Pictures!!!

Now that I've caught up a little bit on sleep, here's some pictures of Namur from last Sunday!


Our first stop of the Grandes Figures de Wallonie was "Le Palais Provincial", where all the governors meet and make decisions. It was beautiful.





The inside was even more beautiful than the outside. I wish our state capital looked like this on the inside!





Next, we stopped at a beautiful church, Eglise Saint-Loup.





Again, the outside was very beautiful, but it was the inside that shocked me the most! So much detail, so much beauty... I'm guessing I'm going to be saying that a lot in this country!





After, we made our way towards the next stop on our list. On the way, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful Namur is. Les Fêtes de Wallonie is starting (TOMORROW!!!) so there's a lot of banners up for it to decorate the city.




I can't tell you enough how much I love this beautiful city. It has its setbacks and fair share of annoying things, but I still love it. It reminds me of Sacramento so much, because Namur also has two rivers. And for any of you who are wondering (it's probably just me) there are SWANS in these rivers!!!!!! I haven't gotten a picture of one yet because I'm kind of waiting to go to Bruges to get a picture of them, but it makes me love Europe even more. I've never seen swans before in person.... they're huge but so graceful. Speaking of swans, I might go see Swan Lake in Brussels if I can find someone else to go with me. But I digress, here's some more pictures!








Our next stop was Le Parlement Wallon. This is where they make the big decisions, because Namur is the capital of Wallonia, and where they welcome politicians from other countries. It used to be an old hospital, but they renovated it and added glass to protect people from the rain and give it a "modern" look... at least, that's what the employee talking about the building said.





We got to go inside, and I got to see the place where they have conferences and meetings. The rooster on the wall is the symbol of Wallonia.




After touring the parliament building, we went back home. On the way back to our car, I saw another beautiful church.





Monday night, I had dinner at Le Royal in Namur after French lessons. I had Spaghetti Bolognese (which is regular Spaghetti for you Americans reading this). I also spotted a 5 liter bottle of whiskey and an even larger beer glass, and it made me think of the DeWees family and my dad, because I knew they would DEFINITELY notice that too, and probably go up and take a picture of it! So I did it for them :)





Anyway, that's all I've got. As I said earlier, fêtes de wallonie starts up tomorrow, but I'm not going because I have school the next day. However, I AM going on Friday with some friends I made at school, and I will probably go Saturday too because a Rotary Exchange Student from the US said it was her birthday, and we've never met in person before! I'm hoping other AFS exchange students will be there Saturday too. I know the AFS Namur chapter is planning to meet up, but it's not an official event so I don't know how many people will be there or when!

I'll update you with more pictures and tell you all about this grand festival that is leaving Namur abuzz!



Nicole

Well, I think it's about time I updated this thing...
I've been very busy (tired) with school and French lessons so I haven't really had the energy to write. Plus, I wanted to wait until I had been to all of my classes before I updated you all.

My first day of school was actually very short - only two hours - but was so confusing! We started off in the church (I go to a Catholic school) and the principal talked for about an hour in French... The only words I understood were "travailler" and "difficile", which means "to work" and "difficult".... not a great sign. After, I got split up into my "group". I'm in 6b. We got our schedules and then after that we went home. The schedules are different every day, and every class is only 50 minutes.

My schedule will change in a couple of weeks, but here's what I have right now.

LUNDI/MONDAY
Geography
Math
French
French
Lunch
Math
Religion
English
English

MARDI/TUESDAY
History
French
Study (free time)
Study (free time)
Lunch
English
English
Math
Math

MERCREDI/WEDNESDAY
Study (free time)
Science
Religion
English
French (mandatory lessons for exchange students, lasts two hours after everyone else leaves)

JEUDI/THURSDAY
English
History
Science
Science
Lunch
English
Geography
Social Sciences
Social Sciences

VENDREDI
Study (free time)
French
Gym
Gym
Lunch
English
Social Sciences
Social Sciences

So that's it. I also have French lessons in Namur on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:45-8:45. I might not go on Wednesdays though because I already have French lessons then with my school, and having French lessons and then going to French lessons is a bit much, especially since I wouldn't get home until around 9:45pm.

