Language Barrier
By far, the biggest stumbling block we've faced is the language barrier. Admittedly, we thought it was going to be less of a problem. Reality is another story. No matter how much you rehearse "the script" in your head, it's a whole different story when you have a living, breathing person in front of you. We try our best to not resort to the "Do you speak English?" game, but sometimes it's unavoidable.
Let's say you go into a bakery. You know you want a loaf of "country-bread" and you have the entire verbal exchange translated and practiced. But then they throw a couple of simple questions at you and your cover is blown. Uhh... "parlez vous anglais?" And then they say, "With cumin or without?" Oh... without, please.
In my job search, I've been told a few times that even if they were hiring at the moment, it would be a problem if I cannot speak Dutch. Sure, I knew that would generally be the case, but because most people have been able to speak English at a rudimentary level at least, my thought/hope was/is that it wouldn't be a problem for long. If I was immersed in it on a daily basis and taking a class, I could pick up Dutch very quickly. And before too long, the amount of English we'd have to speak to each other would be negligable.
People have been very kind and willing to speak English to us. The woman who we dealt with to open our bank account even went as far as apologizing for her English! We kept telling her "No, we are sorry." So, we've been able to get along just fine so far and it will only get better. The only time we had a more serious problem was at the commune office.
The office is open daily between 8 and 11 am. That is the window in which all foreigners can apply for a Belgian ID card and/or register with the commune which is what we were trying to do. There was a big room with many "tellers" and seats for people to wait their turn. But before getting in there, you have to check-in at a booth in the entrance. When we got up to the window, Kristen stated our purpose in French, thinking he would just give us a number and motion us in. Instead, he asked a question. A question neither of us understood. Parlez vous anglais? "No. No English!" He tried the question a couple more times in French, but then we just gave up and got out of the line. Frustrated, we were ready to leave and then try coming back another day with someone who spoke French. However, I watched what other people were doing or being told at the window and I decided we should try again. So, this time I went up to the window and held up our passports with mine on top. He saw that I was an "EU citizen" and then spoke to me in broken English, motioning me around to the side so he could talk to me through the open door instead. "First time?" Yes. "Oh, OK!" Then he took our passports and wrote out a slip for each which states that we have to return on October 10th instead to register. That's what he had been asking for when we first got there!
That's right, we in my hood now!
Hmm... how do you say that in Dutch?
--RP--
Wednesday, September 17
Sunday, September 14
Job Search
My quest began last Wednesday. Being three days into it now, I have come to liken it to when the Buddhist monks go on a long journey by foot with nothing but their begging bowls. The people in the villages give them food as they seek further enlightenment.
So, here I am, taking a train to small towns outside of Brussels and walking for miles to find these little breweries. When I reach them, I throw caution to the wind and knock on the door. I've thoroughly rehearsed what I should say to them in Dutch, but when I have a person in front of me it's a different story. Anxiety takes it's toll and I have to fall back on "Sprekt u engels?" to switch the conversation into language I can actually use. Luckily, so far they have all spoken English well enough and have not been annoyed by having to do so.
My first day, last Wednesday, was particularly challenging. The weather was a bit poor and I had come unprepared for rain. But the solution was laid before me when I came upon a street-market at which I purchased a cheap umbrella. I used my large map of Belgium to get me to the vicinity of the brewery and then navigated by finding the town map which is generally posted in the center of town near the town's church.
The first brewery was intimidatingly large (they are famous for their line of Affligem abbey ales). When I walked by I could smell wort being boiled inside the brewery... a heavenly smell of malt and hops. I spoke to a lady at the reception desk who told me that there was no work at the moment, but I left my resume with her. Then I went to have some lunch. It had started to rain pretty hard, so I took my time. The tomato soup, ground-beef patty topped with two fried eggs, salad, and french fries meal was good fuel. Aside from the fantastic food available along the way, Kristen has been so sweet every morning by preparing a sensible breakfast for me so I can get the day started right. Good thing too, because of the amount of walking I've been doing.
