Marvin Gaye

Pictures are:

1. Karla protecting me from the wind

2. The ocean

3. Eva loosing at a wrestling match

4. Marvin Gaye's favorite place

5. Eva and I drinking mint tea with rum

Last night Eva's friend Karla came over for dinner. I was a little embarrassed by what I had made for dinner (didn't know we were having a guest), chili dogs. If the guys back home came over to watch a football game, I would be proud of chili dogs, with homemade chili. In Europe, with a guest over, I was embarrassed a little. But it tasted good and Karla seemed to enjoy it, or was at least polite about it. To go with the dogs, we had fries. Well why not, after all as I said before the Belgians invented fries, so why not get two Belgian girls help me make them. I decided not to introduce Chili Fries. I know some of my friends are thinking "why the hell not!"

After dinner we went on a walk on the beach to experience Belgium's "summer." It was the windiest since I have been here and the waves were so big there was actually a surfer out in the water. There are lots of wind surfers and kite boarders normally, but the waves usually aren't big enough for regular surfers. Still we had a nice walk on the beach, and played around a bit, having races and wrestling matches.

Then it was time for a break from the wind so we went to have a drink. I wanted to go to Potbelly's, the so called American Bar, but it was closed. I actually asked them for work a few weeks ago, but in reality an American could never work there. Why, well because you have to speak three languages minimum to work there. Which reminds me of the joke:

What do you call someone that speaks three languages? Trilingual

What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual

What do you call someone who speaks one? American

Instead we wound up at the Bar Marvin Gaye used to frequent when he lived here. He lived here for a short period in the early 80's and people often mention it (or maybe I bring it up) when I tell them I am American. So as any Icon in a foreign land (I'm thinking Hemingway) he has a bar that is now labeled "the bar that said celebrity used to frequent." We had mint tea and rum, a combo I had never heard of before, but was very good. Maybe I don't know it because I am used to warm climates, and Rum usually comes with ice. We met two guys while we were there, one from Chile and one from Italy. The Italian was VERY drunk. He fell on me twice, pissed himself at some point, spit on himself several times, burned the end of his nose with a cigarette, almost had his pants fall down, dropped his wallet and then got kicked out. Interesting guy and for a short period he was entertainment, any longer though and he would have been annoying. We talked a bit more with the other guy afterwards and had a very strange conversation in Flemish, Spanish, English, French Portuguese and maybe a little German. Eventually he left in search of his friend, we finished our drinks and went home.