Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Atlantic Canada

On the Way to Grand Manan

One nice thing about living overseas is being a tourist, when you visit your own home town. While spending the summer on the East coast of Canada, with family and friends, we had the opportunity to take in some of the sights we hadn’t bothered to see when we actually lived there. My favourite of these was Grand Manan.

Grand Manan is the largest Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy. It is technically part of my home province of New Brunswick but it is actually closer to the coast of Maine. The island has a population of about 2500 residents and besides summer tourism, the main industries remain fishing and aquaculture.

When English Rules | Flashback

Confused about language?

This second post in my Flashback series looks at the pitfalls of being an English speaker in Belgium. When I first wrote it, we were living in Flanders and struggling to learn Flemish. Five years later, I still don’t speak Flemish. In fact, since we moved to Brussels, the little bit of Dutch I had picked up has totally lapsed.

It is very easy to be lazy about language in Brussels, as so many people speak English these days; And it’s not just because of all of the expats in the city. Often, the common language among French and Flemish Belgians in English. There is more and more English popping up on signs and used in slogans. More websites are defaulting to English and English menus are more commonly available. Despite this, I still think it’s important to try and speak the local language. My French, although far from perfect is much better now that I use it frequently in Brussels. There’s still part of me that feels I should learn Dutch, even though I don’t have occasion to use it.

As I suggested when I wrote this post, I still can’t imagine how much more difficult it is to travel as a non-English speaker.

Mobile Internet Operators in Belgium

Mobile Operators in Belgium

Looking for more recent information? Check out our newest post on Mobile Internet in Belgium from May 2012!

In my last post, I wrote about Alison’s new phone, the HTC Desire. After bringing it home and setting it up, the next question was: which mobile operator should we use?

We hadn’t researched mobile operators before, as we hadn’t any need for fancy packages. A pay-as-you-go model was fine for years. Now however, the new phone would also need internet access. Suddenly we needed to learn what operators were available and what they offered for data plans (aka mobile internet, 3G). So, with my usual penchant for details, I began to dig into what operators exist in Belgium and their offers for mobile internet on your smartphone.

Singing the Expat Blues | Flashback

Expat life can leave you feeling lost.

Recently I’ve been getting quite a few comments and emails from new expats in Belgium who are struggling with adjusting to life here. Expats in Belgium tend to be pretty transient; with terms of 2-3 years before moving on to a new posting. I wanted to find a way to answer some of these common issues and also demonstrate how we all go through rough patches in the beginning.

For that reason, I’ve decided to repost some of my older CheeseWeb posts as a Flashback series. Because there are over 500 posts on CheeseWeb now (wow! Did I really write all of that?) many of the old posts get buried and lost to the internet ether. I’ll be re-posting these with the original comments section, but adding my updated thoughts.

Thermae Boetfort Belgian Spa near Brussels

Chilling at the spa – image by duchessa

It’s been blistering hot in Brussels for the past week or so. Although I love to see the sun, after melting in my 30+ degree living-room, I was ready to cool off. Fighting for a square inch of sand on the Belgian coast didn’t appeal and we’ve decided not to renew our gym membership, so the pool was out. Wondering where I could escape the heat on Saturday, I realised we hadn’t been to a Belgian spa in over a year.

Internet Service Providers in Belgium

Bringing the internet home

Our ‘Web Guy’ takes a look at how to choose an internet service provider in Belgium.

Most expats wouldn’t dream of living without internet access. We’re becoming more and more connected with our iPhones/smartphones, netbooks and now iPads/tablets. I’ve mentioned how important computers are to expats in my article, “Computer Shopping in Belgium,” but what use is a computer without access? For expats, high-speed (or broadband) internet access is as important as a telephone, maybe even more.

Our expat life is manageable because of the internet and even a day without access can be very disruptive. So how do you know what service provider to choose in Belgium?

Top 20 Signs You’ve Been an Expat in Brussels Too Long

Belgium is a quirky little country. After five years of living here I’ve come to love, or at least accept, its eccentricities.

Lately I’ve noticed I now take for granted many things I found strange when I first landed here. Maybe you’ve had a few of these experiences too. The following is a list of signs that you may be ‘going native’ in Belgium.

Kasteeltuinen Arcen Gardens

This spring I discovered a new gorgeous garden in the Netherlands called Kasteeltuinen Arcen (The Castle Gardens of Arcen). Although my visit was a bit early in the season to see the gardens at their best, Arcen has quickly become my new favourite garden destination.

A few months ago I ordered a book called The Garden Lover’s Guide to the Netherlands and Belgium (Buy on Amazon US, UK). While flipping through, I was blown away by the illustration of Kasteeltuinen Arcen. Andrew and I decided we would visit Arcen gardens the day after our Keukenhof tour.

Expatriating with Pets

Don’t leave me behind

People are always surprised when we tell them our cats are Canadian.

“You brought three cats to Belgium, all the way from Canada,” they exclaim. Well, actually it was four cats and our Saint Bernard joined us three months later, but yes. Our pets are all from Canada.

It surprises me that they are surprised. We wouldn’t dream of moving without our pets. They are an important part of our family. When we adopted them it was for life.