D. S. Friberg Blog

Dissimilarities

Having completed my five-part April travel retrospective, I’m at last back to the present on the blog.  First, though, just a couple of pictures of our friend Merethe, who visited for a couple of days at the beginning of May. We had a nice time with her in Brussels and Ghent!

Besides keeping everyone back home up to date, one of the main objectives of this blog is to document our adventure abroad for future reference. As we begin to wrap up our time here, I want to devote a few posts to aspects of our daily life in Ghent.

The differences between Minnesota and Belgium range from the obvious (language, politics, weather) to the subtle (the kiss hello, pedestrian right of way at crosswalks, the not-quite-so-spicy “Spicy Italian” at Subway). It’s the many subtle little differences that have reminded us from day to day that we are living in a foreign country. One thing that has taken me the last nine months to fully realize, for example, is that fresh milk is almost non-existent in Belgium.  Small grocers and convenience stores stock only UHT, or long life, milk, which you buy in cartons off unrefrigerated shelves.  Fresh milk is hard to come by.  We used to be able to buy it at the Carrefour Express near our apartment, but it has recently disappeared there as well. According to Euromonitor International (via Times Online), 96.7 percent of milk consumed in Belgium is UHT, the highest of any European country.  Wes doesn’t know the difference, but to me it tastes strange. It’s somewhere between fresh milk and powdered or canned milk.

Another difference – one that we’ve adjusted to by now – is store hours.  Most retailers are open 10-6, may or may not close for lunch, are closed Sundays, and may be closed Mondays or other random days.  Then, if you need something after 6 p.m, you go to a nachtwinkel, or “night shop.”  Nachtwinkels are similar to, but not quite the equivalent of, American-style convenience stores.  Convenience stores in the States, as I think of them, are open 24/7, and provide one-stop shopping for essential groceries (like fresh milk), health/beauty products, magazines, a few car-care items (oil, anti-freeze, wiper blades), and (in some states) alcohol. In Belgium, or at least in Ghent proper, you go to any one of four or five different stores depending on what you need and when you need it: news stands, produce shops, pharmacies, health/beauty shops, auto parts stores, wine shops, or nachtwinkels. Nachtwinkels don’t carry everything, though, so if you need produce or a magazine after 6 p.m. you’re probably out of luck. The really puzzling thing to me is that sometimes a nachtwinkel is located right next to a grocery store, its day-time equivalent. It’s as if the shop keeper closes the grocery at six, and then walks next door to open the nachtwinkel. Why not just consolidate the two and stay open round the clock, thereby cutting costs practically in half and offering a wider selection of stuff? My best guess is that there is a law keeping it this way. One nice thing, at least, is that nachtwinkels are absolutely everywhere. We have four within a three-minute walk of our place.

Incidentally, the owner of the J.J.S shops (pictured above) has recently taken over Pizza Bella Italia, our favorite Indian restaurant in Ghent.  They are now offering an all-you-can-eat buffet for 9.95 Euro.  It’s the first in Ghent that I’m aware of, and it’s very good.  I hope it will be a big success.  Every decent college town needs a good and cheap Indian buffet.  The owner says that they will be changing the decor to something more Indian, so hopefully they also change their name to something more Indian.

Finally, here are two short videos that Katie shot a while back of  a strange scene by the river.  Maybe someone played a practical joke?

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