Back at Work, Back at Home

Hi readers. No doubt you’ve noticed that I’ve not posted here in ages. I’d like to, but being that I am back to work, I simply don’t have the time to keep up with two blogs so much. Of course, I am also no longer living abroad, which affects things. Cultural idiosyncrasies are still all around, but generally I combine all things onto my other blog these days. Just in case you’re wondering where I’ve been…

 

Where’s Waldo Sarah?

Since I have still not heard from work (don’t even get me started), I had to return to Belgium for some medicine and an appointment. I hated to leave my DF but it had to be done. Anyhow, he’s got lots of stuff do and I’m tempted to hoard all his attention when I’m there. So we decided I’d leave on Wednesday, and i of course got bumped off of several flights until it became too late for me to catch the connecting flight to Belgium! So back to DC I went – and I was glad for an extra night with my honey – but the airline kept my bag. So instead of figuring that now I might as well stay through the weekend, I had to go try again the next day.

I ended up in coach (gasp! The horror but I can’t complain. We were two hours late which meant I had to go straight to my appointment at the hospital, suitcase and all. No one can claim I’m not dedicated to my commitments!

What happens now? I’m no more sure than I was a week ago. It appears highly unlikely that I’ll get back to work before my surgery, so…how irritating. I guess I’ll be here a few more weeks. However, I’m enthusiastic about the move now. While the festival season is in full swing here in Belgium (a kite festival at the beach today, a concert in front of the palace tomorrow, etc.) and it’s tempting to think that life doesn’t get any better than festivals in the sun, I took a quick liking to DC. The city is so civil! Ok, aside from the high murder rate and all (heh)… it was stunningly friendly. I couldn’t get over the smiles from strangers, the pleases and thank-yous. The architecture is beautiful, the green space plentiful, the museums prestigious and free, the apartment is nice, the fiance happy…all in all it portends a nice life.

 

Keukenhof (Reprise)

Many of you will remember the disappointing trip to Keukenhof last year. The short version is that when one goes to the “largest, most beautiful flower park in the world…with approximately seven million planted bulbs”, one does not expect to lots of money to see…a park full of stems.

So last year I complained to the park that they did not so much as warn us that there were no flowers before paying our money and going in, and (to my great satisfaction in the face of my European friends’ shock that I would do such a thing!) the park sent me free tickets for this year. So last Saturday, back I went.

So am I happy this time? Yes. While the tulips were just coming in and the famous colorful fields of Lisse were only about 15% in bloom, the air was full of flower perfume and 15% of color was enough to understand how devastatingly gorgeous it must be in full season. How special it must be to live in that city, at least at this time of year.

The park itself was about 75% in bloom…

Of course, you might notice from the last photo that for approximately every flower bulb in the park, there is also a tourist. The parking lot must’ve had 100 tour buses in it, and there were so many elderly people there we hypothesized that they’d been wandering the maze of the park since they were our age. We thought that after 1 hour we’d be in serious need of some Valium, but luckily the crowds naturally thin out at about 3pm.

So after 5 years trying to see the famous Dutch Spring, my persistence has finally paid off. And certainly there’s no better way to celebrate the season! While I am thrilled with my weekend, I am more determined than ever to see the blub fields in full bloom, riding my bike in the scented breeze. Hey…everybody needs goals, right?

 

Current Obsessions (Part 2)

My other obsession? Recycling. Forget the fact that I’d like to be environmentally responsible all the time but am woefully ignorant on some fronts. I never have the foresight in the moment to chose the wine from France over the wine from Australia because the French wine leaves a lower carbon footprint on the shorter trip here. And trying to research further just depresses me with confusion. (Which is worse, a company using plastic bottles that will rarely get recycled or using glass bottles that require 20x the energy to deliver the same service? *makes a gun out of her finger, points at her head and pulls the “trigger”*)

My political view on the environment goes like this: warming seems undeniable. (Sure there are a few scientists who doubt, but unanimous agreement is rarer than flying pigs, especially with different interests paying for opinions.) Is it caused by humans? Well…it’s possibly natural. The Earth has certainly seen it’s share of natural climate changes before. Still, is there any reason why we humans should not take the road to learning to be more responsible and caring for our planet? None. Besides, we’ll never know for sure until it plays out. If we take the environmentalist route and are proven wrong, the result is a more responsible society. (Oh, and some people have failed to benefit financially from continued irresponsibility. Boo hoo.) If we chose to ignore the environment and are wrong, the planet is destroyed (and thus are we). Seems like a pretty obvious gamble to me.

Anyhow, I get mad when I notice my neighbors throwing out gigantic trash bags full of cans, newspapers and plastic bottles. Here there is no excuse as recycling is easy, organized and handy. I feel tangibly guilty when I visit my father in the relative countryside (where there are no recycling facilities). Milk jugs, soup cans and juice bottles fill the trashcans in a jiff. I find this painful to watch, but at least he has an excuse. Left to my own devices you will find me on the floor amidst a pile of business envelopes, ripping the plastic address windows from the paper so that both parts can be recycled. (I know, I have a problem!)

