One Year Later...

Today marks my first full year in Belgium!

It was exactly a year ago today when I said goodbye to my girls (and what turned out to be my final goodbye to my mom) and boarded the plane to Belgium. It sure seems like just yesterday when I first came home and told Jo that we were being assigned to Belgium. As they say, time sure flies…

Although we are not exactly newcomers to Europe anymore, we still discover new and exciting things almost every day. And, it’s only when we meet new arrivals to Belgium when we realize how much we have actually learned about living here, and all the tricks and shortcuts we have experienced. Sometimes we give out advice, and at other times we think its best for them to experience it themselves…

It is also interesting to note how seemingly important things in life quickly become unimportant. For me, it’s been a year since I last wore slippers, been in contact with sunscreen, worked outside in the garage or have eaten Portugese sausage, eggs and rice. But then again, a year ago, I had never been to Paris, eaten REALLY GOOD chocolate, or had my daughters teach me words in French. So, as they say, life is full of tradeoffs…!!!

For working expats, the one thing that makes the assignment easy is if the family is happy in their new environment. And for me, this has never been an issue. Jo Ann has settled in quite nicely here and both girls are enjoying their new life in Belgium. In fact, the difficulty for me will be when Toyota reassigns me back to the US!

Working in Belgium has been quite an interesting education for me. Toyota Europe is so different than Toyota in the US (or Japan), and this fact has proven to be both delightful and frustrating at the same time! However, I hope to build some good relationships here and be able to take some good ideas back with me to California.

So after my first year, I am happy to report that things are going well and we are grateful for the opportunity to be here. We feel especially fortunate that despite the global downturn, Toyota still has enough faith in this program to let us remain here. But, we know this last year will go quickly and soon enough, it will be time to go home again.

So, as I write this, Jo Ann is very busy planning this year’s excursions and holiday visits. And we hope that you will all continue to stay tuned to experience our adventures together

DS turns 6-years-old!

Our "not-so-little anymore" princess has just turned 6 this past Friday, January 23rd. It's hard to imagine that 6 years can pass by so quickly!!!

DS' school, ISB, was closed on her actual birthday, so they celebrated her special day on Thursday with her classmates...



On Friday, Mommy, DS and PS spent a day of fun at Technopolis (a hands-on children's science museum located in nearby Mechelin) and had lunch at McDonalds.

That evening, we had a family birthday party with "cyber" guests Grandpa and Grandpa in attendance (via webcam). DS was able to open her presents and the Grandparents were able to share the special day with her...

Then, on Saturday morning, DS had her all "gal pal" party at Planet Kids, a local child activity/party center. Similar to "Kid's Concepts" in Torrance, for a set fee, the Birthday boy or girl and their guests can enjoy the large indoor and outdoor play area, ride-on race track, bouncers, sandbox, slides, and play structures. Setting all the party girls loose in this facility, while letting Planet Kids provide the party area and refreshments allowed the parents a few moments to actually relax and enjoy some conversation with each other...

The b-day weekend continued as DS enjoyed playing with all the wonderful presents she received!!!

Happy 6th Birthday DS!! We love you!!

It's a Winter Wonderland!!

As mentioned on a previous post, this winter is proving to be Belgium's coldest in over 12 years! And although it has been c-o-l-d (!!!), I must say it has been beautiful and truly a "winter wonderland"!!! Wow, what an amazing experience for us Southern Californians to actually have 4 inches of snow covering our front and back yards. And along with this weather, comes some amazing sights and experiences...







Here is PS with some of her school friends, sliding down a slope across the street from school.





And here we are walking, sliding and playing on the frozen lakes of Tervuren Park!! This was a first-time experience for all of us!! (Too bad we didn't have our own ice skates...)





And although our family and friends back home in L.A. are experiencing record temperatures of over 80 degrees F, we wouldn't trade places for anything...



But then again, ask us in about a month after the novelty of snow wears off...!!!

Happy New Year, Bonne Année, Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!!

(or "Best Wishes" as Ray's colleagues say...)

The Shinozaki's are back in Belgium after spending a wonderful holiday visiting family and friends in California.

We had every intention of sending out our Christmas cards this year (from California), but forgot to bring our addresses with us! So instead, we are sending our heartfelt wishes (via blog) for a healthy, joyous and exciting 2009!!!

