Hot Summer Days

Brussels has been a hot place lately. It went up to the mid-90's in the last few days, and then it usually doesn't cool down at night properly. On Friday night, there were about 85 degrees in my apartment, so I couldn't sleep very well. Waking up the next morning, I felt like somebody had knocked me over. Thus, I was contemplating if it wouldn't be better to transfer my bed into the bathtub or in front of the open refrigerator! Yesterday, we had some strong thunderstorms with hail in the afternoon, which brought some relief. Today, it has been hot again. However, since it's hard for me to abstain from my favorite domestic activity, I added to the heat in my apartment by making pizza. Afterwards, I was dripping!  These are the moments when I'm rather back in the US with air-conditioned houses. Usually, such high temperatures don't last very long in this country, but we are not even in the middle of July yet, and this worries me a bit. Well, last month at this time it was actually too cold for the season, so you never know what will happen.

I've been trying to find another post within the European Commission. I finally came to the conclusion that I can't work with my current boss in the long run. His setting of priorities is just unacceptable to me. We get so many inquiries and complaints from individual consumers in our unit, which we normally would have to reply to within 15 working days. However, they keep piling up on his desk without him anything doing about them for months and months. I'm fed up with this procrastination, as there is not much I can do to improve the situation (I've tried hard, but of course I cannot change him). I think it's time anyway that I move on to another sector. Thus, I recently had three job interviews, two of which took place at our Directorate-General for External Relations. I've always been intrigued with this policy area, and one of the posts is of particular interest to me. The interview went well, and the head of unit, a German, was very nice. He said they would let me know by the end of this week, so I'm waiting and praying that the Lord will make it plain and clear if this is where He wants me. I only want to be where I can serve Him best.

Like in many other places, Brussels is crazy about the soccer world cup taking place in South Africa. Since this city is so cosmopolitan, you will certainly find a group of people supporting each of the teams. They also make it obvious from the outside world for whom they are cheering (see picture below taken out of my balcony). Since I'm not the least bit interested in soccer, I usually learn about the results from my colleagues or on the internet. Currently, I can't even watch the news, as I receive the two main German public channels via satellite (and not cable, since I mainly watch 3ABN), and for the duration of the cup they don't air via satellite because of the broadcasting rights. But I must say I haven't missed watching news at all!

One of them could be utterly disappointed after the grand finale tonight...