Hello all!
I had three really amazing opportunities occur yesterday.
Some friends of mine threw together a spontaneous trip to Bruges so I ended up joining them, bright and early (7:30 am), at the Liège-Guillemins train station. Mid train ride, we decide that we want to spend the morning in Oostende, a small sea side city in the northern Flemish region of Belgium. This is what I love about travel in Europe. All we had to do to fulfill our new travel plans was stay on the train for an extra stop or two. About two hours after we hopped aboard the train, we were standing in perfect sunshine on the coast.
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Monday 26 September 2011
ESN Trip: Bouillon, Belgium
Bonjour à tous!
This past weekend the International Exchange Student Network put together a trip to a small Belgian medieval town in the second southern-most province of Belgium, Luxembourg (not to be confused with the country!). Bouillon is just under 5500 people and although the actual founding date is unknown, the first reference in text dates back to the year 988. Again, it is absolutely tiny. There are two main roads that line the river, as well as the fortress on the hilltop, a little town center, and little houses dotting the hillside. It is however, extremely picturesque.
This past weekend the International Exchange Student Network put together a trip to a small Belgian medieval town in the second southern-most province of Belgium, Luxembourg (not to be confused with the country!). Bouillon is just under 5500 people and although the actual founding date is unknown, the first reference in text dates back to the year 988. Again, it is absolutely tiny. There are two main roads that line the river, as well as the fortress on the hilltop, a little town center, and little houses dotting the hillside. It is however, extremely picturesque.
Friday 23 September 2011
Classes Debut & International Dinner
Hello all my lovelies,
This week has finally marked the beginning of school work. Amazingly, however, I have still only had one class to date. The way the semesters, classes, and credit systems run here is unlike anything I could've imagined. Back home all the classes start within a day of each other, finish by the end of December, and they are either worth 3 credits or 1.5 credits. Here in Belgium, the semester runs until the end of January, classes stagger start, and the classes can be worth anywhere from 2-6 credits. It is a really strange conversion! 3 courses at my home university equates to 18 Belgian credits instead of 9. I'm talking 18 Belgian credits, getting credit for 3 courses, but in actuality, I'm taking 4 classes. Thank goodness for academic advisers - I'm not sure what my transcript will look like after this but at least it is up to them to sort it out and not me!
This week has finally marked the beginning of school work. Amazingly, however, I have still only had one class to date. The way the semesters, classes, and credit systems run here is unlike anything I could've imagined. Back home all the classes start within a day of each other, finish by the end of December, and they are either worth 3 credits or 1.5 credits. Here in Belgium, the semester runs until the end of January, classes stagger start, and the classes can be worth anywhere from 2-6 credits. It is a really strange conversion! 3 courses at my home university equates to 18 Belgian credits instead of 9. I'm talking 18 Belgian credits, getting credit for 3 courses, but in actuality, I'm taking 4 classes. Thank goodness for academic advisers - I'm not sure what my transcript will look like after this but at least it is up to them to sort it out and not me!
Saturday 17 September 2011
Maastricht, Netherlands
Bonjour Everyone!
Today we ducked over in to Maastricht. It was an extremely short train ride, around 30 minutes, and was extremely cheap. The return trip was €5,60! We didn't really plan our trip out very well though... We caught the 7:22 am train and thus got there around 8:00 am. Unfortunately for us, almost all the stores were closed! At least we got to see the city in a quiet and peaceful state; by the time noon rolled around the streets were packed. Our group of six met up with a bunch of the other Erasmus students. Thankfully they had stopped by the information center and gotten a map of places they wanted to see. For the rest of the afternoon we did a self guided walking tour of the city and called it a day early. With trains running almost every hour, we caught the 5:09 pm train home.
It was short but sweet. There isn't a ton to do in Maastricht and visually it is extremely similar to the places I've been in Belgium, however, it is extremely cool to say I've been to the Netherlands.
