Random Act of Kindness: Anonymous Benefactor?

For the third day this week, we've had a very mysterious thing happen in our street:  someone has been putting a 10 euro bill in our mailboxes.

It started on Tuesday.  My neighbor came to ask me if we had checked our mail yet.  I hadn't and asked her why, and she said she had found a 10 euro bill in hers.  So I checked our mail and lo and behold, there was a 10 euro bill lying on top of the mail!  We were flabbergasted.  My neighbor started asking other people and by the end of the day, we knew of at least 6 other families who had received the money.

Then on Wednesday, it happened again.  There was another 10 euro bill put into the mailboxes along with the free advertising sheets we get on Wednesdays.  A bunch of us stood outside trying to figure out if the whole street had received money, and as it turned out, the only people who hadn't received anything were the people who had a sticker on their mailbox requesting no free advertising be placed in their box.

Yesterday, the press got wind of the whole thing, and they descended on our street.  My neighbor was interveiwed on the radio, the television, and there was a full page article in one of the national newspapers with a picture of a few of our neighbors (luckily I wasn't home when the reporters came - LOL!).  It was kind of crazy.  They even asked me if they could film our mailbox - the reporters wanted to do a reenactment of someone putting the money in - so I said sure.  So in the news report below, at the beginning, it's my mailbox they're filming and my neighbor Kristel who's being interviewed:

There's been a lot of speculation about who might be doing this - someone who recently won 5 million in the Lotto in our neighborhood? Is it because the name of our street means "savings street?" One news outlet is reporting this morning that it's an advertising stunt. Who could it be? It's been so interesting to see how people react to such a strange thing - a lot of people were very suspicious at first and wondered if it was real money. It did feel a bit creepy, but at the same time, I think it's best to give it a positive spin. Last year someone who inherited money from his mother did the same kind of thing in Koksijde, on the Belgian coast - three days in a row, he put 20 euro bills in all the mailboxes of two apartment buildings. Perhpas the person in our street was inspired by him? I have no idea but when I came home from the gym today there was another 10 euro bill in my mailbox. After thinking about it, I decided the best thing to do will be to donate the money to the Cancer League, since we've had so many friends and family affected by cancer over the years. In that way, the good karma will hopefully continue to spread! UPDATE: Well, as it turned out, it was indeed a publicity stunt...they did the same thing in Rue de l'Epargne (savings street) in Liege (French speaking part of Belgium). In the meantime I donated my 30 euros to an event taking place in Leuven today: Levensloop. This is a relay team running event to raise money for cancer and my son has friends who are running it, so I decided this was the perfect cause to support!

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a happy Easter and a lovely day spent with those near and dear to you.  We are heading out later to my in-laws but I'm just puttering around, waiting for the four men in the house to wake up for brunch.  Fruit salad is already made and the chocolate eggs are on the table!

Ingrid and I met up for a walk yesterday and we were so lucky with the gorgeous weather!  We decided to
start our walk from the Arenberg Castle on the university campus, and from there, head into the paths that go south towards Korbeek-Dijle:


This has been one of our longest distances to date together. We are shooting for the 25 km Loop van Vlaanderen, but next year, not this year, as neither one of us has had the time to build up to that distance yet. Slow and steady wins the race, as the old saying goes, and we kept to our usual slow (conversational) walking pace. And rewarded ourselves with a delicious beer (La Chouffe) at one of the numerous cafes at the end of our route. Zalig!

Spring in bloom

We've had such a mild winter that everything seems to be blooming at once here.  So Stefaan and I decided to walk down to the city botanical garden to see for ourselves what was in bloom, which is a nice walk, 6 km round trip.  Here are some pics:

The fountain at the entrance will need some serious de-mossing!

The shape of this tree reminds me of a lung, and when you think about it, that's what trees are.

The camelias were at their peak.

Getting the pelargoniums started in one of the greenhouses.

Grumpypants

There were a lot of people out and about.  We usually take our Sunday walks out more in the direction of the countryside, so it was a fun change of pace to go into town.  The advantage to walking in town is that you can stop and have a coffee (or a beer) on your way home ;-)

Answer to a question and a funny story...

Kim asked in the comments of my post below, regarding the street sign I posted with both Dutch and Leuven dialect, if I spoke both languages.

I thought I'd answer her question here, because I have a funny story related to this and it's too long to put in a comment...

