Maastricht, Netherlands

Maastricht is in the Netherlands and just a little more than an hour from where we live. Saturday was sunny and a great day for a short trip. The town is beautiful with lots and lots of shops and churches. The top picture shows the sea of bikes parked right by the pedestrian bridge crossing the Maas River. We parked just beyond the bikes and walked all over the market and through the shops. We only made one purchase in a store called "America Today". We still miss the good old USA! On one of the more popular squares we saw a celebration of heart awareness. Free apples, red balloons and blood pressure check ups were offered. It seems like there is always something to celebrate on a sunny day in Europe.
I said in a previous post that we visit a church in every town. Big or little cathedrals are the center point of all European cities. After visiting so many, we decided to find the difference or unique thing in each church. In Maastricht, the Basilica of St. Servatius holds an enormous collection of Servatiana or objects connected with St. Servatius dating as far back as 384AD. We also saw a huge (and weird) collection of saint relics. The statue above is in honor of a revered saint and even boasts the bottom jaw of the saint. This example was the most bazaar, but we also saw arm bones, more teeth and even bits of inner organs!
The old entrance to the church was very well preserved and beautiful.
After site seeing, we went to a restaurant called The Filling Station. It was recommended to us as being a great place with great food. Sadly, it was the worst meal we have had so far in Europe. I could even stretch things a bit and say it was the worst meal we had in our lives. The twins got bubbles with their meal and had fun being kids!


If you are driving by the old house next weekend, stop and say hi to Bob. He will be there all weekend!

GPS

In this picture, Bob is attaching our GPS to the windshield of the car. If you live in or travel to Europe, it is an indispensable object. We could never get around without it since we can't read most of the street signs and there is no rhyme or reason to most of the city planning.

If you own one of these great inventions, you know that a voice talks to you and says wonderful phrases like, "turn around when possible", "make a u turn", and the best one "you have reached your destination". The voice on our system is "Susan". She has become a trusted friend and member of the family. We even joked that she should get a spot in the family photo in our Christmas cards!

In all of Belgium there is just one Starbucks. I know that may sound odd to you especially if you live somewhere like I used to where there is a Starbucks on every corner! Our lonesome Starbucks is located inside the Brussels Airport.

Last week some friends and I took a road trip to the airport to have a cup of coffee! We paid to park and waited in line at the brand new Starbucks. It was worth every euro cent to have a nice cup of the daily blend and grab a bag of freshly ground Verona to take home. If you know me well, you know that I am not particular when it comes to coffee. I will drink everything from $.79 gas station coffee to $3.99 Starbucks. Getting a cup of Joe to go in this part of the universe is not normal. In fact, it really isn't normal to get anything to go...Come to think of it, the cars don't even have cup holders!

Weather Report

Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Thursday Afternoon
Temperature: 61°F
Sunny with cloudy periods. Windy at times.

Thursday Evening
Temperature: 57°F
Clear with cloudy periods. Windy at times.


I must do laundry today. As you can see from the weather report, it's not the best day for hanging your clothes out on the clothesline. Unfortunately, our weather is like this most of the time. It's so funny that I have high speed wireless internet, beautiful kitchen appliances, central heat, two cars, even cable tv, plus a variety of other amenities, but no dryer. The enormous dryer sits quietly in the laundry room. A special transformer is on its way to our house. Then another electrician is going to work his magic to try to connect my American dryer. In hind site, we should have left the silly thing in Indiana!

Car Free Day

Car Free Day was celebrated all over Brussels on Sunday. We rode our bikes to the next town about 1.7 miles from our house. The kids (including Bob) had a great time.

Their favorite festival game is a coin pushing machine. We've seen the same game before but this one is a little different. Prizes fall as you put jetons (coins) into the machine. We came home with a bunch of junk. Remember we rode out bikes to the festival so they could only pick toys that would fit in the basket on my bike! Glass animals, a pig clock, frog watch and lots of jewelry and key chains were most of the things they got as prizes.