A very interesting point. There were signs posted around the city announcing the changing of their marijuana laws. Starting on October 1 they will only sell pot to residents of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It will henceforth be illegal to sell pot to someone from any other country. Some of the students I was with said they'd heard the Netherlands were trying to improve their tourism reputation away from the pot and prostitute image. I wonder how it will effect their local business and national tourism. It was really strange to walk around and see the pot cafes and all the drug paraphernalia stores just out in the open.
Anyways, pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150811762205414.749551.619530413&l=75c53babb4&type=1
Love you all!
Jacqueline
 |
| With Bee in front of the train station |
Today we ducked over in to Maastricht. It was an extremely short train ride, around 30 minutes, and was extremely cheap. The return trip was €5,60! We didn't really plan our trip out very well though... We caught the 7:22 am train and thus got there around 8:00 am. Unfortunately for us, almost all the stores were closed! At least we got to see the city in a quiet and peaceful state; by the time noon rolled around the streets were packed. Our group of six met up with a bunch of the other Erasmus students. Thankfully they had stopped by the information center and gotten a map of places they wanted to see. For the rest of the afternoon we did a self guided walking tour of the city and called it a day early. With trains running almost every hour, we caught the 5:09 pm train home.
It was short but sweet. There isn't a ton to do in Maastricht and visually it is extremely similar to the places I've been in Belgium, however, it is extremely cool to say I've been to the Netherlands.
 |
| My travel team: Bee, Kiki, Chelsa, Vick, & K Sweet |
A very interesting point. There were signs posted around the city announcing the changing of their marijuana laws. Starting on October 1 they will only sell pot to residents of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It will henceforth be illegal to sell pot to someone from any other country. Some of the students I was with said they'd heard the Netherlands were trying to improve their tourism reputation away from the pot and prostitute image. I wonder how it will effect their local business and national tourism. It was really strange to walk around and see the pot cafes and all the drug paraphernalia stores just out in the open.
Anyways, pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150811762205414.749551.619530413&l=75c53babb4&type=1
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Friday 16 September 2011
Orientations and Birthday
Hello Friends and Family!
This past week as been a flurry of activity as HEC (the management faculty) and the ULg (Université de Liege) have been trying to get all the first years and exchange students off the ground.
On Monday the HEC campus hosted several presentations, a tour of their campus, and a free BBQ. The first presentation, an introduction of the ESN (Erasmus/Exchange Student Network) team, detailed the events they have planned for the welcoming weeks as well as the services they provide such as helping to find accommodations for newly arrived students. This came with a fairly decent welcome package courtesy of all the ESN sponsors, although it did include a few rather strange items such as a chalkboard coffee mug and a carton of pumpkin soup. The tour didn't take very long as the campus is not very big but the building can be a bit of a maze so I'm glad I attended. The second presentation, by the HEC international student director, was more informative and provided good information on what to expect from classes, how to register, and who our contacts are if we have issues. Following this presentation was the BBQ and a huge mingling of all the international students. It is truly amazing how far and wide people have come from. It is also amazing how many uses the Europeans have a for a baguette. I usually think of French bread in the context of garlic toast with pasta. Here they are used predominantly as buns for sandwiches and sausages. Such a silly detail but so be it.
