Tournai or Doornik

1. On the Main Square of Tournai

2. Look, a representation admiting that Jesus was black

3. The 5 towers of Tournai's Cathedral

4. Me and the Five towers

5. Absinthe

Last weekend, Eva and I got in the car for a roadtrip in Belgium. Well, road trip in Belgium, means that you can get a third of the way across the country in not much over an hour, so we went to Tournai, or Doornik, depending on your point of view. Because Belgium has three official languages, many cities have more than one name. Tournai is the French name and Doornik is the Dutch name. I haven't really spent much time in the French region, Walloon, so I wanted to go there. Tournai is the closest city of any interest (In Walloon) to us in Oostende, so that's where we went.

I liked the city, but after all the sun was out and I had a waffle, two things that usually make me enjoy a place. But it has a cool central square, with a few old churchs (suprise to find in Europe), a 72 meter high Belfort (tower) and is known for its main Cathedral that has five towers and is one of the most important architechural monuments in Belgium.

We were not the first ones ever to "invade" the city, through out history it seems like just about everyone has occupied Tournai at one time or another. We climbed the Beflort, all 250 steps or so and then walked to the Cathedral, that was having some restoration work done. After we went for a drink and I ordered cider off the French Menu. I expected something in a manly style pint glass, but instead realized I had more or less ordered champaign. Oh well. Then we got a take away waffle an got back in the car to head home.

The Next day we went to Eva's Aunt and Uncle's house for a quick drink to say hello and hear about their recent trip to Argentina. I already knew this would be the case (Eva thought not for some reason) but we were invited to stay for the lunch that Eva's grandmother and parents were already invited to. We had a wondeful meal that in true European fashion lasted all day long, and then watched a slide show of the Argentina photos. Add that to the list of places I want to go. In their bar, I discovered a bottle of Absinthe, but didn't have any. I did once years ago, and may have to try it again at some point. Speakng of trying things, stay tuned for me eating horse meat. In many places (Belgium included) that is not so out of the ordinary, but as an American, I may have to have a few cocktails first.

Went to France for Breakfast

1.My Cappuccino,

2. The sign in the window that lied to me

3. At the border, of course no controls these days (I didn't even have my passport with me)

4. Back in Belgium, Ypers' main cathederal.

5. A small WW1 cemetery in town

Thats right, I went to France for breakfast. Why? Well, becasue I can. I had to make it back for language class at 1:30 pm, but had the morning to kill. I felt like a crepe or croissant for breakfast, so what better place to go than France. From Oostende where I am living its only about 35 minutes to the border. Incidentially its probably about the same to the north into Holland, so stay tuned for dinner in the Netherlands possibly. As I am not working right now, Eva pays for the food, but if we head up there, who knows, we may just have to go Dutch.

So I pulled off at the first town just over the border in France, Bray Dunes and looked for a place to eat. As I have often discovered in Europe, early bird does not get the worm, I had a hard time finding a place open before nine. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that it is a small sea side resort in FAR northern France, out of season. The season (weather-wise) really only being about two months long. But finally I found a place which seemed open that had a sign in the window saying Restauarant/Creperie and went inside. The one employee was outside when I walked in, smoking of course. He didn't seem too interested in giving up his cigarette break for me (after all, he is French, they like to smoke) and I waited a bit for him to come in. When he handed me the menu, it turned out they were just open for drinks and so I ordered a cappuccino, wanting to have something. On the way out of France I did find a grocery store open, and stoped to pick up some "pain au chocolat" so that I could really say I went to France for beakfast, and I was hungry.

On the way back to Oostende, I went by way of Ypers tucked somewhere sort of inland of southwest Belgium. The town and its surrounding area was the site of one of some of the worst battles (or stalemates) of World War One. It is where trench warefare and chemical warfare became "popular." 450,000 people died here and the whole countryside is covered with cemeteries. The city was mostly destroyed during the war, but was rebuilt more or less replicating the old buildings. I didn't have much time there, but walked around a little, seeing the cathedral, a few memorials and one small cemetery. I guess the people who remember WW1 first hand are all but gone now, as you'd have to be around 100, but in this town, there are constant reminders.

