Of cheese and Mongolians

Wow, just when I was getting used to a French keyboard I have to switch to Flemish! I just arrived in Belgium today with Zoe and I'm trying to get used to the rainy, green scenery and really missing the sunny meditarranean lifestyle of Marseille. Belgium is way way different than France, even though they border each other and French is spoken here. I've done an anthropologic analysis and decided that everyone here has wide-set facial features, large protruding eyes, light-toned skin and eyes and very big mouths. I fit right in. (Ha ha)
Last night I sat in Marseille overlooking the ocean and ate creamy carrot-ginger soup with crunchy baguettes, French cheese, and a glass of rose wine. Dinner is really late here (around 8) so after dinner we just relax and talk and watch the sun go down on the limestone hills and drink tea. At night it is too hot to wear much, so consequently I'm covered with mosquito bites.
What a change in Brussels! All the signs are in Flemish and French and everything smells different and tastes different and it is rainy and a little gloomy here. I had forgotten that Belgium is one of the world leaders in science and technology so I have been pleasantly surprised to see the most fantastic ads for chemical companies all over the place! It's pretty awesome. They've got an atomic center here and headquarters for all the major chemical factories. Today I saw the most amazing chemistry ad ever. I think it was an ad for Bayer, and it was an enormous photo of a Mongolian boy (think National Geographic), and overtop of him was overlayed a chemical symbol (Hu) from the periodic table and it said "Bringing chemistry and humanity together". It almost made me cry, it was so beautiful.
I had a funny episode on saturday. I was at a park with our Marseille team and we had a table set up with refreshments. Barney was standing with some guys and I saw them trying to speak French so I went over to see if I could be of some translating assistance. They introduced themselves to me and I was trying to be polite and I asked one of them (in French) if he wanted a cup of coffee. He leaned over to whisper in my ear and said (in French) "I want your phone number". I almost laughed, it was funny. I told him he'd have to ask my boyfriend first, which took care of the situation nicely.
Well, I'd better be off. There are some girls here watching Pride and Prejudice in French, which sounds like fun.
lots and lots of love.