We haven't posted for several days because its been a bit of an up-and-down time. Rich spent Thursday and Friday last week looking for brewery work, with no luck. So that's a bit depressing. I've been riddled with doubts about my M.A. program and wondering what exactly I am going to do when I've finished it. We've gotten over the big hurdle, which was actually getting ourselves here, and now we have a whole 'nother set of fences to jump. I am slowly coming to terms with school and formulating some ideas for after, which I'll save for another post. Rich went to two employment agencies today, one of which was looking specifically for people who can speak Swedish or Danish and they gave him a name and email address to contact. The other was no help at all. Tomorrow is another day of brewery searching for him and studying for me. Aside from coming to terms with our continuing challenges, we have managed to have some fun (in addition to eating, eating, eating!).

Yesterday (Rich's birthday) we took the train to Geel, a town about an hour northeast of Brussels. I love travelling by train because it feels like an adventure, no matter where we're going. During the trip we saw countless people engaged in peaceful sunny Sunday activities, lots of families riding their bicycles and walking dogs. Geel turned out to be a small, cute, quiet Flemish country town with quaint houses and cobblestone streets. The main purpose of our visit was a beer-tasting event put on by the Onder 't Schuim (Under the Foam) club. Rich read about it in a magazine, "All About Beer," and decided it would be worth the trip. It really was - and I don't even like beer! We arrived at 2pm just as the event began. Rich immediately began sorting through all the choices and picked out several on the list that he wanted to try. I agreed to drink one as well, provided that it didn't taste like beer. He found one for me - a Kriek Extra - that tastes like an alcoholic cherry punch. Perfect! At least half of the 'waiters' and 'waitresses' were children (ages 10-15), apparently drafted by the club to help out during this special event and they performed their duties very seriously. In addition to the beer, we ordered an assortment of Belgian cheeses, smoked fish and fresh bread. We were very relaxed and happy when we headed back to the train station. We finished the day back at home, eating a chocolate bombe (a chocolate mousse cake-like dessert that looks like a giant truffle) for Rich's birthday cake.

Now - its time to work out!!
~K