Trekking the First Day in Paris

After we arrived in Paris, we more or less headed straight to our hotel, Hotel St. Paul, a bit north of the Jardin du Luxembourg, and about a mile or so south of Notre Dame. After a take-out lunch and an aborted nap by Amelia, we headed north to the Seine, meeting the river on the bank opposite the Louvre. Then we headed east, onto the Ile de la Cite, ending up on the east end of the island at Notre Dame. We wandered around inside the cathedral, but did not venture up the stairs. (Going upstairs would have required a long wait in line, and the stairs are ill-suited for our little girls.)

We stopped for a snack at a brasserie across the street from Notre Dame. There we consumed two crepes, a decaf coffee, two warm milks with vanilla, and a demi-liter of water. The bill came to a shocking 34€ ($43). My favorite was the water: less than 18 ounces of Evian for 5.50€ ($7)—but I have reason to believe that the water was personally passed by Napoleon, and possibly blessed by a pope, so all things considered it was probably reasonably priced. It's possible that Paris is an expensive city, and across the street from Notre Dame may not be the most economical neighborhood in town.

We walked back to the hotel, and a little later ventured out to a nearby creperie for dinner. In general, the girls did a pretty good job keeping up as we walked around town. We have a stroller for one, so variously both girls walked, or one walked while the other was in the stroller or on someone's shoulders, or one was in the stroller and the other was on shoulders. But no question it's a lot of work for our little group to get around!

Les maneges de Paris

We've had quite a tour of the carousels (maneges) of Paris. Certain types of people (often diminutive) have a keen eye for them. The first carousel we saw was in the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden), near our hotel. It's the most low-end carousel I've ever seen. Basically it's like a big umbrella, with things hanging down from radially arranged rafters. The "things" are mostly horses, a giraffe and a camel, and also two coaches that each seat four kids. The whole thing rotates as a rigid body—no fancy up-and-down motion of the animals. In addition, the "floor" is just the dirt on the ground; the floor does not rotate with the carousel.

The seats on the carousel all have seatbelts. I was surprised at first, because European society does not seem to have a strong emphasis on safety, unlike the litigious obsession we have in the States. For example, construction projects here mingle without boundaries with pedestrians. Why bother with these seatbelts? Then it came to me: because the floor doesn't rotate with the carousel, if a kid falls off his seat he'll be trampled by wave after wave of horses.

A cool twist they had is that kids occupying the seats in the outer ring were offered wooden rods a bit over a foot long. Near the edge of the carousel there was a station that dangled rings. With each rotation, a kid tries to snag a ring by putting his rod through the ring. A skilled kid might get 15 rings in the course of a single ride. The kid who gets the most rings gets... well, nothing, except the satisfaction of a job well done.

I wondered: What would happen if a kid were to, say, take off her sneakers and mittens, unbuckle her seatbelt, and start to climb out of one of the coaches? Coincidentally, Amelia shared my interest in this question. Although I missed her investigation, the answer is the kid gets kicked off the ride! Fortunately, JoJo has a more sedate appreciation of the carousel.

At the other end of the carousel spectrum is the luxury model (complete with up-and-down motion and rotating floor), but with two stories! I'm not sure, but I think there may have also been bathrooms and bar service. We haven't ridden one of these yet—but not because JoJo hasn't asked.

Long Weekend in Paris

The girls had school vacation all last week. Naomi and I decided to take advantage by taking the end of the week off, and visiting Paris from last Thursday until Sunday (tomorrow). (Jenee took her long weekend in Copenhagen, and we don't yet know what adventures she's having there.)

We'll have several blog posts related to Paris, but here's a teaser:

We took the TGV from Gare Midi in Brussels to Gare du Nord in Paris, an 82-minute trip. (The trip by car would be about 2 hours, according to a Parisian cab driver we encountered.) We took a bus from the corner near our apartment to the Porte de Namur Metro station, and then a metro to the Midi stop. There were a lot of people on the metro, and when we deboarded the metro car I ended up on the platform on one side of the car, and Naomi and the girls ended up on the other. In an inspired instant, JoJo saw I was on the other platform, and she dashed back into the car to join me. Time stood still—and when it resumed, the car door near me started to close, with JoJo still in the car. Classic! Fortunately, I was right there and I put some appendage into the doorway. At this point I was calm, because I figured there was no realistic way that the metro was going to take off with me half in and half out of the car. Naomi and Amelia crossed through another metro car that had no closed doors, and eventually the door I was holding opened up, and our family was reunited.

Vacation and Experimenting with the Webcam

So girls are out of school this week and we've been able to do some different things. Yesterday (Monday) Naomi kindly set up a play date with one of Jojo's English speaking friends, Issac and we enjoyed playing/socializing as well as eating chocolate chip cookies!! These particular friends are transplanted Americans and understand what a wonderful pleasure a simple cookie can be--not that I have anything against the Belgian desserts I've had thus far! Issac has a little brother that is Amelia's age but he was at some sort of childcare that morning but I think that Amelia had just a good a time as Jojo with not only a Thomas train set and even a mini-trampoline!
Brussels is having an animated (Anima") festival with a variety of child friendly as well as adult-only animated flicks. With another more dreary day looming, we headed out to see "Les Nouvelles Aventures de la petite Taupe" or the New Adventures of the Little Mole. I think that it was originally produced in Eastern Europe somewhere (based on the names of those who worked on it) but there were luckily no words in any language so nobody was left out of the loop! While I was worried about seating once we bought tickets because there were several preschool groups as well as others waiting to get in, it turned out to be a very large theatre with a balcony that easily seated everyone! There were several mini-episodes shown within the hour it lasted and while there were whispered questions and occasional noises from the audience (which was mostly children) I was extremely impressed by all the good behavior for such an extended period of time!
I have posted a link to this webalbum of mine before but there are a few new ones so here it is again:


