The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

It’s not quite what I saw yesterday evening, but it comes close. Maybe you know the title-phrase. It contains every letter of our alphabet, and is often used to try out new fonts.
What I saw yesterday made me think of this sentence. Jogging through our beautiful nature, we saw a couple of rabbits, chased by a fox. It was an amazing sight, it really was a quick brown fox!
I actually realized that I never saw this kind of animal before. I might have seen it in a zoo, maybe, but definitely not in the wild. Again, my colleague and I, we were lucky to witness this scene.
What a night it was: everything is covered in snow, and we don’t see that very often here. Usually when it snows, it’s all melted the next day. Now it’s been freezing cold for a couple of weeks, and even more snow is expected. Not a few people are already dreaming of a white Christmas.
So that was last night: jogging in the dark, the full moon reflecting on the ice-covered trees, the biting cold filling our lungs. It was cold, yes, but running keeps you warm. And of course I was in good company. My companion ran quite a few marathons, she’s my coach!

Today was different. Almost the same route, but under a clear blue sky, with a winter sun shining on the white landscape. It was still pretty cold (minus 5° Celsius), but here and there we encountered some families going for a walk, and some cheering and hollering children playing in  the snow. Nature is so amazingly beautiful these days. One would almost start singing Christmas songs. Almost.

We ran about 17 kilometers today, taking the time every couple of kilometers to take some pictures. We tried to realize how lucky we are. Not everyone has the chance to see this. Not everybody has the ability to go for a long walk or a run. But we do, and we made our senses work for the full 100%. We saw the beauty that’s in our neighborhood, we smelled a hurdle of sheep taking their nap in the snow, we felt the cold air trying to get a grip on our skin, we tasted the freshly fallen snow, we heard birds calling for each other. We were living life to the fullest.
And that’s what we all should do. You may not like the same things I like, but for certain there are other things you love to do. Well, try to do them as often as possible. Let this be my new year’s wish to everybody who’s reading this: in 2011, may you live your life to the fullest!

1974.

When I was a four year old kid, my parents hosted an exchange student from the United States. She stayed in our family for a year, went to school here and learned (so I hope) a lot about our country and our culture.

In 1974 this was not a common thing to do. Leaving your family for a year, start a new yet temporary life abroad, and being dropped into a bath of another language and culture cannot have been the easiest choice to make.
For the younger readers amongst you, I’m talking about a pre-internet, pre-skype, pre-cellphone, almost pre-historic era.
Basically, leaving your country meant cutting off yourself from your own world.
Making a phonecall from Europe to the States was extremely expensive, which means that the only thing you could do to stay in touch in 1974 was write a letter.
Needless to say that at the age of four I wasn’t capable of writing at all, let alone write a letter.

So after a year in Belgium, Julie went back home. And I never heard of her again. Or at least not that I remember of. So if you’ve ever written me, Julie, please forgive me for not remembering…

Over the past few years, the thought of trying to find her again crossed my mind on a regular basis. A thousand questions about her kept popping up.
I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity of crossing her path.
She has been a great influence for me. She partially made me the guy that I am today. I would never have travelled the way I did if I didn’t speak English.
Whenever people ask me where I learned to speak English, the American-girl-staying-in-our-family-story comes up.
The fact that this blog is written in English, is thanks to Julie. I have met a lot of interesting people, and I have made many new friends thanks to my knowledge of the English language. And therefore thanks to Julie.

A couple of days ago, when visiting my mom, I asked her if she could remember Julie’s surname. And to my surprise, she did. So that’s where I started my quest. I googled her name, searched for her on Facebook and sent out a couple of emails.

Coming home today after a weekend away with a couple of friends, somebody named Julie replied to one of my messages. And guess what? Yes, indeed! I found her!
I can’t begin to express what I felt. The words joy and happiness would be real understatements. I was overwhelmed with a warm feeling of gratitude, and I can’t wait to find out more about her.

Julie made my day. What a nice surprise.