I really admire the system that was in Leuven. There, waste will only be collected from certain bags. General trash in brown, compost in green, plastic in blue. Glass you drop off yourself elsewhere, though there is a fine if glass is found in your trash bags. The twist? “General” trash bags cost about $30 per roll. The recycling bags cost about $5 per roll. I find this extremely fair – you pay tax on the trash services you actually use and there’s a real incentive to recycle. I wish everyplace would be this logical. *sigh* Until that days comes, you’ll find me eating jars of leftover capers just so I don’t have to throw perfectly good food away. Hmmm, anyone know how environmentally damaging vomit is?

 

Coming Soon

I’ve been quite the busy girl for the last couple of weeks. Packing boxes, seeing flowers, showing the apartment – oh yeah, and cursing because the sale of our furniture to the landlord fell through and now I have to sell it/get rid of it/whatever piece by piece. Aarrggg!

Anyhow, I’ll have a nunber of posts coming up any day now. Stay tuned!

 

Coming Tomorrow

Some positivity, and stories from all these travels I’ve been teasing you with… (I promise!)

 

Dirty Little (Expat) Secret

I have something to confess.

Out of all the complaints I have about Belgium, the one most people would expect is not on there. As a matter of fact it may be in my “plus” category. I’m speaking about the the weather. The thing all Low Landers (and vistors of) just love to complain about. I mean, sure it rains a lot. But I like rain most of the time. Sure it can be short on sun and warm days. But my favorite clothes are jeans and sweaters. Sure it’s only the 4th of September and I’m already wearing a knit skull-cap to keep warm (and I’m not even bald this year!), but I don’t mind!

Particularly after the long nastiness that was last summer. A constant hot and sticky 90-something degrees, I began to feel that if Belgium is going to jump on the global warming bandwagon, it’s going to have to get hip to the air-conditioning thing. Personally, I don’t even really like a/c. I like just enough to remove the humidity from the air. As a matter of fact I spend the sweaty summers of my native North Carolina carting around a sweater or jacket at all times. Every movie theater, restaurant and store feels cold enough to ski in. I hate it. Stores – both here and in the US – are the worst offenders. When it’s 100 degrees outside, you can always find relief walking down the shopping streets, as every store attempts to lure you in with blasts of cool air aimed directly out of their open doors. While I enjoy the efforts of every Zara, Hema, GB, etc. to cool the streets by blowing their a/c into to the street, it’s a ridiculous habit. I bet if we prohibited stores from blowing a/c onto the street we’d cut emissions by half!

But I’m digressing. I was admitting the thing that might officially make me an outcast here. I like the dreary weather. I’m not saying it’s perfect. If I were God I’d make it the same temperature and rainfall, but with a sunnier sky. Yeah. Sun would be good. But I’ll take curling up indoors with a blanket over loitering in the doorway to Zara anyday.

 

Haven’t Forgotten

I swear I haven’t forgotten this site. I just seriously haven’t had time. I will post some when I can. Same goes for my Flickr photos. Hope everyone’s having a nice summer!

 

European Cinema Showcases its Porn “Artistry”

Actually, seems I forgot to publish this one. So here’s a post to tide you over:

Recently, the EU opened its own channel on YouTube. The video below is an advertisement for European Cinema entitled “Film Lovers Will Love This!”. All I can say is…wow.

Warning: The material in this video may be inappropriate for parents children.

While there are various videos in the series to promote European films, this one has made the EU channel one of the top hits on YouTube. Coservative countries (namely Poland) and MEPs are up in arms over the content, calling it “soft porn”. Supporters defend European films’ “artistry”. (You can read more about the fuss on BBC here.)

What do I think? Well, it’s definitely pushing it. When I first watched it, part of me was irritated and, as someone who generally like the openness of Europe, I couldn’t put my finger on why. Overall, I absolutely love the fact that some stuffy European bureaucrats would – or even could – come up with such a racy campaign. They even had the cajones to conclude with the motto “Let’s Come Together”! This was no half-hearted foray into edginess. No way in hell would this ever even be allowed to happen in America. The politicians wouldn’t even dream it. The public would freak out with offense. Tackiness aside (cause it is tacky), kudos to Eurocrats for allowing some humor and a little daring to enter the mainstream. Kudos for doing away with the PC police and fear of offending anyone’s sensitivity.

But. But. But! Why was I irritated at the video at the same time? I finally figured it out:

While I stand by my supportive statement just above, I also spank the bureaucrats for their lame defense of the video, which was actually offensive to me. Don’t tell me you are selling “artistry”. That’s just crap. I agree that European cinema is full of artistic merit. But racy sex scenes are not the definition of that, and if you claim they are then you are cheapening your own cinema as well as the concept of “artistry”. You are cheapening the very thing you are trying to sell because you’re either too cowardly to admit you are just doing whatever’s necessary to get attention, or because you think me stupid enough to believe your (really, really) transparent excuse. I’m supposed to believe that your motives were “artistry”?! How dare you think I’m that dumb?

Conclusion: I love the daring attitude of those responsible. I love the liberalness of Europe. I understand that sex sells and they are trying to sell. But I don’t respect (very bad) liars. Just admit what you’re doing instead of insutling my intelligence. If you’re selling shock value and sex, then own up to it. Don’t tell me that you’re appealing to my high values for quality and creativity when you are in fact appealing to the lowest common denominator and the most plebeian of marketing tricks.

I’m all for freedom of speech and open creativity. I am not for pretending that it is something else.

 

radio silence…

Sorry for being MIA. I’ve bee touring Turkey with my family for 2 weeks. I’m just back and have to attend to life for a day or two. Then I’ll be back with more!