Our first Christmas Season in Belgium

 Saint Nicholas Cookie

We have been living in Brussels for eight and a half months.  Time is starting to move quickly now.  We are still studying French, and Elizabeth really enjoys it.  Dan is finding it one of the biggest challenges of his life.  We are making lots of friends and acquaintances, and we both really enjoy that.  We thought that you might like to know how we see Christmas celebrated in Brussels.  (If anyone from Belgium is reading this and would like to add a clarification, please feel free.)

The Christmas season started to show up in the stores right after Halloween.  Obviously they do not celebrate American Thanksgiving, so we were very curious when that would happen.  We received our first Christmas catalog from a store about a week later; it looked very much like a US flyer.  The intense shopping push began the first week of December and a little bit of the end of November.  There are fantastic bargains - the price number is close to what you would see in the US, but the Euro is worth around 1.40 USD.  They also pay twenty percent tax on everything and they include it on most prices advertised.

Children receive presents twice in December. Saint Nicholas arrives on December the 6^th with presents.  He was known as Nicholas the Wonderworker and was the Bishop of Turkey in the fourth century.  He was the son of rich parents who died while he was young.  He gave away his fortune to help the poor and he became a Bishop at a young age.  He is portrayed as a bishop riding a donkey or mule.  Père Noël, or Father Christmas, arrives Christmas Eve night bringing more gifts to the good girls and boys.  He looks more like a North American Santa than Saint Nicholas.  Everyone has a traditional family meal on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christ does not seem to be as big a part of the festivities as in North America.  We have seen a few manger scenes around the city though.  Please think of us while you celebrate the Holy season.  We will be thinking about you!

A very, very long, sometimes green walk

On Saturday the 5^th of November, we finished La Promenade Verte, the 60 km (37 mile) walk around Brussels.  We have been doing this, an hour or two at a time, since summer.  We started in Stockel at the Chemin de Fer (Iron Trail, old railroad grade) on the east side of Brussels.  We headed southwest towards the Forêt de Soigne.  We walked through several beautiful parks with swans, geese and ducks and nice meadows with families playing in them. 

We even saw a Green Parrot condo in a pine tree.  Some time ago Amazon Green Parrots escaped into the parks and invaded.  The condo was like a purple martin house except the parrots made it themselves from twigs and leaves.  We made it to the Forêt after a couple of days (remember only one to two hours at a time).  We had a wonderful lunch at a sidewalk café and decided that we couldn’t walk across the forest all in one outing.  So we got on the tram and returned home to think about what to do next.

We decided that we would head north from where we had started, and then there would be more access to public transportation so we wouldn’t have to keep going for an uncomfortable distance.  We did well for the first mile or so and then we lost the trail.  There is a special sign for the trail and evidently sometimes a truck would go around the corner too closely and break off the three foot tall post and you wouldn’t have any idea which street to take next.

 We pressed on in the general direction until we ran into the outer ring highway, which we followed northwest until we ran into the markers again.  This was the newest part of Brussels, next to the airport, and there were very modern buildings for business headquarters.  Another day’s hike finished, we rode a bus back to our apartment.  The next walk picked up where we left off except this time we printed Google maps and drew in the trail the best we could.  The walk was through old European neighborhoods, the green part being play areas for children in large apartment complexes.  We lost the trail again and used my phone’s GPS to find our way back to a tram stop.  Just next to the tram stop we saw Elizabeth’s likeness immortalized in sidewalk art.

The reasons we decided to do the very, very long, sometimes green walk were:

We like to walk and if you like Belgian food you must exercise or you will become very large.

We wanted to know the city better; when you use public transportation you don’t see everything.

We were prayer walking - walking and praying for neighborhoods and people that they would be blessed.

This is going to be a multi-part blog, but we will write it more often than once a month so check back soon!

