Friday, September 01, 2006

Things I'll miss

Things I will miss when I leave Belgium, in pretty much this order.
* Buana , Roberto, Meneer and Charlie. I came here a year ago looking for the same things that people usually look for when they leave their own shores; experiences, money, an illusion of advancement, expansion of the mind and all that jazz. Funny, I never had thought I'd make friends too.
* The Flemish language and the Flemish people. Belgium is a tiny country surrounded by chauvinism on the east and south and self-assuredness on the north. Somehow the Flemish have managed to stay immune to those vices, evident in the way they take pride in speaking at least 4 languages.
* The beers. When I first made a rather naive vow to taste all belgian beers before I leave, Buana asked me to extend my contract for atleast another decade. I then saw this board and knew what he meant.

The 280 doesn't even begin to cover the number of types and brands of beer you get here.I will especially miss Leffe Bruin and Rochefort 8.
* The fries. Notice I don't call them "french" fries. You get the most awesome fries in the roadside shops (frituurs) here. I don't know if it's a myth, but all 10 million Belgians seem to believe that a Belgian invented the fries and the French took credit for it. Charlie calls it the greatest crime in history.
* The main street of Antwerp, Meir. The city square,Groenplaats. The riverside, right bank of the Schelde.
* Playing pool and watching football with the ghanians and the kenyans.
* Ice skating rinks.
* finally, DEFINITELY the belgian pout!

8 comments:

Jax said...

Let me introduce you to Teacher's whisky my friend and then you'll forget the Belgie beers.(You sure you can't smuggle some over?)

Swathi Sambhani aka Chimera said...

oh, so u leaving...
good to see u pen down some good memories of belgium (unlike me ...)

Anonymous said...

ahh have fun whereever you go next and if it is back to india..no turning up of noses!

Kavs said...

That's an interesting list D. And guess what? J is here till evening. :-)

Mani said...

not sure how you commute to work over there, you're definitely going to miss it once you're back in India!

Deepak said...

jax: I'm really curious now. It better be better than Old Monk with Thums up.

swathi: From what I heard, I don't think you would have had too many good things to say , eh? ;-)

disha: I can't wait to put on the irritating-NRI-skin and drive my friends crazy !

kavs: Give J an "A mele B". Ask A, he'll know how to execute that.

shady: I definitely will miss the commute on the train man. It was like a world cultural exchange meet every morning.

Jax said...

Depps na badiya! On what day are you back?

Unknown said...

The King Casino: The New King & The World of Gaming
The King Casino 토토 사이트 is the novcasino new place where the real money gambling is legal https://jancasino.com/review/merit-casino/ in casinosites.one Florida and Pennsylvania. We love the new casino. We've got some 오래된 토토 사이트 great