On the weekend we showed our houseguests one of the quirks of living in Europe – international borders that are a little higglty pigglty. Baarle Nassau and Baarle Hertog are two towns on the Belgium/Netherlands border. In fact, the border between the two countries is so confused that the towns have to place a diagram in the main street to explain the situation – the red perspex represents Belgium and the clear perspex represents the Netherlands:

This confusion is due to centuries of sales and swaps between the lords and dukes of the region. Yet still today, these borders are considered strict international boundaries. As we strolled through Baarle, we crossed the border dozens of times, and I was careful to have my passport ready. As we explored the suburbs, we noted that most of the residents were very nonchalant about the location of their house. For the most part, the only way that we could tell which country we were in was by very carefully examining the house numbers. Dutch houses have a red stripe on the left and a blue on the right. Belgian houses have a black/yellow/red flag in the top left hand side. This apartment complex straddled the border, and had two front doors, so the residents had both a Netherlands (left) and Belgium (right) address – very useful for tax purposes:

The two cities of Baarle Hertog and Nassau have different police forces, laws tax systems, fuel costs, speed limits, alcohol licensing laws, closing times, and mobile phone rates. A letter posted from Hertog to Nassau travels via Amsterdam. And yet the border quite often cuts right through a business or home.

But best of all, in these odd tangled territories, the sun was shining and all the stores were wide open on a Sunday. So we were able to sit outside, eat chocolate and beer, and soak up the sunshine in the enclaves and exclaves of these intertwined cities (note how the border continues down the middle of the road behind us before finally crossing the street).
.

Back when we were having the Montreal v Brussels debate, I contacted Woman Wandering, who is originally from New Zealand and moved to Belgium. She ran down the pros and cons of the country, and reminded me that if one loves to travel, then Brussels is best. In April when we visited Antwerp I was finally able to meet her and thank her in person. She treated us to a delicious lunch at home with her family, and then took us on a delightful walking tour of her town. My favourite spot was the t Elfde Gebod (The 11th Commandment) bar, filled with various saints that the owner bought when the churches were ridding themselves of such things.

It is fascinating to learn about saints and their symbols. Those of them who were tortured often display on a plate the body part that was severed – the head of St Denis, the breasts of St Agatha, the eyes of St Lucy, the flayed skin of St Bartholomew. St Nicolas is accompanied by the three children he restored after they were pickled in brine by an wicked innkeeper. St Jerome carries a stone in his hand with which he strikes himself in penance for his sins. St Roch has a dog who fed him by stealing food from its master’s table while he suffered from the plague. These stories are never pleasant.

In contrast to the suffering of martyrs, we were also lucky enough to watch the baby elephant frolic in the water at the zoo. It tried everything to try and convince its mum to join it in the water – using its feel to plash her with water, spraying her with its trunk, and even forcefully head-butting her towards the shore. Finally, she reluctantly joined in and the little one was overcome with joy. I’m not even sure the baby creature remembered it was an elephant, the way it attempted to clamber on top of her in the pool and to do handstands while completely submerged. I think that I would like a baby elephant of my own. I am following the progress of the latest pregnancy at www.baby-olifant.be. Maybe I could take it for weekends once it is born?

I still can’t believe it is possible for me to just pop off to Brussels for the afternoon. A few days ago, I spent the afternoon at the Cosutme and Lace Museum. Entry was 3 euros, but residents of Brussels have free entry, which is another incentive to buy a home in Brussels and not Leuven. The exhibition displayed the couture worn around the time of Expo 58, including many of Christian Dior’s creations. So many glamourous and intricate outfits, as well as some truly hideous wedding dresses. The rules of dress at the time were complex and highly regimented, and many of the hemlines had been repeatedly altered to suit the fashion of the season:

Image from brucity

We welcomed in 2008 on a flight back to Seattle, unaware that it would be our last year in the USA. We both worked very hard during out post-docs in medical science, and we both made novel discoveries and uncovered some of the mysteries of the development and function of white blood cells. Adrian had his work published in some excellent journals, and I learned that the paper from my post-doc “may be suitable for publication, pending revisions” in a great journal. Adrian has been offered a professorship, and I am investigating some interesting jobs in clinical trials. We experienced the freezing winters of the North that will never make me consider Canberra to be a cold city ever again.

I attended MacWorld and witnessed Steve Jobs give his last keynote and unveil the Macbook Air to the world. We explored more of the USA in dribs and drabs – Arizona, Nevada, California, and Hawaii – as well as exploring the Ukraine and Moldova.

The biggest issue that we faced in 2008 was the decision about where we would live in 2009. At first, it was between Maynooth (Ireland), London (UK), Montreal (Canada), and Brussels (Belgium). We visited all four places, and it came down to a battle between the two bilingual cities, Montreal and Brussels, and then Brussels won due to employment and travel opportunities. We celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary in the country that was to become our new home, and Adrian will starting his own lab at the University of Leuven from February 2009.

We finished up our post-docs in Seattle in November, made huge progress towards completing our Masters of Public Health degrees, and finished up the year visiting extended family in Australia that ranged from Brisbane to Adelaide. After nearly two years outside of Australia, we are able to see our birth country with new eyes, and appreciate its charms as well as its challenges. It is a country of relative compassion and opportunity, but is also isolated and monolingual. The weather is nearly always warm with blue skies and extraordinary wild-life, but the water crisis is hitting hard and many of the main rivers no longer reach the sea.

In a few weeks we fly off to Brussels, to begin our new home in Belgium. My goals for 2009 are:
- To find a short-term furnished apartment
- To get a residency permit
- To find a job
- To start learning Flemish
- To get a work permit
- To start my job
- To start learning French
- To buy a house

I think that’s enough to keep me busy for twelve months or so. It is a bit overwhelming to be faced with so many changes, but I realise how lucky that we are to have this opportunity, so the main emotion I feel is excitement. We had a great time in North America over the past two years, and while I think we are better suited to Europe, I am very thankful for all the happy memories that we have of the United States of America.