We’ve already adjusted fairly well to the time change, now we just have to get used to a new schedule. It doesn’t get dark until about 10:15pm here and until then it is very bright…you can’t really tell the difference between 6pm and 9pm. Crazy. So, that makes it a bit more difficult to go to bed at 9:30 when it looks like the daytime outside.
Monday was our first “real” day with Ben heading off to work. My first success on Monday was figuring out how to turn on the stove to cook some eggs from breakfast (adios Captain Crunch and Fruit Loops…). Turning on a stove shouldn’t be too difficult, especially with only 2 possible buttons, but it took me 5 minutes to turn it on. Finally, eggs were cooked and I was ready to turn the stove off…my next biggest accomplishment for Monday was figuring out how to turn the stove OFF. That was a little more of an issue…I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about having a smoking hot stove top on all day. I started wildly pushing buttons, but nothing worked! I send Ben off to work (I’m sure he was a bit worried and thinking…”Oh dear goodness, please don’t burn the house down!”), and scrounged around for the stove top directions. After reading for several minutes, I pushed two buttons and (as Belgians would say) viola! Off went the stove- tragedy adverted.

Dame Blanche and Al Capone

A quick note about Sunday dinner…it was amazing! We’ve had a lot of good food in Brussels, but this took the cake. Not too much is open on Sunday evening, so it was either this place or Pizza Hut, and we’d already had Pizza Hut last week. We entered the restaurant severely underdressed (whoops…), but we were hungry and desperate. Ben ordered a toboulah dish and I got fish. WOW- we’ll be taking anyone who comes to visit to this place…incredible food. To top it off, we ordered his recommendation for dessert which was a glorified hot fudge Sunday…the Dame Blanche. Yowzers, the Belgians know how to do Chocolate and ice cream…A-mazing. Our waiter was great too- he asked us where we were from and we said Chicago (sorry Morton, no one really knows you…). He answered, “Ahhh, yes, the city of Al Capone!” So, here’s to you Al Capone for owning Chicago in the minds of Belgians’ everywhere.

Pics...

Our hotel room...very European & very small...

Luna drinking form her "water bowl" at the hotel.

Ben & Luna taking a nap on the floor or our apartment...Yup, Ben is using extra t-shirts as pillows and padding.

Neighbor's English garden, opposite view from blacony

View from our blacony

Toilet - two flush options...nice

Kitchen

Living/dining room

The Brussels Abode

Well, we have finally arrived! We are settling in to our new home bit by bit. Our air shipment arrived on Friday, July 10th, which was amazing! They say that our sea shipment has arrived in Belgium, but it has to pass through customs and be delivered, so we are not sure when most of our things will arrive. Right now we are living on 4 chairs, a table, and a bed made of everything we could find. Ha! Really! We were planning to stay in a hotel until our sea shipment arrived (5-7 days), but after day 3, we were ready to get into our own place at all costs. So, we went on a search for an air mattress…didn’t find one, but we did find some alternate bedding. Ben bought a camping mat (inflatable by mouth to about an inch and a half) and I opted for a stack of cheap exercise mats. We then piled those with everything semi-soft that we could find…sheets, towels, a blanket or two, pillows, etc. (see picture) It’s pretty ghetto, but works, and it much better than commuting to and from the hotel every day. (See more pictures of apartment-sans furniture).