Happy birthday buddy

Yesterday was my best friend Simon's birthday, and like a great friend I forgot. So happy slightly belated birthday buddy, I can't wait to get back to Canada chill with you like before. I've got your address and you can bet there'll be a little package coming your way soon.

putain la vie est chiante

Well we're getting somewhere around a month since I last posted, and I'm bored as hell right now so I thought why not get some of my thoughts down.

So right now it's exams time at my school, and seeing as I only have three to write in the whole two week period (one being English) and also that no one gives a flying fiddler's stick how I do, and the Christmas break starts immediately afterwards, I'm pretty much left with a month off. Sounds great right? Guess again. I live in bloody party central here, seriously everyday there are like two or more huge events going on, but for me upstairs it can get pretty damn lame. So I've taken up reading, English books that is, I do read French books for school, but they're still a little ways away from being good pleasure-reading material. I've also started to buy more cd's, Dream Theater being my latest discovery, probably on account of my not being able to play music this year, which I wouldn't have ever guessed would be such a pain in the ass while I was here. It's getting a bit too expensive for sure though, which lead me to recently draw up a budget which should help me start saving more money. Good thing too, as I've already spent over a third of my savings in under four months, not too good.

I'll be moving in a couple of weeks which is going to be a welcome change I'm thinking, not that I'm not happy here, just that there's one person that manages to get on my nerves just about every single day and I reckon I would go mad if I had to live with him much longer. My next house should be a little less hectic too which will be more like home and thereby more to my liking. My next family are the Dufays', they live in Liège (as opposed to where I am right now in a suburb that's just so far as to make it annoying to go into Liège, which I do quite frequently) in a humble home with a little garden. The dad's name is Christian, I think he's an insurance broker, he works in insurance for sure anyway; the mother's name is Isabel, and I believe she's an English teacher (she won't speak English with me of course); and they have a son at home named Xavier who has a mental disability but is very friendly, they're all very friedly come to think of it. They have a daughter who's on exchange in Brazil whom they're going to see her at some point, like everyone else with kids on exchange, I seriously don't know why Rotary even says anything about it, no one listens. Anyways hopefully everything will be fine over there, not that I doubt that it will, but of course you always have little worries about going to live with strangers, which are mostly unfounded but present nevertheless.

So what else is new? Jeeze, it's been a quiet month, only a little excitement since Paris. I'm trying right now in a little episode of regret to register for the trip to Berlin with Rotary in April, and I say in an episode of regret because the registration's been open for over a month, but I originally didn't sign up thinking I'd be smart and save my parents some money, but when I talked to them recently they made it quite clear that I was to sign up for everything, that's why my mother's taking extra shifts and such. It's a strange thing, coming to worry about money after being so liberal with it for years as a care free teen, I mean I know my family's alright, they had the money to replace the downstairs carpet for pete's sake, plus they'll probably take a little vacation this year too, this with me here and my sister in university. Still though, spending a year not really working and getting to go lots of cool places at your parents' expense can make one feel guilty, it's why I wanted to work so much over the summer to earn lots, so I could have my own spending money as I currently do, but I know that they're fine with financing this because I'm learning a language and being exposed to a lot of culture and life. For Berlin anyways, there's 50 places, which isn't a lot for all the kids in Belgium, but it's not till April so I'm hoping some kids won't have registered right away to save them having to tie up €190 so far ahead of time. If I have missed it then that's a shame, as I probably won't have another chance to see it, and it's such an important place in 20th century history. I won't miss anymore opportunities to travel though, there's the Normandy tour which I'm going to do for sure, plus Eurotour in June. I'm still hoping another opportunity to go to London will present itself, after missing out on the Rotex trip I was consoled by the fact that the SEPA site (SEPA is the organization within Rotary in Belgium who organized the tip to Paris I went on, plus they're organizing the Normandy tour and Eurotour) said they would also be organizing a trip to London, but unfortunately it was removed from the site some time ago and I fear it won't be coming back. So I guess it's time to exploit some of my family contacts in the UK, there's mum's friends in Scotland, and I think they live near Glasgow or Edinburgh, both of which I wouldn't mind seeing. Also I'm hoping to be able to take advantage of some of the close-by day trips that are possible, cities like Maastricht (Holand), Amsterdam, Brugge (Flemmish Belgium), Antwerp (also Flemmish Belgium), Brussels, Lille, and some in Germany are all within such a distance that a single day trip is possible by train, the biggest benefit of a single day trip being that no paperwork is required, just permission from my host parents and possibly my couselor, then I can go with a friend and see lots of cool stuff.

What else then, oh yeah, I'm not cutting my hair this year, it's already been like 4 months, so soon I'll have wicked long hair, plus I'm groing a sweet shredder goatee that's filling in nicely, I pwn. I was recently very close to buying a guitar too, luckily that didn't work out though because I decided that my priority for my money next year needs to be seeing Rush on possibly their last ever world tour to promote they're new ablum which should be coming out sometime in the spring, making for a spring-sumer tour. Depending on how they set the dates I might be able to see them in Canada or western USA with my friends, if not I'll see them here, in the UK or Germany, they played Glasgow on their last tour (come to think of it, I hope mum's friends live near Glasgow), and they had like 5 dates in Germany, which is right next door. Hopefully I'll be able to see them with my friends, I'm going for sure though, and I'm going to buy my tickets the minute they go on sale so I can can be close enough to reach out and touch Big Al.

