12 February 2012

Vacances

I did two of my exams, English, and Dutch.  The English exam I did the same exam as the other students, except in French, which means, a few vocabulary, and few words to put into sentences in context, and 2 short essays, one little story, and then a dialogue.  I got my points back in January, and I did ok... 32/40.
I did Dutch because the professor is my favorite.  She gave me a little letter in Dutch to translate into French.  It starts "Beste Geerf." That one I got 9/10 on.  But again, my points don't really count for anything here.  Exam days are the last 2 weeks before Christmas, and you have 1 exam a day, usually in the morning.  You stay until you have finished your exam (near lunch).  Days where you do not have an exam you use to study for the next day's exam.  Fortunately for me, I got to profit a little bit from a slightly longer vacation to visit and that sort of thing.
These are Churros from the christmas market.  I had never had them, but they are quite good.  Taking advantage of the exotic foods on exchange.


My friend Priscille and her daughter at her 2nd birthday party!

The opera house of Liège is under construction.  I'm sure there's a picture in my blog somewhere of it that I just didn't mention.  If not, I definitely have pictures of it in my collection.  Anyway, the Rotary district 1630 invited the exchangers to go to the opera one night to see La Fille de Madame Angot.  it's a French comedy with lots of Louis-flavored humour and costumes.  Because the opera house is under construction, the opera shows in an enourmous, luxurious tent in Outremeuse, the neighborhood on the other side of la Meuse.  The opera, I didn't understand much of, but it was quite an experience, and we all had to dress up.

Jarrod made a Pavlova for his host family's Christmas dinner!  Neither the Australians nor the Kiwis can decide where it comes from, as they both claim it as a tradition of their own country.  Basically it's a giant meringue with marshmallow in the middle.  To make sure you've beaten it enough into oblivion, you hold the bowl upside down over your cooking mate's head and if your mate is still dry after 3 seconds, it's ready to cook.

We went to Brussels one day to see an oldie of my oldies who came in for a night, and passed through a store in a mall that had these shoes for sale.

Also passed by the Vanrykel tailor!  I was impressed because the name Vanrykel, while Dutch at it's origins, is normally spelled Vanrijkel, and because the ij sound in Dutch makes an "ey" sound.  Françoise explained to me once that when Alain's family moved to Wallonia from Flanders, and they registered in the commune, a spelling error turned Vanrijkel to Vanrykel because when written in cursive, "ij" looks like a y with an umlaut ( ÿ ).  Take off the umlaut, and it's a y.
Brussellssss

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