Belgium

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Belgique

founded 2 years ago

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So who got here today (self.belgium)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by antik to c/belgium

58 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Now that a lot of 3rd party apps for reddit have shut down there have been loads of new users joining the various Lemmy instances. So who got here today and what has been your experience so far?

I'm here to help should you have any questions about Lemmy, lemmy.world or life in general (I can not really recommend that last one).

Anyway, welcome! Hope you enjoy your stay 😁

EDIT: I created seperated threads for this not too long ago but I think it's useful to post them again.

Some things might still be confusing to people, I read a comment below about someone not knowing how to browse content from different instances for example. I really suggest you read this post by lemmy.world admin @ruud which does a wonderful job to explain a lot of it.
If you're wondering what 3rd party apps there are available, this thread seems to list them all!

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[–] WordGhost 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I am a Belgian living in Taiwan and I was keeping an eye on r/belgium because “roots”. Will keep looking here from now on! Good morning Belgium! Just finished lunch here…

[–] Maraval26 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

May I ask how it does look like to live in Taiwan ? Are you afraid for your future there because of geopolitics ?

[–] WordGhost 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

My experience is of course anecdotal and completely subjective. I have spent the major part of my Belgian life in Brussels and the main differences I am noticing are, in no particular order:

I feel a lot more secure regarding public safety.
Traffic and road infrastructure is a mess (and therefore traffic safety is a mess also). Pedestrians are still at the bottom of the hierarchy in the collective mind, nothing yields when you need to cross a road), although the law states the contrary. This is like Belgium in the 70s. This makes driving problematic because If I drive like I would in Belgium I become unpredictable to the other drivers here.
For every car on the road, there are at least 10 scooters buzzing around. And they overtake on the right side.
In Belgium we close the doors to keep the cold outside, here we close the doors to keep the heat and humidity out.
I cannot imagine summer without Air Conditioning: moving around without a car is a problem if I need to keep a decent look at my destination: I have an approximate range of 1 km walking outside before I start liquefying from sweat (800m if it is sunny).
Cold can hurt physically when under-equipped but you can keep adding layers. Against heat and humidity there is a point when you cannot remove layers anymore.
There are convenience stores everywhere. They are open 24h/7d and you can almost buy anything there (they have AC also :) )
Dealing with the banking system here is hell. Especially as a non-citizen.
Service is way faster here, as an example (but I think this is exceptional) my modem was down yesterday and the telecom company dispatched an engineer to my apartment 2 hours later (after asking if it was ok for me).

Regarding the geopolitical situation, I personally do not feel scared because I am convinced that China does not have the military means to take over Taiwan without having to pay a (too) heavy toll. I am angry at their contant disinformation though. Taiwan has never been a full part of China, yet they try to gaslight the world in thinking so. There is no reunification. It would actually be an annexation.

Well, as usual the situation is way more complex and subtle than what people are usually led to believe.

Anyway, I love it here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Thank you for your insights. It's always interesting to read about somebody else's experiences, when they share your background. Similarly I find it interesting to hear from foreigners who live in Belgium, because the differences in culture can be quite large sometimes.