Valladolid, Spain

So what do you do if your husband sends you a chat message asking if you want to go to Valladolid the next day? If you are most people, you’d probably respond with “Valla-where?” or possibly, “um why?” If you’re me though, you’d ask those questions only after you’ve said “Sure!”

Making some Personal Space

Ever since I returned from a visit home to Canada last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about space. Not outer space, but personal space, both physical and emotional. Flying home to Halifax is never a direct flight. Often Andrew and I find ourselves first flying west to fly east, and vice versa....

Making an Art of Health and Safety

Maybe it’s a product of our overly litigious society, (when the coffee shops have to print ‘Caution Hot Beverage’ on their paper cups because some bozo spilled coffee on his crotch, you know we’ve taken it too far), but North Americans can be awfully cautious about health and safety risks. Every now and...

Anyone for Chicken? Driving in Belgium

Two years ago when Andrew and I first moved here, I wrote a blog about why I would not be driving in Belgium. At the time, I thought that once I got used to it here, maybe I would change my mind and, I’m happy to report – I haven’t. My parents...

What is ‘Home’ to an Expat

After a year of being away from Canada I’m finding being ‘home’ strange – good, but strange. One thing has really become clear to me: Living this expat life has changed me, even more than I expected it to. It has changed how I view the world. It has changed...

With an Eye on Halifax, Nova Scotia

Next week Andrew and I are heading back to Canada. We hadn’t planned to go home this month. In fact, we’re planning a three week vacation to visit friends and family back home in July. April was supposed to be a relatively quiet month. But, as is often the case,...

The Transportation Gods

I have a confession to make. Although I travel on the train here in Belgium, quite frequently, since we moved here 2 years ago, I’ve only taken the bus that goes by my house once. Since I refuse to drive here in Belgium, the bus that passes right by my...

Springing into Spring

Kermit the Frog said ‘it’s not easy being green,’ but with the sunny days of spring arriving in Belgium it’s a lot easier to start seeing green opportunities, everywhere you turn. These days when I look out my patio doors, I can’t help but think about green – the colour...

The Silent K – Learning Dutch in Belgium

I am attempting to learn Dutch… again. It’s been an on-going battle; a tug-of-war between my guilt at not being fluent (and at this point I would call anything above a three-year-old’s level fluent) and my lack of motivation. Honestly, my excuses for not learning are pretty weak: I don’t...