Yesterday was a great day. I ended up doing a few things I didn't wake up thinking I'd be doing. I went over to Autumn's house at noon. We hadn't seen each other in over a week and we needed to see each other before school started again on Tuesday. Autumn lives in Sivry with her third host family. It's about 25km from Chimay and considered to pretty well be the country. Damien lives in Sivry too, very close to Autumn's house, so just after one o'clock we rode bikes over to Damien's. He gave us a tour of his farm and the house. We got to see some cute calves, one of which was just born yesterday! Damien had actually helped with the operation! I guess that's some good experience for a future doctor! Anyway, after we did a little tour we went on a walk in the woods, and when we came back, Damien offered us some milk - real milk! So for the first time in my life I drank whole milk. I actually really like it. It's better than the milk that comes in cartons and containers that most people get from the grocery store here. I tried the milk by itself, but I also had some with grenadine, as well as Nesquick powder - all wonderful. We then moved to the living room and started watching Mulan (in french, of course. But Autumn and I were singing the songs with the english lyrics) which we didn't finish because at five we went out to get the cows. Damien changed into his funny shorts for working on the farm, and we all put on a big pair of rubber boots. We got some sticks and went out into the feild to assemble the cows. We were running and yelling making the cows go back towards the farm from the feild. Once you get them all in the same spot (which was pretty easy, actually) they kind of just go by themselves, so we didn't have to use the sticks on them. We led them inside so they could be milked. 16 cows can be milked at once with the machines that they have. It's pretty cool. I was able to put some of the milk-sucking machines on the cows by myself :) Unfortunately I had to go before all of the cows were milked. So I washed my hands, arms, and legs, which had some milk, sweat, and a little bit of cow turd on them (cows aren't always the cleanest animals). Even though I was already clean, when we got back into the house I washed my hands and arms again before going home. It was a fantastic day. We just had so much fun! :D
A little while after I got home, my host family and I went out to dinner at Chimay. We took a short walk just after and I saw Chimay's castle and then we took the long way around to the car. Chimay is such a pretty little town. I love it. My host parents dropped Manon and I off at the house at quarter to ten, and Manon and I changed and then immediately went out for a run/bike ride for 40 minutes. It was really enjoyable. I hope we do it again and more often.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
The past few weeks
Time's flown by since my Rhéto trip, and I cant believe I only have two short months left in this amazing country. I'm really sad to have to leave, but right now I am starting to look forward to university in the fall. Though I'm sure that new found excitement will fade just quickly as the two months diminish. For now I'm excited because it's no longer a source of stress since I've finally figured out what I need to do to select my courses. I will be registering for my courses on Monday and hopefully I'll be able to get into all the courses I am planning on taking. I have to take an online course entitled Foundations of Academic Writing, which is a two part course, so I need to take it in both semesters. I also be required to take Introduction to Psychology as a Behavioural Science, as I am in the Psychology program. My electives will be Positive Psychology, Intensive Spanish for Beginners, and Biology of organisms. I'm super excited to learn Spanish. But I'll have Spanish courses 6 hours per week! At least I'm motivated to learn, already have a small base, and plenty of Spanish-speaking friends ready to help me out who are only a skype call away.
Since Croatia, I've been on a day trip to Germany, went to a surprise birthday party, went to Walibi, visited Brussels again, spent a weekend in Brugge, got a perfect score on a history test, and I went with the 5th years to Normandy.
Tuesday, April 24th was the date of our Germany trip. The languages options of both the 5th and 6th years took a bus to Monschau for the day. We first visited a mustard mill, where we learned how mustard was made and got to taste some. We took at tour (in English!! :O) of the town on foot, but that sucked a little because the tour guide didn't speak loud and it was raining fairly heavily. We also saw a glass-blower, which was very cool to see. Just by looking at some of the glass objects, it's hard to try and figure out how they're made, and to actually see them being created before your own eyes is really something. Our last visit of the day was of a brewery. There was a collection of beer bottles and some cans from all over the world, including a few from Canada :) It was a fun day.
That Friday night, I went to a surprise birthday party for Aurélien at a café in Virelles. I didn't stay out late that night, but it was still a great time. Since his birthday actually passed when we were in Croatia, he wasn't expecting everyone to get together for him a couple weeks later. I love surprise parties.
