'PIG' year, greetings from lu

Hi, Everyone:

It’s Chinese New Year time…Happy new ‘pig’ year! It’s golden pig….very wealthy and good fortune! So here goes my first contribution for the blog to celebrate a bit with you! -- et Voilá! Finally, Nuno stopped travelling around to visit me. Now I am in great great Brussels with him! Therefore I would like to share some new episodes of my life in Brussels with you…

^!^ also it is inspired by our great Yasu..

Move and Change:

Honestly, I am happy to be here because of Nuno, although working and living in London was a very nice experience for me, and learning French, starting a new life in Brussels will be a new challenge for me.

It was a bit hard at the beginning of the moving. However, I am adapting…and getting better and better…

I arrived in Brussels at the beginning of December, the first thing after my move was to reorganise the apartment. Yasu, if you come again, probably you will not complain again of the apartment. Now it gets more tidy, more furnished, and in better order. The room doesn’t seem empty any more…because probably I have too much stuff to fill in. Anyway..it is becoming more and more like a home---the first home for me and Nuno!

And of course, all of you are welcome to visit anytime, and there is a spare room waiting for you!

I.D. card:

The first thing that is making me know better how Belgians work is to get my I.D. card through the Commune. I was told by Belgium embassy in London that it only took few days to get an I.D, and after that I can travel freely outside Schengen, but until now I am still waiting for it, and no idea when it will arrive. I really hope that I can get it as soon as possible, so that I can go back to China to visit my family or go to London for visiting my friends! Now I finally understand why a Belgium doctor told me once a while ago that he preferred working in Brussels than in London..because it has much less pressure and more relax!

Studying French:

Ye, unfortunately here people speak French or Dutch…..so it becomes necessary for me to study French (I think French sounds prettier than Dutch!). Also unfortunately I am not like Yasu who fancies Latin language very much, otherwise I would have already spoke some Portugese…

However, I am now at level A2 and studying French every day. The school is good, very international and I also got a very nice professor. Apart from learning French there, it started becoming a place for me to socialise and make some friends. Most of my classmates are in the similar situation as me---women mostly, not working at this moment…and just moved to Belgium, they are English, Scottish, Japanese, Italian, Mexican, American, Lithuanian …..beaucoup beaucoup ….! And so far we already had few parties, like Japanese sushi party, which was funny and we made sushi by ourselves, great taste! Ye, now I can write a little bit and read a little bit, but for speaking, I think I should practice more, not only with Nuno (he is not patient enough, and a bit lazy, and I think he prefers to speak Portuguese to me), but also with some other persons. Oui, je suis heureuse d'étudier le français ici!

Food in Brussels and cooking

Food in Brussels is not bad. Of course for a person who lived in U.K for sometime, you can say food here is much better. It is not difficult to eat well in Brussels, even just for a pitta (Greek/Turkish food), I like it! However, I still cook most of the time. Can you believe? I think my ability of cooking is improving. So Yasu if you come again, I will prepare some Chinese cuisine for you to try, to see if it is improved. I realise Nuno likes my food in general….but not beef balls (which is made by Vietnamese ) I also want to learn some western food, like portugese or French, I like both very much. And I feel in some way portuguese cuisine is similar to Chinese….do you agree?

Nuno’s colleagues and our neighbours have tried my cooking, in the end they like it…I believe!

I'll continue with some more writings soon.

Bye for now, Lulu