Today is Car Free Day in Brussels and the surrounding areas. No cars are permitted anywhere in the city. People are encouraged to use other forms of transportation to travel. We don't have anything in particular planned, but maybe we will bike to the town next to us. Stay tuned!

http://www.dimanchesansvoiture.irisnet.be/en/index.php

Blogging

I never realized just how much this blog would be viewed. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and see how many hits I have had. Even more interesting is the map at the bottom just above the counter. If you click on it you will see where the people are located who landed on my blog. The biggest circles show multiple hits from the same region. You can tell where my family and friends live by how big the circles are in their regions. The weirdest thing are the hits from Egypt, Australia and South America. I often wonder how those bloggers landed on The Biasi Blog! Were they bored when they read it or did they secretly think I should just go out and buy another dryer to solve my laundry problem?



If you go to http://www.google.com/ and search "moving to overijse" under the blog category (located in the "more" section next to Gmail), you will be directed to my blog.



I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the people reading my blog. My mom and dad probably get credit for quite a few of those blog hits on the counter. They gave the blog address to all of the family and Bob's family has read it too. Then there are the friends back home in Indiana, my teaching pals and the kids' friends.



Keep reading the blog. I hope you enjoy it and maybe I can entice you to come visit us and see all the things I write about!

Football:

ISB had their first home football game on Saturday. It poured! The picture of Maria shows her unstoppable school spirit! The boosters actually serve real hamburgers and popcorn. The team won by one point against a rival from London. Next week's game is in Germany. There aren't too many local teams to play! Road trip?

Cooking:

I just figured out you can't buy cream of chicken soup in my store. I am going to keep hunting. I can't be the first expatriate to wish for a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken. This item will be added to my list of most wanted foods. Belgium is filled with wonderful food items. So I will replace those things I used to enjoy with newly found foods that we will grow to crave. In the mean time, I need some new recipes!

Activity update:

Maria is in the musical Oklahoma. Leah is playing the Bass in the orchestra and Jennifer is playing the Viola. They both start cooking classes tomorrow. (Maybe they can help me with the soup problem!) Bob is traveling a little but not too much. And I start taking language classes in Dutch tomorrow. Wow we are busy!!

We have TV!!!

Yesterday I climbed to the top of my tree shaped clothesline and attached a complicated antenna system so my family can now see television.

I am just kidding! Telenet finally arrived, one hour earlier than expected, and quickly set up our signal. We can now see news from many different countries and American sitcoms with Flemish subtitles. Last night we watched the Paralympics, America's Funniest Home Videos and an Italian Beauty Pageant.

I don't have time to write on my blog. I have to watch TV!!!

This is the email I got from my very good friend, Jennifer. I didn't ask permission to print it but I am sure she won't mind. It struck me as very funny and summed up my entire focus right not: TV and laundry!

Here is Jennifer's email:


I am soooo glad to see that you are putting your Longaberger Baskets to good use. (your laundry picture) Maybe you can put an antena on one and get TV reception?

This is how I dry the clothes. My German neighbors were very curious while I took this picture. I'm not sure what opinion they have of us, but taking pictures of the laundry makes us look like weird Americans. They still don't say much to us but they watch us A LOT!

School has truly started now! Maria has an essay due on Monday along with a test in Biology. Leah and Jennifer have to create a mobile about their culture and write a short reflection essay. School seems to be going well and all the kids are making friends and getting settled into a routine. Maria is taking part in the school musical, Oklahoma, and the twins are learning new string instruments to play in the Elementary School orchestra.

TV update - I may actually have television this week! We can't be certain, but it is rumored that someone is coming to our house to set it up on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. We'll see...

Dryer update - still don't have one...I will post a picture of my nifty drying device later on today. That should give all of you a good laugh!

...Hint...Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

After the Race

Inspiration

On Sunday we traveled to Almere, Netherlands to see Mike Sawa compete in the World Championship Triathlon. Mike was Maria's 6th grade teacher and someone we have always revered. We got to spend the day with his wife Nancy, a teaching friend from Sugar Grove, while we all followed Mike through his checkpoints and transitions. The picture above is of Mike finishing after 9 hours of extreme swimming, biking and running. He finished carrying an American flag! The pictures below are of Mike rounding the corner for his last lap of the 18 mile run and Mike congratulating a fellow American. The best picture we have is above showing Mike after the race looking like he could do the whole thing again! We were so inspired by Mike's determination and Nancy's support. After the race we got together to take a few last pictures of teacher, student and friends in a very unlikey place. We thank Mike and Nancy for sharing their passion of sportmanship and for including us on this very exciting day in the most unlikely of places, the Netherlands!

Happy 70th Birthday Papa!!!

We will celebrate with a big cake when we see you. Hope your day was great!