Friday, July 24, 2009

Market Day

1st thought before the market blog. This is Luna's new favorite spot...the couch cushions. Because we don't have a couch in the apartment yet, we put the cushions on the floor. Luna loves to sit and nap on them- I think she knows that when the couch comes she won't be able to be on the cushions anymore, so she is enjoying as much time as she can on those cushions! Also, do you see Luna's face? That is the face she made when I asked her, "Can you smile for grandma & grandpa?" She looked at me as if to say, "Don't kid around with me...am I really going to see grandma & grandpa?!?!"




2nd thought before I start my market blog, I thought I'd send a picture of the Baby Smidt belly. Here is the belly at 26.5 weeks. Getting bigger! Baby Smidt is moving around a ton and making it much harder for me to bend over. I can't bend over to put on my shoes anymore! I have to put my foot on a chair on something...oh my...and I have a long ways to go :)


Wednesday is market day in our neighborhood. Actually, I can get to a market most days of the week, but they are a little farther away. The Wednesday market is only about a 5 minute walk away. This “little” market is actually very impressive; there are fruits, veggies, cheeses, fish, readymade chicken, quiches, plants, flowers, and even a few mattresses here and there! Luna always comes with me, which is a nice opportunity for her to get out and see a lot of different people. She is very popular…people will stop and pet her and talk to me about her (in French…I usually have no idea what they are saying, but I just nod and smile.). She does like to find things to eat on the ground though, so I have to walk her kinda close or she goes home with a lot of weirdness in her stomach. “Marketing” has been great- a bit nerve racking because I have to use French and a lot of charades, but I usually leave feeling successful. One of my biggest challenges has been figuring out how much a Kilo is. Pretty much everything is bought in kilos and I didn’t really have any idea how much a kilo was when I first went to market. Later I discovered that 1 kilo is approx. 2.2 lbs., but even knowing that hasn’t helped me that much. How much berries is 2lbs of berries? How long will 2lbs of bananas last? Is 2lbs of cheese too much?? I’m still working all that out… The market is different than I expected in that it is not “self-serve.” You wait in line and when it is your turn, you tell the owner what you want and he chooses it, weighs it, and bags it for you. I have to do this in French, but once again, with LOTS of pointing and charades.

1. Returning with market goodies. Notice my sweet market tote?? I definately feel more European now.


2. The cheese stand.



3. Fruit & Veggie stand.





4. The fruit & veggie stand I went to this week- lots of choices!






Thursday, July 23, 2009

Belgium's Independence Day


Delicious chocolate samples!



Air show- awesome!
Ben eating a Belgian waffle- Delicious!




The other national food of Brussels...french fries. Notice the giant dollup of white on the fries? Are you thinking- "whoops, they forgot to color it red for ketcup!"? No, they sure didn't, they is mayonnaise. No joke- you order fries, it comes with mayo. mmm-mmmm!


Smart Cars in the flag's colors.














Tuesday, July 21st was Belgium’s Independence Day. Ben didn’t have to go to work, so we thought we’d head downtown and take part in our 2nd Independence Day celebration this summer! It was fairly hot on Tuesday (80’s- which is smokin’ for Brussels), but Ben and I weren’t very smart and we both wore jeans and not-so-comfy shoes. Turned out to be a poor decision- the minute we exited the metro we were hit with a burst of hot air and saw tons of people wearing shorts (which we had heard was a “taboo” thing to do…apparently not…I’m sure you’ll see more pictures of Ben in shorts soon…). The downtown celebration was pretty cool; we got some free samples of delicious chocolates, ate a waffle, and wandered around looking at all the lovely red, yellow, and black creative combinations. We also realized that, although the Morton Pumpkin Festival is wonderful, is it definitely missing some important things. We thought the following are necessary additions to this year’s Pumpkin Festival Activities.


1. Sweet airshow- including helicopter, jets, fighter planes, etc.
2. Archery with real medieval bows and arrows.
3. Pirate band. Sure, the P-fest has marching bands...but PIRATE marching bands?!? A must.
4. Guys on stilts- why didn't we think of that?
5. African side-walk band.































































Overall, it was a fun time! We didn’t see the royal family, who was supposedly out and about that day. They were in the parade, but this was my view of the parade. OH yea….












Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Moving-In Day

Friday morning, moving day, dawned cloudy and foreboding. Several things made us a bit wary of the coming day…weather prediction was 100% rain for the entire morning; ominous clouds and gusts of wind kept blowing through our apartment; the smoke detector started beeping sporadically for no reason. Yikes…we were scared! The movers arrived on time, about 9:15. Unfortunately, the company didn’t assess the necessary lift correctly, so they didn’t actually start moving stuff in until about 11:30. (Instead of using the lift they had, they spent 2 hours trying to find the correct lift; when they couldn’t find one that would work, they ended up using the original lift….haha, as you can imagine, Ben was going crazy about the lack of efficiency!) All the furniture, boxes, etc. entered through our bedroom window (2ft x3ft). Don’t ask me how…our chair and a half was a doosey, but they got it through! Ben actually did a lot of the moving himself (he was none too happy…). There were three movers present. Two people were outside; one was loading onto the lift, the other was pushing the lift button. One person had to unload all the boxes, unwrap them, and take them back to the lift. Clearly, guy #3 had way more work, so Ben and I ended up helping out a lot. The only thing that didn’t make it up was our couch. So, it’s chillin’ in our garage now…who knows when we’ll have a couch. Luna is loving it because we set up the cushions on the floor and we are letting her lay on them while they are on the floor. Overall, the foreboding morning didn’t turn out so bad…we ended the day sleeping in a bed, not on the floor, so it was good day!

1. Notice how the curtains to the right fit our window so nicely? Well...they were supposed to fit the big windows to the left nicely, but (we found out when we put them up) they lacked about 2 feet...whooops...
2. Grandma Smidt's chair is unwrapped...Baby Smidt will love that!


3. The kitchen mayhem...Yikes!
4. Ben is finally enjoying some down time in a comfy chair! A week with just sitting on kitchen chairs really does a number on your buns!





5. Ben and the mover working away!




6. What was that we packed again?!?!




7. & 8. This lift is how all our stuff got through our small bedroom window!