The end

I herewith break the silence that has been the consequence of extensive moving preparations, travel, work and social events on top of my regular general life in Belgium. It is but for a brief moment though, that I come back, and it is to say good bye: on Tuesday the 21st of August 2007 we; the boys, the Husband & I, left Leuven, Belgium and moved to Cairo, Egypt. It's a new chapter beginning in our lives, and the end of An American Swede in Belgium.

Thank you all for your patience, time and interest. I has been my pleasure entirely, I'm sure. In shallah Allah. God's speed.

By Lovain

PS. Should you be interested in the sequel, then you are welcome to visit my new blog "The Fugates in Cairo".

Foreign childen in Vollsjö; a novelty indeed

"Oh my goodness; they´re so young and already speak fluent English!" the Skåne ice cream truck sales woman burst out when we were trying to decide on what to buy from her. I had heard this joke before; my father used to say while in France on holiday "Look at these kids; so young and already fluent in French (a very difficult language at that)!" Only, I quickly realized that the Skåne ice cream truck sales woman was not making a joke - she was seriously amazed. Granted, Vollsjö is a very small village, and not exactly a tourist attraction, but it´s situated about a 40 minute-ride from Denmark, and EVERYBODY in Sweden has cable - the fact that children may speak other languages, and not all Skånska, should not appear odd. But I guess it did.

By Lovain (vacationing in Sweden)

A sign of life

I'm not dead. I just haven't been able to blog over the past month. I've been working full time. The Husband has been working on his doctorate thesis. The boys have school off. Our friends had babies, and those babies got baptised. Other friends' children had birthday parties, and in general, we're trying to spend time with our friends, knowing we will miss them come September.

Most of all though, we're moving. We're lived in Belgium for 11 years, and although we never really intended on staying, we've accumulated enough things that moving is quite a bit of work. A lot of work, actually. Not only do we have to choose a small amount of our things that we can bring (and try to get rid of the rest), we also have to pack those things very well and put them all down on an inventory list (including a list of all our DVDs by title), following a complicated system that classifies everything by durables/consumables and container. Add all the paperwork and general arranging moving entails (passport renewals, supplier notifications, address change notifications, etc.), vaccinations, sorting and one million other things that I can't think of unless I check my 4 feet long list of things to do, and you have a very busy life. Happy and excited, but busy.

To top things off, I decided several months ago - BEFORE I realized what a lot of work this move was going to be - that now would be a good time to go visit family in Sweden for 2 weeks. So tomorrow we leave, the boys and I, on a 7 am flight to Copenhagen. When we get back, I have to go back to work for 2 weeks, and then we leave for Cairo.

By a stressed - happy and excited, but stressed - and busy Lovain

Happy 4th of July!

By Lovain

My 4 year old's linguistic abilities

"May I please have some more chips with deodorant on?" the youngest one leisurely inquired. "I'm sorry, what?" I said, wondering where this was going to lead. "More chips with deodorant on!" he emphasized, when I realized that he meant Nacho Cheese Dorritos, which he had been eating. Dorritos - Deodorant; why not?

Later that day, the youngest one also tried on his new "hacking shoes" we got him for our hikes in the desert.

By Lovain

Pastries baked in Spain, consumed in Brussels a couple of hours later

This morning a colleague picked up some pastries for everyone at his local bakery before going to work. My colleagues often bring treats to keep the group happy, so there's nothing remarkable about the offering, however this particular colleague lives in Barcelona, Spain (he flies home every weekend). I'm sitting in an office building in Brussels having pastries baked in Barcelona this morning. It's a small world.

By Lovain

Leuven SOLDEN (sales) to begin

Every year on 1 July the official sales period starts in Belgium. The month before has a block on sales and reduced prices, however the law is no longer respected, and clothing stores will have promotional events all through the month of June. The sales remain a big event however, since past collections will be sold at a heavily reduced priced, and real bargains can be made. This year, the sales will start exceptionally on 30 June, due to 1 July falling on a Sunday. I have, probably along with 5 million others living in Belgium, a list of things we need, and plan on hitting the stores as soon as they open on Saturday morning. Wish me luck!

