Why Belgium Sucks #1: The Belgian Poste

The first in what I am sure will be an ongoing series of rants about my new, temporary home.

Last week, the Belgian Poste tried to deliver my boxes from the U.S., but surprise surprise, I was at work during the middle of the day on Wednesday. My choices for getting the boxes? Pick them up myself with my imaginary car in a town I've never heard of or arrange another day for them to deliver. My colleague Rebecca, who speaks way better French than me, graciously called on my behalf and scheduled a day for them to deliver the boxes ... yesterday, sometime between 9 am and 7 pm. Thanks for narrowing down that delivery window, Belgian Poste!

So yesterday, I stayed at home and waited. And waited. And waited. And when 7:30 rolled around, I was so frustrated that I just left and went for a really long run. And you know what? Still no sign that they've even attempted to deliver them. According to my colleagues, this means that I've had my first real encounter with Belgian customer service. According to me, Belgium sucks.

Yoga, the international language

Today, I started a month-long yoga course being taught by Hanna, a Finnish woman who used to work at the firm. The classes take place at Maison de Finlande and everyone in my class is Finnish! It is pretty awesome. The class is great ... all beginners like me ... and I love the experience of being the only American there. Not that it is so different from work, where I am one of three Americans, but this is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll learn a little Finnish along the way!

Speaking of a foreign lanuage, my colleagues are doing their best to teach me the proper English versions of American words and sayings. I've warned them that if I get in the habit, I'll be made fun of relentlessly when I get home. Here are the English words that are being pushed on me at the moment:

Crosswalk = zebra crossing. And the "zebra" is pronouned like "Debra".

Cookies = biscuits (things which are overflowing in my office ... today's were coated with brown sugar and came from Israel)

Tea time = dinner time (apparently only used incertain parts of Britain, but part of my education nonetheless)

Cross = angry (I knew this one but found it funny when my colleague asked me, "If I told you I was cross with you, would you know what I meant?" My response: "Yes, but I am pretty sure I would have from the non-verbal signs too.")

Shops = store. No one here says they are "running out to the store". They are just "popping out to the shop".

Oh, and changing all of the "z"s to "s"s in words like organization (organisation) is just a pain, but necessary. I know there is more but can't remember anything else at the moment. Maybe it is all the oxygen in my brain from the yoga?

Tomorrow is the dreaded day where I sit at home and wait for my boxes to arrive from the U.S. The post office's timeframe for delivering them? Sometime between 9 am and 7 pm. Sounds strangely familiar ... oh that's right, I have Comcast cable in D.C.

The Atomium and Mini Europe

This is the Atomium.

It was built for the 1958 World's Fair held in Brusslels. It is a replica of an iron crystal molecule magnified 165 billion times. If I were feeling cynical, I would say it is a lame excuse for a tourist attraction. But since I have a deep fondness for world's fair history (I wrote my undergrad thesis on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and am a big fan of The Devil in the White City), I am going to let you know that visiting the Atomium is actually pretty cool.

Once you get inside, you get to take stairs and escalators up to the spheres to see different exhibits about the World's Fair. You get some pretty amazing views of Brussels from up there. My favorite fact about the '58 Fair: they hired hundreds of women to serve as "ground hostesses" ... they wanted them to be a combination of "air hostesses" and beauty queens, but with brains and good foreign language skills. That's pretty much a direct quote from the audioguide. Here are a few more photos of the Atomium:

Now you want to know what's lame? Two things ... the Pavilion of Temporary Happiness and Mini Europe. The Pavilion of Temporary Happiness is the building set up specifically to highlight the 50th anniversary celebration of the '58 World's Fair. Look how lovely it is.

Apparently, it is constructed from real materials used at the '58 Fair. Oooooh ... ugly. I would have gone in but it was an extra 5 euros I didn't feel like spending.

Now Mini Europe is another attraction located next to the Atomium. Mini Europe is basically what it sounds like ... the most iconic buildings of Europe re-created in miniature and set in a min-golf-like setting. Seriously, it would have been more interesting if you could have been putt-putting through the exhibit.

I see London, I see France, and I see a water park in the background!

Mini Europe is really meant to be a propaganda ... sorry educational ... tool about the European Union. They only have recreations of buildings from the 27 Member States and they nicely juxtapose the ancient buildings of Europe with exhibits that show Europe's economic prowess.

Look, mom! It is an authentic Spanish bullfighting arena ... complete with little mechanical bulls that charge at the bullfighters!

Look, dad! In France, they have airplanes! And in Luxembourg, they move commercial goods by truck!

Three-legged dog, oh my!

Moving to a new place is hard, whether its to a new city or a foreign country. It is exciting to be here, but I do miss having my friends around and people to call up and make plans with for the weekend. So what did I do to cheer myself up? I went shopping, of course!

I started my day off having breakfast at a nice little cafe in my neighborhood and saw the best thing I've seen since I've moved here ... a 3-legged dog hobbling down the street. I wish to God I had gotten a picture of it ... it was awesome. As everyone looked on, I couldn't help but think that if this was the U.S., that dog would have a prosthetic leg by now. And then I wondered why there isn't an "Extreme Pet Makeover" show yet where the experts come in and makeover the pet that's had a hard life (abandoned by his mother, hit by a car and lost a leg, finally adopted by loving owner, gets cancer and loses all of his fur, now on the brink of recovery) ... just a thought.