Well then, I guess I can finish this post up, first I'll address the photo issue though; I have a bunch of photos prepared to be uploaded but currently the computer situation is very unstable (it's seriously been killing me for the last month basically) and so I figure I'll be best off saving the task or getting those posted till after I've switched families, then you guys will have my other new pictures too which I still haven't uploaded. I sent my parents all the photos I've taken so far on two cds with their Christmas chocolate package, so they'll be happy, the rest of you can wait it out though. I should be getting my box from my parents tomorrow, so then maybe there'll be some sweet stuff to stave off boredom a little more, other than that I'll just keep reading the Lord of the Rings and listening to John Petrucci's mind blowing guitar.

See you guys soon, only seven more months! Oh yeah, I have to pick my date to come home, so give me suggestions of good dates and why I should pick them based on cool activities, important dates etc. That'll do then, bye bye. -Andrew

Paris trip update

Here is the letter I wrote home for the Paris trip. I promise I'll have photos up real soon.

Here we go again, another update from Andrew. I'll just star where we left off in our story, if you don't remember I had just returned from Marie-O's house after my first days in Belgium to begin my stay with my first host family, the D'Ippolitos.

So after returning to the house, which I described last time, it was a short few days of recuperation and settling in before heading off to the nearby town of Huy for two days where the students of my district came together for the inbound orientation. It was cool to have the opportunity to meet everyone for the first time, some of them being the first person of their nationality I had ever met in my life, and it's a good thing too because the sessions were just about rules and were in general pretty boring. We did get to go out and have a walking tour through the town, which has a castle (it's pretty much normal here) and some other nice sights, and then the first night they hald a danse, which was just like we did at the outbound orientation in Canada except that this time they served alcohol, go figure. The second day dragged on like the first just going to lots of sessions and speaking to people, and finally culminated in a two hour presentation in an auditorium we walked to in the rain. I was relieved to find my host mother there who afterwards took me and the three other girls who are hosted by my club (a Brazilian, Daphne, and two Americans, Chantelle and Dana, all very friendly) back to Liège.

We of course didn't rest for long after that trip either, because on the 31st we were off to Brussels for the day to visit the Royal Palace and the Senate with all the other exchange students in Belgium. We started in the morning with the palace, then in the afternoon we ate lunch at the Grande Place. There we got to see Mannekin Pis, a tiny statue of a little boy peeing which is supposed to be the symbol of Brussels, along with some very unique architecture, before backtracking a bit to the Belgian senate. The senate is housed in an extravagent building itself and the room itself where the senate meets is a huge ampitheatre with many paintings. At the senate we listened to several speeches including one from the speaker of the senate before being called up by country to present out club banners as a sumbol of cultural exchange (I think). On the whole it was an interesting day, the buildings were beautiful and the city was impressive, and I'm looking forward to going back soon in February when I'm seeing a concert.

So that's August out of the way, the first ten days have been recounted, from there though things have gotten calmer and it's only to be expected, we're not just tourists here, we live here for a year. Aside from my usual school schedule, which for me and many others also includes five hours of French school a week, I attend Rotary functions and meetings with my club, plus there is the occasional time when I do something fun outside with my family or one of the other families which will eventually be hosting me, then there's also stuff I do with school and the other exchange students which affords me the opportunity to get out and speak with people.

