It's hard to believe I've only been here for 46 hours.
Already I have scrubbed my apartment from head to toe (it was actually so filthy...), set up a phone, attended a full day of french class, registered with the international student office, tried to register with the city administration 3 times (their hours are SO finicky), taken a tour with a ULg student, tried Belgium fries for the first time, tried Belgium chocolate for the first time, and gone grocery shopping. There are just not enough hours in the day! Actually, plenty of hours but everything is closed by 7:00 pm. It is so bizarre not to have a supermarket or Walmart type building open 24/7. Certain elements of my day definitely take more planning now.
The French class was amazing. I jumped in with the beginner level this morning because I missed the placement testing and first two days of classes. It is extremely extremely basic and I would like to say I could've made placement into a higher level. However, because the instructor only speaks French to us, and I know what she wants us to learn, I am able to learn so much more from her instructions than her lessons. Her lessons are great refresher material but knowing what to listen for and being able to interact with her was an absolute joy. It made me feel like I might actually come away with decent French by the end of this exchange. I expect vast improvement even by the end of next week!
In the meantime, this hasn't made my recent French exchanges any better. I had an issue with my kot's heater. Basically I turned it on and couldn't get it off no matter what I tried. I eventually unplugged it out of fear of it burning down the building. Little did I know, when you unplug it it switches to battery. It just kept right on burning. I went upstairs and grabbed my housemate, Lionel, and tried to explain to him my problem. He came and took a look but had no idea. He offered to get the landlord (LL) for me. Turns out the store I live above is owned and operated by the landlord! Wish I'd known that! So we went downstairs and grabbed the LL, came back up, he took a look, did a lot of explaining in French to Lionel, and bid us au revoir. Lionel explained the bit about it being backed up by battery and tried to explain other things. It didn't really come across so I thanked him regardless. As long as it is off from here on in, that's all I want. It has taken a full day since but it is finally almost cooled off. I talked briefly, and awkwardly in broken franglish (sigh) to the LL today and he asked if it had turned off. I wasn't sure at that point because I hadn't been home in 10 hours. I said I'd check and let him know. He said to come tomorrow as it takes 3 days in the summer/1 day in the winter for heater controls. Or something like that. I think he knows more English than he lets on. I definitely know less French than I pretend.
Still so much to do before classes start on the 15th. I'm very grateful I came two weeks early for the French preparatory course. I feel like I've started to really appreciate the implications of my exchange. I've met people from Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Chile, Poland, Germany, USA, Belgium, Ireland, Taiwan, and Somalia in the past day. It is amazing to talk with them, compare countries, and struggle through language barriers together. I've had a PhD student from Iran ask me for help practicing his English after our French classes. It was a nice reminder that although I am focused on how jilted my French is right now, I am very very very fortunate to be fluent in English.
I found it extremely entertaining to see all the different versions of French-other language dictionaries. The Chinese-French and Poland-French are definitely two favorites.
I took a tour with a girl from ULg named Alice. She showed Chelsa and I some main places and provided general information about Belgium and Liege. It was fantastic to hear her input. We tried french fries (frites) with her and learned that they are so delicious because they are double fried. Once at ~160 F and then again at ~180 F. The second, hotter frying really crisps them up.
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Arrival
Hello Everyone!
I have arrived safe and sound after a fairly uneventful travel day. This post is a little mangled because I am so jet lagged, hungry, overtired, and have yet to see the light of day in Belgium. However, here it is before I forget it all.
- The plane started boarding passengers about 25 minutes late but somehow we still managed to leave on time. I am still impressed by this.
- Although not full, the plane had a capacity of about 380 passengers.
- I lucked out and was one of maybe three people who had an entire row to myself. Originally I'd planned to try to stay awake on the flight but once I raised those arm rests and laid out across those seats I was done.
- I slept for about 6 hours in a very restless-your neck-will-never-forgive-you way.
- The final two hours of flight were passed eating a quick breakfast (orange juice, yogurt, and a cinnamon roll thing) and reading on my kindle.
- The plane landed way earlier than expected. I don't know if we made fantastic time or if the ticket was just plain old wrong but it was at least 45 minutes earlier than I had expected. Thank goodness too because my train was bang on time and the extra time to get to it was greatly appreciated!
- Customs was a really quick process and getting my bag didn't take too long either. Finding the train station caught me off guard. I had looked at maps of the Frankfurt terminal and thought the train station was in the basement. It is really at a separate terminal. I still think the way the map is drawn is silly. Anyways, found out I had to catch a shuttle over.
- Moved my train ticket to my jeans pocket because I kept pulling it out, trying to find clues as to where my train would be, and was clueless. Went to ask someone for direction, reach into my pocket and find it missing. Mentally flip out for 2 seconds as my hand checks other pockets knowing it was in that front right side, glance around, see it lying on the ground 25 feet away. Sheesh. Lesson learned.