On Tuesday we had an orientation of the Sart-Tillman campus. This is the main campus for the majority of students. It is a 20 minute bus ride outside of town and is surrounded by a huge forest. Whereas the presentations at HEC were done in English, the Sart-Tillman Campus is predominantly French speaking. I found it absolutely fascinating at just how much of a difference the various speakers made. There was one woman who I caught about 85% of what she was saying. From the next presenter I caught about 8% max. I'm struggling to put my finger on exactly what made the difference but holy crow did it make a difference! After a couple more speakers and introductions the director of the university spoke. He is an extremely entertaining man. He encouraged us to get out, meet the locals, congratulated us on making such a fantastic decision to go on exchange, and in Liege in particular, and joked about the sub tropical climate. I appreciated the weather comments. If it is even possible, the weather changes more rapidly and less predictably than even Alberta's! He finished with an amusing comment, something to the effect of, "For those of you with significant others back home... don't worry. You'll find everything you need here". His whole demeanor was extremely pleasant and his welcoming message was extremely well delivered. After the presentation we were free to explore the different booths of activities offered at ULg and a free lunch was served. Unfortunately, because they were orienting Erasmus and first year students on the same day, everything was SO crowded. It was impossible to get through the crowds and lineups took forever. Chelsa, Bryanna, Kiersten, and I ended up leaving after lunch instead of staying for the guided tours because even at HEC the day before when crowds were a quarter of the size, the groups were still too big to hear the tour guides properly. We have decided to go back and explore on our own on a different day and at our own pace. It didn't help our motivation any that Bryanna is the only one with classes on that campus. Around 17h00 I went for a run with TK (Taiwanese Kevin) and we sure motored! We went down a similar route to the one I had run the previous week - it's about 7 km and follows the river. He found a way to incorporate more of the park paths into his route though. It was extremely lovely and I can't wait to go again!
Mercredi, le 14 septembre. Aussi mon anniversaire! J'ai vingt ans! Finally entered into a new decade and I couldn't be more motivated. Even though it was another orientation day, my friends still managed to make it special. At 11:30 am we met up and found a nice Italian restaurant with outdoor seating to sit down at and people watch. They surprised me with a beautiful chocolate cake which we unfortunately ran out of time to eat! Wednesday afternoon was another orientation at a different city center campus building. This one was Erasmus specific again. We were told that there are about 500 Erasmus students in Liege this semester. Quite a large group! This presentation, of similar information to the others, was followed by guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, since we have been here for almost 3 weeks already, we found the tour a little redundant and not altogether helpful. As such, we slipped out after the first half hour and found our way to a shoe store. I picked up some fantastic high heeled boots. Joyeux anniversaire à moi! In the early evening I was invited to a BBQ at one of the ESN team member's houses. When I said I wanted to learn French, I never thought it would be via French language drinking songs! However, they didn't pick on me too much. Probably because I was being super boring and sticking to water. They did however obliterate the friend who brought me. Poor boy! Additionally, the ESN team had picked Wednesday night as a Welcome to Liege Party at a cafe in Le Carré. After our group had had their fill at the makeshift BBQ we walked to Point De Vue Cafe and joined up with the rest of the Erasmus students. It was so packed! Immediately as we walked up I got accosted by a group of friends from Poland (the same group I went to Brussels with). They had picked me up a beautiful grey tube scarf as a birthday gift. I felt very loved. We danced the rest of the night away and even though I was one of the first people to leave, it was still 1:30 am!
The rest of the birthday pictures are available at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150808901660414.749091.619530413&l=0f89a5bda5&type=1
Yesterday, was awful. For the last week and a half I've been fighting a really harsh cough and sore throat. In the past few days it has turned into a non stop runny nose, an even harder cough, and unfortunately, and too much information I'm sure, you wouldn't believe the junk I'm coughing up from my lungs. Yuck. I woke up thinking I was getting an ear infection too. I think being out late and having a few consecutive nights of poor quality sleep from being sick is just making me sicker. I'm not the only one though. Most of the North Americans are having an absolutely awful time with harsh coughs. It makes me begin to question the air quality actually. All the Europeans seem fine. Yesterday I just took it easy. Had a nice afternoon nap and watched a movie at Chelsa's in the evening.
Today I had the option of going to Ostende, a coastal town, with the Polish group but declined. Tomorrow there is a group of people who want to go to Amsterdam and consecutive days of travel are not appealing to someone as stuffed up as I am. The plan is to leave in the morning, sight see all day, sample the night life, and catch the 3 am train back to Liege so we don't have to stay in a hostel. I'm not entirely convinced I feel up to such a long day. I'm sure I'll decide at the last minute. C'est ma vie belge.