Well, I suppose now it's about time to get to the real reason I'm writing here, to tell you all about my amazing trip to Paris. To explain Paris takes more than words, it's easily one of the most beautiful cities on earth, so I'll be attaching photos this time too for your viewing pleasure and to help me out. It went like this, Friday morning I met the other kids from my district who were going at the train station where we boarded our double-decker bus and hit the road. We had two other stops in Belgium, Mons ans Namur, where we picked up other exchange students because the trip was actually open to all the districts in Belgium. There were 65 of us went in total, with enough South Americans piled together to ensure that the whole trip had a running soundtrack of latin songs and chants they somehow all know no matter what language they're in. The trip was about five hours, though it's not that far, there's just a lot of people going to Paris on the weekend. Finally getting into the city though was unbelievable, first thing on the left was le Stade de France, where Zidane led France to their first and so far only world cup, then on the skyline through the smog the top of the Eiffel tower became visible and we were all in a photo frenzie despite the fact that it was our first stop. Getting closer and closer to the Eiffel tower was quite amazing, it's this place you've seen so many times in pictures and movies and then to finally see it towering over you becoming larger and larger, the feeling is simply indescribable. We had a couple of hours to see it, which at first seemed like a lot but after spending a great deal of time at the bottom taking pictures and then taking the two elevator rides up to the top it was getting dark and almost time to go. As we all were seperately making our way back to the bus the tower was illuminated making it even more beautiful. We finally managed to get everyone back on the bus around 6 and from there were on our way to the youth hostel where were staying, just in time to see them turn on the blinking lights that are all over the tower, it was even more beautiful still. It really doesn't surprise me much that it's the most visited site in the world. Moving on, Friday night was free time in the city until 12:30, so naturally everyone went out drinking in the "Quatier Latin," it was so expensive, but we justified the cost because it was our free night in Paris, or as one American tourist we met put it, "This isn't Paris, this is Paradise." Saturday morning was a nice bright and early gummy-eyed start, a horrible breakfast in the hostel followed by our trip to the Chateau Versailles. It was unfortunate because as cool as Versailles is, being that it was once the home of some of the biggest figures in European history, it was in the process of a big renovation so half the things were covered or inaccessible. It was still cool to see all the paintings and sculputres of people like Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, and Napoleon Bonaparte. After leaving Versailles we went back to Paris where we drove down the Champs Elyssés and saw the "Arc de Triomphe," which was huge and beautiful but unfortunately we just got a driveby view and weren't able to stop and see it. I got some good pictures anyways. We ate lunch after that (another crappy meal, pretty disappointing seeing as we were in Paris) before heading to the area called "Montmarte" which was the setting for the film "Amélie," and is also the home of the "Moulin Rouge." We were there to see the "Basilique du Sacré Coeur," or, "Basilica of the Sacred Heart." The basilica is a huge gleaming white church on top of a hill with several flights of stairs leading up to it, which we were able to climb after getting through the mob of particulary persistent street vendors. Naturally like all the most beautiful things in Paris we weren't permitted to take photographs, and our time was limited so we only got one walk-through before having to go back and wait for the bus. Little did we know however that we actually had a lot more time than anticipated as our driver got stuck in traffic and we wound up waiting in the street for an hour and a half doing nothing but getting cold, and as a result we missed our tour of Notre Dame cathedral. After our bus driver finally arrived it was back to the hostel for yet another meal of slop and some waiting before our evening activity, a boat ride on the Seine river. The boat ride actually turned out to be one of my favourite things we did in Paris because we got to see literally all of the most famous monuments of the city with an audio tour and it was very beautiful. Sunday was the end, the single biggest thing to see in Paris, which is supposed to take three days to see as opposed to our three hours, but what the heck, it was the Louvre! It's such an intimidating place, the crowds are unbelieveable and the security guards are always watching you like a hawk to make sure you don't take any pictures. Right from the parking garage we had our first photo-op when we entered the hall where the two converging pyramids are which was made so famous recently by the DaVinci Code (the joke while we were there was that the Louvre didn't matter, just seeing where Tom Hanks was). Now I can't say that I'm really much of an appreciator of art, it's very beautiful and all but really just never tickled my fancy, that was not the case with "La Joconde," or as you better know it, "The Mona Lisa." She's actually quite a lot smaller than I had imagined, but none the less beautiful, but I think what really attracted me to her was just the knowledge that she was painted by one of the most brilliant minds of history, using a technique that no one can replicate to this day. I tried to get a picture really quick in the crowd without the flash while the guards nearest me weren't looking, but another one saw me and told me off in French, and all I wound up with was a blur. The other Da Vinci paintings were equally impressive, they have their own little section of wall just outside the hall where the Mona Lisa is housed, paintings like "the Madonna of the Rocks," and "Saint John the Baptist." Some other big works I got to see were the "Venus de Milo," and the "Sacré de Napoleon I." After seeing the biggest pieces of art I took a little time outside to take pictures before we had to get back to the bus. Our last stop in Paris was the Hard Rock Café. Being that it is one of the bigger ones there were some really sweet pieces memorabilia which we all went around shamelessly photographing despite the fact that they were hung over the tables of strangers who were eating their lunch. Ironically enough the meal was a cheeseburger and fries and it was actually the best meal we got in Paris, but what else can you expect when you're on a budget. Yes, in all I would have to say that it was probably about the best €190 my parents have ever spent, I really enjoyed Paris, and I know that it's a city I'll see again in my life so I'm not that worried about the things I missed or the food I didn't get to eat. Getting back Sunday night at ten and then getting up at 7 the next morning for school was tough, but I soldiered through it, I even went to French school that night, I sure am one tough Canadian lumberjack he-man.

Goodness, I'm sure this is getting long, I've been writing for a couple hours I think, not much more to say though. Since I got back it's been a couple of lazy weeks at school, well, I wouldn't say that really, I actually finished my first ever book in French and I'm already working on my second. Last night was pretty awesome too, my next host dad has season tickets for Standard de Liège, which is the big local team in the Belgian Jupiler league, anyways he couldn't go so I got to instead. It was a real rush going to my first ever pro soccer game, the supporters were unbelievable, I bought a scarf to blend in. Standard really outplayed the other team, St. Trond, and they had the lead at the beginning of the second half, but after two pretty madly missed offsides the other team came back with two goals to win the match. Everyone was so mad, I thought there was going to be a riot. I can't wait to do that again, it's really something we don't get to experience in Canada, it's unique from the hockey games.

