Blogs from Walloon Brabant, Belgium, Europe - page 3

8/09/2012 Freaking another emotionally mixed day. I may have a rugged, partially groomed kiwi male exterior (or maybe not..), but I was all messed up when it came time to pack up all my stuff my the Winandy’s, and move to my new host families house, the Roberts. I’d met them numerous times before, shared a few laughs and generally got acquainted with them so I wasn’t exactly thrown in the deep end by any stretch of the imagination. I also had no doubts of their sincerity and generosity. It was just the fact that after 4 months of getting really close, sharing stories, creating memories, and many good-humoured name calling sessions, I felt really really at home with the Winandy’s. But, such is life, and out I went to find my new house in Jalhay. ... read more

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 ... read more

31/7/2012 Today was that weird day when you wake up and realise in a few hours you’ll be leaving the only home you’ve ever known, all your friends, family, and memories behind. Well, at least for Ali, this was today. After she was all done getting ready, we headed off to collect the rest of the family in what was quite a teary encounter to say the very least. Today was just an amazingly sad day for all of her family and friends, and there’s not really much more to say about that. It just brought back memories of leaving the bay for me…. Although she didn’t get a 4 man haka. 1/8/2012 Chris and I headed off to Liege today to just get out and have a look at some new shoes and pants. Everywhere ... read more

18-22/7/2012 Ready to hit up the 5 day music festival called Francofolies !. This festival was one of the most well-known in Belgium, because the majority of the acts sang in French, and are all decently well-known, the ambience was unlike anything I’d seen before. The whole town literally became a festival, and every bar had live acts and was just jam-packed full of people. We would head down around 1 every day and get a late lunch, and then wander into the festival and check out whatever was on. The highlight of the whole festival for me was finding out about a band called ‘Shaka Ponk’. They’re kind of like the Gorillaz in a way, but with the catchiness that had be playing their whole album non-stop on Spotify the day I got back home ... read more

6/7/2012 Second music festival, was the “7 Heroes” Spa Tribute festival. These ran from lunchtime until midnight for the next three days, and would be host to some of the best cover bands in Belgium, covering bands like Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, Supertramp, Dire Straits, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and all sorts of different world-renound acts. Chris and I headed off today and arrived, and met up with some of my mates from SFX, whom which we chilled with in the rare Belge sun for the afternoon, and went to the better of the cover bands when they got on. Today the highlights were Green Day and U2 for me, who were both musically, aesthetically, and in many ways very similar to the bands they set out to mirror. Made me miss playing in ... read more