Love and laughter,
Jacqueline
PS: The most random occurrence of the entire trip is the fact that Kiersten and I actually went to the same elementary, junior high, and high school. We were never close because she was in the year above me but my jaw pretty much hit the sidewalk when I ran into her for the first time in years in the middle of Liege!
[UPDATE - 11:02 pm]
Tomorrow we are day tripping to Maastricht, Netherlands instead! Exciting!
This past week as been a flurry of activity as HEC (the management faculty) and the ULg (Université de Liege) have been trying to get all the first years and exchange students off the ground.
On Monday the HEC campus hosted several presentations, a tour of their campus, and a free BBQ. The first presentation, an introduction of the ESN (Erasmus/Exchange Student Network) team, detailed the events they have planned for the welcoming weeks as well as the services they provide such as helping to find accommodations for newly arrived students. This came with a fairly decent welcome package courtesy of all the ESN sponsors, although it did include a few rather strange items such as a chalkboard coffee mug and a carton of pumpkin soup. The tour didn't take very long as the campus is not very big but the building can be a bit of a maze so I'm glad I attended. The second presentation, by the HEC international student director, was more informative and provided good information on what to expect from classes, how to register, and who our contacts are if we have issues. Following this presentation was the BBQ and a huge mingling of all the international students. It is truly amazing how far and wide people have come from. It is also amazing how many uses the Europeans have a for a baguette. I usually think of French bread in the context of garlic toast with pasta. Here they are used predominantly as buns for sandwiches and sausages. Such a silly detail but so be it.
On Tuesday we had an orientation of the Sart-Tillman campus. This is the main campus for the majority of students. It is a 20 minute bus ride outside of town and is surrounded by a huge forest. Whereas the presentations at HEC were done in English, the Sart-Tillman Campus is predominantly French speaking. I found it absolutely fascinating at just how much of a difference the various speakers made. There was one woman who I caught about 85% of what she was saying. From the next presenter I caught about 8% max. I'm struggling to put my finger on exactly what made the difference but holy crow did it make a difference! After a couple more speakers and introductions the director of the university spoke. He is an extremely entertaining man. He encouraged us to get out, meet the locals, congratulated us on making such a fantastic decision to go on exchange, and in Liege in particular, and joked about the sub tropical climate. I appreciated the weather comments. If it is even possible, the weather changes more rapidly and less predictably than even Alberta's! He finished with an amusing comment, something to the effect of, "For those of you with significant others back home... don't worry. You'll find everything you need here". His whole demeanor was extremely pleasant and his welcoming message was extremely well delivered. After the presentation we were free to explore the different booths of activities offered at ULg and a free lunch was served. Unfortunately, because they were orienting Erasmus and first year students on the same day, everything was SO crowded. It was impossible to get through the crowds and lineups took forever. Chelsa, Bryanna, Kiersten, and I ended up leaving after lunch instead of staying for the guided tours because even at HEC the day before when crowds were a quarter of the size, the groups were still too big to hear the tour guides properly. We have decided to go back and explore on our own on a different day and at our own pace. It didn't help our motivation any that Bryanna is the only one with classes on that campus. Around 17h00 I went for a run with TK (Taiwanese Kevin) and we sure motored! We went down a similar route to the one I had run the previous week - it's about 7 km and follows the river. He found a way to incorporate more of the park paths into his route though. It was extremely lovely and I can't wait to go again!