So I thought it would be fun to play around more with my webcam rather than just using it for Skype calls (which has also been a very good use). I'm not really keen about being on camera when it is going to be something that can be kept forever and ever so the result is that Jojo has now started a little blog of her own!! I've never tried to post a video link before so I hope that it works and that you will be able to view it and enjoy it!! I think that if you double click on it, it will open in another window and play properly!

From Jojo's Blog Videos

Dan's Running Debut

Today, at long last, I went jogging. It was the first exercise I got in over two months (excluding regular walking and stairs—which aren't entirely trivial—carrying little girls, carrying groceries, carrying luggage, and back exercises). It was a gentle re-introduction to running, maybe 25 minutes at a pretty leisurely pace, but it also had a larger significance: I now pronounce myself healthy. Yay!

This past week I've felt well, but wanted to still take it easy. I had clear breathing passages until Thursday night, when my nose suddenly got stuffed up again. My nose has been stuffed up since, but fortunately I feel fine—I'm just blowing my nose a lot. Also, my new religion is neti pot. Thanks to my wise friend Ziva, I've been doing nasal irrigation several times a day. (I had a neti pot couriered from the States by Jen and Marco.) Naomi has raised the possibility that perhaps I have allergies to something here.

But fundamentally, I'm feeling good, and this feeling has been a long time in the coming. I am fit as a fiddle—well, a fiddle with a stuffed nose, but that's still pretty good!

Couchon—a.k.a. suspect parenting

Yesterday, heading home from the Atomium, Naomi was pushing Amelia in the stroller. Amelia had long since removed her shoes, as she is wont to do, but now she wanted to get out of the stroller and walk in her tights on the dirty sidewalk. I said she could put on her shoes, get on my shoulders, or stay in the stroller. She was unimpressed with any of these options, so I carried her unceremoniously under my arm, like she was an oversized football (American football!). I figured this way she's under control, she's no less happy than before (although no happier either), and she's not rewarded for bad behavior by being carried in a more comfortable fashion. It wasn't very dignified for her; me, I lost my dignity years ago.

So I'm walking down the sidewalk with my youngest continuing to bawl under my arm. And this elderly woman, who's walking her dog, turns and looks at me and I think says, "He la," or, "Hey there." I met her eyes neutrally, maybe a little challengingly, to see if she had any more specific criticism to level my way, and after a few seconds she shook her head and then continued on with her dog. (I might silently judge other parents on occasion, and all I ask is that I'm treated in kind: Keep your judgments of my parenting silent! I don't have to take this. This is America! Oh, wait a second....)

Naomi witnessed the exchange, and later we debriefed each other. Whereas I thought this woman was critical of me, Naomi thought she was critical of Amelia! Naomi thought Belgians are generally strict disciplinarians, so they would not approve of a misbehaving child. Furthermore, Naomi thought she heard the woman add, "Couchon," which literally means pig. Naomi thought the woman said it to mean "misbehaving child" or something like that. I didn't hear the woman say, "Couchon," but if she said it then I would assume she meant something like "asshole father."

The more Naomi and I discussed it, the more we felt vindicated in our respective, opposite assessments. Oh, well, the one thing I think we can all agree on is that my parenting is above reproach. :-)

Jen and Marco's Visit Redux

Today our first extended guests in Brussels, Dan's sister Jen and brother-in-law Marco, headed back home to the States after a week here. They got off to a slow start in their visit, feeling the effects of jetlag. (Jen, being pregnant, was feeling jetlag for two.) They arrived last Sunday, and didn't really venture out much on their own until Tuesday, when they visited the Chocolate Museum and Grand Place. Wednesday they spent the morning walking around Bruge and the afternoon touring the castle in Ghent. Thursday morning they briefly visited the girls' school, then headed to Paris for an overnight trip. In Paris, in some order, they went to the Louvre, the base of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, and the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Saturday (yesterday) everyone went to the Atomium.

It was nice to see them for themselves, and for the connection to the States and family too. The girls had a good time with them as well.

Daddy Gets a Haircut

This morning we were en promenade when we happened to pass an open barber shop. Naomi's been bugging me for at least a week or two about getting a haircut, so in we went. This visit was notable for at least 3 reasons:

1. I can barely communicate what kind of haircut I want when I'm in my native land, speaking in my native tongue. But somehow I got the message across in French.
2. The barber used a straight razor, which is hardly new to me; but he used it without shaving cream or lotion, and that is new.
3. The cost of the haircut was 5€ (about $6.40)! And keep in mind we're in a culture of not tipping in general.

