Over the years, I've turned to running as my form of exercise. My free-time is precious and I'm an efficient person, therefore running is the most efficient workout I could choose. I lace up my shoes, turn on my iPod, go out the door, get my heart rate up and approximately 30-40 minutes later I'm home again and in the shower. Et voila, workout accomplished, therefore allowing me to indulge in Belgian delicacies such as saucisse and frites and of course, chocolate.
This spring, I've decided to start adding a little bit of mileage. Nothing much, I would just like to extend my workout time to about an hour, three times a week. I'm thinking about signing up for a local 10k race this summer, and maybe, just maybe taking on a half-marathon at some point next year. Ok fine, I'll admit it. The half-marathon I'm thinking about is in Paris. If I'm ever going to do a half-marathon, how cool would it be to do it in Paris?!
In any event, this morning I took the kids to school, and with a whole sunshine-y day ahead of me headed out for my run early. Incidentally, the road in front of our house is a complete mess. Multiple road work crews are tearing it apart to make a bike path and walking trail and hopefully, make it next to impossible to drive the wrong way thereby improving the traffic situation. Meanwhile, it's a pain-in-the-you-know-what to use it for anything, running included. But it's the route to the trails at the chateau so away I went.
By the time I got to the end of the road, I was the embarrassed recipient of at least a dozen catcalls and jeering remarks. As a mother of three approaching 40 in the not so distant future, I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Should I be proud, that I can still turn heads? I wasn't. Should I be embarrassed that I'm out enjoying a much needed workout? No way jose, that's not my style. I settled on being proud to be an athlete.
But it got me thinking. Running is primarily a male sport here in Belgium. I haven't noticed it that much before, it's not the sort of thing I think about. I have the luxury of being an American woman born in one of the first generations that can take Title 9 for granted. But now that I think about it, 9 times out of 10, the runners running by our house are men. And while it doesn't happen very often, I've noticed that when I do happen to pass a male runner when I'm running at the park because I'm faster than they are, they don't like it very much.
As I ran my 7km route, I thought about one of the greatest experiences of my lifetime. My four years in college, where I competed on the varsity co-ed swim team. In the pool we were one team. Swimming the same workout, regardless of the swimsuit you were wearing. We respected each other as teammates and fellow athletes and our friendships that were born in that old stinky pool have endured through the years as some of the most precious and valuable of my lifetime. And as a result, I don't even think about differences in men's sports versus women's sports, especially with sports like running and swimming.
So as I approached the home stretch of my run this morning, I braced myself for the looks, pulled my baseball hat down over my eyes and set my iPod to the ultimate girl-power song -- Hollaback Girl by Gwen Steffani. I turned up the volume and sprinted the last 500 meters to my house, grateful and proud to be an athlete. And from now on, I'm going to have to resist the urge to high-five other female runners that I pass and shout, "you go girl."
Friday, May 4, 2012
Spring has Sprung
Spring is slowly but surely arriving in Belgium. We had a late winter, but spring is finally upon us. Over the last few weeks, the weather has started to change from the random fifteen minute cycles of rain-sleet-sunshine to mostly sunshine with enough rain mixed in to remind us that we are indeed still in Belgium and shouldn't get too cocky about it.
When we were back in Minnesota, we took the boys on a tour of the catholic school they would be attending had we stayed there. One word comes to mind: Impressive. We wanted them to see the school because some day, our time here might come to an end. The boys are already nervous for something like that to happen. Since we happened to be in Minnesota during the school year for the first time, we took advantage of the timing so we could give them a visual image of what it would be like to go to school in the United States. During the tour of the school, the assistant principal turned to AJ and said, "now we're going to go see the big gym" to which AJ replied, "the little gym is already bigger than the one we use," and then we proceeded to tell her how the children walk approximately 2km through the cow pastures, rain or shine, to walk to the community sports facility for their gym class.
About ten days ago, Miss B and I were waiting for the boys after school (her class sometimes gets out just a little before the boys). We were standing at the fence on the playground that overlooks a pasture below and we were watching the sheep. And we noticed a tiny little lamb poke his wobbly legs into position and stand for the first time. His little tail wagged as he tried to figure out how to eat for the first time. His mama started the long process of trying to clean him up.