It's hard to believe that 2008 has already ended! For us, we have come to love our temporary home here in Belgium. This past year brought several adventures to our family -- traveling to 10 European countries (for us girls, while Ray visited 13). Our goal is to see as much of Europe as possible before our return back to the U.S.

DS is attending Kindergarten at the International School of Brussels (ISB). In addition to the regular curriculum, her school day consists of French language class, P.E., music and art classes. Currently, she wants to be an artist when she grows up. And as you would expect, she loves to draw and create pictures. In addition, she continues her love of reading. ISB has enrolled her in a special reading comprehension group to challenge her in this area. First and foremost however, she enjoys playing with her friends, little sister PS, and her Mommy and Daddy. We are thankful she has fully recuperated from the health scare she encountered in September (pneumonia).

PS attends 2 full days and 3 half days at the International Montssori School here in Tervuren. She loves her two teachers (one speaks only French, the other only English) and her friends in class. At least one day a week, PS brings home a loaf of bread, a muffin, or an apple turnover she bakes almost all by herself. Our little chatterbox loves to sing and keep up with her big sister. Although she can be quite stubborn, she continues to amuse us with her exuberant personality. She knows her alphabet and phonics, but can only read or spell short words like "cat", "bat", or "mat". Currently, she and her big sister are huge "Sound of Music" and "Mamma Mia" fans. They especially love the "sing-a-longa" Mamma Mia DVD we received from Uncle David at Christmas!

Mommy manages to stay quite busy with the household chores, updating the blog, pilates class, being room parent for DS' class, coffee or lunchdates with friends, arranging playdates for the girls and coordinating travel for our family get-aways.

And daddy is probably the busiest with his work at Toyota, helping me update the blog, and coming home to help out with the girls. He's the backbone of the family and we love him for it. Sadly, Ray lost his mother in March of last year...

Ray brought the family home to Los Angeles on a combination business/vacation trip in mid-December. We had many nice reunions with family and friends during the almost three weeks we were in town. We girls especially enjoyed our reunion with GM and GP.

The girls were also able to reunite with almost all of their friends we left behind.

Ray and I also got a trip in to Las Vegas, while the girls stayed behind with Grandpa and Grandma. While there, we caught up with friends, (Ron and Naoko) for dinner and some outlet mall shopping. After almost a year in Europe, the prices here in the US are just too good to pass up. Everything seemed like a bargain!

We also made sure we got a lot of gambling in, to tie us over until our next opportunity to come back. And although we did have some lucky streaks, overall we just broke even (which is actually like winning when visiting Vegas!!!)

Christmas was spent at home with the Kamada's. Our girls got a ton of gifts for Christmas -- it took a total of ten check-in bags to bring all of our stuff back to Belgium!

After a seafood dinner out with our family, Ray and I spent a quiet evening together at our hotel for New Years' Eve. It was actually quite nice to spend time together, have some drinks and delicious hors d'oeuvres and ring in the New Year... We actually even stayed out past midnight!!

New Years' Day was spent at Cousin Kathi's home, where the girls got to hang out with their favorite cousins, Bryce and Aaryn (incidentally, for those of you who came to our wedding 13yrs ago, these two were our ring bearer and flower girl...!!!).

Soon enough, it was time to say goodbye to our family and friends (and beautiful Southern California weather) and return to Brussels.

We left the LA sunshine and returned to a snowy and cold (10F) Belgian winter day. By the way, we are experiencing Belgium's coldest winter in 12 years (brrrrrrrrr.....)

And if that wasn't enough, the power to our home had gone out and so we returned to a bone-chilling 35F inside our home! We spent the first night bundled up in our winter clothes and huddled together in one bed, relying on body heat to keep us all warm. It took a couple of days for our radiator-style heaters to warm up our rather large house to comfortable levels...

But now, as we begin the second half of our Belgium Adventure, we are making plans to visit European destinations such as Italy, Greece, the French Riviera and Monaco, before our time here runs out. However, we do hold out some hope that Toyota will extend our contract just a little bit longer.

In the meantime, please start buying up all the new Toyota, Lexus and Scion cars that you can!