I’ve mentioned rugby before on my blog… but haven’t mentioned my team, or how important it is to me here. Joining this team of incredible women has made my time in here in Brussels more fun and full of laughs than I ever could have imagined…. well that is after we kick ass on the pitch… and in case you don’t believe me… here’s proof. I love this picture!
http://www.sportkipik.be/images/rugbyfem/barbariansgent/index.html
After shamefully neglecting my blog for months and months and months… I thought I’d update it with a few pictures of things that have been keeping me out of trouble for the past few months.
An interesting lunchroom discussion last week had us all wondering who we’d include in our “top 5 list.” You know the list of 5 people who, if you ever meet them (and they give consent), you are free to do “whatever” with them, and your spouse, partner, significant other can’t say a single thing about it.
So after 45 mins of standing outside watching 5th and 6th graders run around the playground, all the time mentally compiling my list with a big, goofy grin on my face… here are the top five picks in Tamland.
1- Richie McCaw captain of the New Zealand All Blacks and my future husband ; )
2- Jonny Wilkinson – England’s kicking god
3- Rick Mercer- Canada’s version of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert… but much funnier and comes complete with a cute, Newfie accent.
4- Dave Matthews- love him. “Crash Into Me” Dave.
5- Adam Doyle- only long haired dude on the planet who I think is hot. Lead singer of Great Big Sea. Together we’ll “Rant and We’ll Roar like True Newfoundlanders.”
Who’s on your “top 5″?
For those of you not in the know… Belgium is well known for it’s “frites.” French fries to the rest of us. But these aren’t the crappy, freeze-dried, piddly little offering of carcinogenic match sticks offered up by fast food chains around the world. Belgian fries are short, thick, fat, real potato fries that have been double deep-fried to lock in extra goodness. They’re served up in a paper cone with an enormous dollop of whichever calorie-laden topping you like from ketchup to mayo to andalouse sauce. Not quite sure what exactly that is, but my fav frite sauce by far is the curry ketchup, yum!
For others of you who aren’t aware… which would make up most of the planet… Belgium has been without a government for well over 150 days. Apparently there was an election in June, but there’s still no outcome. For a thorough explanation of the situation check out this article http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/murray/20071106.html written by a CBC journalist. Big thanks to Nicole for passing along the article. Sure hope the political strife doesn’t end in civil war…
I’m not sure why some of my favourite things ever are things that terrify me. I hate scary movies, I even hate Hallowe’en masks because you can’t see who’s behind them, and on that note I especially hate mirrored sunglasses cuz you can’t see the other person’s eyes. But those things are just scary/creepy. A few of the real things that terrify me, and are things that I consistently involve myself in, are: scuba diving, moving away from everyone I know and love to parts unknown, relationships, and rugby.I love, love, love diving… well, now that I have over 80 dives and an advanced ticket under my weight belt. But it took me until at least my 20th dive to feel at least some degree of comfort under the water. Now I get a few random butterflies, but that’s more from excitement than nervousness. Yah, right.As for this crazy ex-pat life that I lead… three times I’ve moved to places I’d never even visited and where I knew no one aside from the people who hired me. And every time I have some incredible experiences, meet some amazing people, and wonder more and more if I’ll ever go “home” permanently.
Relationships? As in a real one with a dude who actually lives on the same continent as me? Still dodging that bullet. ‘Nuff said ; )
Now for rugby. I love it. It’s a beautiful game on the field and the socializing off the pitch is phenomenal. A couple of weeks ago I played in my first contact game in over 6 years.
I was so scared I couldn’t eat that morning and there was no chance of my mouth guard actually staying in my mouth without me gagging. I played the first half of the game and would have stayed on in the second half, except for this…
Notice the big bump on my ring finger? That’s where my finger snapped a couple of weeks ago when I grabbed my coach’s jersey as he ran away after grabbing the ball from me, and I clearly didn’t let go in time. But partly cuz I’m tough, partly cuz all the coach-ie dudes at school said it was fine, and mostly cuz one doc said I didn’t need an x-ray, I decided to let me heal myself.
