Report Trois

Where to start. Well, the last report I left off as being sick, which I was, but only for a day. It just so happened that on week later I was sick again. Except in a different and slightly worse way. Seeing as these were both Mondays, I was really feeling Garfieldish. But alas once again it did not last and I was in again in fine form the next day.

To be completely honest, the last month has gone by so fast, I’m having trouble remembering what happened when, so if you can bear with me, I’ll try to give some highlights.

Sports: I finally started playing soccer! I’ve played three matches now. The first we lost 6-2. So pretty bad. But I got myself the nickname the bear from Canada, so not all was bad. The second which was against the top team our league we tied 0-0, so a definite improvement. The third we won 2-1 and I had an assist! As you can see our team is on the rise, unfortunately a little too late as we’ve already lost too many to make it to the championship. On a happier note however, I have been asked to play with the next age group up as well as my team this weekend as they need some extra players, so I’ll be having a jampacked nonstop soccer weekend! The guys on my team are great, and we have a lot of fun.

School: Though still very tough, I do believe I’m starting to improve and perhaps reach the level required. As before my friends are all just as supportive and helpful, though I am now making more and more, so much so that even one of the Belgians was impressed. An interesting little something we did in school say goodbye to our principle, we did this with the whole school dancing a pre-choreographed dance to Mika’s Love Today. It was a fun and interesting way to say goodbye.

Rotary: A rather uneventful month for Rotary, I had one meeting with my local host where I had to do a little presentation about my arrival. It went over very well, and I had several compliments for my French.

Scouts: I did two big things with scouts this month. One as a leader with the “lutins” where we went around town selling clown noses for an organization of clowns who go to children’s hospitals and retirement homes to entertain and bring happiness to places that can be rather sad at times. I made sure to keep one to pin on my blazer, as you never know when you might just need to make someone laugh. Two weekends later I joined in with my host brothers’ scouts group for a hike weekend. The hike itself was quite brutal. In total I would say around three hours of hiking, if not four. Out of this three, around two was spent in field/marsh/swamp. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t already almost 7:30 when we started, so this was all in the dark. Never been happier for light pollution. It was a fun weekend though, as they gave it a little Halloween touch.

Now I can only really think of to talk about is my last week. This past has been holidays for me. Don’t ask me why, I couldn’t tell ya. But as my host mother has left for Egypt, alone. All my host siblings, and I have been distributed to several different family members for care. I am with Baudouin with their grandparents in Verviers. Though there is not a whole lot for “youth” to do here in Verviers, I got to some nice sightseeing with the grandparents, have fun with the little cousins who came over for three of the days, make a traditional Canadian dinner (which was a success!), and help destroy and rebuild a driveway.

Though I would love to tell you all about the various things I’m very excited about for the next month, I wouldn’t want to spoil the next report. So until then, keep enjoying Ontario’s feel good town!

Les Clowns!

One of the many things I do here in the lovely town of Spa is help with their version of scouts. I am a "lutin chef". So I help look after the girls ranging from 8-12? I think. This every Saturday, and this Saturday we did something a little special. We split the girls into five groups and went around town selling clown noses! It was 2 euros a nose and all the money went to an organization of clowns who go to hospitals and retirement homes to entertain the sickly. After we sold almost all our noses, we met up on "the clown bus". A normal city bus decked out with balloons and some of the kids clown art, equipped with megaphone for singing of silly songs. There we learnt songs, at a snack, and the girls who made the best clown art pieces won prizes! And not mediocre here's water squirting flower prizes. The first group (the girls made the clown art in groups of six) got a free helicopter ride! The second group got a free movie outing. Now seeing as helicopter rides are little hard to organize, and half the girls were terrified at the idea, we've decided to sell them and go to something together as a whole group instead. It was great fun, and I now have to clown noses to sew onto my blazer! Not to mention to use in ridiculous pics.

Report deux

First and foremost I must once again apologize for the lateness of my report, but I’ve been so distracted I didn’t even think of it until I started seeing the other reports. And the past week has been quite busy full of late nights which don’t work too well for me as I am now quite certain that I am sick. But now on to the adventures!

