more randomness - now with birthday sushi
I'm now most of the way to being Belgian! Mussels, fries, and a beer! (Okay, the beer wasn't mine.) I just need chocolate and sprouts.
Apparently, Belgium is thankful that the US liberated them in WWII. Seems reasonable, I guess. So there are a bunch of folks who like to do reenactments. They rebuild the tanks, jeeps, and motorcycles and dress up in the uniforms. They then drink beer and sit around talking and enjoying themselves. It was definitely weird to be in the middle of Mons, with a bunch of tanks around and people were kind of praising the US.
I had a great birthday. I worked during the day and brought a couple of Danielle-made chocolate cakes to work for everyone (the tradition here is that you bring snacks/food/cake/beer/whatever to share with everyone else on your birthday). Danielle and Joelle also arranged for a small surprise party in the evening. I made sushi for a gathering of four, and then when I showed up, there were more people that I wasn't expecting. Yay! Sushi became the appetizer along with sake and we had some premium pesto pasta along with some scotch and a game of carcassonne later. Good fun!
The Musée de Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum) of Mons had a Keith Haring exhibit and on Belgian cultural weekend, all the museums were free. Danielle and I went to see Keith Haring, but this was the only picture I took.
This past weekend was a celebration of theatre in Mons, and it culminated in a crazy heavy metal concert involving dancers/performers hanging from a weird hexagonal cage being raised and lowered by a crane. It was definitely bizarre and fun
Does anyone happen to recognize this jacket?!? It has to be a Burning Man thing, but I'm not sure. It was found at a garage sale a few kilometers from my house.
And finally, did I happen to mention that Belgium is good for growing things? Yep. That's a 4 meter tall cannabis plant that's just starting to flower in my courtyard. I just found out that the type of plant is "skunk haze" and we apparently planted it during the exact right moon phase. It turns out that it's legal to grow one plant per adult in the household in Belgium. They didn't specify the size of the plant, and I think this may push the limits of the intent of the law, but we have four adults here, although two of them (one is me!) don't smoke pot at all.
