Last week of October

TOO late to be really detailed, but I prefer posting pictures here than on Facebook, so here they are: specially selected and beautifully edited for the viewing pleasure of all who wish to regard.

I found this on the internet.  It's a picture of Liège around 1650.

This is the galleries de belle île.  it's another mall in Liège, but more posh.  and harder to get to.

and here's a fountain from it.  My host mom and I walked in it for a while in order to pass some time before my ride left for:

Probably the largest cinema in Liège.  Not in Liège proper, but it still counts.  My Rotary club invited me to a special Rotary before premier showing of the new Tintin film!

Tintin is an extremely famous comic strip character from here in Belgium and is known worldwide.  Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg directed a film in English, but because he is Belge, Tintin came out here 3 months before it will come out in the States.

Check it out.  Rotary has class. Private room.

Wednesday we had "le cross."  a cross country event for the whole school.  It's to give good pr for the school.  We do sports and are healthy!  plus it's fun.  We run in the woods, and lots of the rhetos (seniors) dressed up.

Mes amies et moi!

On the starting line!

I got a HUGE kick out of taking pictures while I ran.  I just laughed at how I knew they would end up really blurry!

I think it looks prehistoric right there.

3.5 Kilometers.  I did it in about 22 minutes!

If it doesn't make you dizzy, it's really quite pretty!

Oh yeah, music helped too.  I listened to "Blame it on the Boogie" by The Jacksons

I was not in last place!  In fact I was in the middle somewhere.  but that one was the blurriest :)

After the cross, they gave out free hot chocolate.  It was quite cold, but I forgot that hot drinks after excercise make one feel not so good.  It turned out fine, but I needed real water too!

This Wednesday there was also a strike planned!  I don't know if I blogged about it before, but one of the big big factories on the river near Liège in Seraing was shut down, and the citizens of the area apparently got in the streets and made a strike!  It was supposed to stop the buses all morning!  But there I was, on the bus, passing the factories.  To tell the truth, my first bus didn't come at all, but the next bus came and was on time, so not too many problems there.

That's a view down the street (from the bus window) that crosses the Meuse on the Pont de Liège.  It's really modern looking, there on the left.

I got lost trying to find a train stop for fun, so here's what the top of Rue St. Gilles looks like before you cross under the train tracks over the street and under the highway!  I thought it looked cool anyway.

Thursday I carved out a pumpkin in preparation for halloween and for Fanny's birthday!

I took out all the stuff, and a bunch of chunks of pumpkin, and smoothed it all out. 

Champagne for Fanny's birthday Friday night!
Françoise, Fanny, Alain, et moi!

Such a pretty table!

Yes, this is the pumpkin.  It now has pumpkin soup inside it!  Cannibalism.  But is reminds me of a similar belgian tradition, fish soup.  It's not really fair to put a fish back into water and eat it there is it?

An apple tart that my host mom and I made!

ANd this is the Halloween party at the primary school across the street from me!  The kids here do trick or treating the Friday before Halloween.  But that's just my town.  They warned everyone first.  Halloween is still considered just an American holiday and very commercial.  The main holiday is Toussaints (all saints day, the day after)

Zizou and the pumpkin, Saturday night.

Fanny ended up carving it, I slept too late.

Sunday afternoon, my host grandparents came over and we chatted for a long long time.  I drank 4 cups of coffee that afternoon and we ate a bavaroi that Françoise and I had made the day before.  Unfortunately it sortof fell when we took it out of the form, but it was good an raspberry!  These grandparents are Alain's mother and Serge, and I like them very much!