- The train ride was nice enough. Wish I'd been forward facing instead of backwards but that's ok. The German country side was pretty.
- Get to the Liege-Guillemins station and see that the student with the Erasmus Student Network isn't there to pick me up yet. After 20 minutes I turn on my phone and text him. 10 minutes later he returns my text saying he can't make it and call Chelsa (the other U of Lethbridge student). After giving her a quick call, I end up taking a taxi to my apartment. It ended up being 7.65 euros and holy moly. The cab driver did not understand my French at all! I really really really need to work on it. We managed to hash it out eventually but yikes.
- My building mate, Lionel, let me in, carried my heavy bag up to my apartment for me and handed over the keys. He tried explaining the water heater thing to me but he has such little English and my French is apparently just not happening so we just kind of laughed and that was that. I have yet to figure out the lock on the bathroom door. I know how it should work, I just can't get it to actually do up. Throw it on the list of things to learn in the daylight.
- I am on a fairly busy street. It was quite noisy until about 10:30 pm but as the businesses closed, it isn't too bad anymore. It is however extremely bright and the curtains don't do much. I'm glad I brought ear plugs and a sleep mask.
Tomorrow will be the day to start assessing what I really think of the situation. I was such an overtired bundle of nerves throughout travel and arrival that I didn't get a great impression. Even now, it is 4:19 am local time. I managed to sleep from 11 pm - 2:45 am but jet lag has apparently decided to have its way with my sleep patterns.
The point is I am here and hopefully the morning will shed some light on the situation.
Love you all,
Jacqueline
I have arrived safe and sound after a fairly uneventful travel day. This post is a little mangled because I am so jet lagged, hungry, overtired, and have yet to see the light of day in Belgium. However, here it is before I forget it all.
- The plane started boarding passengers about 25 minutes late but somehow we still managed to leave on time. I am still impressed by this.
- Although not full, the plane had a capacity of about 380 passengers.
- I lucked out and was one of maybe three people who had an entire row to myself. Originally I'd planned to try to stay awake on the flight but once I raised those arm rests and laid out across those seats I was done.
- I slept for about 6 hours in a very restless-your neck-will-never-forgive-you way.
- The final two hours of flight were passed eating a quick breakfast (orange juice, yogurt, and a cinnamon roll thing) and reading on my kindle.
- The plane landed way earlier than expected. I don't know if we made fantastic time or if the ticket was just plain old wrong but it was at least 45 minutes earlier than I had expected. Thank goodness too because my train was bang on time and the extra time to get to it was greatly appreciated!
- Customs was a really quick process and getting my bag didn't take too long either. Finding the train station caught me off guard. I had looked at maps of the Frankfurt terminal and thought the train station was in the basement. It is really at a separate terminal. I still think the way the map is drawn is silly. Anyways, found out I had to catch a shuttle over.
- Moved my train ticket to my jeans pocket because I kept pulling it out, trying to find clues as to where my train would be, and was clueless. Went to ask someone for direction, reach into my pocket and find it missing. Mentally flip out for 2 seconds as my hand checks other pockets knowing it was in that front right side, glance around, see it lying on the ground 25 feet away. Sheesh. Lesson learned.
- The train ride was nice enough. Wish I'd been forward facing instead of backwards but that's ok. The German country side was pretty.
- Get to the Liege-Guillemins station and see that the student with the Erasmus Student Network isn't there to pick me up yet. After 20 minutes I turn on my phone and text him. 10 minutes later he returns my text saying he can't make it and call Chelsa (the other U of Lethbridge student). After giving her a quick call, I end up taking a taxi to my apartment. It ended up being 7.65 euros and holy moly. The cab driver did not understand my French at all! I really really really need to work on it. We managed to hash it out eventually but yikes.
- My building mate, Lionel, let me in, carried my heavy bag up to my apartment for me and handed over the keys. He tried explaining the water heater thing to me but he has such little English and my French is apparently just not happening so we just kind of laughed and that was that. I have yet to figure out the lock on the bathroom door. I know how it should work, I just can't get it to actually do up. Throw it on the list of things to learn in the daylight.
- I am on a fairly busy street. It was quite noisy until about 10:30 pm but as the businesses closed, it isn't too bad anymore. It is however extremely bright and the curtains don't do much. I'm glad I brought ear plugs and a sleep mask.
Tomorrow will be the day to start assessing what I really think of the situation. I was such an overtired bundle of nerves throughout travel and arrival that I didn't get a great impression. Even now, it is 4:19 am local time. I managed to sleep from 11 pm - 2:45 am but jet lag has apparently decided to have its way with my sleep patterns.
The point is I am here and hopefully the morning will shed some light on the situation.
Love you all,
Jacqueline
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