Mercredi, le 14 septembre. Aussi mon anniversaire! J'ai vingt ans! Finally entered into a new decade and I couldn't be more motivated. Even though it was another orientation day, my friends still managed to make it special. At 11:30 am we met up and found a nice Italian restaurant with outdoor seating to sit down at and people watch. They surprised me with a beautiful chocolate cake which we unfortunately ran out of time to eat! Wednesday afternoon was another orientation at a different city center campus building. This one was Erasmus specific again. We were told that there are about 500 Erasmus students in Liege this semester. Quite a large group! This presentation, of similar information to the others, was followed by guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, since we have been here for almost 3 weeks already, we found the tour a little redundant and not altogether helpful. As such, we slipped out after the first half hour and found our way to a shoe store. I picked up some fantastic high heeled boots. Joyeux anniversaire à moi! In the early evening I was invited to a BBQ at one of the ESN team member's houses. When I said I wanted to learn French, I never thought it would be via French language drinking songs! However, they didn't pick on me too much. Probably because I was being super boring and sticking to water. They did however obliterate the friend who brought me. Poor boy! Additionally, the ESN team had picked Wednesday night as a Welcome to Liege Party at a cafe in Le Carré. After our group had had their fill at the makeshift BBQ we walked to Point De Vue Cafe and joined up with the rest of the Erasmus students. It was so packed! Immediately as we walked up I got accosted by a group of friends from Poland (the same group I went to Brussels with). They had picked me up a beautiful grey tube scarf as a birthday gift. I felt very loved. We danced the rest of the night away and even though I was one of the first people to leave, it was still 1:30 am!
 | ||
| My beautiful cake was picked out by Bryanna and Chelsa. Despite the chocolate waves on top, the inside was actually not chocolate! It is hard to put a finger on it but I thought maybe cinnamon. |
Yesterday, was awful. For the last week and a half I've been fighting a really harsh cough and sore throat. In the past few days it has turned into a non stop runny nose, an even harder cough, and unfortunately, and too much information I'm sure, you wouldn't believe the junk I'm coughing up from my lungs. Yuck. I woke up thinking I was getting an ear infection too. I think being out late and having a few consecutive nights of poor quality sleep from being sick is just making me sicker. I'm not the only one though. Most of the North Americans are having an absolutely awful time with harsh coughs. It makes me begin to question the air quality actually. All the Europeans seem fine. Yesterday I just took it easy. Had a nice afternoon nap and watched a movie at Chelsa's in the evening.
Today I had the option of going to Ostende, a coastal town, with the Polish group but declined. Tomorrow there is a group of people who want to go to Amsterdam and consecutive days of travel are not appealing to someone as stuffed up as I am. The plan is to leave in the morning, sight see all day, sample the night life, and catch the 3 am train back to Liege so we don't have to stay in a hostel. I'm not entirely convinced I feel up to such a long day. I'm sure I'll decide at the last minute. C'est ma vie belge.
Love and laughter,
Jacqueline
PS: The most random occurrence of the entire trip is the fact that Kiersten and I actually went to the same elementary, junior high, and high school. We were never close because she was in the year above me but my jaw pretty much hit the sidewalk when I ran into her for the first time in years in the middle of Liege!
[UPDATE - 11:02 pm]
Tomorrow we are day tripping to Maastricht, Netherlands instead! Exciting!
Sunday 11 September 2011
Bruxelles!
Hello All,
Instead of heading to the coast with Tina and Chelsa, I ended up catching the 10 am train to Brussels/Bruxelles with 12 other Erasmus (exchange) students. It was an absolute blast. For the first half of the day we stayed in a large group and explored le Grand Place, a chocolate museum, visited the Manneken Pis, tried waffles, and wandered around. For the second half of the day we split up into two groups: those that wanted to see the Mini Europe display and those that wanted to go to this enormous inner city park. I went with the Mini Europe display group. I figured it is probably next to impossible to impress me with fake nature after living beside Fish Creek Park in Calgary and the Rocky Mountains for my whole life and the Polish kids really wanted to see Mini-Europe. If they were dead set on it, I concluded there was probably a very good reason why. After lots of semi-lost wandering and metro taking (which was an adventure in itself - there would've been no doubts to anyone that we were tourists!), we finally found Mini-Europe and also the famous landmark of the Atomium. I took an absolutely copious amount of pictures. Most of the interesting tidbits and such are in the captions so have a look through. When I get copies of the group pictures that ended up on other peoples' cameras, I'll post them up too :)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798491370414.746960.619530413&l=e189e5409f&type=1
See if you can name any of the monuments!
