Three Sets of Footprints - Sundays in My City

No, there is no religious poem here. You can be sure I won't ever do that!

It snowed again this week. And got down to 9 degrees. I cannot express how ready I am for warmer weather!!  Because I walk the dogs before most people are even awake we were the first to disturb the snow that started overnight.

Did I mention I'm over snow and freezing cold weather? It's sunny in San Francisco so go join Unknown Mami as she hosts scenes from cities around the world.

Really Google?

Last night I clicked on...something...in the Google account that is linked to this blog. When I started the blog, Blogger and Google were separate entities. At some point they merged (Google bought Blogger most likely) and you were required to link a Google account to your blog. But, you couldn't link an existing Google account; you had to create a new one.  Okay, whatever. So last night I was checking some settings and Google wanted me to fill in some info.  It asked me for my DOB and, never wanting to put my real info, I chose the conception date for this blog which was in 2008.

Instantly, without any warning or an, "are you sure?" I got a message saying my account and everything associated with it had been disabled because I did not meet Google's minimum age requirement.  "Oh for f*&#s sake!," closely resembles what came out of my mouth.  I had 29 days to prove my real age to Google or they would delete my account, including the blog. The blog wasn't even viewable (and if you tried to look at it you were told it had been removed). 

Google gave me 3 options to prove that I was at least 13 years old. I could give them my credit card number and they would make a charge of $0.30 in order to validate my age. I could send a copy of a government issued ID by fax or mail (then wait a week or two after they receive it for them to "process" the information). I could scan and upload a copy of a government issued ID (also waiting days or weeks for processing).  I tried about 47 times to upload a very-blacked-out copy of an ID receiving a, "Sorry, there was a problem uploading. Please try again." message every time. Finally I caved and let them charge me $0.30.  In less than a minute I had access restored. I'll be spending some time figuring out how to backup or save all these posts just in case I do something inadvertently again and incur the wrath of Google!



Note: I'm sure this was not a phishing scam but will closely monitor my credit card, of course.

They Should Have Hired Me

Then they wouldn't have this problem! Just saying :)

Fire trucks can’t get into new Brussels fire station A construction mistake has come to light in the new fire station in Schaerbeek. As a result of the error fire engines are not able to drive into the new building. There is a one meter difference between the floor level at the garage exit and the street. As a result fire-fighters have been unable to move into the new Brussels fire station. The firefighters who were supposed to move into the new building beginning of March,still don’t know when they can make the move.

Sidewalk Chalk - Sundays In My City

I never know what I'm going to see when I round the corner but it's always delightful.

For more delightful sights, round the corner to Unknown Mami and check out more SIMC posts.

Abandoning Books

I don't do many blog posts about books but when Jessica prompted people to write about abandoning books I just had to join.  She asked the following questions:

What books have you abandoned or put on pause?  

Have you ever ended up loving a book that you had to put down the first time around?

I used to be completely incapable of quitting a book. No matter how much I hated it I made myself read the whole thing.  I finished Anna Karenina but spent the entire book feeling like I was crawling through the desert in search of water. It was the same thing page after page and it never seemed to get any closer to being done.  It bored me to no end and I couldn't have cared less what happened.  When someone told me that War and Peace was very similar I knew I'd never even try to read it because I didn't want to go through that torture again.

 

Then I started reading Doctor Zhivago.   I hated it. When I put it down I didn't have even the remotest desire to pick it back up. I simply did not care what happened to those characters.  I've read other books that I didn't enjoy (Geek Love, for example) but even though I didn't enjoy it I still wanted to know what happened (and that annoyed me because I felt like I was wasting time reading about characters I didn't like).  Not with Zhivago.  It was the first book I quit. And I've never looked back. I've never once wondered what happened. I simply do not care. At all. And now when I feel that way I have no problem quitting a book.

 

Peace Corps volunteers tend to read a lot of books.  At least back then, we didn't have internet or even phones so we spent a lot of time reading. Whenever we'd make a trip to HQ we'd fill our bags with books from the volunteer library because running out of reading material while at your site was a horrible thing to have happen!  And because we had a lot of time to read many of us tackled some of the classics and long-reads like War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov (which I did read). 

