American woman in Belgium

Welcome on Expat.com jamberrytoast!

Why did you move to Belgium ? professional reasons ?

Thanks!
I moved to Belgium to be an Au Pair for a family with three children, twin one year olds and a three year old.  I was motivated both my interest in children and my desire to experience a new culture.  I graduated from university in May 2009 and I wanted to see a bit more of the world that I had read so much about.  I am still debating whether or not Belgium was the best choice but I am here now so I am going to make the best of it!  I plan on venturing to another country after my year here is over but I am still undecided on where I will go.  I had never lived further than 30 minutes away from my childhood home until I moved here, thus the difficulties adjusting and getting used to being alone.  Though it has been tough, I am very excited about living abroad and I am greatly anticipating the future.

Hey jamberrytoast!

Good luck with everything! Belgium is special and if you survived the winter, you'll survive the year ;-)
I hope you'll soon get to meet some people to show you around and the night life of Belgium! I don't know much about the area you're staying but as far as I know, every "city" has its center and its animation on weekends nights! If you like rock & pop music and get some free days during the summer, try to catch a music festival, one of Belgium's special!!!
And if you need a (lousy) guide for Brussels or Antwerp, feel free to contact me! I'm belgian and I'm used to take countrymen of yours into the traditional belgian nightlife!
Good luck!!!

Julie (aka Jules)

Hi there! I'm an American living out here also, but I moved here to be with my [Dutch] husband, and I absolutely love it! It's a little lonely, yes, I don't know anyone here aside of him, either, but I absolutely love Belgium and couldn't be more thrilled to live here!

I actually worked as a nanny in the States, heh. Are you enjoying it any more now, after another month has passed? Maybe we could meet up some time, though I'm not really sure where you're located! =P

Hi!
I am so glad that there are people in Belgium who are so friendly!  I have yet to meet anyone my age who speaks English well enough to become friends with.  I am getting really tired of being alone all of the time, my life in the US was very different.  I would be absolutely thrilled if one or both of you would be willing to meet with me and show me around!  I am living in Ronse, about an hour by train from Brussels and 1.5 from Antwerp.  I could take the train and get together on a weekend.
I really hope to read your replies soon, I am so terribly bored!
Jan

haha, I know what you mean. I can be a bit quiet before getting familiar with people so it tends to be hard for me to make friends in general, let alone a country where people speak Dutch and French before English! lol.

I'd be more than happy to meet with you, and show you around Antwerpen if you wanted to come out this way, it's a great city, especially with the weather getting nicer and being able to just spend days roaming outside, enjoying the river as well as the city center.

Also, are you a member of CouchSurfing? I haven't actually used it to meet anyone from Belgium (in Antwerpen they hold monthly bar meetings, but I'm not a drinker so it really doesn't appeal to me. I'd much rather they had activities like going to the zoo, or something, anything other than just drinking/pub crawls! lol), only for hosting people, but it's possible to use to meet local people as well, so you might want to consider it. Maybe your town or somewhere nearby it does some more interesting things!

Hello there,
I live in Antwerp half canadian/half Egyptian. I suffer a bit through the same thing...with a very busy job that makes me travel a lot and not a lot of time to get to know people, but trying to change that. Would love to also meet people and make friends and would be happy to be a tour guide of Antwerp:)

hi there !
saw your message - felt like replying
my wife is from Bakersfield, CA and runs in Bruges an independent coffee house called Bean around the World - she has an American expat network happening around her business, nothing formalized, there are no membership contribution, you just drop by and have a chat!
she even organizes Dutch language courses (again, free of charge)
you'll find out more about us on beanaroundtheworld.be
feel free to drop by
Jo

Hello, hopefully, you've adjusted a bit by now but if you're still looking for people to hang out with, try going to Mons. There's a NATO military base called SHAPE about 15 mins away so there are quite a few americans in that area - there's also another US military base in a town called Chievres. You can google it but your host family might have heard of them.
Hope that helps!

Hi jamberrytoast... what a funny name that is!

I just moved to Brussels from the US and would love to know if you've had any luck finding a fun group of expats from the US.

There are quite a few american military members in Brussels too so you should be able to find people. I remember going to a bar in downtown brussels - it was attached to a hotel near the embassy - and it was always packed with americans - sorry I can't think of the name right now

Hi Jamberry...

I know your original post is quite old but I figured I would still reply. I just moved to Turnhout (near Antwerp) 2.5 weeks ago. I am quite bored and lonely as I'm sure you can imagine. I am 24 years old and spent last year living in Switzerland. I came to Belgium to play volleyball for Smash Oud-Turnhout which is in the top division in Belgium. However, I only practice 3 days a week for 2 hours and play matches on Saturday. Other than that I have NOTHING to do! I'm still trying to figure out the bus/train thing but I really enjoy traveling and exploring and would love to see some of the country. If you ever would like to meet up somewhere just drop me a line.

From one lonely American to another....ciao

Hey Whitney, I'd be happy to get together with you, and also to help you figure out stuff about the city & transportation if you need. I'm from Chicagoland myself and been here a bit over a year now, and absolutely love it.

