Our trip began last Wednesday around 8 AM as we set off for the airport and our all day/night trip to Brussels. Autumn did surprisingly well...waving to anyone and everyone we passed as usual :o) She fell asleep on Jacob about half way through the flight to Chicago...I've never seen her this fast asleep either...when we were deboarding the plane we had to hold her head b/c it was just bobbing all over the place! Haha! Then when we got to our gate I immediately ran up to the person at the desk to request the row on the plane with the bassinett for Autumn. She was probably a little big for it, but she did sleep in it for a few hours so it was really nice to have. Jacob tried to video it, but it was kinda dark so it didn't work too well. When we arrived in Belgium we somehow managed to cram our four HUGE suitcases into our tiny car (we thought it was a minivan from the description, but it's a pretty tiny little hatchback ford). Thankfully we all were able to fit...although my knees were in my chest the whole ride...haha!!
We were supposed to be meeting Julie our relocation specialist at our apartment at 10 AM to get the keys...as we left the airport at 9:30 though I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen. And sure enough...we didn't arrive at the apartment till after 11! It was so frustrating...we brought our garmin from home and Jacob had downloaded the Europe program for like $100, but the entire time we drove in circles around the city as the garmin was "searching for sattelite"...what a joke! Since the skies here are mostly grey all the time we're either going to be buying a new navigation system (preferably a tom tom) that can get a signal through the clouds or hopefully one will come in our company car! Cross your fingers...Jacob picks the car up from work tomorrow so we'll see!!
We did make it to our apartment though and Jacob had the brilliant idea to book a night at a hotel right across the street so we dumped all our suitcases in the apartment, packed up a few things and headed over! And then we all napped...it was fantastic! I know they say when coming to Europe you're supposed to stay up as long as you can before crashing for the night, but really our two trips to Brussels I have taken a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and then stayed up till like 10 that night and it's worked so much better than when we went to Ireland and I stayed up till like 6 PM...crashed for a few hours and woke up at midnight with the worst headache I've ever had!
The next morning we headed to the new place and waited (for like 5 hours with nothing to do or sit on!!) for our air freight to arrive. I have to admit too when they unpacked it all it was nothing...I totally blew it on considering what we might want/need here for our first few weeks! I forgot chairs, towels, bed linens (thankfully I did remember the sheets before we left and packed some in the suitecases), pillows, utensils, a pot/pan, plates...basically any and all kitchen stuff except for a few things for Autumn. Thankfully at ikea we found many of these things for cheap so we'll survive the next few weeks, but it is not fun! I'm hoping to find a kitchen table and chairs this week so we can atleast stop sitting/eating on the floor! Luckily we did ship Autunn's high chair so she is eating in style!
I was really apprehensive about the language barrier too, but so far everyone has been really nice...we kinda try to speak French, but they pretty quickly catch on that we have no idea and switch right to English. I think the only person I've encountered that couldn't speak it was the lady at the hotdog stand yesterday when buying Autumn lunch...haha! We did ok though...the only word I couldn't get was sour kraut...and she just showed me it so I knew then to say "ew, no"!! Haha!
I should probably sign off for now...we're just stealing internet from some unsuspecting neighbors so who knows when I'll be able to check in again!! Our actual internet service is coming in a few weeks! Yikes! Hope everyone back home is doing well and we'll be able to talk again soon!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I'm leaving on a jet plane...
It's finally here...we leave for our new home in Brussels tomorrow morning and I just can't believe the time has finally come! It feels like we've been waiting forever and at the same time I feel like we totally ran out of time and need a few more days or weeks! We've been running around like crazy the past few weeks...getting our stuff all moved and closing on the house (oh and putting on a new roof...that's a whole other story), selling the two cars (one was already sold the second we sold back to the dealer we bought it from for a great price...who knew!), figuring out what was going, what was staying, what to buy here, what to wait and buy there, etc, etc. It's been a whirlwhind to say the least! And the hardest part of all was trying to spend time with all our dear friends and family! That's what I really want more time for because I just feel like it was not enough! I guess the good news is we already have a ticket home for Christmas so we know we will see them all again in just 5 short months...that I'm sure will fly by!