Dan and Elizabeth

Belgian Health Care System

Since arriving here in March we (Dan) have had several occasions to learn about the Social Health Care System.  For the most part we have been impressed with it.  When you need to make an appointment with a doctor, you just call and set up the time, no matter what kind of specialty.  This saves the expense of seeing the family doctor first, if you have a known disease or problem.  

I have suffered from Crohn’s disease for many years, and when I arrived in March I needed an injection of Remacaide very soon because I was on an eight week regimen.  So I looked online to find the best gastroenterologists and found one that could speak English and the appointment was in a week or so.  The doctor is a professor at a university hospital, so his office is in the hospital.  I saw him and the infusion was set up in the time frame that I needed.  

The only problem that I have as an expat is payment.  Before you will be seen or treated you have to pay.  Seeing the specialist was only $45 but the Remacaide was around $4000 USD, so I had to alert my credit card company.  The hospitals are nice, well lit and comfortable.  When I came back for the infusion they had a nice recliner, wifi, a volunteer to serve juice, cookies and soup.  They also had plenty of magazines to read.  The only problem was that it took awhile compared to having the infusion done at my house in Tennessee.  They had to make sure everything was done properly and that I was okay afterwards.  

The big problem was with my wonderful Blue Cross insurance from the US.  They required a proper itemized bill to pay from the provider.  That seemed reasonable but the hospital in Belgium had up to six months to provide us with one.  (It took about six months and three weeks.) They already had their money and if they normally are paid by the Government they know they will be paid so they do not get in a hurry.

If we had been in the health care system, when we arrived at the hospital we would go to the desk for appointments and payment and present our card, which would be swiped like a credit card, and then we would pay the small difference.  For an office visit outside of the hospital, we would pay the fee and then submit it to our Mutuelle later and they would reimburse us for everything except three dollars or so.  

You have your choice of Mutuelle (private insurance administrator).   The Mutuelle is interested in keeping you healthy, so they provide incentives for you to take care of yourself, like half off electric toothbrushes and discounts to gyms etc.  You have your choice of GP, dentist, optometrist, chiropractor, homeopath, acupuncturist etc.  You can hardly buy any over the counter drugs except in a pharmacy.  For prescriptions you pay just a few dollars, better than what I paid with my prescription plan.  

We have found the health care system to be very interesting and nice.  We like it better than in the US, and it is much better than what we know of Canada and Great Britain.  For us to purchase their coverage is less than 300 euro a month.  For citizens it can be as low as 6 euro a month, depending on your salary. (They are already in the tax system, and we would be paying our way in.)   We will probably switch eventually because of the problem with having to be reimbursed by Blue Cross.   

I don’t think that you could just bring the system to the United States and expect it to work as well as it does here.  We thought that this would be an interesting blog subject.  If you have any questions or ideas, let us know.

Madame C

Madame C is our landlady.  She is an amazing woman.  To us she is the epitome of what you would hope a lady would be.  She cared for people for many years volunteering at St. Luc Hospital in the Roseau house.  She would work for 32 hours each weekend, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, in the commons or lounge area.  St. Luc is a hospital for internationals needing transplants and other serious treatments.  People come from many countries to stay at “The Reed” lodging.  The lodging was named the Reed because it bends but does not break.  Madame C speaks many languages - French, Dutch, English and probably others.  She would serve coffee, lend books and magazines and encourage families of patients.

She also took care of our neighbor for fifteen years until she died early this summer, bringing her food and encouragement, making her last days more pleasant.

Madame C started her married life in the Belgian Congo with her husband and young family.  He was a successful travel agent and they had a nice home.  They had to leave it all behind when the Congolese started rioting and demanded independence.  The Belgian and UN armies escorted the European Belgians out of the country as quickly as possible leaving properties behind.   They then moved to Brussels and bought two apartments adding a stairs to the upstairs apartment.  They raised their children and reestablished themselves successfully.   

