Taking a break from the 21st century

Moving to Belgium one would expect to be moving into civilization, not out of it. Little did I know how medieval my experience here would be...

In the past two months I haven't used any of these seemingly common features of the 21st century even once:

• NO car – I have forgotten what it smells like, but it's cool to have everything nearby
• NO oven – the charms of renting
• NO microwave – see above
• NO popcorn
• NO McDonald's – or any other junk food chains. One bonus point for me here
• NO mobile internet – 42 cents for 5 minutes of browsing? No thanks
• NO GPS – mine uses my mobile internet connection… see above
• NO cash – this is actually an advantage - it's cool to pay for everything with plastic.
• NO TV – okay, this is not much of a change as I don't watch TV anyway
• NO radio – hmm
• NO newspapers – since I don't speak any of the languages here
• NO DVD/CD – my netbook simply doesn't have the means to play them…
• NO plastic shopping bags! - 50 cent per bag really teaches you how to think green ;)
• NO rubbish bins – I find leaving your trash out on the street for someone to collect a bit of a weird practice, but it seems to be working, so who am I to judge?
• NO umbrella – of course I brought one, but it's been so sunny! They say it's about to change though… what a shame!
• NO common sense* :)

*It's hard not to think of Belgium as Alice's Wonderland… there seem to be Mad Hatters on every corner and every time I try to speak to someone at the bank they have a Cheshire Cat's grin. And I'm sure I saw a rabbit hole in the park the other day, but it might just have been the entrance to the metro.

But they make wonderful chocolate :) And waffles!

Martina Marinova,
DG COMM