An American in Brussels

Just waitin' for the tram...

2009-05-06T22:12:00.002+02:00

Clouds over newly plowed field

2009-05-06T22:10:00.001+02:00

There are gorgeous skies here, in between the rain showers.

Inline skates and skate boards

2009-05-03T09:36:00.003+02:00

Here they make statues to it. The symbolism indicates the boy on the right died while boarding in a public square.

Colors of Nature - Le bois de Hal / Belgium

2009-05-01T09:42:00.001+02:00

Colors of Nature - Le bois de Hal / Belgium

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Beautiful Sterrebeek

2009-04-29T22:48:00.002+02:00

Walking home from the tram the other day, I walked past one bush and boom, tthese flowers greeted me. The color was just so wonderful in the sunlight.

Warm, like buttah...

Sterrebeek

2009-04-28T19:01:00.003+02:00

Sometimes a pictures says so much more than anyone means it too, and yet, it says the truth. Welcome to Sterrebeek. More than a dirt road

Fertilizer on a beautiful day

2009-04-27T21:13:00.001+02:00

Ah, the smell of a freshly fertilized field...

Koln Cathedral

2009-03-01T17:26:00.000+01:00

From the train station, the cathedral through the roof.

Koln Train Station

2009-02-27T21:46:00.000+01:00

I haad to change trains in Koln the other day going to and from Berlin. I liked the train station.

Odd structures

2009-02-19T17:09:00.000+01:00

On the other side of this field, partially obscured is a combination storage area, sheep shed, and otherwise an 'improvised structure'. By improvised structure I mean a structure that was put together to meet a need, using whatever materials are to hand. This has wood drying, a second story with an elevated story - why, I don't know. Maybe the next time I'm at the field I will try to see into the upper level. These sorts of structures have been catching my eye here because, I am guess, it's an outcome of zoning that allows small farms next to suburban housing. So I am seeing more structures than I have ever see before, because I am around them. I imagine farmers have been doing this for 4 or 5,000 years.

Death in Venice

2009-01-24T07:57:00.002+01:00

Death in Venice, An opera by Benjamin Britten, was presented in a great production at La Monnaie here in Brussels. The staging was dreamlike, except for the long transition from Munchen and the Ship to Venice.

Walking to the tram

2009-01-18T22:15:00.001+01:00

We walked to the tram stop, the new way to get to the Metro, in order to get downtown. Trhough the fields, and then on the tram.

By the side of the road

2009-01-15T22:06:00.000+01:00

The tram used to run out here (the street is Tramlaan). But this little pond peeks out from between two houses, and the dark tunnel-like shadows make the pond very attractive.

Our Metro Stop

2009-01-15T22:00:00.000+01:00

This is the subway stop in Kraainem. It's simple, pretty bare of decoration, but it bring light right now to the tracks, and I like that

Politics in Brussels

2009-01-11T10:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday there demonstrations downtown like there were across Europe, about the current Gaza-Israeli conflict. Someone had asked me what the feeling was here...The first sentence "Diverses associations et ONG organisent ce dimanche une manifestation pro-palestinienne à Bruxelles pour dénoncer la situation dans la Bande de Gaza" roughly translates as "Diverse associations and organizations staged a pro-Palestinian demonstration Saturday to denounce the situation in the Gaza strip." You'll notice that the picture of the demonstration they have is from New Year's Eve, not from yesterday's demonstration.

Huge Full Moon

2009-01-11T10:25:00.000+01:00

We went out last night and the full moon looked huge...

More Ice non-storm

2009-01-11T10:23:00.001+01:00

More Ice non-storm

2009-01-11T10:23:00.000+01:00

Ice non-storm

2009-01-11T10:19:00.000+01:00

We woke up the other morning to a frozen non-storm. The weather has been foggy, then the temperature dropped, and all the trees and shrubs seemed to be coated with ice. It looked kind of like infra-red pictures: there was a complete color shift.

Encore careers, they call 'em...

2009-01-08T11:05:00.000+01:00

Here's a story about encore careers in my alumni magazine.