Also, I'm just going to throw it out there that it was UNBELIEVABLY hot. Jeans were not a smart decision!
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Edit (09/16): Here's one of the group pictures in front of the Atomium
Instead of heading to the coast with Tina and Chelsa, I ended up catching the 10 am train to Brussels/Bruxelles with 12 other Erasmus (exchange) students. It was an absolute blast. For the first half of the day we stayed in a large group and explored le Grand Place, a chocolate museum, visited the Manneken Pis, tried waffles, and wandered around. For the second half of the day we split up into two groups: those that wanted to see the Mini Europe display and those that wanted to go to this enormous inner city park. I went with the Mini Europe display group. I figured it is probably next to impossible to impress me with fake nature after living beside Fish Creek Park in Calgary and the Rocky Mountains for my whole life and the Polish kids really wanted to see Mini-Europe. If they were dead set on it, I concluded there was probably a very good reason why. After lots of semi-lost wandering and metro taking (which was an adventure in itself - there would've been no doubts to anyone that we were tourists!), we finally found Mini-Europe and also the famous landmark of the Atomium. I took an absolutely copious amount of pictures. Most of the interesting tidbits and such are in the captions so have a look through. When I get copies of the group pictures that ended up on other peoples' cameras, I'll post them up too :)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798491370414.746960.619530413&l=e189e5409f&type=1
See if you can name any of the monuments!
Also, I'm just going to throw it out there that it was UNBELIEVABLY hot. Jeans were not a smart decision!
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Edit (09/16): Here's one of the group pictures in front of the Atomium
 |
| Left to Right: Kevin, Marcin, me, Magdalena, Ewelina, Ewa |
Friday 9 September 2011
Who needs a latte?
Bonjour mes amis!
Today was the last day of the preparatory French course. Two students in our group got a card for the teacher and a pot of orchids for her as a thank you. All the students signed the card in their native language and we went around the room after presenting it to her and pronounced it in both native tongue and English.
The woman in the back middle (grey tank top) is our teacher, Aline. Notice the photoshop job on the guy in blue in the front. He came in just as we'd all returned to our seats. The class let out a collective groan and thus he got added in after the fact.
Just to recap, the countries represented in this picture include: Czech Republic, Spain, India, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Poland, and Belgium!
This brings me to two funny language screw ups people have had in the last week.
1) The Taiwanese student went to a local coffee shop and asked for a latté. Unfortunately for him, the barista heard "le thé" which is French for tea. The pronunciation is extremely similar. He couldn't understand why she insisted on giving him tea so he just gave up and accepted it. When he got back to class holding a tea in confusion we all busted up laughing and explained to him that what he really wanted was café au lait.
2) The card that the class all passed around and signed was not a thank you card... it was a sympathy card! A Bulgarian and a Taiwanese (Mr. Latté) student went shopping for it with their translation dictionaries and got flustered so ended up picking one that looked nice. It says something to the effect of, "Our hearts are with you" on the outside and, "Courage in difficult moments" on the inside. They asked me to translate it for them right before we started passing it around. At that point it was too late. At least the teacher thought it was funny when they explained what happened.
So that is the first two weeks finished! Next week starts all the university welcome days and the first few days of classes. Also, my 20th birthday! This weekend we are taking the train to the coast. I am very much so looking forward to the fresh air. The city center (where I live) is nothing but car exhaust. Yesterday I ran 7 km along the river and yikes. My lungs were not too thrilled with me after. We have all decided we need to get out of the city. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine because we've had nothing but clouds and grey sky for the last week.
Thinking of you all,
Jacqueline
Today was the last day of the preparatory French course. Two students in our group got a card for the teacher and a pot of orchids for her as a thank you. All the students signed the card in their native language and we went around the room after presenting it to her and pronounced it in both native tongue and English.