After the rain let up, I paid my bill and headed back out. I constructed a map on a piece of paper by comparing my large map (lacking in fine detail like the names of the small streets) to the one in the town square. It is times like these that makes me wish I had brought the Civil War compass that Kristen had given me. Sadly, it is buried in her jewelry box in our storage room in Oregon. Anyway, to get to the second brewery, I took a narrow road through the countryside. The cows, sheep, and the odd car now and then, looked at me as though I was an alien. Not surprising. At one point, a farmer drove by me with his tractor, pulling a flat-bed trailer. He waved. Another twenty minutes later, I reached the brewery and, funnily enough, that same farmer was parked inside the brewery's courtyard. He was picking up "spent grain" to feed his livestock (spent grain is malted barley or wheat that has been mashed and discarded by a brewery). He recognized me and I was able to fumble out enough Dutch that he understood what I was doing. So, he went into the brewery to find the owner who came out a few minutes later to speak to me. He was not hiring at the moment either, but took my resume for possible employment in the future.
Two interviews down, it was time to go home. As the rain had picked up again, I didn't want to walk through the country-side again. Especially since my cheap umbrella was about to blow out from the gusty wind. Luckily, I found a bus that headed straight to Brussels in about 20 minutes. And it only cost 1.80 euros, though it took twice as long as the train.
Walking around the Belgian countryside is quite a peaceful experience. It is very beautiful out there and these little Belgian towns! Since I have a policy of not using the word "cute" to describe inanimate objects... how do I describe them? Well, at the risk of sounding trite, I'd use words like "quaint", "picturesque", and "rustic". Public transportation outside Brussels is still pretty thorough, though it's pretty much limited to trains and buses. However, since I have no local knowledge, it is difficult to take a bus when I don't know what stop to get off at. That's why I end up using my own two feet more often. Luckily, I am blessed with the ability to pretty much walk continuously and untirelessly for long periods of time. I just sort of "phase out" and let the kilometers fall behind me. It's been very cathartic and now that I have several brewery visits under my belt, it's not as intimidating.
I don't want to bore you with pedantic details of Thursday and Friday's journey, but there are a couple of good snippets I'd like to share.
The first brewery I visited on Thursday was a bit far from the train station I got off at. An hour's walk, to be exact. The map I had printed on Mapquest was inaccurate. The journey was fully worth it, however. Brouwerij De Smedt is in a beautiful old building on a breathtakingly amazing property, surrounded by farmland. The reception put me in touch with the owner who took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to speak to me. Then he introduced me to his brewmaster and had him give me a tour of the brewery! Though, Luc (the brewer) was busy filtering a beer, he spent about 20-30 minutes showing me around. We also went to the tasting room to try one of his beers. Then he went over my map of breweries and told me which ones were closed and which were easiest to find. He was very generous with his time. What a treat! And a good morale boost for me.
On Friday, I decided to have an easy day by only going to two breweries. I picked two in Leuven which was the town we were first considering moving to (a rather large university there). Since neither of us had seen this town, I convinced Kristen to go with me. Beautiful city. Lots of insanely old and immensely beautiful architecture, 15th - 17th century! The brewery in Leuven was more of a brewpub. We had lunch there and then I tried to speak to the brewer, but the brewery section was closed. So I just slipped my resume in the mail-slot. Then we took a bus to a small town just outside Leuven called Linden. This town could be described as "darling". It didn't take long to navigate to the "brewery", but I was a bit dismayed when we got there. It was in someone's house! There was a homemade sign hanging on the mailbox with the name of the brewery and a phone number. My thought was that if they operated out of a house, they/he/she probably was not looking to hire anybody. Oh well. We got back on the bus to Leuven, where we caught the next train back to Brussels.
That's it for now. I have about 20 or so more breweries to visit, so I'll be at this for at least one more week. Planning to start the week with a big day, visiting four breweries around Mechelen. I'll use Mechelen as my starting place and take buses out to the outlying areas. Now that I've fine-tuned my trip-planning and navigation by trial and error, I should be able to move around more efficiently. Luckily, the train and bus fares aren't too expensive or I'd need a much bigger budget to complete this quest. I'd like to get through it as soon as possible though. Time and money are starting to run low. If I'm not successful in landing a brewery job, I will seek out something "normal" which shouldn't be too difficult what with all the job agencies around here. There's even an Adecco here!
--RP--
My quest began last Wednesday. Being three days into it now, I have come to liken it to when the Buddhist monks go on a long journey by foot with nothing but their begging bowls. The people in the villages give them food as they seek further enlightenment.
So, here I am, taking a train to small towns outside of Brussels and walking for miles to find these little breweries. When I reach them, I throw caution to the wind and knock on the door. I've thoroughly rehearsed what I should say to them in Dutch, but when I have a person in front of me it's a different story. Anxiety takes it's toll and I have to fall back on "Sprekt u engels?" to switch the conversation into language I can actually use. Luckily, so far they have all spoken English well enough and have not been annoyed by having to do so.
