Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Another Little Adventure I Forgot to Mention
While Laura and Jade were here and I was off school, we also spent a day shopping in Lille (4th largest city in France and just across the border). It was a beautiful day, perfect for strolling from shop to shop in search of good sales. We succeeded in our proclaimed mission to find shoes for Jade and found some other fun things besides. For lunch we stopped at a creperie for galettes, which is the name for savory crepes. I tried a galette à Maroilles, the infamously smelly and strong cheese of Northern France (it stars in a hilarious scene in Chez les Chtis, an extremely popular comedy here. It's basically about culture shock between southern and northern France, and since Northern France is similar to Belgium in some ways, it's a big hit. I laughed really hard when I watched it.) I was a little worried, but it smelled stronger than it tasted and was actually quite delicious. Later in the afternoon we heard some shouting in the streets, and discovered that it was coming from a crowded bar. Apparently Lille's soccer team was playing. There were drunken fans zigzagging around the square and the police were there to make sure things didn't get too rowdy. Soccer is a little excessive here. It's like football for the US, only maybe worse. Anyways, we didn't have any problems, and after a lovely day of trying on wacky hats and perusing funky purse shops we caught the train home. Good times; here's some photos:
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Day in Roubaix
Last Saturday we went with the family, including Laura and Jade, to Roubaix (France) to visit Letitia and Marco, two ex-tenants and good friends. We admired their new home that they are renovating and enjoyed some coffee before heading out to a nearby museum. The museum is a renovated art deco swimming pool---gorgeous! The building was my favorite piece we saw that day, but the statues and paintings were also nice.
As the 9 of us were walking home, we were confronted by 4 or 5 young men who got riled up when they saw Gilles and Jean holding hands. A slightly older guy convinced the more aggressive one to leave us alone. Fortunately we were in a solid, large group and Marianne is a rather formidable personage. Apparently Belgium is considerably more open and accepting on this topic than France in general. Roubaix particularly has some areas (like around the universities) that are more liberal, but in poorer areas the attitude is very hostile towards gays. I was surprised, as I had formed the generalization that all of Europe was as open as Belgium. We were all a bit surprised, in fact.
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying spaghetti and Belgian chocolate together. We requested for Jean to do some sketches, and we all watched attentively as he drew all 4 of us girls and Letitia(he had his work cut out!). Jean is in art school for a reason, and the sketches turned out very nicely. Marianne was the designated critic, as she has an artistic knack for seeing what needs to be tweaked. We are going to make photo copies and thus we will all have portraits of us 4 sisters.
Kindergarten and Confetti
I spent this last week volunteering and learning in a kindergarten class with 16 or so rambunctious, adorable francophones. They picked up'head and shoulders' in English pretty quickly, and several were quite proud to show off their Dora-the-explorer-acquired words. I gave a little presentation with some Alaskan postcards, and I shared the children's book my Mom wrote with them. It was fun to share a story that I helped work on, and it was a good translation exercise for my french! I brought my qiviut scarf to help explain what in the world a musk ox is, which they loved petting. Northern lights, bears, and anything with horns other than a deer were completely alien for them, and their teacher was also quite curious. I wasn't expecting to, but I actually had a lot of fun painting, reading, playing hopscotch, and just talking with all the kids. I was a terrible arbitrator on the playground, as I often didn't understand the nature of the related dispute, but I was able to hold hands and kiss bonked foreheads without any difficulties. The week went by all too quickly.
This week is Carnaval---no school for a week and parties everywhere! Each town and village has its own carnaval at different times, even though it's supposed to be on Mardi Gras. This way everyone can go to more than one party! Carnaval means costumes for everyone, confetti, and parades. Plus alcohol, often. Yesterday was Kain's little carnaval parade, which started right in front of the house. Marianne, Eva (vet student), the dogs, and I all enjoyed a bird's eye view of the parade from the comfort of the bathroom window. Imagine Marianne's joy when they started doling out confetti right in her parking lot...It looked like it had snowed 30 minutes later!
