After our beer run to Westvleteren, we decided to drive to the coast. We were only a few minutes away and decided on the closest coastal city - De Panne, Belgium.
It was terribly cold and windy, naturally, as it is January.
Winslow didn't seem to notice the cold. He had a big time!
De Panne is the western-most city in Belgium and borders France.
You can actually see Dunkirk, France in the distance in the photo above.
Much of the beach was covered in these broken shells. I dug a hole several inches deep and never reached sand - just more shells.
We definitely had the beach to ourselves. Well, except for this horse and buggy. I was so surprised when I saw it off in the distance. The following video will give you an idea of just how chilly it was!
After a numbing stroll on the beach, we drove around the center of town. Definitely nice enough to warrant another visit - in the spring or summer.
January 27 marked the first day of sun in 2012 and boy, was I glad to see it.
I don't know if you ever notice the weather gadget over there on the right side of my blog?
It's not always accurate, often showing a picture of the sun. While there is sun, it's often behind complete cloud cover. I love how the BBC's U.K. forecast always says "white cloud" like somehow that sounds better than "overcast".
I guess maybe it does.
But today in Hasselt it's showing a grey cloud with snow falling and today it's accurate. It's been snowing all day and if that weather gadget is right, it shouldn't melt any time soon.
It won't get above freezing for at least the next 10 days with an average high of 21F and average low of 15F. Brrrr!
On the appointed day and time to make phone calls to the Beer Hotline (seriously, that's what it's called) and after hitting redial 165 times, we finally got through to Sintsixtus Abbey to order the allotted 2 cases of Westvleteren 12 beer.
On the list!
We went on our designated day and time to pick it up with the few and the proud who also made the list (these monks are very organized). As you drive up, there are crates and crates of empty bottles that have been returned for full ones.
I took a picture of this sign so I could translate it later. As Jim noted, it seemed odd there were so many words we didn't know :-\
It reads something like this:
Schuif aan in de rij, laat uw leeggoed in de auto tot het uw beurt is.
Slide to the queue, let your empties in the car until it is your turn.
Zo vereenvoudigt u voor ons het werk.
So simplify our work.
dank u
thank you
Here's our stash! Two prized cases.
We also bought this gift set with special glasses and bottles. These sets are being sold as an additional fundraiser for the construction of the new abbey. You gotta hand it to these Catholic monks. Why have a bake sale when you can sell beer?
Naturally we went to the onsite pub for a taste of the good stuff.
The area around the abbey is rural and many fields are used for growing hops. In case you've never seen how hops are grown - it looks like this. These are empty at the moment, but when they are ready for harvest . . .
they look something like this. Hops are used for giving beer a bitter, tangy flavor.
We attended a social gathering this past weekend. That alone is news. We sat at a table where all the people were nice enough to speak English for us. We talked about a lot of things like . . .
most of the people here have lived and worked in the same area for generations and many would likely not leave for any reason. They said they would find it almost impossible to move to another city, away from their families. Not even within Belgium.
But the longest conversation centered around language.
This map illustrates the shape of most every Belgian city
- a little circle, 1/2 mile across, in the center with all the shops, restaurants, hotels, bakeries
- a bigger circle, 2 miles across, with all the neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, grocery stores
Every road leading out of the circles goes to a little "suburb" and the point where the language changes.
Yeah, ten minutes down the road and they've got their own ebonics. Basically, not proper Dutch and germane only to that region.
For example, on the other side of Belgium - in the west - a whole 2 hours away - the local news on television is actually subtitled in proper Dutch so all those in the east can understand it!
Our dinner companions asked if it is the same in America. And that's how ebonics entered into our conversation.
I said, well, it's not exactly the same. I usually don't need subtitling to watch the news, but I have occasionally needed a translator in Arkansas.
Like their "suburban/not-proper-Dutch" - just a community of people living in close proximity for generations, developing their own way of communicating
- adding those unnecessary words after nearly every necessary word in a sentence
- creative sentence structure
- pronouncing words in a whole new way
Not-proper-English, if you will.
