Phil says "Six more weeks of winter"

At least in Pennsylvania that is. Happy Groundhog Day! For all of you who don't know what I am talking about, click the link. Or even better yet, the actual Punxsutawney one.

Here is something that probably most of you don't know about me.... I was there once! On February 2nd 1988, at 5ish in the morning, in drizzling sleet and freezing cold, I stood with hundreds of others (both locals and foreigners like me) somewhere in a field in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania shivering and staring at men in top hats, waiting for them to lift poor Phil up in the air and declare the arrival of spring or the continuation of winter!

It is true. It was, obviously, an experience I will never forget. The whole ordeal scored much higher on the "totally bizarre" and "Americans are weird" scale than on the excitement scale of my young, naive brain! It was a huge deal, the festivities I mean. But honestly, my guess is that over there in PA it will ALWAYS be 6 more weeks of winter at this time of the year! No matter whether the little rodent casts a shadow or not.

In any case, there I was, attending the festivities, as one of the special invitees for the 1988 Groundhog Day, together with all of my AFS (foreign exchange student) friends. A huge banquet was put on where all of us and our respective countries were introduced. I don't remember now what I said about Belgium that day, but I do remember that none of us were very sure of what was on our plates. We got to meet one of the Pittsburg Steelers, I remember that too, and for years I even remembered his name, but that too is gone from my memory now. And I remember that that night I threw up in my host family's shower and found out the next day on the bus back, that several of us had had similar experiences. We always wondered after that how far these Punxsutawney-ans took this celebration of the groundhog....

WWDD?

Robert and I are no fans of television(watching) but there are certain TV-shows that we do really love. We watch them on DVD so as to have the freedom to watch when and how many we want, and of course, to dodge the horrible advertising that otherwise blurts out at the viewers of TV. We are big fans of House, Six Feet Under, Huff, our local Texas show Friday Nights Lights, and now are about to start the 2nd season of Dexter. In light of all that is going on here in Belgium as a result of Friday's horrible event, I can't help but wonder "What Would Dexter Do?" Seriously, we NEED a Dexter!

Not Belgium again...

We have reached a very, very sad state of humanity when someone can randomly and violently start slashing babies. I heard the news yesterday about 2 hours after it had happened. A few hours later, it was world news. "Not Belgium again" printed the Times, recalling the country's past with child-molesters and the Dutroux-murders. Yes, Belgium. Apart from being in utter shock at what happened, people shook their heads and wondered, how could this happen here in Belgium? This stuff is supposed to happen only in America. Seriously. I saw several people make a similar statement on the news yesterday, only in America do you expect this, not here, not in our country.

Something like this SHOULD NOT HAPPEN ANYWHERE people! This is madness. And of course, insanity is everywhere. For there is no other answer in this. This cannot be explained by reason or motive.

The papers stipulate the lunatic-killer might have identified with The Joker from the Batman movies. Apparently he had painted his face and eyes in a similar fashion, had hacked away at his own hair. And all he has done since is laugh. He just sits and laughs during interrogation. (Robert pointed out that Heath Ledger died just a year ago, almost to the day. Don't tell me this was some weird fan gone mad?)

Yet, because we are a humane society, he was given medical care, and three psychiatrists are to figure out now what his problem is. Wouldn't it be a better solution to tie him to a poll in Dendermonde and let the people decide how to punish him? Oh it would be comforting if I believed in Hell the way it is depicted in 14th century churches, with demons incessantly inflicting the torments upon the sinners that they mostly incurred upon others on Earth.

I was barely able to read the paper this morning. My heart aches for all the parents involved in this massacre. I cannot help but think of Breughel's painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" and know that I will never, ever be able to look at that work again in the same way.

This was not what I wanted to write about today. I thank all of my friends in the States who wrote me to express their worries. Evelina is fine. But the feeling of "this could have happened anywhere" will not leave us for a long time.

and here we are in 2009...

I wish that with getting older I would learn to stop worrying so much about time passing too fast for me... ha. Not sure if that makes sense. I should just let the current take me instead of trying to back-paddle so much. Because, no matter how much I kick and scream, here we are in the year in which I turn 40!!!!!!! Ok, got that out. Now, I can move on. Happy New Year to all! We will have to make it happy for ourselves because it doesn't look like the economy, politics (with the exception of the hope in Obama), or the global religious situation, will provide much happiness. So this year, let's all enjoy the friends we have, be loving and forgiving to the family we have, and smile a bit more and (this one especially for myself) fret less and worry less!

I'm working on a "resolution list" (trite I know, but especially important to me this year!) and I might or might not share it with you. Depends what will end up on the list. I am encouraged by my sister-in-law who made a nice "inventory" which seems very useful to me. We are both into making lists and I think I need to make one of these. I will have plenty of time to do so on my 8 hour flight to Newark this Wednesday (that, or stick my head in the sand and read the book that my other sister-in-law sent me exactly for this flight! Ha, so either ponder my own life so far, or hide away in fiction.... hmm, we will see.)

So, the vacation is over, the Christmas lights are in the boxes again and the tree is taken down (see tree up in picture below). I was excited to put it up, but happy to clean it all up too. We had Christmas at the "new house" this year and it felt a little weird. Not in the least because our painter was still working on the 24th! He wanted to come finish up between Xmas and New Year's but my nerves ran out. I wanted a few mornings with "just us" in the house! In any case, this was our first Christmas in this house and thus the start of a new tradition. We did the Belgian Christmas Eve presents exchange and added a Santa Christmas morning complete in PJ's with messy hair for our little one, who is after all 1/2 American. I made a Texas/New Mexico dinner for Xmas Eve which fell in favor of my Belgian family who was here. So maybe that will become a tradition!

On the last day of the year the tree of us went to the Efteling in Holland, and we had a great day. What better to do to celebrate the year past (which for us was quite a year considering the move across the ocean, living in a (much too small) temporary place for nearly 5 months and out of boxes even longer...) than to escape to fairy-tale land. I will post some pictures of this magical day. It was freezing, but we had a great time visiting "het sprookjes bos," the place where all the fairy-tale characters live amongst the "kabouters" (gnomes). Truly, the innocence and excitement of a child at the age of 2 1/2 must be one the most beautiful things in the world. I cherish this time with my daughter, I know this will not last so we try to enjoy it as much as we can.



Today, first day of work for many, back to school, and the roads covered with snow. It was beautiful this morning taking my daughter to kindergarden on the bike. It was tricky and slippery-sloppy (her words) but we enjoyed it. It made getting out of bed again at 6:30 worth it. My husband's train schedule changed and he did not have such a great morning, even earlier now and with a connection. Let's hope his students make it worth it today.

So Wednesday I head to the US. The first time back since moving here, almost a year ago to the day. It will be weird to be back, but wonderful too! I look forward to seeing some good and dear friends whom I have missed. And (this is the BIG news) I will be a godmother! I will be a godmother to my good friend's second daughter Elizabeth, whom I haven't even met because she was born right after I left. I am excited to finally meet her. And to see her big sister again too, as she and Evelina were playmates all throughout Evelina's (short) life in Austin.
Evelina is not so happy about all this and I have not yet had the courage to tell her I am going to see Caroline and Baby Litty... Oh dear. I am nervous about leaving her of course, but she will be in good hands with her papa and also Moeke and Baba.

I hope to be able to post from there with some pics from my beloved Austin and friends. For now, greetings from a white Antwerp, with love. I leave you all with a few shots from during the Xmas break in Antwerp and Bruges.