 

I ran out of books once.  I panicked! Then I picked up a book I'd already read and reread it.  I don't remember which book it was. There are a few books I've read multiple times (Catcher in the Rye, Franny & Zooey, Atlas Shrugged, In Watermelon Sugar) because I've wanted to read them again; either because I loved them or because I wanted to understand better. 

   

I usually have a couple books going at the same time so I might be part-way through a book and not read any of it for several months but it's not because I've intentionally put it on "pause."  The only book I remember quitting and then later reading to the end ended up being one of my favorite books ever: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

 

I had heard such wonderful things about it from other PCVs and it being set in Africa and talking about eating sugar cane and soldier ant attacks resonated with many. I absolutely could not get into it.  A couple years ago I decided to try again since it did come so highly recommended.  I. Loved. It!  I read it twice. I gave it to Angie for the blogger book swap.  It is very likely I'll read it again. I am so glad I gave it a 2nd chance!

What about you?  Any books you've simply put down never to pick up again? Any books you gave a 2nd chance and are very happy you did?

Thanks for the prompt, Jessica!

Ghent (Gent, Gand) - Sundays in My City

Ghent is about a 2 hr drive from me. Like many Belgian cities and towns, it has derivations of its name in Flemish (Dutch) and French. Ghent is no different. Also known as Gent or Gand (in French).  In Flemish it's pronounced with a guttural "G" like you're clearing phlegm from your throat. Belgium is divided into two distinct regions: Flanders and Wallonia.  The Flemish speak Dutch and the Walloons speak French. Flanders is, in my opinion, the much nicer side of Belgium.  It's been the more prosperous of the two and has nicer architecture and better infrastructure.  It's cleaner. There's not much of a unified government in Belgium so Flanders and Wallonia operate largely separately.

Ghent is the largest city in East Flanders and is located at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys.  In the Middle Ages it was one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe. It was occupied by the Germans during both World Wars but escaped severe destruction and was liberated by the British in 1944. Today it is a busy city with a port and a university. Its center is the largest car-free area in Belgium making it a nice place to wander even though it was quite cold and windy.

Museum of Fine Art

There was a bike race in town.

At a university coffee shop.

Belgian chocolate is world-renown. Even the tiniest shop has an amazing array of chocolates to choose from.

Palace of Justice

The Gravensteen Castle (think "Tower of London" but on a smaller scale).

The Ghent Lion

Ghent Train Station

SIDE NOTE: There was a light dusting of snow when I woke up Saturday morning. Nothing really. But when I went to the garage to leave I realized I'd left my bicycle out all night. Unlocked! And no one stole it!  When we woke up Sunday morning there was a good 6" of snow in Ghent (not a flake had fallen when we went to bed). Upon returning to the Netherlands it was clear it had snowed the whole time we were gone.

OOPS! Left it out all night!

Arriving back in the Netherlands

The back yard when I got home.

What the entrance to the construction site looked like. I had to walk with my bike most of the way down this street because it was unplowed and I fell a couple times trying to keep the bike upright.

Pushing my bike across the construction site...snow way too deep to ride.

 I hope you enjoyed the tour of Ghent.  Now take a stroll over to Unknown Mami and take tours of some other pretty incredible places.

Frost - Sundays in My City

This is what we woke to on Monday morning. Even though it was a holiday I was working but I went in a little later than normal so it was still light out when I was leaving allowing me a chance to get some pictures of the frost.

Now grab a cup of something warm and settle back for lots of other interesting posts over at Unknown Mami.

I'm Sure It Will Be Fine {Commence Nail Biting}

I've been known to have some control issues. Okay, perhaps that's an understatement. Fine, it's a big understatement! Can we move on, please?

The last couple weeks have been very stressful at work and have included lots of very long workdays (11-12 hours).  I talked to a friend about going away this weekend and found someone to watch the dogs.  Normally, I'm all over planning activities. Whenever I go somewhere I have to have everything mapped out including walking and/or transportation routes between lodging, things to see and places to eat (I like to have ideas of places to eat so that I'm not left super hungry and looking for some place that serves something other than pork).  This time though, I had no time to do any planning. I told my friend it was all up to her.  YIKES! 

