n Brussels is falling into place slowly but surely. I am happy and thankful for new friends and new European adventures with Kirk and Connor. When living abroad you really learn to rely on your family unit in a new way. That is very special. On Saturday morning we reconnected with an adorable family we met earlier in the week. Karen, Tony and Brady Proctor live in Cary, NC and Tony is a CPA and here for a year with 
Tekelec. Karen is a schoolteacher. Brady is 2.5 years old and he loves to play chase with Connor. Which made Connor like him instantly. It was so great to see them play and discover together. We met at the Natural History Museum for some Saturday Morning Fun. It was so strange to me because we were there right at the 10 AM opening and we basically had the place to ourselves all morning. I have been told Belgians don't really get out early in the morning. (Is 10 AM early?) I couldn't help but think that any US children's museum on a Sat morning would be jam packed while we ruled the roost here. There w
ere animal displays of all kinds and tons of dinosaur skeletons with plenty of room to run around. It was a fantastic museum - ironically by far the most popular "exhibit" was an empty room with a red couch. Just goes to show that the simplest things are sometimes the most loved!
We are looking forward to more fun times together with Brady and his parents in the future.
Aft
er the fun of the museum we traveled ~40 minutes to Lier, Belgium. It is a quaint and simple suburb of Brussels, undiscovered by the tourist masses. Imagine our surprise and excitement when we got of the car and saw this (see video below). It was so darn cold, but we had to stop and chuckle at the funny ducks in the cold. I liked Lier. The astronomic clock was unlike I have ever seen before. I love the way so many towns here have canals, cathedrals, and market squares to poke around. There is something comfortable about the familiarity from one town to the next....but also startling to note the unique differences. Enjoy the ducks!
And as if that wasn't enough celebration for one weekend, we then had our new friends Dallas and Thomas over for dinner. Thomas works for Google. Dallas was into technical training back in the US. We were bound and determined to be festive for Superbowl Sunday as well as the Chinese New Year. We live in Brussels' small Chinatown district so we felt we needed to join in the fun (2009 is the year of the Ox, just in case you were wondering). I made chili 
using what substitutes I could find in these markets for beans, ground meat, and chili powder. It didn't turn out too bad. And the football brownie was a hit! I met Dallas at the American Women's Club of Brussels. Just to demonstrate how small the world is - Dallas 
recently moved to Belgium from Atlanta, yet her family is from NC and she was in Kirk's high school class at Enloe!!! Dallas brought us our very first tulip bouquet. Yellow tulips. Gorgeous. 
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