tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55627822566071865712012-01-24T03:43:12.632+01:00living in belguim... how odd is it...oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-21019715201470896052009-03-18T16:22:00.003+01:002009-03-18T16:33:30.409+01:00

It's been a while that I've been here. In the meantime I got a year older and have more problems with some of my joints, including my spine. What's so weird about practicing rock'n'roll on saturday noon? My knee was not in the mood... it bent unexpectedly the other way than the usual.Belgium has got the new Prime Minister, who managed to create the governement in 2 (two!) days. And it still goes

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-38047506347085543722008-06-06T14:18:00.004+02:002008-06-06T14:27:49.536+02:00

This Belgian Smurf is now helping Unicef to help children. However he's not happy about the weather. Lucky for him he doesn't have to sleep in a mushroomhouse.Few months ago The Smurfs celebrated their 50th birthday and there was a big event in Ghent (Belgium). One could buy such a white/blank Smurf, decorate it and admit for a competition. After a month after launching them in Belgium and in the

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-21165038960656745202008-05-15T15:30:00.003+02:002008-05-15T16:04:07.820+02:00

It was unusual. The beginning of may took me compltely by surprise. 13 days with the average temperature of 25-29°C and the nights were also very warm. UNUSUAL. I'm hestitating to say it but I'll say it: we are experiencing the global warming... or is it one big swindle?!

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-36836113099992526492008-02-07T20:04:00.000+01:002008-02-11T14:21:26.922+01:00

There will be few beautiful days here. Nice. I'll go skating... the best place to do that is in Dendermonde along the Schelde - very good asfalt surface there!I've been skating today also, hoping that the sun and the blue sky will cheer me up... After 10km and more then 2h skating I've got soar back and legs, as well as my soul still is.Ps.: And the asfalt on the Leirekensroute is AWFUL!

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-10965584955020788142008-02-01T11:05:00.000+01:002008-02-01T17:03:11.165+01:00

What a day Yesterday!!!! It started so wonderfull sunny but it didn't last long. The rest of the day was horribly hurricainy-rainy!!!!!!!! All furniture on my terras are upside down and moved meters away. And it was whistling all evening from under the doors inside!That's Belgium. That's how I know it :)

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-19808284495294811922008-01-31T09:23:00.000+01:002008-01-31T09:40:31.876+01:00

This morning is beautiful. I start finding it odd. I've been here too long.How do we make friends? ... how do we keep friends? These are the neveranswered questions of an assimilating stranger. There are people that you meet, that seem not to notice you, despite the fact that you talk to them, that you ask them questions and verbally worry about them and their lives.What does it mean then when

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-10884254690812668802008-01-05T08:47:00.000+01:002008-01-14T08:56:19.662+01:00

I don't write about the belgian politics any more, because it's kind of solving itself.I didn't write about the Sinterklaas (6th december - presents!!) because I didn't get any presents ;), even no chocolate Sinterklaas, which is a tradition here.I didn't write about Christmas because, except for my big lovely christmas tree, there was no real Christmas this year for me. No traditional cuisine on

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-74143581617370199492007-12-03T14:46:00.000+01:002007-12-03T14:54:03.458+01:00

Mmmhh.... Cake with Cherries has become my new hit!! I've put it again here (I wrote about this cake on my other blog) as I just can't get enough of it. Replacing the custard sugar with rough brown sugar (that's a hint!!) changed the colour of the dough into this nice caramel, yellowy beige which brings up the dark cherries so well....mmmh!!!

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-73281222687173680522007-12-02T14:35:00.000+01:002007-12-02T14:51:01.382+01:00

The governemental crisis was almost solved yesterday, and today the solution of the conflict between the parties is again out of reach. At the end no one knows wheather it is between the french- and the flemishspeaking parties or within the flemish coalition parties...? One big mess. It seems as if no party cannot agree with any party. I think it's the biggest crisis in Belgian parlament history

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-69240127887249718422007-11-30T09:49:00.001+01:002007-11-30T09:59:22.430+01:00

Still no governement. Now, when the frenchspeaking and the flemishspeaking parties reached an agreement concerning the reforms of the state, there is a conflict within the flemish coalition parties. Guys, it will never get solved like this!!!Yesterday some weird research came up with the conclusion that the roads in Flanders are in a very bad condition. I laughed!!! These people should go to

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-91899825041421705902007-11-21T15:28:00.000+01:002007-11-21T15:38:57.580+01:00

