Blogs from Walloon Brabant, Belgium, Europe - page 2

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

6/10/2012 Little more than 2 weeks after my grandparents came to Belgium for a 3 day stopover with my host parents, I was heading off to Brussels today to meet with Mum and Dad, who were supposed to be arriving here around 4pm. Not needing to get up super-early was a treat, and I went and got pizza in town for lunch, and met up with all the exchangers at Celtica, while I waited for the phone call. Not having yet received a phone call, Donna and I went to go find my parents at Brussles central. An hour passed, nothing received. At this time I rang them (despite screwing up my mobile plan here), and worked out they’d had the same problem. Somewhere, lost in communication, was the assumption I’d be at the airport (an ... read more

18/09/2012 Waking up today, I was greeted with a reminder from my IPod, that today Nan and Pop would be arriving at 11 o’clock sharp at Brussels Midi. Catching a ride to Brussels with Marc, I walked from his business conference he was having at a local delta loyd, to Brussels midi along the seedy side-streets. Didn’t even matter that it was the middle of the day, there were still prostitutes out and about in the Brussels central park. Never seen this kind of thing before. But that’s what Europe will throw at you. Anyway, getting to the station, after waiting a decently long time I determined I was on the wrong voie. So a quick call to pop got us together, which was an awesome moment to say the least. Family really is the most ... read more