Reckless Belgian Drivers

I think that Belgium is a very dangerous country to live in.  The reason that I say this is that my life has been threatened in Belgium.  Who threatens my life?  Belgians!  In particular, Belgian drivers keep threatening my life.  I usually commute between my house and workplace, taking trams.  In order to reach the tram station where I should take a tram, I should walk approximately 10 minutes and cross two crosswalks: one crosswalk does not have a traffic light, whereas the other crosswalk does have it.

I am really scared of crossing the crosswalk "with a traffic light" because Belgian drivers simply ignore the traffic light.  They just pass through the crosswalk regardless of whether pedestrians cross the crosswalk.  Almost every day, I am nearly hit by Belgian drivers while crossing the crosswalk.  Thus, when I pointed out the traffic light with my hand, ALL Belgian drivers that violated the traffic signal made a rude gesture implying "so what?".

However, I can safely cross the crosswalk without a traffic light.  That is because the road with the crosswalk is always crowded with cars and Belgian drivers cannot simply pass through the crosswalk.

I think that for Belgian drivers, traffic lights are just decoration stands along streets.  I don't think that this is only my experience.

Slow country: Belgium

When it was decided that I have to come to Brussels with my family members, I asked my predecessor working in Brussels what I should bring in Brussels.  I anticipated that he would tell me to bring something that is difficult to obtain in Belgium.  However, surprisingly, he told me the only thing that I should carry with me was patience.  I did not understand it at that time.

However, after I arrive in Brussels, I realized what he wanted to tell me was.  It took more than two weeks to bring a line of Internet at home.  It took more than a month to get issued IDs.  It took more than a month to simply exchange my home country driving license with a Belgium driving license at a commune.

Recently, one of my colleagues came to Belgium to study European laws.  I don't know why she chose Belgium to study European laws.  The European Commission located in Brussels might influence her decision.  She is now regretting her decision of choosing Belgium for her study.  She came to Brussels two months ago but has not gotten her ID issued yet.  So, she cannot make a contract to rent an apartment yet.  She is still living in a small tourist apartment.

I don't know why all Belgian systems are slow in operation.  However, there is one thing faster in Belgium than in other European countries.  That is driving.  Belgian drivers are crazy.  They simply ignore traffic signals.  Be careful whenever you cross pedestrian crosswalks, unless you want to die here.

Marvelous Thai noodle soup: two NOIs in the Brussels area

A bowl of noodle soup at a Thai restaurant must be a great lunch menu for every one.  I like a Thai noodle soup more than an Italian spaghetti.  Of course, what I most like in terms of a noodle dish is a Japanese Ramen.  Today, what I would like to say is the most delicious Thai noodle soup that I have ever experienced the Brussels area.

I have recently tasted two same kind of Thai noodle soups.  Several months ago, I went to a Thai restaurant named "Noi" at Wavre with my colleagues.  When I heard from one of them that we can have Thai noodle soups as long as we can at a noodle soup price, I guessed that the noodle soup would be a unsavory dish for hungry people who do not care about taste.  We drove from Brussels to Wavre about 30 minutes.  When we entered the restaurant, we were surprised at the scene that people were lined up at a noodle cart to get noodle soups.  It looked like that homeless people were in line to get free food from a relief organization.  Despite the bizarre scene, we joined the line to taste the noodle soups.  For each person, the dispensing chef put a small chunk of noodles, toppings, and soup in a bowl.  Each person could add seasons on the noodle soup.  We returned to our table and tasted.  It was marvelous.  We gulped the noodle soups without a word.  We went back to the noodle soup cart to get another bowl.  We again gulped them.  We went back to the cart to get another bowl.  It was an unbelievable experience.  

