Home of the pissing statue

Now that it has finally cooled off and gotten to some normal temperatures (and all of the Europeans don pants and jackets), the Canadians can finally enjoy Brussels..

Since Tom just "officially" started his job on the 2nd, he is working steady in some form. By that I mean to about 8pm every single night, Sat and Sun included; whether it be the beach or the office. This means that I have seen him around a collective 16 hours out of the 4 days I have been in Brussels. It was good though, left me plenty of time to relax, get to know the flat, and wander Brussels. It was good that I could do this without Tom during the day, as Brussels runs on small town hours: stores largely close at 6, one night a week and Fridays at 8 or 9, and closed Sundays. All the shopping stores however, were exceptionally open this Sunday, as it is currently 1 of the 2 government regulated sales periods that are in July and January. Yes this means that every single store is on sale. For someone with money to spend, this would be amazing. Unfortunately Tom nor I fall in to that category. He did do a bit of shopping though and found a suit jacket for 15€. I didn't do much shopping, but I did get to see some of the famous sites such as the Manneken Pis, the outside of the Royal Palace of Brussels at night, one of the arches, outside of one of the EU buildings, and the Grand Place.

Brussels is also by far, the most multicultural city I have ever been to. Especially with most of Tom's work contacts being Russian or from some eastern European or Russian speaking country. From playing drinking games with 4 Russians, a British/Indian and a Filipino/Canadian Friday, and going out with 3 different Russians downtown Saturday, I have by far learned more Russian than Dutch, the other official language of Brussels. It's really interesting being in such multicultural groups in social atmospheres, especially ones from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Not including language, you notice some astounding cultural differences. My favorite was Tom and I having to go into a detailed description of what drag queens are, and the social and gender relations and norms at play being gay.

The one thing the Russians had no problem with in Brussels however was the smoking. Granted there are less smokers here than in Montréal, apparently smoking is still legal in bars and restaurants here. This is probably the one thing that I do not like about Brussels and will never get used to. Being Canadian, it seems so weird and unusual to see someone smoking indoors, in a train station, in a restaurant with children, and dancing in a club with a cigarette. Unless it specifically says no smoking, it is legal. This means that inside, most bars are hazy with smoke and smell like ashtrays. It's a good thing that in Europe half the restaurant is on the sidewalk and drinking in public is legal, because it's the non-smokers that have to go outside for air.

Balancing out how behind Brussels is from the rest of the Western world on smoking policies, they are much farther they are ahead on being green and eco-friendly. Almost everything here is designed to be economic and efficient. The city lighting for example, is apparently designed to be eco-friendly and to avoid light pollution. As a result, in the middle of the city of about 1 million people, about an hour or two after sunset, you can see the stars. I have yet to see the stars in Canada in any town or city larger than 10 000 people..