Ethan's 3rd Birthday and Job Searching cont...

Hi. Trying to keep the string of posting every couple of weeks going. Just a matter of discipline, as with most tasks, except this involves writing, so I shouldn't view it as a task really, and I don't. Sometimes I just don't have much to say. Sometimes.

My Mom came to visit for Ethan's birthday. Little guy had a party at his school last Friday with a "Speederman" cake. (that's how he pronounces Spiderman... with a little French accent, very cute, but yes, I will teach him the "correct" way soon Chuck). Then Friday night he had a party at our house with Sara's Mom and her friends, and then Saturday morning he had a party with all his little friends at a local indoor playground. I think it was a little much for him as he got a little testy, and neither he nor his equally-moody father were in the best of moods come Saturday post-party. It was a great weekend though, really nice to have my Mom here. Great that we're so close that she can pop over for a weekend and vice versa. Can't believe our little boy is 3! Photos:












Had that second interview with the bank/securities company, went really well, heard back today that the third and fourth interview will probably be Thursday or Friday of this week with the head of the legal department and then the CEO. The job isn't really an executive job, but I'll be basically the right hand on all internal communications for the board meetings, etc. and so interacting with all the execs, so I guess that's why they want to meet with me. The job is actually very interesting, and I really hope I get it. It involves writing and editing, and I'm interested in the content, so that helps.

The personality tests I've taken the last couple of months during my job searching basically told me I should be doing one thing in my life with my motivations and my skill set, and that is creating/writing. Out of hundreds of occupations, job tasks, the two things it recommended I pursue - international activities and writing, so maybe I should finally be honest with myself and listen. I am also really interested in economics and finance, even though i don't have the skills at present, I have the motivation, and this company/position would fit all the criteria I'm looking for, so I'm really hopeful this one works out.

I had applied for two other positions, one as a Counselor at a local high school here, but I didn't get a call back for an interview because of my lack of experience. I also interviewed for at an Asset Mgmt company focusing on Real Estate research, but I didn't get past the first round of interviews because of my age and my major. They're very personal here in interviews in that they will ask you for your age, how many kids you have, etc., and this guy was looking for someone in their mid-20's ideally with a Masters in Econ. Not me, but I thought I could make up for it with my passion for Real Estate, which I will always have, but I think it will just be a hobby, as an investment vehicle, if we get to the point hopefully where we can invest. Prices are going up here quickly, so we'll try to get in even on a small level before it gets too nuts and rates go up too much.

The Giants of Dendermonde 9.14.06

No, it's not my attempt at a Roald Dahl-ish title. A couple of weeks ago, we went out to this Flemish town about 40 mins outside Brussels, invited by a colleague, Chiara, from Sara's work. Chiara and her husband Peter and their daughter live in a Flemish town called Dendermonde, about 40 mins outside Brussels, and the town has this "procession of giants" on the last Thursday of August. It dates back to the 13th Century I think they said. See photos.

This is one of hundreds of festivals across Belgium. The Belgians LOVE their festivals. I think almost every little town/city has at least one a year. All these towns are autonomous places with their own history, completely separate from Brussels... really cool, really gives you a sense of place I think. This is the type of stuff that really separates Europe for me. You can recreate the food, the language, the art, the architecture even, but this kind of thing, a procession that dates back 800 years with generations and generations of a town having participated, that can't be recreated. It's cool for us and especially for the kids to be around, but then again, will we/they ever really feel like they're at home, like they belong in a place with such a long history that isn't like their history at all. That's one thing I worry about, in part because I always have to have something to be neurotic about. I know what you're thinking, and no, I donÂ’t know how Sara lives with me. Good thing I got her when she was young and my neuroses were charmingÂ… or something. Actually it was probably all the booze. Saw me through wine-cooler-colored glasses.





