The woman in the back middle (grey tank top) is our teacher, Aline. Notice the photoshop job on the guy in blue in the front. He came in just as we'd all returned to our seats. The class let out a collective groan and thus he got added in after the fact.
Just to recap, the countries represented in this picture include: Czech Republic, Spain, India, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Poland, and Belgium!
This brings me to two funny language screw ups people have had in the last week.
1) The Taiwanese student went to a local coffee shop and asked for a latté. Unfortunately for him, the barista heard "le thé" which is French for tea. The pronunciation is extremely similar. He couldn't understand why she insisted on giving him tea so he just gave up and accepted it. When he got back to class holding a tea in confusion we all busted up laughing and explained to him that what he really wanted was café au lait.
2) The card that the class all passed around and signed was not a thank you card... it was a sympathy card! A Bulgarian and a Taiwanese (Mr. Latté) student went shopping for it with their translation dictionaries and got flustered so ended up picking one that looked nice. It says something to the effect of, "Our hearts are with you" on the outside and, "Courage in difficult moments" on the inside. They asked me to translate it for them right before we started passing it around. At that point it was too late. At least the teacher thought it was funny when they explained what happened.
So that is the first two weeks finished! Next week starts all the university welcome days and the first few days of classes. Also, my 20th birthday! This weekend we are taking the train to the coast. I am very much so looking forward to the fresh air. The city center (where I live) is nothing but car exhaust. Yesterday I ran 7 km along the river and yikes. My lungs were not too thrilled with me after. We have all decided we need to get out of the city. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine because we've had nothing but clouds and grey sky for the last week.
Thinking of you all,
Jacqueline
Monday 5 September 2011
Things are picking up!
Bonjour!
Things are really starting to get going for me. Between the French classes, daily exploration, and night time adventuring, it is all coming together.
I am absolutely loving the French class I am in. It is from 9 am to 4:30 pm every day and the instructor only speaks French to us. She is very engaging, in incredible shape (a ridiculously sculpted upper body!), and is doing a fantastic job of teaching the basics. The universal language of the classroom is English though so if someone gets completely stuck, she will revert and say just enough English words to make the understanding occur. It is so neat though! She loves to take opportunities to have people demonstrate what things are like in their culture/language. For example, the picture below is a lesson on numbers. She had a both a Taiwanese and a Korean student right the numbers in their native numbers. Check out the zero in Taiwanese!
Another great moment occurred today. I got to hear tongue twisters from Italy, Mexico, India, Taiwan, and Turkey.
On Friday and Saturday night I went out to "Le Carré" or "The Square". It is literally a square made up by four streets. These streets are nothing but bars, clubs, and restaurants. Because there are no lines, no cover, and alcohol is legal in the streets, not only are all the venues overflowing with people, the streets can be outrageous crowds too. On Friday, the summer students had just written their final summer semester exams. It was absolutely packed. Saturday was surprisingly not nearly as jam packed and we got to see a live band in a cowboy themed place called "Far West". People definitely like to get rowdy and stay out late. However, Liege is not known as a particularly safe city... not that it is downright dangerous, or at least not during the day, but everybody insists on walking each other home at night. Safety in numbers!
On Sunday morning I went to the "Marché de la Batte" - one of the longest outdoor market in Europe! It is full of all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing, live animals (both for pets and eating), and just about anything you can think of. The weather was unfortunately rather unpredictable and I got absolutely rained on. At least it kept the market from being even busier; it is a very popular place for locals and tourists alike.
Sunday afternoon was spent climbing at a local indoor climbing wall with a new friend from Missouri. He is a far more accomplished climber than I am... it was really rather embarrassing! Especially because I was so completely thrown off by the style of the gym. The walls have no texture, the harnesses are different, the difficulty (grade system) is nothing I've ever seen before, and the routes are marked out in a completely different manner. That being said, there were some AMAZING climbers in the gym. Some of the most impressive climbing I've seen live to date. Definitely gives me something to aspire to once my hands heal from the absolute shredding they feel like they took. The rocks are almost gritty feeling. You can tell I am not a laborer in the slightest just by the pathetic softness of my hands and how one rough climb upset them. Oh well!
