VACANCES

Yes Yes Yes it's that time of year here too!  The time when nobody (literally, nobody) wants anything but for the week to be over so they can finally be on vacation.  Apparently at lovely Liège 1, this is normally crunch time because the bulletins come out the week we come back, but due to the administration accidentally saying that they would come out before, all the teachers rushed to give enough tests and assignments to fill up their grade books last week.  So I've had a relaxing time of watching movies (lots and lots of movies) and otherwise goofing off in class.

In French this week we've been watching 'Jesus Camp' (which is in English with subtitles, so I sit in the back and really relax), which apparently ties back to our course because they use a lot of persuasion techniques that we could use, or at the very least be aware of, when writing; this weeks' hour of Geography was spent telling jokes-- Belgian, American, and Brazilian, thanks to the other exchange student in my class-- and unfortunately for the native French speakers, explaining them to me; the two back-to-back hours of History were supposed to be spent watching a film, but it ended up being one hour of film and a 5-minute-turned-into-10-turned-into-60-minute break which the boys spent playing cards and the girls spent gossiping with the teacher; in Morales we watched "La Morte Suspendue" (= "Touching the Void"); in Gym we ditched handball and hockey to play ping pong, which ended up being the most physically vigorous and dangerous sport we've done so far.  Somehow, no Belgian girl is willing to sprint after the handball if it gets away from her or whack at the stick of another girl to get the ball, but they will sprint across the room to get a ping pong ball back and sting each other with the balls.

On Wednesday a bunch of AFSers organized to meet up in the carré after school, something that I could technically do every Wednesday but don't because I'm so outnumbered by Rotary exchange students.  After a good amount of dancing and talking and a slightly over-the-top amount of chanting (Rotary kids in Belgium have this weird song into which they break out spontaneously and often, a mixture of "Australian" (Aussie Aussie Aussie --Oi Oi Oi...), Portuguese, and Spanish, and which I don't know or understand), we went out into the rainy streets and said goodbye.  I ended up missing my bus by about 20 seconds, so ended up going to get some fries for dinner before going home.  I felt pretty silly going by myself into one of Liège's many pita/kebab/frites joints by myself on a Wednesday evening-- especially since I was rained-on and still carrying my school stuff-- but my fries got delivered with the worker's number on the tray.  Not that I'll do anything with it, but it was fun all the same.

Well, that's about it for this week.  I'll be keeping busy next week because MY SISTER'S COMING TO VISIT ME and I'll get to show her all around.  aaaaaaahhhhhhh so excited!

I hope everyone else (who has one) has a great vacation!
Bisous!

Also,

Said an extra, final goodbye to Tess today with a trip to Maastricht with Andres, from Argentina.  The city was all decked out in red, yellow, and green because it was apparently Bob Marley's birthday last week, and even if we missed the festivities, it was fun to see all the decorations: flags, streamers, and even the bottom half of a sculpted swimmer (complete with flippers) sticking out of the road.
We did some walking and some picture-taking and some eating, but I was really glad to get to see Tess again.  And to get to... not make fun of, but, admire? ...her accent once more.  Andres and I had a good time with "movie" and "thirteen."  At least we didn't make her compare "beer" and "bear" (their sounding exactly the same never fails to be amusing, especially when the New Zealanders try to convince us they sound different).

We unfortunately had to get back pretty early: Andres because he's been a bit sick, Tess because she had to pack, and me because the auditions for the Cabaret were tonight and I had to be there for the rhétos medley.  We said goodbye at Guillemins (where they witched trains and I took the bus), and somehow avoided tears; although there may have been some red eyes on the respective rides home.


The audition went pretty well!  As hopeless as my group has been feeling, we finally had costumes and props and the correct music, and after a few hours of practice with the other numbers of the rhéto medley, we actually had a pretty good go.  The teachers judging us even said we had punch!  Even if it was super-delayed (about 2 1/2 hours) and was really nerve-wracking, it was a lot of fun and we have a pretty good chance of being in the Cabaret, I think.

Anyway, it's getting late here,
I'll just give you one last treasure before I call it a night:

Trying to be Kiwi <3

Mid-Stay

nooooo  (but yay but no but...)