So I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can get some shut eye before the long travel day tomorrow...but I just wanted to take one last chance to say good-bye...and we'll be talking to you all soon from the other side of the pond :o)
Au Revoir!
So I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can get some shut eye before the long travel day tomorrow...but I just wanted to take one last chance to say good-bye...and we'll be talking to you all soon from the other side of the pond :o)
Au Revoir!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D
They say that moving is one of the most stressful things to go through...well throw in there moving across the world and the stress factor is definitely elevated! This week has been the craziest yet as it was moving week...well the first moving week anyway...this week our items were shipped across the ocean in our 20 foot freight container.
So the week started by sorting through everything to determine what was going, what was staying here in storage, and what will be sent via our air freight container or with us on the plane. No easy task that's for sure! And then once everything was sorted we had to record and assign prices to it all in case of an unfortunate accident where our freight container would end up at the bottom of the ocean. Hopefully that doesn't happen because as much as I tried to get EVERYTHING on the inventory I'm sure I missed something. Plus it would be no easy feet to replace all the items we have collected over the past 10+ years! It is pretty chaotic too once the movers sweep in and start packing. I've never been professionally moved before so I was not prepared at all for how quickly it would go. My one piece of advise is, if you don't want something packed or shipped...hide it so the movers can't find it! We had a few things shipped that we were not planning for/wanting. The best example was Autumn's suitcase with most of her clothes in it! Oh my!! My poor little girl was going to have to wear the few outfits we had in the wash and a few dresses from her closet for the next month or so...luckily her Aunt Erin was able to provide us with some clothes so we don't have to do laundry every few days!
I had also done a lot of shopping the past two weeks too to try and buy things like area rugs, curtains, etc...things we will need in the new place and can buy for a LOT cheaper here! We did opt not to take some of our items though in hopes of doing some fun shopping at antique stores, flea markets, etc while we are there...hopefully we'll find some really awesome one of a kind pieces that will be with us for a long long time!
So now that the first moving day is complete we will go through the same exercise this week to prepare everything for storage. We have to be out of our house this Friday...so it will be another whirlwind week I'm sure, but we're getting close now! Only 10 more days till we'll be on our flight to our new home!! I'm more excited and more nervous than ever now!!
So the week started by sorting through everything to determine what was going, what was staying here in storage, and what will be sent via our air freight container or with us on the plane. No easy task that's for sure! And then once everything was sorted we had to record and assign prices to it all in case of an unfortunate accident where our freight container would end up at the bottom of the ocean. Hopefully that doesn't happen because as much as I tried to get EVERYTHING on the inventory I'm sure I missed something. Plus it would be no easy feet to replace all the items we have collected over the past 10+ years! It is pretty chaotic too once the movers sweep in and start packing. I've never been professionally moved before so I was not prepared at all for how quickly it would go. My one piece of advise is, if you don't want something packed or shipped...hide it so the movers can't find it! We had a few things shipped that we were not planning for/wanting. The best example was Autumn's suitcase with most of her clothes in it! Oh my!! My poor little girl was going to have to wear the few outfits we had in the wash and a few dresses from her closet for the next month or so...luckily her Aunt Erin was able to provide us with some clothes so we don't have to do laundry every few days!
I had also done a lot of shopping the past two weeks too to try and buy things like area rugs, curtains, etc...things we will need in the new place and can buy for a LOT cheaper here! We did opt not to take some of our items though in hopes of doing some fun shopping at antique stores, flea markets, etc while we are there...hopefully we'll find some really awesome one of a kind pieces that will be with us for a long long time!
So now that the first moving day is complete we will go through the same exercise this week to prepare everything for storage. We have to be out of our house this Friday...so it will be another whirlwind week I'm sure, but we're getting close now! Only 10 more days till we'll be on our flight to our new home!! I'm more excited and more nervous than ever now!!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
We found it!!