On Sunday, I went to Walibi with a bunch of other exchange students for our last Rotex-organized activity. I was expecting the rides not to be as fun because none of them are as big as my favouritre roller coasters back home, but they were amazing! There I also picked up the costomized sweater I had ordered. Most of us exchangers in Belgium have the same one. Our names or nicknames are on the sleeve, and they are a yellow-gold colour. We have the Rotary wheel on the back with Belgium 2011-2012 on it as well as a quote in French from a song, and on the front there is both the symbol of Wallonie (the rooster) and the symbol of Flanders (the lion). It's super comfortable.
May 1st is Belgium's Labour Day, so we didn't have any school. They had also given us the day off on Monday. So that was a nice little four-day weekend. My host family decided that it would be a good day to go to Brussels. So we drove there and visited the Atomium and the Serres de Laeken. We also went to the grand place and visited the Manneken Pis. We hit up the biggest tourist stuff.
Then the following weekend, the exchange students of district 1620 had all been invited by the 5 Rotary clubs of Brugge to spend the weekend in their city and get a little tour. We stayed there Saturday night and were free on Sunday to do what we liked. I think that was a really cool thing of the clubs of Brugge to do. And everything was free for us as well! They payed for everything: the meals, the tours, the hotel! Even when we went out at night they bought us a round. On Sunday morning Paloma, Andre, Alejandro and I walked around the city and did some tourist shopping before leaving.
On Wednesday, the fifth year french option and I set off to go to Normandy for three days. We left at 6 in the morning and got to Ry later that same morning. We visited the gallery of Bovary, and took a little walk around the town, then went to Rouen where we visited the Museum of Medicine, which is also the birthplace of Gustave Flaubert. We then went to our little... "inn" I guess it could be called. It wasn't really a hotel or motel... I guess it might have been like a youth hostel? Anyway we ate dinner there. We weren't too impressed with the food we were served. But we ate breakfast and dinner there for two days, and even the lunch packets we had were prepared by them. So my tummy wasn't exactly happy. But we had fun there anyway. After dinner, we would play games outside, and then we'd come inside and do other activities and games. It was a lot of fun, and this way I got to know the kids I was on the trip with, because I didn't really know any of them at all when we left on Wednesday morning.
On the second day we visited Fécamp and the Benedictine palace. In the afternoon we went to Etretat and walked along the beach and climbed (well half climbed, half walked. There were stairs. Lots and lots of stairs) to the top of one of the cliffs. We had a little bit of free time from there before visiting the "Clos Lupin." Then we had some more free time until we had to go back to the hostel for dinner.
Our last day was spent at Honfleur, where we visited the Satie House, the Navy museum, the Museum of ethnology, and the Boudin museum. We did most of the museums in the morning so we had a lot of free time in the afternoon. We had to be back to the bus by 6 to return to Chimay. We struggled to find things to do in our free time. We were all quite tired, but we didn't want to really stop in cafes all the time because everything was so expensive. We mostly just walked around and then had an early dinner in a pizzeria by the water.
So I've been keeping pretty busy lately. But unless I plan more things to do it seems like it's slowing down pretty quickly. I don't have any new trips set in stone, and there are less outings and parties on the weekends since everyone is going into exams.
Every day life here is good and normal. I am taking advantage of the nice weather, the rare times we have it, to go outside on a bike ride or something like that. School work is a pain in the neck, so I barely study. I am supposed to be doing some work for my french class, but I'm not at all motivated to do it. I have to read a book for the final exam, and I've started it, but I'm really not enjoying it at all. I haven't touched it in two or three weeks at least. I also have to write little summaries about a few people for the yearbook. I don't have much motivation for that either. I've already done one, but I have another three to do and I haven't even started. I'll try to work on that tomorrow.
Since Croatia, I've been on a day trip to Germany, went to a surprise birthday party, went to Walibi, visited Brussels again, spent a weekend in Brugge, got a perfect score on a history test, and I went with the 5th years to Normandy.
Tuesday, April 24th was the date of our Germany trip. The languages options of both the 5th and 6th years took a bus to Monschau for the day. We first visited a mustard mill, where we learned how mustard was made and got to taste some. We took at tour (in English!! :O) of the town on foot, but that sucked a little because the tour guide didn't speak loud and it was raining fairly heavily. We also saw a glass-blower, which was very cool to see. Just by looking at some of the glass objects, it's hard to try and figure out how they're made, and to actually see them being created before your own eyes is really something. Our last visit of the day was of a brewery. There was a collection of beer bottles and some cans from all over the world, including a few from Canada :) It was a fun day.