The sun came up...

2009-01-07T11:55:00.000+01:00

From Daily Life

We can call it a movie.

Snow Day!

2009-01-05T14:35:00.000+01:00

This is a street two blocks fom our house, hours after the snow stopped. I wonder when they will get to it.

What Just Happened

2009-01-04T18:31:00.001+01:00

What Just Happened is reviewed here. We watched the movie this afternoon. It was very enjoyable, bitterly funny. Some people who like dogs aren't going to like. That's all I can say.

Geese

2009-01-03T12:21:00.000+01:00

I think these weere a couple of geese, that looked a little bit lost, out in the middle of a field. You'll have to zoom on this one to even begin to see this. Although they are small in the frame (and one of them was sitting down when I actually took the picture) they seemed large when seen across the field.

How do you ski when there is no snow?

2009-01-03T12:19:00.000+01:00

This man was on wheeled skis - I don't know what else to call them - rolling his way across country.

Spiders on Acid

2009-01-03T12:17:00.000+01:00

Those of us of a certain age probably remember the pictures of a perfect spider web, right next to a spiderweb by a spider on acid. Apparently the spiders around here were hallucinating last night.

Actually, I think, it's the heavy fog, and the 38 degree F weather, which led to moisture accumulating on the webs, and the weight of the moisture led to the appearance of drug degraded behaviour.

A Foggy Day in the suburbs of Brussels

2009-01-03T12:13:00.000+01:00

I went for a walk today in the suburbs of Brussels. Oscar got a good walk. So far, there was no tinkle left. We saw somintersting things in the walk.

New Year's Snow

2009-01-02T12:25:00.000+01:00

It didn't last long, but it was thick and kind of exciting for 15 minutes.

New Year's Day

2009-01-01T14:42:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year, in a quiet way.

2009-01-01T14:38:00.000+01:00

And then we walked through the cold, past the people singing in Church, and caught our trains and started our cars and made our ways home.

There was even mariachi music!

2009-01-01T14:32:00.000+01:00

New Year's Eve 4

2009-01-01T14:25:00.001+01:00

There were even fireworks!

New Year's Eve 3

2009-01-01T13:58:00.000+01:00

We met our other friends, Ellen & Kathy. And then we all went ot a Latin restaurant in Woluwe.

Antonio Barbosa is the owner, and although the place has only been open ten weeks, it was very good, very enjoyable. We especially liked the Butterfly scampi with cuitlacoche (Mexican truffle), and I have to say the Argentinean beef (Argentine filet pûr with sauce of mushroom and chile de arbol (Mexican chili) served with garlic potatoes) was great. We had Chilean white and Argetinean red with our courses, and a wonderful, warm time.

New Year's Eve 2

2009-01-01T13:56:00.000+01:00

We went out with our friend Amy.

New Year's Eve 1

2009-01-01T13:50:00.000+01:00

We are Chris and Kathy.

An American in Paris

2008-12-31T08:16:00.001+01:00

My son was over for the holidays and we travelled. He took a break in Rodin's gardens...

Tin Tin is EveryEvery Where Where

2008-12-30T15:54:00.000+01:00

This is the Stockel Metro stop in Brussels. Tin (and company) are moving along the walls.

Parking

2008-12-18T07:08:00.000+01:00

This is the way the Bruxellois park. On the sidewalk. It's less expensive than building a bigger parking lot.

Daily Life in Brussels

2008-12-08T05:57:00.000+01:00

Met my friend Paul (in from London last night). He's stayng at le Chatelaine, in Ixelles. Lovely area, lots of shops and restaurants and bistros and bars.
Grotere kaart weergeven

This was the area, which is maybe more Chatelaine, which I've never heard of as a separate area. But even though it is not in the downtown area, I recommend it as a place to stay.

Snow in Brussels

2008-11-29T06:54:00.000+01:00

It was snowing in Brussels last week. Our two younger kids, who are visiting their father in the states and already out of school, are probably disappointed that they missed an opportunity for school to be closed. C'est. as we say around here, la vie.

