HilLISka

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(for the Not from the US-ask game)

Ooooohhhh - more questions??? 💜💜💜

1. favourite place in your country?

That's a hard one, cause like... it depends what for? To live, I'd say my current city. It's very progressive, I don't need a car, everything is close by, they're trying very hard to make more space for green, for cyclists, ... Perfection doesn't exist, obviously, but they do have a vision that I can get behind.

For holidays I'd probably say the south, the Ardennes. Cause it's like one of the few places in this country where you can go for a walk and not see any houses around. By which I mean that if, at certain points during the walk, you place yourself strategically behind a tree you can sometimes create the illusion of a landscape without houses!

(yeah... it's bad...)

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

Ok I had a whole paragraph written on how we don't have traditions, but I asked my (Czech) spouse and she had A LIST.

Sinterklaas- the ancestor of Santa Claus, he comes on December 6th, he doesn't have reindeer but he does have a servant and he's Black and I'm sure you can see how this has become a contested holiday these past years so let's just not go into that here :).

When kids celebrate their first communion when they're six, it's usually celebrated with an ice cake in the shape of a lamb. The six year old is then given a large kitchen knife to behead the lamb. If all goes well, strawberry jam then comes running out of its neck. I'm pretty sure this is a normal Catholic tradition but my wife was SHOOK the first time she witnessed that :D.

French fry culture! - Most everyone has a fryer at home, but frietkoten are also popular. A frietkot sells french fries - and usually some fried snacks and burgers as well, but the fries are the most important thing. They're usually independently owned, sometimes they're little more than a caravan with a fryer, sometimes you can also eat in. We got like 5000 of them (that's comparable to the number of pharmacies) or one for every 2000 people.

This is FINE!

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

(for the Not from the US-ask game)

Oh hi nonnie, nice to see you, and thank you!!

4. Favourite dish specific for your country?

Look I know I already answered this but there's so much good stuff here so I'm gonna cheat and add something else because-

Rice pudding with brown sugar.

And I know what you're gonna say! I know - you also have rice pudding. But you don't have the brown sugar, not the right kind. Trust me - the brown sugar is essential. And the combination is SO. GOOD.

So good....

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Well, we don't have any cable in our household, so I don't see much of it; we're very US-oriented in our media consumption, I'm afraid. Which is a pity, cause we do have a couple of production houses that make really good series - we'll watch De Mol every year (sort of reality tv/game show with 10 candidates and one "mole" who tries to sabotage; it's very cleverly made), and I just watched a documentary on sexual abuse in the catholic church which was heavy but so well-made. The Flemish cinema (Northern, Dutch-speaking part) isn't as strong, and definitely not as strong as the Wallonian one (Southern, French-speaking part), but the Wallonian cinema is heavily influenced by the French and it tends to get very gritty and serious. Not exactly the escapism I prefer in my movies :D.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Oh gods. As I said in a previous post, we got a serious case of Calimero complex going on - it's just silly little Belgium, you know, nothing to see here. But if there's something I'm ashamed of, it's probably our governments'... unwieldiness? And look, I've lived in a few countries so I'm very aware that every citizen thinks their government is The Most Incompetent in the world but- we got 7 governments. For 11 million people. Like- During the corona crisis there were 9 (NINE!) separate ministers responsible for the various aspects of managing a health crisis. So obviously nothing got done because it was always the other minister's responsibility and just- it's so tiring sometimes. We're the world record holder for longest government formation (541 days - yes, that's a year and a half without a functional government) and I am secretly convinced we will break that record again come the elections next year. So yeah...

(for the Not from the US-ask game)

Heeey, thank you!!!

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

As in like, send them away to get rid of? Or to boast about ourselves to the aliens? Cause in the first case I'd probably say Dries Van Langenhove (extreme right """"activist""") and the entire institute of the catholic church, if I could (just watched a documentary on sexual abuse in the church and I'm MAD).

If I wanted to boast... eh... idk that's hard, we like, have a collective Calimero complex here. But chocolate, probably? Some Côte d'Or Double Lait bars. Beer would probably not survive. Maybe a comic book? Tintin or the Smurfs or something :).

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

(for the Not from the US-ask game)

Oooh - thank you! 💜💜💜

4. Favourite dish specific for your country?

I mean, I know that french fries and/or chocolate would be the obvious choice here. And they are good! And vastly superior to other countries' versions, of course. However... I know that when I lived in Sweden, the one thing I would always ALWAYS bring from home, would be peperkoek. It's a kind of gingerbread, but more cake-like, if that makes sense? And a different combo of spices. And it's super sweet, but super good, and even though it's not something I'd buy weekly or even monthly, I missed it terribly when I was abroad :).

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

Goesting. It's a classic, I know, but for good reason. It's sort of like "desire" but where desire come from the heart, goesting comes from the belly. It can be directed at something specific (if you feel like cookies, for example; ik heb goesting in koekjes), or if you wanna eat something but you don't know what, you can just say ik heb goesting. Can also be used for activities - and yes, that includes the sexual kind ;).

Appelblauwzeegroen. Translated literally it means "apple blue sea green" and it's this color:

You know, the kind of blueish green or greenish blue that makes you doubt your eyes? And I just really like that play on words, because this is blue, but not like the sea is blue, and it's also green, but not like apples are green. An apple'ish blue and a sea'ish green. Apple blue sea green.