Patients' regress

JoJo lasted a whole day and a half back at school before she caught fever yesterday, and had to come home. So she's home again today. As is Amelia, who has a low-grade fever, if that, but I didn't want to get into the scenario of another phone call to pick up a sick kid today.

Especially since my sickness has resurged too! I may be on the wrong antibiotic; I'm still waiting for the results of my blood test from Monday night. When I cough (which fortunately isn't happening too often), I feel like adhesions are ripping apart in my abdomen.

I sincerely hope the word is better with you all. Be healthy!

The neat-freak's view of Brussels

I am by no means a neat freak. But if I were, here are some observations I might have about Brussels:

• There are often canine calling cards on the sidewalks. There may be some mechanism for cleaning up after a dog here, but as near as I can tell it does not involve the dog's owner.
• Brussels is a very graffitied city. There is graffiti on many metro cars and train cars, and on many buildings. With few exceptions, the graffiti is at readily accessible height (i.e. no acrobatic maneuvers were performed by the graffitist), and has no artistic merit (this is not to imply that I sanction artistic graffiti).
• Twice a week special garbarge and recycle bags line the sidewalks, ready for municipal pickup. These plastic bags are industrial strength, if not military. They don't leak garbage as you take your garbage down the stairs, and perhaps they are impervious to animals. It's not a pretty sight to see these piles of bags on the sidewalk, but they don't seem to stink-- at least this time of year-- and I guess it gets the job done.

Patients' progress

JoJo had her first day back at school today, post ear-infection. Health-wise she's not 100%, but she's close enough. And after one day in school she already is singing her refrains about not liking new schools, not liking schools that continue past morning, etc. This may be a loooong trip for JoJo.

Today I feel tired, and I'm still stuffed up and coughing some; but for the first time in weeks, I feel qualitatively better. I don't know if it's the antibiotics doing their thing, or just this cold finally giving up the ghost, but either way I call that progress.

Dan's medical saga

So JoJo isn't the only one who's been having fun with the Brussels medical system (although she's definitely the one having the most fun). (Caveat emptor: There may be some duplication here of earlier posts.) When we took JoJo to the ER on Friday night (3 nights ago), I asked if I could see someone for me, since I'd been stoicly-- or not-- suffering from coughing and stuffy nose for about 4 weeks, and I had had enough. The gentlemen at the reception desk said that 4 weeks hardly qualified as an emergency, which I thought lacked a certain, uh, humanity or something. Then last night (Sunday) we had a house call, and the doctor wasn't in a position to address my concerns there and then, but she invited me to come to her walk-in clinic the next day.

Which brings us to today. Before going to the walk-in clinic, I called our health insurer to get pre-approval or what have you, and I kind of got an institutional run-around. I seem to be in that sweet spot, where to get pre-approval takes longer than I want to wait (probably days, but I don't even want to wait 1 more day), because I consider this urgent at this point, but whether medical professionals and insurers share my sense of urgency is quite another story. So I decided to suck it up, at least for now, and go to walk-in clinic and not expect to be reimbursed. Mercifully it wasn't very expensive for my visit (which included a blood test): 30€ (about $40), plus another 27€ (about $35) for 2 prescription drugs. It's hard for me to imagine the same treatment would be anywhere near as inexpensive in the States.

Now I don't want people to get the impression that JoJo or I are in danger of dying or anything, we're not trying to be that dramatic. Our medical trials have been no more than annoying-- but on the other hand, the level of annoyance is very high. This is certainly not the way we wanted to start our big adventure in Belgium!

Update on Josephine

One perforated and bleeding ear drum later, all appears to be well. Thank goodness for antibiotics, even if you have to pry them out of the stingy, anti-antibiotic-resistance-epidemic hands of Belgian doctors late on a Sunday night. A la Sicko, we arranged for a house call and were able to convince Dr. Gysens that Josephine really had suffered enough to warrant amoxycillen (sp?). I admit I was embolded by a nice conversation with our doctor in Madison who said he definitely would have had her on antibiotics by now. After a short trip to the all night pharmacy (you have to search on Google to see which places are open late and on weekends; they rotate), we drugged her up and now she's on the mend. Hopefully she'll be back at school Wednesday. What's next you wonder? Good question! At least life here is interesting...

All (mostly) fine

Thanks for all the concern and good wishes but none of us were anywhere near the horrible pre-school stabbings that happened outside of Brussels the other day. I guess that's one of the good things about going to a Jewish school -- security was already really tight. Did I mention how I couldn't elbow my past the ex-Mossad head of security? And my parents are from NYC!