Sunday evening was a really neat opportunity. The student from Taiwan, we call him TK, invited a group of us over for Chinese food. He did an excellent job of demonstrating some basic Chinese dishes. The best part was probably watching the student from Iran use chopsticks for the first time. It was quite the sight and he was quite a trooper! Our dinner group included an American, 2 Italians, a Korean, a Taiwanese, an Iranian, and 2 Canadians. It was a lot of fun and we have all volunteered to host dinners of foods from our native lands in the near future.
More pictures to come but here's the link to the ones I have posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150778773995414.742006.619530413&l=3b589064e3&type=1
Love you all,
Jacqueline
Things are really starting to get going for me. Between the French classes, daily exploration, and night time adventuring, it is all coming together.
I am absolutely loving the French class I am in. It is from 9 am to 4:30 pm every day and the instructor only speaks French to us. She is very engaging, in incredible shape (a ridiculously sculpted upper body!), and is doing a fantastic job of teaching the basics. The universal language of the classroom is English though so if someone gets completely stuck, she will revert and say just enough English words to make the understanding occur. It is so neat though! She loves to take opportunities to have people demonstrate what things are like in their culture/language. For example, the picture below is a lesson on numbers. She had a both a Taiwanese and a Korean student right the numbers in their native numbers. Check out the zero in Taiwanese!
Another great moment occurred today. I got to hear tongue twisters from Italy, Mexico, India, Taiwan, and Turkey.
On Friday and Saturday night I went out to "Le Carré" or "The Square". It is literally a square made up by four streets. These streets are nothing but bars, clubs, and restaurants. Because there are no lines, no cover, and alcohol is legal in the streets, not only are all the venues overflowing with people, the streets can be outrageous crowds too. On Friday, the summer students had just written their final summer semester exams. It was absolutely packed. Saturday was surprisingly not nearly as jam packed and we got to see a live band in a cowboy themed place called "Far West". People definitely like to get rowdy and stay out late. However, Liege is not known as a particularly safe city... not that it is downright dangerous, or at least not during the day, but everybody insists on walking each other home at night. Safety in numbers!
On Sunday morning I went to the "Marché de la Batte" - one of the longest outdoor market in Europe! It is full of all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing, live animals (both for pets and eating), and just about anything you can think of. The weather was unfortunately rather unpredictable and I got absolutely rained on. At least it kept the market from being even busier; it is a very popular place for locals and tourists alike.
Sunday afternoon was spent climbing at a local indoor climbing wall with a new friend from Missouri. He is a far more accomplished climber than I am... it was really rather embarrassing! Especially because I was so completely thrown off by the style of the gym. The walls have no texture, the harnesses are different, the difficulty (grade system) is nothing I've ever seen before, and the routes are marked out in a completely different manner. That being said, there were some AMAZING climbers in the gym. Some of the most impressive climbing I've seen live to date. Definitely gives me something to aspire to once my hands heal from the absolute shredding they feel like they took. The rocks are almost gritty feeling. You can tell I am not a laborer in the slightest just by the pathetic softness of my hands and how one rough climb upset them. Oh well!
Sunday evening was a really neat opportunity. The student from Taiwan, we call him TK, invited a group of us over for Chinese food. He did an excellent job of demonstrating some basic Chinese dishes. The best part was probably watching the student from Iran use chopsticks for the first time. It was quite the sight and he was quite a trooper! Our dinner group included an American, 2 Italians, a Korean, a Taiwanese, an Iranian, and 2 Canadians. It was a lot of fun and we have all volunteered to host dinners of foods from our native lands in the near future.
More pictures to come but here's the link to the ones I have posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150778773995414.742006.619530413&l=3b589064e3&type=1
Love you all,
Jacqueline
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