Phew time flies. May is almost over, we have been busy, but still no move this month! First we thought the end of May, then the 2nd week of June. Well, let's say it will be the end of June and there will still be many things to be done in the house. But we are fed up of this apartment (and of paying rent!) so we will move in even if it means camping out on the top floor with a hot plate. Even Evelina protests at the front door of the apartment with " No, not in the apartment, in the new house!" She has been along a few times and strangely enough, even though the house doesn't look a home at all (yet) she seems to like it better than where we are now. The painter is working hard but oh so very precisely that it will now take him twice as long as he had promised me when I hired him. He said 4 to 5 weeks, now, when after him working alone for 2 weeks I was getting a bit nervous about the fact that he was still in the same room, I asked him again and he said about 7 to 8 weeks (on top of the 2 he had already worked!) So I showed him my dismay and told him we would move in regardless. I think that scared him a bit, because it is no fun having to paint around people and furniture.

We had a little set-back again when the kitchen was supposed to be installed so that did not go through. But it might be better in the end, as now we will (hopefully) have the floor down and all the other work finished in the kitchen before the cabinets and the counter go in. As I am writing this, the contractor is tiling and the plumber is placing the radiators. It is weird after 15 years of living in a house where the heat comes from a little vent in the ceiling, to now have to put up with large white metal cases against the walls everywhere. They seem so obstructive... But then, not much to do about that. We will need the heat in the winter, and will porbably not mind the way they look at all. Our outlets have electricity and the next time the electrician returns it will be to put in the lights. We will still have lots of wires with a simple bulb sticking out of the ceilings and walls. This is the kind of stuff I don't mind waiting with. In fact, some things just cannot be decided upon until we actually live there and know what it all will look like. It was hard enough to decide on all the colors before living there. So we kept it pretty neutral, we figured we can always add an accent here or there if we want to later. The painter is doing all the hard work now prepping the walls. We are expecting the carpenter any day too to put in the door frames. After that the painter can place the plinths and then all will truly have a finished look. So at the moment there is not much I can show in pictures. Hopefully soon, there will be some more real stuff to show. The vine on our facade is growing again and that tells me it was exactly a year ago that all three of us where here
on a visit to get the renovation work started...











Evelina was sick this past week. She had an ear-and throat infection, so she was home all last week. Today is the first day she went back to daycare with much protest. She does love it there, but after this long of being with us and my parents. The weekend of the 9th of May was a long weekend (Pentecost) so we spent it at some lakes not too far from my parents' town in a vacation-village. We rented a little bungalow for 6 and spent 4 days there. It was our first time to try something like this and although many things did not live up to expectations, it was actually quite great. Evelina loved it. She got to play in the pool everyday, was outside on the "street" playing soccer every evening (both of her knees bore the results of that!), and got all attention from us and my parents who joined us. She probably got sick from exhaustion... I will post a few pics of this weekend.






















This last weekend she spent with my parents. Robert and I took advantage of this luxury baby-sitting option and decided to spend some evening time in our future hood. We need to remind ourselves that we WILL INDEED really be living there soon. Sometimes the house still feels like just a big project instead of a future home. So we had a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants on the Dageraadsplaats, sat outside and enjoyed the buzz. Every little table outside was filled with people eating and drinking. Children were running around and playing on the big court in front of the church. We ate slowly and enjoyed every minute of it, soaking up the wonderful atmosphere. I have to admit that the summers are great here in the northern hemisphere, at 10 pm it is still light out and people love being outside on summer evenings, eat and drink with friends and family until the wee hours, and there seems to be no set bedtime for the children. Everyone who knows me, knows I am sceptical about Belgium in many ways (ha) and that I romanticize Italy... well I had to agree with Robert... this town is pretty wonderful to live in. (Well, it really will be when we have a house... arghhhh) Many of the things I so love about Italy are here too. I will always idealize that country I think and I will always be pulled to it ( I swallowed the magnet and it will remain inside of me forever) but now after about 4 months back, I am starting to see the beauty of this country again too (or maybe for the very first time.)













I am still teaching and very much like my group of students. I continue to be faced with the realization that English is a very difficult language. Through teaching I am learning lots about Russia, Japan, Korea, and Poland. I think I will keep some friends from this experience, and that will have made it very worth it.

Well wish us luck with the remainder of the renovations. I cannot tell you all how much we are ready to have a home again, to have our stuff again... simply to have clothes again. I have now been wearing the things I packed in January for 4 months... I have no summer clothes so I make do with some things of my mom's and new jeans and new flip flops. Many of Evelina's clothes will be too small when I finally get to unpack them. It is so weird to think that when we left Austin, we were still using the diaper table and now she is potty-trained! (she decided herself by the way, and did it in about a week. She is a super-child!) Anyway, the whole unpacking will be weird, period. I barely remember all the things we had! But miss them all still very much. It will be like Christmas in June (or July!?)

Much love from Antwerp.