Have We Even Lived in Belgium Yet?

 

We have lived here but the first three months have been such a weird combination of moving, unpacking, traveling, fixing things, trying to establish routines, missing Italy, and occasionally remembering that we now live in Belgium that it doesn't really feel like three months at all. 

Does June even count? 

I don't think June counts. 

We arrived in Belgium on June 5 and spent the rest of the month hulled up in a tiny apartment, waiting to move into our house and trying to figure out what our new life was supposed to look like. Luca started work. I explored how/where to train. We figured out groceries/stores. I found an osteopath and a chiropractor because apparently I cannot move to a new country without immediately assembling a team of people to put my body back together...

We did manage to have a little fun. We went to a couple of parties, met some new people, and started exploring (me, by bike, Luca always my support), including a 44-mile ride to Ghent followed by lunch and wandering around the city. So technically, yes, we were living in Belgium. But, IDK, June doesn't count. 

 July: Okay, now we live here 

We moved into our castle in Tervuren on July 1, which is when I think our actual Belgian life began. Kinda. If life begins with unpacking. And IKEA. And more unpacking. And a home inspection. And fleas. Yes. Fleas. We had exterminators come to the house during the same week as our sixth wedding anniversary and ended up spending the night at a Marriott. Nothing says romance quite like being temporarily driven from your new home by insects. 

Eventually, though, the boxes started disappearing and we started doing normal things. We started meeting neighbors. Luca BBQ'd. We went out for Mexican food with new friends. We worked. We ran errands. I trained. Utilities are up and running; internet works. We bought things for the house, discovered we had bought the wrong things for the house, went back out to buy different things for the house and probably returned to IKEA another 47 times. We are discovering what we love and loath about our house, our neighborhood, our town, commuting...

There were moments when life in Belgium started to feel like life in Belgium. 

And Then We Went to America 

At the end of July, we flew to Ohio and basically put Belgium on hold for a couple of weeks. We saw family and friends, went to Indiana for a wedding, visited an amazing Winery, toured Santa Claus, went to The Wilds, shopped, ate, ran errands, had dinners, parties with friends, and squeezed as much as possible into our time back in the States.  

We finally made it home on August 12. At that point, I did the math. We had technically lived in Belgium for more than two months, but we had only actually lived in our Belgian house for about six weeks. No wonder I didn't feel particularly Belgian yet. Ha!

August: Maybe This Is When We Actually Started Living Here 

August has felt different. The boxes are gone and we have more ordinary days. Luca goes to work. He has started traveling. I work from home. I cook. I grocery shop. I train. We work on the house and in the yard. We have lunch in Tervuren. We meet people for tea. We go to church. We run errands. You know, life. 

We've also started exploring more. We went into Brussels to see the Flower Carpet, which was one of those moments when I remembered that, oh yeah, we live in Belgium. We spent a Sunday in Leuven. We've wandered around our own town. I've found running routes and places to ride. We're slowly developing favorite places and routines instead of having to Google absolutely everything before leaving the house. 

There have also been less glamorous milestones. I power-washed the roof. I flipped chairs. We've painted. We've dealt with a bed mishap and a mattress debacle - and figured out the dump (long story). Somewhere in that, Belgium has slowly started becoming less of the place we moved to and more of the place where we live. 

What Do I Love About Belgium So Far? 

The biking. Obviously. I love that I can get on my bike and actually go somewhere. Not drive somewhere with my bike, unload it, ride around in circles and then put it back in the car. I can leave my house and ride to another town or another city. All without traffic and fear. I've ridden to Ghent. I've ridden to Antwerp. I've ridden to Machelen along the canal. There are bike paths everywhere, and cycling feels like transportation and leisure here. 

I love how close everything is. Brussels is right there. Leuven is right there. Ghent isn't far. Antwerp isn't far. Bruges isn't far. We can get on a train and be somewhere completely different without turning it into a major expedition. France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg are all sitting around us waiting for a free weekend. I also really like Tervuren. I'm glad we didn't end up living directly in Brussels. 

We have trees, trails, places to run and ride, restaurants, shops and a town center, but we're still close enough to Brussels that we can go into the city whenever we want. I love the festivals and random community events. I love that towns actually feel like towns. I love being able to sit outside for lunch or walk somewhere for coffee. I love old buildings and cobblestones and churches and the fact that something beautiful or ridiculously historic can be sitting in the middle of an otherwise completely ordinary Tuesday. And I love the access. 

There is so much we haven't seen yet. That's probably one of the strangest parts of these first few months. We've barely scratched the surface of Belgium itself, never mind everything around it. 

What Do I Not Love About Belgium? 

I would like to formally lodge a complaint with the entire country of Belgium regarding the trash situation. I'm a recycler, I appreciate separating and sorting. The problem is, pick up is every two weeks and it alternates what they're picking up. So essentially, we have plastic trash sitting for 2 weeks then that gets picked up only to have paper and 'other waste' sitting for 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS! It's so gross. And we are only in two. I can't imagine a family of 4 - how much trash they have sitting in their garage for 2 weeks before pick up. 

Belgium has reminded me that moving to Europe is not the same thing as vacationing in Europe. On vacation, the charming little differences are charming. When you live here, sometimes you just want the store to be open. You want to find the thing you're looking for without visiting four stores. You want someone to come fix something in your house. You want to understand what you're supposed to do without translating a website, reading six pages of instructions and wondering whether you have accidentally violated a municipal regulation. None of these things are catastrophic. They're just the tiny inconveniences that start appearing once a place stops being a destination and becomes your everyday life. 

I Still Don't Feel Like I've Really "Done" Belgium 

That's probably my biggest takeaway after three months. I don't feel like we've really experienced Belgium yet. We've experienced moving to Belgium. Those aren't the same thing. Moving somewhere is paperwork and boxes and furniture and figuring out where to buy groceries. It's finding doctors. It's learning where to run. It's discovering which grocery store has the thing you like. It's trying to make friends. It's fixing the house. It's waiting for deliveries. It's working normal workdays. 

And maybe that's what I didn't expect. I thought moving to Belgium would immediately feel like this giant European adventure maybe? Instead, a surprising amount of it has been IKEA and Googling.

But then there are these little moments. I'm riding my bike and realize I'm on my way to Antwerp. We decide to go see the Flower Carpet in Brussels because it's happening and we live close enough to just go. We have lunch in Tervuren. We spend Sunday wandering around Leuven. I look around our house and it's really becoming a home, I like it! There are pictures on the walls. There is food in the refrigerator. There are people here we can call and ask to meet for dinner or tea. I know where I'm going when I leave the house. Most of the time. 

So, have we really lived in Belgium yet? Kinda. Not really. But I think we're finally starting to. Maybe that's how a place becomes home. Not when you arrive. Not when you finish unpacking or receive some official document saying you live there. Not when you've visited all the famous places or learned enough of the language or figured out the trash schedule. Maybe it happens through the accumulation of completely ordinary days. You work. You cook dinner. You go for a run. You complain about the garbage. You meet a friend for tea. You fix something in the house. You explore somewhere new on Sunday. And eventually you stop thinking about the fact that you moved to Belgium. You just live in Belgium. We're not quite there yet. But we're getting there!