Belgian Halloween and Requited Thai Food

A major drawback of being jam-packed with adventure is lack of time to write about such endeavors. I shall begin to record the past few weeks' tales, but a full account will take more time and energy than I presently have.

Having lived in DC for three years during Halloween, where this occasion is paralleled in magnitude only by New Years Eve, I was not going to get my hopes up for a grand holiday. Instead, I laid low and mainly worked on grad school applications (glamming it up in Europe!) and let the kids enjoy the evening. One of the girls went out with three of her best friends and I was pleasantly surprised when they returned! First of all, they don't call it trick-or-treating, so they all looked at me with a blank stare when I asked how it went (in Dutch). But they DO have a little song and dance they perform whenever someone opens their front door. I can't guarantee I've figured out how to work the sound on my camera, but it's all in Dutch so you wouldn't understand it anyway;) The shy girl on the right is the 10 year old I live with.




(DAD: Push the white arrow in the middle of the video. Or Amanda can show you...)

For anyone who went trick-or-treating as a kid, you understand the extraordinary importance of fair candy division. These four girls stood around the table for a good half an hour meticulously and as just as possible dividing their candy. Whenever they couldn't figure out what to do with a candy, they'd give it to me! I made out GOOD for the night, especially considered I stayed in my pajamas!

I've noticed a lot of things that separate Belgium from, well, most places in the world. One of the most impactful in my stay is that it's especially difficult to make friends with actual Belgians (aB). Yes, us volunteers have taken to calling them "actual Belgians," as we are trying to infiltrate their ranks in their natural habitat. For some reason this is a reserved culture and it takes months to get aB to warm up to you. They'll all admit it, and I've had aB tell me that they find it so strange how quickly other cultures exchange phone numbers and become facebook friends. How else do you get to know people better if you don't have this contact information? Wablieft?

Much to the shock and wonder of my volunteer friends, I was invited over to dinner at an aB's place! I work with a really awesome girl about my age who's in charge of the kids' art projects and I'd met her boyfriend at a few different work events (who eerily reminds me of someone I knew in college). It was so wonderful of them to invite me to their house, and they live in Gent so it was really easy! They made a tofu based thai dish (I guess I mentioned I missed good thai food!) and we went out for a drink afterwards. I had such a great time with them, and felt accomplished that I managed to make friends with some aB. Not just for the thrill of the chase, but because when I lived in Holland I didn't make many Dutch friends and it's always something I've regretted. So I think I'm doing pretty well for myself in a country of reserved aBs:)

These are some of my adventures, I'll write soon! That picture, by the way, is the smallest bar in Gent:)

xoxo
kw