My first day, last Wednesday, was particularly challenging. The weather was a bit poor and I had come unprepared for rain. But the solution was laid before me when I came upon a street-market at which I purchased a cheap umbrella. I used my large map of Belgium to get me to the vicinity of the brewery and then navigated by finding the town map which is generally posted in the center of town near the town's church.
The first brewery was intimidatingly large (they are famous for their line of Affligem abbey ales). When I walked by I could smell wort being boiled inside the brewery... a heavenly smell of malt and hops. I spoke to a lady at the reception desk who told me that there was no work at the moment, but I left my resume with her. Then I went to have some lunch. It had started to rain pretty hard, so I took my time. The tomato soup, ground-beef patty topped with two fried eggs, salad, and french fries meal was good fuel. Aside from the fantastic food available along the way, Kristen has been so sweet every morning by preparing a sensible breakfast for me so I can get the day started right. Good thing too, because of the amount of walking I've been doing.
After the rain let up, I paid my bill and headed back out. I constructed a map on a piece of paper by comparing my large map (lacking in fine detail like the names of the small streets) to the one in the town square. It is times like these that makes me wish I had brought the Civil War compass that Kristen had given me. Sadly, it is buried in her jewelry box in our storage room in Oregon. Anyway, to get to the second brewery, I took a narrow road through the countryside. The cows, sheep, and the odd car now and then, looked at me as though I was an alien. Not surprising. At one point, a farmer drove by me with his tractor, pulling a flat-bed trailer. He waved. Another twenty minutes later, I reached the brewery and, funnily enough, that same farmer was parked inside the brewery's courtyard. He was picking up "spent grain" to feed his livestock (spent grain is malted barley or wheat that has been mashed and discarded by a brewery). He recognized me and I was able to fumble out enough Dutch that he understood what I was doing. So, he went into the brewery to find the owner who came out a few minutes later to speak to me. He was not hiring at the moment either, but took my resume for possible employment in the future.
Two interviews down, it was time to go home. As the rain had picked up again, I didn't want to walk through the country-side again. Especially since my cheap umbrella was about to blow out from the gusty wind. Luckily, I found a bus that headed straight to Brussels in about 20 minutes. And it only cost 1.80 euros, though it took twice as long as the train.
Walking around the Belgian countryside is quite a peaceful experience. It is very beautiful out there and these little Belgian towns! Since I have a policy of not using the word "cute" to describe inanimate objects... how do I describe them? Well, at the risk of sounding trite, I'd use words like "quaint", "picturesque", and "rustic". Public transportation outside Brussels is still pretty thorough, though it's pretty much limited to trains and buses. However, since I have no local knowledge, it is difficult to take a bus when I don't know what stop to get off at. That's why I end up using my own two feet more often. Luckily, I am blessed with the ability to pretty much walk continuously and untirelessly for long periods of time. I just sort of "phase out" and let the kilometers fall behind me. It's been very cathartic and now that I have several brewery visits under my belt, it's not as intimidating.
I don't want to bore you with pedantic details of Thursday and Friday's journey, but there are a couple of good snippets I'd like to share.
The first brewery I visited on Thursday was a bit far from the train station I got off at. An hour's walk, to be exact. The map I had printed on Mapquest was inaccurate. The journey was fully worth it, however. Brouwerij De Smedt is in a beautiful old building on a breathtakingly amazing property, surrounded by farmland. The reception put me in touch with the owner who took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to speak to me. Then he introduced me to his brewmaster and had him give me a tour of the brewery! Though, Luc (the brewer) was busy filtering a beer, he spent about 20-30 minutes showing me around. We also went to the tasting room to try one of his beers. Then he went over my map of breweries and told me which ones were closed and which were easiest to find. He was very generous with his time. What a treat! And a good morale boost for me.
On Friday, I decided to have an easy day by only going to two breweries. I picked two in Leuven which was the town we were first considering moving to (a rather large university there). Since neither of us had seen this town, I convinced Kristen to go with me. Beautiful city. Lots of insanely old and immensely beautiful architecture, 15th - 17th century! The brewery in Leuven was more of a brewpub. We had lunch there and then I tried to speak to the brewer, but the brewery section was closed. So I just slipped my resume in the mail-slot. Then we took a bus to a small town just outside Leuven called Linden. This town could be described as "darling". It didn't take long to navigate to the "brewery", but I was a bit dismayed when we got there. It was in someone's house! There was a homemade sign hanging on the mailbox with the name of the brewery and a phone number. My thought was that if they operated out of a house, they/he/she probably was not looking to hire anybody. Oh well. We got back on the bus to Leuven, where we caught the next train back to Brussels.
