Beginning of December

again at the christmas market

on the train to... anvers? I suppose

Train station at Antwerp

Chinatown at Anvers

Green Fanta and ginger beer.  Thanks New Zealand for the introduction.  That stuff is good.

Antwerpen

Street... piano...

woah that was way too much food.  pepperkok smaakt

ST NICOLAS came to my breakfast plate!!  Joyeux st nicolas

on the way to Germany with a rotary wednesday trip

Welkenraedt.  it's in Belgium.  They speak french, but they also speak German.

And this is the big statue thingy at Welkenraedt

And Rotary gave us all Christmas hats to go sur le marché!

This is a cool ad.  It happens to be a promotion for quitting smoking.

That's a taxi.  IN GERMANY

That's the Opera House in Aachen (Aix-la-Chappelle in French)

Hotel des villes.  Government chambers.  This is very famous.

It was one of Charlemagne's favorite places, Aachen.

This building has hosted several extremely important treaty signings throughout history

and this is Lord Sandwich, of the sandwich.

Our destination, Market!

Weihnachts Markt!

Awww exchangers

This Cathedral is worth a visit.

Wurstardennen.

And market candies.

You may have loved apple before.  NOW AVAILABLE IN: GERMAN

This man is our Rotary District Organiser, and basically dude extraordinaire.  He's the bomb.

On a day of congé,  Françoise and I drove to a nearby chateau to get some christmas déco ideas!

the Chateau de Modave, in the village of Modave

With those little tour guide ear listeners!  I got mine not in English, but in French :)

Another old picture of Liege

This large Arbre de Genaolgie covered the entire ceiling of the entrance hall.

and it's a real one.

This is called Regence, Liège style.  No joke.

My host family tells me this particular chapel on the second floor is very popular of Japanese weddings.  Something about a tourist brochure that got produced in Asia for this very chateau.  Funny ol' world in'it?

And the Christmas tree at home!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Maybe I really should have just used a flickr!
lol

End of November, the soirée, dîner exotique, and St. Nicolas

I suppose I'll just add the photos then.

liège getting Christmasy

le Standard on a bus detour!  (that is remember the football stadium for the team, Standard)

This is what Marché de noël looks like.  Christmas market:
Hot wine, trinkets, scarfs, and a patinoir!

Right in Liège! I assume it's rather expensive though.

This car was in Liège one evening...

Getting read for our soirée, Pauline, Chloé and I

Turned out great!  It was both mine and Chloé's first soirée

some dude is on the woofer

And if the other soirée wasn't good enough for you, there was this one in someone's apartment 30 metres away.
about 2 am

ANd this is why it's a bad idea to wear white shoes to a party where there are drinks. 

And here we are, next morning in Brussels for the Dîner Exotique!  Bright and early for an early train.

Dîner Exotique was a Rotex event where all the students prepared typical dishes from their countries.
My group from the US made PB&Js!  there were several american groups anyway.

that's potatoes and lemon and some other yummies

Japon

Australie

It was her birthday!!

That's St. Nicolas and the guy in black and blue is the guy that brings coal and stuff to the bad kids.

Grande Place à Bruxelles by night at Christmastime

Typical Marché de Noël purchase:  Hot wine.  Wine with spices and boiling hot.
Someone must have left this one out on accident.  I bet it tasted good.

Another Ferris wheel in Liège! At the Marché de Noël of course!

St Nicolas.  What a tradition!  It comes from medieval times I think, and basically the University kids go around in lab coats, the dirtier the better, and ask strangers for "petits pieces" (small change).  The change is of course to take part in one of Belgium's proudest traditions, buying and drinking beer.  If they don't give them money, they throw flower at them.

Now the seniors in high school do it too, and they antagonize all the younger kids at school just outside the gates.
People draw large designs on the back of their aprons and ask all their friends to write notes on them like a yearbook.  It's a GREAT souvenir!

They also go into town to antagonize people doing their shopping.

Not to mention that it's just fun to throw flour on your friends.  (notice, typical Belge weather: grey, a bit drizzly).
Normally it's the Friday before the day of St Nicolas, 6th December, but since there were bus strikes that Friday, we did it Thursday.