So I again walked around the neighborhoods ... this time with shopping as my goal ... and ran across two street fairs. The one in the picture is in Marolles, a part of town with a big immigrant population. I don't think you can tell from the picture, but the guy was selling "As seen on TV" products. It made me laugh.

I ended up in Zara and Espirit, and actually bought the few things I set out to buy ... a trench coat, flats and some new jeans. And a cute little sweater for good measure. Since I don't have anyone to show off my new purchases too, I've put a picture of them below. I did go to the Mango, but yikes ...

Last night, I had after work drinks in Place Luxembourg with my colleague Rebecca. Apparently, it is the place to go for anyone working in the Parliament or having anything to do with EU relations. It was a sea of suits of all nationalities! Rebecca's great and it was a lot of fun getting to know her better. After that, I met up with Jeremy, my friend Jerry's friend who lives here in Brussels. Yay, Jeremy! It was so nice to hang out with an American and just socialize for a while. I am happy to know Jeremy (and his girlfriend Femke) so that I've got some outside of the office contacts here.

The Prada flower heel exists!

This event is so BIG it gets its own post. I was finishing up a great day of shopping (more on that in my next post) and looking for a place to grab a quick bite and enjoy the warm, sunny weather when I was stopped dead in my tracks. There, gleaming from the window of a high-end shoe store on the Avenue Louise were the loves of my life ... the Prada flower heel ... in three variations!
Some of you may know that I have been obsessed with these shoes for a number of months, and have spent many hours staring at them online and in magazines. If there ever was a shoe that screamed Mogo, it would be the Prada flower heels. The price tag, on the other hand, screams "What are you thinking? You can't afford these shoes. Get thee to the Payless right away!"

On the sage advice of my good friend Amanda, I decided that if I ever saw the shoes in real life (only available online from

Bergdorfs in the U.S., as far as I can tell), I would try them on and see if they really were deserving of my love and the debt I would have to go into to purchase them.

So I walked into the store, dropped all of my bags, and got down on my hands and knees to search for my size. Alas, no size 41s in any of the styles they hand in stock. While I was disappointed, I believe this was God's way of reminding me that $800 is well spent on much more important things than shoes. So I took a couple of photos (the guy working in the store thought I was nuts) and went about my day.

But I will say this ... if they had the ones on the top in my size, I may have been forced to purchase them. They are just as gorgeous in real life as they are in magazines. Let's hope the knock off version is available soon.

Maybe someday I too can be a Eurocrat!

Well, it's been three days, so I figure I can dish a little bit about the new job! First things first ...

Here's my lovely office ... or should I say cubicle? Really, it is just a desk. You can't see it from this picture, but I can see the European Parliament building from my window ... dorky but very cool!

Very few folks in the Brussels office have their own office, and I'm definitely not one of them! I don't mind at all though cause I sit in a section with three other women, all of whom are lovely, funny and have been extremely welcoming to me. Next to me sits Rebecca, who is British (grew up in Hong Kong), and reminds me of Genevieve (if any of you remember her); across from me is Catherine, who is British and is 7 and half months pregnant with her third child; and next to Catherine is Sheila, who is Danish, speaks every language imaginable as far as I can tell, and used to work in our London office before moving to Brussels. All of them make me laugh and it is fun to be able to chit chat with your colleagues while you're getting your work done, especially when you are doing research and writing memos ... which is pretty much all I've done this week. Looking forward to getting into some deeper client work.

Let's see ... what are the biggest differences and similarities in the D.C. and Brussels office?

1. I can wear jeans every day if I like, as long as I don't have client meetings. This of course means I will be spending most of my time in jeans as I believe all of my clients are based in other locations. Yes ... Norway and Russia for right now. Ooh, ooh ... I get to go to Oslo for a client conference in August! Yay ... sure beats Indianapolis!

2. Much of the work in Brussels is straight lobbying work ... meaning people have their issue specialities and spend their time researching, writing about and learning everything possible about how the EU regulatory process impacts this issue. So I'm going to be spending most of my time working with Sheila and Rebecca on broader advocacy campaigns rather than the traditional work done out of Brussels. They are going to try to get me some work on one of the more traditional accounts, but we'll see ...

3. People here actually take lunch breaks.

4. Of course, this means that everyone comes in at about 9:30 and usually stays until 7:30 or 8:00. Don't think they don't work as hard cause it's Europe. It just seems that they don't work at the same frentic pace we tend to in the U.S. It's nice.

So what else? I joined a gym today, which I am very excited about. It is right across the street from the office and there are loads of international people there. I've spent the past two mornings at the city of Brussels' administrative offices trying to register ... something I have to do so I can live here. Next step ... the police will come visit me at my house to ensure I actually live where I told them I do. Whatever Brussels police department. Oh, and my colleague John who works part time in London and part time in Brussels lives in the apartment below me. Hooray ... he's American but has been living in Europe for years so he's a native. Just nice to have someone I know so close. He's cool and has a great big personality, which of course, I love. I'm looking forward to getting to know him.

Biggest lesson learned to date = high heels and cobblestone streets do not mix! My mom knows this after listening to me complain while I hobbled around the city center while I was on the phone with her yesterday. My mission for this weekend ... shop for cute but sensible flats and a classic trench. We've had a nice reprieve from the rain but I know it's just a matter of time before it returns.

Law & Order en francais!

I now know how I will practice my French. Lenny sounds so sophisticated in French!