Belgian Dinner

Yesterday I was invited on dinner by family of my boyfriend's friend in Bruxelles. The dinner was soon for me, we were supose to be at his house about 13 o'clock. Usually I eat my dinner between 16-17 o'clock, because I go to sleep rather late. My boyfriend had told me that it's only friend visit so I shouldn't be nervous, even if they know only French. That day I ate small breakfast to have enough space for the meal.

When we arrived, we were very warm welcomed. Then the head of the family invited us to the living room where were the rest of the family. Our friend's mother told us that the dinner would be in hour. I was very surprised because I didn't know what we would be doing till that time. I was wondering why they had invited us so early. And then the mother brought all tray with some starters. The father offered us different drinks and we sat and started talking. Later my boyfriend explained me that they treated me like real guest so it was some kind of "tradicional" dinner. First was aperitif and later the meal.

The starters were small snack with some sea food, I recognised fish and pasta with crab and something more. My drink contained an orange juice with fruit and alcohol called Safari. It was quite sweet but good in taste. I tried to follow the conversation but unfortunately my french isn't so good to understand everything. But with my boyfriend's help we communicate somehow. And they didn't make me feel uncomfortable because of lack knowledge of french. After an hour, there was time for a meal. On dinner was some meat (I don't know how it's called), puree and three kind of salad. One of them was greek salad. And to drink was juice or red wine. Then was second meal what surprised me even more. On the second course were shrmps in special souce. I'm not a fan of sea food but it was really delicious. And later was time for dessert - apple pie with coffee or tea. It was so much food that I was really full. We were talking about 30 minutes and then our friend's family left us alone to spend some time together. Summing up all dinner lasted about 3-4 hours!!

It was nice experience althought I had thought that only in France is that kind of order during meals (first aperitif, then main course, second course, dessert). My boyfriend told me that they usually don't do this, that they eat theirs meal like others people. But when there is an important event, holiday or guest they prepare special dinner. I think that this custom of dinning can be affected by France. Firstly, France is one of the neighbours of Belgium. Secondly, there was period in history when France had an impact on Belgium (1794-1815).

Halloween!!

The weekend was a little crazy because there were two special parties. First of them was Halloween Party prepared by girl from the United States. This was my first party like that because in my country we have totally different tradiction.  In Poland people are very religious. In the beginning of November we have All Souls' Day (Zaduszki) and All Saints' Day (Wszystkich Świętych). During there days Polish people go to churches to pray for their dead relatives and they visit graveyards. It's time of reflection and memoirs.

So back to the party. It was in american climate. Everyone wore some scary costumes and make-up. There were some vampires, a witch, pirates, animals etc. The best costume was Shrek :D And I was a mumie. At the party was very loud and funny. Everybody had great humor and we were laughting all the time. There were also dance and typical american games. One of them was beer pong. I've known this game from Americans movies or series like Greek with brotherhoods and sororities. So it was piece of something what we call in Poland "American Dream". In this game players don't use rackets but they try to throw the ball into plastic cup with beer. Then the loser has to drink it and they play as long as nothing will leave. I tried it but it was really difficult to hit the target. But I have to admit that it was funny :) I don't know the name of the second game but in this one there were two teams. Players stood in front of their enemies. It was a little like a race which team drinks beer faster. After one person drank his cup, he had to turn in upside-down in special way (which I can't exactly explained). Then the next one could do the same thing.  With this game, there were a lot of volontiers and fun.
There was also special punch made of apples, juice and alcohol. I don't know all ingredient but I'll ask the cook for recipe because it was delicious!!

In conclusion, I can say that it was really pleasant party and very interesting experience. American style is so different than mine. In Poland there are also some Halloween parties but I don't think they are similar to this one. I'd like to repeat it some day.

In Gent, on this Friday, there is a Halloween Party at Porter House so we'll see how it is in Belgian style :p

Kindness

One of the first thing which I remarked when I arrived to Belgium was people behaviour. It's very important for me and I admit that I pay special attention on this (especially when I'm abroad). Yesterday happened something unexpected. My friend and I went to railway station because I wanted to help her with buying a ticket. When we asked for the ticket to airport in Charleroi, we forgot mention that it's the ticket for next day. Only when we got the new printed ticked, we saw our mistake. I was ashamed because I expected that the lady in the counter would be angry as well as people who were behind us. At once I started to apologize her but she wasn't angry or irritated. She took back the wrong ticket and gave us the right one. People behind us were also relaxed.

Here in Belgium people are more tolerant. In Poland, in this situation, there would be complaints from the saleswoman and others passengers. Sometimes you can even hear something unpleasant. So it's nice when people are cool and aren't angry when you do some mistake.

Weekend in Amsterdam

This weekend my friends and me were on trip In Amsterdam. I have to admit that it was really interesting and full of adventure visit. I won’t tell about everything but I want to share about two totally different image of Dutch people I’ve learned during this short stay.

Firstly, the Dutch drivers are worse than Polish (and I’ve thought it’s impossible :p). We’ve just left the railway station and a tram has almost hit us. The driver saw us but he didn’t slow down. He even didn’t honk! Maybe 2 m further, there was a cycle way where cyclist has also almost hit us. That’s true that we didn’t see if something is coming but we were on pedestrian line. After some time I remarked that 50% or even more drivers honked us, and only 5% let us pass the street. The drivers  in Netherlands were very unkind. In my opinion the passers-by are situated the lowest in hierarchy of objects using the streets :/ In Gent is totally different. The drivers are nice, they almost always put a passing-by in first place. I feel safe when I’m walking through the streets. I’ve never heard the honk behind my back since arrival. But…

At the end of a day there happened something that has changed my negative view. When we were searching our hostel, we got lost. It was getting darker and darker and there wasn’t anyone to ask for a help. Finally, we found one person who explained us the way. We were very far from the hostel because we took our metro stop too early. After about 10 minutes of walking a car stopped near us. It tourned out that an old man, who had shown us the direction, was worrying about our group and he offered us a ride. I was really surprised. There were eight of us so he had to make two rounds! We had no words to thank him. I don’t even know his name… That was extraordinary for me that he cared of strange people so much. 

Summing up, I think that maybe the Dutch drivers aren’t so bad. I mean, for them, cyclists and passers-by their behaviour is clear and accepted. Everyone knows his role in this traffic system. They are carefull passing the streets. And for strangers, for us it was totally different than attitude of drivers from Gent. Amsterdam is worth seeing and I think I’ll come back there one day.