School is okay, but it's just like school everywhere else. Class is boring (especially for me, because I don't understand any of it and am always tired) but the people are very nice and I've already made some friends.
My English teachers are very helpful, and watching other students learn English is pretty entertaining for me. I don't even have to try to pay attention, it's like hearing a television in the background. It's such a relief, because the rest of the day I have to try so hard to just pick out a few words. My math teacher writes so furiously on the blackboard (all blackboards in this school, if French wasn't hard enough to read) that the chalk slams against the board and he starts sweating and has to open up a window. My religion teacher speaks really softly and it makes me even more tired. All of my teachers seem pretty nice and understanding.

Les Fêtes de Wallonie start in a couple of days. On Friday I'm going with friends from school and maybe meeting up with AFS and Rotary students on Saturday. Well, that's all for now, it's around midnight here and I have a big day tomorrow (Wednesday schedule for me...) so I will update you in a couple of days with more! I also have to talk about this past weekend when my host family and I visited Namur for "Grandes Figures de Wallonie" but it's late here! Next time I'll be sure to include pictures and everything!


À plus tard,




Nicole

BRUXELLES

I went to Bruxelles today with my host mom and host sister Margaux and I loved it! I took the train with my host mom from Namur to Bruxelles Centre and met up with Margaux outside the train station. Trains are extremely easy to take, and I'm pretty confident that I could do it on my own. I'd have a few nervous jitters but I think I could do it. After all, I navigated JFK International Airport all by myself, even though I almost missed my shuttle because I didn't realize I had to walk outside from the FCC to the pick up zone..... Anyway, I digress.

It was a beautiful day. It was close to 24ºC I think, which means it was about 75ºF. I actually thought it was kind of hot, but then again I'm probably just getting used to the tepid weather here. Our first stop was the park of Brussels, adjacent to the palace. They had cute statues of mussels, fries (one had each fry represent a skyscraper), and beer. One statue of beer had a ribbon around it saying "Miss Belgium", as if it had won a beauty pageant. There was also a statue of a brussels sprout being carried by a stork.



Our next stop was the Palais Royal. It was beautiful. The flag was flying atop the palace, which meant the king was in Belgium.



Moving inside, I decided I might as well just live in the palace, because it's way too beautiful not to. I'm sure the king and queen will make an exception, right?





I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that my pictures do not do this beautiful palace any justice. And I'm surprised, because my host mom said Versailles is much better. I believe her (partly because I know Marie Antoinette wouldn't live in a place unless it was extremely beautiful, or she would've redecorated it) but it's still weird to think about. Margaux and I kept a lookout for the royal family, but I guess being in Belgium doesn't mean you have to be in your palace, waiting for exchange students to stop by and take a picture with you (le sigh)


I of course, had to take a picture of the royal piano.... :)



The green chandelier and green ceiling are made up of the wing cases of around 1.5 million Thai jewel beetles. I'm being so serious.
I then decided that I didn't want to live here anymore... at least my home doesn't have any beetles in it. That I know of, at least.

After leaving the palace, we were on our way to Grand Place, the place I've been wanting to see for YEARS. On the way there, we saw a beautiful church and a really cool structure that had amazing lines (hey, what can I say I took Photography I and Mr. Shaw taught me something). It was a gallery for random things, namely chocolate.





And of course, we got distracted by Delirium. For those of you who don't know what Delirium is, it's a massive bar that holds the Guinness World Record of the most flavors of beer commercially available to the public. It acquired the record in January of 2004, so naturally they had 2,004 flavors available at that time. I don't know if they have more or less now.





I tried a chocolate beer. It was... interesting. It definitely tasted like chocolate, but it was so bizarre. I think it was good for maybe a few sips, just for the novelty of it, but not the entire bottle. I'll remember that next time when I try to get something "exotic". I'll stick to my fruity beers! I'm definitely going back there though, it's amazing. My exchange student friend from Vermont, Caleb, met up with us at Delirium and continued on with us to Grand Place.






Grand Place definitely lived up to my expectations. It was beautiful, but also much bigger than I expected. I guess that makes sense though, because that's where the flower carpet is held every two years. I missed it by a few weekends, but I still loved being there.