And this is me dressed up for my Rotary meeting that evening!  It's a wild day, and some kids don't make it home in the same condition as they left in.  I did!  and was ready to go see my oldie, Santiago's presentation on Argentina and on his stay in Belgium.

And then it was Saturday, and it was beautiful, if cold, so I took Zizou for a walk.

This is Tinlot.

And indeed, there is a farm near my house with a field of lavender.

But I cheated and enhanced the color in the other one.  This is what it actually looks like this far into the cold season.

This is a mound of beteraves.  They are roots that are harvested and they pile them up at the sides of the fields.  There are SO many of these mounds right next to the roads near Tinlot, so that'll be a strong memory.  Beteraves are used to make sugar.  In Europe, they don't use cane sugar, they use beteraves.  And it finally came to me the english name for them: sugar beets.

Just kidding, THIS is Tinlot.  The church is the church on Church street, where I live (Rue de l'Eglise).

This looked super artsy, and wintry.

This is what my wall looks like over my desk!  The rooster is the Wallonian symbol on the flag.
And he's holding a Belgian cultural item.  That's right, bottled Sprite. The drawings went on my St. Nicolas coat.

lol

Yesterday, in Liège

The odd thing was that on the news, I knew exactly where
everything was happening.  I know that street, and
that sculpture and all that.  It was bizarre.

at midday, a man with a backpack full of weapons threw several grenades into a crowd at a bus stop in Place St Lambert.  I was not in town, but I had friends who were close enough to hear it and run away.  The man died in his attack, suspected suicide, and 3 other people were killed as well.  More than 70 were in the hospital yesterday.  Authorities have confirmed that the man was working alone, and have identified him as someone the police already had a record of.  None of the exchange kids were hurt as far as we know: Rotary sent out an urgent email to take count, and my counsellor called me and everything.  The Marché de Noël is in Place St Lambert, but fortunately there was a wind advisory (up to 100km/h) so the marché was not yet open and there were not MORE people there.  However, this being exam week, a bunch of Liègeois students were just getting out of exams, so there were many kids hurt.  I think there's going to be some sort of memorial gathering in the Place on Friday.  I'm fine, we're all okay, and everyone is just feeling lucky.  Here's to those who died and got hurt, and their families.
lots of love

Belgian Government!

Upon coming home this evening my host father said, "Benton, Belgium has a government! Finally!"
So, from what I understand, we now have a prime minister, but I can't confirm online yet. It's been over 500 days since the last time Belgium had government. I suppose if I keep my ears up and concentrate really hard I might understand the fast talking radioheads talking about government!  Good news anyway!  Don't count on me for facts on it yet, just what Alain told me.

La Poste.

I have written some letters.  Thank you notes, general info letters.  Not a lot, but still 6 or 7.  Over the course of the past 3 months.  That constitutes a significant investment of time and thoughts.  I couldn't go back in time and replace my random musings about my history class during October, or explain my apprehension for holidays that I didn't understand at all until the day of.  So I finally acquired an envelope and fit all the european sized papers in it.  I went into Liège with my letters to go to the post to buy the international stamp.  I found a nice post office near the Marché de Noël and bought them.
       I reached into my pocket in order to apply the stamp to the clean, white corner of the over-stuffed envelope, there stored until that very moment.  It was gone!  I had lost it somewhere in the city!  I retraced my steps the rest of the afternoon (this was last Wednesday) and never found it.  I was so disappointed.  There were 3 or 4 letters to my Granny that I had really wanted to mail, complete with daily weather reports!  I resigned myself to writing an apologetic blog post about the lost intelligence.

   THEN, today, in the mail, came the envelope, with a note written on "Trouvée par terre dans la rue," (found on the ground in the street) and a message saying there was not enough tarriff to send the letter.  FORTUNATELY I had put my return address on it, so I have it now, and I will be sending it WITH the stamp that I still have from last Wednesday THIS Wednesday.  I'm so pleased!!!