Rivers & Roads: Brussels

Christmas is Coming!

By Unknown 5:49 AM adventure, Belgium, Brussels, christmas, christmas market, europe, Gent, Ghent, living abroad, travel

If you were not already aware, Christmas is this week! How did that happen?? For some reason it feels like it should still be a few weeks away to me. That may be because it has been surprisingly warm here in Gent, in the 50's, and that I am not in my usual Christmas setting in upstate NY! It is quite strange hearing from all of my family being together and me not being there but we are trying to keep things festive here too! This weekend I went out to the Christmas market in Gent with a few of my classe mates from Dutch class. We have a break from class from today until the 5th of January, so it was nice to hang out with everyone outside of the classroom setting. We are also planning after new years to hopefully have a potluck dinner because there is a group of about 6 of us, all from different countries (USA, Thailand, India, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Nigeria) , so it would be fun to try a traditional recipe from everyones home!
Yesterday Simon and I took went to a fun little food festival filled with some of our favorite food trucks and then took the train to Brussels to check out the Christmas market there! It was very fun, they have lots of different light shows projected on the beautiful buildings that happen every half hour or so (I included a video of it below, I also included a longer version of the carousel video from instagram) and then of course lots of little shops and things to eat and drink. I also finally saw the famous Manneken Pis statue that Brussels is known for. If you are not familiar with it, it is just a very small statue of a little boy peeing...no one really knows why it is so famous but there are always big crowds huddled around it trying to snap a picture. On Wednesday Simon and I will drive his hometown and go to a big christmas party his family has every year which should be fun! Simon unfortunately has to work Friday and part of Saturday, but has most of the next week off. I hope everyone who is traveling gets to their destination safely and that you have a very nice and relaxing Christmas break!

Updates

By Unknown 8:43 AM adventure, Belgium, Brussels, Cinquantenaire, Dutch, Dutch lessons, Gent, Ghent, Jubelpark, living abroad, travel, USA, Visa

Visa Update: So this week I have been attempting to make some progress on my visa situation. On Friday I went to Brussels to visit the US Embassy to get a paper signed and notarized that I have never been married. Even though I had to take the train to Brussels, it was a fairly painless process. I just had to wait in line at the Embassy (where I met a woman from CT who had heard of Canterbury!) to fill out the paper and then go to another building that was just ten minutes away to get a stamp from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Then on saturday Simon and I went back to the offices here in Gent to turn in the form. THEN, today we went to a different office here in Gent (don't ask me what the official name for all these places are) to try and get an extension on my current tourist visa. But they said that was not possible at the moment, we must wait for the police officer to come and everything before we can ask for an extension.

So for now we are waiting for a police officer to come by our apartment to check that we are in fact living together. Once that has happened we go back to the office, turn in a paper from the police officer saying we do live together, get that stamped and signed and then we will officially be in the system that we live together. At this point it might be possible to get the extension on my visa, but its still all up in the air. But once we are at this step I am still not a resident. We must then go to the office we were at today to apply for my national number and residency, and then once that happens I will be able to stay... I think.

This is all very confusing and difficult to explain, partly because I can barley keep straight what is supposed to happen when myself. But even though they are small steps, we are moving forward. As horrible and unorganized all of these government offices are, it is some what comforting to see so many other people dealing with the same struggles or worse than we are. There are so many people trying to move here for countless different reasons and its nice to know we are not alone in our efforts.

In other news, while I was in Brussels I wondered around a bit and found the beautiful Jubelpark that is the home to the beautiful Cinquantenaire Museum of Art History. I did not get a chance to go inside but the buildings themselves were spectacular.

This weekend was also filled with our usual flea market adventures, with a nice but pricey vintage market in the square right by our apartment. Our only purchases was a Dutch-English dictionary for me, a cork board for our bedroom, and some very tasty tacos. You will also see some photos below of us exploring an area down by the docks where there is lots of street art and they have nice outside parties during the summer.

The weather is starting to get cooler which is quite lovely. Simon has come down with a lung infection, not fun, so he is home sick until monday. Also, I have big planes to get a bike mount for my bicycle so that I can take some hyperlase videos of my rides around town for all of you. So hopefully that will be up and running by my next post!

Dutch sentence of the day: Ik ga elke dag met de fiets naar school. = Everyday I bike to school. (p.s. I had my first test today! I will share my results next week!)