The first and only presentation I’ve ever given in a foreign language was on solitude. Specifically, it was for an assignment in my C1 Dutch class in the fall of 2023, when we were tasked with designing a solution to a Belgian—or at the very least, Flemish—problem. (This assignment, which took on the unfortunate title of “Make Belgium Great Again,” had nothing to do with the far more entertaining phenomenon of Belgian solutions.) After a few days of wracking my brains and spitballing with my Belgian colleagues in the office, I designed a pilot program called Belgeleiden: a pun on the Dutch verb begeleiden, “to supervise,” and the demonym Belg for “Belgian.”
The sea is restless. Waves of caramel-colored surf Crash against the wind-swept shore where white gulls Peck at broken shells. But the scraps are not enough
To satiate their hunger, and so they soar On rising currents astride the cold spring gusts. Harbingers of a storm? Or perhaps nothing more
Between Two Rivers 