Well, I've got to get off the computer, my host brother needs to work and I'm sure I'm being pretty annoying taking it for so long, I'll send photos, but in another e-mail, this is just getting too long. For now you can see some photos of our Wednesday activities here:

http://www.sepbelgium.org/d1630/1Photo06-07.htm

and soon I'll have a bunch of photos posted on my blog here:

andrewenblegique.blogspot.com

So until next time, take care, merry Christmas and a happy new year if it takes that long for me to write again, enjoy the weather, I heard it's lovely. -Andrew

First Letter Home

So here's the first letter I wrote home, it's really long and only recounts the first couple days I think, I'll put some pictures up too.

Yep, it's me, everbody's favourite estranged exchange student, that guy in Belgium, also known as Andrew. So I figured it was about time I wrote all of you an e-mail to let you know what's been happening since I got here, there's been a lot, and in what has seemed like a very short time span.

So I'll get right to it, I arrived on the 20th of August here in Belgium after about 24 hours of travelling, and then after another half an hour of wandering around the Brussels airport after getting my luggage (it got there okay, I was so relieved) I finally found my way through the doors where everyone was waiting for arrivals, my first host mother and brother included. It was overwhelming to say the least, one minute I was casually pulling my things along totally content and then the next I was being asked questions in rapid-fire French and having to think and respond with what little mental alertness I still possessed. It started when my host mother starting yelling my name in the crowd and waving, I didn't recognize her, but luckily she was with my host brother who I did recognize as I had been speaking with him for some time previous to that. Next she came to greet me with a big bisou (the little kiss of the air next to someone's cheek) and naturally being a North American male I recoiled and gave her a strange look, which she found greatly amusing. The three of us then piled my stuff into their little Volks Wagon Golf (nope, no pickups here) and started the one-hour drive from Brussels to Liège, Belgium's third largest city and the place I currently call home.

In the car my host mother offered me iced tea and gum but I didn't really want anything, so she said I could go to sleep to which I, the guy who didn't know when to quit and needed to see everything the first day said, "No no, I'm fine" (in French of course). I got about ten minutes before I was out like a baby in a stroller oblivious to evertything happening around. When I woke up my host mother told me that we were in Liège (I was so disoriented she could have told me we were anywhere and I would have had to take her word for it), and shortly thereafter we pulled up at the house/restaurant of my first host family, the D'Ippolito's.

The first person to greet me at the house was my host father Paolo (the one I said looks like Super Mario), he was wearing (what I have come to know as) his usual striped pants and white chefs tunic, he too greeted me with a big bisou (which I was more prepared for) and a handshake, and a big grin. The thing about Paolo is that he is a big guy, he has a deep voice and a big moustache, he owns and runs his restaurant and he's the president of the Rotary club here, so he came of as a little intimidating at first, but I realized soon after meeting him that he was going to be alright when his first act as my host father was to inviting me in for a beer, in true Belgian fashion. I was only actually at my house the first day for a couple of hours, their daughter Aurelia who is the same age as me was leaving for Chiliwack the next day, so we had arranged ahead of time for me to stay at Marie-O's until tuesday after she had left and the family had time to prepare to recieve me properly. In those two hours though I literally met my entire extended host family, including the parents of my host dad (who are currently in Sicile at their house there where I have been invited to stay for a week in July, I had to include that, it's so amazing), my host dad's brother Serge, Aurelia, their oldest son Samuel and his fiance, and probably some others I don't remember because it was so much.

So after preparing a bag and relaxing with some pizza prepared by my host dad Marie-O arrived with her father Charlie and we left for her house in the south of Belgium, about another hour's drive which I was determined to stay awake for but again only managed to last until we were on the highway. That night we met Marie-O's mother Nadine and her younger sister Clotilde at a café in the little historical town of Bastogne (it was apparent immediately when the vehicle in the parking space next to us was a WWII Sherman tank), I was treated to another beer and a delicious Belgian dish similar to scalloped potatoes with bacon and cheese (similar, except that they put beer on top, who'd have guessed) and afterwards we went to see the American war memorial there which is huge and we were able to go on top where there's telescopes, though they weren't much use to us. Anyways, we went back to Marie-O's house and they set up a bed to me which I was happy for, I slept about 12 hours that night, I would have slept more but we had to get up early the next day to go to Luxembourg city.