Twenty years ago Madame C and her daughter were involved in a serious car accident where her adult daughter died and Madame C sustained serious injuries to her neck.  Some of the vertebrae were fused and she has lived in pain ever since, always maintaining a good, kind and caring outlook on life.  When the children grew up and moved away she eventually decided to convert our apartment back to a rental.  This is how we met her.  She was the first Belgian we met and she gave us good expectations of what was to come in meeting other nice people. 

One month ago she started experiencing severe back pain and went by ambulance to St. Luc’s.  They gave her every test imaginable.  She stayed there for the entire month, receiving many visitors and having her bed rolled down to Chapel each Sunday so that she could worship and receive Mass.  This past Friday evening she returned home.  They could not do anything to help her that didn’t have serious consequences (making her very immobile) so she decided to do the best that she can and use a walker.

We have come to love her and want every possible blessing for her.  Some of you were praying for her a couple of weeks ago and we would like our friends to pray for her pain to subside and that she would continue to be a lighthouse to our community in Woluwe St. Lambert, Belgium.

You know you are in Brussels in the summertime if …

… you see old men strolling along the sidewalks with their hands clasped behind their backs like Olympic speed-skaters.

… all the nice cars with roof racks have disappeared from the city.

… you are not going to French class several times a week but you are still doing lots of homework because you know you will go back in September.

… there are traffic jams on E-40 on sunny days because everyone is headed to the beach.

… in July every store had huge sales but they were sold out of your size.

… in August smaller local stores and restaurants cover their windows with newspapers or sheets and go on vacation for a month.

… there is a music festival somewhere every weekend.

… the metro system is more crowded than ever because the schedule is reduced.

… you don’t go to the city-sponsored outdoor movie because (a) it is raining (b) it is too cold (c) it doesn’t get dark until 10:15 p.m.

… the gore-tex raincoat that seemed expensive when you purchased it in the U.S. now seems like the best investment ever.

… you were, however, able to leave your raincoat at home for two days in a row.

… when the sun comes out you drop everything and go outside to enjoy it because you don’t know when it will be sunny again.

… you see a lot of Italian, Greek and Spanish tourists in town because they are escaping the heat and the crowds of tourists visiting their own countries.

… you see mini motor-homes parked on the street.

… you get to tour the king’s palace because he is at his vacation home in the south of France.

Summertime and the living is chilly

Today was the coldest July day in nine years in Belgium.  And we loved it!  It got all the way up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  It rained most of the day and the wind was 15 mph from the west (the North Sea).  Everything was just the way we thought it would be here.  We started out the day with our Bible reading; we ate Muesli (hot of course) and drank our coffee.  We did some computer work, including checking email, facebook and the expats site.  Elizabeth went up to the 5th floor to have her weekly French conversation with a neighbor.  We had a sandwich for lunch and then went shopping at City Centre 2.  There are amazing sales in July - it is kind of like the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Everyone anticipates the "Soldes".  We don't need much, so we didn't buy anything.  But it is a great chance to people-watch.  We had a snack of somosas from the Indian snack counter in the food court.  We studied French for awhile so that we don't forget everything we learned for the last few months.  Now we are watching French TV shows.  In the summer we have also been going on long hikes in large parks, 90 minutes at a time.  We are also planning and getting ready for fall events.  This is our life in the Summer.