http://www.noicomptoirdury.be/

I told my wife and kids about the noodle.  They asked me to take them to the restaurant too.  But, the magic noodles were served only during lunch hours.  I could not take my family to the restaurant.  While I pondered over how I let my family taste the magic noodle, I heard from one of my colleagues that there is another Noi at Linkebeek to which my house is close.  This Friday, one of the Easter holidays, I went to Noi at Linkebeek with my family.  Noi at Linkebeek was equipped with the exactly same concept with Noi at Wavre.  However, Noi at Linkebeek was run by Thais, whereas Noi at Wavre was operated by Belgians.  In addition, Noi at Linkebeek provided more noodles and toppings for bowl than did Noi at Wavre.  Thus, we did not need to go back to the noodle soup cart three times.  This time two rounds of noodle soups were enough.  And, Thais at Linkebeek were more friendly and nicer than Belgians at Wavre.  My family and I were satisfied with the magic noodles at Linkebeek.  While coming back to my house, my kids urged me to take them to Noi at Linkebeek next week again.

http://www.noi.be/

Routeyou

I have enjoyed riding a bike especially with my kids.  It is known that Belgium has a number of good place for riding bikes.  Actually, a lot of Belgians seem to enjoy biking.  However, as an expat, I have difficulty in locating good places for biking with my kids.  Today, I have found a great website containing many great biking routes.

www.routeyou.com

However, this website seems to only have biking and hiking routes.  Actually, I have looked for kayaking routes around Brussels.  If someone knows a great route for kayaking, please let me know.  Thanks in advance.

Children's toy: Elenco's Snap Circuits

Recently my son, the fourth grader, seemed to briefly learn from his school about electricity and basic circuits.  He wanted to re-conduct the same experiment that he did at school at home and asked me to buy basic electronic circuit kits.  I could not deny his request for the electronic circuits because the circuits can lead him to the career of scientists or engineers in the near future.  So, I googled to find out electronic circuits that I can buy.  Some goofy stuff was available at Amazon.co.uk, which seem to look down on modern kids' intelligence.

My ever-googling electronic circuits turned me on Elenco's Snap Circuits (http://www.snapcircuits.net/).  I purchased "Snap Circuits Extreme® Educational 750 Exp" from an European distributor of Elenco.  This circuit kit was simply awesome.  This was not too complicated for kids to handle but was quite challenging.  My kids loved it.  They built some circuits to fly a flying saucer, listening a FM radio channel, make annoying noises and record their voices, by simply following instructions of the manual.

They noticed another kind of electronic toy at Elenco's website - Circuit Rover - and pestered me to buy it.  I purchased two sets of Circuit Rover for them.  My kids could control the rover with the remote controllers, shoot some small dishes, and record their voices in them.  Of course, they loved it.  But, the rover made some noise which annoyed me.

While playing with the electric circuits and the rovers, my kids noticed that something was wrong.  My daughter's rover did not move and some parts of the circuits did not work.  I emailed Elenco, asking how to fix the problems.  Elenco simply sent new parts for the rover and the circuits from the US to Belgium, without asking what happened to the parts.  It was a really amazing after service.
   

DHL Redelivery Request in Belgium

This year my wife wanted to buy some clothes for our kids as Christmas gifts.  She postponed the purchase until the Christmas sale.  However, the clothes that she wanted to buy had been being sold away even before the start of the Christmas sale.  She inevitably decided to buy them even before the sale.  However, the problem was that we had to go to Austria to ski during the Christmas holidays and the clothes that she purchased online was likely to arrive at the house when we would be absent.

Her worry came true: DHL attempted to deliver the parcel when we were not at home.  She came to have another worry that the parcel would return to the seller and wanted to ask DHL to redeliver the parcel on a certain day that she wanted.  We could not find any information about redelivery on Belgium DHL website.  Thus, we googled several times with such key words as "reschedule" and "redelivery" and discovered a website.  Whereas UK DHL website provided redelivery request on its website, Belgium DHL had a separate website for redelivery request (http://dhlredelivery.be).  We typed in the reference number for our parcel on the website and requested redelivery a few days later.

When we returned to home, we found a notice that DHL left for us that we would need to pick up the parcel at a DHL station.  However, next day the parcel was delivered to us.  We realized that if we did not requested for the redelivery, we had to go to a DHL station to pick up our parcel.

