Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thankfulness
Our family has a lot to be thankful for lately. It seems that all the pieces of the puzzle are settling in. If you had asked me five years ago what I would have hoped my life to be in 2010, I don't think it would be much different than what it is shaping out to be. Step 1, find a job in Kansas near my wife's family, teaching Chemistry at a small liberal arts college. Check. Step 2, find a piece of nice country property where I can play a little and raise a nice family with 4-H projects in the future. Check. Step 3, let the wife find a job teaching math to high school students in a nearby district. CHECK! Yep, that's right, Mindy was offered a job this week to teach at Canton-Galva. Hooray for her! Being a former Pretty Prairie Bulldog, it might be a little difficult to switch sides at sporting events, but we are very thankful for a job for her.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Things to be missed (by Mindy)
As our time here is winding down, I have been thinking about the things that have changed in me over the past year. This year has been such an amazing year in both good and bad ways. I have several top ten lists that I want to write, but for now we will start with the top ten things I will miss about Belgium.
1. Friday Lunch - we started this with some of our American friends that we met a few months after getting here. Several Americans get together for lunch every Friday at Elisabeth and Colby’s house. Tim and I love routine things like this with friends. It keeps us connected and is something that you can count on at the end of the week to always be there. For me especially, it is a way to get out of the house and socialize.
2. Mia’s school - As a parent there is nothing better than when your child loves the school and teacher that they have. Even though it is all in Dutch and Mia had no idea what was going on for the first few months, she has always loved going. Juf Cristal, her teacher, is absolutely the best. We could not have wanted a better first teacher. Mia’s dutch is coming along very nicely too! Ze kan tot vijf tellen.
3. “The boy who gives Mia ham” - There is a sandwich shop that we frequent whose owner is wonderful. He is originally from Turkey and has lived her for a long time now. He really likes Mia and knows that she likes ham and eggs. When he sees her coming, he makes her a little ham and egg sandwich (a hard boiled egg, wrapped in ham). She loves it.
4. U.H.T. milk in one serving size cartons - Mia loves milk and these are so great to travel with because you do not have to refrigerate them. It took us a bit to get used to the taste, but they are so handy. U.H.T. is ultra high temperature pasteurized, the taste is a bit different than US milk, but no need to refrigerate.
5. Long days in the summer - I love that it stays light until 10 pm in the summer months.
6. The environmental mentality - There are so many thing here that are just obvious standards for them. Take your own bags to the grocery store to eliminate all of the grocery bag trash, bike and walk everywhere you can, recycle everything, hanging your laundry to dry rather than using a dryer, taxes on cars based on the engine size, recycling nearly everything, etc. We have a LONG way to go in the States. Being “green” in the US sometimes has a bad, “liberal” connotation to it which is so sad to me and I am really hoping we can change that.
7. The city streets - there is always something going on in the cities here. When we moved here, there were huge concerts every friday night. The restaurants all have loads of seating outside where you can sit and drink and just enjoy the beautiful weather. People seem to be out and about more here, just sitting, relaxing, and watching the world go by. I love that.
8. The market - Wednesday night is market night in Kessel-lo. The market is about 1 km from our house. In the fall we asked “so when does the market end” thinking it does not go through the winter. They thought we were very strange to ask that question. Markets go all year here. They buy a lot of their fruits, veggies, bread, meat, cheeses, etc from the markets. We have found our veggie guy, our bread lady, and our waffel stand. Nothing beats good fresh fruits and veggies and a freshly baked loaf of bread. Plus it is a fun family outing to meet Daddy at the market!
9. Foods - Chocolate of course! Good chocolate everywhere you look. The smos, which is a ham and cheese sandwich packed with veggies and hard-boiled egg. They use great bread and you just can’t beat a good smos. While you can't find a good mexican place to save your life, they do still have great cuisine here.
10. The walks - being here and living in an apartment again has really freed up our time. We have no lawn to mow, no meetings to go to in the evenings, no parent-teacher conferences, no bowling or softball league, and no remodeling to get done. And while we loved all of those things about our lives back in Champaign, it has been a very different kind of life for us this year. We have enjoyed our evenings by going to parks, going to feed the horses at the abbey, (seriously, we can walk to an old abbey from our apartment) and just going for walks on one of the many different walking/biking paths they have here. For better and for worse (depending on the day) we have been forced to slow down here.
