The Levins
Arlene & Marc Joined: August 20th 2006
Logged in: May 28th 2011
Logged in: May 28th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Hi Everyone, I know these blog entries seem to come few and far between. We are finally feeling settled here and it has been a very busy summer. For those of you have been asking for an update here goes…. We are really enjoying Brussels and living in Europe. This expat lifestyle is a never ending learning experience, most of them great, a few not so great but we will focus on the good stuff and the fun: A couple of weeks ago was the 25th anniversary of Marc joining his company, so the site leader and his wife took Marc and I to a celebratory dinner at one of Brussels finest French restaurants. Needless to say it was fantastic and a learning experience as well. The waiter explained the specials and one was a combination ... read more
Police arriving
Pictures of our moving day into our apartment in Brussels (See Blog entry titled "We are finally settled" for a bit of a narrative about our experiences on moving day....... read more
I have been so busy unpacking and settling in that I have not had time to write or post an entry to our blog. Consequently this will be a long one….. so be prepared with a cup of coffee, glass of wine, box of chocolates or whatever tickles your fancy because here goes….. Yes it is really true…. after 7 months of living out of suitcases we are finally settled with all the moving boxes unpacked (and the offending suitcases put away) in Brussels, Belgium. HALLELUJAH! Many of you have asked for pictures of our apartment, so in a separate blog entry I will post some pictures for those who are interested. Marc jumped in to work on his second day here and has been working long hours ever since. He is really enjoying the job ... read more
Hi again everyone, Things are going really well here, and Marc is settling into his job. He has been working long, long days and is quite busy so he had to hit the ground running. He has been in lots of meetings with people of so many nationalities (French, Dutch, Brits, etc...) that his meetings with only the Japanese are looking like a piece of cake! Still, he seems to really be enjoying it and one cannot ask for more than that. The arrangements for our move to our new apartment are moving along, though not without little hiccups. The moving company tells us we have to have our residency ID from the commune (area of Brussels where we will live... Woluwe - St. Lambert) before they can deliver our household goods, but supposedly we cannot ... read more
Hi Everyone Well, we are finally here in Belgium and the first thing I have to say is that......THE WAIT WAS WORTH IT! We are loving it here. A run down on our activities so far.... We arrived on Monday morning about 8AM Brussels time. There was supposed to be someone from the relocation company to meet us at the airport but no one showed up. Then again, we only decided to fly over on Friday after the Belgium offices were closed for the weekend, and then we arrived before they opened on Monday morning so we had thought we might be on our own. We took a taxi to our temporary apartment but there was no one to check us in as check in time wasn't until 2 PM. We did not have any cell ... read more
Hi Everyone... We are sitting in the airport in Huntsville waiting on our fllight to Brussels via Atlanta. It has been a whirlwind 2 days. On Tuesday we received word that Marc's wrork permit was being fed-exed to us from Brussels and that once we received it, we could go to Atlanta to submitmit the papterwork for our visas. We made plans to go the next day (not that we were anxious or anything) and to have the movers come pick up our air shipment on friday. Then when Marc went to track the fed-ex package we found that it was not dropped off in time and we would not get it until thursday. So we rescheduled the movers for thursday and made plans to go to Atlanta on Friday. So far so good. We has ... read more
Hi Everyone, I know it has been a LONG time since I have posted a blog entry, so please forgive me. This entry will update you on everything with Marc and I, and for some of you with whom I have more regular (OK… regular for me) correspondence some of this will be a repeat, so I hope you can bear with me. First Marc and I have been back in the states, in Huntsville, Alabama since mid November last year Here goes…. Back almost a year ago, we were told that we would probably be leaving Japan after our two years were up. Without going into all the nitty gritty details, suffice it to say: budget constraints, etc. So, we were really disappointed, but at the same time we both felt so fortunate to be ... read more
A canal in Copenhagen
Hi Everyone, I know, I know, it has been a LONG time since I have written a blog entry! It is just that Marc and I have been so busy, and we’ve been traveling a lot. Marc has been very busy at work. No two days are the same for him, as he has meetings everyday in different places. I have been busy too… shopping, taking classes and just exploring our “new” home. Even though we have been here now 9 months, it still feels “new” because everything is so different and it still seems as if there is something new for us to see everywhere we look. In June we traveled to Denmark and Norway for a cruise around the Norwegian fjords. Our cruise began and ended in Copenhagen. We met up there with a ... read more
Hi Everyone…. I know it has been a LONG time since I’ve given you an update, but the truth is we have both been so busy that we just haven’t had the time. In addition, now that we have settled into our “routine” life here, there is not as much to write about as when we first arrived and everything was so new. We do have a few things to tell you about so here goes…… Our days have gotten to be very full. Marc is working long days and also started an intensive Japanese language course at the Temple University campus in Tokyo. He leaves for work about 6 AM, works all day, pops in for dinner then goes off to class until 9 PM every night except Friday. In addition, he has at least ... read more