Luxembourg city is weird because it's almost like it's too good to be true, it's not like the city where I'm living, there's nothing in disrepair, there's no homeless people, and everyone wears suits and drives Range Rovers (although there was the one universal European fault which is careless owners letting their dogs do their business on the sidewalks and not cleaning it up so that someone inevitably steps in it, seriously, you have to watch your step everywhere you go here). We did a walking tour, there's a beautiful river running through the lower level of the city and all along it perfect gardens maintained by the city, and a bridge dating back several hundreds of years with historical information plaques in every language immaginable decribing the origins of everything around. Later we went into the upper part of the city where we stopped for a beer before heading to the Casemates, a huge sytem of tunnels dug out as a defensive position in a cliff overlooking the lower part of the city where cannons were once placed and a garrison stayed. It was awfully interesting, and to think they did it without any of the modern machines was impressive (though then you just think of Europe's history and you know it was probably done with slaves so it's a bit tainted that way). The whole system goes on for some way and descends downward to another level as you progress further, and it's all underground to it's quite humid and damp and when you combine that with stone steps that are hundreds of years old and an inquisitive exchange student admiring the funny green stuff on the wall you wind up with sore tailbone and a nearly broken wrist. Yes, that was my round-about way of telling you I fell down the stairs and hurt myself, it was to get worse though, as afterwards I found it particulary hard to breath the humid air and wound up blacking out, coming too a few seconds later cold and confused, my mind decided at that point that the best thing for my body to do was to start running to get out of the caves, so that's what I did, with Marie-O and her family chasing me I made my way to the upper level where I could get fresh air, nearly falling twice more in the process, and in places that would have been much more dangerous. After that ordeal and a rest break we got some lunch, oddly enough no beer that time though. We spent a couple more hours walking around after that before deciding to head back to Marie-O's house where we watched Madagascar in French. That night I was happy to relax and have another full night's sleep, as the next day my real exchange commenced as I was officially beginning my stay at chez D'Ippolito.

My house here as I mentioned doubles as a restaurant, well, not like you would think of a restaurant, people don't come for lunch and drinks, they host huge banquets and wedding receptions and such, so anyways in looks from the outside like I look in a mansion, but really it's a nice humble home with the majority of the space being occupied by large dining rooms and two kitchens on two levels. I spent the rest of the month there learning my way around and getting settled, doing stuff with my host parents and host brother, adjusting to the time difference and the new language. Included in that time was an orientation weekend for my district and a trip to Brussels to visit the Royal Palace and the Senate with all the exchange students in Belgium, around 300 I think. There's certainly a lot to be said about those trips too but I'll save those stories for the next time I decide to sit down and write.

For now my life has assumed a nice routine, including school, which is going fine, that is, the kids are all nice and speak to me and I'm having fun in my classes, it's certainly not the same as in Canada though as I'm not really expected to do work at this point and I have no objections to living up to that expectation. I'm so busy as it is, I have no idea how I'm going to pull it off when I can't say I didn't understand anymore (it's actually not always the truth that I didn't understand as it is, in fact my French is coming along nicely, unlike some of the exchange students here who have no desire to learn to speak French but are rather here to drink and party and take advantage of Belgium's proximity to Holland and it's abundant... liberalness), but for now I'm not worrying about it that much because it's the first time in my life I've ever been able to do that. It's kind of funny, I talk about having it easy here for the moment but in actuality I have more hours of class a week than I ever did in Canada, and I have a drastically reduced schedule, the serious students here have around 36 hours of classes a week. In my free time I occasionally get to see Marie-O, she is studying here in the city so every so often we can meet which is nice to see a friend when other times it can be a bit lonely, the weekends especially, but I'm doing a good time staving off boredom in those times by playing soccer and helping my host father in the kitchen (it's okay Moira I'm not actually working, I do simple stuff and I'm not obliged to be there ;-) ).

The coming months are going to hold a lot of adventure, including a trip to Paris at the beginning of November, so I should have more to write home about and I'll also try and do a better job of writing more often and I'll get some pics up on my blog soon I promise. In the meantime if you have any questions for me or want to see pictures or want to try and get in my good books to have some chocolate shipped your way (this stuff is divine, I have to be careful, I'm doing good so far though, no Rotary 30), then by all means write me an e-mail, I'd be happy to write back and it's always nicer when you sign on to msn to see that you have new messages. To Moira I'd be interested to know how Paula from Poland is fairing and also who the exchange student is this year for the morning club, and then I suppose later I should also like to get in contact with next year's outbound.

I think that ought to do it for this time though, I wish I could write about everything but that'd be tough, fortunately though I'm doing a good job of taking lots of pictures so they'll be able to fill in the gaps later. Oh dear look at the time it's nearly 10:30, I'll be going now then, thanks for reading and your replies are always welcome, à bientôt. -Andrew

Remembrance Day

Being that it is November 11, and almost the 11th hour as they would have known it in 1918, I should take the time to pay my respects to all the brave Canadian men and women that have given so much through the world wars, Korea, the peacekeeping missions in Cyprus the Balkans and elsewhere, and now finally in the tough fight in Afghanistan so that home in Canada we could live safe and secure knowing that there were others out facing the dangers of the world far from our homes. We owe so much to all of them and we must never forget what they did and we must do everything in our power, even if that means more fighting, to prevent the kind of destruction and death that the world knew in the 20th century. Which is why I would appeal to all Canadians to keep supporting the troops and wearing red on Fridays, because afterall, they can talk about the mission all they want in parliament, it's just going to keep coming back to the fact that it is not an unjust mission and that Canadians should be proud to be able to do something so noble for the world, but we must never question the soldiers or use them as a scapegoat for political means, they're performing professionally every day in one of the most dangerous places on earth the jobs that the critics at home would never have the courage to do, and they're doing it without question, because Canada asked them to, and we would never ask them to do anything dangerous unless it would serve the purpose of promoting peace and security in Canada and around the world. At 11 I will be observing the two minutes of silence and thinking hard about the images of caskets draped in the Maple Leaf being loaded onto airplanes by crying soldiers marching to the cadence of the piper playing the lament which I have seen time and again since I arrived here, in another safe nation, knowing that it is because of their sacrifices and the sacrifices of the thousands before them that I am able live the blessed life that I am. Thank you all. Lest we forget.