When I told the boys about the new baby lamb, AJ replied "We already know. We watched it being born at recess. Christophe was the first one to see the legs come out." Huh. That's a pretty cool thing to get to see at recess.
This week, we've watched the daily progress of preparation for the annual spring school party, fete du printemps. Our house is beyond excited for tomorrow's party. It's the first year where all three kids get to be in the spectacle, and Miss B even showed me her entire dance routine last week. (Girls are very different than boys...neither of the boys have ever come home and actually practiced their dance routines for fete du printemps.) This morning, when we arrived at school they were doing sound checks at the stage. This turned into an impromptu DJ/dance party with songs that were heavy on the base and lyrics along the lines of "steal all of the booze from your mother's liquor cabinet..." (Keep in mind that there is normally not a need to censor music as my kids are some of the only ones that speak english well enough to understand. Believe me, I've had to do my fair share of explaining bad words we've heard on the radio over the last four years.)
But as I walked out of school this morning, my excitement and anticipation for tomorrow's festivities matched the same level as my children. We are so lucky to have found this school, we are grateful that the families accept us as part of it, and we are happy for the chance to celebrate spring.
When we were back in Minnesota, we took the boys on a tour of the catholic school they would be attending had we stayed there. One word comes to mind: Impressive. We wanted them to see the school because some day, our time here might come to an end. The boys are already nervous for something like that to happen. Since we happened to be in Minnesota during the school year for the first time, we took advantage of the timing so we could give them a visual image of what it would be like to go to school in the United States. During the tour of the school, the assistant principal turned to AJ and said, "now we're going to go see the big gym" to which AJ replied, "the little gym is already bigger than the one we use," and then we proceeded to tell her how the children walk approximately 2km through the cow pastures, rain or shine, to walk to the community sports facility for their gym class.
About ten days ago, Miss B and I were waiting for the boys after school (her class sometimes gets out just a little before the boys). We were standing at the fence on the playground that overlooks a pasture below and we were watching the sheep. And we noticed a tiny little lamb poke his wobbly legs into position and stand for the first time. His little tail wagged as he tried to figure out how to eat for the first time. His mama started the long process of trying to clean him up.
When I told the boys about the new baby lamb, AJ replied "We already know. We watched it being born at recess. Christophe was the first one to see the legs come out." Huh. That's a pretty cool thing to get to see at recess.
This week, we've watched the daily progress of preparation for the annual spring school party, fete du printemps. Our house is beyond excited for tomorrow's party. It's the first year where all three kids get to be in the spectacle, and Miss B even showed me her entire dance routine last week. (Girls are very different than boys...neither of the boys have ever come home and actually practiced their dance routines for fete du printemps.) This morning, when we arrived at school they were doing sound checks at the stage. This turned into an impromptu DJ/dance party with songs that were heavy on the base and lyrics along the lines of "steal all of the booze from your mother's liquor cabinet..." (Keep in mind that there is normally not a need to censor music as my kids are some of the only ones that speak english well enough to understand. Believe me, I've had to do my fair share of explaining bad words we've heard on the radio over the last four years.)
But as I walked out of school this morning, my excitement and anticipation for tomorrow's festivities matched the same level as my children. We are so lucky to have found this school, we are grateful that the families accept us as part of it, and we are happy for the chance to celebrate spring.
Overtired and Overstimulated
Wow. I've let the days get away from me again...with good reason. If you've only just started following this blog, don't worry, I always come back to the blog. Sometimes I get distracted for a few weeks at a time, but anyone that's been following this for awhile will tell you that I almost always make up for long silent stretches with multiple entries.
So my good reason was that this year, we took our annual trip back to Minnesota for the Easter break, rather than go at our usual time in the summer. Earlier this year, John announced that we needed a vacation and we should go somewhere warm and have a beach vacation for spring break. Hmm. I'm not sure if you follow regional weather patterns, but Europe doesn't exactly have a Florida. There's not really anywhere that's warm enough to lay on the beach in Europe for spring break.