So this could turn in to a REALLY long post about all the issues we ran in to while in Belgium last week on our house hunting trip...and I will try to highlight some of those...to hopefully help you all understand what it was like, but I want to first start by saying this story has a happy ending :o) We did, in fact, find a wonderful apartment in our ideal neighborhood of Ixelles Brussels!! Phew...insert picture of me wiping a pound of sweat from my brow here...haha!! As I highlighted in my last post I was very apprehensive about this process and if we were going to be able to find something...and unfortunately most of my concerns came true...along with some other unexpected hurdles. The first being that apartments in Brussels (and especially the commune of Ixelles where we really wanted to end up) get rented VERY quickly! We started with 7 appointments in which over half were cancelled because the apartments were snatched up by other eager renters that were fortunate enough to see them before us! I would find a wonderful looking place on line (and of course start imaging us there)...send it to our "relocation specialist" and she would quickly learn that it had already been rented. This was SO frustrating. I kept getting my hopes up only to have them quickly squashed!
Another major issue was the difference in what constitutes a work day in Belgium. We learned that we would get two days for house hunting (which entailed 7 appointments...WAY too few to find something good in my opinion) and that was it. This might have been ok if they were two full days, but the first day was from 10 AM to 5 PM and the second from 12:30 to 4 PM. When it started to become apparent that none of the apartments we were looking at were what we wanted (another issue of getting that point across and re-adjusting so we could view apartments that would meet our criteria was lost in translation) our coordinator negotiated for another day to look...fantastic I thought...until I found out that the "third day" consisted of going to visit 3 apartments between the hours of 2 PM and 4 PM. Are you kidding me! That is not a day...and not enough places to find what we want! We were told over and over again that that was all she could do...she already gave us three days so now we were on our own! I know we all think it is so wonderful to be in Europe...to get atleast 6 weeks vacation time...to have a work week of only 35 hours, to virtually shut everything down between the months of July and August, but when you are on the other end of it and need help...this relaxed life style can be quite frustrating!
Anyway...putting all of that to rest, as I mentioned we did find a wonderful apartment that has everything we are looking for! It is near the city center and all the fun shops, tourist attractions, etc, but also right next to a park, the forest (as they call it), a few lakes, and an open air market with everything you can imagine...fruits, veggies, pastas, meats, flowers, etc. So Autumn and I will be able to walk to just about everything we need which is just perfect for our 1 car family!! Here are some pictures of the apartment now (it's still a little under construction as they clean up and do a little remodeling)! I've already started decorating it and can't wait to get it all cozy and comfy and feeling just like home!
Another major issue was the difference in what constitutes a work day in Belgium. We learned that we would get two days for house hunting (which entailed 7 appointments...WAY too few to find something good in my opinion) and that was it. This might have been ok if they were two full days, but the first day was from 10 AM to 5 PM and the second from 12:30 to 4 PM. When it started to become apparent that none of the apartments we were looking at were what we wanted (another issue of getting that point across and re-adjusting so we could view apartments that would meet our criteria was lost in translation) our coordinator negotiated for another day to look...fantastic I thought...until I found out that the "third day" consisted of going to visit 3 apartments between the hours of 2 PM and 4 PM. Are you kidding me! That is not a day...and not enough places to find what we want! We were told over and over again that that was all she could do...she already gave us three days so now we were on our own! I know we all think it is so wonderful to be in Europe...to get atleast 6 weeks vacation time...to have a work week of only 35 hours, to virtually shut everything down between the months of July and August, but when you are on the other end of it and need help...this relaxed life style can be quite frustrating!
Anyway...putting all of that to rest, as I mentioned we did find a wonderful apartment that has everything we are looking for! It is near the city center and all the fun shops, tourist attractions, etc, but also right next to a park, the forest (as they call it), a few lakes, and an open air market with everything you can imagine...fruits, veggies, pastas, meats, flowers, etc. So Autumn and I will be able to walk to just about everything we need which is just perfect for our 1 car family!! Here are some pictures of the apartment now (it's still a little under construction as they clean up and do a little remodeling)! I've already started decorating it and can't wait to get it all cozy and comfy and feeling just like home!
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