They were eager for some examples.
My very first thought was an old SNL skit with Eddie Murphy doing Buckwheat. I sang a few lines of the country song "Lookin' for love in all the wrong places, lookin' for love . . .".
Nope, just a blank stare.
Okay, my best effort at ebonics.
"Dem yo churrin'?" (Are those your children?)
"I finna ax Bef could she bring dat to Kim crib, ya know what 'm sayin'?" (I'm going to ask Beth if she can bring that to Kim's house.)
Nope, still not gettin' it.
And lest you think I'm being racist or disrespectful, this speech pattern is recognized by linguists and they call it AAVE (google it).
Okay, last try. Deep south for which I need no translator.
Lawd! Gimme some are! Changin' dat flat tar done plumb wore me out. (Changing the flat tire made me tired.)
Sit yosef down rite cheer. (Have a seat.)
Pretty sure that went nowhere. If that don't beat all.
I gave up.
Our dinner companions expressed a sadness at the possibility of the local Dutch dialects disappearing over time. I'm not sure I feel the same way about those noted above.
I never got a good example of the various local or regional dialects. I guess they gave up too. I figure it's best not to confuse myself any more than I already am, ya know what 'm sayin'?
Did you know the Kingdom of Belgium, with over 10 million people, set a world record for the longest period without a government? 541 days. Easily beating Cambodia's record of 353 days without a government. It didn't seem to stop things from going on as usual though.
But that came to an end in December 2011 when a new Prime Minister (President equivalent) was finally sworn in. Elio di Rupo. As you might guess, he was born of Italian immigrants. He lost his father at age one and grew up in poverty. Apparently with the help of a teacher who recognized his talents, he was able to attend university and well, the rest is history.
He is said to have lived the Belgian version of the American dream.
He speaks fluent Italian, French and English. Herein lies the issue with Mr. Di Rupo.
He's the first French-speaking Prime Minister of Belgium in over 30 years and he doesn't speak Dutch (what the majority of Belgians speak). This is a big deal because language is a big deal here.
You won't hear people from the French-speaking part of Belgium speak Dutch. Mostly because they can't.
You won't hear very much French spoken in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium either. Mostly because they can, but won't.
So way back over 30 years ago in 1979, when Mr. Di Rupo began his political career and was first elected to Parliament, he was asked if he was gay. His answer was, "Yes. So what?" And that's how it's been ever since - no big deal.
The real issue here in Belgium and for Mr. Di Rupo is the same as it is most everywhere - the economy. That's what the media here tends to focus on. Well, in addition to him not speaking Dutch. Because that's a big deal here.
He is taking Dutch classes. I wish him veel succes with that and that economy thing. Because that's a big deal.
Vogel. Dutch for bird. Yesterday morning and again this morning at 5:00 a.m., I heard a vogel singing his little heart out. Pitch dark outside. After about a minute or two it stopped. Perhaps one of the other roosting vogels informed the singer that it wouldn't be dawn for at least 3 hours.
Vogels. Pretty much all the wildlife we see here.
We live on a busy city street. One morning I heard a flock of seagulls making quite a ruckus outside. There must have been at least 15. All of them - swarming around in a circle outside our 2nd floor window, flying up to dodge the traffic, diving back down . . . for a prized partial baguette.
Apparently there is no Dutch word for ruckus.
Wildlife. There are no frogs or lizards or snakes. Even outside the city, a rabbit from time to time, but no raccoons or opossums, skunks or armadillos.
Just the vogels.
While at home for Christmas we noted a few things we'd nearly forgotten about . . . like pickup trucks and roadkill. With petrol at around $10 per gallon and most pickups getting about 15 mpg, it's no wonder.
As for the roadkill . . . I guess the only thing we'll see is the occasional mallard duck. Seriously. I'm not sure where they come from, but I have seen a few . . . as roadkill.
