RETURN/TERUG
My wife and I returned to Belgium on Sunday after two months in the beautiful SWEET HOME ALABAMA. We go from 98 degrees (37Celsius) weather to 78 degrees (25Celsius) so you can image the shock we have. My wife loves the states but i know there is no place like home and she is happy to be back.
People always ask me what’s the differences between the States and Belgium: In the States you can go to the grocery store 24 hours a day, restaurants are open till 11 and fast food places are open till 2 in the morning(which is not a good thing if you have seen the size of some people in the states). In restaurants nobody sits after they eat and drink coffee or tea and just talk. When you order an appetizer the waiter comes two minutes later to take your order you will have the appetizer and the meal at the same time, and before you finish eating the waiter will bring the check and sit it on the table but you get free refills on all non-alcoholic drinks.
In the States we have TV with satellite that has over 500 channels and basic cable we have 70 channels. The specialty channels we have like: HGTV (home and garden) where they show how to make improvements and housing ideas for every room in your house. The FoodNetwork (my favorite) has cooking shows ranging from how to make meals for single people, families, grilling, fancy meals, southern cooking and soul food. There are news stations. We have the Soap Opera network, 5 sports only stations, the Home shopping network where you can sit in your house and order anything and many more.
The shopping (my wife’s favorite) is great because the euro is stronger than the dollar (yes keep it that way) so basically everything you buy is already on sale but there are sales all the time. There is a new year’s sale, valentine, 4th of July, back to school (the first week of august) end of summer, the biggest one of the year is the thanksgiving sale, the 3rd Friday of November it’s called Black Friday and then the pre and post Christmas sales. The malls/stores are open Monday through Saturday 9-9 some places 10 and from 11-7 on Sunday every week. In Birmingham, Alabama’s biggest city, there are 6 malls with at least 60 stores each and all have as much free parking as you want.
Even though both places play some of the same music there is a difference in type of radio stations. There are always at least 2 competing radio stations that are basically the same but it just which one you like more just like Q Music, Studio Brussels, Donna. There are a lot of choices in radio stations : hip-hop, r&b, country, blues, pop top 40, rock and roll, classic rock, 80’s hits, 90 hits, classical, news radio, sports talk radio, church (sermons only), gospel (church music only), entertainment, political, and every school and sports team has its on radio station.
And lastly church, In Belgium not many people go to church every Sunday like in America. We have 2 church only tv stations and there some churches in America that have 30,000 people there every Sunday, that’s right 30,000 people. In Belgium there is one church per town and 95% is catholic. In my home town (4,000 people) alone there is a baptist, Methodist, Church of God, church of Christ and catholic church on the same street and there 3 streets in my town that are like that with many other churches just outside the city. In the States the church decides how much the preacher/pastor/reverend/priest gets paid. In some churches the pastor has a full time job and gets a salary from the church, some churches have full time pastors and mega churches have sometimes 5 or more full time pastors. And salaries range from $12,000-20,000 for small churches less than 400 members. Middle size churches from 400-1,000 members the pastors salary is from $20,000-75,000. Big churches 1,000-5,000 members the pastor’s salary is anywhere between $75,000-300,000. The mega churches with 5,000 to 30,000 + members you only image what the salary is. Mega churches like that also have a school, a gym, a financial advisor, at least 50 people who are working full time for the church. Before you ask where the money comes from, it comes from the members who are asked to pay 10% off there gross salaries as it says it in the bible. Church time in the States ranges, at my church we have sunday school from 9:45-10:50 and church is from 11:00-1:00.
These are some of the differences between Belgium and the US, I’m sure in one of my next blogs I can talk about some more.