Channeling My Inner Belgian: Namur

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

So I officially fail at having a blog... Just can never build up enough motivation to take the time out of my mostly very busy days and write the very long post I know that I am going to write... Especially now, as I have hit and passed the 2 month mark, entering the worst part of my exchange as homesickness takes over and the doubts settle in. Seriously, it's not a fun experience. And if I make it out ok, well at least then I will be able to help out other exchangers with coping. I guess Rotary really knows what they are talking about after all, with the whole stages of culture shock. They said the first bit feels like vacation, the next bit is the tough part with language AND homesickness, and then you get to the best part of your exchange and everything is just perfect. Luckily, I am actually finding the whole language barrier thing getting better and better each day, and at least for me it's hasn't been too frustrating. But I am still definitely looking forward to the whole perfect part of exchange...

Anyhow, now back to Saturday. I had the pleasure of waking up super early, like 6 or something, throwing on some clothes and then being driven to the train station while it was still dark out. Pascale had wanted me to take the earlier train into Liege so I didn't miss my connection to Namur, which meant that I was on the train all by myself, dead from exhaustion and still not fully awake. Once I got to Liege, I decided to just wait for the next train and buy some breakfast from a little bakery type place (like the bakeries back home, not the legit ones here) because I had forgotten to even think about breakfast. I was very glad to have made the decision to wait for the second train, because then I ran into the other Rotary students and had the chance to just hang on the train and talk to them. We finally arrived in Namur around 9ish and there we met up with even MORE rotary kids and were taken to some auditorium place for more rules. -___-

Seriously, the rules were completely pointless. It was mostly just stuff about the trips sponsored by Bresa, and we had heard it all before. They, of course, had their own little presentation of rules to give to us, with the presentation in hilarious, not very good English translations, as well as people who spoke in French, English, and Spanish. I got the chance to sit by some people from the other districts, so that was nice to be able to talk to them. And, well, at least the presenters were young adults who had gone on exchange as well so they knew where we were coming from and tried to make it interesting for us and didn't shush us as we talked quietly among oursleves as they presented it in a different language that we didn't need to listen to.... But really, there is only so much fun and interesting things that you can put into a presentation all about rules you have heard a million times before...

After the presentation FINALLY ended, it was like 11 and we chilled in a little reception area as just the kids who were going on the Paris trip got information specific to that trip. During this time, exchange students being exchange students, went crazy trading pins and trying to find the select few who brought bracelets from their home country. Don't know why, but the bracelets are a huge hit. I got quite a few pins, at least like 30, and I had absolutely no idea how i was going to fit them all onto my already full blazer. I mean, I guess I do still have to back and the sleeves, but for whatever reason I don't want to put any on there. I had also brought along the woven USA bracelets and friendship bracelets that my mum had bought for me to give to people as gifts before I left, seeing how I knew the bracelets were a big deal. But unfortunately, I have only a very small number of them and I promised them to quite a bit of people, so I was only giving them to my really close friends and trying to hide to fact that I had them. Because I knew once random people figured out that I did, they would be gone in 2 seconds flat. And I really wanted to give them to my friends before random people that I didn't even know... Next time though, I will give the extras to whomever wants them!

After the craziness, we walked a short ways to the boat that we were going to be spendign time on, crusing down the river Muese. When I came up to the boat, I was a bit suprised that it was going to hold all 200 or so exchangers. But it did... There was a lower part inside with tables to sit at and chill, but you still got the amzing views. I was very lucky to have been one of the first people on the boat and got a good seat at a table near a window with all of my friends. We had a lot of fun, just talking, eating lunch, and looking at the sights. I felt bad for the people that were stuck up above, because maybe they would have gotten a bit better view of the beautiful riverbanks and houses along the water, but it was also a drizzly very cold day and being outside the whole time must have not been fun at all... But, I was inside and I ended up having tons of fun! Hard to describe the beauty of it all that well, so I guess now I will just post a whole bunch of pictures.

