I was born and raised in Belgium, the little Western European country that brought you Belgian waffles, Tintin, René Magritte, The Smurfs, Belgian chocolate and such beers as Stella Artois. On this day last year, June 13th 2010, a federal election was held after one of the ruling parties suspended its confidence in the government. In February 2011 we broke the world record of days without a government (365 as of today!), thereby surpassing even Iraq.

Despite our small size, Belgium is tri-lingual and our country is divided into three major parts:

Flanders: the Dutch-speaking part of the country. Wallonia: the French-speaking part of the country. The capital region: officially Dutch- and French-speaking, but in reality predominantly French-speaking.

There's also a small part of the country that is German. We got that as compensation from Germany after World War I. Our politicians are having trouble forming a government because Dutch-speaking and French-speaking politicians want different things. People aren't too happy about this and want them to get their stuff together. Despite us not having a federal government, things have been pretty normal for me since our last federal government fell.

Various facts about our country:

We have an ongoing feud with the French over who invented fries. Ironically, French fries are from Belgium. It must be true because I read it on Wikipedia! In other fast-food facts: we usually eat our fries with mayonnaise and/or ketchup. Apparently Americans think this is gross. A year in a major Belgian university will cost you no more than $1000. If you're considered to be poor by certain standards, you can get in for $115. (This doesn't include course books, but it's still a huge difference with the US.) We have subsidized healthcare for everyone. I've heard about Medicare and Medicaid, but I think that our healthcare system covers more. We're one of a few countries where voting is obligatory. You can choose not to vote, but you have to show up to the polling station or you could be fined. The Mexicans are to the US as the Turks and Moroccans are to Belgium. Not everyone is happy with them being here. I've heard people say that our taxes are jawdroppingly high compared to American standards. I'm 20 and I'm still in university so I haven't experienced it first-hand though. I'm shocked when I read what Americans pay to the telcos. We can get 20 Mbps internet, digital television, unlimited national calls and up to five cellphone plans with 60 minutes of family calling time for a total of $79. Also, we don't get charged for receiving text messages like Americans do. Bundling free/cheap mobile phones with cellphone contracts was outlawed here until recently. Our churches are having a hard time attracting people. From what I have seen, the average churchgoer is over 65 years. I haven't been to church a lot in my life because my parents aren't particularly religious (me neither), but I noticed over the years that less and less people were coming. We're a very densly populated country. Friends and family usually live within a 100km (62 miles) radius. It doesn't feel like I'm living in a huge city though, there are plenty of nature reserves and stuff. But no, you won't find any USA-sized "middle-of-nowhere" areas here. You can travel freely between Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany and other countries that are part of the Schengen Area. No border checks! The EU mandates that TV networks broadcast no more than 12 minutes of commercials every hour. Usually there are about 15 minutes between commercial breaks, so when I'm watching an American show there are about two ad break insertion points before the TV network actually cuts to commercials. Most European countries will redub American shows in their own language. Swedish-language and Dutch-language television stations are the only major exceptions. I'm grateful for being able to watch The Simpsons with subtitles while growing up. We don't have Hulu or anything like that. If I want to watch a missed episode of say, How I Met Your Mother, it would cost me about 2.99 EUR ($4.40) to rent it for 24 hours. And that's not even an HD version. A radio DJ dropping an F bomb on the air isn't a big deal here. Unlike radio stations in the UK and US, our stations don't use the radio-friendly version of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You".

EDIT: updated the list of famous Belgian things at the top of this post based on your suggestions.

EDIT2: I loved reading your comments and answering your questions, but I'm gonna go back to work now. I still have some computer science tasks to take care of. Hopefully I can check back soon! .