Habitual Caffeine

Coffee has been consumed around the world for centuries by everyone from royalty to peasants. Coffee consumption has as many different rituals as there are countries in which it is imbibed. However, I never realized that I had my own coffee rituals until they changed dramatically when I moved to...

A Marriage Made to Last

Unless you are among the fortunate few expats whose company offers to pack up all of your belongings and ship them overseas, you have probably had to visit the struggling expat's best friend — otherwise known as IKEA. I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. I actually like their furniture...

Employment Opportunity

"Good morning and thank you for calling ACM Travel Consultants. How can I help you today?" I've never worked (or even been trained) as a travel agent, but with just about everyone I know planning the trip across the Atlantic 'to visit' this spring, I'm starting to feel like a one-woman...

The Unbelievable Saga of the Ikea Bed (or – Hell of a weekend)

As all things in our life these days, getting a bed for our spare room turned out to be more of an ordeal than it should have been. Hell, we live five minuets from an Ikea, how hard could it be…? We started with the best of intentions. We had...

Belgium’s Secret Gems

"You're moving where?" It was a common refrain when Andrew and I first found out that we were Belgium-bound. Most of our friends and family could find where Belgium was situated on a map of Europe, (although a couple of our more 'geographically challenged' friends were surprised by the result...

Parking Problems

At 7:30 this morning, the doorbell rang. Luckily it was one of the few days that Andrew was already up and heading in to the office. (Lately he’s been working from home late into the evening so the mornings haven’t been quite so early.) When he opened the door, a...

A Cut Above

I had my hair cut this week. This is not, under normal circumstances, an arduous challenge. However, as an expat, doing mundane, everyday tasks can be a bit of an ordeal, especially in a new land and in a foreign tongue. As a woman with short hair, I tried to...

A travel-hardened pro

Compared to Canada, Belgium is an incredibly easy country to get around in. There are loads of buses, trams and metros, but my favorite Belgian travel method is, by far, the train. Canada has trains of course. However, the golden age of rail that our country was built on is...

Living with the Landlords

I couldn't shower this week because there was a retired Flemish couple in my bath tub. My landlords were repairing our shower and the stress of having them in the house for two days was starting to get to me. A few months after we moved in, I noticed a...