It was actually a pretty decent haircut, big picture. As Naomi said, the barber was not a perfectionist, and a little touching up was required, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

L'Atomium

Yesterday we all (me, Naomi, JoJo, Amelia, Jenee, and guests Dan's sister Jen and brother-in-law Marco) went to the Atomium in the northern part of Brussels. The Atomium is a bizarre structure that models a crystal of iron, magnified 165 billion times. It is Brussels' answer to the Eiffel Tower. A brief comparison:

Eiffel Tower:

• Built for the 1889 Expo
• 324 m/1,063 ft high
• Iconic

Atomium:

• Built for the 1958 Expo
• 102 m/335 ft high
• Iconic

The Atomium comprises 9 spheres. 8 spheres are positioned at the corners of a cube, and 1 sphere is at the center. The cube is standing up on one of the corner spheres. The spheres are 59 ft in diameter, and they are connected by tubes about 10 ft in diameter.

The exterior of the spheres was originally aluminum, but a few years ago the Atomium underwent a significant renovation, and now the exterior is a shiny stainless steel.

You enter the bottom sphere of the Atomium, which has a gift shop and a few exhibits to set the mood of the 1958 Expo. Then you go up a diagonal tube to one of the lower spheres, which currently has an exhibit about Antarctica on its lower level, and the Arctic on its upper level. There was a little room showing the movie "Nanook of the North." I had no idea it documented the life style of Inuits—in fact, apparently it was the first full feature-length documentary ever made (in 1922). I had thought "Nanook of the North" was a fictional story, by someone like Rudyard Kipling or something!

Next we went to the central sphere, which houses a snack bar, where we had lunch. Then we descended to another lower sphere, where we could see (through glass) a living area for kids who on occasion have extended stays in the Atomium, eating, learning, playing, and even sleeping there. This sphere was unoccupied when we saw it.

The top-most sphere houses a restaurant, and you can only get there from the lowest sphere via Belgium's fastest elevator, which travels through the Atomium's only vertical tube. We did not visit the restaurant, which presumably provides outstanding views of Brussels; perhaps another time with other guests. (I think the Atomium will stand up well to repeat visits.) I'm not really sure what's in the other 4 spheres that we did not visit.

I thought the Atomium was pretty impressive architecturally and aesthetically, inside and out. (Despite its strange shape, however, I don't think it was technically difficult to build, even in 1958. The Eiffel Tower, in contrast, was difficult to build, although I don't know if that would have been the case today, or in 1958.) I had never heard of the Atomium before learning about Brussels last fall, but I think not many cities in the world have artificial structures that rival it (although it's no Eiffel Tower).

After touring the Atomium, we walked around the nearby parks and saw the exterior of the Royal Castle of Laken, the residence of the King of Belgium and his family—not to be confused with the more centrally located Royal Palace of Brussels, where the king TCBs (takes care of business). The Laken grounds include a greenhouse that looks like a glass palace. Nearby, we also saw the exteriors of the Chinese Pavilion and the beautiful Japanese Pavilion. Jenee went on to see the interiors of the pavilions (reportedly very nice); Jen and Marco went to corner the chocolate market at Grand Place; and JoJo, Amelia, Naomi, and I headed home to recuperate from all the activity.

Fulbright grantees

Last night was the winter meeting of Belgium/Luxembourg Fulbright program grantees, which was a great opportunity to meet my fellow grantees and learn about their projects. It was a pretty diverse array! First, we were treated to a classical guitar piece by Rosie, who is studying at the conservatory here. It was just lovely, and impressive in part because at the beginning of this year she broke her wrist. Now, I have experience with students who break their wrists (you know who you are!) and I can tell you it can seriously affect productivity! Rosie also said the recovery had been longer and slower than she wanted but she's back on track now.

I can't remember everyone's names and projects but there was an American literature professor from Boston University who is teaching at Leuven, two English language teaching assistants -- one of whom is also pursuing interests in ethnomusicology while she's here -- and several other post-baccalaureate students who are either in graduate school or applying to graduate school. Three of these students are in art history and are using the Royal Library for source materials as well as other local resources, one is an anthropologist studing West African immigrant populations in Belgium and western Europe, and three of us were science-types. You all know what I do so I'll just tell you about the other two, which had very interesting projects.

The first is a computer science/biology graduate from Colgate who is studying "meta-heuristics", "parallelism" and "swarming patterns". He very clearly communicated his passion for the subject but not as clearly communicated what his subject is! I spoke with him quite a bit at the reception afterwards. Turns out he's excited about computer models of decision making based on collective animal behavior -- an exciting field of computational/systems biology that's been getting a lot of press lately. He's hoping to start graduate school next fall with this guy: http://www.princeton.edu/~icouzin/. The other science-guy deferred entrance into an MD/PhD program to study in Liege. He said something like -- I'm a biology major with a French minor so I thought it'd be fun to study neurobiology in Liege, which is French speaking, before I return to graduate school. He's studying the effects of gender on brain development in an "avian" model (quails, I guess). He spent the whole month of January cutting up bird brains!

There was a nice reception after all the introductions and then we got kicked out because the Royal Library closes at 6:45 pm. Our next program event is in mid-April. I look forward to hearing how all the projects are progressing!

Half-day trip to Ghent/Gent/Gand

In honor of Jen & Marco's visit this week, the girls and I (which of course includes Jenee) made a half-day trip to Gent after school on Wednesday. I told the girls we were going to have an adventure! We decided to leave right from school, keeping our fingers crossed that Amelia would nap on the train, so I got to join Jenee at pick up time. A happy consequence of this decision was that I saw Isaac's mom Raquel again, who is very nice, and got to meet Jojo's new friend ("She speaks English, mom!) Aya. We're hoping to set up a play date with her sometime soon.

