Thank you!

We have to thank everyone who is supporting us here in Belgium. Things have been rough here and there, but having people call, send letters, email and send us our favorite things makes it all the better.

Just wanted to make a special thank you to the following people for sending us some nice care packages. We can't thank you enough!!

From my Mom & Julie~We are addicted to this dressing now. It is so nice to have a salad with Italian dressing. THANK YOU!!!!

From Tiffanie~

We have taco mix, sloppy joe mix, gravey packs, Ranch dressing, Lipton Onion Soup mix; so many different things for us to use. Thank you for your kindness.

From Paul~

Christian's favortie:

Thanks Paul for the cereal and for some U.S. magazines. It has been so nice to sit down and read them.

Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Love,

Christian & Meg

Things are cooling off here in Belgium

It took a while, but we found ice trays that fit in our freezer:

Now that we found them, we are going to start a campaign here in Belgium to hopefully spread the joys of ice.

Life is so much better with ice!!

C & M

I DID IT...

Christian was out of town today, in Berlin, so I had the car here with me along with a list of things i needed to do. It was go time!

I needed to go to the grocery store, so I decided to take the car even though I was a bit nervous to do so. I really wanted to go to the BIG grocery store rather than walking to the little one, So, I set out in the Renault Scenic Megane towards the grocery store down the street. The straight aways are almost a piece of cake, but the one rule that I can't get in my head is that cars approaching on the right have the right away unless they have a small set of painted diamonds on the pavement in front of them. It is so confusing and you really have to be on guard while driving otherwise you'll get a single finger salute from the local Belgians.

I would say I did pretty good driving; I only had one person flash their lights at me - fifeteen times while tailgating - and one person flick me off.

I made it back in one piece, all in all it was a good drive.

The Apartment

I know most of you have been waiting and waiting for this, so here it is. The Gani Apartment in Belgium.

Main Entrance & Staircase:

The Kitchen:

Yes, the silver box in the picture above is my convection microwave oven!!
This is our kitchen pantry and the Michigan Towel (thank you Uncle Joe & Aunt Marie) is hanging on our fridge. The fridge is from the towel down only; the top part is cabinet space.

The Dining Room: The Laundry Closet:

This is the dryer on top and washer down below. They are very, very tiny!!

The Living Room:

Downstairs Toilet Room:

You are not imagining how small the sink looks!!!

Our bedroom:

Our bathroom:Upstairs Toilet Room:

Spare Room (we don't have the bed yet...I will update pics when we get it)

Spare bathroom:

There you have it!! The grand ole place! Now that you all see what it looks like, come visit! Miss all of you.
Christian & Meghin

The Flower Carpet

I have to say...I've learned that as a married man you tend to do things you really dont want to do - but you do them because your wife tells you to. Now that might not seem like anything particularly strange, but here's the key difference. Not only do I have to actively participate in such endeavors...I have to act like I'm enjoying it...which is sometimes a wee bit more difficult!

On friday, Meg thought it would be a good idea to go down to the Grand Place to see...wait for it...flowers. Earlier in the week Meg and her mom caught the "carnie's" setting up the big display which was huge, about 3/4 of a football field in length and width.

Meg wanted to see the finished product for her mom, my mum, several friends (all of which watch Oprah everyday), her sister and other sappy friends. In actuality, the site was pretty impressive. What was most remarkable was the legions of paparazzi that fought tooth and nail to get as close to the fenceline as possible to take some pictures. After slaying the photo bandits, Meg and I finally had our moment in the sun and took a picture in front of what amounts to a large carpet...but an impressive one nonetheless. Apparently Belgium has amazing Bogonias hence their inclusion in the display.

Lastly, seeing the "carpet" made me think about other cities in the world that might have a reason to do something similar. For instance, would Beijing have a carpet full of dead cats? What about London? A carpet with tea and crumpettes? Or what about Toronto? A carpet full of donuts, beer, maple syrup and overpayed, underacheiving, lazy hockey players.

Ummm...something to think about

C&M

Our First Visitor

We had our first visitor to Brussels this past week...none other than...Mom Wojtowicz. Mom arrived on Saturday morning after a long overnight flight from Detroit. We picked her up from the Brussels Airport and took her back to our place for a quick snack and a short nap. After mom's "short" 4 hour nap, we took off to Grand Place for a drink and dinner. This was mom's first time to "the place" and boy was she amazed by the sites.

Sunday we got up really early, picked up Dennis (Christian's co-worker) and we all took off for Bruges, because as he says in his best Dr. Evil voice "that's where daddy's from". (More to come on Bruges later!)

