Aug 4th

I Attempt to Talk Up the Town

(Death Cab for Cutie - 20th Century Towers)

I was tempted to use a line from "A Whole New World", but since that may give one the wrong impression of me, I decided against it.

So, I must first apologize for not keeping up my daily postings. However, I have been traveling/settling in, so I would think that you would all forgive me. As for my move, I must say that I am in awe. My first impressions of Belgium are fantastic. It feels very familiar, probably because I lived in England for a long time, and the weather is similar. However, it feels like a completely new world as well (hence my wanting to use that phrase as the title of this entry.)

Today, I went to a restaurant named "Primus" for lunch since it reminded me of the band. However, after eating there, I must say it had nothing to do with the band at all. Except, maybe, if you take into account the fact that I could not understand a word unless I paid really close attention. It would seem that everybody in Brussels speaks multiple languages at varying skill levels. Whenever you need to communicate with people on the street, it can be akin to a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. A box of Belgian chocolates for that matter. It seems that everybody is at least somewhat functional in Flemish, French, Dutch, English, and German. I considered trying to go the same route, learning just a few phrases in each language, but ultimately I did not think that that was the best idea. Instead, I have decided to go full speed ahead with French. I think that it would be in my best interest to be at least somewhat proficient with that language, as opposed to learning a few phrases in different languages, which I would liken to a party gimmick. Plus, French would benefit me best, because as we all know, English is the language of business, et le Francais est lan lange ou diplomatie. (Y el Espanol es la lengua de la pasion!... but I digress.) Any errors in those tranlations can be blamed on http://babelfish.yahoo.com/.

I have lots to say, but not lots of time, so, I will keep updating over the course of this week.

And, as always, the previous entries are now archived, sort of like magic.

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