There was also enough snow for bonhomme neige, snow guys, though I didn't get any pictures.

Also, look at how the insulation on that house in the back marks the difference between the two parts of the structure. On one the snow is melted, and on the other it is sitting there.

London shower

2008-11-28T06:52:00.000+01:00

OK, this is a silly post. A shower in London with a light in it. I have just never seen anything like it before. I had to turn on the water to make sure it was a shower.

Happy Thanksgiving from a bunch of Molly's Pilgrims

2008-11-26T19:05:00.000+01:00

In a galaxy long ago and far away I helped make a movie called Molly's Pilgrim. It went on to win an Acadmey Award. My great niece (in second grade) just read the book and watched the movie. Melanie Jane (and all the other second graders at Our Lady of the Valley school, along with their teacher Mrs. Mann) made their own Pilgrims this year. "It takes all kinds of Pilgrims to make Thanksgiving." Happy Thanksgiving!

NYU Pillow

2008-11-23T12:47:00.000+01:00

I don't know if there are copyright issues involved, but my University is worth copying for a pillow for sale in a market in Gouda.

Gouda Town Hall - Clock Face

2008-11-22T15:04:00.000+01:00

A clock face and a couple of sun dials.

Gouda Town Hall - in profile

2008-11-22T14:55:00.001+01:00

Gouda - Town Hall

2008-11-07T15:05:00.000+01:00

It is always surprising how these things rise like a fairy tale, not out of the mist in a remote spot, but on a bright clear morning above a busy market.

Gouda - Sint Janskerk

2008-11-06T14:39:00.000+01:00

I was surprised by how close the neighboring buildings - there's no square or plaza from which to get a view of the church. That's Sint Jans on the right.

Gouda - Sint Janskerk

2008-11-06T14:32:00.000+01:00

Gouda - Church Streetscape

2008-11-03T15:17:00.000+01:00

This is looking down the length of the church on one side.

Gouda

2008-11-03T15:04:00.000+01:00

This is Gouda, home of the cheese. We took a day trip yesterday, with the whole family, and we all enjoyed it. But I was struck by the quiet reflective canal, and grabbed this picture, and I'm thinking of a watercolor. But this is a city which 150 years ago was synonymous with beggar, that is to say someone from Gouda was a beggar, because the city had been so poor for so long.

In the 40s they started to fill in the canals, but the city fathers changed direction.

Pajamas and the weather

2008-11-01T11:05:00.000+01:00

This is a week old now, just a week. Liz had two friends stay over, making a movie about polio for their science course. They dramatized the life, and death, of someone with polio. They also giggled a lot. The next morning, Kathy and I put together a spread for them. I walked to the boulangerie and picked up croissants and choclate croissants. We had Greek yoghurt (with honey), Kathy sliced up a banana and an apple: they had lots to eat. After their meal, they went out on our little back porch, and realized it was a beautiful, warm day(for Brussels), and decided to do their homework together in the sun, on the grass, in their pajamas. That's when I took this picture.
It is difficult to believe that we are so much farther north than New Jersey, than any part of the continental United States, or should I say the 48 contiguous states. Which formulation suggests the two non-contiguous states, Hawaii and Alaska. Which, 3 days from the election, suggests Obama and Palin. Rarely do we get national politicians from these two more remote outposts of the US. Right now Obama seems to be in the lead. Has the weather influenced their views, is it responsible for their (right-thinking) liberalism and conservatism respectively?

How to put on a tile roof

2008-10-28T06:19:00.000+01:00

Down the street an older house has been under renovation for a few months now, and is looking, from the outside at least, very good. They are putting on a new roof, tiled as is one local custom. and I took this photograph at that moment when you can see the finished version, as well as what's underneath.

Metal rails are extended across the roof for each row of tiles, and then the tiles are hung on the rails, and otherwise attached. Watching these four guys put the roof up, though, there was only one person 'supplying' the tiles, and custom cutting them. The three 'tile-hangers' up on the roof, only one was busy and the others were waiting for tiles, I suppose.

