English isn't as common here as I expected. Belgium being the headquarters of European Union, I thought it would be relatively easy to get by around town speaking English, but this wasn't the case. Most of the time, I feel as though I'm resorted to walk around carrying a little translation booklet because people here will simply speak to you in French. BUT there were times where I was lucky and got someone who spoke English, however let me just say that most of the time English spoken here is "broken" English.
One thing I've learnt here is that even if you don't speak French or Flemish, the important thing is that you know how to communicate. I think that's how my parents and I have managed so far. I'm thankful to have studied Spanish, so in some ways this has helped me understand some french words.
But you can't imagine how many hilarious mistakes we've committed due to the language barrier! Example:
1. Judging to be peanut butter by mere look, we bought a local spread called "Speculoos", which turned out to be a local favourite spread made by cookies (yup, you read right... the Belgians made a spread out of cookies!!). It wasn't peanut butter, but in fact was a caramelised spread created by a sweet concoction of spices. What I love most about it is the crunchy bits you get in each bite!
2. It took us nearly an hour to figure out what the cashier was saying when we queued up to pay for mom's fruits. Turned out that she wanted us to weigh the fruits before we paid for it. Even funnier was when she was giving us directions to the weight scales in French and none of us understood.
3. Dad tries to ask for hot chilli sauce in a restaurant repeatedly and after 5 tries, the waiter ends up giving us tomato ketchup.
4. The funny sight of mom and myself trying to climb over the cashier's table to find out the total price of our stuff because the store doesn't use those "total display" signs and the cashier was speaking to us in French.
5. Ended up not buying a ready-made sauce because all the instructions were in French and Flemish.
There were plenty more that happened but I don't want to bore you guys.
So naturally when we heard that there was a British specialty store in Belgium, we were relieved! It's called Stonemanor and it specialises in selling all British products from food to books, dvds and household products. So far that I know of, there are two stores in Belgium and the biggest one is located in Everberg (the smaller store is located in Waterloo town).
Funny thing about this Everberg store was that it was MILES away from the city (1 to 1.5 hours drive) and was located in the middle of farmland, surrounded by sheep farms, green meadows and what nots. Going there was like going on a roadtrip to farmville!! I recorded some video of the trip as we made our way back to the city but I think I'll post that up sometime later.
A farm located opposite the Stonemanor Store.
Note: Sorry for the ugly quality of the photos. I didn't bring my camera with me.
So instead, I used my camera phone!
When we arrived at the store, there was a sheep farm opposite the road. The store itself wasn't big, rather looked like a medium-sized house. The store had two levels and inside, we found so many British goods - it was like we were in UK for a moment, hahaha. Not surprisingly there was a LARGE section on tea of various sorts and also biscuits and cookies. We didn't get manage to explore what else the store had to offer as mom didn't feel like checking upstairs... perhaps I'll do that next time?
Sheep happily grazing the grass opposite the store
We didn't buy a lot of stuff from there. I noticed that most of the clients and workers there were all from the UK - later I was told that most of the residents in Everberg had migrated from the UK. It was a nice place and the scenery was beautiful. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing the endless green fields, beautiful blue skies and cottony white clouds outside your window? It reminded me of those green fields you see in the movies whenever they try to depict Holland or something...
The Stonemanor Store: specialist in all UK products, selling in Belgium
The second store is located in Waterloo, which is right by our area. It's smaller but I haven't had the opportunity to check it out. It was by chance that mom and I discovered it as we drove by the other day. Waterloo town is a nice quaint little place. It kind of reminds me of Kingston back when I was in the boarding school!
So naturally when we heard that there was a British specialty store in Belgium, we were relieved! It's called Stonemanor and it specialises in selling all British products from food to books, dvds and household products. So far that I know of, there are two stores in Belgium and the biggest one is located in Everberg (the smaller store is located in Waterloo town).
Funny thing about this Everberg store was that it was MILES away from the city (1 to 1.5 hours drive) and was located in the middle of farmland, surrounded by sheep farms, green meadows and what nots. Going there was like going on a roadtrip to farmville!! I recorded some video of the trip as we made our way back to the city but I think I'll post that up sometime later.
A farm located opposite the Stonemanor Store.
Note: Sorry for the ugly quality of the photos. I didn't bring my camera with me.
So instead, I used my camera phone!
When we arrived at the store, there was a sheep farm opposite the road. The store itself wasn't big, rather looked like a medium-sized house. The store had two levels and inside, we found so many British goods - it was like we were in UK for a moment, hahaha. Not surprisingly there was a LARGE section on tea of various sorts and also biscuits and cookies. We didn't get manage to explore what else the store had to offer as mom didn't feel like checking upstairs... perhaps I'll do that next time?
Sheep happily grazing the grass opposite the store
We didn't buy a lot of stuff from there. I noticed that most of the clients and workers there were all from the UK - later I was told that most of the residents in Everberg had migrated from the UK. It was a nice place and the scenery was beautiful. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing the endless green fields, beautiful blue skies and cottony white clouds outside your window? It reminded me of those green fields you see in the movies whenever they try to depict Holland or something...
The Stonemanor Store: specialist in all UK products, selling in Belgium
The second store is located in Waterloo, which is right by our area. It's smaller but I haven't had the opportunity to check it out. It was by chance that mom and I discovered it as we drove by the other day. Waterloo town is a nice quaint little place. It kind of reminds me of Kingston back when I was in the boarding school!
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