You can't really tell from these pictures (due to my amazing skills in photography, I'm sure......!!!) but the tower of the town hall is actually incredibly off center. Caleb pointed it out to me, and said that there's a myth that the architect, upon realizing it was off center, jumped off the tower and killed himself. That most likely never happened, and Wikipedia (okay every English and History teacher/every high school student reading this, I KNOW it's not a credible source, but just enjoy the story) says that it was mostly due to "scattered construction history" and "space constraints". It's still pretty though.





After Grand Place, we went and visited Manneken Pis. Before I left Belgium, I promised myself I wouldn't think anything of Manneken Pis, because really, it's a little boy peeing and everyone takes pictures of him and I just didn't understand the appeal. But I can totally understand it now. He was dressed up and it was so cute and a little funny. Still completely inappropriate, but I enjoyed it. Every 4th of September (the day I went to see him) he is dressed up as a uniformed soldier of the Infantry Brigade "Liberation", to mark their entry into Brussels in 1944. He wore little white gloves and a beret. It was cute.

After, we went to a little restaurant and had waffles and fries. I again forgot to take a picture of my waffle but it was a Brussels waffle and I got ice cream and hot fudge on it. There are two types of Belgian waffles, and they are NOTHING like what we have in America, so if you ever say you have a Belgian waffle and you're in America, chances are you aren't really having a Belgian waffle as Belgians know it. Brussels waffles are light, crispy, rectangular, and usually served with powdered sugar. Some people get fruit or ice cream on them, but that's usually because a lot of restaurants offer the other toppings if there are a lot of tourists nearby. Liège waffles are denser, chewier, and sweeter, because it has caramelized sugar over it. I think I prefer Liège waffles.

Caleb and I parted ways after that (it's really weird doing bisous with another American but we're trying to be Belgian so we sucked it up) and then after a while my host mom, host sister and I went home. It was a long day.

Tomorrow will be an even longer day. This was supposed to be a short post, because I have school tomorrow (first day of high school!!! again) but it's massive and now it's 12:30AM. I'm glad I did it though, because I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about once school starts soon and I couldn't deal with writing a bigger post. I'm in 6ème, or "rhéto", which means senior year. Wish me luck on my (second) first day of senior year!!!!

Bonne nuit!

Nicole

Officially 1 Week

Tonight marks 7 days since I've been with my host family. I really like them and where I'm placed, but I also miss home too of course.

On Thursday, AFS Namur (there's five chapters for AFS Belgique - Namur, Brabant, Hainaut, Liege, et Luxembourg) took us on a tour of Namur. The first part was very touristy, we were shown a mural, important buildings, and statues. Then we went to lunch. I got frites and a chicken pita sandwich type of thing. I couldn't finish it all so I gave the rest to (prince) Cameron, the NZ exchange student that was in an earlier photo. I'm still loving the mayo here, I think it's what makes me like the fries so much. Then, we walked to the Citadel of Namur and took a few pictures. It was a long walk so we rested for a bit. We practiced a little French and enjoyed the nice weather. Then we went to the square of bars and we all tried some Belgian beer. I got a raspberry flavored beer and loved it. We went back to the train station around 6:30 to be picked up by our host families.

The next day, my host sister invited me to Kermesse de Wépion. It was a big party with a lot of dancing and music. We left around 3AM so I was super tired, but I enjoyed being out with my host sister and her friends. Her friends are really nice to me. I slept over at my host sister's friend's house because she lives in Wépion.

We went to a fast food restaurant named "Quick" the next day. It was the most ironic experience because it was anything but Quick! I'm used to fast food restaurants being fast, but in this one you had to wait for everyone to order, pay, AND get their food, so it was a very long wait. I got frites avec mayo (of course) and chicken strips (again, of course.... if you know me, you know I don't like burgers....) and it was okay. It wasn't as good as fast food restaurants in America, but that's to be expected. It was weird seeing a drive through though. We stayed inside for TWO HOURS. I'm not used to it yet, but Belgians - and people living in Namur especially - are known for taking a long time to get through meals. We finished eating in thirty minutes, but the conversation lasted way longer than that. The people of Namur are actually known for being slow, and the symbol of Namur is the snail because of that. There's even a statue of two people with snails in Namur.

