We are settled in to our new home for a week in Brussels. It's a beautiful three-story Art Deco style house with a lot of period detailing. It has high ceilings , some of which are arched and some with soffits and decorative molding. There is plenty of space here for us, and at least some of us feel it has a more "homey" feel than our last housing, which was very modern. There is a large garden behind the house, and several balconies with tables. We also have a small grand piano, an eat-in kitchen, and a nice living area. Apparently the owners have been in the midst of doing some remodeling, and the top floor bathroom is not quite done, unfortunately (they seem quite embarrassed and unhappy about this, as they had extracted a promise from the plumber to finish it by noon yesterday). Apparently they had attempted to get a plumber in today, but it's a Catholic holiday (the Assumption), so apparently lots of people don't work (whether or not they are Catholic or even religious). We've been told that Belgium is quite secular, but like people everywhere, no one here is going to scorn a holiday. We had a visit from two older men (unclear who they are - probably friends of the owner). They explained to me in French that one of them is ... (unclear - former plumber? contractor with some experience in coordinating plumbing jobs?). They came, examined things, and then told us there will be a plumber here on Monday morning at 7:30 or 8 am. The plumber will work until midday, at which point he/she will need to turn off all the water to finish the job. We are going to the Netherlands on Monday, so that's a perfect day to have the water off. It does mean, though, that the 12 of us are going to need to share one shower until then. Should be interesting. We have one and a half baths that work, so we'll take things in shifts.
One interesting thing about this home is that it comes with a "staff." There were three women here this morning to garden and cook breakfast. We got to know Anna and Esther a bit. They speak mostly Spanish, with a little bit of French, so fortunately Allan was available to translate from Spanish, with which they are most comfortable. He seems to have been able to develop a positive relationship with them, so that's good. Esther was quite curious about Seventh Day Adventism, and asked a lot of questions about SDA beliefs about the rapture, etc. They seem quite eager to do whatever they need to do to make us comfortable. Paul asked this morning if they had salsa or ketchup and Esther said, "Just a minute, I'll go see." A minute later Allan heard her in the hallway telling Anna to run out the market and buy some ketchup. We've decided we need to be careful what we ask for, because they will do their best to get it even if it involves inconvenience. They will make dinner several of the days we are here and Esther will be here in the mornings to make us breakfast. Unfortunately several of the female students went running this morning and the rest were apparently still asleep, so they missed the period when Esther was making breakfast. She seemed surprised to see only five of us here. A while ago we got a call from the two who went running and had gotten lost, so Allan and Anna went out to retrieve them and brought them home for breakfast. Most of the rest of them didn't emerge until 10:30, after she had left. Paris was very busy, and we're all tired, so I think this needs to be a more restful day. We've been told this is a safe area for women to run, and the two who went out said that people were very friendly, but just didn't recognize the name of our street when they asked for directions (it's a small street). We told them that asking for the Metro station is probably a better bet, as people are more likely to be able to direct them to the station, and they know how to get here from the Metro. In any case, getting lost (in a group, with a phone as backup) is part of getting to know any city.
We've only been in a few of the Brussels Metro stations thus far, but the ones we've seen have been more modern than the ones in Paris. The closest Metro station to us in Paris was Poissonieres, which was built in 1910. It's probably not surprising that it's all stairs and it hasn't been practical to retrofit it for disabled access. All of the stations we've been in here in Brussels have had escalators and/or elevators, and even automatic entrances designed for people in wheelchairs, people with strollers or dogs (!) or luggage, and people with children under 6. These entrances consist of two sets of sliding doors that create a sort of lock like in a canal, and allow people to pass two at a time into the station by putting in both of their tickets into a ticket taking machine while they are in glass vestibule.
Another big plus for us about this house is that it has enough space for all of us. The last place was too small, so our kids ended up sleeping on the floor of our room. We have an odd number of men and women students, so two students had singles so we could house the men and women separately. The first night we scavenged cushions and pillows for the kids, and they were so tired from the long plane trip that they didn't seem to care. The next day we found a sporting goods store and bought them air mattresses. These are reasonably comfortable, but not the same as having their own beds. Here there are a lot more twin beds, so our family has a large room with five twin beds, and the students are all in single, double, or triple rooms. This morning we are all taking it easy in the house. Allan is reading guidebooks, Barbara is playing hymns on the piano, the kids are working on math, Paul is doing accounting, and various other people are taking showers, unpacking, reading, and such.
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| Barbara at the piano (after I took this photo she started teaching Aydin to play chopsticks on the piano) |
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| house from the backyard |
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| kitchen side of the house (kitchen is the bottom large window, just above that there's a balcony off our room, and above that is the top floor where the women are living. Allan has a single room on the same floor as us). |
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| Art Deco detailing in the staircase |
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