1. Friday Lunch - we started this with some of our American friends that we met a few months after getting here. Several Americans get together for lunch every Friday at Elisabeth and Colby’s house. Tim and I love routine things like this with friends. It keeps us connected and is something that you can count on at the end of the week to always be there. For me especially, it is a way to get out of the house and socialize.
2. Mia’s school - As a parent there is nothing better than when your child loves the school and teacher that they have. Even though it is all in Dutch and Mia had no idea what was going on for the first few months, she has always loved going. Juf Cristal, her teacher, is absolutely the best. We could not have wanted a better first teacher. Mia’s dutch is coming along very nicely too! Ze kan tot vijf tellen.
3. “The boy who gives Mia ham” - There is a sandwich shop that we frequent whose owner is wonderful. He is originally from Turkey and has lived her for a long time now. He really likes Mia and knows that she likes ham and eggs. When he sees her coming, he makes her a little ham and egg sandwich (a hard boiled egg, wrapped in ham). She loves it.
4. U.H.T. milk in one serving size cartons - Mia loves milk and these are so great to travel with because you do not have to refrigerate them. It took us a bit to get used to the taste, but they are so handy. U.H.T. is ultra high temperature pasteurized, the taste is a bit different than US milk, but no need to refrigerate.
5. Long days in the summer - I love that it stays light until 10 pm in the summer months.
6. The environmental mentality - There are so many thing here that are just obvious standards for them. Take your own bags to the grocery store to eliminate all of the grocery bag trash, bike and walk everywhere you can, recycle everything, hanging your laundry to dry rather than using a dryer, taxes on cars based on the engine size, recycling nearly everything, etc. We have a LONG way to go in the States. Being “green” in the US sometimes has a bad, “liberal” connotation to it which is so sad to me and I am really hoping we can change that.
7. The city streets - there is always something going on in the cities here. When we moved here, there were huge concerts every friday night. The restaurants all have loads of seating outside where you can sit and drink and just enjoy the beautiful weather. People seem to be out and about more here, just sitting, relaxing, and watching the world go by. I love that.
8. The market - Wednesday night is market night in Kessel-lo. The market is about 1 km from our house. In the fall we asked “so when does the market end” thinking it does not go through the winter. They thought we were very strange to ask that question. Markets go all year here. They buy a lot of their fruits, veggies, bread, meat, cheeses, etc from the markets. We have found our veggie guy, our bread lady, and our waffel stand. Nothing beats good fresh fruits and veggies and a freshly baked loaf of bread. Plus it is a fun family outing to meet Daddy at the market!
9. Foods - Chocolate of course! Good chocolate everywhere you look. The smos, which is a ham and cheese sandwich packed with veggies and hard-boiled egg. They use great bread and you just can’t beat a good smos. While you can't find a good mexican place to save your life, they do still have great cuisine here.
10. The walks - being here and living in an apartment again has really freed up our time. We have no lawn to mow, no meetings to go to in the evenings, no parent-teacher conferences, no bowling or softball league, and no remodeling to get done. And while we loved all of those things about our lives back in Champaign, it has been a very different kind of life for us this year. We have enjoyed our evenings by going to parks, going to feed the horses at the abbey, (seriously, we can walk to an old abbey from our apartment) and just going for walks on one of the many different walking/biking paths they have here. For better and for worse (depending on the day) we have been forced to slow down here.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Day in Germany
Last Thursday a colleague and I drove to Germany to set up a collaboration. After reading some literature from this group in Germany, it became apparent to me that the techniques I'm working on this year might be useful to them. Here are some pictures from our visit. I'm not going to get into specifics, since some of this is pretty important, but here you go.
Cockroaches, a lot of cockroaches. Fascinating creatures really. Could pretty much live anywhere and likely survive a nuclear holocaust.
A Belgian on the left, a German on the right, and an American taking the picture. You gotta love collaboration.
And just for good measure, this is a picture of Mindy and Mia at the post office mailing our tax return back to the US! Here you go Uncle Sam.
