Hooray!

We made it to the big BKK!! Bangkok is crazy!!! Cars and people everywhere. Street vendors and spirit houses. It's intense and hot and loud. And wonderful! :) We were so excited to get to return this year, and in the dead of Belgian winter too. Our feet are very happy to be in Chacos again.

We've been recovering from jet lag the last few days, spending time with friends who are so nice and patient with our brains that still think it's 6 hours earlier than it is... I think we kept them up until after 1am our first night. Sorry guys.

The elephant building is alive and well. As are the hot pink taxis.



And, Land of Cute that it is, Thailand is rocking my socks off once more with its incredibly cute ways. They add big cute eyes to a toilet, and you find yourself wanting to love it forever.



Not only could I resist the Nativity set for myself a few weeks ago, but a set for my Thailand girls seemed necessary as well. We had fun playing with it after breakfast this morning.



We ran around town a little bit today. There is nothing like time spent with good friends. Precious precious friends.



SO happy to be in Bangkok and thankful to God for being able to share life with friends!

Month 23!

We're cruising right along here and just entered our 23rd month! Yikes! Time is flying! And we are trying hard to enjoy every second!

Last week Sirin came and spent the day. We had fun putting together the nativity set I found onsale at the grocery store. A month or so late, but Jesus' birth is pretty cool all the time :)




We've also been spending a lot of time at our new favorite pub. It's bittersweet finding such a welcoming and special place in our last few months but we are enjoying it. Rita and Jean Claude are neat people.

This is the night she made us chicons au gratin, a Belgian specialty.



The weather has been extremely beautiful, which I take as a personal farewell gesture from Belgium. Thank you, Belgium. You really are stunning when the clouds peel back just a bit.



Oh, and I found a little cat friend!! A real one, this time ;)



Yesterday we had lunch at Ali and Nada's and I couldn't wait for Nagham to get home from school, because I finally was able to bring over her gingerbread house!



It was so fun.



The boys had fun on their computers as usual. Sweet friends.



For the last week, most of our days have found us at our dining table working on a talk we are giving next week in Thailand.



We are leaving tomorrow to join a group of folks we work with to give a little presentation on communication and video. We are super excited!! My jeans got soaked with chilly rain as I walked home from the grocery store today, and all I kept thinking was "Bangkok, Bangkok, Bangkok..." 80 degrees, here we come!

So long!

We had a nice, relaxing, belge kind of day with our friends yesterday.

First things first, we grabbed some frites. Mmmmmm.



Then walked all over town through the mist. It was good to catch up with my dear old friend.



We bought some bread and looked for the swan family that hangs around town.



Some of our earliest memories involve large birds. Thankfully these swans were a lot less aggressive than Laura's childhood pet geese.




It's Belgium, right? Last night we led them in a sampling of some fine brews.



And crepes.



As the four of us walked to the train station this morning we noticed halted traffic and frantic street cleaners. Oh yes. This really happened. A trash can filled to the brim with cow parts from a recent butchering flung it's contents all over the main round-about in town.



It was hilarious, random, and disgusting. Jut perfect for our group's final jaunt across town. Also fitting considering our back to back evenings of B-movies (last night was "Tremors"). The four of us are no strangers to ridiculous gore in ridiculous places :)

I don't believe those actually dealing with the cow parts this morning found it quite so humorous.

Laura and Andy left today, on their way to Paris. It was so good to see them, our last visitors here in Huy.



We coped by eating breakfast at our new favorite pub. And wouldn't you know that this place that we discover mere months before moving is the one that serves a full American breakfast.

Sigh.



If you look behind Clay's shoulder you'll see an interesting cultural sight. In Belgium it is not at all strange to see beer being consumed at all times of day or night.

Exhibit A:



Off to clean and process some veggies! It's market day after all!

Laura and Andy are here!

An old friend came to town Sunday! And she brought her new husband! If you had told us as little girls sitting next to each other on the school bus at the age of 6 that we would someday we running around Brussels together we wouldn't have believed you (or known where the heck Brussles was).



We walked around Huy with them and thought it would be fun to take them up to Old Huy to watch the sunset.

Old Huy is a place we really love. There's a great view of the city, and in the summer we've had a lot fun BBQ picnics.

Good times like these:



And these:



But the other night we found this:



A bricked up wall. What??? No more Old Huy, people. Sad but true. Apparently the city is cracking down on the youth drinking and drug situation and this secluded meeting spot was targeted.

So we walked around a little bit in disbelief.



And then found a way in! Andy is a genius. A deputy Macgyver for sure.

Our eyes beheld this view for what will more than likely be the last time. Sigh.



