Your Guess Is As Good As Mine...

Suffice it to say, there must be a lot of differences between English and Swedish.

Cat's Night Out

While in this case curiosity did not kill the cat, it certainly made for a long, uncomfortable night for him.
We just got back from a great 3-day trip to Stockholm, only to find hot, muggy conditions in Belgium. To let in some fresh air, we opened all the windows in our house, screened or not (we've put screens in about half; they are almost unknown in most of Europe). The unscreened window in the bathroom opens to a small, extremely steep part of the roof, which empties into a horizontal metal rain trough.
It was dark outside by the time I closed the non-screened windows (queue the scary music...). Little did I know that big, gray Max had somehow decided to take a road trip out of the window, somewhere onto the trough below (or so we assume). The only way we learned of this was 6 hours later, as were waking up. We heard his tiny, muffled meowing and only slowly grasped what had happened: the guy had spent the entire night outside the window, somehow perched 15 feet above the deck on a trough measuring no more than a couple of inches. To say that he was happy to be back indoors is an understatement. He may never venture near a window again. Then again, Max is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I guess we'd better check carefully each and every night...

Sunday Morning Market in Waterloo

This is a real treat, being able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables nearly every Sunday in the year, at the Waterloo train station, only 2 miles from our house. They sell just about everything here, from produce to purses to pillows to olives (one stand must have 15 different kinds) to suitcases to watches to escargot to house plants. As you can see, it's quite colorful.
As for prices, well, they are like most everything else in Belgium: not cheap. You can still occasionally find a bargain (house plants are a good example), but they're few and far between. Here are a couple of examples of what we pay for things:
* loaf of fresh bakery bread = $4.30
* apples = $1.30/lb.
* tomatoes = $1.09/lb.
* oven-roasted chicken = $9.75
* Gouda cheese = $9.70/lb.

Park...and Pay

Here in Belgium, you can tailgate someone, inches behind their rear bumper at 80 MPH, and no problem. You can do 100 MPH in a 55 MPH zone - also, no problem. As a motorcyclist, you can make your own "3rd lane," bobbing and weaving between the two "real" lanes of the highway - no problem once again. The bottom line: in 2 years here in Belgium I have never, ever seen any car pulled over by any police officer. Never. Once in awhile you can get caught by a speed camera but most of them function no better than the Belgian government.
Now, here's what you do if you're a real road criminal: park in a residential area with more than half of your car off the road (these streets are narrow!), up on the curb and partially on the sidewalk. This may sound odd, but it's quite common in many parts of Europe, especially where the roads are more like lanes. But evidently not so in Waterloo, Belgium.
Last Sunday we parked this way (exactly the same way two Belgian cars were parked), a block from a huge flea market in town. Imagine our surprise to return to find a parking ticket on the windshield. Apparently, a bit too much of the car was off the road.
So, what would be the appropriate penalty? Considering our license plates clearly identify us as non-Belgians, I'm thinking a warning might suffice. Dream on. OK - how about a fine of $25-30? Hey, you're in Belgium. The fine? $130! That's not a typo : $130. Because a pedestrian might not have a full 4 feet of sidewalk for his dog to poop on.
At least I'm not bitter about it...

Automated Bread

Back in the day, when I was a college student in Germany, I was amazed to find half-liter bottles of beer for sale on the street 24/7, in large "automats." This was especially handy on Saturdays, when stores usually closed right after lunch! Elsewhere I've been taken by the clever practice of having fresh cut flowers available in an automat... right across the street from a cemetery. And, of course, condom machines are ubiquitous.
But until coming to Belgium I don't recall ever seeing bread for sale on the street, again in a glass-and-plastic automat. You throw in your 2 or 3 Euros, and out comes a fresh loaf of one of many different kinds of bread. Where the beer machine was a life saver on Saturday evenings, the bread machine comes in very handy early on a Sunday morning.
By the way, if you read the little sign at the bottom of the picture and are wondering, "pain" is not a cognate - in French, it means bread!

The Politest Politicians

Last night there was a debate on Belgian television, with 4 politicians all running for a high government office arguing this and that. Since all were French speakers from the southern part of the country, I imagine most of the topics centered on how terrible the politicians from the northern (Dutch speaking) part of Belgium were. Each was probably trying to demonstrate to the public how they and they alone could truly hate the other part of the country. Kind of like a "round table discussion" on Fox News, where each "expert" takes his/her turn at dissing the president, vying to see who can come up with the most outrageous claim. But always in a fair and balanced way. Right.
But what made this debate absolutely unique was that at the conclusion, each of the 4 candidates pulled out a shopping bag and distributed gifts to the other 3. I'm not joking here. It appeared that this was the high point of the debate (it sure would make our own a lot more interesting to watch). The gifts ran from the mundane (e.g., the female candidate got 2 large bouquets) to the fashionable (one candidate, known for his bow ties, received two new, colorful ones), to the downright bizarre (one male candidate gave another a pair of very yellow boxer shorts). My French wasn't good enough to allow me to catch the political significance of the underwear, but, once again, I am not making this up.
If all Belgian politicians could carry this politeness over into their law-making, they might actually be able to have a functioning government in Brussels.

Yellow boxer shorts; I still can't get over it! Could you imagine U.S. presidential debates where each candidate had a gift for the other? Think of how much fun this would have been with Bill Clinton running...

A New Pastime for Mom and Dad

You know, just last week Lucie and I were saying how much we missed chugging beer. It's been years - make that decades - since we partook in this thrilling, cerebral hobby.
Fortunately for us, Robb had his going-away party in our backyard and he and 15 friends introduced us to a little drinking game, where you first have to chug down a small glass of beer (at least ours certainly were, fortunately), then flip your plastic cup onto its top. The first team to complete the tasks wins. As it came down to the wire, Lucie and I readied ourselves for the challenge. She took a huge early lead (face it, I had lame teammates, or at least that's my story) but had predictable trouble with the cup-flipping. Nearly catching up, I finished off my brew and then barely got a chance to make a larger fool of myself before she landed her cup. I was toast and she now has the bragging rights until our next chugging contest. I'm predicting she will hold the trophy for a very, very long time.