Cockroaches, a lot of cockroaches. Fascinating creatures really. Could pretty much live anywhere and likely survive a nuclear holocaust.
A Belgian on the left, a German on the right, and an American taking the picture. You gotta love collaboration.
And just for good measure, this is a picture of Mindy and Mia at the post office mailing our tax return back to the US! Here you go Uncle Sam.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Happy Paasfeest
We had a great Easter weekend, considering how sick most of us still are. Mindy's dad stopped by on his way from Italy to Denmark. The weather was pretty strange, we actually have had snow and sleet here for the last 2 days, nothing really substantial, but funny considering we haven't even seen snow flurries all winter. Now that it is spring we have had a good dusting on the ground 3 times or more that last 48 hours.
Here is a picture of our Easter feast. Don't ask how much the ham cost, but "boy howdy" was it delicious. Thanks Avo!
Mia loves her Avo and they had some fun on the patio. Here is a picture and a video to enjoy. And as always, there are more pictures of all this in the web album, just click on a photo and you'll see.
Here is a video of Mia learning to "blow" bubbles in a new and different way. She loves that spring time is returning!
Also, Carmen is learning to smile on purpose. She coos and talks back to you, it is fun to have a more interactive infant.
This Thursday I go to the University of Marburg in Germany to perform an experiment that could have some really cool results and setup a long lasting collaboration. It is on circadian rhythms, which is a hot topic in biology right now!
Here is a picture of our Easter feast. Don't ask how much the ham cost, but "boy howdy" was it delicious. Thanks Avo!
Mia loves her Avo and they had some fun on the patio. Here is a picture and a video to enjoy. And as always, there are more pictures of all this in the web album, just click on a photo and you'll see.
Here is a video of Mia learning to "blow" bubbles in a new and different way. She loves that spring time is returning!
Also, Carmen is learning to smile on purpose. She coos and talks back to you, it is fun to have a more interactive infant.
This Thursday I go to the University of Marburg in Germany to perform an experiment that could have some really cool results and setup a long lasting collaboration. It is on circadian rhythms, which is a hot topic in biology right now!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
One Giant Leap
Sorry it has been a while again. Life with two kids is busy, the sickies are roaming my house, and we have had another visitor through. I will try to post some retro blogs soon, but first, the big news! We bought a house in Hillsboro. We actually took a huge leap of faith and made an offer on a house we had never set foot inside or seen in person. Reliable people helped us out though. We are really excited at the prospects of this being our new home and can't wait to settle in.
Here's the story. Mindy and I have been following real estate in and around Hillsboro for over a year now. We have seen houses come and come, and some even come back again. There were a few that peaked our interest, but we have tried to stay patient up till about 2 weeks ago. At that point I contacted our realtor again just to say hi and remind him we were over here on the other side of the world. I mentioned the type of house we were looking for and after a dozen or so emails back and forth we selected 4 places to look at in more depth. We put Mindy's sister and her husband in touch with our realtor who took them to see the homes this past Sunday.
All the while Mindy and I are asking ourselves, would we really put an offer on a place without ever having seen it in person? Well here is your answer. The only country property within our price range was a hit. The reviews from Liz and Jay were good, the inspection was also good. The only problem was it had a contract on it already. We were told the buyer was having trouble getting financing and the contract might lapse, and lapse it did. We quickly got in our offer (thanks to fast communication by our realtor) and today we found out our contract was accepted. So here is our take on the new Richmond abode.
6 miles southeast of Hillsboro, 5 acres of mostly brome grass, right next to a church and old school house, and on a blacktop. The house is a little smaller than our ideal, but the price is right and we can also put on an addition before the next kid.
From accross the road (Kanza), showing the property with a decent set of mature trees right around it.
Can't wait to grill on that deck, guess I'll have to buy a new grill though, gave the last one away at the move.
The living room decorated just like we will have it, just kidding. There are some other pictures in the album with these three, so feel free to take a peek. Make any comments you want, like how stupid we are for doing this, or crazy, or insane, you pick.
