Settling into the house

So... we're finally settled into the house here in Brussels. It's been difficult for the last little while to find the time to write, but now we have a little bit of extra time.

We are nicely moved into the house here in the commune of Watermael-Boitsfort, one of the smaller communes in Brussels, located at the southwestern edge of Brussels, and bordering on the Foret des Soignes. The house is absolutely gorgeous, and the pool and garden are lovely, although there are a few technical things that I'm still getting used to, such as the heater for the pool, and the gas stove, which is quite large but a little idiosyncratic. We end up spending most of our time in one room together; I guess we've fallen into that habit with our open-concept home in Toronto, a habit which was reinforced while we were staying in the loft in Glons. As for making friends, we've met several neighbors, and yesterday I helped two Moroccan women home with a big storage cabinet they'd bought from someone; they were so grateful for my help that they're planning to make couscous for us this week... I'll let you know how it turns out.

Speaking of food, we had a nice dinner this evening, of a roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, whisky glazed carrots, salad, and cheese and a little chocolate to finish off. The boys did some swimming in the pool, and climbed around on the treehouse. Malcolm did some of his homework; they are already doing cursive writing, multiplication and division in grade three here, so he's got a little catch-dup to do, but he's in good spirits. We got him a copy of "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and in his free time he's been hip-deep in it, planning the construction of bows and arrows, garden rockets, go-carts, and suchlike. It looks like it could just as easily be titled "... for boys and their fathers" as there are many projects that require paternal assistance.

We took the car back yesterday; it's a bit weird being without a car, for the first time since we arrived, and for the first time in perhaps 12 years. It was my particular challenge to find the rue des americaines where the Avis branch was located while using a transit map, which didn't actually include that particular rue. As it was, I was able to ask directions easily and found it without trouble, as well as a gas station, and dropped the car off, got on the tram and was home within the hour... the french words used for directions are pretty easy: tout droit for straight ahead, en face de for across from, a droite et a gauche for left and right, it's not really a problem.

The people I have asked for help from have been, without a single exception, very polite, friendly and helpful. I make a point of saying right at the beginning (en francais, of course) that I excuse my french, that I don't speak very much, but that I will try, and everyone has been very encouraging. Some people will say that they want to try their English, and I reply that they can speak English while I try my French, and this always gets a smile...

Today we went to a big brocante, which is a big community street sale. We bought:

• a expresso machine (15 EUR)
• an electric kettle (1 EUR)
• a hair dryer (2 EUR)
• a salad spinner (1 EUR)

and a number of other things. Quite a bargain, if you ask me, as we didn't bring these kind of things with us, and they aren't here. The espresso machine is a big hit with the boys for steaming the milk for their morning hot chocolate... they have already placed their orders for tomorrow...

As before, it is bewildering, the number of subtle differences between Canadian and Belgian ways of doing things; one glaring example is in the organization of items in stores. I'll write more later about these organizational differences, but suffice it to say that there is an unconscious grammar to how a grocery store is laid out, and it is different, country to country. If you think that the way things are organized is universal, it's not, and the lack of an understanding of the overall plan adds another layer of complexity to something as simple as doing the shopping. I was at the Carrefour, a huge store that sells pretty much everything from soup to nuts, for two and half hours yesterday, and let me tell you, it was mentally exhausting.

We miss the Cloes family already, and called them this evening to say hello, thank them for their hospitality, and arrange to go see the Leonardo DaVinci exhibition that's here in Brussels for the next few weeks. We hope to see Nathalie and Christophe, at least.

Now, it's off to bed. Maggie, I am sure, will write more tomorrow. I plan to do some singing and some calling around for auditions tomorrow. Until next time!