Anyway, we loaded the girls up onto the tram and when we didn't get off at our regular stop, I told the girls again we were going on a new adventure on a really big train. We negotiated Gare Midi without too much trouble and caught a 1:05 pm (that's 13.05 pm in Eurospeak) train to Ghent (in English)/Gent (in Flemish/Dutch)/Gand (in French). The train ride is only 30 minutes or so but it was enough for Amelia to get mostly undressed, go potty, cuddle up with Jenee and not fall asleep. Jojo and I ate our lunches and looked out the window.

In Ghent, we caught the 1 Tram to the City Center and were pleasantly suprised by some sunshine. I should point out that every day I go to Gent, I take the 21 or 22 Tram away from the City Center so it's not like I know downtown all that well. In fact, I haven't really seen downtown since Dan and I were there in September. Anyway, on the tram, Amelia did fall asleep so we wandered the streets a bit looking at the canals and castles and cathedrals and churches and lovely, very old buildings. We tried to go into one church -- St. Michaels, I think -- but it was closed. Jojo took some photos though, which are in the slide show.

At my urging, we then wandered back to the main square to get a coffee and a treat (inside, nice and warm) while we waited for Jen and Marco to arrive from a morning in the more traditional and popular Flanders tourist destination -- Bruge/Brugge/Bruges. They arrived around 3 pm and, after their snack, we headed to the castle! Dan was unfortunately not able to join us on our outing. He had late afternoon meetings to attend, but also he toured the castle when he and I were here in September so maybe he didn't miss much.

I think the photos speak for themselves. Both girls loved the castle and negotiated all the stairs very well. We didn't get to see the instruments of torture -- which Dan had been impressed and disgusted by -- but given the potential for nightmares in our little group that may have been for the best. The views from the castle rooftop were excellent and both girls displayed an impressive lack of fear of heights, unlike their uncle Marco! You can see them leaning over the ramparts in a few pictures and I'm sure you can imagine them running along the walkways next to a 10-20 ft drop without a care in the world. Just to ensure a happy trip home, we stopped at a chocolatier on the way back to the train station. After an easy train trip back to Brussels and a longer than average wait for a bus back home, we had nice, warm, brick oven take out pizza for dinner.

Trapped in a Hallway

This morning I found myself in an amusing/annoying situation, a situation which probably could not happen in the States due to fire codes. But first, a short geography lesson concerning our apartment building.

Our building has big, heavy double doors on the sidewalk, doors that can withstand a nuclear attack. It always takes a key to get in these doors. You can lock them so that it takes a key to get out too, although usually it is not locked in this way.

Past these doors is an interior hallway, and in this hallway there is a smaller door that can only withstand a speeding car. (This door has some mirrored glass panels, so it's possible you could force your way through it by breaking the glass.) This door is always locked on the hallway side, but on the other side (the stairwell side—we're getting there next), like the exterior double doors, it is usually unlocked but can be locked.

Past the smaller door is the stairwell, going 3 floors up to our apartment. The apartment door is only able to withstand a human assault, and it can be locked or unlocked, from the inside or the outside.

Back to this morning: I left the apartment with both girls to get some treats at a local patisserie. We exited the unlocked apartment door, went down the 3 flights of stairs, went out the interior hallway door, and came to the big double doors, which were atypically locked from the inside. Not a problem—except I had no keys.

Ordinarily I do have keys. However, this week our guests (my sister Jen and brother-in-law Marco) have my keys, because a spare set would cost us 125€, or about $160, and we're too cheap for that. So I'm trying to make do without my keys. And now I'm trapped in a hallway, where I can't get out to the street through the locked exterior double doors, and I can't get to the stairwell through the interior door to go back to the apartment to get help. And the doorbells are conveniently located outside the exterior double doors.

Eventually I remembered that I had a phone on my person, and I called up to the apartment, but by this time the second shift (Jenee, coming to take the girls to school) was already on its/her way down. Jenee to the rescue! JoJo and I made it to the patisserie and got treats, just in time to make the next bus. The patisserie did not have the usual, small, non-messy ones that JoJo likes, so I hope that the girls made it to school with Jenee (I just left them after they boarded the bus) without the more "difficult" treats causing too many problems.

A Secretly Green City

As you travel down streets in Brussels, the city appears to be remarkably devoid of plants. There are some big parks (one or a few city blocks in size), and some small parks (less than a city block), and at the south end of the city is a much, much larger park. But if you look at Brussels from the sky (as I have done virtually, using Google maps), it appears to be an uncommonly green city. How is this possible?

I'm glad you asked. Most city blocks here have buildings lining the streets, with no space between the buildings. But usually the buildings aren't so deep that they completely fill the interior of the block; usually, there's an interior space, and often it's green.

Several properties in our immediate neighborhood are managed by the same company. Behind our building, there is a yard of sorts with a brick house in it, also managed by our building's management company; and beyond that is another building, not managed by "our" company, which looks out on the street parallel to our street, on the other side of our block. Capische?

Dan's disgusting medical saga

My fanbase has been clamoring for more descriptions of my medical ordeals. More detailed. More graphic. More, more, more!

Well, not really. But that's what this post is about, so don't say you haven't been warned.

