The Dentist.

Well, living abroad has many opportunities for "firsts." Today, we had our first encounter with a dentist here in Belgium.

Luckily for us, the dentist is literally less than a block away. John discovered him while we were walking to the car. He happened to see dental utensils through the top of the window. One more time that his height was put to good use!

The dentist is much like the doctor in the sense that it is basically a one man operation. He does his own scheduling and payments and in this case also cleans your teeth. In fact, dental hygienists don't exist in Belgium and assistants, though rare, are more like secretaries. Until now. Our dentist explained that just this year the government created a schooling program for dental hygienists.

But, we kind of liked this little system. He took his time with us and spent more than five minutes looking at our teeth! We didn't have to wait in that akward chair waiting for the dentist to come see us, because he was responsible for it all. Plus, the office was beautiful with floor-length windows overlooking the garden. In fact, our visit was quite serene and peaceful with the classical music playing in the background.

It is comforting to have found a nice doctor and a friendly dentist in our neighborhood.... just one more step to making a "foreign" place feel more like home!