Home in Brussels

Before you know it we’ve all settled in to a routine, got adjusted to living in Brussels and actually feel as though we have a normal life. We’ve even managed to get into a passive aggressive argument with another member of our building through note placement on each other’s cars...that’s how Europeans do it apparently, being rude is a way of life for most of them. When we first moved in we paid for, in addition to the ridiculously high rent, a parking spot in the garage below our building. So after the second day of work Emily pulls into the garage and someone has already parked in our assigned space, thus the only space available just happens to be the one space that makes getting into and out of extremely difficult. We contacted our “Business Apartment” housing manager from “Home In Brussels” and told them of our situation. He responded and said that space #1 was available and that we could park there. Problem solved...for a month at least.

A month goes by, I play a little rugby with the Brussels Celtics, hurt myself, we take a few side trips, scope out places to eat and hangout, and everything is going fine and dandy, until Emily gets a note on her car the next morning before work saying “This is my spot, I have been renting it for over a year. How DARE you park in my spot. What were you thinking?” Emily shows me the note and I understand putting a note on someone’s car if that is indeed your spot and you have no idea who’s car it is; however, using that language if very uncalled for and borderlines on douchebaggery...or a typical European attitude when they don’t get their way. Emily tells me not to go talk to them, because they left their apartment number, especially since there was a good chance I would reflect the amount of cynicism they directed toward me in a more of an angry “I don’t have time for this child’s play” attitude. So Emily goes to work, comes back and someone is again in our assigned spot so she parks in Space #1 AGAIN...because I told her to. I mean why not...we’ve been there a month in accord with the property manager’s instructions. Apparently once you get a “business apartment” in Brussels, which, if you rent anything less than a year, some crazy Belgian real-estate laws make it almost impossible to rent from anyone other than a high priced “Business Apartment” rental company, the property mangers stop caring what happens. We were trying to call and e-mail about the parking situation but still nothing.

The same evening Emily returns downstairs to see where the note placer parked and they, of course, smugly backed their car right in front of Emily, so that she couldn’t get out. I’m glad we didn’t have to go anywhere. We finally got a reply back late that evening from the property manager telling us to report the car in our original spot to him so he could call the police. I asked him why this wasn’t a problem a month ago when it began, but no answer. We decided that we would put a note on his car telling him to park in his own space...#8, the almost impossible to get in and out of space, and if he failed to comply we would contact the police. We would also put a note on the douche bags car telling him the situation. So, I’m happy to report they left another note on Emily’s car the next morning saying it wasn’t a big deal, that they were never at their apartment anyways, that they traveled almost all the time. But that still makes me wonder, if it wasn’t a big deal, then why the harsh note?
Regardless, besides the parking situation Brussels is an amazing city. Brussels is a great place to visit other sites throughout Europe which is ideal for anyone wanting to do a European vacation and get in other cities as well. From Brussels you can take a train to London, Paris, and Amsterdam all under two hours away and many low cost airlines fly out of Brussels Charleroi to all over Europe...plus Belgium is the land of Beer, Chocolate, and the Mannekin Pis. Statues of little naked boys taking a piss are what make cities important you know.

Emily and I are venturing to Paris this weekend (send all hate mail to sancho@roadhusband.com so he can ignore you). Hopefully in Paris we can see all the sights including some beret wearing, skinny cigarette smoking, Frenchman being rude and snobby to us...wouldn’t be Paris without it.

Belgium - The Land of Restrictions

As some of you know Emily and I have been trying, for about six weeks, to get our paperwork processed for long-stay visas and work permits that will allow us to move to Belgium for six months. Since Belgium is part of the EU one wouldn’t think it would be very difficult to go work for a few months, but, since we were technically going to be “living” there, in an apartment nonetheless, we had a myriad of hoops to jump through.

While I’m not going to get into all of the details and paperwork needed, just be aware, if you want to move to Belgium from anywhere outside of the EU or U.K. just be prepared for a lot of red tape. Emily and I both had to get new copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificate, and then send them off to be apostilled. Next we had to get a medical certificate from a Doctor that was approved by the Belgium consulate, which there are only two of in Chicago. We could only get an appointment with one of the two Doctors, which happened to be in the north side of Chicago, and who happened to be Vietnamese and worked in a office just outside of Korea town. Not that it matters at all...it’s just a little weird that he’s one of the ONLY two Doctors in Chicago approved to do this. I was going to assume he was Belgian or at least European.

Next, we had to get our fingerprints taken for an FBI background check, but guess what. There are only a couple of places in the entire city of Chicago and the Suburbs that will do the fingerprints on a paper card, which is required for this check. We actually went into a police station after our medical check and asked if they could do our prints for us...NOPE. Really? A freaking police station won’t take our fingerprints. I bet if I went outside and threw a brick through a parked car’s window they’d take my fingerprints. We even called the sheriff’s departments and police stations in the suburbs to see if they’d take our prints...NOPE. That just meant another trip back downtown to get them done. Not only was that a headache but the processing of our fingerprints was going to take “anywhere from 4-13 weeks.” 4-13 weeks...really? That’s like the cable guy saying..”we’ll be there between 10am and Wednesday”...you going to be home? After this news we paid to have the fingerprints expedited. Cost...$1,000.

Once the fingerprints get processed, they’re sent to Belgium to get verified, then sent back to Chicago. We fill out Schengen Visa applications, specific for Belgium, because they’re different from all the rest of the Schengen country visas. We attach 45 passport photos, call our insurance company to get a letter verifying we have health insurance, have everything notarized, add in a DNA sample and a vile of unicorn tears, then send this shit to the Consulate in New York with $500 attached. We have our visas processed, overnighted back, and then we have to apply for a residence permit. Which we, to this point, are unsure if we do before we leave, or after we get there. But, when we do get to our apartment a police officer has to come verify that we are who we are, by having us present authentic birth certificates, our passports, and a picture of David Hasselhoff eating a cheeseburger.

To compound this problem Emily has been communicating and getting things expedited through an immigration law firm which has, by the way, been giving Emily vague and unreliable information and telling her different information than what was originally presented by the Belgium company she would be working for. In order to correct this problem Emily has now been calling the Embassy to get the "official" information, because nobody seems to know what it is. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the country is split in half about all policies and they don't have a functioning government. Who knows really? Making it worse is the fact that they ONLY accept phone calls about visas between 2-5pm M-F. In the meantime, I’ve been trying to arrange an apartment that's bigger than a college dorm room, but have found that people in Belgium won’t read your e-mails completely and will respond asking questions that were clearly answered in the original. It's like they don't really care if they do business or not, unless you're ready to shell out $2000 a month in rent (average price) without looking at the place. But what I do know is that all this paperwork has cost quite a bit for both of us...glad we're not paying for it.

Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get out of the life-sucking hotel room in the suburbs sometime this year. Maybe we’ll finally get to Belgium and around the red-tape. All I can say is...the Chocolate, Waffles, and Beer better be damn good.