A long walk on a Saturday

Brussels, and especially the part where we have been blessed to live - Woluwe Saint Lambert, is a lush, green and very beautiful place to live.  Not everything is perfect, but it is very nice. We have found the people to be very friendly.  Today (Saturday) we went for a very long walk of about two hours.  The only time I had walked that long in Tennessee is when I got lost near Percy Priest lake.  As we walked along the Woluwe Greenway we saw cute little boys chasing Trumpeter Swans. Luckily they didn't catch any.  The Swans were bigger than the boys.  We saw hundreds of Canada Geese. (Are they immigrants from North America also?)  And, we finally saw some fish! I don't know if I want to spend $50 to "tease" them though.  "Teasing" is a direct translation for fishing.  We love to say it.  Then we walked down an unpaved trail and it felt like we were deep in a forest. The only thing we could hear was airplanes overhead.  Then we emerged into Old Woluwe. It looks like what you think of Europe - narrow cobblestone streets and flower boxes on the windows.  We were going to take the bus home but it was too long to wait. Next we were going to see the bourgmestre (mayor) dedicate the reworking of our street, so we walked back to the church we occasionally attend, which is on our street.  There we met some friends and walked with them to the Street Dedication.  We couldn't find it!  After asking for directions and consulting a map, we discovered we had made a wrong turn.  We turned around and went back to find the procession was just beginning.  We found the mayor and about 10 other people led by a New Orleans style band, with a motorcycle police escort.  We joined in and  walked in the parade down to the yard of a big, old church, where he made a speech, and then we had snacks and drinks.  Then we went home and did more French homework.  We met several people along the way and it was a blessed day!

Parlez- vous Francais?

Learning French is quite the experience. Sometimes it is very hard not to burst out laughing! Today I found out that I was wearing "un slip" men's boxers or underwear along with "une chemise" a man's shirt and "pantalons" pants. Not to be forgotten, "une ceinture" - a belt. If I were to preside over a wedding or go to court I would wear "une costume" a suit with "une cravate" a tie. To cool off afterwards we could go swimming, but I would have to go home and get my "maillot de bain" and "serviette" Swim trunks and towel. I can never get the pronunciation correct because I am snickering under my breath. I did, because of your prayers, pass my first French Final. The next one is June 27th. Please continue to pray!

The other big experience has been going to the hospital for my Crohn's disease. I am pretty much symptom free as long as I do not eat very many frites. But I have to take Remicade at the hospital now, instead of in my living room with a nurse administering the IV as I did in Tennessee. So, as soon as we arrived in March, we had to call a gastroenterologist and set up an appointment for the next infusion of the Remicade. The doctor was very nice, once we found him. If you were a graphic artist and a salesman you could become very rich in Belgium. You follow the signs until you get close then they disappear. When you ask for directions the people at the reception desk wonder why they have so many people going to the wrong place. After all, they make it to their place every day. So I had the first treatment after blood work. Then in May I had an MRI and in June (this Monday) I will have a colonoscopy. The MRI was an experience! They put a 1/4" aquarium tube down my nose through my stomach and into my small intestine. They sprayed my nose with toothache spray to make it easier. They said just swallow, just swallow. The technician couldn't get it to go into the intestine so he had the doctor do it. When that was finished, the doctor walked with me down to the MRI. The infirmier (nurse) gave me pants and a shirt to wear. Size small. I looked very funny. Pants 9 inches too short so the fly wouldn't button, and a shirt I couldn't move in. As an accessory I had the aquarium tube hanging out my nose. They had pity on me and traded the shirt for a hospital gown. When I was in the MRI, after the first scan they put the tube to use. Two technicians took a quart and a half of contrast die in little brown jugs and filled huge syringes with it and then squirted it down the hose as quickly as they could. The doctor came out before I was finished changing and told me I was in very good shape. I hope you aren't reading this while you are eating dinner.

Two Months In

Today we received our identity cards.  We are very excited that we no longer have to carry our passports with us at all times.

We have been here now for two months in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.  We have each had about 40 hours of French classroom instruction and between 40 - 80 hours of French homework and study.  We have met people in their homes, had picnics in the park, and had spiritual conversations with fellow language students.  We are continuing to get to know our city by using the public transportation system.