Today, one of my host sisters left for Tunisia. I got to meet the neighbor who will be taking me to school. After, my oldest host sister and my host mom took me on a walk through the village. If anything, it said a lot about the friendliness of Belgium. Every time we passed someone, we said "Bonjour", and often stopped to talk to people. Everyone is so friendly here, I'm really glad I chose this country. Plus the food is amazing.








I should be going to Brussels on Tuesday, so that will be fun. I start school the day after, so I will update then. It's going to rain on my first day of school..... I hope that's not an indicator of how this school year is going to go!

Tchao,

Nicole

"First" Week

It's almost been one week since I've arrived in Belgium. On Sunday my first week with my host family will be finished. I've been so busy and tired all the time.

My host sister has taken me out with her friends a lot. We went to Louvain-la-Neuve, which is like a college town. We went to the mall there and after we went to Namur. One of her friends, Simon, took me on a drive through the citadel and the old part of Namur. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. But I didn't have my camera so no pictures. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to visit again though.

I also had my first waffle (gaufre), first beers (kriek, pecheresse), and first frites avec mayo (hence the title). All were delicious. I didn't have a camera for the first two, but I did take a picture of the fries and the beer I tried later on. I also had these chicken finger things that were soooooo amazing. The mayonnaise is different in Europe... it's less greasy/disgusting and it's more tart, like ranch. The fries were good, but taste less like potatoes than In N Out.




I also went to my school to sign up for classes. I'm not quite sure what the classes are, but I know I have 8 hours of English (a week, not per day because that would be insane), French, L'histoire, Social Sciences, Geographie, Science, Religion (it's a Catholic school), and probably more. I'm also probably going to take art and music rather than math, and I'm going to be placed in a class with younger students so they can learn English and I can learn French. On wednesdays, my school offers free courses in French for all the foreign students. There's 2 Finnish girls, one Italian, one from South America I think? And me, of course. The school is beautiful. It's really old (older than the country it is in, because Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands in 1831) and known for its beautiful gardens. The principal of the school is very nice and prepared for the exchange students.




Everyone is very nice here. It's really hard to understand everyone (obviously) and sometimes I wish I could but then I realize I've only been here for a week and fluency isn't that quick. It's super awkward when everyone laughs at a joke and I don't get it, but I've come to just appreciate the sound of French even when I don't understand it, because it's a beautiful language and it's so bizarre that I'm here, In Belgium, living out the dream I've been wanting for three years. Belgium is lovely.

I'm going to Namur with AFS (it's only for people in the Namur region) to explore, and this time I'll take pictures! I'll write soon!


À bientôt,
Nicole

"Bienvenue en Belgique!"

This is going to be a very long post, and for a good reason. The time has come. I am now living in my home in Belgium. It sounds so weird. I can't believe it's happening because I've had some very unbelievable experiences.

First, Tuesday August 21 I caught a red eye flight to JFK Airport after many tears and hard goodbyes. It was a five hour flight, but I got some sleep on the plane. Then, we had an overnight orientation at the hotel near the airport. I would soon learn to be grateful for those beds, even if the air conditioner was ridiculously loud! Most of the activities were about things we had covered in the past, so it didn't do much to prevent us from thinking about how we wanted to be in Belgium already! I met people going to the Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, etc. and it was a very cool experience. There were 12 Belgium kids: 7 going to the French speaking part and 5 to the Flemish.

Around 2pm NY time, we went to JFK. The line was really long to check our bags, but after that we went through security and then boarded our plane around 5 or so to Zurich. It was the LONGEST flight of my life. I was one of the lucky ones who got some sleep, but every time I woke up it felt like we still had five hours left on the plane! When we landed, I was very relieved. The Zurich airport was very.... Swiss. There was a lot of concrete and it was eerily quiet, but it was nice. Then after meeting up with the New Zealanders, we took a connecting flight to Brussels where we met up with the AFS Belgium French volunteers. I got to see my host sister in person for the first time and we said a quick hello. After that, we were off to an old youth hostel type of building. The place had strange food (except for the glorious bread and juice) but the volunteers in Belgium are absolutely amazing. Most volunteers in AFS BFR are made up of people under the age of 30, which is very cool. After we got a day of much needed rest (especially for those Kiwis who had been traveling for 38 hours!) we went to a park in Brussels and did various activities. I got to try my first piece of Belgian chocolate. It wasn't even a very expensive kind but it was still way better than anything I'd ever tried. Though one of the volunteers said it wasn't the nicest part of Brussels (BXL) it was BEAUTIFUL. I was in awe of how cute everything was. We practiced a little French, and then went back to the main building to have a talent show. I was exhausted by 11pm local time, but the volunteers had so much energy, and everyone danced until 1am (especially the Brazilians). The talent show was amazing and everyone participated. I heard more languages in one day than I have in my entire life.