Cat

2008-10-26T14:16:00.000+01:00

I can't confess to an overwhelming love for cats. I have mainly been a dog person, but I ave had cats before. This is Scarlet, our family cat. She is quiet, lives mainly on the second floor, takes no crap from Oscar our Korean dog, and is quietly friendly to me. Seeing her cat bottom in our bread basket, has nearly put me our freshed baked baguettes.

Clubbing...

2008-10-24T07:24:00.000+02:00

These days the only bar I ever see
Has got lettuce and tomatoes
John Hiatt

Well, it''s not a bar, but a club, and the four of us went last night to work out. (http://www.sports-valley.be/) And it felt good, better than a drink. And I didn't listen to John Hiatt, but I did listen to Lightnin' Hopkins, Come Go With Me. It was great, and kicked off my exercise with a bang.

License Plates - If anybody cared...

2008-10-22T21:46:00.000+02:00

For the last week or so, we haven't been able to use one of our cars (which has not been that much of a pain) because we needed to get the license plate renewed - in practical terms, that meant getting a new sticker on the plate. However, becaue we were so late getting it done, we had to get new plates. So this morning I was going to put the new plates on the car. Because the car is an American car, the holes are in the wrong places for the Belgian plates. As I tried to attach things I realized that the old plate which I still had had extra holes drilled in it. Hmmm. I have recently purchased a drill, but it was a used drill, and I've been waiting to go to Carrefour to buy new drill bits, waiting until I had the new plates so the car will be legal, or driving the car will be legal.

Now, I had been driving the car for 6 weeks with the old out of date plates on it - so I wasn't too worried about whether this was illegal or not. But once it was made an issue, I didn't want to drive the car - after all it would be illegal. Hmm. I made some compromises and with one old plate on the front of the car, and one new plate on the back of the car, I drove to Carrefour, and bought a new drill set. In the parking lot of Carrefour, I drilled holes in one plate (portable drill). I started drilling the holes in the other plate, but then I ran out of power in the drill. Urgh. Nasty words. So I drove home with the plates the same as they had been before, only one of the new plates was fully attached in the right spot. None of the Politie cars stopped me, although one appeared in my neighborhood as I was returning, and I thought, well, I can explain this, and point to the plates which I had in the car. Although I am sure it's as illegal as hell to drill holes in the plates in the first place. If anybody cared.

Entrepreneur bonus

2008-10-08T11:12:00.000+02:00

A couple of the speakers.

Seminar "How to start your own business in Belgium?"

2008-10-08T10:58:00.000+02:00

A few weeks ago I attended this seminar given by ING and expats.com and here's a link:
http://www.ing.be/independent.

It was interesting, useful and friendly, filled with 'foreigners' like myself, part of a government initiative to increase invest in the country, or at least it allowed for that.

There also seeemed to be a lot of support for starting up or incubating a business.

2008-10-04T10:05:00.000+02:00

OK, so I published the same picture two days in a row. Not a sign of CRS. Just loved the picture so much.

This is my brother Fred and his lovely wife Kay who came for a visit two weeks ago. One midday, we went to Leuven and wandered around the church, and I grabbed this photo of the two of them in front of the beautiful City Hall. A thing of beauty in and of itself, and a wonder that it is still standing hundreds of years later. Was the appropriation of building things for a thousand years by Hitler a cue for architects to work in temporary modes, or maybe just the 20th centuries fascination with the new. New materials, new modes, new everything. Then again, Newe York as the city without history - knock down the old to put up the new. Again and again and again.

anyway, we had a nice visit, going downtown during a beer festival and the day without cars, going to Tervuren, on a very quiet Monday. Didn't get enough pictures. Kept forgetting my camera.

A Day in London

2008-10-02T07:32:00.000+02:00

I was in London the other, and took a picture from someone's office of the city's sky and some rooftops.

An American in London

2008-09-30T13:43:00.000+02:00

Visiting a friend in London yesterday, I was taken by the view from his window.

A Sunday Walk in the Park V

2008-09-28T18:06:00.000+02:00

There were walkers, and bicyclists, people carrying Razors, even people on horseback.