Here's the story. Mindy and I have been following real estate in and around Hillsboro for over a year now. We have seen houses come and come, and some even come back again. There were a few that peaked our interest, but we have tried to stay patient up till about 2 weeks ago. At that point I contacted our realtor again just to say hi and remind him we were over here on the other side of the world. I mentioned the type of house we were looking for and after a dozen or so emails back and forth we selected 4 places to look at in more depth. We put Mindy's sister and her husband in touch with our realtor who took them to see the homes this past Sunday.
All the while Mindy and I are asking ourselves, would we really put an offer on a place without ever having seen it in person? Well here is your answer. The only country property within our price range was a hit. The reviews from Liz and Jay were good, the inspection was also good. The only problem was it had a contract on it already. We were told the buyer was having trouble getting financing and the contract might lapse, and lapse it did. We quickly got in our offer (thanks to fast communication by our realtor) and today we found out our contract was accepted. So here is our take on the new Richmond abode.
6 miles southeast of Hillsboro, 5 acres of mostly brome grass, right next to a church and old school house, and on a blacktop. The house is a little smaller than our ideal, but the price is right and we can also put on an addition before the next kid.
From accross the road (Kanza), showing the property with a decent set of mature trees right around it.
Can't wait to grill on that deck, guess I'll have to buy a new grill though, gave the last one away at the move.
The living room decorated just like we will have it, just kidding. There are some other pictures in the album with these three, so feel free to take a peek. Make any comments you want, like how stupid we are for doing this, or crazy, or insane, you pick.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Happy Schrikkeldag!
Today is leap day. If you are in northern Belgium (or the Netherlands) it is Schrikkeldag. Don't ask me to pronounce it, it is difficult. Of course, it really is just a regular day here. A typical Belgian Friday, cloudy, high of 48 degrees, all the University students walking to the bus/train station with their dirty laundry in rolling suitcases. Throughout the whole town you can hear them all afternoon. I would bet that over 60,000 people in this town of 100,000 use the public transportation on Friday. My number might be a little high, but you have 35,000 plus students all going home. They don't stay here during the weekend, and why would they, the longest commute they have to home is an hour and a half maximum (the country is tiny). This would be like everyone at Tabor coming from between Salina and Wichita. So I guess you go home so Mom can do your laundry! Friday's are awful for trains and buses, the market in Leuven is also on Friday mornings, so the buses are very crowded then. We pack into the buses here like sardines, no rules just GET ON! They even run extra buses that are called "Marktbus"es. Oh, and word to the wise, never try to get on a bus that says Geen Dienst, also abbreviated GD. This means out of service, so they probably wouldn't stop to even let you board, just letting you know.
Ok, a few pictures of Carmen and Mia. Carmen is now 1 month old, and growing so fast!
Click on any one of these to see a bunch more photos from February.
Ok, a few pictures of Carmen and Mia. Carmen is now 1 month old, and growing so fast!
Click on any one of these to see a bunch more photos from February.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Belgian Castles
Europe is full of castles. They have so many castles they don't even know what to do with all of them. Belgium seems to have more castles per capita than any other country, but to me they aren't nearly as impressive as the Rhine river castles in Germany. But alas, they are close, and we go see them anyways. The first one pictured is very near our apartment. It is about a 15 kilometer bike ride, or 10 minute drive by car. There isn't anything to see inside, but it is lovely to walk around and look at on a rare sunny day. Mia, my three year old, took one of these photos, hope you like them.
A second castle we went to visit is in the national botanical gardens of Belgium. The location is north of Brussels and the grounds are enormous. We really loved the greenhouses, but there was no way to see everything in one afternoon. We will have to go back this spring. The gardens are more of a site than the Bouchout Castle, but they are both impressive and worth the entrance fee.
My pictures aren't very nice, but I found this website that is superb. Enjoy. Bouchout Castle and National Botanic Garden of Belgium
A second castle we went to visit is in the national botanical gardens of Belgium. The location is north of Brussels and the grounds are enormous. We really loved the greenhouses, but there was no way to see everything in one afternoon. We will have to go back this spring. The gardens are more of a site than the Bouchout Castle, but they are both impressive and worth the entrance fee.
My pictures aren't very nice, but I found this website that is superb. Enjoy. Bouchout Castle and National Botanic Garden of Belgium
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
