Adopted in Roeselare

Before I went to Belgium, mom nagged me to do household chores in my sister’s place so that she will be able to rest after surviving internal bleeding caused by ectopic pregnancy. So, I was prepared to do just that but I didn’t count my sister to thwart my plans which is a good thing in the end because I find their lifestyle / routine/ appliances very different from what I’m used to back in Philippines.

For one, their washing machine is huge and I don’t really know how to do the laundry other than doing it by my hands. They use steam iron which I haven’t tried before and I kept forgetting that one of the faucet is for hot water so I got burned several times at first. Heck, even their can opener is different from what we have in Philippines. Nevertheless, I persisted because I don’t want to be that useless and since sister doesn’t want me anywhere near washing machine and steam iron (Thank goodness because I don’t want to break their stuff again!), I assigned myself to dishwashing duty with Raidon as my assistant. 

Normal day in sister’s house consist of playing with Raidon, hugging the laptop and watching television. By late afternoon, I’ll go to the grocery with sister and Raidon to buy food for dinner. Their grocery comes with a self-service check-out system so sister scans all items by herself and pay them with this gadget that looks like an atm machine except that this one accepts cash, coins and even cards.

Sister does the cooking and by the time Fre arrived home from work, dinner is served.  After dinner, Fre spends quality time with Raidon or we watch movies together until sleeping time.

I love my bedroom and slept comfortably on it. Although my single bed was replaced with a queen sized one at the end of my stay, I have special attachment for the old one because Raidon introduced it to me and even went searching for me underneath 2 thick blankets one night to make sure that I am still around.

P.S. About breaking stuff, I destroyed their window blinds and cabinet door. Fre was very patient though and didn’t go berserk on me. He just silently fix them back all again.

Millieuzorg Roeselare en Menen

The nice thing about having connections is that you get to have a private tour FOR FREE at places that regular tourists would never get to see in a million years Like Millieuzorg Roeselare en Menen.

From what I’ve noticed in Belgium’s households is that they have two colored bags which they have to purchase: Blue and Green. They have to purchase it so people will learn to minimize their wastes – 20 Euro per pack of 20 bags. Blue bags are for things that could be recycled like tetra packs, plastic bottles and tin cans while Green bag is for the stuff that has to be burned. Philippines can’t afford incinerator so we got landfills instead.

Green Bags goes to Millieuzorg Roeselare en Menen where they will be burned by ovens until nothing is left but ashes and smoke. The nice thing about this plant is that it’s self-sufficient and environmentally friendly still because they filter the smoke to make sure that nothing comes out but clean safe air and they generate their own electricity using ORC Turbogenerator from Italian company, Turboden. And since the oven gives off heat, the company translated that into money by using that energy to heat up the water which is being sold to 21 companies in Roeselare like hospitals. Isn’t that cool? But do you know what else I find impressive about this facility? The place was efficiently planned that there were only 3 people per building if I’m not mistaken. For sure, I only saw 3 people the entire time we were walking about – Fre’s uncle, the guy who works the crane and the guy in the control room who watches live feeds from camera placed in strategic locations to make sure everything are still in order.

At the end of our tour, we went to their dining area where I was able to taste plum for the first time and I ate most of them. All in all, it was a nice educational tour and I’m very happy indeed for the opportunity to be able to see this with my own eyes. Dank u well uncle Carlos. Mwaahhh!

The trash

If I remember it correctly, this is where the ashes are separated from metallic objects which is sent to metal recycling plant

View inside the oven which might be what hell looks like.

One of the generators that is about the same as those powering big ships

Where smoke is being filtered

The ORC Turbogenerator

The Control Room

My delicious Plums

My Couchsurfer Date in Roeselare

I always make an effort to meet couchsurfers whenever abroad so after writing several posts in different forums telling people that I’m up for a walk and whatnots, couchsurfer newbie Mike responded to set a date. Meeting place was Roeselare’s stadhuis of course because as I said in my previous post, it’s the only place I knew how to get to on my own from my sister’s place aside from the train station. Mike’s girlfriend came along too so I was the third wheel in our party. At least they aren’t overly affectionate with each other so I didn’t feel quite left out or literally be green with envy.

The destination of our walkathon? The vaart. But before that, we passed by this beautiful street vendor selling waffles for 1.8 Euro. Belgium is big on waffles too and theirs doesn’t come with hotdog as is common in Philippines.

Next stop, is the church. There are a couple of churches in Roeselare and some houses even sport an image of Mother Mary and saints which I find a bit strange especially since I have this idea that majority of Europeans doesn’t believe in this kind of stuff anymore. But according to my guide of the day, Mike, not many people attend church nowadays and most of the attendees were senior citizens.

After 15 minutes of walk, we finally reached the vaart. What’s so special about this place? It’s a man-made canal that will put Roeselare in the economic map. According to Mike, just follow this canal and you’ll reach Amsterdam. This is important because it will make shipping/deliveries easier.

Aren’t they a beautiful couple? They are very tall too. We were walking together and I was in the middle and it sure was a good exercise for my neck to be swinging it up and down from left to right. Nyahaha.

Thank you guys for the time. It was nice meeting you too.

Welcome to Roeselare

Roeselare, Belgium is where I spent most of my days for my August 2011 trip because it’s where my sister lives.  People usually ask me what I think of Roeselare or Belgium and I guess I could understand as I tend to ask it too whenever I happened to meet tourists back in Philippines.  Problem is that I’m NOT the most eloquent person in the whole world so I usually just say that it’s OK. 

So, what I really think of Roeselare?  It seems to be a sleepy small town but what the place lack in terms of tourists attractions, the people make up for it in wonderful ways.  I’m very happy to be invited to their homes and for making me feel welcome.

Could I live in Belgium?  If I have a job here then why not?  For now though, this part of the world is very expensive to be dependent for long.

What to do in Roeselare?  There’s Rumbeke Castle, Grote Markt every Tuesday morning, Centrum for shopping, dining and night out and a few museums like the bicycle museum which I haven’t even bothered to see.  Sorry, I’m not a museum person.

Was this trip well-worth of my money?  Definitely yes!  I wanted to see Europe before I hit 30 after all and it felt surreal to finally be with my sister and raidon.  

Grote Markt on Tuesdays

Every Tuesday morning in Roeselare, Belgium, huge trucks are being parked at the center that opens up and become a store. I LOVE MARKETS and I’m happy to see this one. My sister bought 3 packs of strawberries for only 4 Euro.

My pictures are pretty limited because I was using my sister’s DSRL camera and I am not used to it. What happened to my camera? I brought it with me of course but I forgot to bring its battery. Grrr.