This guy was like a goose shephard, the Pied Piper of Geese or something. He and one Border Collie had these geese completely in line. I think it blew Ethan's mind, this whole thing, with the giants and the geese, and everything really. His eyes were so wide open and his mouth agape the entire time. There was one part where all these older people were doing this impromptu stage type thing, drinking and singing and arguing, and Chiara told us that they were actually really drinking, and you could tell that a lot of them were trashed. We're talking about 60 and 70 year olds and maybe older stumbling through town, in front of everybody, shitfaced. Fantastic.

Also some photos from a couple of weekends ago in the Woluwe park on a beautiful sunny Sunday after having our neighbor, Sandra, and her kids, Alix and Maxim, over for lunch. Sandra is Dutch, but she lived in LA for 10+ years, so it's cool to have someone here who knows LA, though she doesn't have a particularly high opinion of it. When I first met her and found out she used to live in LA, I said, "Cool, nice place, huh?", and she responds "Oh god, no, AWFUL. Couldn't stand it." What do you say to that? One of many introductions to the notorious European bluntness. You get used to it, but at first coming from the US where people are generally positive and wait until you leave the room to say something negative, it takes a little getting used to. I actually like the direct route most of the time, but sometimes it really throws you off if you're not expecting it.

Also in photos are Soren and his kids. Soren is the Danish guy from down the street who let us use his and his wife's house in the South of France back in May. He's an attorney for the European Commission, and he was telling me about being at the WTO summit in St. Petersburg back in July, handling the entry negotiations with Russia. Must be fascinating work.







Speaking of work, I had a preliminary interview with a bank/securities clearinghouse today, waiting to hear back about a second interview. They told me to be prepared for 3-4 more interviews plus a test as well. I'd heard of the grueling bank hiring process, but this will be my first experience with it. Wish me luck!

The Month in Review 9.9.06

Grad School, Career Changes and Poo pretty much sums it up. But not necessarily in that order.

Ethan has twice in the last couple of months explored his artistic side, and Sara and I are very proud of his creativity. We have however decided to encourage he use materials like water-based paints, clay, etc., i.e. anything but his own fecal matter. Twice we've put him down for a nap and gone upstairs a few minutes later to check on him to find that he had painted the hallway, his bed, his door, the mirrors downstairs, literally everything in his path, in poo. FANTASTIC! I could post some really disgusting photos, but I won't... those we will keep until his first date, upon which we will unleash a photographic catalogue of his exploits in excrement.

Moving on... I'm officially set up to sell credit over here... this includes primarily mortgages, but also car loans, personal loans, etc., so that's exciting for me. I do enjoy that, and especially with rates still very low, though they can be expected to head up over the next couple of years. The real estate market is less exciting to me as an advisor or investor because I think it's becoming saturated and the gains may not justify the extremely high taxes on the front end. I think we will still invest, but in a much smaller scale (an apartment here, a duplex there) than we were initially planning. I'm also starting a part-time job at a company called DeVere and Parterns which is a financial advisory focusin on offshore investing for expats. The job itself isn't that exciting, but I'm planning to soak up a lot of information that I can use later on once I have my own financial advisory or something along those lines.

Lastly, I'm starting French classes twice a week through January, and a Post-Grad Certificate program in Treasury and Financial Risk Mgmt organized by the Belgian Finance Federation, Bankers Academy, etc. and depending on how it goes, maybe getting a Masters or something. We'll see where all of this leads me... I'm thinking now either my own full-service Financial Advisory, either as my primary business or on the side, OR working in a Risk Mgmt position with an Asset Mgr like a bank, hopefully eventually leading to getting involved in Microfinance both here and abroad and if (a big IF) things go well, starting my own bank one day. That is the ultimate goal, that and writing the Great American Screenplay, both probably years in the works, but one day maybe.

