Friday, January 27, 2012

Some New Sounds

  I've always wanted to live in an urban neighborhood...San Francisco, New York, etc.  And when Brett and I "negotiated" moving to Brussels, I got my wish.   I love it, but it's noisy.

  There's a bus stop 200 feet in front of our house, convenient, but noisy buses.  There's a tram stop just a bit farther.  There's a grocery store right in front of our house.  There's a crowded street with honking drivers.  There's a big church around the corner.  The bells ring everyday at 745 and 1045 not just once, but for five or ten minutes. (Come on, you guys, it's time for Mass.)  There's road work all around us.  The folks in back seem to be doing some major "chain saw requiring" work.  There's a school through the block.  Recess and dismissal times mean an least 30 minutes of little girls screaming and playing .... amazingly the same sound as in the US.

  Then, there are the Angry Birds who live near our backyard.  I think they're crows.  But they have very assertive CAW-CAW-CAWS. 

    Then, the sirens.  There are a lot of them and some of them sound just like when the Nazi's come to get Anne Frank in the movie. 

    And the sounds in our house.  Our door bell sounds like someone stomped on a cat, but the washer and dryer play a little tune from Vivaldi.   We're still getting used to various beeps and bells.   What's that?  Oh, I think that means the dishwasher is done. 

   Last, there are so many different languages.  Since Brussels is officially bilingual and Belgium is offically trilingual, plus so many people speak English, we're getting used to lots of different languages.  Our cable TV has channels in French, English (stuff like Ice Road Truckers, What?!), Flemish, Italian, Arabic, and German.

  Still, it's an adventure. 

1 comment:

  1. Your adventure sounds awesome, but I am not too much of an urban person, I much prefer the peace of wide open spaces. I love reading about your life and adventure.

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