You know it's summer when...

July means a lot to different people. To young children, it means no school, endless days of wreaking havoc, popsicles and climbing trees. To students, it means working 9-5, driving with the windows down blaring music and weekend parties with friends. To me, July evokes sunshine, the smell of sunscreen, heat that reaches the thirties and lazy weekends. To Belgians, it means rainy days (nothing new there), slightly higher temperatures (hello low twenties instead of high teens) and great sales. That’s right, you read right. Sales. As in shopping. And it’s not just in Belgium. It’s continent wide. And everyone knows about it. Cassandra has been telling me since May that if we were going to Paris, it should be in July to take advantage of the sales. A friend of mine works at the Canadian Mission to the EU, and he says the Canadians there have been telling him the same. So today I checked them out. Me and a few hundred of my closest friends. Holy moly, there were a lot of people there. It wasn't as bad as Christmas shopping in Toronto, but I had never seen so many people shopping before. In some stores the lines for the cash were 10 people deep. Obviously, the July sales are a big deal.


Anyway, so I went. I didn’t want to—I’m on a self-imposed spending strike for the next two weeks and I was determined nothing would lure me off that picket line. But I was bullied there by two guy friends (forced to shop by men, doesn't sound real does it?) and so I went, rather unwillingly.

And oh, the beauty. They took me to the shopping street in Brussels, Rue de Neuve, where store upon store stood facing each other in a row of beauty: Esprit, Mexx, Promod, We, United Colors of Benetton, H&M (there were five, though I only visited two) and many more. Each had beautiful window displays with stunning clothes but the most alluring of all were the massive signs that read “-50%” and “sale” in three different languages. I spent two hours perusing that street, going in and out of stores and trying things on—sometimes against my will. I was a hard sell, too. My friend Dave would hold an item up for my inspection and like an American Idol judge, I would instantly deliver my verdict: no, yes, too fancy, don’t like the colour, not wild about the pattern etc. I promised myself I wouldn’t cave unless I found something that I loved. I’m glad to report that I didn’t buy one thing. But here are some of the more interesting finds.
This is a fun shoe. I understand it’s part of the whole gladiator trend and I’ll get ridiculed mercilessly for them (let the comments flow). But they’re pretty versatile and for €15 if I wear them from now until September (when I’m in Portugal) I’ll get my money’s worth.

The next one is a coat. I know many of you are thinking, “A coat? In July?” But this is for the fall in London. It’s a bit of a rain coat. The one I’m thinking of is from H&M but for some reason I can’t find it online (that’ll teach me to take pictures in the store). So, imagine this neckline (the big, scooped overflowing kind), with this jacket (except with a single row of black buttons and a little less A-line, in this colour.


Again, I know what you’re thinking: It’s yellow. And not a demure, eggshell yellow; sunbeam yellow. I was skeptical too. But after I was bullied into trying it on, it really grew on me. My reservations come from two areas. One, can I work yellow? I’ve always shied away from yellow because I feel like it’ll wash out my very white complexion. But the bright yellow pops. But does it make me look like Paddington Bear? Two, the collar. It’s quite large. I don’t have a problem with it, but is it distracting? It’s €30 but I’m going to think about it and maybe it’ll go down to €20.


Then there’s this purse (purses are my personal kryptonite). The one I want is from Mexx not Coach but this is the closest I could find. The one I was looking at was larger (taller and a bit wider--it can hold a clipboard), has thicker straps, is made out of a plastic and leather feeling material (more durable) and is green and brown with a buckle in the middle. It’s off-the-shoulder and therefore would be a good school bag. Right now it’s €30, but I hope if I go back next week it’ll be €20.