Moving along...

Fall has arrived in Austin. Suddenly, as it always does. Like a child's high fever the weather here suddenly breaks. One day it is still in the 90s and then overnight the temperature drops to the 40s and it rains. Plants nearly freeze, limbs on trees break because they are dry and brittle and cannot bear the weight of the water, and people sniffle and cough. But oh it feels nice to be able to wait for the bus actually sitting on the bench and not having to hide under a tree scared of the sun. I actually overdressed today with my jacket and scarf. Partly because I actually do already have a cold, and partly because I really felt like wrapping my scarf around my neck. (So, ironically, I am again too warm, ha!) The sun is still out, but she has ceased to burn. It actually doesn't seem like such a weird thing now to see pumpkins and Halloween decorations everywhere.

So with the weather moving along to more bearable temperatures, so we are moving along with our various house projects. Robert and I have managed to pack up some 65 boxes of our belongings. These boxes are filled with items deemed worthy to take along on the transatlantic voyage but without which we can easily continue to go on until they arrive sometime late January or mid February in Belgium. Isn't that strange? Almost an entire 5 X 5 feet storage space filled with things we can live without yet do not want to dispose of! The house looks only slightly "lighter" for it. Granted most closets and cabinets are empty, and many of the "things" that were sitting around are gone -- as Evelina keeps stressing by pointing at the bare spaces and saying "gone!". Several of the bookshelves are gone. All of the personal photographs and most of the artwork is gone. And I am actually beginning to appreciate the beauty of the bare wall. (This will not last long, fear not.)


Getting this house ready to be put on the market is quite some work. We have a great real-estate agent though and he has taken care of quite some things already. The back yard has been nicely cleaned up and trimmed. Several windows have been given new screens, and some broken bricks have been replaced. Now we still need to patch up some cracks in the kitchen and repaint it, and we will be close to ready. We will then try to do away with any mess (this has proven to be quite a challenge in the past) and then make sure it is clean and smells nice. I read once somewhere that the smell of apple pie makes a house sell faster than no scent at all because it recalls coziness and homeliness. Of course,I don't have time to bake a pie the morning of the open-house. I wonder if a plug-in would work too!

In order to rid ourselves of excessive stuff (i.e. things that do not go in boxes to be taken with us) we had a one-day yard sale last Saturday. It was a last minute decision to do it then, mainly because the weather forcast for this coming weekend looked grim. In just one afternoon Robert filled our entire living room with stuff that we could get rid of. Then we made some signs, attached price-cards,a nd I posted the "event" on the local Craigslist. Robert got up at 5:30 to put everything outside, and lo and behold, before 7 am, before sunrise (!!) there were people in our front yard with flashlights and we were taking cash for our stuff. Evelina thought it was quite intriguing to have all kinds of things scattered in front of the house and have strangers poking at it. We had a thermos among the items so she walked around with it saying "coffee, coffee" as if she was a waitress. We did pretty well, and what did not sell we took to Goodwill and items that were not fit for that got a "FREE" sign on it and they had all disappeared by evening. We watched a black pick-up truck pull up with two frat-boys who seemed delighted with the fact that we had a large poster of a nude Natasha Kinski hugging a fat a python waiting to be picked up. I am sure it is now proudly decorating some frat-house nearby. I am all for recycling over adding to the world's waste heaps!

In the meantime in Antwerp work is moving along fast. We have received pictures and I will post some here although they might be hard to figure out, and probably not seem very impressive to any of you. For us they are the first real evidence that all our drawings and plans will actually become living spaces. Not wanted walls are being removed and new ones are being constructed. The plumber is putting in all the plumbing and the electrician is about to start. After that, the walls can be filled in and it will actually start to look better.