So school has been GREAT! From the first everyone has been very accepting of me. Two in particular have been really great and been looking after me the whole time, and we have now become good friends. The schooling itself has been difficult. My school is renowned throughout my region as being very difficult and strict. So as the subject matter is a bit higher than what I am used to I have not being doing as well as I might’ve hoped. But I think it’s good for me and I’m still learning tons. I’m also learning a lot of great slang and useful French words. Like “la pois” which is perfect for describing my luck with trains and buses. When you have “la pois” it means you have bad luck… repeatedly. So though I have had my share of unfortunate incidents which have included a lot of running, asking for directions and getting a little stressed, I now know the cities and the train and bus system way better than before, and have almost complete confidence in myself with the trains now.

Soccer has been really good as well. But due to my coach having a heart attack (he is fine now) I will not be affiliated until next week, which means my first game will be two weeks from today! I feel that I have been already accepted into the team and look forward to finally being able to play with them. Especially since I have finally learnt how to properly kick a soccer ball. Which though it sounds weird is true.

My drama program in Malmedy has been great too! Mainly because it is allowing me to get to know my third host family, as the program itself can be rather slow. It must also be said that I like it because ever since I told the mother of my third family how I love almost all foods and would love to try new she has officially made Mondays our “exotic” food days. So far I have had some Moroccan couscous and Belgian boar! I felt like Asterix and Obelix while chowing down on the deliciously sweet meat. They have also made plans for me to go see the “croix blancs” in Verviers in the upcoming week. It’s a cemetery from the World Wars.

I’ve also done some fun stuff with Rotary. The first trip we visited the Mine de Blegny, an ancient coal mine now used as a museum. It was quite interesting. I unfortunately missed the next two due to complications. Such as not figuring how to sign up because I forgot they told us to use Explorer and I use Safari, and having a wedding the same day. A wedding which was far too interesting to pass up. It was the marriage between my host mother’s youngest brother and a Philippine girl. It was only the legal marriage as they are doing the religious one in the Philippines. It was very interesting though as I had just been studying the laws of marriage in social sciences at school. But even more interesting was later that day at the dinner celebration when I found I had been deliberately sat beside a lady I had never met because she had gone to Canada sixteen years ago on exchange. Not only that but she stayed in the Peterborough and Fenland Falls area so she had actually been to Cobourg before! The first person I’ve met whose heard of Cobourg! She wasn’t to happy though when I pointed out that she was there the year I was born but I thought it very interesting.

The next day I went to the University of Liège for a science presentation. It was fascinating though far too condensed to really fully understand the concepts. I then returned to school for about ten minutes before I left for Grand Prix circuit of Francorchamps. There I helped serve snacks and beverages and got to watch some of the cars whipping by. I did that until about eight thirty then left to eat supper with the Rotary members. It was a great and fascinating day.

Just yesterday I went to Namur (the capital of Wallonia) to see their parliament and go for a two hour boat ride. Though lacking in much structure and activity some good friends helped make it very fun and memorable.

Throughout these days I have been feeling a cold coming and going, but I definitely now have something a little more. But no worries as I’m sure my host mother has had more than enough experience with dealing with sick children having seven of her own. Hope all is going well in the Bourg!

For all you Asterix and Obelix fans

My third house family is looking like they're gonna be an amazing experience. Though this a bit odd to say so early on, let me give my reasonings.

Numero 1: They love literature and language (the father's a language teacher).

Numero 2: The daughter loves theatre and I've joined for drama courses every Monday.

Numero 3: The younger son loves music, has his own recording studio/mixing studio in his room and wants to not only help him with english lyrics but possibly do some vocals for him!

Numero 4: They're soccer fanatics!

Numero 5: The mother works for the government therefore travels a lot and can sort out any troubles I have.

Numero 6: They love chess!

Numero 7: They love puzzles!

Numero 8: I saved the best for last... since I told my host mother of that family that I love foods and would love to try new ones, Monday's have become exotic food night! And last night I had WILD BOAR!!!! I felt like beating up Romans making menhirs!

Officially left my mark!

So I had an interesting experience today. Not interesting like the others where I got lost for hours on end. I have been going to mass with my family the last three weeks. It's done in a little chapel that used to be a school room. It is significantly shorter than most catholic masses I have experienced only going for around half an hour to forty-five minutes. And though I have only been to three I've already been part of two very special ones. One was a goodbye mass to their priest from Burundi, very interesting as he used African proverbs for as his sermon.

The one today was interesting as the location changed a bit. We were outside in the schools basketball court. With a little canopy tent set up and a building under construction behind it. This building is an expansion on the school which my three younger host siblings go to. So once again there was an interesting twist in the sermon as the priest incorporated the construction into it. Mainly because they had a block of cement from the building that they are going to insert into the building with a sheet of paper, no doubt blessed, and signed by everyone there today. Which includes me! So I have officially left my mark inside that building, and who knows how long it'll be there!

