My friends Monica and Antoine and their two little kidlets were the attraction for Brussels. They were excited to have me, both for the visit, and for the added help with the kids. Carolina is 2.5 years old, and David is 3 months. It's quite the handfull- there were many days where the kids traded off crying in the mornings and the evenings, and I gave myself a one-day decompression stop in Antwerp after this one. But I love kids, and David is a charmer, super happy, and so he fell to me for a good portion of the days, which was amazingly awesome.
Part of the excitement for the visit was the chance for Monica and Antoine to cook all sorts of delicious traditional French and Belgian meals for me. It was amazing. Antoine has an actual crepe-making flat-iron thingy, and made delicious savoury crepes for dessert one night:
Another night feature honey-glazed duck filets, with potatoes fried in duck fat on the side. Again, amazingly delicious!
During the days, Carolina was in day care, so Monica and I wandered about the city, did a bit of sight seeing, and hung out in a number of comic book shops. Also went for lunch at this excellent little restaurant that was basically the Cultural Exchange version of all restaurants. Mmmm!
Thursday ended up being a holiday (labour day, I think), and so Antoine didn't have to work. We drove up to the Netherlands, had lunch in a very cute little town, and then went to the beach. The weather later in the afternoon wasn't fantastic, but it was cool to have the beach to ourselves. Turns out it wasn't a holiday in the Netherlands, hence the low traffic. And super touristy photo as proof of our day trip:
Monica and I had a really good catch-up too. She's a great person to just talk about general life stuff with. Her current debate is whether to move to California for a job at the moment. She and Antoine have good jobs that they like in Europe, and life here is pretty good for them. Raising kids in America is tough, compared to Europe, due to headaches about school districts, health care, and the general American indifference to appropriate work-life balance (not enough holidays, long working hours, and generally discouraging working from home). The job would be a good opportunity, but it's debatable whether the personal sacrifices are worth it. I'm trying to figure out a bunch of life things too at the moment, and it was good chatting with Monica.
