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.