I'm sure what she booked is not what I would have booked (although I haven't looked at it because I don't want to freak out).  I don't know if she's looked up anything or even if she has any ideas. I'm sure it will be fine...I'm sure it will be fine...I'm sure it will be fine ...cue panic attack!  I'm trying to breathe and put it all out of my mind and plow through my work today and let whatever happens tomorrow... happen. This is NOT easy for me. But I'm proud of myself for letting someone else handle it rather than stay up too late trying to do it all myself which would only result in me being tired and thus, even more stressed.

Wish me luck tomorrow!  I'm sure it will be fine...

Misty Morning - Sundays in My City

After all the excitement and celebrating last weekend for Carnaval, it was nice to just relax and look out the window this morning.

Lots of other great views can be found over at Unknown Mami. Go check them out!

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Angie over at Angie Eats Peace tagged me in a blogger award.  You might remember Angie as my Blogger Book Swap partner; although she wasn't blogging at the time. Now she has some great posts on healthy eating and living. I learned a great technique for getting the water out of tofu before cooking it allowing it to better absorb the flavors you're trying to impart and I decided to give avocado another try after reading about so many of her meals.  I tried avocado once a long time ago and while I won't say I didn't like it, I didn't really like it.  It's not that I disliked it; I just didn't feel anything about it.  I tried it again this week and whereas I'm still not in love with it I think I can find ways to make it somewhat appealing and thereby benefit from this healthy fruit.

So, back to this award. Here are the rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

Well, honestly, I don't follow that many blogs so I won't be fully participating (I won't be tagging anyone else) but I'll play along with part of it.

11 Things About Me  

(This took a long time as I found it difficult to come up with 11 even remotely-non-boring things to tell about myself.)

1. I hate onions. Doesn't matter if they're raw or cooked. I don't want them anywhere near my food!

2. Contrary to popular belief, hating onions does not mean I hate other really strong flavors such as garlic and ginger. I love those and cook with them all the time.

3. I never liked coffee until I moved to the Netherlands a couple years ago. Now I drink it most mornings. However, I drink decaf.  And if I don't have my morning coffee it's not a big deal. But I do like the taste. As long as it's very creamy! They serve something here called a koffie verkeerd (literal translation: coffee wrong). It's a little coffee with a lot of milk. It's perfect!

4. I am not a housekeeper. Despite growing up in a very tiny house where things really needed to be kept neat and put away I'm terrible at that. I have no problem doing the laundry or dishes but I never want to put the clothes/dishes/whatever away.  I'm trying to figure out how to take my current cleaning lady (who is absolutely the best ever!) to my next station! That said, I find it rather stressful to have someone in my space and as wonderful as she is, I can't wait until she's done and gone.

5. There are balloons hanging from the light in my dining room.  My cleaning lady hung them up for my birthday a couple months ago (did I mention she's the best ever!) and I have yet to bother to take them down. They will likely stay there until it's time for me to move in a few months.

6.  I hate being cold. I'm fine living on the equator for 2+ years without electricity (so no air conditioning; which I don't use anyway) but I hate cold. And I get cold very easily. That said, I do not turn up the heat in my house. It's cold in here by most people's standards (including mine). I hate "wasting" energy more than I hate being cold. I pretty much always have a blanket on when I'm in my house.

7. I grew up in a very small town. Very small. I didn't really like growing up there.  It was a couple streets with houses surrounded by farm fields. As was every other town nearby. Now, though, it's one of my favorite places in the world. I love going back there (my parents still live in the same house).

8. I can pee standing up (and I do mean standing, not just hovering in a semi-squat). Okay, I guess anyone can pee standing up but I can do it without peeing all over my feet/legs. It's a very useful skill one learns when living in a place like Ghana where there are very few actual toilets.

9. I have a great dislike of automobiles. I don't like driving or being a passenger.  My preferred modes of transportation are a bike and the train. Although I will admit it's nice having the option of a car when I have to work 10-12 hr days because I can take the dogs with me to work (they're too big to fit in the carrier bags on my bike!).