The bad news is we're not entirely all well here. Josephine has an apparently quite painful ear infection, which brought us to the emergency room last night. It was quite the adventure, as you might imagine. Jenee, always level-headed, got the numbers for a few taxi companies and suggested that we just ask them to bring us to the nearest hospital (it was about 10 pm by the time we decided ibuprofen and acetominofen wouldn't cut it). Dan sent me because my French is the best. No, he sent me because I'm the best. No, actually, he sent me because he is still sick and feels like crap (see prior posts). So, off Jojo and I went in a cab to the nearest hospital with my wallet (full of cash), a French-English dictionary, a cell phone and a second pair of PJs for Jojo for reasons I still don't entirely understand. We got to the Service Urgences a la Hopital d'Ixelles but turns out we needed her passport. Sigh, who knew. Note, that was not in the aforementioned list. I called Dan (hurray cell phones!) and he got his own cab to meet us there. This is the point at which I keep thinking -- thank goodness for Jenee! What a drag if we'd had to wake up Amelia just to bring her to the hospital to wait with us for someone to tell us Jojo's ear is all red. Plus, Dan was hoping they could look at his throat/cough/chest while he was there (Denied! Not urgent enough, they said).

The nurse and pediatrician on call were very nice and said -- in French of course -- yup, ear infection, probably viral. No antibiotics for you! They gave us a prescription for analgesic ear drops (never heard of those myself) and said we should see an ear-nose-throat (oreille-nez-gorge, I think) doc on Lundi (Monday). Oh, and she said something like "if fluid starts coming out it means the ear drum is perforated and then don't use the drops anymore." What? Not what I wanted to hear! Sigh, again. Then we had to go to the all night pharmacist to get the drops and then back home. We spent a bundle on taxis!

The night did not go well but here's where our choice to send the girls to an international-type school came in handy again. Josephine was invited to the birthday party of a girl in her class today. I called in the morning to say she wouldn't be able to attend and, since the mother spoke perfect Queen's English, I asked her what I should do next for Jojo and her "mal oreille" or whatever it is (maybe "otite" or something like that for otitis). She gave me the name of a doctor and at least I got the satisfaction of speaking with a physician in English without having to go back to the hospital. You won't be surprised to learn that he thinks American's overprescribe antibiotics for ear infections and that we should just wait it out. So that's what we're doing. Maybe the drops are helping, maybe Josephine is just exhausted from the adventures last night and then waking every few hours but anyway she's sleeping well now. As is Amelia. Jenee rocked her to sleep while I was blogging here.

Seen Sicko by Michael Moore? So far, here's our experience with insurance and medical expenses at home and abroad. Since we were going to be "out of area" or whatever for so long, it was recommended to us to get on Blue Cross/Blue Shield (the "Standard Plan"). In contrast to our HMO, which only covers emergencies out of area, BCBS has decent reimbursement for checkups, preventative care, etc. However, that doesn't kick in until the start of the first month you're really away, which, for us, is February 1. In other words, for the time being, only emergencies and/or urgent care are covered, which is not that bad since Jojo's case was truly urgent. But wait! Only "reasonable expenses" are allowed and the bill, which we have to first pay on our own, has to be itemized, translated into English and $$, and then sent to them. I learned this all on a Skype call with our HMO after dinner but before the trip to the hospital last night (yay Skype, 2 cents per minute to the US!). Also, if follow up care is recommended, it must be pre-approved. Did I mention that the ER peds doc suggeted follow up care? No problem. It just needs to be pre-approved by Josephine's regular physician. But wait (again)! It's the weekend in the US and if we take her to a doctor on Monday, it'll be Sunday night in Madison. I almost nearly got this done -- since we were back home by 11 pm Friday night and I could see this coming, I called our pediatrician (thank you again, Skype) to ask for a pre-approval. Wouldn't you know it, I called at 4:45 pm Madison time, which is exactly when they close? Anyway, maybe she won't need it. Maybe the cost will be insignificant. Maybe getting reimbursed will be easy. Maybe the moon is made of green cheese... :-\

I will close with some nice things. Amelia, Jenee and I left the sickies to themselves this morning, after I gave Jojo (and Dan, I guess) a new Curious George DVD, and went out to explore. Remember those two coffeeshops I found that were smoke-free? We had a very nice lunch in one of them -- minestrone soup for me, croque brie for Amelia (and me, sort of) and aubergine panini for Jenee. Then, we stopped at my new all-time-favorite bakery on the way back home for some pain au chocolate and galette something or other (waffle type cookies with some sort of creamy concoction in between) and a capuccino to go. [We also went to a pharmacy for a thermometer and cough syrup for Dan but I'll spare you the details of yet one more instance when my Franglais was pretty inadequate. I gotta get a tutor or something]. So, our sickies will have a special treat waiting when the get up from their naps. And now, I'm going to relax and read a new book since, after all, it is le weekend.