I speak Dutch and after living in Leuven for 25 years I understand words that come from local dialect. You don't really come across people who only speak dialect; most people here (and in other areas of Flanders) mix their general Dutch with dialect words and a local accent.  There is a cultural organization that seeks to keep local dialect alive by producing publications and presentations in it, but generally you'd never really hear it in daily life, except perhaps from elderly long-time inhabitants.

The funny thing is, when we were first married and lived in the center of town, we lived on a very narrow street with tiny houses, and we had an elderly neighbor lady, Hermine, who did speak dialect.  She was always out walking her dog, it seemed, and we would say hello and exchange a few words when we bumped into her.  Half the time I had no clue what she was saying but after a while I got used to the way she spoke and understood her better and better.  She must have noticed this improvement because one day she said to me, "You understand me much better now, don't you?"

I nodded and smiled.  Then she added, "So you're not from Leuven?"

Something new in town!

 Our train station has been undergoing renovation for the past three years and today the main building finally opened!  All the containers from the square in front of it are gone!

My husband and I walked down to take a peek - we live very close to the station and were very curious how different it would look.

During renovation of the interior, they removed false ceilings to reveal the beautiful orignal plasterwork and friezes.  Not all the rooms are finished or filled yet (rumor has it we may be getting a Starbucks in the station - in this lovely room?  It almost seems a shame...)

The original floors were also uncovered and restored.  The main hall, where the new ticket booths are located, has a gorgeous black and gray marble floor.  It was apparently quite a challenge for the restoration team, but I would say it was a success!

Finally...I promised Giorgio that I would take a picture of a local street sign and so here you have it:

The top sign is in Dutch (Brussels Street) and the bottom sign is in local dialect and gives the former, more historical name of the street (Stone Street).  The red and white emblem on the left is the city's coat of arms.

If you're interested in learning more about Leuven, here's the Wiki page.  I personally love living here and am really excited our train station is open again!

Magazine Inspiration

I used to be a big magazine reader.  But over the years I gradually cut back on the magazines I bought or subscribed to, mainly because of the expense, all the waste and the feeling I had that they were constantly repeating the same information in their articles.  We still get the major local newspaper every day and on the weekend, both the weekly newspaper from the Flemish organization for families (Gezinsbond) and the Flemish automobile association's monthly magazine because we are members, I get the quarterly magazine of the Flemish vegetarian association, EVA, because I happen to be a member, and we get a monthly science magazine for our kids, but that's about it.  And even that seems like a lot to me!

There is an international press shop in town, and there you can buy just about any magazine from any country on pretty much any topic.  But they are pretty expensive; for most American magazines, they charge 7 to 10 euros for a single magazine.  So I hardly ever go in there.

This week, I had a good reason to go in to look for the latest edition of the American Runner's World - the author of an inspiring running blog I've been following was featured (Runs for Cookies).  Perhaps some of you read the article about Katie and her Ragnar Relay team of 12 people who all lost weight through running?  Very inspirational!

Anyway, it was fun to have a copy of Runner's World to read this past weekend, especially since my running is slowly improving.  I just did my longest interval training yet yesterday, on the treadmill, and it went really well.  Five minute warm-up, then five intervals of 4 minutes running, 1 minute walking, for a total of 30 minutes.  It felt good and no hip pain or other aches afterwards.  Plan is to do an outdoor run this Thursday, and see how that goes.

The other nice thing about my copy of Runner's World was a great Quick Hummus Salad recipe that I made yesterday for lunch:

My son and his girlfriend were here and they thought it was really good too!  I think we're going to be fighting about who gets the leftovers for lunch today...  The original recipe for it is here; to make it vegan I subbed a handful of sliced green olives for the feta cheese (which gives it a similar salty flavor).  Yum!

Anyway...I really enjoyed my one-off copy of Runner's World but I think that'll be it for a while now.  I think part of the reason I enjoyed it was the fact that it was a special treat.  Just out of curiosity: what's your magazine buying policy and which ones do you like to read?

Rainbows and running

There was an amazing rainbow right out our front door yesterday evening:

 It's not often you get to see the full bow of a rainbow, but this one was amazing - surely we could have found a pot of gold?

And even so, the pictures don't exactly do justice to how awe inspiring it actually looked, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

Just back from my first short outdoor run of the season this morning.  I've been doing intervals 2x week at the gym all winter and it's paid off.  Today I was able to do a 4 km out and back with my son, and it felt good, especially in the beautiful spring sunshine, with the birds singing and the spring flowers popping out.  

Just like the rainbow, it made me feel inspired and hopeful for the coming season!

Bring it on!