When the weather is Chit'is

When I watched the movie 'Bienvenue chez les Chit'is' (Welcome to Chit'is country){chit'is is the dialect/culture up here by Belgium}I laughed at the stereotype of the Siberia styled Nord-Pas-de-Calais and inwardly made a note to bring rainproof gear. I'm from Indiana it snows, it gets below zero; I know what it feels like when your nose hairs freeze when you breathe in a glacial winter blast but this Midwestern girl now knows that yes it's actually cold here.  Rain, humidity, grey, windy...cold.  Now that winter is here it is rare for it to go a day without raining.

Many people here live in old brick buildings with only a fireplace in one room.  They are tough.  I see old ladies with water dripping off their hair outside in jackets in the rain weeding when it's 40F outside.  I asked some locals why the older people don't move somewhere warmer because it's so tough to live here in the winter, the answer that they don't realize that the weather is much more pleasant elsewhere.  When I ask my students what the weather is like outside in English they only know the words raining, cloudy, foggy, cold😐.  I think I now know why the Dutch (Flemish) were sailors/travelers.  The nasty weather also solidifies my notion that people that live in areas with crappy weather are some of the nicest people.

I mean come on any area that makes Indiana weather seem nice has to be pretty bleak.  There have been days when my mascara has run just from biking outside in the cold humid air, no rain.  I'll take 20F and snow over 35F and rain any day.  There just so happens to be a song called Les Gens du Nord in which it says the people of the north have the warmth of the sun in their hearts that is not outside 🙂😁🙄.  I live a few kilometers away from Belgium so here are some accurate descriptions of the weather.

(Taken from tourism websites) 

+Weather in Belgium

Expats living in Belgium will need to learn to manufacture their own sunshine amidst the normal protocol of grim, grey days. Weather in Belgium is temperate, and not unpleasant, but precipitation is constant and evenly distributed throughout the year.

Wetness becomes a normal part of life, but when mixed with the stark coldness of winter, the combination can prove challenging.

By all key indicators, Belgium is a great place to live but it is not all sugar-coated waffles.

The first is the weather. An old Belgium joke says that the country has great weather – about 20 times a day. There is a significant amount of rain all year round and that can be frustrating. 

Things that should not happen:

Water collecting on your cell phone from the humidity in the air

The weather changing more than 8 times in a day

A coexisting maritime and continental climate 

Students unable to describe the weather as anything other than cloudy  

40F and sleeting / 32F and raining 

Forgetting that the sky is blue 

Realizing you see more blue sky when you live in a basement

Being thankful for seeing a blue sky

Sunrise at 9:00 Sunset at 4:30

Slippers and a robe being necessities 

Never leaving the house without a hooded coat

The wind pushing the rain underneath your umbrella 

Choosing footware based on water absorption

NEVER trusting the forecast

 

Imagine not seeing the sky for days= Nord Pas de Calais

 

Rise and shine?  9:00am