It's like another life. Part Two

Our Flat, one end to the other

When in Belgium, do as the  Belgians?

It really is pretty easy to do. As you know, getting around is pretty easy, even for a suburban American, but that is just the beginning of the differences.

Our apartment here is small compared to what we are used to. In California, I don't think anyone would describe our house as "big" by local standards. Still, it is probably three times the size of the space we live in here.  Our flat has just three rooms (four, if you count the toilet)  The main space is a kitchen/living/dining room. It is pretty big, one function sort of just blends into the next. It's compact, but it works. The kitchen is probably not more than 100 sq ft, but it has everything you need and probably as much counter space as we have at home. Across the way there is a dining area that could seat eight in a pinch but I'm not sure when you would ever need it.

If you were planning a gathering of friends there are lots of options for that, just steps from our place. Must be a dozen pubs and cafés nearby and one,  'the Café Belga' has enormous spaces where large groups gather pretty much every night of the week. With public space so convenient, who needs a private space? I don't know if I would like to raise three kids in this apartment, but for us, as we are now, space is not a problem.

We do have just the one TV here though, so whatever one of us is watching the other one gets, like it or not. I suppose you could go into the bedroom to read or just escape the TV, but honestly the TV is not on call that much for us. There's just not all that much being broadcast that we find interesting. You have probably two dozen channels, three of which are in English (CNN International, BBC & BBC World). But after an hour or so on those even I have had quite enough. They repeat stories a lot.  MC watches the French-French game shows but questions tend to be skewed towards things French people know and then in French to boot. I don't do too well. As I said before Dutch TV is often US programs with subtitles.  Often better than nothing, but only slightly. I am afraid I am beginning to watch a sit-com called 'Big Bang Theory'.  Not what I would do at home but then we don't really have internet, so we don't really have options. We have a wireless contract and a GSM stick but it is metered and video burns up the monthly allowance pretty quick. I do miss the Wi-Fi, but our situation is the product of our short stay. If you were here longer we could sign a contract and get the home internet and we would watch even less TV.