By Lovain

Saturday mornings

One of my favourite moments of the week is when I go to bed on Friday night and turn my alarm clock off, knowing I don’t have to get up early in the morning and rush off somewhere. Saturday mornings are if possible even more enjoyable; still the entire weekend lies ahead of me, but I’m already enjoying it. The boys will sleep in, come and lay with us for a bit and then go downstairs to have cereal and watch cartoons, while the Husband & I enjoy an extra hour in bed, alone. On Saturday, the youngest one who had been laying in between us, got up after a couple of encouraging words to go with the oldest one downstairs, pointed at his recently vacated 2/3-of-the-bed space, said “and DON’T take my spot!” and then added “and DON’T lay on top of each other!”

How in the world...?

By Lovain

deciding on an American/Swedish/European classical home schooling curriculum

In the light of our children's upcoming 3 years of home schooling, over the past few weeks, the Husband & I have been discussing elementary education.

It is quite obvious the Husband & I were schooled very differently. My education had a broader historical, geographical and linguistic approach, while his was more detailed in sciences, math and personal development. While my history and science education started with the Big Bang and moved forward in time carefully covering the ice-age, stone-age and bronze-age, the Husband's started around the civil war, and then later covered the classics without really focusing on the development in a broader sense predating the Egyptian and Greek cultures.

The emphasis in my educational background is a result of many causes, I'm sure. The regional influence is certainly obvious; around the area where I grew up in Sweden, a large amount of findings from the stone- and bronze-ages have been excavated, and the impact of the ice-age is visible in the pysical landscape all around. Because Sweden is a small country whose history and development are largely intertwined with those of the larger region, and because Swedish is a language not widely spoken, a broader geographical and linguistic education has been important. Further, the social and historical development of Europe ranging from the Vikings, the Roman Empire, the Crusaders, the Feudal society to Fascism and Socialism have contributed to a very specific history not comparable to that of eg. the people of United States.

Together the Husband & I are now trying to decide on a curriculum for our children's homeschooling, and with a compromize of American/Swedish/European schooling, it should be very interesting.

By Lovain

Inspirational injection: a Kant conference

On Friday the Husband came back from his conference in England, all worked up on Kant and God. A conference is like an injection to him; he gets as inspired by confirmation and cheer, as he does by opposition and scepticism, and apparently the discussions had been extraordinarily vivid and exctiting this time. Followed by intese e-mail and chat discussions between the Husband and his friends and colleagues at universities in Egypt and Turkey, this conference proved to be a prosperous affair academically.

By Lovain

Another baby, another joyful addition

On Thursday our good friends J. & R., the AA-couple's (AA in this case referring to countries) baby arrived. Late, but more expected than a lot of babies born, the baby girl was delivered by c-section, and I thought I immediately could related because I had two of those myself and I know how scarry and painful it can be, but then J., the proud father, told me that R. had smiled throughout the entire operation, and remembering the tears that ran down my cheeks, tears of fear, as they cut open my stomach during the oldest one's birth, I knew the AA-couple will do great. With tons of child-related experience, great minds and lots of love, they'll make perfect parents.

By Lovain

Rushing to present "The Postulation of God’s Existence as an Act of Freedom"

“What’s in here?” The Husband motioned to his backpack, and I told him what I had packed for him as he was printing his paper while taking a 2-minute shower. “I made you a sandwich and your passport is in the small outer pocket!” I yelled after him as he took off on the bike to catch his train.

When I had got home from work an hour earlier, the Husband had been in a state of near panic; the boys were unfed and unattended to, nothing was packed, the paper wasn’t finished, let alone printed, the Husband couldn't find his wallet, belt or decide on which shoes to wear, and the house was a disaster!

One hour of rushing around, and the Husband was now on his way to Birmingham, England to present a paper on Kant and “The Postulation of God’s Existence as an Act of Freedom”. It had been close; he nearly didn't make it, but as always, my dad was right: when things were difficult, seemingly endless or impossible, he used to say, “Things always work out.” And I guess they do.

By Lovain

Miserable day; post expensive tooth surgery

Yesterday a periodontologist numbed my mouth, pulled out my broken tooth piece by piece, drilled a large hole in my jaw bone, attached a titanium screw, added artificial bone around the screw, stitched it up with 6 stitches and charged me 1000€. Today I am not only broke but also in terrible pain. My face is swollen and my mouth very sore.

The worst of it all is that I’m only half way to restoring my tooth. In a few months I will have to go back to have the middle part attached to the screw; the part that my new tooth will actually fit onto - 200€, and two weeks later the new tooth can be fitted at the additional cost of 1000€. I know we can’t afford it but what are we to do? All because a different Belgian dentist didn't know what she was doing four years ago!