My health has not been great since before we left the States for Brussels. Around Christmas, seven weeks ago, was the last time I was in prime health. Since then, my condition has bounced around a lot, up and down. My previous posts have generally taken place when I've been on the upswing, so they've been optimistic—perhaps even unrealistically so. But the truth is that it's been a long, tough ride, and in addition to being intrinsically physically unpleasant it's also been emotionally very difficult, a huge stressor at work and with the family.

In addition to going through approximately 3,212 tissues, I've also variously had lower back pain, dry cough, wet cough, fever, night sweats, insomnia, sinusitis, toothache, costiveness, and even a random and mild episode of epistaxis. Twice I went to the doctor, twice I got ultimately inconclusive blood tests, and twice I got put on antibiotics (I finish the second regimen tomorrow morning).

The good news is that, with 97% probability, the end is really in sight here. Last Thursday was the latest low point, having spent that day and previous days with sinus and tooth pain. I was ready to trade my kingdom for a neti pot, but was not able to do so—the pharmacists I visited had no idea what I was talking about. But time passed, and things got better. Since Friday (three days now) I've been feeling consistently pretty good, with runny nose (a likely side-effect of one of my prescription drugs) and occasional cough being about the worst of it. If I'm not 100% by the end of this coming week, I will (a) be extremely disappointed, and (b) probably cry.

A Visit with a Fairy

Yesterday (Saturday), Amelia and I went to a birthday party for Emma, one of her classmates. We took the 94 tram many stops to get near the end of our destination street. This stop was next to the Foret des Soignes ("well-groomed forest," I think), which is an enormal forest around the south part of Brussels. The forest is shaped sort of like the back of your right hand, and we were close to the inside of the thumb. "Our" street cut clear across the entire thumb (a bit over half a mile, I think), and it was really more of a pedestrian path in the woods than a real street. For various reasons, Amelia was pretty unhappy the entire time I pushed her in her stroller through the woods.

It turned out our destination was on the other side of the thumb, once again outside the woods, on the same street, but on a part of the street that actually looked like a street—complete with houses and everything!—and not like a path in the woods.

Amelia and I arrived punctually, if unhappily, at the house with the party, and we were among the first guests. A woman named Beatrice was there painting faces, and I got mine painted (a sinister moustache and a shield on one cheek) before Amelia was ready to (little blue flowers and glitter). Most of the Lilliputian guests were classmates of Amelia, but she wasn't acting all that familiar with them, and she was pretty clingy to me. As most of the time I was physically restricted by my filial attachment, my usual smooth mingling style was a little cramped—I had previously met just one or two of the other parents and kids, and I made some progress socializing, but it was frankly limited.

Beatrice ran a sort of scavenger hunt in which the kids got clues written by a fairy, and prizes with a butterfly theme. If the scavenger hunt were successfully concluded, the fairy promised in messages to visit! Afterwards, Beatrice disappeared, and then our hosts suddenly made a lot of fuss to close curtains to keep things dark, and appealed to the kids to be quiet, so the fairy wouldn't be scared away. After what seemed an eternity, the fairy dramatically arrived, with white wings, white glitter on her face, and a white dress lit up from the inside. (Astute readers may have already correctly guessed that Beatrice was in fact a fairy.) The fairy gave special attention to the birthday girl, and each kid got a bracelet. The fairy also led us in a rousing round of "Happy Birthday," which, for some strange reason, was rendered in English.

While waiting for the fairy to arrive, we had sandwiches and potato chips, and after she left we had pizza and cake. Amelia repeatedly asked me when the fairy was going to come back, but she never did. Alas! By this time, Amelia was more acclimated to the social circumstances, and coming out of her shell a bit more, but ironically it was time to leave. We took a different route back, travelling on the 92 tram, which had a stop must closer to the party. Amelia slept in the stroller almost the whole way home, while I conversed on the tram with a new acquaintance from the party.

Chocolate Museum

Last Sunday (a week ago from today) we all went on a trip to the Chocolate Museum (more specifically, the Museum of Cocoa & Chocolate), which is located just off Grand Place. The museum was not large, but it had the important stuff: chocolate samples, and darn good ones at that. At the entrance we got tasty biscuits fresh dipped in chocolate. A little further in, we got a demonstration of how chocolate shells are made—hollow pieces of chocolate, which either get a filling, like your typical chocolate bon bon; or don't, like hollow chocolate Easter bunnies—and we got to sample those too. All samples tasted outstanding.

There were exhibits showing where the cocoa beans come from, and something of how they are processed. I learned that on average Belgians eat somewhat over 11kg of chocolate per year—slightly behind Germans and Swiss, but twice what Americans eat (5.6kg). But if Americans had the quality of chocolate available to them that we have here in Belgium, I'll bet Americans would catch up quick!

The evening before our visit to the Chocolate Museum, Naomi and I dined at the home of one of her colleagues. They served us two varieties of straight, dark chocolate. The chocolate was extraordinarily flavorful, and the flavor had more than one "round." They said better chocolates have after-taste, and the best have multiple waves of after-taste. In this particular case, the more after-taste the chocolate had, the more I wanted the after-taste to stop! There was increasing bitterness with the after-taste, and while I can appreciate intellectually that all this flavor points to a technically superior chocolate, I'm just a simple guy, and I guess I like my chocolate simply good.