I wanted to describe here the "weird" things about living in Belgium. I really thought that I was able to do it, but now it seems more difficult then I thought. There are not that many strange things in my opinion. I'm wondering wheather I integrated so well or it is the life in my country that evoluted the same direction ??If there were more comments or questions under my posts that would give

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-48207072998199122522007-11-15T16:57:00.000+01:002007-11-15T17:32:34.970+01:00

The weather has been beautiful the last few days, very cold but sunny and dry. I went for a walk yesterday and today...but people looked at me very strange, like "what is she doing? walking? by foot????" Imagine, you feel ok, go for a walk, along the road to the center of the town, there is a pavement, even a bike path, ok it is cold, and people pass by in their cars and look at you like at an

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-20622252663384359592007-11-14T10:36:00.000+01:002007-11-14T11:04:12.364+01:00

The King is worried. Despite the fact that he has no executive power, still he came back from his holidays to talk to the leaders of the winning parties. Now he is the "formateur", the negotiator...? The political situation up side down. Head over hills. There even no legislation, no special accurate laws to organize the new elections in such a crisis situation. So, even that's impossible.The

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-26140459654285156132007-11-11T09:55:00.000+01:002007-11-11T13:38:13.002+01:00

What is typical about the sundays in belgium?First of all: croissants. The man of the house will get them at the local bakery early in the morning. They see it as their mission and they think "I do take care of my family and the household" :))Second of all: the tv live show called De Zevende Dag (The Seventh Day), which invites all kinds of guests before noon to talk about the most recent news in

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-83073904579545649812007-11-10T16:04:00.000+01:002007-11-10T16:10:47.378+01:00

Will the country fall apart or not??The Flemish politicians organized the voting for splitting Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde (where the frenchspeaking politicians would loose power), but the frenchspeaking politicians left the building. Those who stayed voted anyway. And that means WAR! The frenchspeaking politicians feel excluded from the politics, angry and pushed away.I have a feeling that at the

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-53784066317016653172007-11-07T12:18:00.000+01:002007-11-07T12:26:58.186+01:00

Now it is offical: the politicians themselves announced a political crisis in Belgium.The negotiations yesterday ended up with a fiasco. No agreement. The biggest problem seems to be a spliting of an electoral B-H-V (Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde), flamish communities (Brussels partly) with many frenchspeaking inhabitants. The Flemish politicians to split it for the sake of the oficial use of the

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-54914257999836421452007-11-05T13:59:00.000+01:002007-11-05T14:11:13.423+01:00

It's been already 147 days of Belgium without the government. The situation seems dramatic, although I didn't notice anyone on the streets or in the shops really panicking. The Flemish don't care, they wouldn't mind the separation. They've been always fighting for the right of speaking flemish. And now they are fed up with the fact that a very big part of their tax money go to Wallony, where

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-9269274070747555422007-10-22T09:55:00.001+02:002007-10-22T10:10:47.464+02:00

7,76km. It was sunny and perfect. I made a walk through the fields and small roads. I think that the autumn starts... There were galopping horses passing me by with teenegaers on top, dressed in elegant white trousers and green blouses, their parents in a long carriage behind; there were few men hunting at the egde of the forest, with faithfull dogs bringing the "poultry" that was shot; and there

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-25361689163396771582007-10-19T10:31:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:29:43.122+02:00

It was late last night. And it's all because of the tv. There are too many good programs on flemish tv. I watched first "Rare Streken" a very well made nature program about two young european otters (it's the same word in flemish: een otter), growing up on their own, after their mother had been hit by a car and never came back to the nest again (oooo.... ;( ), learning hunting and defending

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-79930794212291581342007-10-18T09:17:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:30:15.143+02:00

Well, or not well, the life is going to get 30% more expansive (the gas and electricity prices will also go up during the next months), there's still no government in Belgium after 130 days, app. the 3000 Polish got a legal job in Belgium on the last Job Fairs, the district road in front of our house is being remade and the traffic jams are gigantic as it's a main road to Brussels, on top of that

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-34593984261891827032007-10-17T10:06:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:32:01.896+02:00

Today is going to be a long, cold and very rainy day. However this morning I thought "oh! rain, at last! that's how I know it here!!" which sounded like I've become a Belgian... WHAT?!?!?!!!! No way, it's just another good excuse not to go out and stay at home and create :))

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-17382355264436106612007-10-14T20:52:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:32:37.321+02:00

Sunday was a Day of Architecture, in Belgium. You could visit many unusual buildings. Many interesting buildings were open for public. There were some organised walks with a guide but also an architecture flight by a heli. We were in Gent but unfortunately had no idea about aal that. Pitty because I love architecture, especially the modern one. It can be very unusual and inventive.We went to Gent

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-37885928877354415372007-10-12T08:58:00.000+02:002007-10-12T09:22:00.621+02:00

This is the street where I live. Since two weeks every morning looks like that... the FOG....And every night looks like that... It's never been that foggy since I've moved here.