The phrase "laughing stock" originated back in the 16th century and it means the same thing now that it meant then - an object of ridicule.
From time to time I read international newspapers online. Shocking, really. Never once, before moving to Belgium, did I ever do this. Never once did I even wonder what was going on in Libya or Egypt or Turkey. Frankly, I could hardly find them on a map.
But Europeans sure know what's going on in all those countries . . . and more. They know exactly what's going on in the U.S. At first I found that odd, but now, I realize they just like being informed. It's embarrassing when the frituur owner down the street asks me, in perfect English, about something that's happened recently in the States and I realize he knows more about it than I do.
I've got a long way to go, but unlike these gaffes, going back a decade, I do know that Africa is still not a country. Still. Not.
George Bush in 2001 - "Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease".
Sarah Palin in 2008 (McCain staffer said in a debate "prep" session she did not know Africa was not a country - Palin denied it)
astonishingly yet again in 2011,
with Rick Santorum - "Africa was a country on the brink."
and Michele Bachmann - "Now with the President, he put us in Libya. He is now putting us in Africa."
It should be noted that Libya is IN Africa.
Did you know that when George Bush resigned as governor to bewilder us for nearly a decade as President, Rick Perry, as Lieutenant Governor, assumed the role of Governor of Texas in 2000? Okay, you may have known that, but did you know that he was elected in 2002, re-elected in 2006 and again in 2010? Oh, it's true. So, if I'm doing the math right, he's there until 2014.
I must say, after following the campaign for the Republican nomination, mercifully the world will no longer have to endure further mentally deficient quotes from the likes of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry.
Prior to his humanely bowing out of the race and after his bonehead remark about the government of Turkey, even Texas Republicans weren't going to vote for him with many feeling that "Perry's candidacy has hurt Texas' image".
You think?
To his credit, I don't think Rick Perry has mistaken Africa for a country, but he did say . . .
"Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America."
Okay, I know it's on the border, but Juarez is still in Mexico, right?
The Atlanta (ATL) airport has nearly 100 million passengers every year. Way more. Like 10 to 25 million more than its closest rivals:
Beijing (PEK - Beijing, China)
Heathrow (LHR - London, U.K.)
O'Hare (ORD - Chicago, U.S.)
This aerial view indicates they took a lesson from the cathedral architects.
Make a building shaped like your business.
I've been through the Atlanta airport quite a few times and it has, for the most part, never been a pleasant experience.
That is until this last time.
It was evident to me both times - coming and going from Belgium - that there was something different. Everyone we encountered was helpful, cheerful and seemed to genuinely enjoy their job.
Believe me, this is in stark contrast to our past experiences at ATL. So what happened? It probably isn't just one thing, but about a year ago the Atlanta airport got a new general manager.
His name is Louis E. Miller and he has 32 years of experience in airport management. His predecessor had been in the job for the previous 12 years. No doubt he made some improvements since this airport has become the busiest in the world.
But whether it is Mr. Miller or something else, ATL has improved in my opinion.
And it was the first time anybody in U. S. Customs ever said to me "Welcome Home."
The ad wizards sure do keep us entertained. I'm amazed at the spin they come up with. I read a headline this week that Mitt Romney was being criticized for being able to speak French. Really? I'm just jealous because I can't speak French. Maybe his critics are too.
One hundred percent of Belgians speak French in addition to all those other languages that aren't native :-|
Without a doubt, Europe has its share of problems, but it's possible there might be worse things than "going more European"? The graphic below got my attention, made me laugh, so I read the accompanying article (in the NY Times).
QUELLE horreur! One of the uglier revelations about President Obama emerging from the Republican primaries is that he is trying to turn the United States into Europe.
“He wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state," warned Mitt Romney. Countless versions of that horrific vision creep into Romney’s speeches, suggesting that it would "poison the very spirit of America."
Rick Santorum agrees, fretting that Obama is "trying to impose some sort of European socialism on the United States."