I have decided to try to buy a folding bicycle to make getting around the city easier.  There were four bicycle stores that I had researched on the internet that I wanted to visit.  We plotted the stores on Google maps and threw in a castle that we have been wanting to tour.  The route came out to be a beautiful little oval.  Google maps said we could walk the entire route in 3 hours and 30 minutes.  Having decided which order our stops would be, and with the addresses all entered into the GPS, we headed off to the Metro.  When we came out of the Metro and headed to the tram stop for the next part of the trip, we found the tram was just pulling away from the stop as we dashed across the busy street against a red light.  Looking at the schedule, we decided to head off walking since the next tram was not due for another 15 minutes.  We were almost to the first bicycle shop when the tram passed us.  When we came out of the shop we got on the next tram to continue to our next destination.  Now some trams have screens on them, displaying what stop is coming up next.  This was an older tram that did not.  The tram was very crowded, and since I am very tall  I could not see out the windows to try to read the signs on the tram stops as we passed by.  The GPS was helping to let me know where we were, but after we had been on the tram for a few minutes, it lost its position through the metal roof.  Finally, after Elizabeth squeezed by a few people to look at a map on the tram wall, we decided we should get off the tram.  When we started looking at the map at the tram stop, we discovered we had gone several stops past where we needed to be.  So we crossed the street and waited several minutes for the next tram to take us back in the direction we had just come.  This got us close to our next shop but by now, we desperately needed to find a restroom and since it was past lunch time we stopped at a little Greek cafe for some salad (and the restroom).  We ended up cutting our shopping trip short, only visiting 2 of the 4 shops, and deciding to leave the castle for another day.  After another tram ride we made it to a Metro stop which took us back home - exhausted.

Even though we are living in an environment that is very foreign to two people who grew up in rural areas and have lived most of our married life in suburban areas, we are learning to get around the city with public transportation.  We find it all worthwhile because of the relationships we are building with people in the city.

One month

We have been here for one month now and we are doing well - at least we think we are (no one has asked us to leave anyway).  We have had lots of interesting experiences, starting with a connection at Heathrow airport.  It has to be the most confusing airport in the world.  They should have someone help them redesign their signs. We felt lost and unsure until we were on the airplane.  The airport does not tell you which gate the plane will board at until twenty minutes before departure.  Then you scramble carrying your luggage for about a quarter of a mile.

When we arrived in Brussels Kyle was waiting for us with a driver to tote all of our remaining possessions to their apartment until we would find an apartment of our own.  We got everything up to the fourth floor with few problems and then we set off to explore our new city.  We purchased subway and bus tickets and then went exploring.  We saw grocery stores, banks, parks, and what passes for Home Depot (Brico).  The first Saturday we went to the public market in the city square of Stockel.  Elizabeth bought a primrose which is now out on our little balcony and still blooming beautifully.  The vegetables, flowers, meats, fruits and other wares created a beautiful spectacle.

All of the time that we were travelling around exploring the city, we were looking for apartments and taking pictures of signs advertising apartments for rent, as well as looking on the internet.  We narrowed the possiblities down to five farorites and on the second Sunday Kyle and Peyton helped us scout them out.  Then on Tuesday we went to see two of them.  The first one was owned by a very spry 83 year-old lady.  It was pretty much everything we were looking for.  It is completley furnished with utilities included in the rent.  We only have to pay for telephone and internet separately.  There is no laundry though; we go to a nearby laundromat once a week.  We came back the next day and signed the lease and paid the first month's rent as well as a month as a security deposit.  We moved in later the same day.  The other apartment we saw was unfurnished and generally didn't interest us much in person.

Our next major task was to find language schools.  We chose different schools, both downtown near the US embassy and by the European Parliament.  I am in my second week of classes and Elizabeth is in her third.

We have been going to French-speaking churches each week.  We can understand 0 - 50 % of the message if we have the scripture passage.  We have met two influential Belgian church leaders and have had meetings with them.  One of them introduced me and Kyle to a long-time friend of his who he has been trying to influence for Christ.  Kyle and I have begun meeting with this man separately for an hour each week for conversational help with the French language.

