How to move to Belgium

Follow my journey after I moved to Belgium in getting a job, visiting Belgian cities, finding accommodation in Belgium and eating Belgian food.

2 weeks from now Belgium will hold both European elections as well as Belgian regional elections.

Since I am not a Belgian citizen yet, I am not allowed to vote. Just as well, as you are obliged to vote in Belgium, meaning you must take out some of your free time (voting is always on a Sunday) in order to vote. If not, you will be fined afterwards.

Every Belgian has to vote: good or bad?

Good as whoever is chosen will be chosen by the people… or not?

Not really!

Belgian parliamentary seats are allocated on a top-down basis, in proportion to parties’ share of the vote. An example will make things clear:

Suppose there are only 3 seats in the Belgian parliament. The 5 ‘nominees’ are Adam, Benny, Cleopatra, Danny and Me:

• Adam 50% votes
   
• Benny 16% votes
   
• Me 15% votes
   
• Cleopatra 10% votes
   
• Danny 9% votes

So the seats should be for Adam, Benny and Me, right?

Wrong, it all depends on the parties share of the vote.

Since "Me" has just immigrated, I started my own party. Adam, Cleopatra and Danny are all from the same party and since their party has 69% of the votes, the 3 seats will be theirs.

Meaning Belgium is a democracy made up of parties, not a democracy made up of individuals.

Technorati Tags: Belgium, elections, Government

Today the weather was good so I asked hubby: let’s go and drive to visit the southern mountains in the French speaking region called Wallonia.

But hubby said: "it’s Sunday so we should visit our parents…"

So I said: "let’s invite your parents and drive over to visit the southern mountains called the Ardens"

Seems you need to have your brain very alert to get things done in Belgium

Seems also that normally everybody visits his parents every weekend, kind of like what we do once a year around Chinese new year. If this is the new custom I have to adjust to, then I am going to have a what we call real challenge

Anyway, we did manage to visit the mountains and I love hubbies parents, so all is good

Technorati Tags: ardens, Belgium, Facts, family, hubby, parents, Travel, Wallonia, Weather