The halfway point of my time in Belgium has officially passed.  I didn't do any crazy celebrating (no tragus piercings or parties or tattoos... unlike some other AFSers I know) but I don't feel like I really missed out.  It's exciting to think that I'm halfway to getting to see my friends, my dog, sleep in my own bed, and do all the Maine-y stuff that I've missed (going out in sweatpants, cross-country skiing, doing sports, baking, jaywalking...).  BUT.  It's so hard to think about going home.  I've gotten so used to taking buses and trains everywhere, having beer and fries within a 100-meter radius at basically all times, speaking French, and being able to hit up other exchange students on Facebook to organize parties and trips and general hanging out.

We had the mid-stay camp this weekend at a château outside of Charleroi (one of the bigger cities in Wallonia, in the southeastern part of the country).  Because Sofia lives waay out there and would have had to have gotten up at a ridiculous hour to make it there in time, she slept at my house Friday night.  We hung out and ate pizza in Liège for a while, then came back to my house to listen to music, paint nails, and pack.  We were able to sleep in (8 am...) and take the 9:50 train, getting there around 11-ish.  We met up with five other exchange students on the train, who got on in Namur (1/2-way between Liège and Charleroi); two Americans, a Dane, a Norwegian, and an Icelander (Icelandic? Icelandian?).

We were a little confused about what to do when we finally got to the station, but we fortunately found a giant group of AFSers, and we all searched out the bus together.  There was one poor, poor Belgian woman on the bus, who had to deal with us 50 - 60 or so foreigners shouting (especially spanish) to each other about how excited we were to see each other and updating everyone on our Belgian lives.  Several stops later we were told to get off (and couldn't help wondering if the Belgian woman had plotted against us to have a tranquil rest-of-the-way home) at an empty-looking, snowy bus stop that ended up being several kilometers too early.  We walked one direction, realized it wasn't right, turned around, turned around again, and were generally lost for about 15 minutes before someone started leading us in the right direction.  It was so pretty and snowy (and cold!) on the way to the château, and we had fun catching up.

The weekend was (a little too) full of AFS activities that had to to with sharing our problems, reflecting on our year so far and what's going to happen in the future, talk out our feelings, and all that good stuff.  We were a little annoyed to have to be separated from our already-formed groups and especially to be separated from the six-monthers who leave this weekend.  I couldn't help but wonder if it wouldn't be more productive to just put us in the château without any structure and let us talk out our problems at our leisure.  Because that is a lot of what we talk about with each other.

Still, the games such were kind of amusing, and we had a joke-telling competition in which a Japanese girl literally made me cry:  

Pourquoi la mer c'est bleu?

Parce qu'il y a beaucoup de poissons [qui font] bleubleubleubleu

Why is the sea blue?

There are a lot of fish [who go] bluebleubleubleu

I don't know if this was so funny because "bleubleu" sounds a lot more like "blub blub" than "blueblue" does, or if it was something about her accent, or if it was because I was more tired than I thought, but it was one of the highlights of my night.

The rest of the evening was spent trying to fit as many people into one room as possible and avoiding the midnight curfew.  We tried using the bathrooms as common ground for girls and guys to hang out, but all got sent to bed around one.  There were two determined girls in my room who stayed up after the volunteers (who went to bed around 2:30) to try to meet up, but everyone else had fallen asleep and we ended up just being really tired for the next morning.

It was filled with the same types of activities as the day before, although a little less fun because my group was in the basement and there wasn't heat :(

We ended with some free time (and a rendition of the banana song) before saying our goodbyes and heading back out to the bus stop.  It really sucked having to say goodbye to 2/3 of my favorite Kiwis: a girl named Tess and one named Melissa, who come from parts of New Zealand that I really should know, but I actually don't.  The North Island at least (no?).  We did make a pinky promise to meet up next summer (oh yeah mom, I'll be going to Cancun), and if either of them are ever tempted to come to Maine --maybe? disregard everything I may have said this year, it's a pretty nice place-- I would love to show them around.

