(With Conga-line tune):

I'm going to Cairo!
I'm going to Cairo!

April break - the tickets are bought and paid for!!

Oh, the joys of living in Belgium!

Randomness of the Week


On Tuesday, Jen, Amy, Cassie, Katie and I went to the James Blunt concert here in Brussels, to which we had bought tickets the previous Wednesday. To those of you who say "WHO??": I understand completely. James Blunt is the guy who sings "you're beautiful, you're beautiful" and in his video removes his clothes before leaping off a cliff in some sort of cold and snowy location. I was quite skeptical, but tickets were reasonable and it was something different to spice up a Tuesday. I was pleasantly surprised by mr. Blunt's talents - he plays and piano and guitar and has a great voice, his music is enjoyable. I would have guessed none of this from that video...

Thursday night, the three of us somehow started making s'mores over candles using half-strawberry Belgian marshmallows (we only used the non-strawberry half) that didn't reall melt and that we speared on chopsticks, speculoos cookies, and broken pieces of a hollow chocolate santa that was both milk and white chocolate. they didn't really taste all that bad... though nothing like the real things....

The last three days have been sunny and beautiful.... how long can this keep happening???

We have discovered the joys of hyacinths in the middle of the kitchen table...

Being it is a new semester, we have started new after-school clubs, this time of our own choosing. I was previously doing a Newspaper Club on Mondays... this is a great idea for a club, but not when it is mostly kindergarteners and 1st graders who can't really write by themselves.... now Katie B and I are doing "walking club" which means we get to take kids out to the woods for 45 minutes each monday after school.... which is exactly where i am going to want to be on a Monday after school, especially when it starts to get nice out!!

A new resident has moved in to our area - the most annoying bird in the world! late and night, early in the morning, in the middle of the day we hear him, making a noise that sounds quite like a metal pipe squeaking in rhythm. Not my favorite sound in the world. Hopefully he will not find Boitsfort to his liking and will move on soon!

The first grade has started their study of The Body. This has resulted in many large, red, kid-sized paper bodies appearing on the walls and windows, with bones and organs painted or glued on and labeled. it's really quite amazing what some of them know...

My little English class is not so little anymore, as I have added two new students, though to even it back out one of them is switching back to his other teacher, which leaves me with a nice, even 8.

Today I felt quite Belgian... the girls and I got up and went to market, where we bought lots of fresh produce, bread, and a quiche, and we came back and had a fabulous brunch. then KT and I went for a walk in the forest, which is always teeming with families, friend and spouses on Sunday afternoon... one of those sun-filled moments when all you can do is sigh and think about how great life is!!

New pictures are up from mom's visit....

My mom came to visit me!!
We did the whirlwind Brussels tour. I showed her my school and the forest and the neighborhood. We went into downtown Brussels, to Bruges, to Gent, and to Knokke.

Knokke is right on the Atlantic, so it was fun to walk up and down the beach. It took a couple hours to get there on the train, but it was worth it! I will have to go back when it is warmer, or when I need to go shopping... there are a lot of great stores there!!

Gent has a really cool castle in it, which was the main focus of our time there. I was again reminded of the advantage of being under 26 years old in Belgium - normal admission, 6 euros. Under-26 admission, 1.20. Plane fares are cheaper, train tickets are cheaper.... it also pays to be a senior citizen!!


Katie B is back among us! She arrived on New Year's Eve. She and Cassie and I went downtown that night to watch the fireworks... they were really good ones and it was fun to be there with the large numbers of happy celebrating people.

we went back to school on the day my mom left, and it is nice to be back, though it was nice to have a break, of course! We are planning our next adventure already! During the week we have off in February, we are going to Italy! We will fly into Milan, see Venice and Bologna and then go to the Olympics in Turino! We are going to see freestyle ski jumping, which should be very exciting! On our way home we are going to head to the South of France.

That's about all for now!