Blog Revived

Well here it is, my first post on this blog since arriving in Belgium almost three months ago. It doesn't surprise me much really that I've not kept up with it, I'm much more a fan of reading than writing, and as much as I've wanted to write long posts about all the amazing stuff I'm doing here it's just always seemed so daunting as there's so much to say.

I don't want to abandon this project though, not at all, but rather I'm just going to start following others' examples and just keep it simple with pictures and captions, and then when I write an update home I'll just post the e-mail or if something really important happens and I want to talk about it then I'll do that too. I've already got one such e-mail to post, and having just recently returned from Paris I've got another one to write this weekend, and I've got no shortage of photos to post either.

As far as my desire to make this something of a resource for future exchange students I don't know, I can offer some general stuff but there's really no hard and fast set of guidelines for being an exchange student as I learned very quickly after arriving here. Having seen what it was like for a very linguistically and culturally mixed group of students spread out over a large area as the exchange students in my district in Canada were, I can say that the life here, though in essence the same life, has quite a lot of differences. It's easy to imagine what happens: a large group of anglophones, Spanish speakers, Portugese speakers, and a few others, concentrated in a small area where drinking to excess or buying marijuana is as easy as catching a bus or train into the city, in an archaic school system that engenders nothing but contempt (for North American's anyways, I'm sure some kids are finding it to be a nice break), with a lot of trips and activities organized in between, it's no wonder that the exchange students here quickly form their own microcosmic society, complete with a class system and the universally spoken language (English of course) within the country they're living in and it becomes virtually unneccessary for them to learn the language or culture beyond the extent of knowing which beers are the best and how to order them.

I may sound a bit embittered, but if I am it's only because of the love-hate relationship I have with the exchange program here, I mean, we do so much and it's so well organized, but it has those fundamental flaws which annoy someone like me who tends to see a year in a Europe for the great oppotunity for learning and growth that it is as opposed to the opportunity for partying it is (that is not to say that I don't have fun from time to time, but not every week and certainly never doing anything as stupid as using drugs which could easily get me sent home).

The language thing gets to me especially I think, I mean I studied French for years and as such came with a strong base (91% on the provincial, I still have to post the rest of the marks, it just gets better!!!) with which I've been able to make what I consider to be good progress, but I still can't help wondering what it would be like or how much I could have progressed if everything I did here promoted the immersion process. In theory, I could live the whole year here on no more French than can be found in a little phrase book, being that the majority of people here understand or speak English, and that annoys me, I don't want to be seen as some fat ignorant American tourist here, I want to have to adapt myself 100% to the language and culture as the students in my district last year did, hell you could even say I'm jealous of them.

The school system I would have to say, at least for now, is number two. Now let me first get it out of the way that I'm not someone who routinely goes about criticizing something so intricate and difficult to manage as a school system, and I don't like to say one idea is better than another (it usually results in me getting my head bitten off), but for the sake of progress isn't it sometimes better to do that? Otherwise wouldn't we still be living with medieval living standards mixed with current living standards because we would be too afraid to stand up to people who defend the medieval standards as simply being "different, not better or worse, different."? Okay, so it's a weird example but what I'm really getting at here are the things the students are forced to endure (10 hour school days for example), it must be awful enough being a student here, having practically no choices except how many hours of everything they want to take, and there is a minimum for EVERY subject, yes, the kids take EVERY subject, and the only way for a student to get out of a subject is to take more hours of a harder subject. For the exchange students though I think it really isn't a place where they're ever excited to go because unlike in North America where they are on a semester system (which I can't tell you how much I prefer, it's simply second to none I'm sorry) and are able to take courses like art, drama, music, cooking, or if they want, harder courses (the good thing being here they have the choice), exchange students are simply thrust into the full on schedule of their peers.

Now you my look back at this point and say something along the lines of, "Andrew, you're so dumb, first you say you want real immersion then you say you want a watered down school system, what kind of a whimp are you?" and while you may be right to say it, I'm simply looking at it as an issue where instead of being able to take a light schedule where one can concentrate on learning language and making friends, we are instead forced to worry about math and science and unbearable hours of French (French being of course as we study English)and school becomes just an annoying thing we are forced to do during the day so we can see our exchange student friends at night.