We could go to Africa? Or maybe Egypt? Can you imagine that phone call, "hi mom and dad, just want to let you know that we're taking your grandkids to Egypt for spring break this year....what do you mean violent uprising?" In any event, either of those destinations seemed a little overwhelming for this family of five. That left, well, Florida. You wouldn't believe the deals you can get on flights from Europe to Miami or Orlando. But how silly is that? Americans living in Europe traveling to Florida for spring break...maybe if we lived here permanently, or maybe if we talked all of our family into meeting us there....
We came up with an alternative. Rather than spend all of our time and money to travel to the U.S. this summer, we decided to take our trip to Minnesota for Easter, leaving a wide open schedule (and budget) for us to travel somewhere warm and vaction-y here this summer. So that's what we did.
The kids were older, the flights much easier. It was the first time since we've lived here that I was actually more excited to go, than I was nervous about taking the kids on the long flights. That was a good feeling. We all appreciated the fact that we would be there to celebrate a holiday that we usually celebrate alone, here. We figured that we could manage it during the school year and the kids would be able to handle it. What we didn't think about was the reality of trying to fit everything in, to a two week period, when we usually have a month. We focused on family and overall feel like we did a good job with the schedule.
There was one of our crew that had a difficult time with all of it. Miss B. Over the course of two weeks, I finally figured out that she just needed to have a temper tantrum at least once a day to decompress. I never knew when it was going to hit. Once, in the middle of the night (sorry Fowler and Roberson families, the girl has a set of lungs and she knows how to use them) other times, after a big outing (Tritz and Morrison families, you missed a doozy after we got home from Easter dinner). One night, when John was traveling for work, the only way she would sleep is if she had one hand on my back the entire night. By the end of the trip, I was just as overtired and overstimulated as she was. It's hard to be a good mom when you are so far away from home!
But we got through it, and had a wonderful time with our families. And now we have a summer vacation to look forward to, and a wide open calendar for anyone that might want to book a visit....
So my good reason was that this year, we took our annual trip back to Minnesota for the Easter break, rather than go at our usual time in the summer. Earlier this year, John announced that we needed a vacation and we should go somewhere warm and have a beach vacation for spring break. Hmm. I'm not sure if you follow regional weather patterns, but Europe doesn't exactly have a Florida. There's not really anywhere that's warm enough to lay on the beach in Europe for spring break.
We could go to Africa? Or maybe Egypt? Can you imagine that phone call, "hi mom and dad, just want to let you know that we're taking your grandkids to Egypt for spring break this year....what do you mean violent uprising?" In any event, either of those destinations seemed a little overwhelming for this family of five. That left, well, Florida. You wouldn't believe the deals you can get on flights from Europe to Miami or Orlando. But how silly is that? Americans living in Europe traveling to Florida for spring break...maybe if we lived here permanently, or maybe if we talked all of our family into meeting us there....
We came up with an alternative. Rather than spend all of our time and money to travel to the U.S. this summer, we decided to take our trip to Minnesota for Easter, leaving a wide open schedule (and budget) for us to travel somewhere warm and vaction-y here this summer. So that's what we did.
The kids were older, the flights much easier. It was the first time since we've lived here that I was actually more excited to go, than I was nervous about taking the kids on the long flights. That was a good feeling. We all appreciated the fact that we would be there to celebrate a holiday that we usually celebrate alone, here. We figured that we could manage it during the school year and the kids would be able to handle it. What we didn't think about was the reality of trying to fit everything in, to a two week period, when we usually have a month. We focused on family and overall feel like we did a good job with the schedule.
There was one of our crew that had a difficult time with all of it. Miss B. Over the course of two weeks, I finally figured out that she just needed to have a temper tantrum at least once a day to decompress. I never knew when it was going to hit. Once, in the middle of the night (sorry Fowler and Roberson families, the girl has a set of lungs and she knows how to use them) other times, after a big outing (Tritz and Morrison families, you missed a doozy after we got home from Easter dinner). One night, when John was traveling for work, the only way she would sleep is if she had one hand on my back the entire night. By the end of the trip, I was just as overtired and overstimulated as she was. It's hard to be a good mom when you are so far away from home!
But we got through it, and had a wonderful time with our families. And now we have a summer vacation to look forward to, and a wide open calendar for anyone that might want to book a visit....
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