That's it for now. I have about 20 or so more breweries to visit, so I'll be at this for at least one more week. Planning to start the week with a big day, visiting four breweries around Mechelen. I'll use Mechelen as my starting place and take buses out to the outlying areas. Now that I've fine-tuned my trip-planning and navigation by trial and error, I should be able to move around more efficiently. Luckily, the train and bus fares aren't too expensive or I'd need a much bigger budget to complete this quest. I'd like to get through it as soon as possible though. Time and money are starting to run low. If I'm not successful in landing a brewery job, I will seek out something "normal" which shouldn't be too difficult what with all the job agencies around here. There's even an Adecco here!
--RP--
Saturday, September 13
A Saturday Morning
It is a perfect Fall day, so this morning we went exploring in our new neighborhood. The weekends are a good time to walk because there aren't many cars on the roads. Its fairly peaceful and quiet. Up til today, we have tended to always go in one direction when we leave the apartment, which is towards: the grocery store/bank/metro/park, all of which are in the same general area. So today we turned right out of the front door instead of heading left. In this new direction, the tree-lined streets are primarily residential with brick brownstone type buildings and some small shops and cafes. In one square, on Rue Victor Hugo, there was a busy flea market in progress, so we wandered around looking at all varieties of crap and ended up buying three really cheap beer glasses. Now Rich has a slightly larger assortment of glasses to pair with the appropriate beers. We are wondering if the market is a regular event, because it would be a great place to pick up some other items we need for the apartment (dish drainer, frying pan, more beer glasses, clock). We'll have to check again in a couple of weeks. After a few more twists and turns we stumbled upon an inexpensive grocery store, part of a chain called 'Colruyt.' It is set up like a much smaller version of Costco, definitely a buy-in-bulk, no frills shopping experience. The store is located a couple of blocks from us and is closer and cheaper than the one we have been using, so I think its time to switch. We perused the store without buying anything and then continued on our way. Food must have been in our minds this morning, because we came upon another grocery store, 'Del Haize,' and had to go in and check it out. It is exactly like Safeway, with several small differences; you have to weigh your own produce and print out a little sticker with a bar code on it before you go to the cashier, the chocolate selection fills one side of an aisle - the entire length, and fantastic Belgian beer can be purchased for less than one euro. We gave in to our cravings and went shopping! Its good that we can only buy as much as we can carry, or we would have gone crazy.
Checking out the neighborhood was a very successful venture. We found a couple of cafes to try, a new grocery store that will save us money, and discovered that we are surrounded on all sides by pretty, well-maintained apartment buildings and houses. Its a nice feeling to like where you live.
~K
It is a perfect Fall day, so this morning we went exploring in our new neighborhood. The weekends are a good time to walk because there aren't many cars on the roads. Its fairly peaceful and quiet. Up til today, we have tended to always go in one direction when we leave the apartment, which is towards: the grocery store/bank/metro/park, all of which are in the same general area. So today we turned right out of the front door instead of heading left. In this new direction, the tree-lined streets are primarily residential with brick brownstone type buildings and some small shops and cafes. In one square, on Rue Victor Hugo, there was a busy flea market in progress, so we wandered around looking at all varieties of crap and ended up buying three really cheap beer glasses. Now Rich has a slightly larger assortment of glasses to pair with the appropriate beers. We are wondering if the market is a regular event, because it would be a great place to pick up some other items we need for the apartment (dish drainer, frying pan, more beer glasses, clock). We'll have to check again in a couple of weeks. After a few more twists and turns we stumbled upon an inexpensive grocery store, part of a chain called 'Colruyt.' It is set up like a much smaller version of Costco, definitely a buy-in-bulk, no frills shopping experience. The store is located a couple of blocks from us and is closer and cheaper than the one we have been using, so I think its time to switch. We perused the store without buying anything and then continued on our way. Food must have been in our minds this morning, because we came upon another grocery store, 'Del Haize,' and had to go in and check it out. It is exactly like Safeway, with several small differences; you have to weigh your own produce and print out a little sticker with a bar code on it before you go to the cashier, the chocolate selection fills one side of an aisle - the entire length, and fantastic Belgian beer can be purchased for less than one euro. We gave in to our cravings and went shopping! Its good that we can only buy as much as we can carry, or we would have gone crazy.
