Once a Liegeois, always a Liegeois...

Ask my husband and he will tell you how stubborn I can be.
He says he knows that when I get a certain look on my face, he better move over because I'm ploughing through.
He affectionately refers to me as his "Belgian bulldog"
I don't mind.
I am Belgian, but like any self-respecting Belgian will tell you, I'm not just Belgian...
In spite of the fact that my ancestors come from all 3 language regions that make up Belgium, my heart belongs to Liege. At well over 1,000 years of age, it is a vibrant city whose past is rich in triumphs and defeats that gave Liege its character, its strength, its resilience.
Its mascott is Tchantches, also a champion of loss causes...
These past few years I have come to believe we do inherit regional traits from the areas we come from, the places where we grow up...
I emigrated to the US about 30 years ago and have since adopted this country as my own, but there are undeniable ties that often make me feel very different from the people I live with today. Sure I have an accent when I speak... it becomes more pronounced with the years, funny enough... For many years that bothered me as I strived to blend in with everyone, even though I never succeeded... Today I see it as what makes me who I am and that is just fine.
All this talk of Belgium disappearing off the political face of the Earth really troubles me.
My father felt the people of Belgium don't really care about the linguistic barrier. It's a handful of politicians who seem bound on destroying the balance...
In a world where technology brings us in daily contact with people from all over the world, and where people are building rapports of cooperation and goodwill, isn't it time the Belgians start looking at what they have in common rather than at what separates them.
Digging through their family history is bound to show there is no 100% Walloon or 100% Fleming...
Let's fly the flag of truce and restore unity so the national motto can once again prove to hold: "Unity makes us strong"
As to the blog, I'll attempt to tell you about going to school in the big city in the 1970's.
You'll see that it was not that different from school in the US...