Henry Alexander

26/12/2012 Today was the final carre, and was also the day I planned to give out a lot of my old clothes I either no longer wore, no longer wanted, or could not longer fit into my suitcase. Arriving at the carre, I threw all the t-shirts around, and people replaced their t-shirts with the ones I threw, which was pretty funny to see. The afternoon ended up pretty danm good, and we partied ‘till quite late as this was really the last time we’d ever do it like this. I’m definitely gonna miss the carre. No wonder it’s renowned world over by exchange students. 27/12/2012 FINALLY ! always wanted to patinage (ice skate), And during the winter season, there’s temporary rinks set up all over town, even in Verviers. But today we were going to ... read more

10/12/2012 I’d been preparing for this day pretty during all the free time I had last weekend, as I was about to give a 20 minute presentation of my choice to my rotary club. This was for a number of reason. It was the last speech I’d give there this year, it was one of my last re-unions with the other members, and it was to show the development in my French during this year. The topic was up to me, and having seen presentations form my oldies, I thought I’d do a little mix-up. I really wanted to talk all about my year, the things I’ve learnt, seen, heard and experienced. Show off some of the photos I’d snapped, present the times I’ve passed here in Belgium. But at the same time, I can imagine ... read more

28/11/2012 This Wednesday was the 2nd annual ‘Titles’, and so in usual fashion we all arrived and got the party started. Pretty stock standard evening passed, and all the titles were given out to their respective new winners, the newies. A good afternoon was had by all, and despite staying a little later than normal for this quite special Rotary tradition, we all eventually got home fine. 30/11/2012 Waking up at 5am today, I was about to experience one of the true pleasures of spending an exchange year in Belgium. St Nick. Mention St Nicks to any student from Belgium, and you an eruption of glowing smiles and laughs, and enough stories to last many lunchtime conversations. So quite reasonably, I was ecstatic, and filled with a weirdly natural energy that without, I would have surely ... read more

16/11/2012 Tonight I headed out with Florence to “Nicky’s”, which is a bar I never been to in the middle of Verviers and Jalhay. It was Florence’s friend Margo’s 20th birthday party, so of course there was the cake at the beginning of the night. It was cool though, the low-key atmosphere meant I had some big ol’ convo’s with some of the new Belges I met. Played some pool, drank some beer, chatted a hell of a lot… It was a sweet night. Won the pool, which here in Belgium means a beer too. Finally when 2 o’clock swung around, Flo needed some sleep (she had scouts the next day), and so we retreated back to chez nous. 17/11/2012 Slept in till 11 today, and it felt awesommme. Needed to catch up on all the ... read more

27/10/2012 As per usual for the Rotary trips organised here, I was up at 5am in order to be at Angular station by the 6:15am cut-off time for the bus trip to Paris, where I would be spending the next 3 days during my second-to-last rotary trip during my exchange. Somehow making the bus in time, with mark taking me there, I jumped in, and set off with around a third of the exchangers that’d be coming along to Paris. The bus trip there was loud and long, but finally around 2:30 we arrived in Paris at our first stop, the ‘Castle of Versailles’. This is one of the most famous Castles in France, and was the centre of political power in France from the late 1600’s. The royal family moved here after the start of ... read more