Learning More About Belgium...

*** The water here is very high in calcium, so while it is safe to drink, it is apparently rather unpleasant, so we drink only bottled water.

*** Belgium is made up of primarily two groups of people, the Dutch speaking Flemish in the north and the French speaking French Belgians in the south. There is a lake near here called Lake Genval, and interestingly, it falls right on the line of the French and Dutch speaking parts of Belgium. On the northern half of the lake the road names are all in Dutch, and on the southern half, the roads leading away from the lake are in French. Talk about fascinating!

*** Speaking of Lake Genval, the lake itself is interesting as well. Apparently nobody is allowed to fish in the lake unless you are of specific "notable" families. Only these families have the right to fish there.

*** Wine and tea are most definitely the drinks of choice at least in this part of Belgium and Europe!

*** Practically EVERYTHING here in Belgium is taxed, including rain downspouts and televisions. There is even a TV police who come and count your TV's to make sure you pay the tax on each one. Yes, I'm serious.

*** Traffic updates in and around Brussels, Belgium will come on in your car radios (which are also heavily taxed, by the way), interupting whatever was on previously, and even coming on over CD's or tapes you may have playing in your car.

That's all for this week's lessons from Belgium! :-)

I love learning about new cultures! Even ones that aren't that different from ours are still incredibly fascinating and have plenty of little things that make them unique!

~ MB