I leave this testimony to my Belgium friends as an
appreciation for my year living in Belgium. Although Belgium is perceived and often
described by me, as a non-emotional, lack of spark country, the truth is that I
lived quite a few emotional times during this year. I cannot deny that the
person that arrived to Belgium is not the same person today, meaning that the
experience lived was not personally irrelevant. I will try to compile in a few
texts my personal view on the country and persons, trying to be what this
country is proven to be: fair.
The first thing I would like to say is that I don’t have
many Belgian friends, although this text is mainly for them. There are two
reasons for that: 1) the large number of expatriates living on the main Belgian
cities (e.g., Brussels has 183 nationalities), makes them the first point of
contact to meet new people; 2) the nature and routine of Belgian people makes
it difficult to deepen new relationships. However, when the “wall of
rationality” build by the Belgians is overcome, simple friendships can be easily
built. After all, here all it takes is a few beers and some frituur to make a
long lasting conversation.
Usually I’m questioned about if Belgium is
indeed two countries in one, due to this dutch-french influence. I agree there
is a bit of truth on that. However, I prefer to think differently: it is
admirable that such a small country without major cities to where the nation
culture can converge was able to maintain an identity, being a surrounded by
three of the majors and most dominants countries of Europe across history:
France, Germany and Netherlands. If still exist as country, then is because it has
something that differentiates it from the countries I mentioned above. It is
true that nothing screams and shouts “Belgium” over here, however there are a
few things which strongly and clearly mark this territory and separate it from
its neighbors.
