Week 31 - Namur, Oostende, Newie weekend (Huy)

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28/08/2012

Another holiday day that we had to find something to do, today the dice landed on all the exchangers meeting up in Namur with a few of the new students, and bestowing as best we could, all our collective oldie wisdom unto the fresh new faces. Met some cool people, from all over the world as you can imagine, and got a laxed durum with Danny Meg and Prisca before deciding to cruise back to Verviers sometime that arvo.

29/08/2012

Headed off to the beach today with a few of the other exchangers. For some it was their first time there, and the 2.5 hour train ride is one of the longest they’d ever taken before. We arrived at this delightful seaside town and made our way down to the beach where we got a few crates, and the brave few of us dared the icy temperatures of the Belgian sea. But pretty much just a beautiful day spent in the sun, not doing a lot, and revelling in the joy of being a (relatively) free exchanger.

30/08/2012

It was the first day of the newie orientation weekend here in Belgium, and so off we headed in a bus to arrive in Brussels and do a bit of a tour around town. It was awesome seeing so many fresh faces here, and it kinda lifted the burden of our oldies leaving us a bit. After everyone got quite well acquainted in their respective areas of the bus, we made our first stop at the parliamentary building in Brussels, and did a tour around there (which I’d never done before). It was alright, a lot of us didn’t really care that much, but never the less we met the house speaker and took heaps of photos with him, to mark the occasion I guess.

After this, all the oldies (like myself) who’d wanted to help out and go to the newie weekend jumped back on the bus with the newies, and headed off to Huy, which is where we’d be camped up for the rest of the weekend. As we arrived, I realised we’d be staying in an all-boys boarding school hostel, as it was common to rent out the rooms during the holidays here. So there we all were, unpacking our luggage into the kind of rooms I’d got used to over the last 5 years. Kinda felt like home in a way. What followed that night were just house rules and such, because there was ample time during the next two for all the rotary rules and regulations to be painstakingly rolled out.

31/08/2012

Awoke to people shuffing downstairs, realised I was late AS getting up, so no time for a douche, just had to get downstairs and hit up some breakfast. Today was pretty much a tonne of rules and stuff about rotary, and by the time it finished, we had a little time at the end to chill out before there was a pseudo-party put on, where we were given drink tickets (2 each), and were provided with a dj, and a decent set of lights. Apart from the looming rotary supervision we had, it was all right, and a good chance to unwind after all the rules and regulations laid out before us during most of the day.

1/09/2012

Just realised I’d passed the 8 month mark here in Belgium…. Wow.
Time really does fly by so fast, it’s insane. With 4 more left to keep me in a positive mood, we eventually got through the wrapping up last day of the rotary weekend, and after it was all over, we all somehow found our ways home, catching up on a bit of essential sleeping time on the train of course.

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