Overall Impressions

Now that we've been back in Madison for about two months, we have enough distance from the trip to look back with at least a little objectivity, and make deep, meaningful pronouncements about the trip. These observations should be considered definitive.

1. In a word, the trip was positive. We endured a lot of pain and effort to make the trip happen—medical physicals and fingerprinting, work visa legalities, finding a State-side house renter and dog sitter, finding an apartment in Brussels, finding a school in Brussels, packing (twice!) a ton of suitcases, lugging said suitcases, etc.—and every month we bled more money to the cause. But in return we got invaluable intangibles, meeting new people, culture, and geography.
2. The transition from Madison to Brussels was hard, particularly for me (illness) and JoJo (culture/language shock, illness). But fortunately we got over it, and grew to feel comfortable in our new, temporary home. Naomi in particular wondered what would have happened if JoJo never got over the hump; but JoJo did get over the hump, and that perseverence probably has increased her self-confidence.
3. The transition back to Madison was suprisingly difficult, although much easier than the first transition. After less than a week back home we headed out west for a week in the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe areas (Naomi had a conference there, and we decided to make a family trip of it), and the multiple changes of locations and time zones confused our bodies. I would say it took a month back in the States before we really felt like we were settled again in Madison.
4. The girls achieved some fluency in French. Their understanding of French is better than their speaking of French, and if we'd stayed for a whole school year instead of just half I think they would be pretty solidly bilingual. But they definitely gained the perspective that there are other languages out there in the world besides English. Jenee has made Tuesdays and Thursdays days to speak French, so hopefully the girls' proficiency in French will continue.
5. Naomi and I both spoke French with a low level of fluency before the trip, but I was disappointed that our fluency didn't improve much. We both worked in environments where English was spoken, so we didn't get a French immersion experience. We could have made greater efforts to seek out regular French conversation, but life was busy. Oh, well.
6. Naomi and I each had pretty good work experiences. Naomi wasn't teaching, but she got on a reasonably regular work schedule, commuting variously to the University of Ghent and the Erasmus Hospital in Brussels. I think her collaborations were often productive and enjoyable. For my part, I enjoyed working with my European counterparts at TomoTherapy. The 7-hour time difference was often painful for communicating with our colleagues/students back in Madison, even with modern communication tools like Skype.
   
7. One of the negatives about our experience, or at least my experience, was a feeling that there was a lot of latent (or not so latent) anti-Semitism out there. There was significant pro-Palestinian sentiment around Belgium and Europe in general, and in many cases that sentiment seemed to be tantamount to anti-Israeli sentiment. In Amsterdam I saw spray-painted on a bridge a star of David with the letter "F" inside; I don't know specifically what the "F" meant, but I can't imagine it was good. And of course the girls' Jewish day school had impressive security, including two sets of security doors, ex-Mossad agents, and a healthy municipal police presence to boot. On the one hand it was good to see how seriously the safety of the kids was taken, but on the other hand it's very sad that such lengths were deemed necessary.
8. Given that Naomi and I worked and we had the kids in tow, I think that we did a lot of travel, both day trips and more extended trips. Nevertheless, I would have loved to do a lot more. So many places were so comparatively close to Brussels. I would have loved to get to Venice, Barcelona, Prague, Germany, Scandinavia. If French Open tickets had still been available when I looked online, Naomi and I would have made a day trip to Paris—it blows my mind that a day trip to Paris is feasible from Brussels!
9. The food was great. I also really liked all the walking I did in my commute, and the calm and civilized commute by train (the occasional irregularity notwithstanding). I definitely lost some weight in Brussels, and I think I have already gained it back. It is ironic, because I ate a lot more chocolate and cheese in Brussels than I do in Madison!
10. Naomi and the girls were glad to be back in Madison, and I was too, but I felt a lot of ambivalence about it. I enjoyed working at TomoTherapy's Brussels office, and with all my unfulfilled travel ambitions I would have been happy to stay longer in Brussels.
11. The trip had the feeling of a "once in a lifetime" type of thing. However, I had two similar experiences growing up (my father took sabbaticals in the Grenoble, France, area during my kindergarten and 7th grade years), and Naomi and I already are looking forward to her next sabbatical, presumably 6 years hence. If you get a travel opportunity like this, we heartily recommend taking advantage of it!