The next day, we played a lot of games (Citron, Citron and this other one I didn't catch the name of but it was pretty complicated and fun). Then it was (finally) time to meet our host families. I had already talked to my host sister but I was still a little nervous. I think we all were. I met my host mom, and she definitely lived up to my expectations and what the other volunteers told me she would be like. She is very sweet. We carpooled with one of the NZ kids who has a welcome family and then after dropping off my luggage, my host mom, sister, and I went to a friend's house for a barbecue dinner. It was a very fancy barbecue compared to the US... there were three or four courses. Everyone was very nice and interested in California and me. I got exhausted trying to understand all of the conversations (I never really gave up trying to focus on them but I realized I couldn't understand any of them) and have now come to the realization that my French has deteriorated quite a bit since graduation. That's okay though, because my host mom barely speaks English so I will have to learn French quickly.

We are going to my school tomorrow to sign up for classes. I'm really looking forward to the next year! Wish me luck!


Hanging out with the New Zealanders!

AFS backpack!

The view outside of our BFR orientation site

There were random beautiful buildings in the park... I don't know why.

A common sight at orientation camps... this isn't even 1/4 of the luggage...



More pictures of my room to come (when I'm not so exhausted)!

Update (with pictures!)

I got my visa information earlier this week and am now working on getting that done (it's a long process, but very worth it). I have just 43 more days until I catch a red-eye to JFK International Airport and meet with all of the other exchange students. In 46 days I will be in Belgium. This doesn't even feel real! I can't believe my dream, the one I've been waiting three years for, is now only 6 weeks away.

I realized I didn't include any pictures in my previous posts about my placement, so here they are!

This is the town I will be living in, called Vedrin. It is 5km north of Namur. It's described as suburban, and from what I've seen on Google Maps (I'm not creepy, I promise!) it's a very pretty, green town. It has a population of 6,163 which is VERY different from the closest "small" town I live by which has a population of 155,937! I think my high school alone had over 2,000 students so this will be very different for me. My host mother offered to invite me along the walks she takes around the town, so I will be able to become familiar with it and also bond with her as well!

This entire area is the region of Namur, known for the two rivers that intersect at the center. Vedrin is the red area.

I don't have any pictures of my house, but my host sister told me it was three stories tall. It is really close to a bus stop, so I'll be able to access Namur very easily.

Speaking of Namur, this is what it looks like.


It is the closest city to me. It's also the capital of Wallonia, the French region of Belgium. I'm glad I'm close to a city but also glad that I'm living in a small town. It seems like the perfect mix.

My host sister also told me that I would probably be going to the school she and her sister (and the previous exchange students they hosted) attended, Institut de la Providence Champion, and that my neighbor would take me to school, which is very nice of them! I must remind myself to include a thank you gift for them as well.








The school is very proud of its gardens, and from the pictures I've seen online, they have every right to be because the school and its grounds are beautiful!

Besides school, I think I will try "scouts". Both of my host sisters have done it and though they found it difficult to explain in English, they said it was a great way to make friends.

With all of this information, my new life seems more tangible, rather than just hopes and dreams. I now have a vision, an idea of what my life will be like and who I'll be around. I've even started packing. It's harder than it sounds, I've already packed too much and yet not enough. How do you fit a year of your life - a life in a year - in a 44lb suitcase? I guess I'll figure it out somehow. I'm very excited for everything to come. My last month and a half in California (in the United States, even!) is going to go by very quickly, and I want to enjoy every minute of it.

À bientôt,
Nicole