Politics

One more thing-- we've had some requests to know what the local reaction was to Obama's inauguration. I was talking with my collaborator and his research group over lunch yesterday and asked them what they thought. One young man said quite seriously, "he moves me." I thought that was nice! He also said he thought Obama was a man of the people, which I thought was interesting because that phrase can mean so many things -- for example Bush was a man of the people in that he's "one of the guys" whereas Obama seems to care about and stand up for the people or at least we hope he does/will. In general, people here seem to think Obama's got a lot on his plate but that he's quite impressive. I don't disagree!

Getting in the groove

Today I have excellent new to report -- I found not one but two nearby coffeehouses that are "sans fumer". Actually, neither one is a coffeehouse per se but both serve coffee at 10 am, which is sufficient for me. A few days ago -- on one of my non-Gent days -- I searched the area for a place to work that is not the apartment and which would also serve coffee but ended up in a smokey bar that happened to serve coffee in my neighborhood. This was Miki's bar. If you can beleive it I also passed up the Chocobar but despite the exciting name, it was smokey as well. I managed to get an hour and a half of work done at Miki's but the consequence was that my clothes and hair reeked of smoke. I'm just doing the laundry now and hope that's the end of it.

But, today, I ventured out again and found a place that appeared smoke-free and sat down for my mid-morning coffee. As I paid, I asked in my halting French if it was smoke-free all the time. Yes it is! she replied (in less halting French). She then informed me that people have to go outside to smoke and I said it's like that in the States too. So, hence my excellent news! Also, as I was leaving I noticed on the door a sign that essentially said "no smoking here". Walking home, I saw the sign on another establishment that looks nice (and seems to serve a nice lunch). Now I'll be on the lookout for it all over.

This week I also found a nice place to work when I'm not in Gent. I have to say, my colleagues in Gent have been excellent. On my first day (Tuesday, I guess), they had an office ready, keys, coffee, everything you could hope for! I'm now set up there with internet, B&W and color printing capability and it's not too hard to get there either. Here's how it goes -- 15 minute walk from the apartment to Gare Centrale, grab one of the fast trains to Gent (on the hour or 27 min past the hour, sometimes once more in the hour; a 35 min ride but easy to get work done on the computer or whatever), get un cafe (optional), wait for a tram (0-10 min), take a tram (15 min) and walk a block or so. The tough part is the five flights of stairs (also optional but recommended)! I can get coffee whenever I want and I don't even have to wash my own cup. They have a dishwasher! What luxury... So far I've been twice - Tuesday and Thursday. Yesterday I had lunch with my host (I guess I should create a nickname in case I want to complain about him in an anonymous way? I'll work on that) and his students, all of whom are nice and quite interesting.

But, back to my non-Gent days... on the day I sat in Miki's and was overcome by smoke, I also decided to check out the "club" associated with the group of apartments in which we're staying. They have a fitness center with one elliptical, one treadmill, one recumbant bike and one something else as well as a bunch of weights, sauna, steam room and "relaxation area" (some recliners in a poorly lit area). Well, turns out there's also a library of sorts, computers, a printer and, most importantly, good wifi. So, that's where I am right now! The problem with the apartment is that the tables are high and the chairs are low, unless you're on the couch, in which case the seat is low and the table is lower. I just couldn't work that way. At the coffeehouses too the tables are too high for comfortable typing. Here in the office space there are office-type chairs that make working at a computer reasonably ergonomic and thus feasible for a full day or half day or whatever. Plus, I get to look at the treadmill and think "hm. I should be doing that." Bonus!

So, to sum it all up, I can now get a coffee and sit and work here in Brussels on days that I don't want to spend 3 h going back and forth to Gent. Good news! Especially since it means I can multitask and do laundry (which takes forever), shop and/or pick up the girls after school like I'm going to do today. With all that on my plate, I'd better get some work done now, huh?

Ciao!

The great cheese-cracker scandal

So I just realized today: There are all these great cheeses here, but a completely inferior selection of crackers to go with them! You'd think that with great cheeses, and great breads, there would also be great crackers-- but not so! There are decent crackers here, actually, but they're basically all toasted slices of bread-- a very limited view of what crackers are. My theory is that cheese is eaten by itself here, or in a much larger culinary context, but not simply as part of "cheese & crackers."

Probably I'm not the first person to have seen this, but I'm obviously the first person whose observation achieved a conscious level, and now I've broken the whole embarrassing story wide open! You read it here first-- eat your heart out, Drudge.

