Rainy Sunday

I don't know where I left off. I am finally in Antwerp, have decided that I am a big fan of this city. Pretty much everything is within walking distance, which is cool, the beer is just fantastic, the people are nice in general as well. Things are going well overall. The only real bummer is that I am hanging by myself. It was something that I had become used to over a ten year period, but over the past two years, I always had people around in one respect or another, now I am going to be experiencing new things, going to bike races and stuff, pretty much by myself. Oh well, what can you do. I am happy that I brought my rain coat with me. For some reason I brought short sleeve shirts, which are completely uncessary at this point, it is cool to cold. It also rained at least half of the day, each day, for the past week. I will be getting used to riding in the wind and the rain, because that is what they do here. Apartment shopping took place on Friday, I saw ten or eleven different places. Of course the place I really liked is not available to the end of the month. It is about a half block from the national museum, about five blocks from the river where people do a bunch of riding, and in the south end of town, which I am told is the hip and happening place. It seems to be. Thankfully the guy has a palce to put me up for a few weeks until the apartment frees up.
The office I am working in is quite a mess to say the least. Everything has at least some issue that needs to be addressed in some fashion, some a lot more than others. For example, the "white collar" work week per Belgian law is 37 hours. If they work more, it is on them, but it cannot be asked or forced. So, the closest thing you can do to get those kind of hours, is have them sign a contract for a 39 hour work week and they get one full day off per month. Or you can do 38 hours and give them a half day off per month. Yeah, we are going to go with the 39 hour week, which gives 12 extra days of per year on top of the approximately six weeks they get. Umm, yeah, we have it really backwards in the states, I don't care what you say.
The Slingbox has been my savior. At least I get to watch American TV while I am here. I would say it is one of the better inventions in quite some time. There is only so much animal planet I can take, or watching the BBC or shows with Dutch voiceover and French subtitles. It is tough to say the least.
Being Sunday, and rainy, again, I am just killing some time until the Phillies game comes on, and a little american style football and a bit of NASCAR. I stopped by a little shop on my way back to the hotel to get a beer and the dude in there was Russian. I pulled a Duval out of the fridge and he commented that I can get that anywhere, try one of his Russian beers. Okay, not a problem. He then asked where I was from, and we talked about hockey for a while. He watched the Senators/Pens game yesterday, saying it was a good game, but he is an Ovechin fan, not the big dummy Malkin. He also asked if I played, not in many years was my reply. He invited me to join in his "old an" league here in Antwerp. They play each Wednesday from 10 until midnight or so. I am not sure about that whole thing, it has been over 15 years since I had that aspect of my game in tact. I think it is going to be better for all parties involved if I just stay with the cycling. After all, I embarrass myself enough with that over here.
Anyway, that's it for now, I had Sunday in Europe as much as in the States, go figure!!

I wonder what the Ogre is up to right now...