2140

When I moved into this neighbourhood 6 years ago, I never thought I would stay here this long. I fell in love with my apartment, not because everything was new, in fact there were a lot of “defaults” like single windows and badly insulated walls and ceilings. But at least I would have a terrace for the first time. It took me one ex and a half further to really settle myself into this place and consider it my own home. Yes okay, my upper neighbours are quite a psycho family with a yelling couple and yelling kids who sometimes drop their toys on my terrace and brake a thing or two. It makes my boyfriend going into a “French frenzy” when being awoken at 8 am by a mother going ballistic, but I tend to ignore it, if possible. Still... I love my place.

Once I had this Polish neighbour living across the street on the first floor, the same floor as me. I didn’t really have curtains at this time, so we could spy on each other and he actually did it much more often than me. His front windows were filled with plants, it looked like his own private rain forest inside. His wife was a funny woman, I guess she was around 60 years old, dressed very funky and with red dyed hair which looked rather orange because of dying her “possibly” grey hairs. Sometimes at night I would see the man coming home on his bike with a huge armoire (found on the street?) tied to the back. He once told me, with a smile, he regretted I bought curtains for my windows, because he would not be able to see inside anymore. And after some time they moved away, because there are too many foreigners living in the neighbourhood (his words…and he’s Polish).

It IS a very diversified neighbourhood, there are a lot of different ethnic groups living here and also rich and poor people living mixed-together in the same streets. My neighbour next door is from Moroccan origin and he owns the bakery on the main street. I think he will be very happy the day I get married, because I have the impression he feels a little bit sad watching a young woman living by herself having a boyfriend who after 2 years is still not living in her place. He can’t grasp the concept of having a LAT relationship. For him, a woman my age shouldn’t be taking care of herself. I tried to explain him I’m totally okay with it and that I’m happy, but it’s his culture of course. When it’s Christmas his business side shows up and he sells Christmas cakes in his Moroccan bakery. Although I’m sure it’s also out of respect for the different religions here, like one day during the Ramadan when I was in his bakery and it was time for them to start eating again, he offered me an almond stuffed date. This they give and eat themselves before eating the actual food.

And now today, the Ramadan has started again. In my main street you can find al different kinds of food at any hour of the day and night. Grilled fish, tahines, Vietnamese, fresh fruits, pizza, kebab, couscous, fries…It is food paradise, I swear! During the Ramadan it becomes food heaven. The bakeries sell all these special sweet things they eat during the whole month and they also make things they would never sell during the rest of the year. Like today, I bought this tuna wrap, the wrap itself looked like what I would call a Lebanese bread, but a little bit smaller. They stuffed it with tuna, olives, corn and something spicy, I would say harissa . So if you’re a food lover my advice is to spend the month of the Ramadan close by a Muslim neighbourhood. And don’t worry when you’re nearly broke, everything is cheaper here than anywhere else in my city.

It will be tough if I ever leave this neighbourhood. I would surely miss my apartment as well, but mainly my street and the people living in my area. A lot would call this place dangerous. Someone once told me it’s the district which is the most polluted and has the youngest and biggest population for a district in Flanders. Yeah, it’s never quiet here, there’s always something happening. And in the summer, when walking outside, you can smell this whole palette of perfumes. Spicy, sweet, smoked, sometimes mixed with a blend of weed. This whole neighbourhood is an open-minded experience. And every time the media tries to scare you, telling you all the bad shit happening in the world, I look outside and I see it’s not that bad after all. It’s what they make of it, it’s what they want you to believe. It’s the bad shit they want you to see, they never tell you about all the good shit happening every minute of the day.And I’m a believer. Because I’ve seen it already.

And with this, I wish my neighbourhood “Ramadan Mabrouk”!