The Carnaval Celebrations

Here in Belgium they celebrate not only Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), but also Dimanche Gras and Lundi Gras (Fat Sunday and Monday). Honestly...they celebrate the whole week of Carnaval! Schools are even out for the week so everyone can join in the celebration! And we decided to join in too last Sunday in Binche, Belgium.

Our friends Liz & Matt and their two girls Grace and Audrey were heading there as well so we all decided to hop a train to Binche. This was my first experience with the actual trains (not just the trams or subway) and I was relieved to find it was quite easy to navigate. So easy I even thought about Autumn and I heading back to Binche on Tuesday for the main celebration....I'm kinda bummed now that we didn't...oh well, maybe next year.

We definitely enjoyed our time watching all the festivities on Sunday. It seems Carnaval is Belgium's "Halloween" of sorts. Everyone...and I mean everyone...was dressed up! Many in elaborate outfits. The streets were packed and alive with the celebration. It kinda made me wish we had all dressed up for the occasion...I guess there is always next year. We wandered around taking it all in.

Watching this girl as she showered the unsuspecting people below her with buckets of confetti. (note the chicken wire on the windows of the buildings too...that is for the Mardi Gras festivities where oranges are thrown in to the crowd...I guess one too many broken windows through the years and they've all wised up because they were on every building.

Watching these bees put on a show for anyone that would pay attention.

And these Ostrich riding folk were my absolute favorite. It totally made me think of Swiss Family Robinson and the ostrich races. What a clever costume...I can only imagine the time and effort they put into creating something like this.

It was a great people watching place and I thoroughly enjoyed it! We also noticed the beautiful yellow Mimosa flower speckled throughout the crowd. People carrying bouquets, wearing corsages...street vendors selling it by the bushel.

I couldn't find an English speaking person to tell me what the significance of it was, but from what I've found online it is a common flower in France that signifies the coming of Spring. There are even several "Mimosa Carnival's" in France to celebrate the flower itself.

After a few hours we decided it was time to head home. The parade was just starting, but we're pretty certain it's mostly just a somewhat organized procession of the folks we've seen wandering around all afternoon in their elaborate costumes. So we all hoped back on the train and headed home. We had a blast celebrating "Fat Sunday" with our friends...and hopefully we'll be able to return next year to soak up even more fun at the Carnaval :o)

Busy, busy, busy!!

When we got back to Belgium we hit the ground running and haven's stopped to look back yet! This has been our schedule the past two week...

Monday: Playgroup at Rory and Vera's
Tuesday: BCT Playgroup
Wednesday: French Music Class & Ran 5 miles
Thursday: Playgroup at Grace and Audrey's
Friday: Ran 5 miles

Over the weekend I ran a 10K (not an actual race because I couldn't find one, but that is what my training schedule called for so that is what I ran) and we did lots of cleaning. Our apartment needed a good scrub down from being gone for so long...and with playgroup at our house on Monday it seemed like the perfect time. We also went back to our church...it was nice after being away for so long, but I think we've decided to try out a few more as it just doesn't feel like home.

Then on to another busy week...

Monday: Playgroup at our house! 7 adults and 9 kids...it was crazy, but a lot of fun!
Tuesday: BCT Playgroup & Ran 5 miles (bad fall in the mud...I even took Autumn and the stroller down!) Had a knot the size of my fist on my leg...lots of ice and tylenol...after a few days rest I was able to run again without much pain
Wednesday: French Music Class & Chick Flick movie watching with our new friend and neighbor Andi (and her cute daughter Brooklyn)...I think I mentioned her in a previous post...we met on the tram just before Christmas. It's amazing how easy it is to pick out other American's when you are so used to listening to people speaking a different language all the time. It seems to attract a lot of attention from the locals too. We might as well all wear banners around our necks that say, YES, I'M AMERICAN...NOW STOP STARING! :o) Ha...I guess they are just curious about what we are doing here.
Thursday: Autumn went to a sitters for the morning (a friend of ours from the BCT playgroup took a babysitter for her daughter and offered to share her with us...and split the cost. This was our first time and it went very well...I think I might get used to this. Also, ran my long run for the week...9 miles. Only one long run left till Paris...Woohoo!
Friday: Volunteered at the American Women's club library for the first time...it was nice being able to sit and read while Autumn went to the Creche (daycare) for FREE! One of the perks when you volunteer at the club...free daycare :o)

Phew...we made it! :o) I usually like to have at least one day a week with nothing concrete planned, but that didn't quite happen...it was nice though after being away for so long to just jump right back in to the swing of things. Unfortunately though we have NOTHING planned for next week. No playgroups...no music class (it's a school holiday week)...the only thing we have so far is the sitter is going to come to our house on Friday so I can run my 10 miles. Other than that, I guess we'll be enjoying the down time. Atleast Monday and Tuesday we will...after that we'll probably get bored and go find something to do. Hehe!

