Summary of my first 3 weeks in Belgium

Oh wow - time just flies.

I have been in Belgium for more than two weeks and hardly had a chance to blog anything.

June 11 - June 15
The first week I spent in Brussels with my colleague Chris. The presentations went well, the weather was great (warm but humid) and the nights were fun (we tried several restaurants, went out with folks from TAC).

June 16 - June 24
Wim and I spent all our time looking at kitchens, getting ideas, visiting furniture stores, ...
It was so time consuming! At the same time, Wim was interviewing with several companies.

Because the kids got bored at home, I decided to enroll them into a school for the last two weeks of school. It is a success, they love their school and made many friends already.

On Sat June 23, we were invited for a street party in our new street Kleine Zapstraat. It is a yearly get together of all the neighbors with food and drinks, and a jumping house for the kids. We met many neighbors and it really looks like a great place to live. Almost all kids are the same age as Elias and Mendel, I am sure they will have a lot of fun here.

On June 24, Wim had to say goodbye to the kids. He is going back to CA for 3 weeks - we are sooo going to miss him.

June 26
I visited 3 different schools around Tremelo

1) Gemeenteschool van Tremelo http://schoolweb.rago.be/bs/tremelo/
pros: Smaller school, nice kindergarten classes, friendly teachers
cons: need a key to go to restroom, lots of concrete, older classrooms

2) Koninklijk Atheneum Keerbergen http://www.kakeerbergen.be/
pros: In the middle of forest-like environment, big and bright classrooms, friendly KG teachers, nice indoor play arreas for KG, open door policy at director
cons: very large school
I didn´t get a chance to check out the first grade teachers (field trip) or playground.

3) Vrije Basisschool Tremelo http://www.vbstremelo.be/
pros: small class size if we go to remote location
cons: toilet is across playground (kids have to leave the building), wasn´t allowed to talk to first grade teacher because class is in progress, not very approachable director, older (dirty) classrooms and building, don´t make lunch but catering.