Pedestrian/driver interactions

Just a little observation about pedestrian habits and driving habits and their interplay, here in Brussels:

Streets here have pedestrians, cars/buses/trucks, bikes, motorcycles, and trams. By and large, it seems that pedestrians rule, and wheeled vehicles have a lot of respect for the bipeds. Pedestrians don't seem to jaywalk if that would inconvenience a vehicle, but otherwise jaywalking happens often enough. The cars seem to be driven aggressively (although not particularly quickly) in the environment of other cars, but very passively as soon as a pedestrian enters the equation-- it's a funny contrast. Trams are in the middle-- they rank lower than pedestrians, but higher than cars.

I've had numerous showdowns with cars, me on foot, the cars not. I've won every showdown, without even trying! I don't have the confidence that the native pedestrians have that the car will avoid me, so I stop at the cross-walk; but the drivers all know my intention to cross, and they'll just wait me out until I do! Most of America does not drive this way, but I would not be surprised if most of Europe does.

Day 1 of Week 1

So, back to my numbering system. I feel like last week we weren't really either here or there, which is another reason it was a "0" for me. This week however, both Dan and I have started working so it's our first week in that sense. Today I met with the Director of the Belgium Fulbright Program. Tomorrow I meet with my collaborators in Gent. Today Dan made his first trip out to Tomotherapy Brussels and was 45 minutes late for dinner because of traffic on the way home.

With all that said, I didn't actually work too hard today. After my meeting, I wandered down to the Grand Place, got my cafe (in a cafe) and wandered. Here are some photos (right).

Later I'll have to write about registering ourselves in Belgium. One more administrative waste of time, it would appear.

A Tour of the Apartment

For those of you who have been waiting to see what our new digs look like here are some photos! I hope that I have added them in a way where they will run as a slide show and I think that if you click on the conversation type bubble in the lower left hand corner you'll be able to see the captions making the photos self-explanatory! Clicking on the photos takes you to a larger version of the photos if you'd prefer : ) Enjoy!

end of week 0

I guess tonight is officially the end of week 0 for the chesler-sidney family (and cheslersidneyfamily.blogspot.com) in Brussels. You'll notice that I started at zero instead of 1 because that's how they do things over here. In Jenee's photos from this week, you'll see the button options inside an elevator. All you geeks out there will be pleased to see that the basement is floor -1, the ground floor is 0 and above that the numbering begins at 1. So, I've numbered my weeks the same way.

We are very pleased to be in our new apartment. We spend the weekend exploring the neighborhood -- Saturday we went one direction to the pond and today we went the other direction to the Museum of Music. Claire Freeman (Laurie Nagus' aunt, for all you Madisonians) suggested it to me. It was pretty neat. When you go in to this gothic and yet somehow modern-looking building, you get a set of headphones. Then, if you stand in front of the violins, you hear violins; if you stand in front of the sitars, you hear sitar music. Josephine was tired, crabby and generally no fun at all but she did warm up to the music. Amelia didn't like the headphones but she liked looking at the instruments (for about five minutes!). There was also a nice cafe at the top where we had lunch.

I have to say the girls were both pretty much disasters today. Josephine was such a mess she missed her "tea party" this afternoon with a schoolfriend who is British. I was looking forward to it as much as she was -- the chance to socialize with some English speaking people who actually live here -- but she really had to nap. I'm hoping the return to school tomorrow will help both girls get back into a schedule and feel more normal. The schedule is actually pretty odd though. While we have yet to experience the Madison public schools, I understand that Monday is a half day. Here, it's Wednesday (Mecredi, they call it... ;-) . But, because the school is Jewish, Friday is an early day too. Plus, school can end at 3:45 pm or it can end at 5:55 pm (on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday) if you want your kids to run around and play for awhile. That is, classes end at 3:45 but somewhat supervised play time continues. Originally, we thought Josephine would do that but she's had such a tough time with the transition already (she's not napping at school -- her choice) that we don't want her to stay longer. Ironically, Amelia's teachers say she's happy as a clam and are wondering why she isn't staying longer! One piece of good news on the Josephine-at-school front. She has a new friend, Isaac, that she played with on Friday in the afterschool time. His mom is from NYC and he has a younger brother in Amelia's class so we look forward to getting to know them.

I'm going to be meeting the head of the Belgium Fulbright program tomorrow. I look forward to that. Then, I'll be heading to Gent for the first time (this trip) on Tuesday. Dan is going to Tomo tomorrow for his first day of work so we're all getting into our new routines. The only one who doesn't yet have a set schedule is Jenee, because hers depends on the girls'. But, we're working on it.

Enjoy the inauguration festivities! We're celebrating with you.