This week is Carnaval---no school for a week and parties everywhere! Each town and village has its own carnaval at different times, even though it's supposed to be on Mardi Gras. This way everyone can go to more than one party! Carnaval means costumes for everyone, confetti, and parades. Plus alcohol, often. Yesterday was Kain's little carnaval parade, which started right in front of the house. Marianne, Eva (vet student), the dogs, and I all enjoyed a bird's eye view of the parade from the comfort of the bathroom window. Imagine Marianne's joy when they started doling out confetti right in her parking lot...It looked like it had snowed 30 minutes later!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Cultural Oddities
Some recent notes:
1. The expression 'doigt dans nez'= 'finger in the nose'= it's sure and certain, it's done, it's in the bag
2. Instead of a tooth fairy, a mouse takes children's teeth and leaves money or a surprise
3. College here costs around 1000 Euros a year for a world-class university. THAT'S NEXT TO NOTHING!
Also, I forgot to mention, but I did make meatloaf a third time. The cayenne-free version was much more successful!
Only 18 more weeks left here! I can hardly believe it. I'm feeling very relaxed and 'normal' here now, and now I imagine adjusting back to American culture may take some work. How very odd.
1. The expression 'doigt dans nez'= 'finger in the nose'= it's sure and certain, it's done, it's in the bag
2. Instead of a tooth fairy, a mouse takes children's teeth and leaves money or a surprise
3. College here costs around 1000 Euros a year for a world-class university. THAT'S NEXT TO NOTHING!
Also, I forgot to mention, but I did make meatloaf a third time. The cayenne-free version was much more successful!
Only 18 more weeks left here! I can hardly believe it. I'm feeling very relaxed and 'normal' here now, and now I imagine adjusting back to American culture may take some work. How very odd.
Horse Food
The sun is shining, ladybugs are trundling along the sidewalks, and the first spring flowers are popping up here in Belgium! And it's only March 2nd! Life is good. I'm about to drag Julia on a walk to the store with me to search for some Molasses to accompany fried corn meal mush for supper tonight. Hopefully no one in my Belgian family gets too weirded out when I try to feed them what is considered horse food!
Three weeks ago now, Laura, the previously hosted AFSer from Costa Rica, came to visit. It was fantastic to get to know the famous first exchange student who set the precedent for Julia and me. Plus, we got a glimpse of Central American culture and another wonderful sister! We had a great time together shopping, laughing, and just hanging out. Laura went back to Costa Rica this week with Jade, who's going to absorb Spanish and culture for the next three months. It's extremely calm around the house with them gone...
While Laura was here we all spent a weekend on the French Coast with the extended family of friends. We made expeditions along the beach among WWII bunkers and squinted into the mist hiding the cliffs of Dover. The beach was much wilder than that of Belgium, where all the bunkers have been cleared away and tourist-trapping mussel stands dominate every spare centimeter of the beach. We spent most of our time in a rented house near the beach, playing ping pong, teaching card games, and eating a prodigious amount of French cheese and baguettes. We also enjoyed some sea food, which I succeeded in smashing/prying open without too much unnecessary violence. We came home happily spent and full of warm memories and laughter.
As I have no school at the moment (All of my classmates are working in the field, which is unnecessary for me. Score!) I got to visit Brussels with Cécile and Laura for an afternoon. Unfortunately we happened to pick the one day of the week when all the museums were closed, but we did take a tour of the Atomium (giant molecule sculpture built for the world exhibition of '58---Belgian equivalent of the Eiffel Tower) and took our picture with Mannekin Pis (peeing boy fountain that is also a national symbol. One story says it commemorates a lad who extinguished a firecracker meant to blow up the town hall.) We oohed and ahed over the buildings in the grand place, one of the best-preserved in Europe (it escaped the bombings of the two World Wars) and rubbed the arm of a martyr statue for luck. The town hall was so big and fancy I thought it was a cathedral. We also ogled fountains of chocolate and enjoyed a gaufre de Bruxelles (Brussels Waffle) like good tourists. Overall, a delightful afternoon.
