Blogs from Walloon Brabant, Belgium, Europe - page 4

25/6/2012 Caroline Godin, my good friend from Canada today had her going away party. With around 25 other exchangers, we all travelled to Waregem. After the typically long train rides around Belgium, we arrived there to meet her and her awesome host father who had a legit Pedo-van that we all climbed inside and off we were to stock up and head off to her house. I almost tripped with excitement when I arrived at the house and I saw a fully set up drum kit, along with a decent guitar. The host sister who I eventually had a conversation soaked with music with played all these, and had for a while. So that’s what I did when I arrived there, was to give the drums a good thrash. We went down in the garden, and ... read more

19/4/2012 Today, as usual we have French course so as usual, we wandered around Verviers until 5:30 rolled around, and we went to French class. Last French class I was telling people about how awesome it was having my birthday in Madrid, but that one let-down was I didn’t get a cake. Well Lydia and Nicola took it upon themselves to go out of their way and make me a cake, complete with candels in the shape of the number ‘19’. I seriously was just so happy that they went to the effort to get me a caker, even though my birthday had long passed. So after hearing from a woman from Southern Italy, and eating some traditional food from her country, we ate my cake, which was amazing. So yeah, next Monday I have to ... read more

2/5/2012 So today was the day when I was going to see James Taylor play LIVE in Brussels. I had waited months for this, and everything from my trains, to where I was staying, to how I was getting back was all worked out. All I needed now was for time to pass faster. Because today was a Wednesday, first I went to Liege, and went to the infamous ‘Carre’ with all the other exchangers, and had a merry ol’ time. After which I took the train directly to Brussels, and had around 30 minutes to spare. Dinner was a Durum, and after which I made haste to get to the concert hall first, and get in line. The place was called ‘Palais des Beaux-Arts’ (Palace of beautiful arts). Couldn’t have been in a more appropriate ... read more

26/3/2012 Today is usually a lovely-lunch-but-otherwise-nothing-to-report kinda day, But tonight we had our eagerly awaited premiere performance of Gospel, starting at 8 (actually started at 8:20) and running for just over two hours. We also had French classes, so I had no time to go home in between my packed schedule, so having done 75% of the French course, I decided to go grab some dinner before I went to gospel that night. I thought about going to Maccas for the following reasons. Number 1) Simplicity. There is little to no variation in orders that they’ll ask you in super-fast belge-french for, which eases the ordering process. “Big Mac” is universally acceptable for “I’m Hungry, feed me”. Number 2) you knew exactly what the food was going to taste like, so there were no random surprises. ... read more

22/3/2012 Today, normally, I’d be subject to one of my least favourite days of the week. However, because we are being blessed with the presence of the President of Rotary International, we get the whole day off. Kick Ass. So we were supposed to be there by 9:20, but I missed my bus and ended up getting there at around 10:30. Fearing I’d be waltzing in when the man himself was doing a speech or something, Kate (who was also late) , and I tried to be sneaky as when we walked in. So we slipped into the lines that everyone was rehearsing in, after grabbing a rotary umbrella. They morning was pretty full on, and the older people were getting all wound up and stressed. But by the time the President ACTUALLY came (12 o’clock), ... read more