Apartment description

As Naomi mentioned, we got an apartment in the Ixelles neighborhood, near Louise and Porte de Namur, for you Brussels-savvy readers. This is a relatively chic neighborhood, close to lots of fancy and fashionable shopping. It's close to several public transportation options too, which is nice since we opted not to get a car. We don't know anything about any of our neighbors yet, but we've started to get to know some of the parents of JoJo and Amelia's classmates.

The apartment is up 3 flights in a building without an elevator. The kitchen is almost comically small. Where is the silverware? Why, it's in the kitchen drawer-- the only kitchen drawer! But honestly, we saw smaller kitchens. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, and 2 toilets (some 3-bedrooms we looked at only had 1 toilet, which boggled my mind). The living space is on the lowest apartment floor, the bedrooms are up one floor, and a non-trivial (but not huge) roof deck is on top of that. It's very expensive, but with our short-term (5-month) lease, our requirement of 3 bedrooms plus furnishings, a strong preference to be reasonably close to the kids' school, and our compressed timeframe for finding an apartment, we didn't have tons of options. The apartment is actually a decent size (the small kitchen notwithstanding), and has ample closet space and a real homeyness to it. (I assume pictures of the apartment will follow presently, but that's more in Naomi's department.) The apartment also has decent natural lighting (during the few hours the sun is up), but has generally unremarkable views. In the end, though, I think we're really pretty happy with the living situation, and glad we're here.

Random observations, mostly about food

We've been in Brussels long enough (6+ days now!) to make at least a few random observations. Hang on!

• The chocolate is as good as you know/imagine it to be. It rocks, and it's ubiquitous. The breakfast cereal that looks like Special K with curls of chocolate turns out to actually be Special K with curls of chocolate. Furthermore, it's available in milk chocolate, dark C, white C, and striped dark & white C (at least).
• The worst pain au chocolat (a chocolate "croissant") here is better than the best P au C in the States. Bread in general is great here, even if it doesn't have chocolate.
• There are also great waffles sold at stands everywhere, and lots of restaurants serving crepes.
• With the exception of a mediocre brie I tried, the cheeses are great.
• I would not be surprised if there is not a decent hamburger to be found in Brussels (or even Europe), however. Brussels: 5, US: 1.
• The escalators in the Metro stations only run when someone is actually on them. I think this is good, but it's very confusing to me-- I see the static escalator, take the stairs instead (thinking the escalator is broken), and then see others riding the escalator!
• We went to a 2-story grocery store that had an escalator, except it was a moving ramp instead of a moving staircase. The wheels on the shopping carts are designed to catch grooves in the ramp, so the carts don't go barreling down when you let go. I don't know what people here think of it, but I thought it was pretty clever.

Welcome to Brussels, with demonstration

I forgot to post an e-mail I received, I believe from the US Department of State, the day before we flew to Belgium. The e-mail contained a warning about an upcoming public demonstration in Brussels. The time of the demonstration coincided perfectly with our scheduled arrival, and the location coincided with our hotel (in the Brouckere neighborhood)! We ended up being delayed, due to bad weather around O'Hare, and fortunately we missed the hubbub. A verbatim excerpt from the e-mail follows:

According to Belgian police, a large demonstration to protest Israeli Military Operations in Gaza is planned to take place in Brussels on Sunday, January 11, 2009 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM. The demonstration is expected to involve 15,000 people and to travel along a north/south axis through the center of Brussels from Gare du Nord via Albert II, Anspach, Brouckere, Lemonnier to the Gare du Midi. Major disruptions to traffic are expected in the downtown area. This demonstration has the potential to become unruly or deteriorate into violent actions by smaller spin-off groups. The Embassy has advised its employees and their families to avoid the downtown area of Brussels during the demonstration.

I thought the e-mail was insane, because here we are investing a lot of time, money, and effort to go on this big trip to a civilized city, and then we're going to be greeted by unruly hordes! It didn't seem possible, and fortunately it didn't work out that way.

Re: the politics of the demonstration, there is a lot of interest around Europe in the tragic events taking place in Gaza. In my meager understanding, most of Europe is pro-Palestinian, at least in this case, because of the Palestinians' clearly inferior military strength, and Europeans' typical preference for balance. (Dan summarizes European politics in 10 words or less.) I heard of one small pro-Israel demonstration in Brussels, and several larger pro-Palistinian demonstrations here.

Nearing the end of week 0

We're nearing the end of week 0 and our CQ (chocolate quotient) seems to be continuously increasing. My other CQ -- coffee quotient -- is also increasingly nicely. Unfortunately, Josephine's SQ -- school quotient -- is not so good. She's struggling with the new food, new language, new friends and new length of the school day, which is several hours longer than she has experienced in the past. Tomorrow is a half day because of shabbat (it's a Jewish school) so I'm hoping that will be an easy end to a tough week. Amelia seems to be doing okay at school but she's only staying half days so it's been more like her regular routine.

