Just finishing up a four day weekend celebrating the Ascension holiday...we've had something like 5 days of sunshine in a row (gasp!) and even if summer isn't officially here, we're doing a great imitation. We've celebrated a Cub Scout graduation ending with ice cream cones at 8:30 PM on a school night (gasp again!). A certain 6 3/4-year-old had his first successful sleepover (at our house). We visited the Belgian version of Sea World (nestled in a tiny neighborhood in Brugges) and because the parking lot was full, we parked in some guy's lawn (as did others before us). Mommy and Daddy had a date night in the city involving sushi and wine and followed by Irish coffee and "un gaufre avec sucre". Too bad every week can't be this much fun.
"Whatdayamean summer hasn't really started?!?!?!" Sorry kids, a full 5 day week of school starts tomorrow and Daddy has to go to work 5 DAYS in a ROW! And yes, you still have 5 weeks of school left, but don't worry only 3 of them are full weeks. You might want to sit down for this one....Daddy will be gone two weeks in a row and for one of those trips he'll be far, far away in America (eating Outback and Chipotle, no doubt--oh wait, you guys don't care about that part)...and one more thing, you know all of these goodbye parties we're going too? Yeah, those friends are all about to actually say "Goodbye". Ah well, we still have summer to look forward to, right?
The visit to Boudewijn Seapark deserves a post all of its own, but between intermittent feelings of blahgishness and the fact that I still have not gotten around to posting about the rest of England...I'll just try and sum it up:
It was nice, but definitely not Sea World. Much, much smaller and fewer shows. Birds in leg chains almost right upon entering were a bit disturbing. We skipped the bird show after observing the way they were displayed and seeing pictures of kids in the audience with birds on their heads (the trainers would speak in Flemmish and French in varying order and it was hard enough to figure out what was going on in time to let the kids know when they could do something exciting like go catch the balls that the dolphins were "throwing" with their tails or when the pirate threw out candy at the end of the Sea Lion show, much less to have to worry about when a random bird might come and land on one of our children's heads...) Lines, lines, lines. One thing I do not think I will ever get used to is the way people stand almost on top of the person in front of them in a line. If you can really call it a "line" when the person behind you could choose to go ahead of you at any time...perhaps that is the reason for the kind of "on your marks" positioning of the locals while waiting to use a toilet, place an order, get in an elevator, anything. I just don't get it and I will never, ever understand the woman standing behind me and my three children waiting to use a toilet who deliberately pushed past us without making eye contact (something most people have mastered here) and walked into the stall that opened up as we were at the front of the line. Before this woman, a grandfather looking man had taken the last open stall after using the changing table for a 2 to 3 year old for quite some time. (It wasn't until I was retelling this story to my husband, who had been waiting in another line to order food for a ridiculously long time, that I realized it didn't even faze me that there was a man in the ladies' room...a tell tale sign I am adapting to Europe in some ways). I could excuse the grandfather's behavior because he clearly did not have control of the 2 to 3 year old and seemed oblivious, but that other woman, NO WAY. She must have been mad that I let the grandpa guy go before me. I hate that I did, but after losing two stalls in a row, I found myself taking my own "take your marks" stance before the next one opened up. Yuck!
As I observed our children playing on the playgrounds there, I realized that when we do go back to the US, their park skills should be a little superior to other American kids. I still cringe a little when I see some of the equipment my 2 year old thinks she must climb. No gently sloping steps here. Ladders are perpendicular to the ground and it requires some serious upper body strength to reach the top. Not only that, but the behavior exhibited in the line for the toilet, it starts on the playground...not like angry aggression, but still aggression and it is something I hope our kids do not bring back with them. We'll just take the superior upper body strength.
3 comments:
love the muscle pictures. We can't wait to put our bathing suits on here but I think your belguim weather came to Denver and you got our weather. Can we have it back now??:)
Oh wow - reading this (about the people deliberately cutting in front of you in line without any remorse) brought back some repressed memories!!!!! :-( Sorry you still have to deal with it. I remember thinking while we lived there, 'man, when we get back to the U.S., we're going to seem REALLY rude' since we had adapted enough to survive in that environment. Every now and then I'll do something while driving or walking down the street where I notice the look that someone gave me and I think, 'oops, that was kind of Belgian of me'. LOL Don't worry - as Americans at heart, you'll never lose your friendliness and politeness!! NO ONE can take that from you and you can feel great that you're definitely the bigger person in those situations! :-)
Glad the sun is shining at least!
Jen.
I have seen a few men in the women's bathrooms here and I just drop my jaw every time and think..."that would never fly in the US."
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