By Lovain

Drinks and Dutch on the Oude Markt in Leuven

Last night I met up with a few of my former colleagues for a drink on the Oude Markt. It was great seeing them again, and we were a colorful crowd indeed; using Dutch as our language of communication, we - a divorced Finnish mother of three, two Swedes, a Polish father of one, two Belgians and an Italian - had a great talk and a good time!

By Lovain

Philosophy students and blood donations at work

The Red Cross came to work today and employees were invited to donate blood. I've never donated blood before but decided to do it. After having filled out a number of forms, answered several questions and undergone a quick medical check, I was asked to sit down in a reclining chair, whereupon a male nurse tried to find a good vain with a disturbingly large needle. After 5 painful stabs he finally managed to locate one, and my blood started draining into a, in my eyes, really large plastic bag. 10 minutes later a different nurse concluded that I had donated my 400ml quota, removed the needle and put a bandage around my arm. She asked me if I felt all right, gave me a soda, and said "Thank you for your donation."

As I stepped into the elevator a familiar face, although not familiar enough for me to recall a name, smiled at me and a young man said "Excuse me; are you the Husband's wife?" I confirmed his suspicion, and he proceeded to tell me that he had taken one of the Husband's classes a couple of years ago, and the he started working here yesterday. He told me his name and I vaguely remembered a deliberation a few years ago. Before we could converse any further, he had reached his destination and all I had time to say before he got out of the elevator was "Welcome aboard!"

It's such a small world.

By Lovain

A cold and a robbery; a busy week

My inspiration to write has been somewhat lacking lately and as easy as it is to blame it on my busy life, as busy as it has been, I’ve always been able to write a piece here and there with ease in the past. Once in a while I think of a line or a topic to write on, but over the past couple of weeks in particular, I’ve rarely got to actually typing it out. Thought here I am, finally, with a cup of tea, a croissant (actually it’s more like a plethora of pastries – I had trouble choosing just one at the bakery), and a quiet morning to myself. The boys are in school and the Husband is recovering from a whole night of writing.

I’ve been home with a cold this week; a process commencing with a sore throat and fever on Sunday, and culminating today in an immense amount of snot that makes its own appearance about every 30 seconds. The Husband bought me Kleenex.

On Tuesday, as I was leaving the house to take the boys to school and go to the doctor, I couldn’t find my wallet. After the doctor’s visit I went by the grocery store thinking perhaps that, although highly unlikely, I might have left it by the cash register the previous day. I had been in a bit of a haze due to my cold. I’m very meticulous about putting my wallet in my purse however, and the lady at the grocery store told me that she thought I had done just that, and my wallet wasn’t in the grocery store. When I came home, the Husband had figured out what had happened: while we were asleep somebody had broken in to our home through the back door, walked through the house and taken my wallet out of my purse. The Husband had namely found my wallet and my bank cards (that I had blocked by now) strewn out on the lawn at the bottom of our garden; 50€ and several meal vouchers (worth 6,15€ a piece) missing! He had also noticed the fences were damaged, indicating a possible escape route. I called the police, who immediately came by, had a quick look, took our statements and told us to keep our doors locked at all times. Honestly, the Husband & I were a bit disappointed with the whole thing; no dusting for fingerprints, no DNA testing, no picking up miniscule pieces of fabric with tweezers, nothing; just a look and a statement. Where was Grissom? How are they ever going to catch the “eeaves” as the youngest one calls them, without a proper crime scene investigation? We’ll never know.

“Did the eeaves take our Pokemon cards?” the youngest one immediately inquired, when I told the boys about the burglary. “No, they only took mama’s money” I said, whereupon the youngest one turned to the oldest one and said with a relieved tone of voice “they didn’t see our Pokemon cards!” No; if they had seen them, we all know they would have taken them.

“The complete works of Moses Mendelssohn is laying right here, open!” the Husband exclaimed, pointing to his desk close to the back door “This book is worth $300! They could have taken it, but they didn’t” he added with a relieved sigh. No; as likely as it is that a couple of 16-year-old petty thief kids would know to appreciate the value of the complete works of Moses Mendelssohn, they only took my money.

It's pretty obvious it was kids; they didn't take anything but money because a thing might lead their parents to know they had been stealing. I'm happy they didn't take our computer with the Husband's thesis in it, or our DVD player or television (and yes, we're lucky they didn't notice our Pokemon cards and the complete works of Moses Mendelssohn).

