Een Beetje Tongue Tied – Learning Flemish in Belgium

Andrew and I are taking Dutch lessons. I alter between thinking this is a noble way to integrate more fully into our community and considering it a totally masochistic endeavor. Neither of us are strangers to learning languages. Being brought up in Canada's bilingual province, New Brunswick, it was considered...

Eatable Europe

Living in Europe has shaped some profound changes in my lifestyle. One of the most significant is how I view food. Gone are the microwave meals and fast food mega-combos. I'm exposed to produce I've never even seen before and I consider the dining process much differently than I once...

The Rain in Belgium Stays Mainly … Everywhere

I'm not sure if I will ever get used to Belgian rain. I always thought that rain was... well, rain - water falling from the sky. Belgian rain has a totally different consistency than Canadian rain, or at least the Maritime rain that I am used to. In fact, Belgium...

The Best SMDs

Andrew and I are attempting to reinstate the Sunday Mystery Drive (or SMD). What is the SMD you ask? It's one part exploration, lots of wandering, a bit of curiosity and usually, slightly lost. Every Sunday, we hop in the car. We take turns choosing our destination. Sometimes it's specific;...

Chance Encounters

One of the truly special things about living in a foreign country is the people I've met. Sure, I've met some interesting people when I was vacationing in different places, but the opportunities for meeting people are much more frequent and interesting when you are an expat. It's true that...

The Euro Canuck

I’ve been thinking today about differences in my own behavior since we’ve moved here; little habits I have that I didn’t while living in Canada. Conversely, I think there are some things I will always do that will be intrinsically Canadian. This is not to say that no Europeans do...

Life with the Furry Family

Andrew and I have five children. All of them are four-legged and furry. We have four spoiled-rotten house cats and a very large, extremely slobbery Saint Bernard dog. They are very much a part of our family and it was never an option to leave them behind when we came...

Red Tape Blues

Some days it feels like we are mummified in red tape; really sticky tape of the Duct Tape variety. I remember commenting in Amsterdam that, "when we get settled in Belgium, things will be more normal." Now, we've been here almost a month and it doesn't feel much more settled...

Alison Cornford-Matheson