This weekend we're planning to go experience the Belgians version of Mardi Gras at the carnival parade in Binche. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather and I'll have some lovely pictures from the celebration to share with you all next week! :o)

And even though we are starting to feel like we might be able to stick around for longer than we originally thought (even possibly the full two years we were originally planning)...we have started being more proactive on the trip planning and are headed to Barcelona, Spain at the end of March and off to The Keukenhof Tulip festival and to visit Amsterdam in early April. We are also exploring a trip to Greece and Turkey sometime in the near future!! Yeah...I just love having stuff to look forward to! No matter how long we end up being in Europe I am determined to enjoy every moment of it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We had a valentines day - I want to wear my new cow girl boots - I want to wear my new hat - photo shoot last week :o) Ok, maybe it was more like Mommy wants me to wear my new hat and boots because she LOVES them...haha! Either way...she looks adorable in them! Here are my favorites...

Happy Valentines Day!! Hope you get to spend it with those you love!

To be continued...

We made it safely back to Brussels this week...hooray!! The trip itself was very uneventful, thankfully! Autumn was seriously a perfect angel...slept at all the appropriate times, played well in the down times, ate pretty well...I couldn't have asked for a better travel companion...Jacob did pretty well too...hehe! And everything fit into our suitcases...another hurdle I was quite worried about as I had been shopping for the past month trying to stock up on everything. But we're here...we're home safe and sound. Everything was exactly as we left it...except for the fact that it was FREEZING...both indoors and out! We were instructed to turn the heat off before we left and since it has been hovering in the teens and twenties you can only imagine how cold it was in our apartment with the big old windows. We immediately ran around turning all the radiators on and finally after about a day and a half it was bearable in here.

And the day after we arrived we got another addition to the cold...SNOW!! Beautiful big white flakes! It only ended up being about an inch and a half, but enough to send the whole city into a traffic jam! The view out our window was quite a mess!

Glad we were all home at this point...even Jacob.

But now that we are here we can't help but question...for how long? We received the news the Friday before our departure that Jacob's company had been sold to Eastman Chemical Company. (Here is an article about the purchase if you are interested.) Eastman is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee and it quickly became evident that Solutia's St. Louis headquarters will cease to exist in the next year or two. That throws quite a wrench in to our plans to return to St. Louis in the next year and a half when our Brussels adventure is complete. Luckily the deal between the two companies will not close for another 5-6 months so we feel relatively safe until then, but what comes next we just don't know. We would like to be back in St. Louis at some point...so it may mean leaving our Brussels adventure soon (while Solutia still exists and can honor their commitment to move us home)...but that would likely mean Jacob would have only a short time to find another job before he's turned lose and Solutia's offices are closed for good. There is a possibility of a job in Kingsport, but is that the right move for our family? Do we want to be back in the US, but still be 10 hours away from family and friends? It's not ideal, but it may be the best choice. And with either scenario, how much more time do we have in Europe? We really don't know. We're hopeful we at least get the next 5 or 6 months, but feel somewhat certain that it will likely not be much more than that. We're hoping to get some more answers soon, but for now we're planning our next European adventures...and hoping to get as much traveling in over the next few months as we possibly can...in case our time here is cut short. Right now our travel wish list consists of Rome, Tuscany, Amsterdam, Switzerland, Southern France, Greece, Berlin, Prague, Copenhagen, Norway, Turkey, London, Scotland, Spain, Ireland...and probably a few more I forgot (I know some are just countries and some are much more specific because we haven't figured out exactly where we want to go). Think we can pull it off with only half a year or so? We shall see.

I guess all we can say for sure at this point is this story is to be continued...