Skiing in Alpbach

This is the third year of visiting Alpbach to ski.  I guess that now I am a little bit familiar with Alpbach and can say something about Alpbach (www.alpbach.at).

Alpbach is a small village of Tyrol, Austria.  From Brussels to Alpbach, it took more than 11 hours, although Google Map says that it takes 8.5 hours.  There were several road construction areas in Southern Germany through which we had to pass and there were heavy traffic jams around the border between Germany and Austria.

It seems that Alpbach ski resort named after the name of village Alpbach.  However, there is no decent ski slope except a nursery / practice slope in Alpbach village.  Two Gondola lanes that take skiers to ski slopes start from Wiederbergerhorn, a bus stop on the road to Alpbach village and from Inneralpbach.  Of course, there are several lifts in the middle of the mountain.

Alpbach ski resort seems to include not only Alpbach village and Inneralpbach but also Reith im Alpachital and Kramsach.  However, main ski slopes can be accessed from Wiederbergenhorn and Inneralpbach.  By car, it takes 20 minutes from Reith im Alpachital and 30 minutes from Kramsach to Inneralpbach.

In Kramsach, there is no decent ski slope.  Although Alpbach ski slopes map says that there are ski slopes in Kramsach, the slopes are barely operative.  In Reith im Alpachital, there is a gondola lane and a good nursery slope.

Last two years, my family stayed in Kramsach.  This time we rent a holiday apartment in Reith im Alpachital.  Kramsach is smaller and less developed than Reith im Alpachital.  Reith im Alpachital looked smaller than Alpbach but cozier and more beautiful than the other nearby villages.  However, it is not easy to get an accommodation in Reith im Alpachital.

Many Austrian people in Alpbach, Inneralpbach, and Reith im Alpachital can speak English. Although most visitors are German skiers, Dutch and English skiers were also noticed.  

I put my kids into a ski school named "Ski school Alpbach-Inneralpbach (http://en.skischule-alpbach.at)," whenever I came to Alpbach ski resort.  The ski school provides several programs according to skiers' skills.  The programs usually begin on Sunday.  Joining on Monday seems to be acceptable.  On Friday, the ski school has its students attend races.  Regardless of their records, they can get certificates and medals.  These certificates and medals are a good gift for kids.

Marginal University

Today I just noticed that Time magazine selected 25 best blogs. 
techland.time.com/2013/08/05/the-25-best-bloggers-2013-edition/

Most of them, from my perspective, look like miscellanea.  But, one of them has attracted my attention.  That is Marignal University, which seem to provide free Economics courses online.  Economics participating in the university look great and lectures are also not bad.

mruniversity.com/

How to get Swiss Family Card

This summer my family went to Jungfraujoch and Schilthorn with my brother's family.  The two families consisted of four adults and three kids.  We had to buy some type of Swiss Passes in order to get discounts in using transports for going up to the two mountains.  It was very expensive to buy each ticket for cable cars or trains without help of Swiss Passes.  There are several types of Swiss Passes.  Because we took cars to Switzerland, we did not need regular Swiss Passes.  I narrowed the several options of Swiss Passes to two: Jungfrau VIP Pass and Half-Fare Card.  After pondering over the pros and cons of the two discount passes during several weeks, I decided Half-Fare Card for the trip.  I will explain why I chose Half-Fare Card instead of Jungfrau VIP Pass.

According to the official Switzerland Tourist Office's website (www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html), if Half-Fare Card is combined with Swiss Family Card, kids do not need to pay transport fares.  So, I ordered four Half-Fare Card and three Swiss Family Card online.  A few days later, I received a DHL envelope containing the tickets.  When I received the tickets, I did not count the number of the tickets, assuming that all tickets that I had ordered were included,  A day before leaving for Switzerland, I checked the tickets.  Oh my god, only four Half-Fare Cards were included in the package.  They did not send Swiss Family Cards to me.  I did not have time to get the Family Card from Switzerland Tourist Office by mail.  Believing its website's message that I can get the Family Card at any transportation station in Switzerland, next day, we left for Luzern.  After seeing around Luzern, I visited a Luzern train station.  I looked for an  information center at the station.  However, around 4:00 p.m., the information center was already closed.  I was frustrated at the moment.  And, I visited a SBB booth just to know where I could get Swiss Family Cards.  SBB staff had them.  For the Family Cards, a SBB lady asked me for my kids' identifications.  After checking my kids' names and dates of birth, she simply put down the names and dates of birth on blank Swiss Family Cards.