Sunday Walk in the Park IV

2008-09-28T18:01:00.000+02:00

A Sunday Walk in the Park III

2008-09-28T17:59:00.000+02:00

A Sunday Walk in the Park II

2008-09-28T17:56:00.000+02:00

A Sunday Walk in the Park

2008-09-28T17:50:00.000+02:00

Prevent...What?

2008-09-27T17:33:00.000+02:00

This is a sign that I see when I wlk to the club to work out. Isn't that a slightly overweight Batman running? Prevent him from doing what? I think I have good reason to be confused

Bruxelles a respiré sans voiture

2008-09-22T18:14:00.000+02:00

Brussels breathed without cars, yesterday. And it seemed like everyone who normally would be home on Sunday went downtown by bike and by (free) Metro and public transportation, to prove a point.
http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique/ce-dimanche-sans-voiture-a-2008-09-21-640857.shtml
Our first hint of how crowded it was going to be was arriving at Kraainem train station, and there were more cars parked then there are on a Monday morning. It was fun, we took my brother and his wife into the city and we wandered around, buying gifts, and enjoying it.

Try it - a day without cars.

Burn After Reading

2008-09-15T09:24:00.000+02:00

OK, we enjoyed it. There were embarassing moments, like when George clooney's characters secret project was revealed in its 'true glory', but still we laughed at this silly movie.

Men's fashions...

2008-09-14T18:05:00.000+02:00

I have been holding off on this comment, because, I couldn't believe it. We joined a gym, and as happens when you join a health club, you check everyone out. And there is a new fashion of an old fashion.
Capri pants for men - not stretch, but 3/4 length, with dark socks underneath (I suppose to call attention to one's slender ankles. Don't have a picture, but it would be worth a thousand or so words.

And the club wasn't the first place I saw a man wearing this in public. We were shopping at a Carrefour's, a box store, and there was a pear-shaped man there, wearing the same outfit, with the dark socks. It is a kind of plus-four, but without the extra material at the bottom of the leg. Very stocking...

Things I have noticed, thought, that I want to make a note about...

2008-09-11T09:44:00.000+02:00

And pictures I want to take. We live in suburban Brussels, capital of the European Union, the world's largest trading block. People have been living here for centuries. But I walk by cornfields and beet fields every morning, down lanes, noticing the snails and slugs, the little lean tos and sheds that the farmers have made out of bits and pieces of material that are in little fenced in areas between the fields. The kids walking to school eery morning, the people riding bikes to work, men and women, the bike trails that seem to be a part of all the road construction that goes on. The backed up traffic on the highway that I have been walking over each morning, looking down on their red lights. And then I come back and post this on the Internet, probably on a server in the States somewhere. Hmmm...

Brussels Movie Days

2008-09-10T14:16:00.001+02:00

Bought tickets today for some movies showing as part of Brussels Movie Days (http://site.voila.fr/brusselsmoviedays/main_fr.html). Hellboy 2, which opened in the summer. Also, Burn After Reading. Kathy is not going to Hellboy 2. She has this habit of falling asleep during fantasy movies. I think it might just have to do with her sitting still for too long. Anyway, there are some previews and others - "Avant-premieres".

Car Care in Belgium

2008-09-09T06:14:00.000+02:00

This is who we use:
Carrosserie Wilikens A BVBA op goudengids.be
Takes care of our VW and our Opel. We stopped in yesterday needing a fuse, and he replaced it immediately and charged us a Euro.

2008-09-09T06:08:00.000+02:00

Sullivan has a feature called The View From Your Window (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-view-from-7.html) which I like. This is a view from our kitchen window.

Local News

2008-09-08T07:29:00.001+02:00

http://www.lesoir.be/
Here's a link to the local news. We missed la Gordel, yesterday, a ride around Brussels.

What has been happening

2008-09-07T07:15:00.000+02:00

I have to admit I have been caught up in the drama of the Republican convention the last few days, and working (at home) in Brussels. Working at home has gone relatively smoothly. My wife, who has been here for awhile, upgraded our home access to the Internet to the 'business' level, and it has been very fluid. Combined with a suggestion from someone in my London office to back everything up on a portable drive and bringing it along (everything I had stored on the office network), this has been easy.