A week ago Sunday we made a little letter with our picture, telling a little about ourselves.  We put a copy in each of the mailboxes in our building.  There are about 12 apartments.  The next day, one of our neighbors rang our buzzer and invited us for snacks the following evening.  We had a great time visiting with this older couple who spoke very little English.  Today we met two more neighbors in the foyer.  One of them told us we had made a big mistake.  When we went back and looked at what we had written we realized she was right.  We forgot to include our name on the letter.  Oops!  She said there had been some other recent additions to the building and she didn't know who we were so that she could invite us.

I have also had an appointment with a gastroenterologist, and went last Friday for the Remicade infusion treatment I get every other month for Crohn's disease.  I will post more about this later.

One week in the books!

On Thursday the 17th of March we completed the first week of our adventure in Belgium. It has been a time of Great Blessing. We attribute the blessings to our great God who loves to bless and answer prayers of his followers, and we are thankful for the love and leadership of the Goen family. Kyle, Amy and the kids made it so easy to find things and know what to do next. We started out with getting minutes on LifePoint’s temporary phones, opening a bank account, registering with Etterbeek Commune, looking for an apartment online, and walking around and looking for signs on buildings. We also got a recommendation for a real estate agent that specializes in rentals to expats. We emailed and contacted him and he never got back with us. On Sunday morning we visited a French-speaking Baptist Church and heard a message about the ministry of Wycliffe Bible Translators. In the afternoon we went to the locations of four or five apartments and ranked them. On Tuesday we went to see our first choice and really liked it. We weren’t able to reach our second choice. We saw the third choice the same day, but it wasn’t nearly as attractive to us. Our apartment at A.J. Slegers is right around the corner from the subway stop “Josephine-Charlotte” and is on the second floor. After we signed the lease on Wednesday morning we went to the City Commune Hall of Woluwe St. Lambert and registered and completed our residency cards. The picture ID will be ready in about five weeks and then we won’t be required to carry our passports everywhere we go. On Wednesday afternoon, missionary friends from Tennessee came to visit the Goens and us, and we moved in. That took about 30 minutes, because they have a minivan that held all of our luggage. On Thursday because we were blessed to be able to get our yearly Metro passes (all public transportation for Metropolitan Brussels). That cost 966 euro for the two of us - we were paying 9 euro a day for single day passes. After that we signed up for internet, house phones and mobile phones (called gsm’s in Europe).

Now we are setting up the apartment. It has lots of storage and is fully furnished so we just need to set up an office and do a little decorating! Next week we start looking for language schools.

If you have not contributed financially and would now like to, you can do so by sending financial gifts to: Dan & Elizabeth Christensen, LifePoint Church, 506 Legacy Dr. Smyrna, TN 37167
(Please put a note in the envelope signifying it is for Christensen - Belgium.)

You can also give online by going to http://lifepointchurch.org/give and specifying in the memo section that you are giving for “Christensens - Belgium”

Thank your for your prayers and support God is Blessing!

Dan & Elizabeth

"First Daze"

We have been in Etterbeek for a day and a half now and it has been very eventful.  We were on our way to Crainhem to go to a Carrefour  for school supplies for Jordan, Peyton and Evan and we walked into a Carnaval  Parade.  Of course we had to stop and get pictures and dance with the green characters - well I convinced Elizabeth, Evan and Jordan.  If I had danced, the party would have been over and my visa revoked.

On the way out of the subway station Elizabeth ran into a sign pole, because she was involved in a deep conservation.    Before those two exciting events everything has been going very well.  We landed in Brussels on Thursday afternoon and walked the rest of the day.  We went to the bank and were referred to another bank. The next day we finished the appointment and maybe on Monday we will have money available.  Also on Thursday we activated temporary phones - $35 for 60 minutes.

Tomorrow we are going to a French language church that is attended by the Leader of the Protestant Synod.  We are really looking forward to it!

More to follow!

P.S. to Larry - to your list "First Daze" you should add "Watch out for metal posts in the middle of the sidewalk".  Elizabeth has a big goose-egg on her forehead.