Really I could go on for quite some time about the things that annoy me at school, there's a lot, but I chose to tell you about those things because I think it's an important issue for exchange students, like the language, it's just very unbalanced all over the world (I hope I didn't just sound like Jack Layton, I hate that man so much and I've got a great analogy for him to consider, which I'll write out later), and while I know that we the students are the one's who must adapt ourselves I can't help but think that this is one area where I've truely been fortunate to come from a great system which I could share with the people here (that is afterall my job, not just to take but also to give and share).

Enough about that though, that's my bitching out of the way, now back to the future of this blog. I intend to get caught right up today, which is going to mean posting a tonne of pictures, the e-mail I wrote home, plus another e-mail I still have to write about my trip to Paris. When it's all done though I'll have a good base to start inmplementing my new plan for keeping this blog current, as I outlined in the second paragraph. As far as this post goes I've said just about all I want to say, except for a couple things I'm going to write about quickly at the ned here but they're unrelated, if you've gotten this far then read on if you want to, otherwise hopefully the rest of the stuff, or at least part of it is up by now for your viewing and reading pleasure. So thank you very much for bearing with me.

So, I just wanted to quickly tell you about my provincial marks, you already know I got 91% on the French provincial, next is my highest mark, 99% on the English provincial (don't ask me how, I seriously thought those were some of the crappiest essays I ever wrote), and finally my most important mark, 98% on the chemistry 12 provincial, which, while not being as hard as math, was still extremely difficult but having learned my lesson from January I really took the time to make sure I was better prepared for the chem exam and it payed off. So for next year comes the problem, I can't start university right away, I simply don't have the courses and having taken a year off from the courses I do have they're liable to not be very fresh in my mind, so basically what I have to do is decide whether to do one semester of upgrading then work to save for university while still missing one course, or, upgrade for a full school year and then work in the summer before starting university with all the courses I could need. Beyond that there's the decision of whether to do my upgrading at the high school for free (a little embarrassing to be taking classes with kids two years younger than you as you approach 20 years of age) or at the college for a minor cost (which I'm still not entirely sure I can do). One thing is for certain though, come September, 2008, I will be starting my bachelor's program, and contrary to my original plans to study science, I have decided that it is in my best interest as well as better suited to the kind of career I want to pursue engineering instead of simply chemistry. The reasons became quite obvious to me after having a crisis due to the fact that I still hadn't picked a career that I wanted my studies to lead to, then after some research I realized that the thing I had in mind, a career where I would use math and science to solve problems and complete projects, is exactly what being a professional engineer entails, and so I think I've finally made a decision that's going to lead me to the kind of career I've always dreamed of but never been able quite put my finger on.

Well I hope you enjoy the blog in it's new spleador, it's taken a lot of energy and frustration over difficulties with the Enlgish language to revive it. I look forward to seeing everyone soon. -Andrew

à propos de moi

Well I'm finally done, high school that is. I wrote all my exams, three provincials which I'll know the results of at the end of the month, and one final for physics 11 which I got 97% on, which is in fact my highest mark ever for a final beating my previous record of 96% for chemistry and biology 11. I've also finally managed to get my visa applications sent away with only a couple of errors on my part, so with any luck that will work out good, though I'm not that concerned if it doesn't.

Anyways, I realized the other day that I've been posting on this blog occasionally and writing on different stuff but that I've never really said too much about myself, so I thought it was about time I let all my non-existent readers in on the story of Andrew.

My name is Andrew William Salmon, my father's name is Keith, my mother's name is Janice, I have an older sister named Heather, and a younger sister named Emily. I was born at 11:25pm on May 22, 1988 in Saint John, New Brunswick. Saint John was my home until I was six years old, it is a city of around 200,000 people so probably not all that dissimilar from Liège except for the fact that it is right next to the Atlantic ocean. When I was six, shortly following the birth of my younger sister Emily, I moved to a village about a half an hour outside of Saint John called Grand Bay. I spent the next three years in Grand Bay growing and enjoying east coast life until, in 1997, my family and I moved across Canada (no small move as I will demonstrate later) to the town where I currently live, Fort St. John, British Columbia. So for the past nine years I've been here now, going to school, living my life, doing other activities, though it has become admittedly redundant and that is partly why I decided to do this exchange thing, for an adventure and a change of pace.

