You know you've accepted life in Belgium when...

Last weekend Kyle and I went to Lille France for Europe's largest flea market.  I need to write a bit more on that but I have a more pressing blog inspiration today.

This fall I will be teaching a couple of beginning jazz classes to students ranging in age from 8 to 18.  In order to do this, there is a bunch of paper work to be completed.  One piece of the paper work is a background check.

In the US this involves filling out a piece of paper, writing a check for the fee and waiting for the report to be mailed (snail or email) to whoever wanted it.  Maybe a ten minute investment of my time - tops.

In Belgium, I had to personally go to my city hall during their very limited business hours, hand over my ID watch them tap at their computer keyboard for 15 minutes and then receive instructions to come back on yet another week day during very limited business hours to pick up my report.

So yesterday I went and began this process.  It wasn't until I was driving home that I realized that I thought nothing of this!  I wasn't moaning and groaning to myself about limited hours, about paying for parking, about how nothing in Belgium is a one step and you are done process.  I simply accepted it as the way life is.  And really, I'm still not really bothered by this, it is just what is done.  In fact, as I was walking out of city hall I was thinking to myself, "well that was easy."

Go back and read my Belgian ID blogs and you'll see how far I've come in accepting how bureaucracy is carried out here.

Tanks in Town

A guest post from Kyle who really really wanted to write this and bugged me for days.....

Tanks in Town – Commemorating the Liberation of Mons from the Nazis

Mons was occupied by Nazi Germany from May 1940 until September 2, 1944. The liberation did not involve a battle, but rather reconnaissance elements of the 3^rd Armored Division drove into Mons and stopped for a bit before taking up pursuit of the retreating Nazi forces. The Army Major leading the American tankers signed the city’s registry with his name and tank number. After the War, the US Army gave that tank to the City of Mons, where it was parked on the main square. Forty years later, with the tank in disrepair, the city passed the tank to a WWII vehicles enthusiasts group, which began to commemorate the liberation by having several dozens of WWII-era jeeps, motorcycles, half-tracks and tanks “invade” the city of Mons every year on the weekend before Sep 2; thus was born the “Tanks in Town” tradition. They drive in on the same route 3^rd Armored followed, parking for the evening on the main square.

 

Our whole family went down to see the drive in. The neatest part was seeing the bigger tanks drive up the narrow cobblestone streets without hitting something. It had rained much of the day before and most of the tanks were covered in thick mud where they had chewed up the ground at their muster point outside of town; some tanks--all covered in mud--were towed in on trailers, presumably having become disabled in the mud. The loud engines and gas and diesel fumes were enough to give Melissa and Kyra a headache. It’s really neat to see all these vehicles being preserved by families committed to preserving history and acting it out each year.

Adventure Courses in a non Litigious Country

If you saw my facebook post yesterday, you already know that on our 18th wedding anniversary Kyle and I (and the kids) went spelunking, zip lining and did a ropes course.

I'm a bit sore and bruised today from the experience but we all had fun and it is always good to challenge myself to go a bit out of my comfort zone.  In many aspects the ropes course we did here in Belgium was like those we have experienced back in the states.  We wore a safety harness, there were caribeeners (spelling???), and all kinds of wires.  We walked on lines high above the ground.  There were unstable steps, cargo nets, rolling logs, etc.

What was noticeable different was the level of staffing and the level of staff engagement with participants.  Pretty much the staff made sure the harness was on correctly, showed us how to clip on and off a line, pointed to the start and said yell if you have any problems.  From there we were on our own.  No one supervised if we were indeed clipping on and off the safety line correctly.  No one yelled encouragement if we were unsure about going forward.  No one was there to help us figure out a tricky element.

A few people did have difficulty with the ropes course.  It took several minutes of yelling and/or whistling to get assistance.  Fortunately no one completely freaked out.  As a family we did fine on our own - it helped that all of us have done ropes courses before and have a decent level of strength and balance and that the height didn't bother us.  Kyra did fall off one element, but was able to pull herself back on without assistance.

I think Kyle and I were the most struck by the lack of supervision in the caves.  We were shown a map of the tunnels, warned that some of the passages were tight, and pointed down a flight of steps.  The staff person said if you get lost, just yell for a while and someone will come.  This may have been reassuring had there actually been a staff person who was nearby the caves, but as soon as instructions were given, he left and we were on our own.  No one monitored the caves.  If we had gotten stuck or lost, we would not have been discovered until someone else entered the caves.

Many times I have encountered excessive safety barriers and warnings for idiots in the US and thought, is this really necessary?   Yesterday, we were fine without the excessive care but I wonder if there isn't a happy medium.