Anyway, I got home late Sunday (9:30-ish), tired, sad, worried about my departure, but generally glad about the weekend.  

To everyone who's leaving:  I'll miss you so much; I hope your stay was amazing and that you have a great time going home!  Let's meet up again as soon as I have money again after this year!

Bisous, Audrey

On Belgians and Tissues

It's that time of year again.  When every high schooler inevitably starts coughing and/or sniffling and/or sneezing.  Back in the states, it means sitting miserably in class trying to postpone the embarrassingly runny nose with frequent tiny sniffs because you forgot tissues and the teacher's personal stash is empty and the toilet paper and paper towels from the bathroom are the least desirable things to put on your face except maybe sand paper.  In Belgium, this is not the case.  There are tissue dispensers in the hallways, tissues in the bathrooms, and tissues in the bookbags of every single student.  Asking someone if they have a tissue (mouchoir) is no longer a halfhearted and helpless matter.  And if you somehow manage to forget, one or two sniffs in class will get you an offer of a tissue from the girl sitting next to you.

I think I'll be taking these mouchoir packs back with me.  Even if blowing your nose in front of everybody isn't as acceptable in Maine as it is here (although apparently people here think that sniffling is just as rude/embarrassing/annoying as we think blowing your nose is back home).

À la prochaine (et la prochaine mouchoir!)

Pictures from Antwerp

Antwerp train station

On the Antwerp hand with a random child

(who didn't move an inch during the 5 minutes we took photos)

Posing with the handsome mannequin

Starbucks!

Thanks to yet another grève on Monday, I have a nice long weekend to catch up on my sleep and my homework.

I've had a pretty busy weekend so far: On friday I went to visit my AFS friends Karamea and Sofia in Sofia's town, Ovifat, way out in the country.  We ate hamburgers with her family and two Rotary friends and played charades, pick-up sticks, and various other games with her two little sisters.  There was a slight mishap when my bus got to Ovifat before Sofia's, but she was able to call her parents to bring me to her house, and they were really nice about giving me refreshments and talking to me while we waited.  I am not generally the type of person who drinks a lot of water or juice during the day, but I have discovered that it makes Belgians uncomfortable if I refuse their offer of something to drink.  The first time it's alright, but they then ask me again and again, with more and more confused looks on their faces-- it's simpler to just ask for 'eau plate' or non-sparkling water.

After our hamburgers, all us exchange students went to the Bal de Rhétos (a dance to raise money for the senior class) for Sofia and Karamea's school.  We danced the night away in a giant room full of lights and speakers, which I was surprised to see was full-- my school has had a Bal de Rhétos with a lot fewer people there, despite my school being about 4 times as large as theirs.  I think it was because students from other surrounding schools were invited to this one (not to mine) and because there are not a lot of other parties out in Ovifat.  It was a little too smoky and sticky (people just threw their plastic cups on the ground when they finished) near the front of the room, so I hung out more in the middle.  We left around 3 am, which is really early for Belgians, had a snack, and got to sleep around four.

On Saturday I had to get up early to catch the 8:20 bus to the train station because I was meeting some friends from school to go to Antwerp.  We left at 10 and had a picnic breakfast on the train: clementines, croissants, chocolate, and a type of banana bread-type cake.  We got to Antwerp (Anvers to the Walloons or Antwerpen to the Flemish) around noon and walked around taking pictures and looking at all the sales.  We found a secondhand store with a lot of very interesting clothes, although a lot of the "more fashionable" stores had much more bizarre items.  We ate lunch at McDonald's, or rather, ate our packed lunches at a table in McDonald's because it was warm.  A couple people looked at us like we were doing something criminal, but most didn't seem to even noticed.  We justified it to ourselves by leaving the table perfectly clean, unlike the fry-and-sesame-seed-covered tables that everyone else left.