Who knew? Our president is plotting to turn us into Europeans. Imagine:
It’s a languid morning in Peoria, as a husband and wife are having breakfast. “You’re sure you don’t want eggs and bacon?” the wife asks. “Oh, no, I prefer these croissants,” the husband replies. “They have a lovely je ne sais quoi.”
He dips the croissant into his café au-lait and chews it with zest. “What do you want to do this evening?” he asks. “Now that we’re only working 35 hours a week, we have so much more time. You want to go to the new Bond film?”
“I’d rather go to a subtitled art film,” she suggests. “Or watch a pretentious intellectual television show.”
“I hear Kim Kardashian is launching a reality TV show where she discusses philosophy and global politics with Bernard-Henri Lévy,” he muses. “Oh, chérie, that reminds me, let’s take advantage of the new pétanque channel and host a super-boules party.”
“Parfait! And we must work out our vacation, now that we can take all of August off. Instead of a weekend watching ultimate fighting in Vegas, let’s go on a monthlong wine country tour.”
“How romantic!” he exclaims. “I used to worry about getting sick on the road. But now that we have universal health care, no problem!”
Look out: another term of Obama, and we’ll all greet each other with double pecks on the cheek.
Yet there is something serious going on. The Republican candidates unleash these attacks on Obama because so many Americans have in mind a caricature of Europe as an effete, failed socialist system. As Romney puts it: "Europe isn't working in Europe. It’s not going to work here.”
(Monsieur Romney is getting his comeuppance. Newt Gingrich has released an attack ad, called "The French Connection," showing clips of Romney speaking the language of Paris. The scandalized narrator warns: “Just like John Kerry, he speaks French!”)
But the basic notion of Europe as a failure is a dangerous misconception. The reality is far more complicated.
What is true is that Europe is in an economic mess. Quite aside from the current economic crisis, labor laws are often too rigid, and the effect has been to make companies reluctant to hire in the first place. Unemployment rates therefore are stubbornly high, especially for the young. And Europe’s welfare state has been too generous, creating long-term budget problems as baby boomers retire.
“The dirty little secret of European governments was that we lived in a way we couldn’t afford,” Sylvia Kauffmann, the editorial director of the newspaper Le Monde, told me. “We lived beyond our means. We can’t live this lie anymore.”
Yet Kauffmann also notes that Europeans aren’t questioning the basic European model of safety nets, and are aghast that Americans tolerate the way bad luck sometimes leaves families homeless.
It’s absurd to dismiss Europe. After all, Norway is richer per capita than the United States. Moreover, according to figures from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, per-capita G.N.P. in France was 64 percent of the American figure in 1960. That rose to 73 percent by 2010. Zut alors! The socialists gained on us!
Meanwhile, they did it without breaking a sweat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that employed Americans averaged 1,741 hours at work in 2010. In France, the figure was 1,439 hours.
If Europe was as anticapitalist as Americans assume, its companies would be collapsing. But there are 172 European corporations among the Fortune Global 500, compared with just 133 from the United States.
Europe gets some important things right. It has addressed energy issues and climate change far more seriously than America has. It now has more economic mobility than the United States, partly because of strong public education systems. America used to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world; now France and Britain are both ahead of us.
Back in 1960, French life expectancy was just a few months longer than in the United States, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. By 2009, the French were living almost three years longer than we were.
So it is worth acknowledging Europe’s labor rigidities and its lethargy in resolving the current economic crisis. Its problems are real. But embracing a caricature of Europe as a failure reveals our own ignorance — and chauvinism.
Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, graduating with first class honors.
On our recent visit home for Christmas, one of my brothers asked me what one thing in Belgium had been the most challenging to get used to.
I had to say the weather.
Despite the red tape, metrics, and the language, it is still the loooong summer days, the short winter days, and well, the rain that challenges me every day.
In our first year I was convinced it
- rained all the time
- with a constant cloud cover
- and it was always cold.
