Bid received, bid good, we relieved!

Well the blog is growing. More people were invited and one friend (who is a pro at this blogging business) posted the very first comment! Yeah, thanks Lea. This will show all the others how it's done.

So we received the phase 1 bid from the contractor and it is less than both Robert and I had expected. So that is good, right? You have to figure if the demolition will already cost a fortune, then what will the rebuilding be. So, as I said, it was a good bid, so we are relieved. Unfortunately, since the house is not 100% ours yet (we still have to finalize the purchase) the contractor cannot start yet. Since Robert and I are not in Belgium, we are having the final paperwork done by power of attorney -- which seems a little bit more complicated than we at first thought. Of course, we could have expected that it would be somewhat complicated. It is not that small of a purchase after all, and it is Europe. Just think if we had bought in Italy (which still by the way, is my dream... one day! ) things would be far more confusing than they are now. So all this to say that we are not entirely sure when everything will be finalized (title companies here, title companies there, signatures, translations, notaries, etc. etc. ). In the meantime Robert and I continue to change our minds about how we want everything to be. We sat down with all the pictures and plans with one of our architect friends the other night. It is always great to hear from a pro. If only he could take on the project. I have been in contact with an architect in Belgium, who was always very cordial via email and always replied immediately, that is until I sent him the photographs. I haven't heard from him since! What does that mean? Help!

Apart from thinking about the house, we go on with work and teaching. I covered ancient Near Eastern art this week, and tried to stress to my students that it is in this place of the world, now torn apart by war and violence that civilization sprang forward. I tell them that here animals were first used as beasts of burden, the plow was first used, yeast was used to make bread and beer, here writing was invented. I wonder sometimes if they ever thought about these things before and if they too find it ironic that now this is not what Iraq is known for anymore.

I finished a little article today for the newsletter of the International Women's Forum in Bologna. While I lived in Bologna this group of ex-pat women was a great resource and social network and I have kept in touch with a few of them. When they asked me to write for them again, I gladly said yes. So I did a short piece titled "The spectacle of death in the Italian piazza," about the public executions that occured in the town centers during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Here is a little visual to go with that. It is a painting by an unknown artist, depicting the burning at the stake of that (in)famous Dominican monk Savonarola. He was burned by the Florentines in Piazza Signoria in 1498.




Once the article makes it to the newsletter, I will try to put a link here on the blog. This was probably not quite the image you expected to see here, especially since I promised more of the house. But that promise stands. For now, greetings from Texas, with love.

impatiently waiting

So that little mention at the end of my first post--we bought a house in Belgium--yeah, well that is kinda been the only thing on our minds these past few weeks. We are finally used to the idea ourselves. So we decided to tell some people here in the US. Back home, my parents told the rest of the family and a few good friends. Needless to say my parents themselves are ecstatic. From what it sounds the rest of the family is pretty happy too, although I haven't actually gotten a single note about it from anyone (except from one cousin, but then I had already whispered to her that we were thinking of moving back.) Most people are just really happy for my parents, one of my mom's friends actually started to cry because she was so happy for my mom. Now that is a friend! The few friends I have left there are pretty excited about it all as well, and one of them is proving to be a great help with all kinds of info on the rebuilding and remodeling project.

Here on our end reactions have been mixed of course. We told only a handful people. We don't really want to broadcast the news since we are both still in professional situations and we just don't want the fact that we are planning to move (regardless of when that actually may be) influence our jobs. Family and friends are sad we are leaving the US I suppose. So far only one friend has expressed her happiness for us, taking into account the fact that I have been gone from my home country for nearly 15 years now and that both of us have been yearning for Europe for several years. Some friends I told, reacted with their own stories of wanting to buy a house in Mexico, and Guatemala, for the summers... and I sat there listening, and thought, hmmm, you seem to be forgetting that I am FROM THERE, that this is not really that sort of plan. Oh well, I suppose it is a compliment really, that people do think I belong here and forget that some other country on the other side of the Atlantic is actually where I am from.

