The best thing about a blog is that you are unencumbered by references or facts of any kind. Your unsubstantiated opinions and prejudices can be fully expressed. A little like the recent debate.
I have been observing the Belgian driving habits for a couple of years now. Originally, I thought the epically bad driving was the result of a lack of practice and driving instruction in general. I am beginning to question that now. I think it may be that everyone starts their vehicular experience with scooters. They dart everywhere, ignoring the rules of the road and add a level of chaos that is not to be taken lightly. I will consider myself lucky if I am able to leave this country without running one of them down.
Worse than the scooter riders are the motorcyclists. In Belgium, motorcyclists drive much like the scooters, only faster and more recklessly. Today I was driving home from work, at my usual 130kph (81mph). Traffic was heavy so the motorcyclist did what they always do, which is to lane split. you see this in the US when traffic is slow, but here it is common to see it at full speed. And understand, the roads are really narrow here. I am truly surprised that the roads don’t run red with blood. It’s amazing.
In other news, it is election time here, just like home. We cannot vote here yet. We need to have lived here five years and it has been just over 2. Feels longer. Still, we can observe the process. Every night people come by and fill our mail slot with pamphlets and flyers with particularly homely people on it. I am sure the slogans are riveting, but I miss the impact because they are in Flemish. Occasionally French, but they wont get elected here.
I am proud to say that we have filled in our absentee ballots ready to be sent back to the US and then ignored or rejected because of some loophole. We can't vote here, but we are still legal there.
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