Fun weekend plans

We had our first guests over last night -- a Friday night dinner with another family from the girls' school. They have two boys and their two are about the same ages as our two. Plus, the grandma came so there were 10 of us for dinner. I almost can't believe our tiny European kitchen made enough food for that many people! We almost didn't have enough plates and silverware. I had to ask for more from the property manager earlier in the week. Chairs, we had just the right number. Amazingly, the kids all played well together. We plopped them in front of a video eventually but that was after a lot of dress up and singing and dancing, etc.

If you've ever been to our house for a Friday night dinner, you know the drill -- salmon with mustard-honey marinade, asparagus with "special" sauce, salad, fresh homemade challah and some sort of yummy dessert. You won't be surprised to learn that we outsourced the yummy dessert to the patisserie around the corner from us. I got a nice variety of sweets and lollipops for the kids. The rest of the dinner, though, suffered from the same sort of culture shock that the rest of us are experiencing. What is regular flour? How much should we use? How big are "regular" eggs in Eurospeak? The challah is still a work in progress. Similary, the mustard-honey sauce was surprisingly super-spicy. Poor Amelia was very upset. It was actually tasty but just not what we're used to.

This morning, Saturday, Amelia is attending her first birthday party here. Dan will have to give the report because I'm hanging out with Josephine. We went exploring and found a new playground near Place Royale with swings and teeter totters and a climbing thing or two. It's still a little cold to be out for too long but the sun was shining and there were lots of other kids at the park. We had a little picnic too. Thank goodness for PB&J.

Tonight for Valentine's Day Dan and I are going out. No idea where or when but Jenee offered and we accepted. Then, tomorrow, Aunt Jen and Uncle Marco arrive for a week. Maybe we'll ask them to blog on here too...

Experiments

Busy is good, right? Well, this week was busy! In back to back half hour meetings over two days I met with all of my collaborator's students (in Gent) to learn about their research projects. I also took the opportunity to learn about similarities and differences in our educational and research-funding systems. First of all, nearly all PhD students in Belgium have completed a MS-thesis in an engineering field. Doctorates are expected to take 4 years beyond that. They do not include coursework and are often fully funded by the government. So, quite a lot of work gets done, actually. The students I spoke with said they're the highest paid graduate students in Europe. Nice, eh? I don't have confirmation of that but they seemed pretty content. It was fun and interesting to hear about all the different sorts of projects going on. That was all day Tuesday and Thursday.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday I worked with my other collaborator -- the one in Brussels. Monday I got the quick tour of the medical school at Erasme Hopital and then we drove up to the Hopital Militaire in the very north of the city to observe the set up of experiments in a hypobaric chamber. The goal is/was to determine the effects of a drug on the response to exercise in hypoxia. I said I'd come back Wednesday to observe, but when I did, I got strong-armed into participating! (See slideshow). At least it was interesting. I got a pretty solid headache in the chamber (we went to the equivalent of 14,000 ft) but when we returned to sea level it wasn't so bad. I did the same on Friday, at which point the headache was worse, plus I suffered some visual disturbances afterwards, but I'm 100% now. What we do in the name of science.

Italian food

Tonight for dinner we had risotto from a bag -- you know a kit with the rice and flavorings, etc. Just add water and stir. I had dragged Dan to this Italian grocery store earlier in the week and we got several packets there. Unfortunately, turns out it was more authentic than I'd anticipated. All the cooking instructions were in Italian! Here's how Babel Fish (babelfish.yahoo.com) translated it (seems sort of "Silence of the Lambs" to me):

It pours the content of the envelope in average liter d' cold water, 950 mililiter if you want to prepare two envelopes. It stirs and door to bollore. You make to cook to medium fire, without cover, for 15 minuteren approximately, until all l' water has not been absorbed. It stirs every now and then, sporattutto to fine baking. For risotto a still more cremoso and mantecato, you add to a butter walnut or a spoon d' oil extravergine d' olive and of the grattugiato $parmesan. It stirs well and you serve.

Unbelievably, it turned out well and both girls said "yum"!

Patients' re-progress

Well, Naomi mentioned that JoJo's health has improved, which is definitely true. And her attitude about school has also improved, which is very heartening.

Now I don't want to jinx things, but I am in danger of being in good health myself. My health has bounced around a lot—up one day, down the next. It's been a long and generally unpleasant ride. Thursday I saw my doctor again, and got another blood test and prescriptions for another round of antibiotics, pending the results of the blood test (which I'm still waiting for). However, yesterday, for practically the first time I can remember, I was sometimes able to breathe through my nose; and my coughing doesn't sound nearly as disgusting as it used to. I will let you know when I pronounce myself 100% healthy—hopefully soon!

Over the hump?

I've been told by some friends that all these posts about illness and hospital visits and difficult transitions to a new country/language/school/schedule make them very not envious of notre grande voyage a la Belgique. Well, in many ways I think we are now over the hump. Jojo and Amelia are both (relatively) physically healthy and both are definitely enjoying school. Wednesday of this week was Josephine's first actual playdate with a friend. The pictures are posted in the week 3 slideshow. Double click on it (I think) to go to Picasa and see the captions. Jojo's new friend is another 4 year old named Ellie. Ellie is in the *other* Deuxieme Maternelle class but they have outside playtime together and, as you might imagine, both speak English. Jojo and Amelia and Jenee and I went to Ellie's house with her mom (Sarah) and younger sister Tiggy (short for Ingrid) Wednesday at around 1 pm and stayed until almost dinner time. We had a snack, played with blocks, did an art project, went to a nearby park with a playground... It was great!

