This one's for you, John!

At Wallace's request, here's an example of a Belgian with a funny mustache. As a bonus, he's pushing around a (basically life-size) model of Manneken Pis, which actually had the ability to pee on the parade-goers.

pre-belgium post

Welcome to the blog, everyone who got the mass email and then clicked the link. I'm currently in Texas, going to be in Leuven by tomorrow.


As you can see, apparently I shouldn't have shared the blog yet. I think it's good and interesting at this point, though, I was just wondering how reading the great Belgian novel was coming along, KD?

It's Cold!

It usually doesn't get too cold in Leuven - I'm just lucky that my first winter we've already gotten an unusually large amount of snow. I'm used to it, and actually just grateful that there are no gusting winds like in Boston, but I think Fonske's a little out of his element, poor guy:

It hasn't snowed for a few days, but everything is still covered, which is pretty:

Derthienkoeck

So I came home today and there was a loaf of bread sitting on my doorstep! It came with an explanation:

The feast of Epiphany ('Derthiendag' literally 'Thirteenth Day' i.e. the day after 'Twelfth Night') used to be celebrated at the beguinage. This was the occasion for many festivities, including the preparation of delightful food...

From the Infirmary, special loaves of sugar bread, called 'Twelfth Night Cake' ('Derthienkoeck'), were distributed to all the beguines in the enclosure. There were four different kinds of loaves, corresponding to four 'ranks' of recipient...

That is why on 6 January... the residents of the Groot Begijnhof find a bag at their door with a tasteful 'Derthienkoeck'.

So, after a brief pause to wonder which rank of loaf I was given, I dug right in - it's great bread, and will make awesome french toast in a few days!

Back in Leuven

Well I'm back in Leuven after a nice holiday.  I've come down with a post-flight flu again, just like in November, but this time I at least know where to get all the necessary ingredients to make a chicken soup!  The market was pretty deserted today, I'm not sure if it's the holidays or the temperature (it's -5C here, which, unless my research was wrong, is very unusually cold for winter) but it made running my errands very quick and easy.  Here are some pictures from Christmas:

Landed at Logan in the middle of a snowstorm - you can see a big line of snowplows heading out to clear the runways.

Lots of snow in MA!!

Yay, Christmas tree.