Dan and I did sign a lease today on an apartment (actually I signed it - I had to ask to even get Dan's name on the doors). We are in the fancy Chaussee d'Ixelles neighborhood. Feel free to send us mail at 29 Rue Souveraine 3G, 1050 Bruxelles. We're sort of near a big supermarket, which we visited today and after which we had to lug all those groceries up 3 flights of stairs. Shopping was a bit of a challenge. I learned that "levure" is yeast and that honey only comes in very small containers. The whole unrefridgerated milk thing is also a bit odd. Anyway, after carrying all the groceries up, Dan later lugged 10 very large suitcases up those stairs. I'm pleased to say I missed that venture. Tonight we're staying at the hotel again but tomorrow we'll unpack and then really move in.

Also, next week, Dan and I plan to start working again in earnest. Actually, I have to do some real work tomorrow morning (maybe even tonight) and Dan is thinking of visiting Tomo tomorrow afternoon. So, the settling in time is ending and the back to work time is starting. Hopefully in "week 1" Josephine will enjoy school more and I'll take (and post) more photos.

Until then...

(Dan's) First few days

So our first morning here (Monday 1/12) the sun came up at 8:40am. This means that when you wake up, it's dark; and when you shower and eat breakfast, it's dark; and when you get to school, it's still dark! I've never been in a place (to my recollection) where the sun came up so late. (The sun goes down at about 5pm, which doesn't seem too unreasonable.)

I've been nursing an annoying but not horrible cold or something since around Christmas, and with all the stress and lack of good physical exercise of the past few weeks, I started getting lower back pain. These pathologies collided on Monday when I had a massive cough that just about threw my back out. Only through sheer heroic grit was I able to maintain a semi-erect bearing. I've started back exercises that have already made a big difference for pathology #2, I'm (comparatively) happy to report.

Every day we've been here, there's been some non-zero level of rain. I don't know if it really pours here, but it's certainly been a drizzly, overcast city. But on the other hand, I love walking around without needing gloves or a hat-- it's definitely warmer than Madison.

And of course there's plenty of French being spoken around here, and that's been fun. I really hope the girls pick up a bunch of it during this extended visit. I have concerns about JoJo in particular having difficulty in this regard, since she has several English speakers in her class, which can obviously enable not speaking French. Another parent in a similar situation moved her kid to the class with no English speakers, after her kid wasn't learning French very quickly. Hopefully it won't come to that for JoJo.

Day 3

Of course I had intentions of blogging each day this week but it just didn't happen. We purchased internet for the week on my computer only and whenever we were awake -- both physically and mentally -- it was used to search maps, learn about Brussels or check the classified ads for apartment listings. Jenee also successfully used the computer for Skype phone calls but Dan and I haven't quite managed it yet.

The big news is that the girls started school. Josephine went for a half day on Monday and Amelia started Tuesday. It has been a tricky transition for both. Josephine was really excited to start school but then got off to a rocky start because she wasn't interested in the hot lunch they served. Then, she changed her mind about a nap and had a "difficult" time according to her teacher Nancy (who, BTW, speaks English quite well). Speaking of Nancy, there are two classes for kids Jojo's age -- Nancy teaches one and Isabelle teaches the other. It seems they give Nancy all the English speakers so Josephine already has a few friends, including Tessa, Sam and Sarah, who speak English. One downside of t his arrangement is that some kids never learn French. We heard about one mom who just moved her son from Nancy's room to Isabelle's room so that he'd improve his French more quickly. I can't imagine we'll do that with Jojo! But back to the first day... She arrived for lunch, didn't eat, said she'd nap, didn't nap but then had a good time playing in the afternoon. However, that night she told Dan that she felt scared at school, which I think was 4 1/2 year old speak for "nervous and anxious". And, in the morning she said she hated her school and didn't want to go at all. Whether she heard Jojo or not, on the way to school that same morning I asked Amelia if she was excited about school and she said "All my teachers are mad at me."

Despite their trepidation, both girls did well yesterday. Once Josephine arrived in the class, she was excited to play with her friends and even proudly gave me a picture one of her friends had made for her. When I left, she promised to eat her whole lunch and take a good nap at school. Amelia also did well yesterday. Her teacher is Christiane. This younger group seems quite nice but I didn't actually get to hang out much with Amelia at drop off time because I was with Jojo. Jenee said Amelia didn't want to leave school after lunch, which I take as a good sign.

