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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Waffles in Belgium, Cheese Course in France

Last weekend I went to Belgium. It didn’t really hit me that I was visiting a whole nother country until I was leaving Belgium. While Jennifer and I were there, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to be in Belgium—that is, not extraordinary at all. As we left, it felt extraordinary to be in Belgium. To have been in Belgium.

They sell beer in the vending machines in Belgium. Besides the vending machines, took a boat ride along the canals of Brugge, tasted curry, ginger, and spice cake chocolates, watched a woman making bobbin lace, wandered the Comic Book museum, and visited the bizarre and oversized Palais de la Justice where we could see the Atomium from a distance. Belgian waffles—from-Belgium Belgian waffles—are pretty much one of the best things I have ever tasted. Saturday was the national holiday, and that morning, in Brugge, we followed the small-town parade of a brass band and the veterans color guard. As they walked past I could hear the metals on their uniforms clink and I wanted to be home celebrating my own country.

It felt good to be back in France. Monday morning, I started a two week sculpture workshop that the MJC is running in Jumièges, near Duclair (the small town where the MJC is located). It feels so odd that this is what I have ended up doing, but I have enjoyed myself yesterday and today. So far I have sculpted a snail shell and a dog, in addition to helping make home made French fries and setting up a tent. Today I got a sunburn on one arm as we sat around picnic tables for two hours eating lunch—melon, bread and jambon cru and butter, salads, then the homemade fries and bloody steaks, a round of camembert, dessert, then coffee and tea.

1 comment:

Jess said...

It's good to know that Belgian Belgian Waffles are delicious - wouldn't it be such a let down if they weren't?

Sculpture!? Wow, that's ambitious and creative and fascinating all at once! Did you ever take pottery in high school? I took one semester, thinking, hey I might be ok at this, but I was really off the mark on that one. I'm really awful at pottery. So I'm betting I'd be awful at sculpture, which is why I am just so impressed that that is precisely what you are doing in France! And Belgium!

Sunburn on one arm? Not fun. Now you have a choice: even it out by getting the other arm tan and risk cancer? Or remain multicolored. Hm...