In our second year I was convinced it
- rained a lot
- it was cloudy a lot
- it was not always cold
- and it was never hot.
Now, as we are half way through our third year, I am convinced this climate is actually not half bad. I've also become much more appreciative of a really beautiful day.
So I've decided to keep a "weather log" to further convince myself that the rain stops occasionally and there are many days when there's not a cloud in the sky.
So far in 2012, it has rained every day with an average temperature of 45F. The sun shone for almost a 1/2 hour on Wednesday. I was out the door soaking it up . . . with umbrella in hand :)
But come April to October . . . the days will get longer and longer and the temperature may reach 80F. Could make one forget all about those short, wet winter days.
I have a tendency to "think small". Like when I see the statistic that Exxon Mobil made $30.46 billion last year, it really doesn't mean that much to my small mindedness.
If you break that down, it's something like $58,000 a minute - every minute - all year.
In plain English and even without "socialism", the U.S. government spends a $#*+load of money every second.
Belgium is probably no better, but Belgium is so small it usually doesn't even make the radar when European financials make the news.
Of course, some of us (definitely me) can't wrap our head around the amount of money it takes to run a country. If we think it's as simple as taxing the rich we probably think just cutting out a little Medicare, Social Security, some military or electing someone new to work their magic is simple too.
I read the proposed budget for 2012 is $3.7 trillion. I think that's like over $7 billion a minute. Boy, even all of Exxon Mobil's money wouldn't make a dent in that.
Fed Chair Ben Bernanke stated in January 2007: "The longer we wait, the more severe, the more draconian, the more difficult the objectives are going to be. I think the right time to start was about 10 years ago."
Thanks to Ross for showing me this video. It illustrates just how much a $#*+load really is.
This is a picture of the roof of my car, covered in dust and cobwebs, just before we went through the car wash.
It had been sitting, undisturbed, for over 2 years in this warehouse.
After charging the 5-year old battery (old by battery standards), my 1997 Acura, with over 230,000 miles and all its original parts, started and ran like a top on 2 year old vintage gas and oil, for the remaining 2 weeks of our visit to the States. We did have to buy a couple more tanks of new gas.
Jim's 1996 Toyota 4-Runner, with similar mileage and original parts, has a similar story.
We have, from time to time, considered selling both our old cars since we have to maintain registration and insurance on them, but after this . . . I'm convinced our cars may be like wine.
Did you know Lake Superior State University has been compiling a list for the past 37 years of overused words that should be banished?
Okay, not only did I not know this, I've also never heard of Lake Superior State University. It's located (as you may have guessed) in Michigan and has about 2500 students. This list (and hunting unicorns) may be all they're famous for unless, of course, you count a few hockey championships. Hockey. Soccer. Whatever (banned in 1997).
It seems we haven't taken the banishments very seriously. Here are just a few (including the year of proposed banishment) that I have used and may accidentally use again despite their banishment status:
As if - banned in 1997. Really? (banned in 1979). That long ago.
Awesome - banned in 1984 and again in 2007. Seriously? (not on the list . . . yet).
Sucks - banned in 1995. I never used this one much so I guess I won't miss it now that I know it's been banned for the last decade and a half.
Thinking outside the box - banned in 2000. Bummer (not on the list. Really? - still banned since 1979), I really liked that one.
And then there are some that were banned before I ever knew they existed (or tried to forget they existed) . . . like:
Staycation - banned in 2009. I must get out more. Quit staycationing?
Orientate - banned in 1988. Right up there with irregardless (banned in 1979 and again in 1988) :-|
Thirty-seven years makes this list go way back to 1976 when I was still in high school so I suppose I really show my age when using words like scenario (banned in 1976) and surely (banned in 1980).
I notice 24/24 from time to time on signs around Belgium and I wondered why Belgium didn't know it was 24/7 (banned in 2000).
Well, if you think about it, I believe the Belgians may have it right.