Today, Dan and Jenee took the girls to school without me, which is why I can now write in the blog! From our hotel, it's a half hour trip one way on one tram line. Yesterday we were nearly crushed by the rush hour traffic. I'm hoping today it won't be so bad (they left a little earlier).

Here's one funny story about the school. I went alone to pick up Jojo after school (3:45 pm) on Monday. As I approached the door a strange man called to me "Madame!" and began to approach me. I kept walking and he walked faster. Then he started saying who knows what in French and I mumbled "Je ne parle pas Francais" still trying to get to the door and inside without incident. Finally he is physically blocking my way and saying "Quelle lange? Ivrit, English?" Well, no panhandler or crazy person I know comes up with Ivrit and English so I finally took a closer look at this guy and saw the phone/headset in his ear and listened. I explained I was here to pick up Josephine, who was a new student, and turns out he's the security guard for the school. I was then -- kindly, really -- asked to move away from the door, move away from the entrance and to stand back about 50 yards until the 3:50 pm, at which time parents were welcome to pick up their children. They are strict here! And it's not like there's no security besides this guy. There are two doors that you have to get buzzed in through even if you make it past the head guard (whose name I forget). Serious business!

Other than the girls' school, Dan and I have been spending most of our time trying to figure out where to live. We've seen 6 apartments in the past two days and made a reservation for one. We'll find out later today if we've gotten it. It's on Rue Souvraine near the Avenue Louise/Porte de Nemours area, which is great for shopping and relatively convenient for both the school and major railway lines. It's 3 bedroom apartment on two floors and there's a fitness center in shared space a bit down the street. Nothing is inexpensive here but I think this apartment is a good find. The one downside is that it's on the top floor (nearly all the 3 bedroom apartments are on the top and have a balcony/deck/grill area) in a building with no elevator. Not so bad it you're by yourself but carrying a sleeping child could be tough! Some other options were more elegant but less conveniently located and more expensive, more aesthetically pleasing but less practical, etc. I think we could move in Friday if all goes well. It would be nice to have a fridge because eating out all the time is not cheap (or easy, with the kids).

I know my mother is dying to know about the food so here you go -- breakfast at the hotel includes croissants, nutella, a cereal that is like Special K with chocolate bits, cheese, meats, eggs, breads, olives, yogurts and other random things. Dan and I had sandwhiches for lunch Monday and Japanese food for lunch yesterday. Dinners have been Sunday: nothing but the girls woke up hungry at 2 am so Jenee gave them the last of the cashew butter balls, Monday: Thai food (Jojo ate the fish despite the spiciness), Tuesday: Italian (vegetarian lasagna but not the mushroom ravioli). In a weird coincidence, our hotel is very near the hotel we stayed in last September. It's near the Sainte Katherine cathedral in an area chock full of restaurants.

Well, until I hear back from the real estate lady, I think that's all there is to say. We'll be excited to move out of these cramped quarters and get unpacked. I know Jenee will be excited to have a room to herself without the girls. Dan and I have been successfully fending off work concerns until now but real life will have to begin soon. We still don't have cell phones (because you need to demonstrate that you live in Belgium to be allowed a contract and we can't prove that until we have a signed rental agreement) but we hope to finalize that today as well. Sorry we don't have more photos yet. I'll get right on that! ;-)

(Dan's) Arrival

This is my first post on this or any blog-- so I have to set the bar really high, "Ask not what you can do for your country" kind of stuff, "One small step for a man." But after a long day of travel, and being sick to boot (but fortunately not booting), I don't think I'm up for what the august occasion really demands. Oh, well-- or as they say here, le oh well. :-) I'll have better material to offer in subsequent days, when I'm awake. Bonne nuit!

T plus 1 day

Nous sommes arrivee! After a long 24 hours of travel we are now in our temporary digs at the Hotel Astrid. The girls did beautifully on the long trip despite a 2 hour delay in Chicago, missing our connection in London and a lost bag in Brussels. They are now sleeping in one room (Dan is with, at least until they are asleep) while Jenee and I hang out in the other room. Jenee went out to get pommes frites -- yum!

Tomorrow we will open a bank account, get cell phones and introduce the girls around at their new school -- Beth Aviv (www.beth-aviv.org) and then apartment hunt. I'm sure there will be much to report and I'll be more awake then (maybe) so... a bientot!

T minus 1 day

Our last day in Madison for awhile was a busy one. Dan and I were both taken out to lunch by colleagues and then we had dinner with some other friends who will be taking care of Dan's car while we're away. I'm not sure who's doing who a favor really but dinner was delicious! We also dropped off McGraw at the neighbors so he doesn't have to watch us pack 10 suitcases into the minivan and wonder about where we're going (and when we'll be back).

