I have had two trips to the US since the year started and am about to head back for a third. It is apparent that I have been living outside of the US for a while. Nothing major has changed in the year and a half that we have been in Belgium, but there are small things that you miss. A good example of this is television shows. Living here you get a pretty constant stream of the Kardashians and Mythbusters, but of course the new seasons of shows on the major networks or HBO do not exist here. So we settle ourselves with re runs, and BBC. Not all bad, but I know when we get back to the US we will miss cultural references that everyone else is familiar with. I see references to Breaking Bad or other shows and honestly, have no idea what they are about.
On the TV front, She Who Must Be Obeyed has begun watching an Australian version of St. Elsewhere. It is called All Saints and could not be more over the top. Essentially if you think of the most extreme thing that could happen in the scene, it will be that with some sort of left field embellishment. That being said, it is in Aussie-English, which is close enough, so is the go to show at 8PM.
Recently, we have been following the election coverage far more closely than we ever did in the US. What is interesting is contrasting the coverage from US media sources with the coverage from the European outlets. There is no other way to say it, The Republican Primaries are making the US look ridiculous. In Belgium, our Prime Minister is openly gay and the Belgian News cannot understand why gay marriage is an issue for the primaries when there are so many other topics that should be at the top of the issue list. I have to say, I agree. The content of the debates has been absurd.
In other news, SWMBO’s Flemish is improving. We went on a Valentines Day “Wandel” through our town. Essentially it was a pensioner who led a group of about 15 people on a walk describing all of the debauchery that has occurred in our town over the last few hundred years. To look at it now, one would never have guessed that it had at various points been full of brothels, sexual intrigue and bastard children. I would never have known any of this had SWMBO not been able to translate the proceedings. So obviously she is getting more fluent by the day.
