The move to Belgium

Yep, we are now living in Belgium. Been here one week from tomorrow. And it is soooooooo much more different than I could ever have imagined but I think I am going to like it. For those who are unaware of the details to date, we have bought a big house in Belgium. It is actually 2 complete 3 bedroom houses, each complete with their own kitchen, bathroom, etc. There is no internal access between the 2. We bought in Belgium because it is sooooooooooo much unbelievably cheaper than Holland and Hans preferred to buy cheaper instead of paying for a pile of bricks the rest of his life. For some reason though, Belgian law says we have to have 2 separate mortgages and that settlement on the 2 halves must be a month apart. Strange. But the first half has been settled and we have moved in. The second half settles on April 28. The other half is currently rented out but when the rentee moves out, we will move over and then rent out the side we are currently in. The only change in address will be that “bus 2” will change to “bus 1”. I will advise when that happens.

We have only moved 27 km from our house in Leende, Netherlands. And we are now actually slightly closer to Hans’ work than we were, he works in Holland. We are approximately 15km from the border between Holland and Belgium. And I am so amazed at the differences when we only moved 27km. Well, of course, I had always noticed the differences in architecture and house styles when you crossed the border. Plus things like road quality and how the radio always went stupid right at the border. But absolutely everything is completely different. We don’t have wheelie bins in Belgium. We now have a lot of completely different tv stations and are missing several we used to have. The water tastes downright disgusting now and we have starting buying bottled water. We cant buy my brand of cigarettes or Hans’ dutch licorice on this side of the border. And the differences just keep coming…………

Today we went grocery shopping which was a good and bad experience. It was bad because my purse was pinched out of my handbag but luckily I turned in time and the guy pretended he had found it on the ground and gave it back. I left it at that but was pretty dazed and shaken. That had never happened to me in Holland. Also, it was bad because you cant eftpos at the supermarket. They only take cash, credit cards (not normal keycards), and chipknip. Chipknip is this thingy built into keycard and you put money on it to pay for things like grocery, parking, etc, do you have that in Oz? Anyway, Hans then had to run off to find a bank while I waited at the checkout with the groceries. What an embarrasment, so many things are more different than you would think!

On the good side though, Well the supermarkets here are soooooooo huge in comparison to Holland, more like in Australia, and with so much more variety and different types of things. I could actually get gnocchi, which I love and Holland seems to have never heard of. Also, heinz tomato sauce chips as well as salt and pepper chips, they are also unheard of in Holland. And the list goes on. I am even able to buy Lipton or twinings english breakfast tea, which is so much better than the dutch tea, in the supermarkets here. Before, I could only get it from this special little store in Eindhoven and paid through the nose for it. It was so good to get things I have been without so long. I think I would have gone over the border to shop a bit more if I had of known. And, remember, all these differences only 15km from the border. I forgot to look for apricot nectar though. Will have to check next time so that maybe I can make apricot chicken again.

On top of that, it is so much cheaper over here. All alcohol, (not just beer and wine) is available in the supermarkets and has heaps less tax on it. The other day petrol was 18c/l cheaper. And a lot of other things are also cheaper. A lot of shops are also open on Sundays here so finally I can get bread or milk if I run out over the weekend. And I sure do love the 24 hour bread automats that are everywhere. Now that is a new concept, getting loaves of bread from a machine in the wall, I nearly died laughing when I first saw it.

And another difference, here everything is written twice, in Dutch and French. North of Brussels, where we are, they speak Dutch. South of Brussels speaks French. The country has two official languages and as a result, all groceries, etc are written in both languages and we also now have a heap of French tv channels that we will never watch. It sure is a bit of a strange country.

Well I gotta go but one more interesting bit of info for you, by the time you get this letter I will sort of be married. Hans and I go for what they call a registered partnership on 22 April, the Tuesday after Easter. We have a small ceremony in town hall and even need witnesses for it and everything. The only difference in Holland is that with a registered partnership, babies arent automatically given the fathers name but keep the mothers name. Otherwise it is completely the same as marriage and legal. Even when we later marry (when my mum comes over to visit) we don’t need a ceremony or anything, it is only a matter of paperwork to change over. But we will still have a small ceremony for mum J Just to exchange rings and that sort of thing J But we decided to do the registered partnership in the meantime for several reasons. First, so that I can apply for my Dutch citizenship while living in Belgium (possible only if married or have registered partnership with Hans) through the Dutch embassy. Instead of getting Belgian citizenship down the track. Also so I could keep my Australian citizenship (the Dutch wont let you keep your original nationality unless you have one of the exceptions to the rule of which marriage or registered partnership is an exception). And also to make the move to Belgium a lot easier. So I guess you can say I will be married in a couple of weeks1