So, now that the girls are in bed and all is quiet, Dan and I will do our best to pack up and pack away. We have a tenant moving in tomorrow and I'm hoping she won't be greeted by our stuff shoved in nooks and crannies all over the house. There's a lot to do. Wish us luck!

T minus 2 days

I guess this blog is now official! We've announced it in person, on facebook, by email and even in our annual holiday letter. Let the reading commence!

Given that we only have two days left before we leave, today was actually pretty uneventful. Dan took an entire minivan worth of recyclables to the city recycling place where he was greeted with the unfortunate truth that whereas curbside recycling does not require sorting, drop off at the city site does. Magazines here, cardboard there, newspaper here, junk mail there. Oy. Glad I wasn't there. I was at a pig experiment that failed so miserably I got to have lunch with Becca... :-)

In the evening, we had a lovely dinner with many friends from the Beth Israel Center. I think I counted 17 adults and 19 children. The oldest was 8. Can you imagine the chaos? Actually, it was a lot of fun, the food was great, and there were no serious injuries at the end of it. Hurray!

Tomorrow I will start packing. Boots or no boots, that is the question. Apparently today there is snow in Belgium but that's a relative rarity. What will we want? What will we need? These are the big decisions that await me tomorrow.

A bientot!

T minus 3 days

I've learned a lot about blogging over the past few days but not -- you might not disagree -- how to make a blog interesting. I await your suggestions. Maybe you await the interesting stuff when we're actually abroad! Anyway, as we continue our preparations for our 5 month stay in Belgium, days and nights are filled with packing, folding, boxing, planning and organizing. Tonight I will be organizing my desk at home. :-/

At least the girls had some fun today. In the morning they had a double header gymnastics class and in the afternoon we all went ice skating. As you can see in the accompanying slideshow, Jojo was able to skate (albeit slowly) all by herself where as Ms. Independent had to be carried. We also got to see a women's hockey league team (not the UW team) practice after open skate was over. Josephine was pretty enthralled. Looks like she'll be following in her tio Jorge's tracks!

Today is also the first day I made this blog available to everyone. I also am letting anyone comment. So, go for it!

T minus 4 days

Today was filled with more work around the house for me and Dan -- and some real work for us too. The girls had a much more enjoyable day. Jenee and Josephine and Amelia visited the girls' preschool, where Jenee also taught part-time this spring. They visited Jenee's room first (the Sunshine Room), then Amelia's class (the Cloud Room) and then Jospehine's (the Comet room). In the Sunshine room, everyone got hugs. In the Cloud Room, Amelia's teacher Lisa Marie brought out a huge world map and showed all the kids how the girls will fly over the ocean to Europe and exactly where in Europe we'll be living. The girls joined the Comet Room for sledding! Everyone had a chance to give and get hugs and say goodbye. We're hoping Josephine becomes a prolific postcard-writer to her friends and classmates this spring

Tonight we'll have dinner with friends -- the first in a series of "farewell dinner parties" that should be fun and a little bit sad.

T minus 5

Greeting friends and family! In 5 days, we leave for our big adventure in Belgium. Here's an abbreviated list of what we had (have) to do to get ready:

5+ passport-sized photos for everyone
FBI background checks for Dan, Naomi and Jenee
Medical exams for everyone with signed and notarized statements of health
birth certificates with apostilles for everyone (re-issued within the past 6 months)
marriage certificate with apostille for anyone married (same as above)
letter of employment for anyone employed
copies of transcripts, certificates and resumes for anyone requiring a work permit (Dan and Jenee)

A lawyer in Belgium to act as our "local agent" to obtain the work permit

Residency visas for everyone from the Belgian consulate in NY

A tenant for our house and caretaker for McGraw (and snow shoveler and lawn mower, etc., etc.)

Finish the kitchen renovation
Organize the basement (arguably, that didn't *have* to be done prior to departure but I'm very happy it's done)
Cleanup the attic (yeah, that did have to be done)

Sort clothes into (1) give-away, (2) store, (3) pack
Sort toys into (1) give-away, (2) store, (3) pack
Sort books into (1) give-away, (2) store, (3) pack
Move dishes to the basement (tenant will use her own)
Move sheets and towels to the attic (tenant will use her own)
Empty dressers and closets of clothes (tenant will use her own)

Buy 6 months worth of dog food for McGraw and get his vaccinations early (he was not psyched!)
Get the HVAC filters and thermostat replaced, have the whole house humidifier serviced

Stop the newspaper
Hold the phone
Hold the cable/internet
Ask for a (what's the word?) delay on paying our state and federal taxes
Change our health insurance

Get cell phones in Belgium
Get a bank account in Belgium
Get the girls' school supplies for Belgium

and, last but not least, find a place to live in Belgium!