That Friday night, I went to a surprise birthday party for Aurélien at a café in Virelles. I didn't stay out late that night, but it was still a great time. Since his birthday actually passed when we were in Croatia, he wasn't expecting everyone to get together for him a couple weeks later. I love surprise parties.
On Sunday, I went to Walibi with a bunch of other exchange students for our last Rotex-organized activity. I was expecting the rides not to be as fun because none of them are as big as my favouritre roller coasters back home, but they were amazing! There I also picked up the costomized sweater I had ordered. Most of us exchangers in Belgium have the same one. Our names or nicknames are on the sleeve, and they are a yellow-gold colour. We have the Rotary wheel on the back with Belgium 2011-2012 on it as well as a quote in French from a song, and on the front there is both the symbol of Wallonie (the rooster) and the symbol of Flanders (the lion). It's super comfortable.
May 1st is Belgium's Labour Day, so we didn't have any school. They had also given us the day off on Monday. So that was a nice little four-day weekend. My host family decided that it would be a good day to go to Brussels. So we drove there and visited the Atomium and the Serres de Laeken. We also went to the grand place and visited the Manneken Pis. We hit up the biggest tourist stuff.
Then the following weekend, the exchange students of district 1620 had all been invited by the 5 Rotary clubs of Brugge to spend the weekend in their city and get a little tour. We stayed there Saturday night and were free on Sunday to do what we liked. I think that was a really cool thing of the clubs of Brugge to do. And everything was free for us as well! They payed for everything: the meals, the tours, the hotel! Even when we went out at night they bought us a round. On Sunday morning Paloma, Andre, Alejandro and I walked around the city and did some tourist shopping before leaving.
On Wednesday, the fifth year french option and I set off to go to Normandy for three days. We left at 6 in the morning and got to Ry later that same morning. We visited the gallery of Bovary, and took a little walk around the town, then went to Rouen where we visited the Museum of Medicine, which is also the birthplace of Gustave Flaubert. We then went to our little... "inn" I guess it could be called. It wasn't really a hotel or motel... I guess it might have been like a youth hostel? Anyway we ate dinner there. We weren't too impressed with the food we were served. But we ate breakfast and dinner there for two days, and even the lunch packets we had were prepared by them. So my tummy wasn't exactly happy. But we had fun there anyway. After dinner, we would play games outside, and then we'd come inside and do other activities and games. It was a lot of fun, and this way I got to know the kids I was on the trip with, because I didn't really know any of them at all when we left on Wednesday morning.
On the second day we visited Fécamp and the Benedictine palace. In the afternoon we went to Etretat and walked along the beach and climbed (well half climbed, half walked. There were stairs. Lots and lots of stairs) to the top of one of the cliffs. We had a little bit of free time from there before visiting the "Clos Lupin." Then we had some more free time until we had to go back to the hostel for dinner.
Our last day was spent at Honfleur, where we visited the Satie House, the Navy museum, the Museum of ethnology, and the Boudin museum. We did most of the museums in the morning so we had a lot of free time in the afternoon. We had to be back to the bus by 6 to return to Chimay. We struggled to find things to do in our free time. We were all quite tired, but we didn't want to really stop in cafes all the time because everything was so expensive. We mostly just walked around and then had an early dinner in a pizzeria by the water.
So I've been keeping pretty busy lately. But unless I plan more things to do it seems like it's slowing down pretty quickly. I don't have any new trips set in stone, and there are less outings and parties on the weekends since everyone is going into exams.
Every day life here is good and normal. I am taking advantage of the nice weather, the rare times we have it, to go outside on a bike ride or something like that. School work is a pain in the neck, so I barely study. I am supposed to be doing some work for my french class, but I'm not at all motivated to do it. I have to read a book for the final exam, and I've started it, but I'm really not enjoying it at all. I haven't touched it in two or three weeks at least. I also have to write little summaries about a few people for the yearbook. I don't have much motivation for that either. I've already done one, but I have another three to do and I haven't even started. I'll try to work on that tomorrow.
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