The Rome of the North

Yup, that's what they call Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. I guarantee you it's not because of similarities in winter temperatures - I just returned from a week there and the high was 29 degrees.
No, it's because of the number of churches. And you know what? I don't think it's much of an exaggeration. You can't walk a block without stumbling onto yet another Jesuit, Catholic, Orthodox, or whatever kind of church (even one single Lutheran one). As for the architecture of the churches, it's definitely eclectic, running from Gothic to classical Greek.

Dubbing Movies...On the Cheap

Just returned from a business trip to Vilnius, Lithuania, which, in essence, is a long way from everywhere. That's not to say it wasn't pretty (and very cold) - it was. But it didn't take long to realize this is not a western European country. Just take TV in the hotel room for instance. As is usual, there were several U.S. shows, all dubbed into Lithuanian.
It's an interesting dynamic: the national choice to dub or not to dub. A few of the northern European nations leave almost all films and shows in the original language, adding their own subtitles. And, by no coincidence at all, the average spoken English in these nations is just about 5% better than our own. But most, to include Belgium, France, and Germany, instead choose to dub voices over the original. In Germany, they've truly turned this into an art form. Besides high-quality sound and timing, the same man "plays" Jimmy Stewart, for example, by dubbing every role he ever appeared in. The same is true for nearly every major U.S. movie star. So, when a German hears that particular person on, say, a TV talk show, he immediately says, "Hey, that's Jimmy Stewart!"
In Lithuania (and most other former East Bloc countries, as I understand it), things are quite different. I guess it's a question of cost. What they do is use a single (it's always a male) voice for all the parts - to include the female ones! As if that's not odd enough, a friend of mine (no, really) tells me that they do this same thing even in porno movies. Now that would be worth the price of admission!

The Not-So-Long and Winding Road

Tough geography question here:
Quick - what's the most famous crosswalk in the world?
Say what? What sort of a question is that, you ask.
But if I give you a single-word clue, you'll have it instantly.
The clue: Beatles.
Now you guessed it: the famous crosswalk on Abbey Road, just in front of the studio where the Beatles did most of their later recordings.
Today's it the most famous and photographed set of "zebra stripes" in the world. Oh, what a pain it must be to live and drive in this area, constantly having to watch out for stupid tourists (present company excluded) ever so slowly walking across the street, always from west to east, never paying enough attention to oncoming cars...which are always coming from the wrong direction! All just to get their photo taken, in some vain attempt to look and/or feel like the Fab Four. The small white building in the background, by the way, is the actual recording studio.
I sure am glad I'm not that much of a stupid tourist to ever do such a trite, silly thing...

Pardners, Y'all Say "Howdy" to Ol' One Eye!

I'm sure that won't end up his "real" name, but for now it seems fitting. This is Lucie's early birthday present - a new cat number three. This one is a real miracle story. Hit by a car back in November, his jaw was smashed and his right eye was hanging exposed, out of the socket. The first vet at the animal shelter suggested putting him to sleep, but another said he'd give it a try, to make all the necessary "mends." The jaw was re-set and wired shut to heal; the eyeball put back where it belongs. Now the jaw has mended so he can eat normally and the eye, which once looked flat-out gross (reminding me of that scene from the The Birds), now is merely cloudy. He may never see out of it again, but at least it's not an "eye sore."
So today he came home with us, as an early present for Lucie, who fell in love with him the moment she saw him at the shelter. It's got to be quite an improvement for the poor little guy, after having spent the past 2 months in a tiny cage...
The toughest part will be choosing a suitable name. The contest is now open - submit your suggestions within the next week when we'll make a final decision!

Living in the 3rd World - Right Here in Western Europe!

WARNING - this is not going to be a cheery, up-beat post. No, this is what the French might call a Poste d'Anger.
We are not happy campers. If I wanted to live in a 3rd World country, I would not have chosen to spend 4 years in Belgium. I would have thought you'd have to be about 1000 miles east or south of here to experience the kind of things that happen all too often around here.
In a nutshell: the Belgians seem incapable of getting much right and are absolutely incapable of getting anything right the first time...or in one day. You see it everywhere, as our Belgian landlords will attest, but here are 3 simple examples from our own experiences, all quite recent.
1) I got an inexpensive watch for Christmas and need to have the metal wristband shortened. How long would this take in the States? How difficult would it be? Answers: 5 minutes; not at all. Belgian answer: at least a week and it may not be possible at all! This was the response I got at an upscale jewelry store this afternoon. Why a week or more? Hey, it's Belgium. Why maybe impossible? The woman in the store told me that they have to use fire for this intricate process, and if the band is not silver, it may not be possible at all. Say what? Fire to remove a couple of links? Where are we living - in Bedrock, next door to the Flintstones?
2) Car repairs. Just typing those 2 words makes me angry. My Mazda wouldn't start a couple of mornings ago. We quickly ruled out the battery, as it's new. I had the car towed to a Mazda garage where it has now been for 2 full working days. The diagnosis at the close of business today was the same as yesterday: "We can't get the car to start, so we're contacting Mazda Intnl. We think it might be the spark plugs." That's exactly where we were 16 working hours ago. Just how long does it take to remove and test plugs? Evidently at least 3 days. Lucie's Hyundai went in for minor brake work today; she had been told earlier that this was simple, no problem. Never, ever believe these words if they come from a Belgian mouth. At the close of the work day they called to tell her the generic part they had won't fit and now they will need to check with a Hyundai dealer. It took them 8 hours to come to this astonishing conclusion. There is a Hyundai place all of 5 miles from the brake place. Why didn't they recognize the problem in under 8 hours and get it solved? Only Karnak the Magnificent would know. So, Lucie now needs to bum a ride to a train station, take two trains and I will then pick her up at the local station. Tomorrow she will take a duty shuttle, getting her to work 2 hours late. Welcome to Belgium.
3) Taxes - try as we may, we can't seem to convince the local government that we are not liable for paying Belgian income tax. Each year we get a nasty-gram in French, telling us we are late with our taxes. And every year, via the U.S. Embassy, we explain that we are U.S. citizens working for the U.S. government, paid in U.S. dollars, etc., etc. But they never seem to grasp this rocket-science-level concept. I guess the authorities must have felt guilty this latest go-round: they sent Lucie what amounts to a refund check of nearly $700 - for taxes never paid in the first place.
Did we cash the check? No way! I figure that somewhere in this western European 3rd World nation they must get something right the first time, possibly, and my huge fear is that it might be arresting foreigners trying to cash refund checks they're not entitled to.
Now, should we get another of these checks, say, a month or two before we leave in summer 2012, well, all bets are off.

A Close (Beer) Call

A fire last week at the Trappist monastery in Rochefort (about an hour's drive SE of here, near Luxembourg) destroyed parts of the Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy abbey complex but (miraculously?) spared the most important building, that housing the brewery. Oh yes, the monks all made it out safely as well.
They have been brewing the standard three varieties of Trappist/Cistercian ale here since the mid 1500s; it's one of only six such remaining monastery breweries in the world - can you guess where to find them all? A clue: none is more than about 80 miles from our house here in Waterloo.
Rochefort, like most Trappist beers, is definitely not for Bud Lite Man, and probably not even for fans of German pilsners (this author included). The ales are heavy, sweet, lightly hopped, and highly alcoholic (one totes the scales at over 11%). You can thank large doses of added sugar for all of these traits, something forbidden in Germany for 500 years.
But when you think of traditional Belgian beer, Rochefort is one that immediately comes to mind. I'm sure the monks are praising the Lord for the salvation of their most treasured product.