Finally, an entry from abroad that actually involves some travel. Your dreams have come true kids; it's even better than Christmas morning. I arrived in Belgium this morning, here for a few days to talk to the chocolate shop proprietors to iron out the details of my apprenticeship and to find a place to live. It didn't quite turn out the way I thought it would. The chocolate shop is closed until Saturday. This actually isn't too bad though, since I leave on Sunday. The shitty thing was that I was supposed to meet an estate agent about finding a place [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having the privilege of avoiding any 'real life' responsibilities (read jobs), one thing we really wanted to do was spend some quality time with friends and family during our trip to Europe. First stop .. a return to Hendrix's birthplace, Belgium. My big brother Gordon and his partner Ingrid live in a cute wee village called Wakkerzeel, just outside Leuven (famous for being the home of Stella Artois) and within an hour of Brussels. With mile upon mile of green, flat farmland and quaint old villages with stereotypical wee pubs and shops it oozes tranquility and has a sweet country communit [View Full Entry]

---

---

The sun was shining down on us today! Yeah. What a birthday treat for the birthday girl. We made pannenkoeken for breakfast and stuffed them with jelly and/or nutella and bananas. Everyone loves that meal. We stayed around the house most of the morning so I could clean up for our first house guest, Jonathan’s cousin Eric. We walked to the bakery and got a strawberry tart for dessert (still no oven to cook in) and the kids got a piece of cake to split for an after lunch treat. We made grilled cheese for lunch and they split their cake [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ok - despite Teresa previously mentioning 'Peter Gabriel' this is a particularly strong edition of the Brag Site. (Peter Gabriel sucked! I can't stress how much he was the suckiest suck that ever sucked! Couldn't hold a crowd with 80,000 revelers in front of him - his unnecessary mic headset and vest didn't help matters...) Headed over there in a group of about 20 - the first beer was cracked at about 8am Thursday morning... the last one about 2am Monday Morning... Luckily we have plenty of snaps to tell the story - as it was sponsored by Stella Artois... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ah, France. I was up at 7am and made a pot of coffee and basked in the silence and stillness of the day. It was the only peace I would have until I sat down to write this at 9:45pm. But what a day. The rest of the family got up at 8:10 and we were all dressed and out the door at 8:35. Caught the bus to the train station and a train to Brussels. All smooth sailing. We brought waffles and yogurt drink for a breakfast on the go. We were 45 minutes early to Brussels Zuid station [View Full Entry]

---

---

Abigail and Eliza napped while Emma did email and played computer games (we often have to fight each other to see who gets on). When the girls woke we all played Uno and then I made dinner (chicken, onion, pepper & broccoli stir fry with rice). We then walked up to Abdij van Park behind the Phillips Site. It was really cool. I had discovered it a few days earlier while I was out for a walk after the kids went to bed. The abbey and grounds are being restored, but it was still huge and impressive. It reminded me [View Full Entry]

---

---

Happy Father’s Day! The kids got up around 8 and had a bowl of cereal. I got dressed and took Eliza to the bakery to get some special pastries for father’s day. Emma made a card and Abigail made some wrapping paper to wrap his new water bottle up (the metal kind; he was the only one without a water bottle). We were all out the door and on the bus a little after 10am. At the train station we bought our tickets (6.80 euros each for Jonathan and I) and made the mandatory reservations for the Thalys train that [View Full Entry]

---

---

WOW! This is the most amazing park I have been to. It is very reminiscent of Look Park in Northampton, MA, but much bigger and with the best play structures around. Zoe and Henry picked us up at about 3 and we smooshed into their car and drove about 15 minutes to get there. The first play area we went to have all sorts of mechanical "diggers" to lift sand into steel buckets that could be pushed around the area on a series of metal bars. There were structures to climb in that also had mechanical pulleys etc to lift [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today we decided to meet Jonathan close to his office on the grounds of the university We meandered down the street towards the Arenburg Kasteel (Castle). The property currently cover 29 hectacres and are filled with all sorts of walking and biking paths. Before World War I the Arenburg family could supposedly walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Czech Republic and never leave their own land. After their involvement in WWI they were forced to give away a lot of land which is how KUL came to own this parcel and the buildings on it. The girls found the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We are all getting up a little earlier. Even Emma was up by 9:30 this morning. Abigail and I went to the local bakery (about 2.5 blocks away) and picked up some yummy pastries for breakfast. It is a gray and rainy day but we thought we would head out anyways and maybe go to the flea market. It rained a little bit off and on at the beginning of our day. The kids were initially a little concerned about this but then luckily they found some fun. We walked through the Stadpark (city park) and found some cool sculptures. [View Full Entry]

---

---