In New Providence, in Neew Jersrey, where I used to work from, the problem (and the good thing) was that my boss, and most of the people I work closely with, were based in London. So there was limited access but they also went home at Noon (New Jersey time), so I could focus on what I needed to do in the afternoons. Now, I'm in communication with them all day, and the people I still work with in the states are working late into the evening (according to my clock here in Brussels). One day this week I was goiing late into the evening here.

So the Blog fell off.

But what has been happenening:

I got a new chip for my cell phone, so now I have a number here.

We went out to dinner at Mai-Tai, a Thai restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppen.

We had a new battery installed in the Opel.

I was in-processed by the HR department.

I found my way to Diagem and picked up a pacckage that came from DHL.

I won't quote the email from a friend who said something nice because I managed to get 1 sentence out of 2 in a French that didn't need to be rewritten.

So there.

2008-09-02T19:17:00.000+02:00

The sky is so threatening today. I have a feeling this is going to be what a lot of skies are going to look like.

What so you see on the way to your door

2008-09-02T08:40:00.000+02:00

Kathy insists she's going to put up a "Snail Crossing" sign, and is very protective of these creatures that share our walkway. This guy (girl?) must be 3 inches long.

2008-09-01T10:02:00.000+02:00

Later when we walked out of the movie, we were greeted by this sight, the Atomium at night. "It looks transparent," said Kathy, my wife.

What Some people do in the evening....

2008-08-31T23:02:00.000+02:00

We drove out by the Atomium, which, although I don't remember it from my youth, makes me think of my childhood, and the space age, and the future. And then someone said his friend was going to bungee jump off it today!

Then I saw some dnagling cables, and shot some video, but couldn't really see them.

And then we tried again.

We saw the cables, and then, we saw some guys u at the top. Were they going to jump?

But it was too late. They were shutting up shop for the day. Although there was much shrieking and stating and restating - "I want to do that!" "I don't think I could do that!".

And then we went to Kinepolis.
16 screens and movies (some) in English. And you can buy a beer and drink it while eating your popcorn. Is that really a sign of the government treating adults like, well, adults? Or just the end times?

Who Belgian Kids Play With

2008-08-31T18:04:00.001+02:00

"It's nice to be in a neighborhood where other kids have the same idea about playing," said our new American neighbor. "Belgian kids all play with their cousins, and their cousins all live nearby. There's nothing special about playing with an American kid."

2008-08-31T09:18:00.000+02:00

Driving through our local village, about 18:45, there were 8 - 10 older people outside the church talking, including a man gesticulating with his cane. Older - in their sixties-seventies, I guess. Is there church on Saturday evening?

My First Day

2008-08-31T08:26:00.000+02:00

I arrived on the Continental flight from Newark, and there were more people lining up to come through immigration than I have ever seen in the last two years of traveling to Brussels. 20 to 30 people lined up before each of the Agents.

For once, I'd actually slept on the plane, and felt almost normal. The fog was so thick that we couldn't see the ground. I was surprised when we actually bumped down. I'd thought we were still in the clouds.

The good thing about what seemed to be several flights having arrived at once, and taking 10 minutes to get past the immigration agents, was that our luggage was just coming up and onto belt number 8 as we arrived there. Loaded, because I'm moving with just about all my worldly possessions to Brussels, I swung my bags up on top of my carry-ons, already piled on the cart, rolled out through customs, and into my new life.

Already the fog was starting to burn off, and we drove with the top down in our little Volkswagen. It turned into "the best day in Brussels all summer".

Even though I had felt almost normal, after breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee I napped. I set up my computer and checked emails. In honor of my arrival, I was taken out to dinner in ErpsKwerps, to the place we call the Chicken Shack, with chicken and ribs which they grill in some kind of barbecue, that is delicious. We ate in their Garden, and talked about education and Geneva and the future.