Missing our favorite IMD football buddies.
We had a wonderful time on Saturday night with 2 American couples from church. We actually met the husband of one of the couples 3 years ago in Dallas right before he moved his family to Brussels to join the Young Life staff. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined that 3 years later, we would share a night of fun stories and laughter with this couple. We feel so blessed to have such neat people in our lives already.
Château de La Hulpe
Our most interesting adventure of the weekend came Sunday night. We joined some of our European friends from IMD for a night of outdoor opera at a nearby chateau. We arrived early to walk around the lovely grounds and to catch up on the lives of our friends. We were told that we could purchase drinks at the chateau before the opera, but we quickly discovered that our choices included beer, beer, or beer. (They only sold light, amber, or dark beer). I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I suddenly couldn’t buy any water. During the opera, the performers sang “The Magic Flute” in German while translations in French and Flemish were flashed upon the screen. I hardly watched the actors as I concentrated intensely on reading the French. Ken tried to pick out German words he knew and then quickly looked at the screen to see the French translation. As the sun set, we soon realized why blankets were available for rent. Although Ken and I both wore long sleeve shirts and jackets, we found ourselves shivering half way through the performance. We curled up together as tightly as we could with our one blanket, but I could still feel Ken physically shaking. I don’t even know if I could tell you what took place the last 30 minutes as my mind only focused on how cold I felt. The great thing, though, is that in spite of (or perhaps thanks to) the lack of drinks, frigid temperatures, and language difficulties, we walked away feeling that we shared a truly memorable experience with our friends. We even talked about going back for next years show…we will just wear thermal underwear next time.