Well, I'm off to search the crazily organized grocery store for some horse food. I will have to finish recounting my latest adventures a bit later.
Three weeks ago now, Laura, the previously hosted AFSer from Costa Rica, came to visit. It was fantastic to get to know the famous first exchange student who set the precedent for Julia and me. Plus, we got a glimpse of Central American culture and another wonderful sister! We had a great time together shopping, laughing, and just hanging out. Laura went back to Costa Rica this week with Jade, who's going to absorb Spanish and culture for the next three months. It's extremely calm around the house with them gone...
While Laura was here we all spent a weekend on the French Coast with the extended family of friends. We made expeditions along the beach among WWII bunkers and squinted into the mist hiding the cliffs of Dover. The beach was much wilder than that of Belgium, where all the bunkers have been cleared away and tourist-trapping mussel stands dominate every spare centimeter of the beach. We spent most of our time in a rented house near the beach, playing ping pong, teaching card games, and eating a prodigious amount of French cheese and baguettes. We also enjoyed some sea food, which I succeeded in smashing/prying open without too much unnecessary violence. We came home happily spent and full of warm memories and laughter.
As I have no school at the moment (All of my classmates are working in the field, which is unnecessary for me. Score!) I got to visit Brussels with Cécile and Laura for an afternoon. Unfortunately we happened to pick the one day of the week when all the museums were closed, but we did take a tour of the Atomium (giant molecule sculpture built for the world exhibition of '58---Belgian equivalent of the Eiffel Tower) and took our picture with Mannekin Pis (peeing boy fountain that is also a national symbol. One story says it commemorates a lad who extinguished a firecracker meant to blow up the town hall.) We oohed and ahed over the buildings in the grand place, one of the best-preserved in Europe (it escaped the bombings of the two World Wars) and rubbed the arm of a martyr statue for luck. The town hall was so big and fancy I thought it was a cathedral. We also ogled fountains of chocolate and enjoyed a gaufre de Bruxelles (Brussels Waffle) like good tourists. Overall, a delightful afternoon.
Well, I'm off to search the crazily organized grocery store for some horse food. I will have to finish recounting my latest adventures a bit later.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Three Wild Weeks: la fin
So here's everything else I didn't have time to mention in my last post.
I have started a CPR class after school at the Red Cross. It's a requirement for the Education certification, which I won't be earning, but it certainly won't hurt me or anyone else if I know how to resuscitate unconscious folks. Plus, it's actually quite enjoyable. Nothing like the exchange student role-playing a cranky motorist with a fractured neck who wants a cigarette to make classmates giggle. And my calls to 112 (equivalent of 911) are pretty laughable. Last week we got to work with a manikin to practice compressions and shocking the victim with a mimed defibrilator, and tomorrow we get to work with fake blood. Muahahaha.
We've been analyzing poetry in French class, much to my delight and my classmates' horror. I understand enough of the vocabulary to pick up on major themes (most of the time) and the teacher's explanations reveal the connotations and ideas I'd missed. So I learn a lot of new words. Thankfully the teacher is patient and doesn't mind explaining words like 'hatched' and 'halo'.
In government class we are learning about the Rights of Man, Child's Rights, and the Belgian Constitution. Once again I am astounded at how the political mind here works. You'd think no one had ever read 1984 or Anthem. My teacher explained capitalism by saying that 'they're greedy and want to keep all their money for themselves'. Over 50 percent of salaries here go to social security. The Constitution gives you the RIGHT to lodging, food, clothing, medical treatment, and basically everything to live in dignity, besides the right to Social Security. You also have the RIGHT to paid vacations and time off. The king is the head of the armed forces, but he has to go through the EU to actually do anything(moreso than the President of the US has to go through congress), and Belgium is basically dependent on the EU for all military direction and power. Salaries are automatically increased with inflation. All this besides the fact that the country still has no government. Aiyaiyai. Ironically the more capitalist US provides free transportation to school, but the socialist Belgians have to pay a small fortune out of pocket for trains, buses, etc. to get their kids to school.