The rest of the week Christian had to work (surprise, surprise), so Mom and I set out to do the tourist things. Monday morning we jumped on the Brussels Site Seeing Tour Bus that took us around the city to see all the major attractions of which there are few! The bus took us to Grand Place, Manneken Pis, St. Catherines, Mont Des Arts, European Union, Royal Palace, Cinquatenaire Arch and the Atomium. It was a very interesting tour and we learned a lot about Brussels and Belgium, very well worth the trip if you decide to come visit us here. The funny thing about the trip was our bus tickets. Tickets for adults were €18, but the driver only charged us €16 (the under 18 and over 65 price). I guess I look under 18 and poor mom must look over 65. It made me laugh!

Tuesday and Wednesday we set out on foot to walk around and see what type of things we would find. We did go to the Mont Des Arts Museum and saw paintings from Bruegel & Rubens. We also had to go to Cinquantenaire Park to take our picture for the Livonia Observer (Amanda & Chad...be on the lookout!)

For out last night out, Mom and I went back to the Grand Place for dinner. Mom decided on a Italian place and we had an excellent meal.

On Thursday morning, I had to take mom back to the airport to catch her flight back to Detroit. It was sad to see her go, but we will enjoy the good times that we spent here in Brussels.

Thanks for everything Mom, we love you!

Getting in Trouble

So, we got in trouble for the first time while here in Brussels. Friday night we went out with Dennis (Christian's co-worker from L.A.) for a quick drink and salad mixe (salami & cheese) before we headed out for dinner. Christian had this great idea that we head to the Metropole, which is supposed to be a hot spot for a beer. We sit down and there are 3 of us, so we sit at a table but all the chairs are in a line; Christian just tells me to move my chair to fit so we can all sit and chat. Jokingly, I say there is probably a rule about me moving my chair (there is a rule for everything here) and Dennis and Christian laugh. Not even 1 minute later a waiter comes running over and says "No, no, no; this is not possible." I look at him in confusion and say "what?" He replies, "you are not allowed to move your chair." So I move it back in disgust.

We order a couple of beers and the waiter asked if we want Mediums. We all look at each other and agreed a medium sounds good. The waiter brings back our drink and we can't believe what we are looking at. We have these huge, I mean huge beers sitting in front of us and we all start to laugh. Christian asked if they are larges and the waiter says "No, mediums, we do not have large." Of course they don't have larges, why would they!!

Christian then proceeds to order a salad mixe; the salami and cheese plate. The waiter tells us that he has something that is similar and we would like better so we order that. As the waiter drops off our plate, we notice...there is no salami and no cheese. We have crackers with what looks to be a lot of pelican droppings on it. We have caviar, tuna salad, steak tartar, liver pate, salmon and some sort of weird shrimp mix. By this time we are half way through our drinks and we can't stop laughing. Christian digs in and says to Dennis and I that we have to eat these. Dennis and I look at each and decide we are not touching it, but Christian starts in and challenges us. So, we decide we will take what looks like to be some safe ones, which we eat with no problem. Christian then decides he is going to do a pate and I have to eat the shrimp mix; I say ok with hesitation and dig in. I about lost all of my food on the table and by that time we were all not feeling good.

The rule here...don't move chairs, can't trust mediums unless you want to be tanked and never go with what the waiter suggests without seeing it first. The waiter had the last laugh on us! He took us for a ride.

C & M

Weather

The weather here is really strange. First of all I still can't figure out Celsius so when they tell me it is 22 degress today, I have no idea what that means. I guess we should print out a temperature scale and post it somewhere. Anways, today started off really cold and raining; we literally thought it was football season - Go Blue (25 days till kickoff)! So, I put jeans and a jacket on and headed out for the day. About 4 hours later, it was so hot out that I sweating and so thirsty for something cold to drink. But remember, nothing is cold here and nothing comes with ice. By the time I got home today around 4:30 it was really cold and raining again. The weather just can't make up its mind here - is it Summer or Fall???

After all the strange things that happened with the weather today; Mother nature did get one thing right...

Gifts from the Homeland...

So today is Friday and usually that means it is going to be a great day, but today turned out to be an excellent day!!! We received a surprise from some great friends in Livonia, MI today. Amanda & Chad sent us some of our favorite things that we can not find here in Belgium. We can't thank you enough for the gifts...Christian is sooooo excited for the A1!! In fact he was so excited that he cracked it open and poured it directly in...ummm delicious. These things might not mean anything to you back in the States, but to us these items are priceless over here. No more steak with a side of mayo for us!

They did forget one very important item however...ice. Can a brother get some ice over here please? I mean c'mon, it's 100 degree's over here and all we can get is lukewarm "coca-light" and half chilled beer. First person to actually get us some ice or reusable icecubes wins the prize =$50

Thank you Amanda & Chad! See you soon.

Love Meg & Christian