Noel en Belgique (Christmas in Belgium)

Today is the 25th of December and for most of the world that means only one thing. Christmas or other Holiday that is celebrated around this time. This is my first Christmas away from my family, and it really just is not the same without them. Here in Belgium its 10 degrees Celsius and has been poring rain down for the last few days.

Yesterday was Christmas with my host moms side of the family. One of the traditions in the city is to go down to the local church where they have a little Christmas mass with a choir and little dramatic skits. When we got there i found out that most of my host cousins were taking part in it, which was cool to see what they were up to since I had seen them last.

After this we went back to the Aunt's house for dinner and a gift exchange. This year of Christmas i got underwear and a book for Christmas, this would be every 10-year-old's nightmare, but i really needed more cloths and the book is in English and French and is written for young children, so its only a little bit of a challenge for me to read. Over all this Christmas abroad was very different then my normal Christmases back in Canada.

Travel in Belgium

As of yesterday my Christmas break has officially started. However exams were over on Tuesday. This has given me much time to travel around to the places that i do not get a chance to go very often, and the places that are just to big and full of things to see in just one day. In Belgium the method of choice for transportation is trains as they go everywhere, like everywhere. This has made it very easy for me to get around to see the sites here and still get back home in time for dinner, which for me is usually two half frozen hamburgers at the grocery store attached to Guillemins (the big train station in Liege).

 In the interest of saving time instead of telling you every city I have been to and you looking it up then copying and pasting the next one, I have made a little map of all the places that I have visited in my travels so far. Below you will see a mass of red where all the lines connect, that is Liege. My host city. Well not really I actually live 30 minutes south by train from there. Due to these constant train rides around Belgium I have gotten very use to sitting on a train for upwards of 5 hours a day. Today however, was special. Today going from Hony to Ypres and back i spent an estimated 9-10 hours on trains. In that time i saw a large portion of Belgium and had my very first glimpse of an authentic medieval windmill. It was rather cool, especially since there had been a large number of modern electric windmills installed behind it. It is really nice to see the people here benefiting from the ridiculously strong winds that never really seem to go away.  

Le Fête de Saint Nicolas

On the sixth of December was the annual Fête de Saint Nicolas. For all the non-Belgians, this is similar to how Santa brings presents and treats to children. However instead of it being on Christmas eve, it is on the sixth. So essentially they have to two Christmases. This might sound amazing but the days before this they have the university students dress up in long lab coats with cartoon characters drawn on them, go around town asking for money. Here's the kicker. If you do not give them some they throw flour at you, and occasionally there is one or two of them that throw eggs. This has lead the younger high-school students to carry eggs of their own. The moral of this story is don't be in Liege during the first two weeks of December. Back to the story of Saint Nicolas. From what my Belgians have told me its the same a man breaks into your house and leaves treats behind, however every family celebrates it on a different day, and with presents varying from the common small treats to a few receiving their large gift from Santa early. This a lead to one very confused Peter. How ever from what i understand, Saint Nicolas still carries a strong Catholic presence (robes and what not). Also, instead of elves he has helpers that are covered in coal. I'm not exactly sure why. And that children is the story of Saint Nicolas. 

exotic dinner

Last weekend was the annual Exotic Dinner hosted by the Rotex. When we signed up we got an email say we would form our own groups with our fellow exchange students from our own country... and so "The Goon Squad" was formed. So the Saturday before my group all meet up in Brussels at one of the members houses to make Tourtiere(Quebec meat pie). After much hard work and procrastination, we finally got 40 servings worth of the pie made. The next day we went into Charleroi for the diner...and only got lost 3 times. When we finally got to the place that the event was held at, we were greeted by the other million exchange students with their equally enormous bags of food. As the day went on we all ate foods from other countries and got fat, the good kind. Then we all ran around waving our flags and other typical exchange student shenanigans.

Belgian picnic

so on Friday i had a very special meal with the host family. Friday at the Lebon family is "movie night". As such the host sister came into my room all excited and telling me to get ready and that we were going. Of course I had no idea what was going on, as we drove through town. Then we suddenly stopped and backed up on the road. We then stopped into a Fritere(fry/snack shop). Walking into the shop they had a small sign about poutine which was cool to see how Canadian Cuisine exists in Belgium. After talking to the lady about the poutine she had on the menu she said that i was the only Canadian she had ever seen and started asking me questions about Canada. After that the host mom started ordering the food. Fries for days. she also ordered these breaded hotdog things that looked like they came out of a box, but they were still beautiful. When i got home the mom brought out waffles from the fridge. then we just sat and watched tv. It was a good day

"adventure" week in Belgium

This week in Belgium is a holiday which means i have a week of shenanigans. Not only that but at everyone else has been planning awsome activities for me to do.