Actually, unlike their names, Half-Fare Card and Swiss Family Card do not look like cards.  I had thought that the two cards' shape would have resembled that of a credit card.  The two cards looked like goofy airplane tickets.

Despite the goofy appearance of the Family Card, it was quite useful.  Whenever I took trains or cable cars, I did not worry about my kids' fares.

Don't need to buy a ticket to walk around windmills of Kinderdijk

I have visited Kinderdijk three times so far to see dutch windmills.  Whenever I have visited there, I have purchased tickets to enter the area where windmills are located.  There are 18 windmills and only one windmill is still operative. 

When I visited there for the first time in 2012, I purchased tickets at the ticket office.  I did not experience anything strange there.  For second time, when I visited there with my brother-in-law two weeks ago, I purchased tickets online in advance in order to get discounts.  After arriving at the site, I showed the print-out tickets at the ticket office.  An old man at the ticket office asked me to go to a tourist center which was over a canal in order to get the tickets scanned.  It sounded really silly.  The ticket office did not have a scanner to read tickets that were purchased online.  I asked my brother-in-law's family and my family to stay in front of the ticket office and went to the tourist center to get the tickets scanned.  At the tourist center, an old lady asked to watch a video at the center.  In order to watch the video regarding the dutch windmills, I had to go to the ticket office to bring my families to the tourist center.  It was really troublesome.  I gave up watching the video and returned to the ticket office.  I told the old man that I had my tickets scanned and he just let us in the area where the dutch windmills were without ensuring the tickets were scanned.  It looked strange.  Anyway, we took some pictures and my kids rode bikes there. 

A week later, I went there again with my brother's family.  This time I did not purchase tickets online in advance in order not to commute between the ticket office and the tourist center.  In addition, my brother and his kid did not like to watch a documentary film.  Thus, I purchased tickets at the ticket office and entered the windmills area.  Again we took some pictures there.  This time, we got into a windmill that was operating with the tickets and had an opportunity to see inside of the windmill.  After seeing inside of the windmill, I thought that the ticket might be to get into the windmill, not enter the area of windmills.  When we returned to the ticket office to move to somewhere, I heard from other tourists that they did not need buy tickets to walk around in the area of windmills and the tickets were to get into the windmill that is still operative.  I felt like being betrayed.  The website for the windmills of Kinderdijk (www.kinderdijk.com) says that tourists should buy tickets in order to enter the area where 18 windmills are.

Paris Museum Pass vs Individual tickets purchased online

Unlike my brother-in-law's family, my brother's family did not want to buy Paris Museum Passes, claiming that they wanted to visit only Musée d'Orsay, Musée de l'Orangerie, and Palace of Versailles.  When comparing the price of a two-day Paris Museum Pass (39 euro) and those of individual tickets for the three attractions (34 euro = 18 euro + 16 euro), they were right.  Thus, when I tried to purchase two tickets of combination of Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie online on behalf of them, it was a little bit different from it was known.  Each combination ticket was supposed to cost 16 euro.  However, if we purchased it online, we had to pay a processing fee of 1.6 euro as an extra cost.  Well, it could be understandable because this was French way.  Another surprising thing is that even if I purchased the tickets online, the website did not give me the tickets that can be used in museums.  In other words, I had to visit a third place, not museums, to get real tickets.  My brother and I had to visit Auchan, a French supermarket, to get the purchased tickets in the morning.  The supermarket was supposed to open at 08:30 a.m.  However, it opened at 09:00 a.m.  An employee in charge of tickets for museums and other events did not know how to operate the computerized system to print out my tickets.  She made a call to somewhere to operate the system. When I got the tickets, it was almost 10:00 a.m.  Why do we buy tickets online?  It is to avoid a long queue to buy tickets in front of a museum.  I wasted 1.5 hours to get my tickets that I purchased online even though I paid 1.6 euro processing fee.  If I had purchased the tickets in front of museum, I could have saved time and money.  I guess that this system is to make tourists buy Paris Museum Passes.