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-90380194955935948802007-10-11T09:22:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:33:21.241+02:00

The news of today is that the food will get 30% more expansive. Ah!! And one of the reasons for that is the bad crops this year. Isn't that interesting?!?!? The whole Eastern Europe stops gradually ploughing their fields because it's not bringing money, half of Poland has become one big green meadow, the farmers are living from social security and the Western Europe says that there's not enough

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-67004957213060085472007-10-07T11:10:00.000+02:002007-10-19T14:33:55.168+02:00

Sunday is the only day in the week when we eat croissants. That's a habit in many flemish families. Usually the fathers go early in the morning to the bakery to get the fresh bread for sunday and croissants, french pastry. They should be light and fluffy and not too sweet. Most of the times the croissants in Belgium are too sweet and covered with icing or chocolate. That's the local taste. And

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-28429185290560818942007-10-03T09:18:00.000+02:002007-10-04T10:59:48.811+02:00

Milk inc. is a belgian dance group (a guy and a girl - very sympathetic and very popular). I'm not going to write about the music but I thought the name "milk incorporated" describes very well the belgian weather (again!).Since two days it's been white everywhere. Yesterday I woke up in a glass of milk, today - on a cloud... Like in Heaven. Give me wings and I can be an angel. Maybe a guardian

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-18015268255242948882007-09-26T14:37:00.000+02:002007-09-26T17:46:04.139+02:00

Although they say here: "like two hands on one belly", ona hand is always the leading one...A country is like a business, it needs a good leader, good politics and a good strategy. “Strength through Unity” is the Belgian motto, which means that the two biggest language communities, despite the huge differences, should be able to work together in order to make this country work.But we all know how

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-29522483774335638742007-07-24T10:13:00.000+02:002007-07-29T11:36:58.397+02:00

There are many, very many bike paths in Belgium and they all lead to everywhere. So we took them. And four hours later we still didn't reach our destination.It was a nice sunny day, not too warm and just perfect for biking. We had a plan. We decided to go 15km further to visit a friend and look at his boat at the river. We had a plan but we didn't look at the map. We crossed the village center

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-24753587956951537322007-07-21T09:08:00.000+02:002007-09-26T14:46:22.174+02:00

Het was op 21 juli 1831 dat Leopold I, de eerste Koning der Belgen, de grondwettelijke eed aflegde. The first King of the Belgian Leopold I took the constitutional oath on the 21st of july 1831. Belgium is a rather young kingdom. In 2031 will become 200years old... Funny! For us the Polish, it is unthinkable that our country would exist only 100 something years. What a short backward perspective!

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-57122743317769574502007-07-08T12:30:00.000+02:002007-07-08T13:19:42.255+02:00

Who would have thought!!?!?!! It's there... It's arrived. The summer!! It's still colder than it should be but the weather is nice. The short-sleeve temeratures, the few puffed cumulusees on the post-card blue sky and the shinning sun will allow us to enjoy the day outdoors. And that's been a while now. So, this is the specifics of the outdoor leasures in Belgium. It's dictated by the weather.

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-24462075471438151902007-07-03T09:24:00.000+02:002007-07-03T13:46:14.264+02:00

That is the first thing that stroke me - the rain. It's incredible how much it rains in Belgium. You Belgian people maybe don't even realise it... The first two years I was so excited with my new life (in a new place, in a new world, with new people, new experiences, everything was wooohww!!!!) that I didn't even notice what was going on. Or maybe it were two exeptionally dry years...??

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5562782256607186571.post-27126117314920643542007-07-01T10:50:00.000+02:002007-07-03T09:23:32.334+02:00

And I've got few different blogs already. All my blogs are about sth else. This one will be (notice: "be", he...? clever, he...?!?!?? ;) ) about Belgium (BE). It will help me place "Belgium", the country I've been living in for the past 10 years, in the right place in my consciousness and memory. And hopefully I will have said what I have to say.So, I will tell you how I see the everyday life of

oddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11199572112098143871noreply@blogger.com0