Speaking of government messes, I also FINALLY received my Belgian ID card! I am so relieved to have this laborious saga of frustrated visits to the Hôtel de Ville finished! So now I am properly papered and have my cool little plastic card that looks like I belong here. Hooray!
Here are some sayings I've picked up lately:
Coup de pompe= blow of the pump= when you suddenly get tired
Froid de canard= Duck Cold= It's super cold out! (My Grandfather liked to say 'colder than a witch's tit' but I'm not sure if that was just him)
The weather here is really warming up. The sun has been shining and it's light when we walk to school now. I'm having a hard time believing it's only February!
Last Friday I took the train to Chimay with several other girls to help with an AFS activity with the local school for their language festival. The students had to try to communicate with us without using French. So I spent the day speaking English, and was pleasantly surprised to see how much the secondary students understood. Most of them were a little shy with me, but they were with each other too. Gotta love those awkward middle-school years. During our lunch break we went and walked around a bit, enjoying our soggy memories of Chimay and the absence of rain.
Saturday I was once again on the train for our AFS mid-stay orientation in Libramont. The train for the last leg of the trip was absolutely crammed with AFS backpacks, sweatshirts, smiling students, and a dozen different languages clattering along all at once. It was good to see all of us imported Wallonians again. We played games, reflected, bemoaned our Belgian waistlines (AFS is also known as Another Fat Student), and of course enjoyed fries and mayo together.
We did an exercise with stereotypes about each others' countries that I found particularly interesting. For the US, here's what came to mind for the others in our group: Fat, McDonald's, junk food, egotistical, athletic, and the one that surprised me: war. It actually came up twice. I am inclined to think that that's because the US is a world power, so when we get into war it's a well-known and criticized conflict. I don't think we get into war more than other countries, necessarily. As for the other stereotypes, there is indeed a basis for them. As far as I have noticed, Americans fall more often at the extreme ends of the health spectrum than Europeans. We have a lot more morbidly obese folks and a lot more athletic people. Here there really aren't any athletes (I think this is because athletics are not a part of school life, which makes it a lot harder to get involved or go professional), and not many people are grossly obese, they're just mostly comfortably a few kilos overweight. As for the McDonald's and junk food stereotypes, I actually eat more junk food here in Belgium than I ever did in the US. The Belgians eat chocolate and speculoos and other unhealthy things like they're going out of style, as far as I can see. McDonald's and Quick are also pretty popular. I also learned that the US is the second most obese nation---Mexico is number one. As for being Egotistical, yes, we Americans are. We believe we are the best country in the world, and we lack exposure or interest in other cultures. I think this is because we have no need to ever leave the US---it's not like here, where the nearest IKEA store is in France and Dutch-speakers live just a few kms away. The US is enormous, and English has become THE language to learn and speak in business and the world. We don't need to leave or learn another language, ever, really.
I have more to say but no more time. A tantôt!
I have started a CPR class after school at the Red Cross. It's a requirement for the Education certification, which I won't be earning, but it certainly won't hurt me or anyone else if I know how to resuscitate unconscious folks. Plus, it's actually quite enjoyable. Nothing like the exchange student role-playing a cranky motorist with a fractured neck who wants a cigarette to make classmates giggle. And my calls to 112 (equivalent of 911) are pretty laughable. Last week we got to work with a manikin to practice compressions and shocking the victim with a mimed defibrilator, and tomorrow we get to work with fake blood. Muahahaha.
We've been analyzing poetry in French class, much to my delight and my classmates' horror. I understand enough of the vocabulary to pick up on major themes (most of the time) and the teacher's explanations reveal the connotations and ideas I'd missed. So I learn a lot of new words. Thankfully the teacher is patient and doesn't mind explaining words like 'hatched' and 'halo'.
