunch, but juice boxes are unhealthy (?)

* Ice-cold beverages are not good for you because it binds up your stomach

* School playgrounds are not always for public use

* White socks are only for "sporting"

* Beer should never be consumed from the bottle. It should be poured in to a glass, with different shapes being best for each different type of beer

* Big hedges make good fences and can be trimmed to have very sharp-edged corners

* Many kids on bikes and cars going both directions can fit on a one-lane road

* Below freezing is not too cold to ride one's bike to town or school

* It really does make sense to list the date in day-month-year order

* Bread is best fresh baked and with no preservatives

* When stores are closed, ie: Sunday afternoon, bread can be bought from a gas station vending machine (and it's not bad)

* Metric really is easier to work with

* Coffee is not a "to go" kind of thing - it's something you sit down for and enjoy with a little slice of cake and piece of chocolate.

* Just about anything can be cooked in a deep-fat fryer - friets, chicken nuggets, hamburgers...

* Not only can alcohol be consumed at school functions, it can be a "moneymaker" if a parent group runs the bar

* Half-time at a sport competition (ie: basketball game) can be a good time for a drink at the adjoining cafe/bar found at all sports venues. And if the game is early, such as during a tournament, then 10 am is not too early to have a beer or a glass of wine. (After the game is another opportunity.)

* You can't turn right after stopping at a stop sign in ever country.

* "Friets" (a.k.a. french fries) really originated in Belgium - American soldiers, unsure of the borders, ate friets and thinking they were in France, called them French Fries. Belgian Friets are very good, due to the double cooking method - one time in hot oil to cook the potato and a 2nd time at in much hotter oil to crisp the outside. - It does make a difference!

Enough for now. I'm not saying which of these I buy into, or which ones are based in fact. I'm just passing on what we've "learned". More will be added, especially after my family has time to think about what they want to add.

So it begins...

2008-12-12T05:55:00.001+01:00

Hello. Here's the first entry, not spectacular but it's a start. I've been thinking of starting a blog since we moved from Oregon to Belgium (18 months ago!). Since we're nearing the halfway mark of our 3 year stay, it seems like now or never. After a few false starts about how to start this off, I thought I'd offer a list or two.

10 Things I Didn't know before moving here

1 - How to speak dutch (work in progress).

2 - The Flemish dialect spoken often in West Flanders is very different from dutch.

3 - Most Belgians say they speak "a little English", but they actually speak English well.

4 - Movies in Belgium can be seen in Original Version (often English) with Dutch and French subtitles (part of reason why their English is good).

5 - When someone invites you over for dinner on a Sunday, it starts with cake and champagne at about 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.

6 - When it's your birthday, you offer chocolate or candies to others.

7 - They don't use checks, at all. And many places don't accept credit cards.

8 - Things are more expensive here; there is a very high tax rate.

9 - Wildplassen meaning "urinate in public", something many Belgian men do, regularly, anywhere, everywhere.

10 - There is little love lost between the 2 halves of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia. It's 2 seperate entities, in a country small enough that 8 could fit into Oregon.

10 Favorite Places We've Visited So Far, in no specific order

(more about them later)

1 - Switzerland - Interlachen area, Hiking in and around mountains and valleys

2 - Brugge it's 30 min. drive away, great city (we watched the movie In Brugge, in Brugge)

3 - Island of Crete, Greece beautiful beaches, amazing gorges,snow-capped mountain

4 - Heidelberg, Germany and surrounding small cities, amusement park

5 - Provence, France, gorgeous, sunny, lavender, stone villages to explore on every hill

6 - Mallorca, Spain - Island in Med. Beautiful, drove end to end

7 - London & Bath, England - fun to explore

8 - Paris - very manageable to see a lot in a long weekend, great to get lost in

9 - Gent, Belgium - lots to see, many events, July big city-wide, week-long party

10- Cities within 30-45 minutes: Ieper, Doornik, Brugge, Ronse and Lille, France, etc.

11 - Have to add the coastal cities, my boys love being at the beach

Okay, need to stop for now (kids are all waking up for school). More later.