In Belgium

I arrived three days ago, via Frankfurt and on to Brussels. It has been great to see Eva after 2 1/2 months, and settle back into the apartment. It was even sunny the day I arrived. Of course it is generally around 9 c in the day time, but I survived Antarctica, and I will survive here.

Yesterday was only my first weekday in the country, but already a very busy day. I went to the city hall to register that I am lving here. The condition of my visa said that I had 8 days within arrival to register, but why wait. They will send the police around ( a normal procedure I am told) to check if I am really living with Eva, so she and I changed the name tags on the door buzzer and post box. After that I will go back to the city hall to get an ID card, and then start the process to get my work permit.

After city hall, I went to a language center, and they signed me up for a course. They also told me that every one who moves to Belgium must take an intergration course, which I think may be 60 hours long. Thats a lot of integrating, and I can't imagine what all they will tell me, but apparently it is required, and allows the language course to be free. Recently I picked up (at the Belgian consulate in LA) a copy of a magazine called Newcomer. It had a FAQ section, and some of my favorites were:

1. Is Belgium Flat and Boring?
2. Is it always raining?
3. Are all Belgians miserable?

So I guess in the integration course they will do their best to dispell these ideas.


After the language center, I went to the school itself. It is about 20 minutes walk form the apartment, short for Belgians, long because I am American. Its not that bad really, and it will be good to get the exercise. In fact just by default I have already lost about 3 pounds, in 3 days by living as a European. More walking less processed crap eating. So I had planned to take the morning classes, which sarted yesterday, but when I got there yesterday afternoon, they told me the afternoon class had half the amount of people. So I took that one, and started right away. There are 12 people in my class, from every continent except Antarctica. One Aussie, one Brazilian, one American (me), and the rest Asia or Africa and Eastern Europe. I will go 4 days a week for 3 hours a day. When I signed in, the guy at the desk, suprised to see my nationality, said "oh are you here for politcial assulym?" Maybe I should be after the last 7 years of politics in my country, but George will be gone in less than a year now.

Well its off to class.

Goed Dag!

Jumping through Hoops

So the process began over seven months ago to obtain a visa to live in Belgium. Before you read on, just be aware that there is a quite a bit of ranting to get out my frustrations from the whole procedure.

Eva and I discovered that there is something called a cohabitation visa and we set out to get one. Its a little easier for me to up-root, so we decided I would go to Belgium as opposed to her come to America. Most Belgians think we are both crazy when they hear the other option is California but life is long, there are options to do more than one thing.

The road to the visa has been filled with frustration, and Eva and I are glad to have it come to an end. On the Belgian Diplomatic website, we found out that I needed to submit 8 things, and she 5. That was way back in May when I was in Belgium, and we were hopping we could do it all from there and that it wouldn't take that long. We didn't really think that would be the case, but one can always hope.

Her documents were actually pretty easy to obtain. Because it is a cohabitation visa, my status is very dependent on her, and she had to submit various financial statements, pay stubs, proof of residence, etc.

For me, some of the things were easy to get, some not. Passport, Birth Certificate, fees (of course) and application, all easy enough. Doctors report, FBI report, and Certificate that I am not married, not so easy. Also we had to submit proof of our relationship, which we thought would be easy, but turned out to be harder than it should have been. We had to submit more info and pictures, the second time around about our relationship and at one point wondered if it wasn't easier to turn up at the consulate to have relations.

The doctors report was a bit of a challenge, because we were not sure at first if I could get it done in Belgium. We went back and forth a little bit about it, because ideally (according to the Belgian government) I was supposed to apply for the visa from my home country. But I was busy being in Belgium, trying to have a relationship with the Belgian citizen I was trying to get permission to cohabitate with. A bit of a catch 22 really, as they wanted me to prove time spent with her, but also wanted me to be in my own country. Eventually we sorted it out, and I got the report done in Belgium.