Gotta have goals, at least I do, otherwise I'd be very satisfied to drink Belgian beer, eat frites, watch football and play with the kids while I weather away in some dead-end job, writing once a month, kind of like I've been doing with this blog of late. I'm going to try and do at least a weekly posting, more for myself than anything, just to put down in writing what I've done this week, what I'm hoping to do next week, etc. I've got a gay little sign in my 'office' at home that says Be Proud of Everyday. I already said it was gay, but for me, it's important because when you don't have a traditional job to go to with goals and markers laid out for me, it's hard to track one's career, and I want to make sure I keep moving forward, never being satisfied with the status quo. Status Quo is boring, life-sapping, miserable.

Kids are good, Sonia's taking more and more steps, but still lacking confidence, we already covered Ethan's 'growth', and Sara is still enjoying work more, but apparently it's going to get crazy again. Claire, Dom and Ellie coming to visit in late October, my Mom's coming in a couple of weeks for Ethan's 3rd birthday, Eric, Jen and Cameron coming next weekend, looking forward to having a full house. We just booked our trip to DC for Christmas, it'll have been over a year since we have been in the US by then... Looking forward to seeing the family and meeting my sister's newest family member, due in November, reconnecting with our Americanness, which includes in no specific order, watching my Skins, eating Chipotle, drinking American milk, and not having to worry about people not understanding me and vice versa.

The World's Gone Crazy. Again. 08/10/06

Actually it's been crazy for a while now, but this shit at Heathrow today and in the Middle East the past few weeks just reminds us all what a truly fucked up world we live in... and we for the most part are spectators, what's it like to be a participant.

I don't know if maybe I was oblivious before or maybe I had too many choices when it came to media, but I feel like I'm much more in the middle of things over here. I think that's for a couple of reasons. 1. The BBC is superior to CNN when it comes to really delving into topics, really asking hard questions, being able to stay on an issue and not lose momentum because they don't have to cut every 3 and a half minutes to a commercial. Nothing against commercials, I happen to be very fond of someone in the industry, but when it comes to news, it just doesn't fit... issues are complicated, the world is complicated, and limiting us to soundbites and 2 minute reports from the "front lines" doesn't allow time for the in-depth reporting necessary with the state of our world today. 2. There's something about being on a land mass that is connected to the Middle East, India, Russia, China, Afghanistan, and if it weren't for a sliver of water south of Spain, the whole continent of Africa. 3. I'm sure I'm being naiive and idealistic here, but Brussels is a place, like DC, which draws people to the possibility of change... the countless NGO's, all the government programs (Brussels has 4 governments active here- it is the capital of the EU, the city of Brussels has it's own gov't, and the Flemish and Walloon governments have offices here, along with the 19 communes of the city... can you say bureaucracy?), all the international and multi-lingual people, really can't help rub off on you and makes me feel like I should be a part of it, but honestly what I see here that mosts interests me are the business and real estate opportunities. It's such a difficult place to do business, most people give up because they don't think it's worth it, and after my limited experience here so far, they might have a point, but I'm going to keep plugging away until I (officially) lose my marbles.

I know though that if I do make it, I will give back. Number one priority though is supporting my family, and that's the quest I'm on now, to find the next opportunity, especially as the mortgage biz in the US has landed in the shitter.

Sara and kids are doing well, despite the crap weather. Put it this way, August 11th, and I almost wanted to put the heat on this morning. It's been raining for days straight, with no end in sight. Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens must have never spent a summer in Brussels. I think our friends Chuck & Deb who are coming from LA to visit us are going to be in for a rude surprise. Enough bitching. It was 90 degrees and sunny for about 2 weeks straight, and I was complaining then too.

Kids are growing up fast, Sonia's almost walking, Ethan turns 3 in a couple of months, talk about crazy. Photos:


"Is there something on my face?"

































The helpful big brother.












Umm, no comment.

























On a play/dad date at the Airplane/Military museum at Cinquantinaire.



Ethan at the Planckendaal Zoo

I've found a honest politician...

This guy is running for some kind of communal officer in Auderghem, the commune where we live. I was about to throw it away until I noticed his name. Obviously it doesn't mean the same thing here, and the pronounciation is different (the H would be silent in both names), but still... are you kidding me? With a name like that, he should be going into porn, not politics...