Tomorrow, if everyone stays healthy, Jojo has a birthday party to attend, which I hope also will be fun. This classmate does not speak English but there should be other kids there who do. In any case, I will be there. Presumably, that will raise her comfort level and might even help my French skills limp along. I still haven't figured out how to get better more quickly. I keep toying with the idea of devoting an hour or two each week to language study but haven't done anything more than bat it around, comme un chat avec une boule de file (yeah, had to use Babel Fish).

Things for me are going well at work. I spent a good portion of the week analyzing data for a Brussels collaborator, the one I took the train with to Amsterdam. I was supposed to meet with him today and tour his lab but I cancelled because it turns out I have -- wait for it -- strep throat!! I'm happy to report that I was able to call a doctor, see a doctor, get test results and get antibiotics all in one day for the low low price of 30 Euro. The way I paid was kind of funny... I knew a personal appointment with the doctor was 30 Euro and cash was appreciated so I gave her a 50E bill. She opened her wallet and gave me change! Pretty fancy accounting system, huh? Anyway, they are very nice at this office, which is especially good given the amount of time Dan and I have spent there. This is the same doctor who visited Josephine for her ear infection at our house. Anyway, so my Brussels collaborator and I met over the phone and discussed the data analysis. Dan and I are going there for dinner tomorrow and I assume we'll talk more about it then. Also next week, I am having one-on-one meetings (tete-a-tetes!) with the students of my Gent collaborator. I look forward to learning more about each of their projects.

Also, it's been pretty easy keeping up with my group in Madison. Every Wednesday at 8 pm we have a teleconference via Skype. They're all in one room with a wide angle camera and sensitive mircophone. I'm here at home with my headset and logitech camera. They've gotten google documents to work so we can view the same slide show simultaneously and discuss methods, results, interpretation, etc. It's great! They're making good progress without me. Maybe I never needed to have weekly meetings with them after all!

Dan's commute

I thought I'd describe how I get to and from work. (Yep, very exciting.) I typically have a 20 minute walk to Gare Centrale, one of the main Brussels train stations. Then it's a 15 or 20 minute train ride to Diegem (near the Brussels airport, just northeast of the city), and then a 10 or 15 minute walk to the TomoTherapy Brussels office. So it's a bit less than an hour one way, 2 or 3 times as long as my commute for TomoTherapy in Madison.

I don't have an electronic key to get into the Tomo building. I can buzz the Tomo reception desk, but usually I walk around back to the garage entrance. I have the code to the keypad. The keypad gives no feedback as you punch the numbers—no clicks, no lights, no button movement—but 2 seconds after I'm done the door magically opens, every time. Then I walk in the garage, the bizarre commuter who forgot to bring his car.

To get home I do the walk-train-walk thing in reverse, although there used to be a bit of a twist. When I started here a few weeks ago, Diegem tracks 1 2, and 3 were blocked due to construction, and only track 4 was accessible. My outbound train, to work in the morning, rode on track 4; and my inbound train, back home in the evening, was advertised for track 1. But I figured, with only one track accessible (track 4), I couldn't miss my train back home. Wrong! It turned out the inbound train was still operating on track 1, as usual. But pedestrian access to track 1 was at the other end of the platform, more than a quarter-mile away (I checked the distance on maps.google.com), by another track entrance I couldn't even see. When I eventually figured out to go there (by following a group of people walking there with obvious purpose), I found a whole crowd of people waiting for the train I wanted—a crowd completely invisible from the other end of the other platform. (To be more accurate, they were waiting for the train after the train I wanted, since by this time I had missed my intended train.) Fortunately, I got a grip on the situation in one day, and didn't repeat my mistake. And now, that phase of construction is complete, so I get to track 1 in the most obvious manner.

School fundraiser dinner

Saturday night Naomi and I went to a fundraiser dinner for our girls' Jewish day school. We thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some other parents, although ironically most of the very few parents we knew were not in attendance. The dinner was held at a hotel which happened to be much closer to our apartment than the school itself is. The event started at 7:30pm, and there were nice hors d'oeuvres. Naomi had previously communicated with, but never met, a cousin of a friend, and this cousin was a parent at the school and also reportedly striking. Naomi recognized this person based on a physical description, and thus began our inroads meeting other parents that evening.

Around 9pm, I think, we were ushered into the dining area for the actual dinner. Interestingly, among our shepherds were two members of the school's security professionals, and they appeared to be there in their regular professional capacity. Seating was assigned, and seating assignments were based on childrens' classrooms, so we met another cohort of parents. While waiting for dinner, some of the older kids gave a performance that included singing and something like stand-up (we didn't get the jokes at all—our French isn't there yet), and some leadership speechifying, and some parent dancing. At 10:15pm the appetizers had been served and cleared, and Naomi and I had to call it quits. It would not surprise me if—now 3 days later—the parents are still waiting for their dinner.

The food and dress was not as Jewish as I had expected. The only kippahs (yarmulkes, skullcaps, beanies) that I saw were on a few of the performing schoolboys, and the food was probably not kosher (I'm not sure, but I think there was mixing of meat and dairy, and it's possible there was pork). I spoke with another parent about Jewish practice in Brussels, and he said it was less kosher-y, less synagogue-y, etc., than one would find in the US for Jews "operating" at a comparable level. (There is apparently at least one enclave in Brussels where Jews practice more rigorously, but for the most part observant Jews in Belgium are probably concentrated in Antwerp.)

