Chillin' with the Eeckhouts

Emile's school, which has gained global recognition as
Europe's most ecologicallhy progressive school.

After my harried 22-hour trip here earlier in the week, it was time to head back to Brussels (more precisely, to Ottignies Louvain la Neuve, a small town just outside of Brussels) for a more “proper” visit with the Eeckhouts. For reasons I still can’t explain, it seemed like a good idea at the time to book a 6:30 am flight from Copenhagen to Brussels. Right around the time I had to set my alarm for 3:00 am (yes, you read that right) to get up in time to catch my train to the airport, it started to seem like the worst idea of all time.

A street market in a nearby town

Either way, I survived yet another night with only 2 hours of sleep and even got to observe something cool on the plane (I’m considering it a reward). As we took off before sunrise, I got to see the sun come up while in the air; at one point, as we were heading south, looking out the left side of the plane, it was bright and full daylight while at the same moment you could look out the right side of the plane and see complete blackness. So that was kind of worth the lack of sleep. But only kind of.

As a sidenote, I saw others dealing with the absurdly early flight by drinking at the airport while waiting in the morning. Beer for one older couple, hard liquor for another poured into their coffee. At 5:00 am. In the morning.
 

Franklin & Marshall sold the rights to its name and it's now
become very fashionable to wear things with their logo. I've
seen it all over Europe but it still makes me think
of Lancaster every time!

Upon landing yesterday, I took a train to the university (Louvain la Neuve Université) where Emmanuelle is a linguistics professor and got to sit on one of her French as a Foreign Language classes. I understood approximately 15 words, so I was pretty definitively at the bottom of the class. As Martin had off school, he then met us for lunch on campus where we had a real college cafeteria lunch together. The full university experience!

The famous, and faraway, lion statue

As I didn’t really come to Belgium to be a tourist (although I still am, of course) but rather to see the Eeckhouts, my time here is pretty much just about “chilling” with the family and seeing their everyday life. So I saw a little bit of Emmanuelle’s work life and in the afternoon I saw her Taxi Mom life, running errands, picking Emile up at school, dropping Martin off with a friend, picking one up here, dropping one off there, more errands… (so THAT is what mom’s lives are like). In the evening, while Pierre and Emmanuelle had a meeting, I spent the evening with the boys, just talking and looking at pictures and laughing while eating pizza. Quite nice indeed.

The Count's castle

Saturday I got to sleep in (much needed after my previous night’s lack of sleep, aaaah). More chilling, more errands, more dropping kids off here and there and also seeing Emile’s swim meet. Emmanuelle and I also took a drive out to the countryside to check some things out. We first went to the site of the Waterloo battle to see the now famous Butte du Leon statue that stands there to commemorate the battle. Having decided that in and of itself was touristy/educational enough, we opted to save our euros and take pics from afar. It’s way cooler that way.

Emile getting ready to take off

We then went to see a castle that is still occupied by a local noble family. Amazing in and of itself that people still live like royalty in castles here. Even more amazing is that, as it turns out, I know one of them! I didn’t know it at the time as he never mentioned it, but one of the other Belgians that I had taught in Lancaster a few years ago is a bonified Belgian Count, coming from a long line of counts. As in sort of royalty (his cousin just married the prince of Liechtenstein this past weekend). Check me out, I know a Count!

Pierre, Emmanuelle and I with our fine Belgian beers

This evening we went to a great restaurant for dinner with some other friends: Stephan and Lutgarde. They had also spent some time living in Lancaster with their children and I’d met them there, and also visited them here in Belgium two years ago while on my RTW trip. We had some Belgian beer, we had some wine, we had some Belgian croquettes, we had great dinners, and we definitely had the best tiramisu I’ve ever had (made with Belgian speculoos). We also had a great time.

So far, living the life in Belgium is suiting me just fine!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Mom! And Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!