10. I'm not the most athletic person (I don't have great coordination) but I truly enjoy exercise.

11. I love tater tots and cheese and chocolate (although not necessarily all together). There's just something so wonderful about crispy shredded fried potatoes!  Any cheese but the blue family (I don't want my cheese smelling like stinky feet). Dark chocolate. Really dark. With sea salt (not a requirement but definitely a bonus). And bread. Not chocolate with bread. Just bread. Soft crusty bread. Hard dark bread. With or without butter. The Dutch eat chocolate sandwiches for breakfast. How can you not love these people?!?!

11 Questions Angie Picked for Me

1. Where is the one place you definitely hope to travel to in your lifetime?
Antarctica. I have this goal of living on every continent.  Antarctica will obviously be the most difficult to check off the list since I can't just go stay there. I want much more than stepping off a cruise ship onto a little piece of Antarctica. This desire is at odds with my item #6 above.

2. What would your dream concert line-up (artists dead or alive)?
I'd love to see Bruce Springsteen again but in a very small venue. Maybe with Lady Gaga and Janis Joplin. 

3. What were some of your favorite TV shows to watch as a kid?
I don't remember being allowed to watch much TV as a kid and we only had 3 channels. I watched Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and 3-2-1 Contact and Reading Rainbow.

4. What would your dream career be and why?
Either a National Geographic photographer or something in the 3rd world development realm...probably involving bringing clean water and sanitation to the roughly 2.5 billion people who live without it.

5. What is one of the most important lessons you have learned in your life, thus far?
Sounds cliche, but it would be that money doesn't buy happiness.  I lived with some of the happiest people in the world in Ghana and they were literally the poorest of the poor.  No electricity. No running water. No "stuff."  Kids played with a ball made of plastic bags or pushed around a stick attached to a wheel.   They wore clothes that we wouldn't even use as cleaning rags. But they were happy and would gladly share what little they did have with you.

6. What is the current song stuck in your head?
I don't know what it is. Just a tiny snippet of whatever was playing in the grocery store when I was there earlier.

7. What do you use as a creative outlet?
Photography and cooking.  Not usually at the same time. I don't generally take pictures of the food I cook or eat.

8. Where has been your favorite place that you have travelled?
Wow, that's a tough one!  I guess Ghana is my favorite place because I was there for so long and it had such a lasting impact. Cambodia had a very haunting appeal and I feel drawn to go back.  As far as cities go, Prague was amazing. And most recently I fell in love with Scotland and really want to go back and explore it more by bike.

9. What is the grossest food you have ever eaten?
Vegemite (also known as Marmite). It's a horribly gross Australian fermented yeast paste. It's the most foul tasting substance that has ever entered my mouth!  I hope to never experience anything worse! Of course, I tend to avoid substances that I believe will taste awful. I don't like eating yucky things!

10. What are you currently reading?
I usually have at least two books going; one downstairs and one upstairs. The book Angie sent me, Over the Edge of the World is on my nightstand and I read a few pages each night before falling asleep. Downstairs I have Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Servants of the Map and Fever (about the history of malaria) on various coffee and end tables to choose from depending on my mood.

11. What is your favorite thing about the area in which you live?
So many thing! It's a great location in proximity to lots of other things. I love this little town and all it has to offer (I can walk to the supermarket and to the pedestrian market with its little shops and vegetable stalls, the fields behind the house where the dogs like to run, the Thai restaurant just down the street...) but I'm also so close to so many bigger places. I can hop a train for a day-trip to Amsterdam or Brussels or Dusseldorf, Aachen, Ghent, Rotterdam, Den Haag...and there are low-cost airports nearby... I've flown to Barcelona, Prague, Budapest, London, Edinburgh,  and will go to Porto next month all on the cheap.  From Brussels I can get the high-speed train to London and Paris.  It's a great place to live and from which to travel!

So there you have it.  Is it odd that I found this rather stressful?  I think I'm better at posting pictures than writing about myself!  Thanks to Angie for forcing me out of my comfort zone a little! Now I'm headed out on my bike to the Turkish market for feta and vegetables :)