I know Liège sooo well now!

I'm thinking that maybe having fun in Liège just isn't meant to happen for me. Unless of course running train stations and asking directions is fun. So what happened this time? Well I left school on the bus that goes to the closest train station. I'd done this before and therefore thought not much of it. Not until of course the bus stopped for a good ten minutes behind quite a lengthy line of cars. Turns out there was a bike racing going on and we had to stop to let it pass. Needless to say I missed my train. Luckily so did someone else I know from school so she helped me find another bus to yet another trainstation to catch yet another train. This we do with success. But once I get to Liège I have to take another train to another trainstation in Liège. No problem if you happen to know how many trainstations there are in Liège. I didn't, so I got off on too early, got a little lost but finally got to the café. We were meeting for Thiago's birthday, and I was about an hour and a half late so most people had already drank a fair amount. I was tired and frustrated and didn't really feel like drink as I had to leave and less than an hour to be sure I find my way back in time for soccer. So I wished Thiago happy birthday and left. I then found the trainstation I was supposed to get off at took it to the main one then took it to a transfer station. I left early because I wanted to as I hadn't had a chance yet due to all of my running around. But alas I should've have just stayed for a drink as when I got to the transfer station I had to 50 min. before my train came. I then went to the train station in Spa where I went straight to soccer on a bus where I learnt my coach had a heart attack earlier that day and won't be out of hospital until at least Sunday. Therefore practise was cancelled. Thankfully we still skirmished anyways just to practise so I got some needed stress relieving kicking done. Now I just some stress relieving sleeeeeeeeeep!

My first report! on time for Tom a bit late for the Blog

Although I've only been here two weeks and a half, I already love it here! Communication has been much easier than I thought it would be. Since the moment they picked me up from the airport it’s been all smiles and bisous. Which I may add are not that easy to accustom yourself to. For example a guy came up to me at soccer the other night, totally deadpan look on his face, and my first thought is of course “oh no I’ve made enemies already,” he then leans in and gives me a bisous. For those of you not aware of the meaning of bisous, it is the one cheek kiss that everyone does here. So though I’m not accustomed to it yet I’m sure when I come back to Canada I’ll so accustomed to it I’ll be offended if you don’t bisous me. So be warned.

But apart from that little side note I feel that I am fitting quite nicely with this first family. I get along with all the seven of the members pretty well I’d say. I’ve already done so many things with all the other family members as well I hardly know where to start. I’ve been to Brussels twice now. Once with my family when we dropped my host sister to the airport (she’s in Texas now). They took me on a little tour to all the major places like the “Grand Place” and “Petit Mannequin qui Pis” as well as the Tintin Boutique. And though waffles were at every corner I have yet to try one. Mainly because much to my surprise they don’t think of waffles as their national food. For them it is fries and nothing else. In fact when I told them that most people I know think fries are from France cause we call them French fries I thought they were gonna freak and break something. Just to prove how much they love fries they have a mini deepfrier to make home made fries here at my house.

The Second time I was in Brussels it was with Rotary. Albeit all the buildings were of very high interest the amount of waiting we had to do in between was tiring and made it hard to focus on what was being explained. Let’s face it politics are hard enough to understand without having to stand around waiting for a couple hours before hand. It was great to meet the other exchange students.

It was the exchange students who made the next Rotary meeting worth going to. As this one was just the district I’m in, and was essentially a huge reiteration of all the rules, though there is a new one which may be of interest. The infamous Carré that I have heard every Belgian exchange student talk about has been officially forbidden. Personally I’m not all the phased by it, there’s many other ways to enjoy a Wednesday.

Unfortunately because this meeting lasted the whole weekend I ended missing the Grand Prix. But I did get to see the Retrofolies, the biggest old carshow I’ve ever seen. And because I met some fairly amazing people at the Rotary meeting it all evens out I guess. Though it was in trying to meet these friends that I had one of my most interesting adventures yet. So the plan was to meet at the train station in Liège and just go hang at a park or café. So I was told 2 when everyone else was told 1. So I had to try and find them with only over cellphone directions. Needless to say it didn’t work out too well and I ended up spending an hour and a half walking lost in Liège. But I found them and still had a good time. And heck now I know Liège way better than before.

I start school on Monday, and though I am a bit nervous I think tonight will help as I am going to little outing where a lot of kids from my school will be. So here’s hoping that all goes well!