What a Difference a Flight Makes

Ahhh!  What a difference a short flight can make.  While it's definitely beautiful here, it's in a different way: the air is crisp with the feel of fall in the air, the entire mood of the city changes constantly throughout the day as the sun goes back and forth behind the clouds, occasional church bells have replaced the frequent calls to prayer, the sounds of French mixed with English and (occasionally) Flemish fill the streets, and I have to constantly remind myself to reply to people in French instead of Turkish.*

I hope that all of my American friends are enjoying their pumpkin spice lattes, by the way - I didn't have a chance to get one before I left.  My consolation is that I'll be thinking of you while I'm eating my (real) Belgian waffles.

*Not that I really have any right to infer that I'm very conversant in either language, but there was a Groupon for Rosetta Stone a couple of days ago, so I ordered all four levels of the French version.  There are also enough French speakers here on the DTS with me that I'll hopefully(!) have a chance to make up for the last eight years I've spent mostly forgetting the small amount I learned in high school.