We walked around until around 7, when we went back to the train station to get Starbucks coffees before the train home.  Apparently there are only a few Starbucks in Belgium, and only in the biggest cities, so the girls from my school were really excited.  I was at least excited to sit down in the big comfy couches after walking so much that day.  After some candy, talking, dancing, and other energetic things (due to the candy and coffee), we got into Liège.  All the buses were full of crazy drunk people going to the TransArdentes music festival (I'm not entirely sure what it was, but I've seen posters and now buses with their destination listed as 'LES TRANSARDENTES') so we ended up walking most of the way to Place St. Lambert.  I took a very empty bus back to Othée, where I got back and accidentally set off my house alarm.  I fortunately got the code right after a few tries, so I don't think I disturbed too many people.

Today I'll be doing a lot of relaxing, as well as choreographing a dance for my school's Cabaret in March.  I signed up to be in the opening number of the Rhétos medley-- the finishing act with all the seniors-- and will be doing part of 'Money' and 'Cabaret' from Cabaret.  Other groups are doing Gimme Gimme from Mamma Mia, Singin' in the Rain, Cell Block Tango from Chicago, etc.  Nobody in my group could agree on anything during our brainstorming session, so I told them that if they really wanted, I could work on something over the weekend (I was expecting someone would step in and say that we could do it as a group or something), and everybody liked that idea.  Thankfully, I've done enough musicals in my life (that is, three) to know some basic steps and I think it will turn out all right.

Well, that's my day so far.  Bonne week-end!

It's already been another week!  I hate thinking about how much time has already gone by; the mid-stay camp for the Belgium exchange students is coming up and will find me saying goodbye to a bunch of friends who were only here for a semester.  Just a few days later is the end of the second period at school. (This I'm not entirely sorry about, as I've nearly used up all my tardies for this period).

That being said, it is kind of nice to have school mostly figured out.  I no longer have to look at my assignment book every hour to see which class I have next, and my friends and I basically have a designated table in the locale des rhétos (I guess senior lounge?) during lunch.  The people in the school have finally figured out that I can understand them better when they speak French than when they try to speak to me in English.  I do still trip up the stairs, however.  They are ever-so-slightly wider than normal stairs, which means that towards the top I step off the side and almost fall.


Not tons has happened since the last time I wrote.  Highlights:

Fire drill last Tuesday.  Instead of the cranky alarm I'm used to, the headmistress' voice came on the intercom telling everyone to remain calm and evacuate the building.  I'm not sure if it was a recording or if she actually has to stay inside the burning school to tell people to get out.  It was unfortunately raining, and our attempts to hide next to the building where we would be dry were unsuccessful.  Apparently it's the only one all year, so I was a little disappointed that it was during English and not, say, Morale (what? did I say that?) and on a rainy day.

My French teacher has been replaced.  She was mysteriously absent the first week and nobody has heard any news... the replacement doesn't even know if she's here temporarily or until the end of the year.  She also didn't realize that I wasn't Belgian-- having a name like Audrey, which some Belgians also have, instead of an "American name" like Brittany or Katelyn really surprises people.  She asked me to read aloud in class, and got a disappointed look on her face when I finished and gave me a  "Il faut s'entraîner un peu, hein?" (you need to practice a little, huh?)  To my surprise, everyone in my class burst out saying that no, I'm American and I read super-bien, which was fun to hear.  One of them also told me my accent was cute and that they liked it when I read because it sounded a little like singing.

I gave a small speech on the Republican Primaries for my English class, which didn't go so well.  I tried to speak slowly and use simple language, but there are some election terms that don't have obvious synonyms.  My teacher wanted me to explain some of the candidates' platforms, but I don't think anyone understood my bit about Ron Paul wanting to return to the gold standard. Ah well.  The teacher, at least, seemed to be interested; everyone else said they weren't interested in politics, but I don't know if it was because it was true or because they didn't want to have to explain Belgian politics to me.

My little brother has been adorably attached to me this week.  Everything from convincing me to play his Lego video game to shooting things with his nerf gun to helping me clean my room today.  He told me that I help him clean his salle des jeux (playroom) so he would help me clean mine.  His job on the windows and mirrors had to be touched up a bit, but I melted a little inside when he wanted to help clean.


There's a grève scheduled again for Monday-- no buses or trains, teachers not coming, and people standing in front of the school to prevent people from entering (or so they say, some people seem dubious)-- so I'll have plenty of time to write about the weekend.

Bonne nuit!