Incompatible ink cartridges of Canon named compatible ink cartridges

I have a Canon ink jet printer which was bought in the US.  This has been a quite useful and convenient to use because the printer has functions of WiFi and scanning.  However, I was encountered with a big problem several weeks ago.  My kids used up the ink cartridges that I had purchased in the US.  I went to a Media Markt in Brussels to buy new ink cartridges.  I could not find out the same ink cartridges as I have used for the printer.  I purchased compatible ink cartridges produced by Canon because the box of compatible ink cartridges reads they work for my printer.  However, the compatible cartridges have not worked for my printer.  I emailed Canon about this problem. A Canon representative emailed me saying that the compatible ink cartridges in the European countries do not work for printers purchased in the US.  As a result, I wasted about 60 euro for the incompatible ink cartridges.  I do not understand why Canon has this region restriction policy in ink cartridges.  Then, whenever I move to another region, do I have to buy a new printer?  From now on, I will not buy any Canon applicance.

Hike the Alps

Two weeks later, I will take my family and my brother's family to Luzern, Switzerland.  We plan to go up to both Schilthorn and Jungfraujoch and hike some trails too.  My wife does not like hiking.  But, my brother and I love it.  I have consulted Rick Steves's book in priming for this trip.  We have decided to take easy trails that Rick Steves recommended.  His book does not show detailed trail maps.  I know that I should buy hiking trail maps in Lauterbrunnen.  However, before leaving for Luzern, I need to have some general image about hiking.  So, I have googled to search for good trail maps.  I found out good trail maps for Schilthorn hiking and for Jungfrau hiking.

Schilthorn trail map: www.schilthorn.ch/en/hiking
Jungfrau trail map: www.swissholidayco.com/page/KLEINE_SCHEIDEGG

In addition, I have found a website providing general information about hiking in the Alps (www.hikethealps.com).

Design Triology by Gary Hustwits

While priming for a trip to Paris with my brother's family, I have become interested in art and design.  My wife asked me why I got to be interested in design all of sudden.  Well, I don't know.  My wife seems to believe that my sudden interest in art and design comes from somewhere.  What I have done for an annual report may be a source of my interest in design.  Anyway, I encountered an interesting documentary series regarding modern design, which was produced by Gary Hustwits.  The documentary series actually consists of three: Helvetica (www.helveticafilm.com), Objectified (www.objectifiedfilm.com), and Urbanized (urbanizedfilm.com).  As you may be already aware, Helvetica is a face type and the documentary about Helvetica talked about why and how Helvetica was born and what impact has given to us.  Until watching the documentary, I have never know that Helvetica is related to Switzerland.  The second documentary, Objectified, is about industrial design.  This was also interesting.  The third one, Urbanized, was less informative than the other two pieces.

Phaidon

Two weeks later two nephews and a niece will come to Brussels to have this summer holidays with my family.  I have not prepared any gift for them.  At first, I thought that taking them to great museums in Paris, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam is a sort of gift for them.  But, I am feeling that I need to give them something special.  I cannot give them wine.  They are just kids.  I do not want to give them toys.  That is not educational.  So, after deciding to give them something regarding art or design, I googled.  I found that Phaidon has released great art and design book series.  I will buy them after consulting my wife.  She may not like my idea because the books are too expensive!

uk.phaidon.com/agenda

How Art Made the World Theme: Daniel Mulhern

I watched a fascinating BBC Documentary, How Art Made the World, twice.  Of course,

