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Tag Archives: Ghent

My 1 Year UK-Versary!

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bath, Cambridge, Freiburg, Ghent, photography, retrospective, travel, Valencia

Somewhere in the last few weeks, I celebrated the end of my first year as a UK resident.  The year has really flown by, and it made me realise how much cool stuff I’ve gotten to do in the last year. When Our Friend Liz was here, she asked if we’d traveled much.  We said “oh, a little…” and then reeled off a list that was much longer than we’d even been aware of.  I went to Israel, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, and The Netherlands, plus some really beautiful places in the UK.   I’ve done some really cool stuff in the last year.  Of course, its been hard, too – moving to a new country is a grand adventure blah blah blah but its also stressful, lonely and isolating.  The weather has been terrible, cold in the summer and dark in the winter, and damp all the time.  And making friends is an ongoing challenge.  I’ve met some really nice people and have been lucky enough to get lots of love from the states, but I don’t have a go-to group.  Ian and I don’t have much opportunity to do things spur-of-the-moment if we want to invite other people and we’re not in a position to turn down invitations.  That said, we do get (and reciprocate) invitations, and its rare that we go a week without a social event of some sort.  I’d prefer three or four social events, but its a start.  And its amazing that the desperate things I did in my first days here have paid off – when I accosted a couple looking at the same rental property, I didn’t imagine that we would still be hanging out with them a year later, but we are.

After a year of living here, I feel pretty settled: the fitness instructors at Kelsey Kerridge all know my name (I am immensely proud of that) and we even went out on the town together a few weeks ago.  The guy at the Turkish market with amazing produce knows that I don’t like to use plastic bags (and they have cevapcici! SO EXCITING!).  The girl at the coffee shop knows me because I have a really sweet travel mug that I bought when the local fancy furniture shop was going out of business (they also sold housewares), and she’s jealous of it.  I haven’t used Google maps to navigate around Cambridge in weeks.  When I moved here, I was always finding new cycle paths, but I haven’t found any new ones in months.

There were things about living here that came quickly: I got a bike and a mobile phone and a Network Rail Card and learned to use the currency without fumbling. All of that was a big deal to me – “see? I belong here! I’m legit!” but there have been more subtle recent developments, like the grocery guy recognising me. Cambridge is small and they speak my native language, but nonetheless, I know my way around here.  The city has become mine, in a small way

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I love old buildings!

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

architecture, Belgium, Ghent, historic architecture, historic preservation, travel

This is the last post (probably) on our trip to Belgium, and I think I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.  Ghent is incredible.

Belgian Details

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

architectural details, architecture, Belgium, Brussels, design, entertainment, expats, Ghent, travel

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Ian and I were recently in Belgium, where I took 676 photos in four days.  It made me realize how quickly Cambridge has become my home – while I’m certainly not immune to its charms, it very quickly became just the place where I happen to live.  I saw all sorts of mundane things in Ghent and Brussels that completely delighted me. The best example was the door handles/letterboxes that I saw on lots of the doors, particularly while doing the Victor Horta walking tour.  The variety was incredible, and some were so intricate and Art Nouveau.  I couldn’t get enough.

In fact, I had been taking photos of balconies (not sure that’s gong to yield a good collage yet…) when I pointed the door handles out to my husband.  He said “why don’t you make a collage of those?” and I said “I will, but you’ll be sorry” – we zigzagged the street looking at door handles for the rest of the weekend, until I finally just gave up and walked around like a (sort of) normal person.

Enjoy!

My fabulous expat life

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

Belgium, Bon Iver, entertainment, food, Ghent, travel

Hi Internet.

I’m in Ghent, Belgium, right now.  I meant to schedule a post on Friday before I left, but, well….fail.  I’ve been driving my hubs crazy taking photos, though, so I’ve got some sweet photo-collages a-coming. I’m also hopefully going to be doing some more traveling this spring (although cross your fingers for me; it’s not finalized).

In the meantime, here is 25 minutes of heaven in the form of Justin Vernon.  Aural ambrosia, I’m telling you.

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