Checking out the neighborhood was a very successful venture. We found a couple of cafes to try, a new grocery store that will save us money, and discovered that we are surrounded on all sides by pretty, well-maintained apartment buildings and houses. Its a nice feeling to like where you live.
~K
Thursday, September 11
Beer Festival
The "Belgian Beer Weekend" took place on the weekend of the 5th-7th in the Grand Place (or as I like to call it, the Grote Markt). It was a beer festival with free entry and token exchange for full-glass beer samples. 3 tokens (bottle caps) cost 2 euros which, because of the bad economy in the US, is about $2.35. Most beers cost 3 tokens, but many were 2 and some were 4. Though this event was a little "commercial" (i.e.- only the larger Belgian breweries), it was a delectable event. Beers from the entire spectrum of Belgian beers, as previously described in a verbose post back in July. And I did pretty well, tasting all across that spectrum. What a welcome to Brussels! All of our (or atleast my) worries melted away!
Kristen and I went on Saturday... and I returned again on Sunday (just couldn't stay away). We met up with my new Belgian friend, Jeroen. A guy I had corresponded with a few times on beeradvocate.com before moving here. We arranged to meet at the Trappist stand at 4pm. With physical descriptions of each other, that wasn't too difficult, even in a throng of people (and the throng was thronging quite ferociously). He introduced us to his wife, friends, and newborn son, Arthur. They had to leave soon after we met him though because Arthur wanted his favorite beverage! However, I met up with Jeroen and a couple of his friends again on Sunday. This is the start of a beautiful friendship. Outside of having someone to talk beer with, it eased our fears a bit to have someone over here to ask questions. He was very generous with advice over e-mail, before we even met him.
We've had good "people experiences" here for the most part, but more about that in the Job Search section of this initial tour of our life in Brussels.
--RP--
The "Belgian Beer Weekend" took place on the weekend of the 5th-7th in the Grand Place (or as I like to call it, the Grote Markt). It was a beer festival with free entry and token exchange for full-glass beer samples. 3 tokens (bottle caps) cost 2 euros which, because of the bad economy in the US, is about $2.35. Most beers cost 3 tokens, but many were 2 and some were 4. Though this event was a little "commercial" (i.e.- only the larger Belgian breweries), it was a delectable event. Beers from the entire spectrum of Belgian beers, as previously described in a verbose post back in July. And I did pretty well, tasting all across that spectrum. What a welcome to Brussels! All of our (or atleast my) worries melted away!
Kristen and I went on Saturday... and I returned again on Sunday (just couldn't stay away). We met up with my new Belgian friend, Jeroen. A guy I had corresponded with a few times on beeradvocate.com before moving here. We arranged to meet at the Trappist stand at 4pm. With physical descriptions of each other, that wasn't too difficult, even in a throng of people (and the throng was thronging quite ferociously). He introduced us to his wife, friends, and newborn son, Arthur. They had to leave soon after we met him though because Arthur wanted his favorite beverage! However, I met up with Jeroen and a couple of his friends again on Sunday. This is the start of a beautiful friendship. Outside of having someone to talk beer with, it eased our fears a bit to have someone over here to ask questions. He was very generous with advice over e-mail, before we even met him.
We've had good "people experiences" here for the most part, but more about that in the Job Search section of this initial tour of our life in Brussels.
--RP--
Mysterious H
There's an enigma in this fair city (Brussels). The red letter H on a smallish, square sign, affixed to many buildings on the street-side. We noticed it right away and are not sure what it is for. They are all over the city. One clue is that there is always a metal lid or trap-door in the sidewalk, below the sign. Theories:
1) Definitely doesn't mean "Hospital"
2) Access to a natural gas line?
3) H for "Hydrant" in case of fires?
4) Secret trap-door for small people to get into the bomb-shelters buried 30 meters below the buildings?
Will let you know when we have found the answer...
--RP--
There's an enigma in this fair city (Brussels). The red letter H on a smallish, square sign, affixed to many buildings on the street-side. We noticed it right away and are not sure what it is for. They are all over the city. One clue is that there is always a metal lid or trap-door in the sidewalk, below the sign. Theories:
1) Definitely doesn't mean "Hospital"
2) Access to a natural gas line?
3) H for "Hydrant" in case of fires?
4) Secret trap-door for small people to get into the bomb-shelters buried 30 meters below the buildings?
Will let you know when we have found the answer...
--RP--
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)