http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Belgium , Walloon Brabant en-us Mon, 20 May 2013 12:02:45 +0000 Mon, 20 May 2013 12:02:45 +0000 We felt pretty Abba39d out as we sang Waterloo over and over again our visit to Waterloo. This is a second attempt at putting this blog on. I put it on way back in October 2011 but managed tonight to delete it as I added photographs to the blog. What a mess as I have no way of really remembering what happened on that day. Parking was pretty easy as we were in the car and managed to find plent http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/Waterloo/blog-782106.html Started off cold this morning with a dusting of snow still on the ground from last night. We travelled down to the Waterloo battlefield sites today ... and were surprisingly impressed. The battlefield complex is not at all like you would think it would be ... kind of like Gettysburg. Instead it is a visitors center a huge pyramid with a lion on top that overlooks the main battlefield a cyclora http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-778600.html 26122012Today 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 tshirts around and people replaced their tshirts with the ones I threw which was pretty funny to see. The afternoon ended up pretty danm good and we partied till qu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-764066.html 17122012Today I was just laxing at home playing guitar and passing time as I awaited my last exam before the vacancies started here when I got a phone call from a Rotarian. He invited me to go horseriding with him and of course I instantly accepted. He picked me up at 2 and took me to a farm of his friend who lived just out of Jalhay. He had one horse himself but we were going to go pick an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-762857.html 10122012Id 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 Id give there this year it was one of my last reunions with the other members and it was to show the development in my French during this year. The topic was up http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-762856.html 8122012We got snow everywhere today was laden with a carpet of soft snow. It was incredible to look at especially when you see the big amount we got just overnight. Nevertheless today I went with Nathalie for some essential shopping. We hit up Colyrut and upon arriving there saw it was alcohol sale week and things like a bottle of Jager was 13 Euros 20 NZD with a free beanie . So that http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-762854.html 28112012This 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.3011 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-758860.html 24112012Off we were today to Maastricht to do some essential family Christmas shopping before the mad rush of Florence39s exams and the cram of shoppers deranged our efforts. It took a small hour in the car to get there and already the streets were laden with beautiful wreaths of local flowers and lights just waiting for Christmas to come around. Having to park the car a 30min walk away http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-758857.html 16112012Tonight I headed out with Florence to Nickys which is a bar I never been to in the middle of Verviers and Jalhay. It was Florences friend Margos 20th birthday party so of course there was the cake at the beginning of the night. It was cool though the lowkey atmosphere meant I had some big ol convos with some of the new Belges I met. Played some pool drank some b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-756295.html 6112012As uni students tend to do here there was a massive party in the hometown of Florences uni and so today afterschool I headed off to join in on the fete. Having a central flat we walked around grabbing drinks from her mates flats and walked around town all together trying to find something to eat. Pasta it was and after a few more predrinks off we went to the Bunker whic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-756063.html 6102012Little 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 superearly 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. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-749511.html 28092012Hayden Staffy took it upon himself tonight to host 12 rowdy exchangers and hosted a dinner party for people to show off their cooking skills a bit and really just have a sweet excuse to hang out and get on it. Me being me I was already going to be late as my train arrived a bit late at his station. So on a normal day I would have been half an hour late. But this was no normal day http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-747441.html 18092012Waking up today I was greeted with a reminder from my IPod that today Nan and Pop would be arriving at 11 oclock 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 sidestreets. Didnt even matter that it was the middle of the day there were still prostitutes ou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-747440.html 12092012Once a month we exchange students are taken from the grimy depths of the carre to go do a rotary planned activity somewhere in Belgium for the afternoon. After all meeting up at Liege around 2 we all jumped on a bus and took the halfanhourorso bus ride to Blegny where wed be descending down 60 vertical meters into an abandoned coal mine and having a walk around down there. Af http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-746570.html 8092012Freaking 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 Winandys and move to my new host families house the Roberts. Id met them numerous times before shared a few laughs and generally got acquainted with them so I wasnt exactly thrown in the dee http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-743003.html 28082012Another 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-743002.html 25082012Today was the training day of all the oldies in preparation of the newie weekend starting on the 30th in which over 60 new students in our district here in Belgium will voyage from all over the place to collaborate in Brussels where for the weekend theyll be learning the ins and outs of having the privilege of doing once of the most rewarding and interesting things the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-743001.html 1382012Today I set out to Charleroi to meet with the other 15 students from NZ Argentina and Australia and setup camp in the airport for the night to get on an early flight tomorrow destined for Poland. After doing a bit of a manpack I headed off on the train journey there around 2.5 hours. We just laxed around catching up with each others holiday escapades and getting keen about our http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-738631.html 3172012Today was that weird day when you wake up and realise in a few hours youll be leaving the only home youve 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-735600.html 2472012Today it was an amazingly hot day here around 26 degrees with no clouds. So off went Laetitia Ali some of her friends to Michaels house and spent all day lying in the sun and bronzing our collectively pale skins. First swim of summer here though. Alis friends Laura and Ludivine came with to have last minute chats since she was parting us in a few days.2672012Oostende is the to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Walloon-Brabant/blog-735598.html