Civil Disobedience

Every so often, people just have to express their frustration. We all know the feeling: someone makes you mad, so you stew for awhile, and fume for awhile, and eventually you have to vent.

Since Brussels is the capital of the European Union, we get quite a bit of venting. The Tibetians camped out in front of the Chinese Embassy, which just happens to be down the road from our house, for about two weeks in the spring. I kinda got used to the chanting. Several weeks ago, the Icelandic fisherman burned tires in front of the Parliment, which just happens to be up the road from our house. That was a little less pleasant.
And just last week, the farmers, taxi drivers, and truckers expressed their disapproval of high gas prices by encircling the city on the main roads and parking for several hours. And guess what? One of the main roads runs right by our house! Literally hundreds of farm tractors drove into Brussels about 10 in the morning and parked around Montgomery Circle, one of the major crosspoints in SE Brussels for about 5 hours. The taxi's took over the inner ring, and the truckers parked on the outer ring effectively shutting down the city for the day. Fortunately we were warned several days beforehand so it was a vacation for some and a busy day for the metro.

Of course, everyone had to come out to watch and take pictures, and with the air cannons going off every few minutes and the armored police vehicles everywhere, it was quite a party atmosphere. We are getting even more education than we bargined for here in Europe!

Paris for the Day

On Monday, I took a break from real life, and lived an alternate reality for almost 12 hours. My friend, Rhonda, turned 50 and her husband informed her that she was old enough to do whatever she wanted. SO, she decide to grab two friend and run away to Paris for the day. This is the kind of thing that we always talk about, but never do. Well, we did it! Paris is a little over an hour by train from Brussels. We met at the metro, jumped on a train, ate Fig Newtons and Reeses peanut butter cup while talking about books, and jumped off in front of my favorite chapel in the whole world: Sainte-Chappelle.
Built in 1248, there is just enough stone work to frame the stained glass. King Louis IX had the chapel built inside the palace walls so he wouldn't have to walk across the street to Notre Dame. They say he used to come to service in his PJ's. My kind of King.
I have seen pigeons this tame, but never sparrows. They really liked the Fig Newtons.
Lunch on the Champs Ellysees in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe where a 1/2 liter bottle of water costs : 8.70 euro, thats $14.24 US. And we think gas prices are high... Now what should I do when I turn 50? The Taj Mahal...the Great Wall...Easter Island...Babe's Chicken Dinner House?

Year in Review

Since the school year is almost over, I thought this might be a good time for a retrospective of our first year at the International School of Brussels:

September

Matthew and his class after some science field work in a meadow near the school.

October

Our first Belgian ER visit: Julia lost control on the Monkey bars at school and cut her nose straight across. Not everything in Belgium takes forever--we saw an ER Doc and a specialist and were done within 1.5 hrs!

November Benjamin's Cross Country Championships in Paris

DecemberAnna's class had a field-trip to the skating rink at the Christmas Market in downtown Brussels. They took the metro!

JanuarySarah and her Friends relaxing between classes.

FebruaryRugby Season + Rainy Season = Mud Wrestling

MarchJulia prepares to dazzle at the 2nd Grade Music Presentation

April Anna and her 6th Grade class in Florence, Italy. How's that for a field trip???

May OK, so this really happened in October, but just imagine...Matthew's 4th grade extended field trip to a sports camp in France. This was a pretty big deal for a kid who doesn't do heights!

June

Sarah and the B-Boys (Brennan and Billy) after some excruciating science finals.