The "B" towns of the Belgian Ardennes

While my Dad and his wife Cathryn were in town, we made a few excursions to places Carl and I hadn't been before, particularly in the southern regions of Belgium, referred to as the Ardennes. We spent most of our time in two particular towns, Bastogne and Bouillon - hence the post title.

Bastogne was our first stop. This town is famous among World War II buffs as being the center of the December 1944-January 1945 "Battle of the Bulge". Here's the gist of the story: the Nazis, in a last ditch effort to turn the tide of the war in Europe, began a large offensive into SE Belgium and Luxembourg, in an attempt to reach Antwerp and split the Allied forces. This incursion created a "bulge" of German forces on the war map, which is where the common name of the battle came from. The battle covered a large region, but much of what has made it famous happened around the town of Bastogne, where the American 101st Airborne found themselves surrounded. Outnumbered, undersupplied and in freezing, snowy conditions, the 101st held off the Nazi assault on the town until the weather cleared and the Allied air forces could attack and drop critical supplies and ammunition. They continued to defend the town, never allowing the Nazis to capture it and take control of the important roads leading through the town into the rest of the region. Elsewhere along the battle lines, fighting raged for nearly a month before the Nazis were finally forced to withdraw. Before that happened however, more than 85,000 troops on each side were either killed, wounded, captured or missing.

The people of Bastogne were incredibly grateful to the American soldiers who protected the town from recapture by the Nazis, and as a result they built the Mardasson Memorial (inaugurated 1950) and later the Bastogne Historical Center (a museum) next to it in 1976. The museum and memorial were both very well done, and it's interesting to walk around the town and see streets, cafés and even menu items named after American commanders. Aside from the history it's also an attractive town in a very pretty area of rolling hills, trees and farmland, as you'll see in one of the photos taken from atop the memorial.

Picture #1: Looking up at the Mardasson Memorial
Picture #2: The view from the Memorial, looking towards the town.


Bouillon was the second town we visited, and it is medieval to the core. It's set is a picturesque valley at a sharp bend in the Semois River very close to the French border, and it's topped by the castle of Godfrey of Bouillon, a medieval knight and a leader of the first Crusade. Interestingly, he actually put the castle into hock in order to finance the Crusade! The first mention of a castle on that spot was in 988, but it is known to have existed much longer than that. We did a self-guided tour of the castle, and it was all you'd expect - old, dark, and creepy, but also beautiful and with some gorgeous views! The town itself is also really charming, though it was definitely crowded on this summer weekend. I'd like to go back another time and perhaps enjoy some of the outdoor attractions of the area, such as hiking and kayaking on the Semois. Anyone interested? :-)

Picture #3: view over the town from the castle
Picture #4: another view of the town, looking in a different direction

It's been a YEAR!

Today is the one year anniversary of our arrival in Brussels - WOW!! It's amazing to think of how the time has flown - it really doesn't seem like it was an entire year ago that we were arriving here and getting settled. It's also hard to believe that we've known all of our friends here for only about 11 months or so. Many of those in Carl's program talk about how unusual it is that so many close friendships have been formed during this short period. It's true too; Carl and I have both moved around a lot in the last 10 years or so of our lives, and the friendships we've made here are definitely among the closest we've ever formed in such a short period of time. I guess the shared experience of being far away from home and in an unfamiliar place is a unique one, so we all tend to stick together and support one another more than usual. We still love and miss our friends and family in Portland and elsewhere (of course!), but we've definitely formed some great, hopefully lifelong friendships in our time here so far.

In other news, we've definitely been busy lately. Carl turned in his dissertation on the 11th so that's a big weight off of his shoulders (and mine to a point as well, as I was his Editor-in-Chief!). My dad and stepmother arrived the very next day and were here until just this morning. We had a great time showing them around Belgium, including some new places in southern Belgium that we'd never visited...so look for a trip report on Bouillon and Bastogne in the next few days!

On the employment front, Carl will be signing his contract with Proximus/Belgacom on Monday. I also have a few prospects, one resulting from my meeting with the Proximus recruiter that I mentioned before. There aren't any specific opportunities with them yet, but I am in their database and several hiring managers have seen my CV (résumé) and have said I would be a strong candidate should a position open up. The other prospect involves a US company that will at the moment remain unnamed; I applied for a position there this week, and got a phone message about it the very next day! Thus far I've only traded voicemails with them, but the fact that they called so quickly HAS to be good! So there is definitely some activity happening on the job front, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will happen before we fly to the US.

Travel plans

Carl recently confirmed that the start date for his job will be October 1st, so we are taking advantage of the opportunity to travel back to the States now, before it involves using vacation time. We also got a great deal on a three-city sequence of flights, so it just made sense to do it now. So for family and friends in San Diego, Portland and Maryland/Virginia, here is our itinerary:
San Diego: 12-18 September
Portland: 19-22 September
MD/VA: 23-28 September

For those in Florida, I'm sorry that we won't be making it there on this trip. For some reason going to FL inflated the airfare beyond affordability, so we'll have to do that at a later date - perhaps in winter, when it's cold and dark here, but still warm and sunny there!

We're really excited to see everyone, visit favorite restaurants and stock up on clothing and other items that are either unavailable or more expensive here. We will also be sure to bring as much good beer and chocolate as we can safely transport! See you soon!

Drum roll please...

So it's been almost two weeks since my last post...I had decided that I would wait to write again until we received some word about our status here in Belgium, but that took much longer than expected. So what should have been a break of about six days turned into much longer; sorry about that! Anyway, there is finally news to report, so here goes...
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WE'RE STAYING!!!!
Last month I said we needed a miracle - I guess miracles do happen after all!!

Carl was just offered a position today with Belgacom, which is the main telecom/cable service provider here in Belgium - they're actually the largest private employer in the country, so it's a very established company, and from what we've heard it also has a very good reputation. He'll be working in the Marketing department for their mobile service division, which is called Proximus. He's very excited! There's even a little bit of extra good news to go with it - evidently Belgacom likes to hire couples, even entire families, and the recruiter who first contacted Carl about his job also wants to talk to me! So I now have an interview on Monday, and it's therefore possible that both of us could end up working there!

So there you have it - our heads are completely spinning right now, from both this news and the stress of finishing Carl's dissertation - as I write this he's typing madly, making last minute edits and additions, hoping to have it finished by lunchtime tomorrow so we can print it, get it bound, and just relax for the rest of the weekend!! Not that there's really time for that - my Dad & Cathryn arrive Monday morning, and we have lots to do to get ready for their visit - not to mention the things we need to take care of now that we know we're staying, like hopefully securing our apartment for another year. More on all that later though, for now we're just enjoying the news that our year overseas won't be just ONE year, but perhaps many!!