On a different Jewish note, we happen to live close to a halal butcher. (Ok, technically that's not a Jewish note.) Halal does not share koshrut's prohibition against mixing meat and dairy, so it's possible some of the halal butcher's prepared meats include dairy; but there are some intriguing meat options for us there that we don't usually have, such as fresh chicken sausage (haven't had that yet, but plan to).

The Girls' Photos

Here are some photos that the girls' have taken with my camera some better than other but...enjoy!

Jojo's Pictures:


Amelia's Photos (some from a walk around the hotel the first week we were here):

February

So hello again...it's Jenee writing this time around and I am happy to report that we have all safely transitioned into February with some light snow to mark the occasion!
Jojo and I had some lovely days last week when she was home recovering where we played cards, watched videos, did artwork, and generally hung out (aka got better)! As Dan previously wrote, both girls were home on Friday and so we took that time to do some more artwork as well took photos of the artwork that is up in the girls' room. Here are some photos:


Jojo had another eventful (but productive) trip to urgent care on Sunday evening after spiking a high fever and complaints of stomach pains. Although she was definitely doing much better (after her constipation issues were solved) on Monday it was another stay-home day for Jojo so after some cartoons and a game of Uno she and I ventured out to run some errands. We first headed to the local metro stop (Port d'Namur) in search of my mitten I lost last week on the bus (I think) which after eating lunch and waiting for the office to open at 12pm was unproductive. We then headed to grab some dark chocolates (as per Naomi's request) at a nearby chocolatier where Jojo was given a free sample by the lovely shop woman! We then headed to the post office on the way back to mail some letters that Jojo had written. It was quite crowded at the post office but we took a number (literally) and began the wait. Luckily a woman we were standing next to pointed out where others who hadn't wanted to wait any longer left their numbers (which hadn't yet been called) on a table so we were able to get a bit further ahead in "line". Jojo was kindly rewarded for her patience with two balloons from the woman who helped us (as pictured in the album below along with pictures of our snowy street--a scene that didn't last long). Balloons and chocolate--I hope that Belgium is starting to grow on Jojo a bit more...if only her school could give out such things too! Just kidding! ; )


It was back to school for Jojo today (Tuesday) and while the departure was a bit rough she recovered quite well and as we were running a bit late I sent Jojo up to her room by herself while I took Amelia to her's and she was contentedly drawing when I arrived to say goodbye! Hopefully the rest of the week will be uneventful healthy for everyone!

Amsterdam

I'm not sure this blog is the right place for comments about work but here goes anyway. Last Friday I attended a one day conference in Amsterdam on pulmonary hypertension (my area of research). Despite having to catch the train out of Brussels at 6:18 am (ugh), to arrive in Amsterdam around 9:15 am, it was a great meeting and they took me out to a fine Indonesian dinner afterwards. Since the Dutch colonized Indonesia, there are many immigrants in the Netherlands and some even cook! Also, in the morning before my train back to my ailing family (more on that elsewhere) I visited the Rijksmuseum, which is sort of the National Museum of the Netherlands/Holland (don't ask me the difference). Lots of Rembrandt, Vermeer and some interesting porcelain, inlaid woodwork, etc. Next time I'll visit the Van Gogh exhibit but I actually thought Josephine might enjoy that one so I saved it for a family trip.

Also, I got to see many coffeehouses that aren't! Pot is free and legal as I'm sure you all know and apparently the place to get it is the coffeehouse. If you're not into smoking, they have lots of "edibles" and I even saw some pot-cookies for sale in a pharmacy window!

Amsterdam is definitely a cyclist's dream. Everyone bikes -- typical occupancy is 1.5 people/per bike -- and the bicycle parking structure at the train structure was a sight to behold.

Anyway, back to work. One happy outcome of the trip to Amsterdam was that my travelling companion on the way to the meeting invited me to work with him this spring. This is excellent for a few reasons. First, he is highly respected in the field. Second, he is based in Brussels, which means I could have a place to work that is not Gent (and not so far away). Third, his research is very clinically oriented, which is a good direction for my work goes in. So, I'm excited! To start, he gave me a bunch of data to analyze and a paper to reference. He also invited Dan and me over to dinner in a week or so. Hopefully, dinner will not start at 10 pm, which is apparently the European tradition!

Week 3

Today marks a new beginning. Instead of paying up to 2 euro for my coffee in the morning, I made a pot at home! It's not as good as in the bakery (patisserie) down the street but it's pretty good and I can blog and/or work while I drink it. Here they serve every cup of coffee with a little treat -- either a "Speculos" which is sort of like butter cookie (and they also make a paste-like substance out of it, sort of a cross between Nutella and peanut butter) or a square of dark chocolate. I think that's reason enough to go get some squares of dark chocolate, don't you think?

As long as we're on the topic of chocolate... In all the supermarkets they sell Cote d'Or. That seems to be the only chocolate they sell in supermarkets so I have to assume the cheapest and lowest quality. The other chocolatiers have their own shops around town or near Grand Place and some have just one (Pierre Marcoletti, for example, which is in Petit Sablon and had free samples upstairs. Yay!). One of my Belgian hosts likes Galler, so I'll have to look for that one. Neuhaus has a shop at the metro stop nearest to us (Port de Namur). Godiva is all over and then there are "artisanal" chocolatiers too. Lots of choices!