Dr. Nigel Spivey's explanation about how art has influence our lives is insightful and informative.

www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld

Here, I would like to point out another thing in the wonderful documentary.  That is its theme music, which was composed by Daniel Mulhern.

soundcloud.com/#daniel-mulhern/how-art-made-the-world-theme

While searching for this theme music, I came to learn existence of this interesting website, soundcloud, which includes a number of interesting sounds and musics.

soundcloud.com

Fishing in the North Sea

My family went fishing in the North Sea in July 13.  This sea fishing is for the first time in my life, my wife's life, and my kids' lives.  Actually, this fishing was organized by my colleagues several months ago.  The initial plan was that my colleagues and their families of 50 people would participate in the event and charter a boat.  However, we postponed this plan because of bad weather.

When my colleagues re-organized this fishing event in July, the number of participants decreased to 13.  Some already left for their summer vacations.  Some seemed to feel uncomfortable when they were asked to prepare snacks for their families (They were not supposed to prepare anything when a bigger group was organized).

My colleagues contacted Franlis, a sea fishing company in Ostend of Belgium and reserved 13 seats.  We rent fishing rods and reels from the company.  Even they gave us baits.  What I took for fishing were a small knife to slice baits, an ice box, beers, and some snacks. 

www.franlis.be/seafishing/concept

We were asked to arrive at Port Ostend around 6:30 a.m. because a fishing boat was scheduled to leave the port at 7:00 a.m.  It took two hours the boat to go out to the middle of the sea.   Even though the weather was excellent for fishing, it was a little bit chilly.  We made several cups of coffee because we could use electricity in the boat.  The boat traced schools of fish with its radar.  When the boat reached a school of fish, its captain honked and we threw the lines in the water.












One of my colleagues caught more than 20 fish.  My family caught only 7.  However, my kids looked really excited.  My wife did not know how to clean the fish.  So, she wanted to keep only two cods and gave the rest of them to others.  When we returned to the port, it was around 5:00 p.m.

Prezi: a new presentation software

Several weeks ago, I saw a Dutch scholar have a very stylish presentation.  At that time, I thought that he used Adobe Flash for his presentation.  Several days later, a French colleague told me whether I would be interested in a presentation software and showed me a sleek website which is of Prezi.  According to him, I can zoom in and out in a slide very easily and smoothly.  I asked him how much it is.  He told me that if I am okay with my presentation being public, Prezi is free.  But, what if I don't like to allow my presentation to be public?  I have to pay charges monthly.  What if I use Prezi a couple of times a month and don't want my presentation to be public?  I have to pay charges monthly.

prezi.com

DocuWatch

My brother-in law will come to Brussels in two weeks.  My wife looks quite happy because she has not seen her brother for more than two years.  We should go to Paris to show his kids several museums, such as Musée du Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and Centre Pompidou.  I have felt that I am obliged to take care of them as a guide.  However, I have very little knowledge about paintings.  So, I have googled to find good reference materials about paintings.

BBC Documentary Treasures of the Louvre.  This seems to provide basic information about the Louvre and its paintings and sculptures.  The BBC website only provides a clip of the documentary.  However, we can see the full documentary at Youtube.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r3n6r

I have looked for a documentary about Musée d'Orsay but failed to do it.  I have used another key word in Googling: French Impressionism.  I have come across a website including various topics of documentaries, such as art, science, and war.  That is DocuWatch.

www.docuwat.ch/watch-documentaries

UN Comtrade

I have had several chances of being told about mirror analysis, which compares Country A's import data and Country B's export data to Country A.  Ideally, the two data should be matched well.  However, in practice, there is usually a huge gap between the two data.  Thus, many scholars claim that the gap means the existence of smuggling or informal trade between the two countries.  My question was not whether the gap between import data and export data can be interpreted as informal trade between countries but how scholars have obtained such trade data.  While reading a couple of articles regarding trade facilitation, I recognized that the UN provides such trade data for free.

comtrade.un.org