Got Milk??????

Ok so I have been here what now 16 months and I have never wrote about this topic before but it is something that is very much in my daily life here in Belgium and that is of course Milk. Now I come from uk were most milk is fresh milk. This mean that it has to kept in the fridge and lasts from about 3 days to a week depending on weather it is whole milk semi skimmed or skimmed. Basically how much cream is in them. However I discovered in Belgium that most milk is UHT. I read somewhere around 97% in fact but this could be a little off. Now before anyone starts on me. Yes you can get fresh milk. It is a bit more expansive however my problem is this its only available in whole or semi skimmed and I only drink skimmed milk. So this means no fresh milk for Hannah.

People say why not just drink UHT milk. After all its better for the environment. Yes that maybe the case however in my opoion it tastes like utter crap. It was a weird smell and taste to it. I have found one brand called campina that well I can cope with in my tea and in my cereal however I cant really drink it on its own and really just tastes werider when it is warmed. However it would seem that skimmed milk also isnt very popular in this country. This brings me to my second dielemma. Getting a skimmed milk latte. So i spent my frist 4 to 5 months in belgium craving a good skimmed latte. Never mind a good one I couldn't even find one.   So you can imageing my excitement when leaveing antwerp train station and finding a starbucks. (Even though in UK I dont even like starbucks much im more of a costa coffee girl) Regardless I payed a small fortune for a skimmed latte and this was my reactation.

Now lucky for me since those photos that were taken a little over a year ago they have opened 2 Starbucks in gent. (I guess someone out there heard my cries). So at least I can get skimmed lattes a little more regularly than going all the way to Antwerp. However they are still around 5 euros a go. But I have started wondering weather I can make myself drink Semi skimmed milk again or weather it will be to rich for me and at least then I can get my fresh milk more regular than going to the Nederlands for it. Well there you have it the story of Me Milk and Belgium. I wonder if anyone else has this problem or they have managed to go for the Belgium style milk or do they still get the fresh stuff. 

Rant Alert

So I have been taking my classes for a week now and again I am surrounded by people who have lived in Belgium for 5, 10. 20 years and still don't have a basic grip on the language. I just don't understand how unless you work for a international company can you not at lest have a basic understanding of what people are saying to you in Flemish. Or even English. Yes I know that English isn't a language of Flanders but many Flemish do speak English and it makes it harder for me to learn Flemish as a lot of the time they switch for me once they pick up I am English. However I always try. Even with this fact that 80 percent of the time people speak English to me I still find myself in situations were I the fact I don't know enough Dutch frustrating like I cant find a job. So please explain how people can support themselves for 5 10 20 years in a country and are only now starting to take lessons in the countries Language or perhaps its just me being nieve.

I guess I am just having a big homesick moment as I struggle a lot of the time here with the language and alot of the time it dose not feel like I get a brake I would love a job and be able to support myself and not need the constant help from my bf etc.. I just cant get my head around it all. Well rant over but surely im not the only one who feels this way. 

Busy Busy Weekend

So this is the first blog I am writing for Fans of Flanders and I am a little nervous. I am suddenly feeling the pressure now as really I was never sure who reads it outside of close friends. But here we go I have my tea and toast so hopefully there will be some inspiration there. Sadly non of these items are Flemish. The tea is from England and the bread from Nederlands. As much as I looooooveeeee belgium bakers the bread isn't thick enough to make a good toast with it.

So this weekend I went back to the Animal park in Deinze. If you look at earlyer posts I went there with kevin but this time I went with the kids I used to be a au pair for and took lots more different photos for you guys to see.  I wonder if the goat is the same baby one from last year lol. We also had a pick nick and this time played mini golf. I also love the views of the small seculeed flower gardens. Very peaceful and great for pick nicks. So despite the weather being a bit rainy and cold we had a good day and the sun got out a bit.

So that was that really after the park I popped to pauls bakery  to pick up a birthday cake from there vast selection and then headed to a friends for a night out of Irsh barnesss. We usually wonder around at least between 2 bars but this evening we basically ended up in Patrick Foleys. Out of this and the Den Engel which are both owned by the same guy I think this one is my fav for evening and the Den Engel is better  for being very Flemish and sitting out of the terrace and watching the world go bye. Also the Celtic Towers has a time terrace spot. However all 3 bars do food and sadly I have only tried food in Celtic towers and even then it was only a snack and Foleys is a hotel also. There isn't really a real closing time in Foleys I think its around 5 at the latest but they generally close when almost everyone is gone. Good attitude for the customers I feel a bit sorry for the staff however. The bar its self dose a good range of drinks wines belgium beers cava whisky and Irish Cider. That is apparently dry but I think its rather sweet like woodpecker from UK. Yum or as the Flemish say Njam.



Saturday was mostly a moving day and I attended a BBQ Birthday / House warming of a friends but ended up coming home early from that as Kevin was at home and not well. So really not a lot to say on that subject. Kevin felt not to bad on Sunday but not the best so we went ahead with entertaining family for part one of our 4 house-warming get together. I put out some snacks and cava (Yes they drink a lot of cava in this country so much that you can buy it buy the glass and not just the bottle) and of course they were cakes and coffee from pauls yet again. I must say however I did get some lovely gifts.

Well I guess that's that for now basically that was all I got up to this weekend. Needless to say September is a little dull for me in terms of seeing Belgium with just moving it makes it all a little difficult. I go back to dutch lessons tomorrow so that may be interesting new class but the same teacher. I am repeating level 2 as I had to drop part of the year with sorting car out to be imported. However as far as learning Dutch I can see big changes its still super tricky with all the dialects but I am starting to get more confident with speaking and listening is improving day by day.