Brussels is not an obvious city. Though it shares languages with other well known cities, it doesn't have the automatic charm of Paris or Amsterdam. It's a mix of so many cultures and languages together making this a layered town founded on an unusual history. Although I have only been here a week and a half, I get the feeling that this city takes time to discover. I have to say this is not what I expected, but I'm pleasantly surprised each day, depending on who I meet and what I see.
As for the kids I'm working with, they are wonderful! Very bright and interested in everything around them. 5 days after I got here, they got 2 kittens - which apparently has been in the works for a while. Trying to teach a 3 yr old how to hold and treat kittens has been interesting. Theo likes to touch their faces and today tried to pick one up by his tail! Ah! But besides usual sibling rivalry stuff, they are all very affectionate and seem very happy that I'm around.
So, two kids are going to a Flemish school and the youngest is starting all-day preschool at an international school in Brussels (in English). They speak English with their American mom and Dutch with their dad. It has been cool to see the kids switch between the two and have them try to teach me words in Dutch. They learn a little bit of French at school but it's not too much. Seeing them not be able to speak to French kids at the park got me thinking about what it would be like to grow up in a place where you don't speak the language of the other kids. It adds an interesting variable to socialization, especially in situations when no child shares a common language in an international city like Brussels.
In other news, I have started driving which has been all together stressful and liberating. Getting to know streets, new road rules, and achieving all of this with three kids in the backseat has been surprisingly okay. I'll mostly be just driving to pick up/drop off kids from school and to go to my French class. I have a weekly class that will hopefully get my French back up to speed in the scholarly sense.
Well, I will try to update this from time to time with some more insights about Belgium, languages, and kiddos.
And if anyone gets bored, write me!
Avenue de Sumatra, 9
1180 Brussels, Belgium
Love you all!