Beautiful Namur <3

Typical Europe... There are homes squisheds in everywhere!

Katie (Texas), Lauren (Cali), and I... Don't ask me what I was doing with my hand haha

Future home?

I would settle for this one too... From the full on view, you can tell how huge and amazing it is. And it looks like a castle...

It's a bit blurry, but I absolutely loved this.

There were swans EVERWHERE!

Gotta love the pink building!

Europe's Flag, Belgian Flag, Wallonie's Flag (French speaking Region), and some random one.

AMERICA! :)

The boat ride was actually quite a long one, we probably finished around 4:30ish, where they gave us waffles and a juice. We hung around outside and talked for a bit, but then everyone headed off together to go and catch whatever train they had to catch to get home. My friends and I did stay with the group at first, but then we got seperated from them because we walked past this cowboy shop, and since I was with Katie, a dedicated Texan, we just HAD to stop... It was funny, everyone was freaking out so much over the legit cowboy boots and hats, as well as the very pretty jewelry they had in there. It was made out to be some kind of Native American art jewelry, and it was very pretty. If it hadn't been so expensive, I think I definitely would have bought something.

A very ecstatic Texan!

By the time we finished in the shop, we had lost the group and thought What the heck! We already lost everyone, so let's just explore a little. We walked around the city a bit looking at the shop windows and such. Then, we all decided we were really hungry, so we stopped somewhere and got fries. There were 5 of us, and of course I was the odd one out who wanted Andalouse sauce, so I got ot feel like a fatty while everyone else shared... By the time we got our fries, it had started to rain and only one of us had an umbrella so we decided to try and find the train station. We had to ask like 4 different groups of random standerbys, but we made it. Well, actually, it was mostly just a straight path and we had been heading the right way anyhow, but the first group of some Scouts we asked said there were like 2 different right turns involved, so we got consuded from that and felt like it was a hard place to find. Guess you can never trust a scout... When we got to the train station, we realized that even after all of our exploring we hadn't even missed to train to Liege so we were still on a train with all of the other exchange students. Unfortunately, it was a pretty packed train that was coming from Maastricht, so we all ended up getting seperated. I was kinda near other people, but still had to sit by a random guy. Luckily, as the stops went on people got off and I didn't have to wait all that long to get a seat next to a different Katie (the California Katie) who I am friends with. Seriously, there was so many Katies that are around my age. I mean, I know of like 7 different exchange students named Katie, and it just makes everything very confusing.

At Liege, I switched trains to Verviers with some other students. Once we got back into Verviers, texan Katie and I had to find a bus to catch to Eliza's house. We had made plans some time ago to all go to this Halloween party that someone from Eliza's school invited her to. I know it's a bit early, but halloween is a new celebration here and they just don't know how to do it. We had planned to go to Eliza's after Namur to get ready, and then spend the night at Kaite's house. But, Eliza ended up oversleeping and therefore missed her bus to take her to the train station... So she wasn't there to help us catch the bus and neither Katie or I knew how to get there. Of course, her regular bus that leads you right to her house doesn't run on the weekends and she didn't know how to explain where to get off at and how to get to her house from the revised line, she just knew. So after walking back and forth between several bus stops and numerous calls to Eliza, we finally ended up going on a bus next to the train station. Of course, we had just missed it and the next oen didn't come for another hour... Oh the woes of public transportation. You seriously don't understand how precious having a car and being able to drive anywhere, anytime you want without too much hassle is until you have to plan everything around a bus or train schedule. It is a complete drag. When we finally got to Eliza's, we got ready, and went to the party. But that ended up being pretty darn lame, cause like I said Halloween is new here in Belgium and everyone's costumes were really lame. At least there was some music and we had fun dancing with each other. But seriously, all of the hassle with the buses and things was not worth it. At all. But oh well, you win some you lose some. At least I will have many fun getting lost stories to tell whomever wants to hear. And it gives me something to write on my blog, and generally it ends up being because of our own stupidity, so they are generally pretty humorous too!