And the sneaks themselves. I was so nervous we were going to be caught. Even the flash on my camera made me jumpy.



We went to Liege yesterday, and Laura tried her first Melocake. Epic moment for any Belgian tourist.



Last night we got some wine, bread, and cheese (we are going to miss living over a cheese shop) and settled in for one of our traditional B-movie nights. The selected film was the original 1970s "Piranha". Nice.

2 things

I am pretty sure I got my last Belgian haircut today.

I headed out in the rain today, not knowing which salon I was going to, but clutching a printout of Alyssa Milano with cute short hair. When you lack vocabulary, a picture is always a good idea.

I ended up at a place called Veronique's. And it was the best salon experience I have had yet.

1. I didn't have to make an appointment.
2. She kept saying my hair was beaux, just so beaux. A stylist that loves your hair for some reason is a stylist to keep. It made me laugh.
and 3. It cost 15 euros less than everywhere else I have gotten a cut. Score!

She ended up ignoring Alyssa's picture, but I decided to see where inspiration would take her.



Ay chihuahua! Believe it our not, I love it. Veronique did a great job.

My last Belgian haircut experience was a success. Whew. Here it is after a wash.



Another momentous occasion today.

The removal of the Christmas tree. The tree pick-up is not until Wednesday, but we have company coming tomorrow (the former Miss Laura Mszar and her new husband Andy, yay!) and this thing takes up half of their bedroom!

We wanted to avoid as much needle-shedding as possible, so there was only one option.

Out the window with it.

These are the moments that Clay Sandoz lives for.



I was so torn. I didn't want to be the one on the street (ie I didn't want to be the one that was arrested), but I wasn't quite strong enough to lift the tree.



My main job was watching to make sure no one passed by when he dropped the tree. Can you even imagine how horrible that would be?



And this is what a tree looks like falling from 3 stories up.



And here it is dejectedly lying on the cobblestones in the rain.



And thus concluded the Christmas chronicles of 2010.

More Sunshine!

Yesterday was dinosaur museum day! On our way to catch our train to Brussels, I screeched to a halt.

That's my bird.



That's MY bird!

I took a couple of craft classes last year and in one session I made a mould of a bird. I brought the produced bird home, but left the mould with the teacher. And now apparently SHE'S USING IT!! Oh how we laughed! That weird, crooked-necked bird morphed into a flower wall-hanging and is now headlining in a shop window! Now, to observe and see if someone actually BUYS it! This is awesome.

We made it to the museum. I am craving Jurassic Park now.



Here we are deciphering some masonic clues listed in my book "Secret Brussels." Luckily for us, Xavier knows Latin and Ancient Greek- is that not incredible? I feel like we should all be out solving mysteries together! It was fun until I started feeling really creepy out there. Like DaVinci Code creepy. We kept waiting for Tom Hanks to walk out and give us a hand.



Sirin and I enjoyed watching our guys walking through Brussels, one so European and the other so American. Clay even has the backpack and water bottle. It can be hard finding your place here, but after some time and settling in with good friends, it's a blast.



And then today, today! When I went downstairs this morning the living room just looked... different. Then I realized that it was SUNSHINE!! In a room that hasn't seen direct sun in months!

What an incredible day! We were all outside, bundled up, trying to catch some vitamin D!



Happy Wednesday!

First Monday

The sun came out yesterday!

Well, really it just winked at us for a few minutes before going into hiding again, but dead-center of gray winter that it is, we wanted to get out and make the most of that sliver of sunshine!

We stopped taking our long walks through the hills above Huy over a year ago when we began training for the marathon. During training I just couldn't muster the enthusiasm to run AND walk all over town.

And we've missed our walks. We laugh a lot during them. We share frustrations. We have good, deep conversations that usually end up producing new and improved plans of action.

Yesterday our walk also included playing in the snow.

Well, Clay played.



Here he is trying to get me to come out into the field with him and help him roll that huge snow ball.



I declined. There was a really big ditch you had to jump over with running water in it. Not worth the risk- I don't have a very good track record with those sorts of things.

I was getting bored and a little cold watching him roaming back and forth in the snow so I told him to just "do something!"

He obliged.



Clay's snow-angel. I think it looks like a stick-figure in a dress.






We had to crawl under some barbed-wire at one point. It's amazing how snow and sunlight can make even a little cyclone of cow hair beautiful.



After weeks of mounting snow and ice, it was good to go outside.

And now, Monday Monday. Here we are again. This first Monday of 2011 finds me de-nesting. De-nesting is the opposite of nesting. It means I am beginning to slowly dismantle our life within this apartment- starting with the pantry. It's helping me realize that this is all real, that we really are leaving Belgium in 2 months.

Mind-boggling.