So Robert and I have been breaking our heads and pencil-tips over quickly-drawn floorplans trying to decide which wall goes and which wall stays. My parents went to the house with a contractor and reported back to us with all the things he thought needed to be done. Talk about a reality-check! One of the biggest disappointments was the fact that he thinks we need to get rid of the mosaic-floor in the hallway because it is cracking and coming up. That floor is original and thus 100 years old. It was one of the details that made us want the house. And now some guy who knows about houses and rebuilding tells us it has to go! Well, we're going to put up a fight for this one. I suppose I owe you pictures of what I am talking about.










On that note, I owe you more pictures of the house, the neighborhood, etc. I promise to do that next time. The house was built in 1908 and is situated on the outskirts of the old city center of Antwerp in a neighborhood called Zurenborg. Zurenborg is actually quite famous in the field of architectural history. The neighborhood developed in the 1900s and all the houses were built in the current art nouveau style, but it is quite eclectic. The most famous street is the Cogels-Osy Lei, which truly has some gems of houses. If we had wanted to buy on that street we would have needed a few more 0's, if you know what I mean. Our street though is a side-street of this famous street. If you want to read some more about the neighborhood, check out this link:http://www.trabel.com/antwerp/zurenborg.htm.

Back to the contractor. Other than giving us the dismaying news regarding the floor, he drew up a plan of all the major phase 1 works that need to be undertaken. New electricity, new central heat, getting rid of things and adding things, etc. So, we are waiting on a bid. We are nervous. He said he would have it for us by the mid week. We are now Friday and still waiting. This bid will give us an idea of how much we will be able to do in the house. We have soooo many ideas, but of course it will all depend on the budget. And as of now, we have no idea! So we wait, (im)patiently. Stay posted...from Texas, with love.

The three of us.

Here are more of the photographs taken by Mary Sledd. We had her do a shoot with the three of us when Evelina was six months old. Evelina loved it! She was absolutely camera-crazy. She soooo knew it was all about her.



Mary did a wonderful job. We have some great shots of the three of us, and then some of each of us with Evelina. We will have her do it again when Evelina turns one in April.

A very slow start indeed!

Wow, adding this picture of myself in the About Me section took me about 30 tries! Phew! But there it is. It is a recent shot of a wonderful photo of Evelina and me taken by a great young photographer here in Austin, Mary Sledd. She did a bunch of great photos of the three of us, and of Evelina by herself. I will post some of them, mainly to practice the next aspect of this blogging-business, combining text and photos. And then, once I got that down, the real blogging can start!

Starting a blog...

Is it really so? Have I gotten myself this far into technology that I am actually starting a blog? Me, the girl who loves paper en pen, fancy papers and pens for that matter; the girl who can spend hours in the paper shops in Florence and Rome, touching and smelling the hand-made leather journals, admiring the glass vessels filled with colored and perfumed inks as if they were the treasures of a museum exhibition... and always, always, buying something. You never know when you need that Florentine paper to wrap something in, or that hand-made card to send someone... So this same person is now sitting at her computer starting a blog! Wow, I can hardly believe it myself.

And why? Why do we do this? Blogging? I have two friends who have blogs that I check once every so often and I enjoy reading them. Now, truth be told they are in much more exciting places than I am (Paris and Rome) but maybe, maybe someone among my readers might find my story worth checking into once in a while.

So what will 2007 bring? Oh heavens! We have so much planned, some of which I will write about, and some of which I will not. Sometimes the most important and hoped for things in life are best kept quiet ... I believe in not jinxing fate. So, I might mention my dissertation once in a while. I ought to be making progress on that this year. I am teaching again, and of course raising a wonderful daughter. And, well, we bought a house in Belgium this past break, and we will be trying to remodel it and fix it up from here in Austin, Texas. We hope for the best! So, check in with me from time to time and post a comment to let me know you are there.

For now, greetings from Texas, with love