 So when Saturday rolled around a bunch of exchange went into Brussels for an street art tour.

Not only did we get to tour Brussels. but we got to do it on national scouts day. below is a photo of the famous Manneken Pis. When we walked up to the statue we had to pass several waffle shops, and like good little exchange students, we bought waffles. While eating our waffles we saw several imitations of the original statue, however these were all much bigger with most of them in bright colours. The actual Manneken Pis is only about 30cm (1 foot for the imperial system users), not only that but he is highly elevated on the fountain which is tucked into a corner. Or in other word "impossible to find". As we were walking down the street we came across a massive crowd and sure enough we found the little guy.

In addition to us running around Brussels like idiots, we also happened to join a wedding. Now, we did not know it was a wedding, we just thought it was a bunch of people playing music. It was not till we were being pushed into the cathedral that we realised what was going on and that we had to sneak out of there with out any one noticing.  

Then today we went to Leuven(in Dutch)(Louvain in French) which is just a big city of pretty buildings that make the architecture in Canada pale in comparison. 

Above is the monument to those who fought in a battle that i persume occurred somewhere near Leuven during the early 20th century

above is the sculpture of Leuven that sits outside the government building in Leuven. 

Below is one of the many bikes that litter the river there. In the leaflet one of the exchange students had, there was a little cartoon of a man fishing and pulling up a bike. After a solid hour, we finally got the joke.

My First Belgian Football match

so Football season started on Friday. I went to see what i thought would be a nice friendly game to start off the preseason. It was everything except that, and i have never had so much fun...except for the minor hypothermia.

Armed with my new red devils jersey that i had gotten a few weeks prior and some poorly self applied face paint i was ready to charge into the streets and jump up and down with the rest of the club supporters. After the game had finished in a 2-1 win for the devils the craziness continued. And continued... and continued. When it was time for me to go on my bus back home i noticed all these people in the square jumping on cars and chanting (your basic Friday night here in Belgium), but the weird part was the cops were a few meters away from them, in there patrol cars. blaring theirs horns like every other car on the road.

My first "workout" in Belgium

As most of you will know. Belgium is known for their delicious treats... well after eating nothing but waffles for a month and a half, i decided it was time to start going to the gym again. However the nearest gym is a half hour bus ride away from the house, so i decided to make do with what they had. So i went into the back yard and was doing the conventional; push up, sit up, routine. Then i noticed a pile of rocks. you know whats next. So as in doing delt lifts with landscaping stones the host dad walks out and  lays a case of dumbbells on the patio table and walks back inside.

Now i imagine, they think im some kind of crazy person lifting rocks for a solid hour as they watched me through the window the whole time until the Dad finally came home. So when i opened the case it was brand new and had never been used, its like they read a small write up of some kind with detailed information about me and my hobbies and then proactively went out and bought ideas i would need.

the netherlands (nederlandis)

so last Friday the son of my 3rd host family took; Page(american), Harry (Taiwanese), and me to Maastricht, Netherlands.

 so in the Netherlands farm animals are really popular, and they have a great appreciation of them. above is a petting zoo in the center of the town that you could just sit and watch animals play with their fellow animal brethren. below is a mural of a cow's head that someone tiled onto the side of their house. the picture is a bit deceiving but the cow is about 30cm in diameter.

this is the stained glass hall of the university that the host brother goes to. these windows were originally in the attached church but were removed and placed here. when we walked through the hall the sun was just coming up and i got this lovely photo just before the room went rainbow coloured and almost blinded us with its reflections. 

 the art there was also really weird these are little coffee table statues, i some people would call it a conversational piece. the rest of us would say its the real life version of a kindergartner finger painting.