By Lovain

French poem recitation

When I picked up the boys from school on Friday they had Mother’s Day presents in their hands, and on Sunday morning they gave me the presents. The oldest one had made soap and bath salt, and the teacher had included a card in Dutch. The youngest one helped me open the present from him; it was a banner saying “Leve Mama” (Long Live Mother) and a card with a short text. The youngest one took the card, held it in front of him as if he was going to read it (the youngest one doesn’t know how to read yet) and said a poem in the most perfect French I have ever heard.

Ma Maman
Connaissez-Vous Maman?
Elle est si belle
toute gentille
Je l'aime tant!!!

By Lovain

I love chocolate!

If I was in New York, this is where I would be heading right now: the Max Brenner restaurant.

By Lovain

Most invasive surgery: c-section or a tooth implant?

On Wednesday evening I went to see a periodontologist (or is it a periodontist?), who explained the tooth implant procedure to me. He was a tall, fit, studious nerd –obviously not a parent, possibly gay - seemingly very skilled and as far as I could conclude from a quick Google search, academically very active. He told me I would have a sheet over my face, and that although not being able to feel any pain, I would feel what was being done to me; the drilling into my jaw bone, the pulling and the tugging, something that could be disturbing to some people. "So like my c-section?" I suggested, remembering the feeling when Dr. Schroyens pulled - for all he was worth - my stomach muscles apart to expose my uterus, and then, with a midwife pushing down as hard as she could at the top of my belly to squeeze the baby out, proceeded to pull out an 11Lb baby through a 4 inch incision. It didn't hurt (at the time) but I was fully awake and could certainly feel my body literally being ripped open, all the while worrying about the baby.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed "this procedure is far more invasive!"

By Lovain

Unfortunate dental problems in Belgium; all our savings in one tooth

Yesterday was an unfortunate day.

Last weekend my most recently filled tooth (the only tooth ever fixed here in Belgium) broke, or actually cracked, and the outside part and the filling came loose. The next day I called around for a dentist and found, after dialing quite a few numbers, one who was willing to see me this week, yesterday. In the meantime the cracked tooth got infected, and my doctor prescribed me antibiotics which I have been taking. Yesterday when I finally could actually consult a dentist, the tooth was still wiggly but no longer hurting. The dentist, a seemingly nice lady in her late 30’s, administered a light anesthetic, and proceeded to break off the tooth entirely, then pulled of the loose filling, and x-rayed the entire side. She showed me the picture and said that the tooth had broken in such a way that fixing a crown to it would be complicated and not very durable, and suggested an implant instead. She said it would be more expensive but that it really was the only alternative and that it would last for the rest of my life. She illustrated the two possible procedures on a small white board, and wrote out the amounts; next to the picture of the (in reality not possible) crown she wrote 700, and next to the implant she wrote 700 by the fake root, and then a 1, a 2, by the fake tooth, and I had time to think “Only an extra 120€? I can live with that!” but, oh horror, she added two 0’s instead of one! The entire procedure, which is not covered by our insurance, would cost approximately 2000€ altogether. God help us. She then set up an appointment for me with her associated dental surgeon who would be placing the fake root – a screw – in my gum, charged me 50€ and said “See you on Friday!”

Our Belgian health insurance is in my opinion generally quite impressive. We pay around 50€ a year and most things are covered. A doctor’s visit costs 23€ and we get around 19€ back from the insurance. If I’m sick, I don’t loose any salary income. Dental, as it turns out however, is almost entirely left out. According to my dentist, a regular filling is covered, but dentures or in my case an implant are not.

The Husband did not take the news lightly. 2000€ is our entire buffer. In pain although numbed, I called work and said I would not be able to make it to work that afternoon, and the Husband and I recalculated our budget. We will manage, indeed, but only barely, and we will not have anything extra with us when we arrive in Cairo.

After a couple of tormenting discussions, the Husband went to pick up the boys from school, but took longer than usual to get back. Apparently as he had entered the school yard, he had seen the youngest one crying on a bench, and must have lost the key to the bike in the process of comforting. Not being able to recover it, he had detached the bike cart from the bike which was left by the school, and walked home.

The youngest one had got his pinky jammed in a door and it was red and swollen. I checked it for fractures, and it was obviously very painful.

As we sat down to dinner, we felt disheartened. “I think we should all just go to bed right now” the Husband said, “before anything else bad happens to us”.

By Lovain