But a couple of weeks, 4 rugby practices and the above mentioned game ( where the ball hit the end of my hurt finger right after the second-half kick-off and I had to leave the game) the swelling hadn’t gone down and I was practically dragged to an orthopedic doctor by a colleague who was not one of the coach-ie dudes. The good doc took an x-ray, diagnosed me with mallet finger, and scheduled me for surgery the following week, which was yesterday. And now my finger has 2 pins and some metal threads sticking out of it. Not good. And for the next 6 weeks my hand is going to look like this…
Did I mention I’m right handed? It’s going to be a long, long 6 weeks : (
By the way, here’s me watching the world cup final under the Eiffel Tower this past weekend in Paris!
This made me laugh out loud today… (I know I should give credit, but I can’t find the website where I got this from… whoops)
For those of you not following the Rugby World Cup right now, this pic is a reference to tomorrow night’s match between England and France. A rivalry since medieval times! Not for rugby per se…. but you get the idea.
So that there’s the queen on the left and France’s Sebastien “the caveman” Chabal on the right, aka the ugliest man in France ; ) (not sure why he’s holding a bunch of carrots?) Am still in shock that France knocked out New Zealand last weekend… can’t wait to see how tomorrow’s test turns out. But I’m infinitely more nervous about my first match tomorrow. That’s right, tomorrow I’m playing lock for the Brussels Lady Barbarians – how’s that for a name? Wish me luck…
Awesome, awesome concert! Check out the pix! Here’s Gordie!
Fellow cool, Canadian, chick Mel, and me 
Even more cool chicks 
Buddies Brit and Sarah
Back to the band…
Funniest story of the night…
I’m standing in the crowd, only a few meters away from the boyz, when I turn to the couple next to me (who looked Canadian) and ask them where they’re from. They reply “Regina.” At which point I ask them if they know anyone who lives in Malaysia. I figured Regina’s a small town and there were a bunch of Regina-ers (?) working at my school in KL so it might be possible we know some of the same people. Turns out… dude plays hockey with my former director’s son. How crazy is that?!
And then… I point to the greasy haired lead guitarist pictured below (don’t know his name) and ask the girl “who’d shag that guy?” She replies “um, probably me.” I laugh and say “yah, forgot, you’re from Regina, you people will shag anything.” She totally laughed, but then spent the rest of the concert with her camcorder locked on long haired, greasy dude. Ew!
Gordie and the boys are coming here! How friggin’ cool is this?! The Hip. In Brussels. This Friday. I’m so there.
09/28/07: Brussels: Ancienne BelgiqueThe Tragically Hip
Ancienne Belgique
Brussels, Belgium
Tickets: 22/25 Euro
On Sale: Monday June 4
Tickets available:
www.abconcerts.be
0032 2 548.24.24
If there was any doubt that I was having a good time here, here’s the proof.
This is me with uber-fabulous teaching partner Mel at the Brussels’ Beer-fest that took over the Grand Place a couple of weekends ago.
ps: I made a decision, tomorrow I’m off to rugby practice. Mostly because it’ll be a blast and the team seems like it’s made up of some pretty great girls. But also because I haven’t seen the inside of a gym in over three months and with all the beer, chocolate and frites here… well you can imagine. ugh!
Just a quick post to say I arrived in Belgium safe and sound, and that I love it here… for the most part ; )
Top 5 of my first 5 days in Brussels: (in no particular order)
1- chocolate
2- cheap beer
3- people are tall
4- beautiful historical architecture
5- awesome public transportation system
Not so much the top 5 of my first 5 days:
1- everything is EXPENSIVE
2- it would be very helpful if everyone could start speaking spanish here, since my french is totally gone, but my spanish is coming back very nicely, argh!
3- it’s cold
4- it’s wet
5- incredibly huge windows of time that the cable guy, phone guy, internet guy, etc will be at one’s apartment to hook up said cable, phone, internet. “Ah oui madame, I will be zer between 8 in zee matin et 8 in zee night, okay bon?” No! Not freaking “okay, bon” you seriously cannot give me a more specific time frame for when you’ll be at my apartment?! argh! By the way…. I have no apartment yet… so this is something I have to look forward to, yippee skippy ; )
