Dylan and I are leaving this afternoon for Tilburg to see The Trews tonight and I'm really looking forward to going away for the night and seeing them!
I thought I would send out an email this morning to let you know what we've been up to lately!
First of all, Halloween here is not celebrated like it is at home. I asked a few people and they all said that kids don't do the Trick or Treating thing in Brussels and it is a sad reason why. Years ago (I'm not sure how long) a pedofial captured, tortured and murdered 5 children who were out trick or treating in Brussels on Halloween. This put an end to the Holiday and now children go to parties instead of going door to door. How sad! The woman who told me this said that it is still too fresh in people's minds and is in general a very sad time in Brussells.
The parties are everywhere though!!! The bakery down the street is having a party - giving out baked treats to kids, the stores have parties and so on....so there is lots for these kids to do and candy to be had. I have yet to see a Halloween candy display at a grocery store - those big boxes of chips and big bags of candy are nowhere to be seen around here. It just isn't the same - thank goodness - my waistline thanks them!
We were downtown on Saturday night walking around and drinking beer in public (cheap entertainment) and didn't see one Halloween costume. I'm sure Halifax and Sydney were booming with people in costume - so here it is more of a children's holiday than an adult fun time!
So, on Friday we bought a futon for "Tara's Room" aka the living room and on Saturday morning, Dylan put it together. It was quite funny becuase we didn't have a hammer or screw driver, so Dylan used a pot as a hammer and a knife as a screwdriver. Beleive me, the neighbors were not happy with the choice of a hammer on Saturday mornning (although it was after 10, so I didn't feel too bad). After about an hour of this activity, I walked down to the bakery - partly to get out of the noise ridden apartment and also to get breakfast. On the way home, I stopped in at the corner store by our apt and asked if they sold hammers/tools/screwdrivers.... (describing a hammer in French was fun). The lady who owns the store ended up giving me their hammer and screwdriver that they own themselves.....and didn't even ask my name....just asked if i would return it. This was the first time I have seen an action of this kind from a belgian.....very nice of her. And of course, it was promptlyl returned once Dylan had the 1000 pieces together! :)
So instead of getting it delivered for 50e - we decided that we would get it home ourselves via the SUBWAY....fun, fun.....Dylan said that it was like in my old neighborhood (the HOOD) when you see people moving using shopping carts! We got it home in one piece and I took a few pictures so will post them on facebook soon!
It is really nice and comfortable and with a little rearranging, we fit it in the living room nicely!
Saturday afternoon we went to the big grocery store - it is at the end of the subway line and was like a big SuperValu. Just to clarify, the one in walking distance to our house is very small and is just a store front - no parking lot or even carts - just baskets. This is the type of store that they place close to a subway line so that people coming home from work and business people in the area stop in throughout the day. So on the way there, I saw about 5 Pizza Huts (they love their Pizza Hut here), a SHELL gas station (had to mention that for you, Allison) and an actual parking lot.....first I've seen since I've been here - literally!
As I mentioned, Sat night we went downtown and walked around and had a few beer. Whenever we are downtown, I always go into the Thon Hotel where we stayed in June to pee. I 'act' like I'm staying there - walk by the reception desk and head towards the bathrooms. We were too far away to go there on the weekend, so I had to settle for McDonalds. At McDonalds, they have a pee lady who has a table and chair outside the bathroom - it costs 30cents to pee and she collects the money and keeps the bathrooms clean......we spent 1.20e at McDonalds that night and didn't eat anything. :)
Sunday, we went to the Atomium which is outside Brussels and a huge building shaped like an iron atom. We went to all 9 of the huge spheres that make up the building and rode on the fastest elevator in Europe - 5m per second. On the way home, we stopped in at all the subway stations and areas we didn't see before. Some were sketchy, some were ok. We got a broom and a pepper mill at one of the areas, but left after that b/c we almost got hit by a car - literally (a Mercedes) - people aren't concerned at all here by pedestrians.....they have the attitude that if you don't get out of the way - it's your fault.
This is a link to the Atomium so you can see what the building looks like: http://europeforvisitors.com
At one of the subway stations, I saw a very sad sight. Anyone who has been to Europe knows that there are always people around selling single roses to make money. When we got off at one of the stations, there was this little girl with sandals on and dirt on her face and she literally FOLLOWED us asking if we would buy a rose - she might have been 6 years old. When we got to the top of the escalator, I saw that she had her little sister doing the same thing on the other side of the subway line...she might have been about 4 or 5....they were both really dirty and as soon as they asked everyone who got off the train, they played on the escalator until the next train came. They got on the train with us (by themselves - no adults around) and asked everyone on the car to buy the flowers.....it was so sad!!!
I read this article (and forwarded it to Dylan) last week about people begging for money in Brussels. I pasted the link below:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacit
It is really sad and we see so many people begging for money. We were talking last week about how alot of the people begging are holding children in their arms that look like they are too big to be laying there.....now we know why. In this article it says that some of the women drug their children so they will sleep in their arms and they will get sympathy....can you imagine??? anyway, read it if you have a chance - it is a huge problem here!
Well, that's about it for this week - the last few days have been busy with schoolwork for me and work for Dylan. It gets dark really early here now (we had our time change on the weekend). We're really excited about Tara coming on Friday morning and have a surprise planned for the weekend with her - so that will be fun!!!
Now that we have a spare bed - I hope that some of you will come visit!!! We would both love to see some faces from home!
Have a great Halloween!!!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween
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