How about France beating Brazil the other day and then Italy just beating Germany in one of the best matches I've ever seen, especially at this level/stage in the tournament. Both teams just went for it... so entertaining when teams play to win instead of playing not to lose. It was a different Italy team than the one that barely tied the US a man up on us. If they play like that, and if France beats Portugal as expected in the same fashion in which they beat Brazil, it's going to be a finale for the ages. What am I going to do when the World Cup is over... start counting down until the EPL starts I guess... only a couple of months away now. One thing, I wonder if Chelsea are going to be happy with Ballack... he's going to have to play a lot better than he did this tournament to be worth half of what they're paying him. Same with Savchenko.

Anyway, to be determined... tomorrow should be another good semifinal and hopefully the final on Sunday is worthy of the 1 billion + audience it's sure to draw.

World Cup continued...

Football, futbol, voetbal, it's all soccer, all the time at the Sulaimani household. I love that Sara is so into it now too. She got home from work and saw that Italy v Australia was still on and was genuinely excited. I love it. It's hard not to get into it over here... it's literally everywhere you look, on at least one major channel for each country, so that you can watch any given match with English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, etc. commentary. And it's the same story all around the world. Crazy.

So, the US went out in the first round and all in all had a pretty horrendous World Cup experience, much like France in '98, though the opponents this time around were a lot tougher than in France. The Italy match was a hard-fought match, but Italy had a couple of big calls go their way, two red cards that were utter shite if you ask me. I'm of course biased though. However, watching the Italy v Australia match tonight and seeing that bullshit penalty kick call they got in the 94th MINUTE!!! to win the game, I'm starting to wonder if all the dirty deeds behind the scenes in Italian club football may have carried over to the World Cup. Not really, but everyone, and especially a scorned football fan, loves a conspiracy theory to justify why their team lost. Alas, even with that match going our way, we would have lost because we got outplayed by Ghana in the final group match. We were better than we were against the Czechs, but not a lot better. I have to question the formations and the player selection of Bruce Arena. I thought Eddie Johnson was our lone bright spot against the Czechs and yet, he doesn't get the nod for the next two matches. ??

The managing by England's manager, Sven Goran Ericksson, has been even worse. Wow, does this guy have an ego AND does he ever get lucky, with Rooney getting healthy saving him from having only brought 4 strikers, and 2 of the 4 being Peter Crouch and a 17 year old who hasn't played a single minute, despite the injury to Owen, Rooney not being 100% match fit, and Peter Crouch being Peter Crouch. I won't go into it further, but anyone who's been following England knows what I mean. And now they get to play a depleted Portugal side to get to the semis, and they'll probably win somehow in a really ugly fashion, though they shouldn't. England's performance thus far would fall in the latter two thirds of the teams in the World Cup I would say. Somewhere a little bit better than Switzerland and Ukraine (jesus, that match that just ended was ffing miserable) but certainly nowhere near Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, etc. I would say Holland, Ivory Coast, Australia, and a couple of other teams that have gone home have played better football overall than England. Of course, you need some luck and the stars to align to win a World Cup, and it's certainly shaping up to be that way so far. I hope they do it too, despite their manager and their less-than-inspired play, just because the fans are so inspiring. England's fans are amazing... best in football if you ask me, but again, I'm biased.

Overall I'm still sticking with my original pick of Spain, but man Germany looks like a well-oiled machine at this point, especially on the attack. The back looks a little suspect and I don't think they'll win the whole thing, but they're going to give Argentina a run for it in the next game. What a match that will be... I can't wait. Football can be so incredibly exciting, and then it can also be such a circus of flops and bad officiating and poor play, and you can see how some non-football fans can watch a match and say, what's all the fuss? But Germany v Argentina, that one should be special I think. Spain v France also has the makings of a proper match.

