BradFest

Troy and I have been spending a great deal of time lately on the planning of a benefit concert for this summer. Bradfest will be an event to memorialize our dear friend Brad Rozman, who died unexpectedly last May. Brad was an amazing person and an incredible percussionist and our plan is to raise money to support local youth and young musicians in his name.

Brad was an immensely talented musician who touched many lives in his brief time. Most recently he was known for his work with Duluth bands Equal Xchange and High Volt Rustler, both of whom recently released cd's featuring Brad's work posthumously.

In the wake of Brad's death, his family and friends have banded together to create the Friends of Brad Memorial Foundation. Our initial, proposed projects are to work with local musicians to create a free after-school music program for middle and high school students on the the Iron Range (modeled after the Music Resource Center in Charlottesville, VA, and the Mark Sandman Music Project in Somerville, MA), to establish a visiting artist program to enrich the student experience at St. Cloud State University (where Brad studied), and to create a fellowship for young professional musicians residing in the Duluth/Iron Range area.

Our hope is to make this benefit concert an annual event. So far we've got a number of local and regional bands slated to perform, including Arcwelder, a band that we have begged out of retirement for the gig. In high school, a bunch of us used to drive 3 1/2 hours (each way) to go see them play at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Troy and Brad had a band that covered their songs too. Needless to say, we are all honored and thrilled that they are going to participate!

This is a truly ambitious undertaking and it's been challenging to organize something of this scale from afar, but it feels good to know that we can hopefully make a difference for some young musicians in Brad's name. It's not going to be easy, but we are attempting to channel his tremendous, positive spirit and unbridled enthusiasm for this effort.

SLR Envy

As many of you know, I'm an aspiring photographer. I've been pretty happy with my Canon Powershot S3 IS. It's basically a hybrid camera that allows automatic and manual settings and has a 12x zoom capability. It has served me very well over the last few years. I wanted to upgrade to a digital SLR before moving to Belgium so I could focus on learning more about photography, but we just couldn't afford it. It was a choice between that or a laptop and as a writer I couldn't go without a computer.

I just had to vent because lately I've been annoyed at the fact that everywhere around me there are tourists with SLRs and they don't even seem to know how to use them! Really, it's ridiculous. Despite their bulkiness and high price tag, everyone and their mother seems to have one. That is, except me!

I think I'll start to look at used SLR when I get back to the states. It would just bring my photography up another notch, and I'm ready for that. Keep me posted if you hear of any good deals!

Hoppy Spring!

It's been a long, cold winter in Belgium (we've heard the worst in years) but spring has finally sprung! I'm happy to report that the Easter bunny managed to find us all the way over in Belgium. He left us some lovely Belgian chocolates.


The bad news, I'm picking up some expensive habits over here. After eating this chocolate I am not sure how I can ever go back to the standard, sugary American variety!

Home Cooking

Belgium doesn't have as many convenient, prepared foods as the U.S. Sure you can find frozen pizza and cheese croquettes, but we don't have a freezer--we only have a little dorm-sized fridge. This means that I spend more time shopping and cooking, which is sometimes frustrating, but we've probably also been eating healthier too.

Sometimes it's a struggle to find ingredients (especially of the Mexican variety) but for the most part I've learned how to find what I need and I've had fun improvising and trying new things. Endive and Brussels sprouts are vegetables we had hardly eaten before coming here, but I've learned to prepare both in delicious ways.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day I tried my hand at a new soda bread recipe. Even though I couldn't find cream of tartar, it turned out really well.

Last night I made some terrific portobella mushroom burgers with homemade aioli. Troy brought home frieten with samurai sauce (spicy and creamy fry sauce) to go with them. Mmmmm...

Food can be a powerful thing. I credit the homemade spring rolls I made last week with ushering in warm temps and sun this week!

Orchid

Belgians are crazy about flowers. There is a weekly flower market in Ghent that has all kinds of fresh cut flowers and plants. Plus, there seem to be lots of flower shops around. I've been coveting the many lovely orchids I see around town. But it seemed like a big splurge to me to get one...

...until Troy presented me with this one on Valentine's Day.


It's nice to have a little greenery and color around in this long waiting period before spring!

Hometown Publicity

I revised the Logos Foundation article I wrote for Flanders Today for our hometown, local paper to include more specifics about what Troy is up to in Belgium. Kind of fun to picture what the Rangers are thinking about that crazy robot guy! Check it out.

Extension

I'm happy to report that Troy applied for and received a 1-month extension on his Fulbright grant. That means the end of our lease in Ghent will be July 31. It will be great to be here for part of the summer and especially for the Gentse Feesten, a 2-week event featuring all kinds of music, theater, food and drink. It's the largest open-air festival in Europe, bringing in 1.5 million people each year. We hated to think we would miss such a party!

It's hard to believe that we've been here now for five months, and that our time is half over. We are finally starting to meet some people and feel more settled. We met a nice American couple through a Facebook expat group who we seem to have a lot in common with. And we've been going out for drinks with a fun Romanian couple. I guess right about the time we have to leave we'll be feeling like this is home. So goes the life of an academic and trailing partner I guess. Hopefully all this change and moving around will make me a more resilient and flexible person in the long run. It certainly has been an adventure!