Bienvenue en Belgique!

Belgium is a strange country, even the Belgians say so. They say that usually out of the 365 days of the year it is raining on at least 270 days. My boss told me that the volunteer before me didn’t see the sun for the first six months of her stay. Well I guess I can consider myself lucky then, because during the first six months of my stay the weather has been kind to me. Of course summer hasn’t been super hot and most of my summer dresses were sitting sadly in my wardrobe because I never had the chance to put them on. But I spent some nice sunny afternoons lying in the garden and enjoying the sunshine, even sunbathing a little. Although I have to admit, that sometimes even when the sky seems totally clear, it can all change in five minutes. All of a sudden dark clouds appear, like if the apocalypse is coming with thunderstorm and lightning. So basically you become soaking wet without any warning. I could say that having an umbrella with you is essential at all time, but honestly after a few minutes you won’t have any dry clothes on you with or without an umbrella. There is nothing that can protect you from the pouring rain. Good luck figuring out how to dress up in the morning.    

Belgium is a small country and probably most people don’t know that there are three official languages: French, Flemish (almost Dutch) and German. There is a language border in the middle of the country where you can find the capital, Brussels. The northern region of the county is called Flanders and the southern part is Wallonia. The German-speaking community is very small and it can be found in the eastern part of Wallonia. If you cross the language border it is very possible that the people from the other region won’t understand each other. Crazy, right? I don’t care much about the politics, but they say that there are many conflicts between the Flanders and Wallonia, because the extremists want the two parts to be separated. The Brussels-Capital Region which can be found in the Flemish region but has mostly French speaking inhabitants will always be a problem in this case. Brussels is probably one of the most international cities in the world. You can find so many different languages here and people from all over the world. It is truly amazing. People don’t make you feel like a foreigner here, because most of them are coming from other countries too. You can find so many cultural events and language meetings, there is always something happening.

For the rainy, cold and dark days, when people don’t want to go out and everybody seems a bit depressed, just choose a cozy bar with your friends where you can enjoy the variety of the hundreds and thousands of different Belgian beers. You will never get bored of the taste because there is always one on the menu you haven’t tried yet. If you had enough beer just go to the closest “Friterie” and grab some Belgian fries (they are not French fries, duh) with your favourite sauce on top. Of course the sweet-toothed ones can always enjoy a waffle with any kind of topping you can imagine or some wonderful Belgian chocolate.

A small country with so much wonders and tastes. Maybe you won’t be crazy about the weather, I know I’m not, but I guess if you stay long enough, you will learn to love the small things about Belgium. It is kind of growing on me.