December 15, 2006

The Belgian Hangover

Leuven Belgium is the home of two things of note: Stella Artois and the Katholieke University Leuven.

A Béguinage is a collection of small buildings used by Beguine Nuns, several lay sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church, founded in the 13th century in the Low Countries. Today they house students studying at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Henrike is one of those students. She is a friend of Christina's studying psychology at the Dutch speaking institute. According to Henrike, the particular structure in Leuven she lived in was built in the 15th century. It sits in the south central part of Leuven, a town that radiates outward from a central marketplace. A city map of Leuven looks like a sheet of glass with stone thrown into it, it's streets are a Cobblestone cobweb fracturing out in a haphazard radial pattern. And on most every acute street corner, hangs a Stella Artois sign over the door. The beer is a national export that finds it's way into taps across the States.

Belgium also has many, many other beers of merit. I now have empirical evidence of this. Henrike's boyfriend, a native Belgian (He is not Dutch. I made the mistake of referring to him as such. ) took it upon himself (with only moderate encouragement) as an ambassador to his small northern european country to show me the brewed bounty of his lands. This took a while. During which i learned many things. The most noteworthy , or rather the best to survive the night was of the political parties in Belgium. This was a topic of conversation during my stay, mostly because of the National hoax that was aired on Belgian T.V. and covered by the international press. The hoax, a mock news report that covered the fictitious cessation of the southern French region of the County, brought to light the political divisions of the country. In a country of 10 million there are 3 major political parties, and two others with recognizable clout. [ For More: Read This]

As i worked my way to the bottoms of bottles of Hoegaarden, Chimay, Rochefort, Dupples, Triples and various other Trappist Beers far too local and specific to remember, i thought about how many, and how few, choices I had in America. In a land of 300 million people, I have hundreds of types of beers to drink. When it comes to the national election booth, my choices are only 2.

Posted by Todd Roeth at December 15, 2006 03:44 PM