In no particular order or sense of organization:
- Belgian bureaucrats love the words "possible" and "not possible" and will use them interchangeably! Customer service Belgian-style is not as customer friendly as American-style. In fact, I was told by a Belgian that the product or service is supposed to speak for itself, so no customer service is needed (I must say the Germans feel this way too).
- Belgium truly is the land of great French fries (frites), and I have NEVER in my life seen so many different toppings (at least 10 at the last friterie I went to)...the favorite topping still being mayo:-)
- Priority from the right while driving...always, unless specially marked...even if the road coming from the right is a little goatpath. If it's deemed "a road", it has priority.
- High percentage of windshield dings and other road mishaps. Lots of turnip trailers and tractors in Wallonia and potholes as big as kingsized beds, especially now that winter has taken hold. Not sure where all these road taxes are going that everyone must pay (although Shapians are exempt from paying this tax for their first vehicle).
- The customer is NOT king....although, I must say, Wallonians are some of the friendliest Europeans I have ever met. Go back to my comment on customer service.
- Grown men, not just little boys, peeing along the side of the road. I've also noticed that public toilets aren't so easy to find and many stores just don't have toilets.
- Some cars so small, they can fit SIDEWAYS into the smallest parking space.
- McDonald's serving beer (all over Europe actually).
- Grown men hugging and kissing each other (ditto in many other areas..mostly down South).
- The hundreds, maybe thousands....of different Belgian beer varieties to choose from. My DH is continuing his beer label collection here in Belgium.
- That if you buy a hunk of cheese or bottle of beer or whatever food item that says it comes from a monastery, it'll be at least twice as expensive as the normal brands.
- People buy baguettes around here like Americans buy donuts.
- The small serving sizes for anything you'd like to drink....unless you are going to Starbucks, you can forget a big glass or mug of anything (except maybe beer in some cases). And forget asking for ice.
- The small serving sizes in restaurants and the resistance I have found in Chinese restaurants to refill the darn plain white rice dish!
- Bringing your grocery bags with you shopping, or being prepared to buy some.
- Your vehicle MUST have a fire extinguisher and if it is older than 5 years, you'd better have that rear foglight installed.
- My surprise at how little people speak English language around SHAPE (in Wallonia)....must be a Wallonian thing as NATO Brussels and Brussels in general is mostly bilingual...must be a Flemish thing.
- Almost everything shuts down on a Sunday.
- The slowness of getting anything done. It took us about seven months to get our day/night electric meter installed...which was part of our home rental contract....it's like work is drawn out, because you don't want to finish everything at once. You'll see this a lot with your landlord too....again, most are supernice, but you gotta give them time and lots of it.
- Don't mess with a Wallonian's vacation or time off or give him a more efficient way to do his job....work ends promptly at whatever time it is scheduled to end.....vacation time is sacred here....I've heard bureaucrats who have lived and worked in other European countries tell me they had to actually slow down at work or else they'd finish all their work in two days and twiddle their fingers the rest of the week.....pacing yourself apparently is the idea here.
- Relaxed rules. I had a Dutch farmer in Wallonia tell me that they moved the whole family, cows and everything down here from their family farm in the Netherlands....not to Flanders where they also speak Dutch....but down here, the land of the French-speaking Belgians...here land was cheap when they came and the rules can be interpreted a dozen different ways...which is why in the same day you can get the "possible" and "not possible" answer referring back to the first item on my list. What Wallonian or Belgian-isms do you have to add?
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