My parents have been working hard being our middle-man/men. They found appropiate antique doors which we will have fitted in on two floors and an antique glass pane that will be placed in the wall between my office and the hallway to allow the light to fall into the corridor. We also finally have a carpenter on board which is big news as we were about to give up on the renovation of the bay window for now. But this man and his team has agreed to completely rebuilt and install it in time for the interior finishing work to continue. Yeah!

We have pretty much made decisions on everything that we needed to. Robert and I bought a stainless steel sink (like the ones in professional kitchens) in Austin this weekend and will have it shipped. These things are about three times as expensive in Belgium we found out. We also decided on a large stainless steel table with a maple John Boos top that will serve as a large prep table in the kitchen. We will put it on coasters so that it can be placed whereever we need it. We think this is a pretty clever idea and really look forward to cooking in our new kitchen now. You will all have to come over!

So what is still pending? The fridge still. I keep finding models I like but that are not available in Belgium. Arg. The quest continues. As October comes to an end we hope to hear soon from the City of Antwerp on our building permit. Once we have that, the new windows can be placed and that will change the entire look of the house.

As to moving to Belgium in the broad sense... there still is no government! It has been over 4 months now. At the 100 day mark of absence of government, the Flemish national party had a big feast with champagne and cake celebrating the near-independence of Flanders. How ironic is it that one of main issues the current elected officials of Flemish and French parts cannot agree upon relates to immigrants, while in the high court a case just closed with the conviction of an 18-year old (white Belgian) boy with double murder and assault with racist motives. While the officials argue about how immigrants must be dealt with in Belgium, the family members of the African woman who got shot (only for being African), thanked the country of Belgium for its solidarity and stated that few other countries would hold such a fair trial in a purely racist matter. (That kid by the way, also shot a Turkish woman who survived, and killed a little white girl only because she was in the care of the African nanny. The shooters parents are members of the Flemish national party.)

Then on the (local Flemish) news they reported of several instances of major disruption in local governments near Brussels only because the "wrong" language was being spoken. A mostly French-speaking community located within the Flemish district had its meetings sabotaged (and later officially annulled) because its members were speaking French. The mayor may face charges because he did nothing to prevent French from being spoken. Grow-ups were yelling "Spreek Nederlands!" (Speak Flemish) while the others said "I can speak what I want" (but then in French of course.) Really people, are we not too small of a country to make such a big deal of language? Or are we?

So the point of the matter is, whether we are moving to "Belgium" is at this point still unsure. We can locate the point on the map and we are sure we are going there, but we are not sure what it will be called by the time we get there! (And here is a random thought, I wonder how our royal family feels about all this?)

I will end with some pictures of various things. Adding them on to the end of the text is just quicker than merging them in. I will get back on track some day and make everything match up again, I promise. Now is not the time. With that, many greetings from Texas with love, v





























Sofar for the Austin house and the yardsale. Here are some of the works going on in the Antwerp house. That bottom one will become our closet!

I take a quick break after working for several days on an application for a job in Belgium. It is sent off and I will now try to forget about it. How strange to be writing a letter of introduction in Dutch. I had to look up more words in the dictionary than I do when writing English. At the very least this was a good excercise. Still, fingers crossed everyone.

It is October. Have you noticed? That is Fall. Here in Austin we are still hitting the 90s so I am not convinced yet that this is the month of Halloween and falling leaves. I cannot tell all you people who do not live here how tired I am of the heat. How exhausting it is to still be sweating in jeans and a button-down shirt, and how frustrating it is that Evelina still turns tomato-red while playing in the school's playground. I am sure that next year around this time, when I will be in Belgium in the rain, I will not really remember myself how much not fun it is, the heat. But I will get back to you on that then.

My parents were here and had a good time with Evelina (and us too, presumably). And Evelina had a great time with them. They went to various playgrounds, shopping at Central Market (which Evelina loves as she gets to call out the names of all the produce she knows. She turns quite some heads!) and on a daytrip to Fredericksburg. Here are some shots from all that.