 As most of you may know, biking is very popular in Europe. the photo below is the schools English library bike parking. there is over 300 bikes jammed into that little space and they are stacked on top of each other.

 when we were walking past the bikes, the host brother told us that bike theft was a major problem at the university and that one time he had had his bike stolen only to have the man who stole it from him try to sell it off to him on a street corner.

 the photo above is the red tower. im not exactly sure why its red. i think they just got a good deal on red paint but could only get enough for the one tower. we werent allowed in the church but it looked pretty cool from the out side. the photo below is some kind of government building, im not sure what but the name was like a paragraph long so it must have been important.

 after the tour of the city, the host brother took us for ice cream. i got crockenotella(this is not spelled correctly but its close enough, and puffo. puffo is smurf in dutch and this was more like smurf blood ice cream with little marshmallows shaped like smurfs in it, it also had a nice drizzling of dark blue syrup on top(argo the name smurf blood).

 ah, wooden bicycle...ah hipster...cant breath...ah

 so the above photo is a robotic butterfly. i know what your thinking you cant put a price on something as awesome as a robotic butter fly. well they did...and its five euros.

 the high light of this trip however was getting to go shopping. this is how the one store sold their t-shirts. in a milk cartoon. men dont care what a shirt actually looks like, so why not put it is a awesome milk carton. nothing like getting out of the shower going to the fringe and opening up a nice carton of t-shirt.

average Saturday night (nuit du Samedi)

 so yesterday was the "birthday"(actually today) of one of my friends. So we were all suppose to meet up at guillemin gare(the main train station in Liege). While we were waiting on the big stair case for everyone to show up we saw a troop of girl scouts. They asked if they could get a photo with us and they were not dissappointed.

Through out the night we would run around acting like exchange students should. I also learned that spider man, or as the french speaking world pronounces it "Speeder moon", is very popular here. At the end of the night i was sitting in the bus terminal, waiting for my bus. Then some old man walks up to me and say in french "so, its today your day off". then everyone at the bus stop laughed for several minutes. After that a small child wearing a spiderman t-shirt came up to me and wanted my autograph, so i drew a spiderman doodle. And to think all those times when i got bored in class and started doodling finally just paid off. So now i imagine there are 20-30 people telling everyone that they say spiderman on the bus, to bad no one will believe them.

The Belgian school system

So my morning starts out at 6am. I then walk 20 minutes to the train station to get the train into liege. the train takes 40-45 minutes to get to my stop. After that i walk another 15 minutes to get to my school.

The major difference between the Canadian school system and the Belgian school system is the duration. School in Canada starts around 9am with 4 classes each being 75 minutes long, and a 45 minute lunch, and the day ending around 3pm. however in Belgium school starts at 8am and the classes are randomly divided. however they have an hour long lunch, so thats cool. but the day ends at 4:35pm. they also have shortened classes on wednesdays so thats cool too.

Belgian cuisine

so today my mom made me a very "traditional" Belgian meal.

it's mussels and Belgian fries (french fries for most of the world, Freedom fries for the americans). now when making Belgian fries there are many closely kept secrets. first of all they use lard instead of oil. then when their cooking them. they put them in the oil till they start to cook. then take them out and let them cool down. when they are finally cooked down they go back in the oil till they are finally fully cooked. And that children is how you do something that would take a few minutes and turn it into a several hour long cuisine skeptical.

on to the mussels. Yes, the nearest coast line is several hours away by car, but some how these little guys are a staple of Belgian cuisine. the host family did not understand why i thought it was so funny that this was famous in a land locked region of the country. i can just imagine some guy having to make the daily mussels run that would take him a week and everyone would eat them in a few minutes and the next guy would go.

i was also taught the European way of eating mussels. essentially you use the shell of the last mussel to pull out the "meat" of the next mussel. its like watch how chop sticks were invented, but in europe, and with mussels.  

most popular haircut in europe

so in europe the undercut is the big new hairstyle and all the guys are cuting their hair like this.

they then spike it really high, like really high. too the point it looks hilarious. whenever i see a guy with this hair style it automatically reminds me of this picture. 

however people really like so, we all win

what to expect in Belgium

So today i was sitting in my room watching "Les Millers" and the host mom starts yelling for me to come outside. so i walk out and she's running down the hall into my host sisters room. we go out on the balcony and a guy is just casually flying his hot air balloon around. he then "parks" it like a block from the house. i have a neighbor who is a hot air balloonist. turns out that's actually a career.

Brussels party

the royal palace in Brussels

Massive statue several meters tall

would you just look at that crown molding...would you just look at that

the new(they have been in power for a week or so) royal family

so the royal palace has a giant collection of random asian instruments on desplay

a sample of the beetle they used to cover the ceiling of one of the halls

"the green horsemen"

sleeping on the airplane

during my flight all the seats where equipped with built in tv's, with free movies. during my 7 hours on the plane i think i slept a total of 0.2 seconds because of it.