The FBI report required fingerprints to be sent in along with the application. I could not find anyone to finger print me in Belgium, except for the inconvenient, expensive embassy in Brussels. In the US, you can go to a police station and have it done, so we tried that in Belgium as well. They said the only reason the would fingerprint me was if I committed a crime. I didn't see that as prudent considering I was trying to get them to let me into there country to stay. So I printed fingerprint cards off the FBI website (they said this was allowed) grabbed an ink pad and did them myself. Again, and again, again. They only required one set, but I figured four would be better, and that they could find one set of usable prints from the four. They couldn't and sent them back to me, saying they were unreadable. They sent them back because I wanted something from them. If I had committed a crime and left four sets of prints, I bet they could have found me, but because I wanted something, I bet they didn't even try. Months later when I passed through home I got a set made in my home town of Fountain Valley at the police station, but this process was the biggest delay. Especially considering the FBI website (in the FAQ section) essentially says: Is there a way to speed up this (4 month) process? No!

The certificate that I was not married was the most frustrating of the lot. I had to have two of them. One was an official document from the county I was born in (Orange County= The OC) stating that they searched their records and I am not married. The document doesn't really prove anything as far as I see. Sure I'm not married in the OC, but what about other counties, what about other countries? This document also had to have attached to it an apostille. In the early 60's many countries joined into an agreement that says that as long as there is an apostille attached, that each other country is to recognize the document. Of course, each time any new document was introduced into the mix, a new few was as well. So maybe they realized this document wasn't proving much, so they had me write one myself, stating I wasn't married. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how someone else would gain by creating such a document. But of course it had to be notarized, another fee and of course it needed an apostille, another fee.

It might have been OK, if all this was able to be done in the same building on the same day. I realize they want to screw me out of more fees, but can't they screw me in the same building? I was dealing with the County of Orange office in Santa Ana and the Secretary of State in Downtown LA. I was also in the middle of my tour leading season and was only in and out of southern California, making it all difficult to accomplish. So here's the most frustrating part. I took my made up document, and my OC notary document up to LA, to get the apostille, and they told me it wasn't possible because my notary document wasn't authenticated. I said, isn't that what a notary is, an authentication? They told me that they needed proof that the notary was still active, I pointed to the notary's seal. Not good enough, I needed an authentication (another fee) document and for that I would have to go back to Orange County, because this was and OC notary. I told the clerk this was ridiculous and that it made no sense, and she replied
"Don't blame me, blame the government." I didn't even start with her about how silly a defense that was, and I said fine, I'll just do it over, here, today in LA with another notary down the street. She told me I would still have to go to the LA county office, IN NORWALK (30 minutes drive one way) to get the authentication. What sense does that make I inquired angrily. I have to waste my time, and gas money, and add more traffic and pollution to the city. Why can't you just have a notary in this office that is already authenticated (whatever that means)? Her response was (and I can't believe she said this) "well that's what these people (pointing to all the other people in line) have been working on all week. That is their defense? This incredibly wasteful and unnecessary system is still in place, because that's what everyone else is doing. Crazy, but that's the government for you. No wonder we have a budget crisis in California.

Anyway, enough of me ranting. Eventually we got all our ducks in a row and then played the waiting game. It took around 6 weeks at that point, which may have gone quicker, but it was over the holidays. So finally, with visa in hand as of last Friday, I made a plane reservation, and will return to Belgium, with visa, in two days.

Have Visa will travel

I have been away from Belgium for over 5 months now, and have only seen Eva for a week in that time when she came to the US in October, and we went to Vegas. For those that don't remember (or have never read here) before, we started this visa process way back in May. So finally after 7 plus months, a couple of hundred dollars, a lot of hoop jump and loads and loads of frustration I have been issued a visa to live in Belgium. I fly back to Brussels from LA via Frankfurt in a few days. I don't have a work permit yet, but that should come soon. Now the real question is, will anybody hire me without French and Without Flemish. So when I first get there, I will spend a while taking language classes and writing. Meaning, I should be getting more Blog time soon, so stay tuned.