I Live Here-Part 4: I am a foreigner

Brussels is such a wonderful, diverse place and sometimes I forget that I'm not from here.  I'm just a visitor* and it is a privilege to spend this time here.  If you, however, could watch me maneuver through some parts of my day, it would be painfully obvious that indeed, I am a foreigner.  This afternoon I left the office early to register at the commune (like town hall).  I didn't understand the system, the color-coding or the queuing at my new commune (and truth be told, didn't want to accept that I, too, would be forced to wait and wait...surely there was a short-cut of some sorts for busy single white girls from the US?)  Alas, got the process started and next time--and there's always a next time--I'll be able to make an appointment for my visit.  In the meantime, it was a good reminder of a lot of things--identity, sense-of-place and humility too. Now it's off to pilates.

*There are some fun spiritual truths that could be explored here too I suppose.