After years of visiting Austin, my parents are pretty comfortable here and very much used to all the little differences between Belgium and Texas. I was more aware of their habits and customs and cravings now because I am about to return to the place of origin of all of those "peculiarities." My mother was really surprised to see several hospital staff in scrubs in a restaurant for lunch. I thought nothing of it. I used to work in a restaurant next to a hospital and I saw them like that all the time. She thought it was completely not the right thing to do. I made the argument that they too have to eat and that cops don't change out of uniform either, but she was right of course to say that working in a hospital is a different matter. Well, yes, I suppose in Belgium this is a big no-no. I am used to it here. But it was interesting that I forgot that this is indeed a difference.

Then there is food. Like my father eating tacos with knife and fork, rather than rolling up the tortilla and eating it from the hands, like us gringos have learned from the Mexicans. One of the major differences that never will be settled is the coffee-culture. My parents like to have their cup of coffee in the early afternoon, especially when we are out together shopping or whatever. At home, when I am out in town with my mother, we walk around, we windowshop, we shop, and then go to a coffee shop (no, not the Amsterdam-kind) to sit and have a cup of coffee and something sweet, a pastry, a waffle, or a crepe (pannekoek -- which is not a pancake.) The coffee is served on a little tray, with three or four types of sugar, with some milk, sometimes with whipcream, or at one place with some pretty strong eggnog, and a cookie or a piece of chocolate. Granted you pay for each cup of coffee you order (no such things as a bottomless cup) but at least you get more than a big ol' mug with drip coffee. That this is just not to be found here seems to be quite difficult to get used to for my parents. So one afternoon while we were shopping I took them to a place where I know you can have coffee and sweets (for the Texans -- I took them to the Cheesecake factory) and they ordered an apple crumble, after having looked through the 20-page menu -- this is after all primarily a restaurant. Good thing I warned them to only get one dessert! They were served a bowl, a huge bowl, of apple crumble and icecream and whip-cream. Good thing there were constant refills on the coffee to wash it all down with. In Texas nothing is dainty, ha.




While they were here, I worked on a masterplan for the house. Since they are in charge of the construction team in Antwerp, it was essential that they know exactly what Robert and I want to happen. So I produced a booklet with all plans, all data, all info, and drawings, that I was aware of for every team-member. So they left with a big list of instructions, which they have been checking off one by one now that they are back. It does feel nice to be able to say that nearly everything has been decided upon. (Yes, we are ultimately putting wood on the floor in the kitchen!) All materials have been chosen, all fixtures, etc. Now all we wait for is for the work to finally begin! I am too tired and exhausted to describe the two recent "problematic issues" we have had to endure, but I hope that we are back on the positive side of things and that all will be OK. Remodeling a house is hard on the nervous system! Let's hope it will all pay off! Since I don't have pictures of anything yet, I will put up this one of Evelina and I pretending to be working in the house while at the Children's Museum.




So now that all is out of our hands on the house in Antwerp, we charge full steam ahead on the Austin house. This place here has to be fully prepped for being put on the market. It needs paint in certain areas, a lot less mess (that is the hard part!) and fixed up here and there. Robert and I have already packed nearly 40 boxes of things that need to be moved and put them in storage. The real-estate person wants the house sparse, so we try to eliminate. We will be selling quite a bit of our stuff now, and then more in January. If we manage to get it all done, we will have it up for sale by the end of this month. Fingers crossed on that one too! The market is at a low and the dollar is lower than ever agains the euro. But we have started this and we are not turning around.

So still no photos of house-improvements. Hopefully soon(ish)! many greetings with love from Texas. And a few more pics to close off. More of Evelina eating, birthday cake (for my father) and melon (with my father, but he is shirtless so I figured it was best to cut him out of the picture, ha), and then Evelina packing up and leaving the story-telling at the museum (I agreed with her, they could not tell a story right. I would have left too!), and one last one with Moeke and Baba at the airport before going back to Belgium.