Day 4: Visiting our Exchange Son

Last April a highlight of my Belgian adventures was visiting our host son, Yoran, and his family. Don and I knew we wanted to see Lieve and Kerim again so before booking our airfare, we cleared the dates with them.

Don and I took the train from Antwerp to Leuven. Due to weekend work on the train tracks, we had to take a bus created as a substitute from Leuven to Tienen. I'm putting in the town names because I always forget the names of the small towns they live near. The train runs during the week, cutting the trip nearly in half. Thanks to the app, I knew what to do. Thanks to my experiences in April, I knew what questions to ask otherwise we would have ended up on a different bus. Even with the convoluted arrangement, Don and I still marvel at how well run the train system is. Everything was on time, and where the app said it would be.

Yoran picked us up at the station and drove us to his house where we were warmly greeted by his parents, Sarah (his sister), and Teddy (his dog). We missed his brother, Ilyas. 

After a delicious lunch of pumpkin soup (made from a pumpkin they grew in their garden), we had a tour of the house. I saw all the improvements they have made since April and mentally thought of all the improvements we have not made, but should make, to our home and yard. 

We crammed a lot into a one day visit. We walked Teddy, showing Don the orchards Yoran told us about. Kerim gave us a tour of the backyard--including the new shed he recently built with scrap pieces. 

They know how much we love ice cream, so a trip to a local ice cream parlor was on the agenda. After parking the cars, we peered down an alley to Yoran's school, and into St. Leonard's Church, which is affiliated with his school. We all left seeing something different. I noticed the partial frescoes under repair. Kerim saw an ancient Roman bowl. Here is this tiny church in Zoutleeuw with a richer history than any church in suburban America. The medieval church, built between 1231 and the 16th century, is a UNESCO site. It stayed away from the Protestant Reformation era of iconoclasm, and survived the French Revolution because three canons took a oath of allegiance to the French regime.

The tagline of the ice cream parlor is: you can't make everyone happy, you are not ice cream. 

So true!

Yoran and Sarah took us the long way home past people's holiday decorations. I noted an absence of giant inflatables. The decorations were simple, classic. Lots of white lights, but no "icicle" lights, which had been the trend here, and we still do out of habit.

Saturday night is pizza night. In April it was the first night they could enjoy pizza under the stars. On St. Nicholas Day it was perhaps their last time eating al fresco until Spring. The rain sent us inside as Lieve and Yoran finished making the pizzas.

Knowing the train lines were still out of commission, we said our goodbyes early and took a two-hour bus ride from Landen to Liege. I enjoyed the trip because as we got closer to Liege, I recognized the grocery store where my second host mother shopped each week, a street sign for my first host hometown, and the bus stop my host parents use when they go into Liege. It felt like a homecoming.

It was wonderful reconnecting. I wish we all lived closer and could enjoy pizza night together more often. As Sarah said, it is the best pizzeria in town. They use the best ingredients and make it fresh in front of you in their pizza oven.