Hi there Jamberry,

You are living in Ronse ( Renaix in French ) in a very picturesque part of the country called the Flemish hills.
There are many interesting bike tours in the area, old windmills/watermills to see & learn about legends in the area ( like for example the witches of Ellezelles ... Here is a link to the website of the Province of Hainaut ( that's where you live ) tourism office : visithainaut.be/accueil/en/index They have infos in English ! Good luck and have a very enjoyable and memorable stay in Belgium !

Hi everyone:

My name is Javi and I'm from Spain.

I have been in Brussels during the last 10 months and I'll be here until December 2011.

So, if you want to practise your Spanish, French or to talk english (I'll do my best XD) while we are drinking beers, count on me XD !

Kisses,

Javi

CaitlinM wrote:

Hi all,
My name is Caitlin and I just moved from Boston on September 1st! I can relate to everyone talking about loneliness upon moving abroad! I am living in Brussels and going to grad school, but only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I also have lots of spare time on my hands and have been quite bored and sad to be honest! The adjustment has been a bit harder to handle than I thought. I would love to meet up with other Americans in the area! I am very outgoing person and love going out to new places and meeting new people.

~Caitlin

Have u tried the Irish pubs ? The European district (Schuman-Maelbeek) is also a good place to meet Expats in live !

CaitlinM wrote:

Hi all,
My name is Caitlin and I just moved from Boston on September 1st! I can relate to everyone talking about loneliness upon moving abroad! I am living in Brussels and going to grad school, but only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I also have lots of spare time on my hands and have been quite bored and sad to be honest! The adjustment has been a bit harder to handle than I thought. I would love to meet up with other Americans in the area! I am very outgoing person and love going out to new places and meeting new people.

~Caitlin

Hey Caitlin, I'm in Antwerpen, not Brussel, but I'm also an American with plenty of time on my hands. If you'd like to see more of Belgium and come out this way (it's not far!), I'd be happy to get together with you sometime, and show you around here.

my name is Patson Matewere aged 24 and am now staying in Malawi -Africa and i would like one day to find myself staying in Belgium,if there is anyone interested to chat with me please do not hasite to contact me,i like interacting with people from different races.

Hey Melby, I see you wrote you were from Chicagoland! Where abouts from there? I lived in Chicago for few years. Now I am considering moving to Belgium, but not sure it is going to work out. Do you mind doing some compare/contrast with the life in Chicagoland, especially if you've lived in the north suburbs of Chicago?

In advance, thanks a lot

NW burbs to be precise, but yup! haha.

Umm, well Europe is incredibly different from the US, have you traveled here before? But though it's different, it's not anything that's overwhelming. My biggest issue when I moved was adjusting to the fact that stores close at 18, and don't open at all on Sundays. I was used to things closing at 9-10pm, and being open on Sundays for the better part of the day as well. And of course I frequently went to stores at those times. So, that was a bit annoying to me when I arrived. But by now it's just natural to me, heh.

Honestly, I didn't have any homesickness or anything like that. I got off the plane (well OK, there was first a bunch of hours spent in the NL, then I got out of the van ) and was thrilled to be here. I'm not really sure what to compare though... if you live in one of the larger cities, cars aren't needed and are quite costly to keep, unlike back there where you can't live without one; the public transit is wonderful and will take you just about anywhere you need to go, and, at least in Flanders, is quite inexpensive.

Can you maybe make a little list of the things you're thinking of, and then I could give you detail about them? I just can't really think of any specifics to compare.

Тhanks for the reply Melby. Yes, I have traveled through Europe before. Actually, I am more interested in the compare cost of living with numbers to be more exact, about the quality of education, quality of medical and dental care, quality of housing and of course prices of all of this is you have an idea about it, prices for the pubic transport and if you know how it is organized, or you could always provide links if have some handy.

The weather should be much milder for the winter in Brussels compared to IL, but how about the summers? Are the summers gloomy and overcast, or there are reliable sunny days? I hear this past winter was somewhat harsh for Belgium, and it sounded like the summer it rained just about every other day?!

As my nick says, I am a 'world expat', have lived in couple of other countries besides the US, so as far as homesickness is concerned, I am get over it fast. Not that this term much pretend to someone like me that has moved across the ocean more than once!

Thank you for the prompt reply.

My reply got waaay long, so I sent you a msg instead!

Thanks a mil Melby

You're welcome!

(moderated: off topic)

Hello JamBerryToast

I am not American but if you like to catch up sometime for coffee and a chat, then feel free to send me a msg...



Scallywag

Hello, I am an American woman who just arrived in Brussels from the US. I've had terrible homesickness, but I left a boyfriend back home.  If you're looking for something to do in the city, let me know. I'm looking for other young women to hang out with.

hi , i live also in belgium it is a nice country, i  live antwerpen,
for me would be nice to meet you cos i like to speak all time english,
hope to meet you here in belgium ,  god blesss you

oooh sorry hook me up on [email protected]
we share experience
Thanks
Good weekend