In government class we are learning about the Rights of Man, Child's Rights, and the Belgian Constitution. Once again I am astounded at how the political mind here works. You'd think no one had ever read 1984 or Anthem. My teacher explained capitalism by saying that 'they're greedy and want to keep all their money for themselves'. Over 50 percent of salaries here go to social security. The Constitution gives you the RIGHT to lodging, food, clothing, medical treatment, and basically everything to live in dignity, besides the right to Social Security. You also have the RIGHT to paid vacations and time off. The king is the head of the armed forces, but he has to go through the EU to actually do anything(moreso than the President of the US has to go through congress), and Belgium is basically dependent on the EU for all military direction and power. Salaries are automatically increased with inflation. All this besides the fact that the country still has no government. Aiyaiyai. Ironically the more capitalist US provides free transportation to school, but the socialist Belgians have to pay a small fortune out of pocket for trains, buses, etc. to get their kids to school.
Speaking of government messes, I also FINALLY received my Belgian ID card! I am so relieved to have this laborious saga of frustrated visits to the Hôtel de Ville finished! So now I am properly papered and have my cool little plastic card that looks like I belong here. Hooray!
Here are some sayings I've picked up lately:
Coup de pompe= blow of the pump= when you suddenly get tired
Froid de canard= Duck Cold= It's super cold out! (My Grandfather liked to say 'colder than a witch's tit' but I'm not sure if that was just him)
The weather here is really warming up. The sun has been shining and it's light when we walk to school now. I'm having a hard time believing it's only February!
Last Friday I took the train to Chimay with several other girls to help with an AFS activity with the local school for their language festival. The students had to try to communicate with us without using French. So I spent the day speaking English, and was pleasantly surprised to see how much the secondary students understood. Most of them were a little shy with me, but they were with each other too. Gotta love those awkward middle-school years. During our lunch break we went and walked around a bit, enjoying our soggy memories of Chimay and the absence of rain.
Saturday I was once again on the train for our AFS mid-stay orientation in Libramont. The train for the last leg of the trip was absolutely crammed with AFS backpacks, sweatshirts, smiling students, and a dozen different languages clattering along all at once. It was good to see all of us imported Wallonians again. We played games, reflected, bemoaned our Belgian waistlines (AFS is also known as Another Fat Student), and of course enjoyed fries and mayo together.
We did an exercise with stereotypes about each others' countries that I found particularly interesting. For the US, here's what came to mind for the others in our group: Fat, McDonald's, junk food, egotistical, athletic, and the one that surprised me: war. It actually came up twice. I am inclined to think that that's because the US is a world power, so when we get into war it's a well-known and criticized conflict. I don't think we get into war more than other countries, necessarily. As for the other stereotypes, there is indeed a basis for them. As far as I have noticed, Americans fall more often at the extreme ends of the health spectrum than Europeans. We have a lot more morbidly obese folks and a lot more athletic people. Here there really aren't any athletes (I think this is because athletics are not a part of school life, which makes it a lot harder to get involved or go professional), and not many people are grossly obese, they're just mostly comfortably a few kilos overweight. As for the McDonald's and junk food stereotypes, I actually eat more junk food here in Belgium than I ever did in the US. The Belgians eat chocolate and speculoos and other unhealthy things like they're going out of style, as far as I can see. McDonald's and Quick are also pretty popular. I also learned that the US is the second most obese nation---Mexico is number one. As for being Egotistical, yes, we Americans are. We believe we are the best country in the world, and we lack exposure or interest in other cultures. I think this is because we have no need to ever leave the US---it's not like here, where the nearest IKEA store is in France and Dutch-speakers live just a few kms away. The US is enormous, and English has become THE language to learn and speak in business and the world. We don't need to leave or learn another language, ever, really.
I have more to say but no more time. A tantôt!
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