Nomads

I know everyone has been anxiously waiting for a new post about our Belgian escapades, but I have a good excuse for not updating. We are still homeless.

It's been nearly 2 months that we have been living out of our suitcases and I can't even put into words how disorienting and strange that has been. But we've been making the most of it.

After arriving in Belgium, we stayed for 9 days in Brussels at a hotel. Much of the expense of this stay was covered by the Fulbright commission. For a week we went back and forth from Brussels to Ghent trying to find housing. It was daunting and exhausting. We were told it would be relatively easy to find a place but since classes just started in Ghent, many apartments had already been filled by college students.

We finally found a place on one of the last days in Brussels. It's a cute little row house not far from the center of the city and in the oldest neighborhood. It's more expensive than we'd hoped, but it's very cute and cozy and it's furnished not only with furniture, but also glasses, silverware, etc. so we won't need to buy much now (or sell it 9 months from now). We're about a two minute walk from the Gravensteen castle, built in 1180.

The only problem is that there is a tenant until October 1. He told us he'd be out by this past Thursday but our time at the hotel was up, so to save money we decided to go camping. We rented bikes and rode from Ghent to Aalter and then to Bruges and finally to the North Sea. It was quite a trip and is worthy of a blog post of its own!

On Wednesday we found out that the tenant wouldn't be out until the weekend. Now here it is the weekend and he says he might not be out until next Wednesday!

Luckily, we've been in touch with the Logos Foundation folks (who Troy will be working with) this whole time and they have been very helpful and kind to us. Godfried's wife Moniek called a friend--Valerie--who often rents out a room in her house. The room happened to be open and she agreed to let us stay there in exchange for our labor (she is painting the main floor of her house). So we have been doing some painting the last couple of days. It is a lovely, old home. It's very comfortable and Valerie has been very good to us. She even offered to check with people she works with at the University of Ghent to see if she can find me some editing work.

All in all, it's been a bit difficult at times lately, but we have been very fortunate to have encountered good people that have helped us along the way so we can't complain too much. We are having quite an adventure and are making some great connections.