A couple of photos for those who don't give a rat's ass about 22 guys chasing around a ball for 90 minutes. Of course most of the photos have to do with the World Cup. What can I say, I'm a man obsessed.

Fan Fest, Kaiserslautern.

Frat brother Brian Sandler draped in Old Glory.

Post-match band, Bongiovio, with probably the best performance of the evening, with the exception of Ryan Buchanan and his never to be repeated or emulated dance moves.

And of course, one of my girl, Sonia, who just turned one last Saturday.

Travels, Visitors and THE CUP

Hello. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. Actually better than fine since the World Cup has started, in case you've been in a cave in Tora Bora. Even there, Bin Laden probably has a satellite dish set up so he can cheer on any team facing The Great Satan, who by the way, played one of their most lackluster, unimpressive matches in recent memory, losing to the Czech Republic, 0-3. Ouch. Regardless of the US results, it's been an amazing tournament so far, and I'm looking forward to going to Kaiserlautern to soak up some of the craziness with a couple of college buddies to hang out at the Fan Fest there while the US hopefully redeems itself against Italy. It will be extremely tough, because Italy is playing some beautiful football themselves, and even if we beat or tie them, Ghana is a tough team as well. The 'Group of Death' moniker turned out to be very fitting.

We have our friends, Carly, Leon, and their two girls visiting us at present. Very impressed that friends from LA could make the journey, and with a 3 year old and a newborn no less. Hint, hint. You know who you are. ;) It's been gorgeous weather here for about a week, but now it's back to the usual rain business. Hopefully it'll get nice again so they can enjoy visits into the city.

We recently returned from our trip to southern Sweden and Copenhagen and the Ardeche region of France. Both were a lot of fun. It was a beautiful wedding and a fantastic party, although I think Sara and I may not live down some of the Funky Chicken-esque moves on the dance floor. Take one part friends you haven't seen for a while, a couple parts godawful 100 proof schnapps, a 10 piece funk/soul band from Stockholm playing 70's music, and the kids back in Brussels with the grandparents, and embarassing times are sure to result. Anyway, here are a couple of the choice photos. We will leave out all the shots of dips in the North Sea, balls, shiny or otherwise, people passed out, etc. for now. This is not out of respect to the 'victims', bride and groom, etc. but really for no other reason except I believe the extortion value of said images could rise.

In no particular order, photos from Swensens bar on the Thursday night. The Teater Chokehold and Kiss on Cheek (If you're in a bar with my wife, you too will likely be the victim of this move). The Bride-to-be getting molested. I'm not 100% sure because I was unsober, but I think my buddy, Shag, was offering to service me orally here. Thanks anyway Chaunce. I'm sure your buddies in Southern Virginia and Tennessee will be happy to comply, so best of luck with that, wherever you end up.




















In France, we stayed in this house owned by some neighbor friends of ours. It was in an amazing spot in the Rhone-Alps region, about 90 minutes southwest of Lyon. The weather wasn't great, really windy, but it was just so nice to be out in the country, spending time with my parents and my family, no phone or Internet barking for attention, etc. I hope to go back very soon, and honestly this was the first vacation to the country where I could see us living outside a big city. Brussels is great, it's like an overgrown village feel to me, I love it, and I think we'll be here for a long time, but 'the country' or at least the idea of it has much more draw for me now, with kids, etc. I like the idea of having a couple of dogs and land to walk around on and somewhere where we can really get to know. Maybe it's just a reaction to the uncertainty of getting our heads wrapped around a new city or living in the LA megalopolis for 8 years after growing up in the DC suburbs, but I don't feel like I've ever really known a place like the back of my hand like one can in a small town... Maybe after a little while it would get boring, but the idea of a refuge in the country sounds really good to me these days. Anyway, here are some photos.







The Princess on her chariot.






The Vintner-to-be checking out this year's crop.





The main intersection. The house where we stayed was the light blue door on the right.



When in France...