Bienvenue en Belgique (for at least 20 hours, that is)

I admit it, I’m not great at making plans. Okay, I’m terrible at it. It’s even worse when I’m going to be on my own as my lack of planning doesn’t have the potential of inconveniencing anyone but myself so I’m even more likely to avoid it. But, as I had set plans to meet up with my friends in Belgium the last weekend of my trip, I knew I had to be more intentional about what I would do this week so I could make it there in time. So I really DID try to make some arrangements for this week, I really did.

Disliking schedules and/or being dependent on public transportation and being tied to their specific timetables, I’d decided that after Switzerland I was going to rent a car for the coming week, slowly winding my way through the countryside of Switzerland, over to Liechtenstein and then leisurely making my way up through France to Luxembourg at my own pace. The non-plan plan involved stopping where and when I liked, spending the night wherever I happened to end up by evening, lingering in places that charmed me, moving on from any that didn’t, not having to keep lugging my suitcase through metros and airports and security checks… basically, doing whatever the heck caught my fancy for the week, with the ultimate conclusion of ending up in Brussels by Thursday evening. Well, at least I TRIED to make a plan.

I found a reasonably priced car rental and submitted my reservation, thinking all was well. Until I received an email stating that my request was received but that there may be a “nominal” fee to rent the car in one location and return it to another as I had requested, but that they would let me know the amount when I arrived to pick up the car. Hmmm. I decided to call to find out what their definition of “nominal” was and as it turns out our definitions of the word could not have been more polar opposite. Apparently, here “nominal” translates roughly as “more than double the cost of the entire rental”. So between the rental, the “nominal” return fee, gas and tolls I was suddenly spending far more than I would to fly. Strange but true. I really would have loved to have driven and to see the countryside and small towns along the way, but it just didn’t make sense.

Fortunately, Europe has some great low-cost airlines so I was able to book flights at the very last minute quite reasonably. I decided on Copenhagen and planned to go right from Geneva to there but, in another strange twist, that flight was very expensive and it worked out for it to actually be cheaper for me to fly first to Brussels and then book the roundtrip to/from Copenhagen from there. And all of that still cost only a little more than just the one-way to Copenhagen would have. Another no-brainer. So I contacted my friends in Belgium who graciously worked with me with only a few days notice that I would now be arriving this morning. I took a super early flight so it gave me the whole day here to spend with them; there is also the nice perk of being able to drop my stuff here and travel onward to Denmark with only a small backpack.

I met the Eeckhout-Rassart family (Pierre, Emmanuelle, Martin and Emile) when Pierre’s job brought them to live in Lancaster for 2 years (2009-2011) and I was their English teacher. Pierre and Emmanuelle already spoke English when they arrived but the first day I met Martin and Emile they spoke practically zero English. They were young and nervous about meeting with me that first day but even without being able to speak each others’ language in the beginning, we formed a connection and a trust developed and we started building from there. Having arrived right before the beginning of the school year, by Christmas they were able to hold complete conversations with me in our classes together. It was a remarkable process to be even a small part of. Of course they learned English through lots of other means as they were enrolled in school and were immersed in it daily, but I think that being their first contact here, the first person they connected to and felt comfortable speaking English with created a very particular bond, which I’ve been very happy to have been able to maintain even after they no longer needed my help with their English. (FYI, if you heard them speak now, you’d think they were born in the US…. ah, the benefits of youth in language learning!).

Emmanuelle and Martin greeted me at the airport this morning and we spent the morning/afternoon at home (after just 3 hours of sleep the night before, a nap became unavoidable) and then in the evening I got to participate in a truly Belgian experience: a family dinner at Pierre’s parents’ home. Those are the kinds of experiences that you just can’t have when traveling as a tourist on your own, and it’s one of the reasons I love being able to visit people whenever possible in other countries. It gives you so much more of a sense of a place when you can sit with its people and see even a little bit of their everyday lives.

Not that I understood a word, mind you. After a week in Spain, where I can get around on my own without problem, can ask for directions when needed, and can have conversations with just about anyone about anything, it’s quite a humbling experience to arrive to a place where you know only a handful of words of the language. It definitely gives you a sense of vulnerability (particularly when out and about on your own) and makes you feel a bit dumb when you can’t say even basic things and have to rely on smiling and nodding a lot. However, despite my complete inability to speak French, the family was very kind and welcoming to me, pulling out the English words they knew and generously including me as much as possible in the conversation. The food was wonderful (Pierre’s family used to own a restaurant and his father still loves to cook), the wine was flowing and the people were delightful. A pretty great way to spend a day in Belgium!