After nearly four months in Ghent, I think I have a pretty good idea for what’s available food-wise and what, sadly, is not. It’s not quite the food-wonderland I imagined it would be back when we first found out we would move here, but there are lots of things for our bellies to be happy …
Author Archives: Kirstin
I can’t pronounce my neighborhood
Gentbrugge. Gent + Brugge. Brugge is the Flemish spelling for Bruges, which I pronounce like “bruise” with a “zh” at the end instead of just a “z”. Therefore, Gent+Bruges=Gentbrugge. Right? Wrong. One of my first Flemish lessons occurred in Kyrgyzstan without me really knowing it. The last names of one of our Belgian friends has …
would you ever go back?
Farrell’s company is going through some major changes and there’s a small but terrifying (but not end-of-the-world terrifying, and it’s a small chance, so any family emails related to this sentence will be ignored) chance that maybe Farrell could lose his job (but it’s small, probably unlikely, but you never know). This all made me …
my history of living abroad
I’ve done quite a bit of moving around the world, some of which was never shared here or only shared in bits and pieces. I decided to write out my full history of spending extended lengths of time abroad, and maybe I’ll expand on certain experiences in more detail in a later post. In 2007, …
GoEuro Travel Trivia
This post is sponsored by GoEuro, a new travel planning website that combines searches for all transportation options, along with transparency of any potential hidden or extra costs, to help you plan the trip of your dreams around Europe. From the GoEuro website: “GoEuro came to birth after the extremely overwhelming experience of trying to …
Ghent Christmas Market
Is it just me? Or does January, despite how great it feels to get back to your normal routine, despite how full of promise and potential it is for shiny new resolutions, despite how it inches closer and closer to Spring, feel like a bit of a bummer? New Year’s Day comes and the holidays …
2014 Resolutions
As a millenial and a twentysomething woman, I feel it is steeped in my cultural upbringing to admit for the billionth time that I love writing lists of goals, resolutions and things-to-do, then blog about those lists and potentially not follow through on most of what is listed on those lists. So here we go …
the most shocking culture shock
(so far) There are tons of things to adapt to about living in Ghent/Belgium/Europe that are different from the US or Kyrgyzstan. Little things, like discovering that my favorite mascara costs 11 Euros here (compared to $5-6 in the US) and taking the minuscule step of buying store-brand make-up from a chain I’ve never heard …
Ivory Pom’s notable posts of 2013
Good bye to you, 2013! Let’s do a quick recap of the most memorable moments: (True, Darwin was born in 2012 [just barely] but duh, he had a pretty big impact on my 2013.) January: Preparing for our trip from the US to Bishkek as a family, we had to get Darwin his first passport. …
Atomium
I hope everybody is having a wonderful and relaxing holiday season! Farrell’s parents left this morning (or this afternoon? they have the worst luck with flight delays) and we’re working on getting Darwin back to his old routine of not being spoiled by loving grandparents all day. In the meantime, I figured I’d post some …