Quand a Liege...

When in Liege, do as the Liegoise. Peket is dangerous. There is no other way to say this. Went last night to the House of Peket and now I see why Tchantches has a wooden head because I have one too. Oufti.



Meanwhile, the child is drifting far away from me and I needed to find something to try and bring her back. She’s just a little kid with a lost father and I am not getting support here so I have to try something.

I looked all over town but there are just not any Mexican people or stores here. So there are not Mexican stores either. Finally I found these at the supermarket.

Mini taco tubs! I cannot take the child to her father in Guadalajara but perhaps I can bring a little of Mexico to the child.

My search took me to a neighborhood across the river, where most everyone seemed Arab, with all the ladies in their hijabs and the butcher stores advertising halal products. I found a fantastic supermarket, named Ali Baba which had an incredible selection of all things North African and Arab and Mediterranean.



The cheese department covered cows, goats and sheep and sold yogurt in buckets of 10 kilos. We just don’t have that in America.

I came here with the idea that it was going to be all frites and chocolate and beer and waffles and chicons. And all of those things are here of course, but goat cheese in a can? Fantastic!



Then I found a tidy Spanish market and poked around. The woman that owned the place was very friendly with me and patient with my terrible French.









She told me her family moved her from Asturia in Spain when she was a little girl so that her father could work in the mines. She said that the mines are what brought the Italians, the Polish, everyone. Except the Chileans, who came to get away from their bad government and by that time, the mines were mostly closed. Even with the mines shut down, the people come anyway, looking for a better life. It has always been so.

This is Deb in the City, traversing the diasporas, saying adios, au revoir and farewell from the glowing city of Liege.

La Goute Locale

Deb in the City here, live from Liege, looking for local flavor.

So I was walking around today, looking at old stuff. Europe is full of old stuff, and that’s interesting for Americans, since nothing we have is that old really.

Found some peculiar new stuff in a shop window for a video games store.

Here is Bruce Lee with his girlfriend the flamenco dancer. Are they dancing or fighting? This is the mysterious beauty of it. It’s profound, right?

I was excited because I was going to the Museum of Walloon Life.


The museum is in a beautiful old abbey. It’s a very nicely done modern museum, all new, with lots of video and all the media tricks. Very impressive. I went through the entire museum, listening to the electronic device that told me all about coal and iron and crystal and all the thing that were manufactured here in Liege.

And I got to the end and I was really mad because I read in a guide book that the museum had a waffle in the shape of the crucifix and yes, that is the main reason I went. And then, it was not there anymore.

I went home and looked for it and googled "waffle cross Belgium" on the internet, and this is what I got.



A waffle in the shape of Texas. I don’t think it’s in Belgium. And it’s not a cross. It is a waffle. Sometimes the google does not work.

This is Deb in the City, looking for waffles in all the wrong places, in the waffle capitol of the universe, Liege.

Liege, Mon Amour

Hello internet. I’m Deb and you have clicked on my blog, Deb in the City. I know, I know, technically speaking this is a vlog because it’s video but the word vlog sounds like a car made in the soviet union. Vlog, vlog, vlog.

Deb in the City is my coping mechanism to help me adjust to my new life. I have just moved out of my comfort zone and now live in a city which is new to me. I did not plan it this way but now I live in Liege. Wow, or as they say here Oufti!

But, I live in a fantastic house here.

It has a gate and as you can see and it has columns and shrubs with artistic styles. And a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. It’s not in Liege exactly, not in the city but is close enough that I can go to town on the bus.



The city of Liege has a mascot that I see everywhere is this fellow, who is called Tchantches, the Wallon name for Francis. Wallon is the local language. We would call him Frank I guess in English. Frank is a fun loving marionette who was born between two paving stones here in Liege.



He has a couple of theaters that do his plays and a whole museum devoted to his costumes and puppet lifestyle. He is a marionette who likes to drink. OK, he's basically an alcoholic puppet.




And as an American, I am used to alcoholic puppets.

I must admit I am a little sad to be in Europe and miss our new president coming into office though I am delighted that everyone here seems as happy as I am that the alcoholic puppet is retiring to Texas with his Nanesse, leaving his big mess behind for the next guy to clean up. As a nanny, I’m a little sick of cleaning up after others, but I am willing to help the new guy.

This is Deb in the City, contemplating ma vie europeean from Liege. Oui, nous pouvons!