I suppose now that I've given you a short history I should get down to the real me as it is often missed by people I do not have the time to open up to. I'm a bit funny in that I'm sometimes self contradictory, that is, I say things and mean others, and I do this for various reasons, but mostly just to keep up a bit of a facade so I don't have to become too close to anyone or anything I don't choose to be close to. I like making people laugh, just being outright dumb sometimes but most of the time just with good situational humour, some people have told me I could make a name for myself in stand up comedy, but I don't really believe that. I love science, chemistry in particular, because everything about it fascinates me as it allows me to examine what it is that causes all the things happening around me everyday. I think without science we would still be nothing but primitives fighting overridiculouss religions and never making any cultural progress. That's not to say that we still don't do these things to some extent, but I think looking back we can see that on the whole western civilization has brought about a great era and holds the most promise for a peaceful and prosperous future. I'm definitely pro defense, no, I'm not a Bush lover, I just believe that you can't get the job done in the most violent places without showing that you have teeth of your own and aren't just there to be able to say you tried. Take Afghanistan for example, I cannot believe that people want to pull the Canadian forces out of Afghanistan. Yes, people are dieing and that's sad but our soldiers sign up because they are willing to take that risk to defend the interests of Canada, and you're absolutely stupid if you don't think that keeping a country from becoming a breeding ground for extremism and terrorism isn't defending the interests of Canada or the rest of the western world for that matter. I love music, I think it is the most scientific of the arts for sure because it takes a great deal of work and knowledge to produce beautiful music, that is, you can't just throw some paint at a canvas and call it modern art in music, well I suppose there are things like rap and death metal that would fall into that category but I don't even consider them to be music. I play the electric guitar and the euphonium (a low brass instrument) in different bands and for musicals, I'm not the greatest of musicians, but I try. I'm a capitalist, but I believe in equal rights, and by that I mean that everyone should start out the same, and in the end if one person decides to work harder than the rest to get ahead then good for him, and he shouldn't ever have to pay a dime to the guy who decided to just have fun instead. You can probably see that my thought processes go all over the place from reading this, and I have to say I realize I do that and that I think it's a good quality I possess, because I think it that connecting things like that all the time really helps me see the big picture which I think is one of the most important things a person can do. I haven't really decided exactly what I want to do with my life yet, I've thought about joining the army for a while, but I know I want to get my degree first and I know that I want to study science, from there I've thought about being a teacher or getting into the lucrative oil and gas industry which has made so many people around these parts rich beyond their wildest dreams, I've thought about becoming a doctor, I'm not sure though. I've also got to thinking about living somewhere totally new later on, maybe Quebec or France or even Belgium once I have French, pretty much it'll be all open to me so I'd like to at least try it at some point in my life. For sure I want to have kids and a house one day, which some people think is boring but for me it's just fine.
Well
I can't really think of too much to say right now, but chances are that if you're ever reading this then you're someone I'll be getting to know a bit anyways so this can just serve as a base for whatever else you learn about me by being around me.

Today is a pretty weird day because a couple of good exchange student friends left home. My good friend Ilenia is on her way back to Italy and my friend Herbert is heading back to Holland and so people are a bit sad. It's got me think about what it's going to be like when Marie-O leaves and also for me around this time next year. It also makes me realize just how much of a life changing experience these years we brave few undertake are as they really cause a lot of change and growth by causing us to adapt as we ride the emotional roller coaster from start to finish.

Today also marks 50 days until I'm on my way to Belgium, so I've made a couple of maps to give people an idea about the distances I've covered to come to the various places I've lived and will live. I hope you'll enjoy seeing just how many times I've crossed Belgium in my life, it's pretty impressive eh? (Canadianism)

(Click on images to see them more clearly)



















Saint John, NB to Fort St. John, BC

















Fort St. John to Vanvouver to London to Brussels then Liège

2 months out

Well, I've got a big essay to write and a physics test tomorrow so of course I'm on here posting unnecessarily so that I can maintain my position as the king of procrastination. Actually, I'm making a post today for a couple of reasons and they are good ones so I think I can justify taking fifteen minutes out of my school work to make a short post.

First, as we approach the half way mark of June it becomes necessary to comment that I've only got a little over 2 months until j jour. I've finally been able to get a date for arrival in Belgium so I'll be sending my visa applications this week and hopefully that'll work out okay because otherwise I'll be in deep merde. I'm not worried though, the people at the Belgian consulate (especially the lady in charge of visas) know me by now after all my annoying them so I'm sure they'll be happy to process my application quickly so they'll never have to deal with me again.

Second, I've found a great resource that I think any anglophone going on an exchange to a francophone country should know about. Through the apple program "Itunes" there are these thing called "podcasts" which are really just free downloadable audio and video broadcasts which you can subscribe to; these broadcasts cover pretty much all topics and are totally browsable so you can find whatever you're looking for. So anyways, while taking a look around these podcasts for the first time last night for fifa world cup videos I found in the "education" section a weekly podcast called "The French Pod Class." I downloaded the latest episode to check it out (it only took about a minute) and was totally surprised to find this whole French lesson, taught by a Frenchman named Sebastien, complete with conversations, grammar, a movie review, and vocab, all with running translations and explanations and also a few music breaks (playing French songs naturally) after which the host explained what was happening in the song. So after being so totally blown away by this great quality, 35 minute French lesson I went to the page of the broadcast through Itunes and found to my delight an additional 45 older episodes available. I found that in addition to all I had discovered in the most recent lesson, each lesson has an available transcript of the vocab and grammar covered and links to find the music played. Also, I found that the occasional episode comes with a video of about 10 minutes in length which shows some great French locations and common shops with explanations on their significance to French people. There are also things like book reviews and exercises with solutions, all of which relates to what is being taught in the accompanying lesson. Really I couldn't believe that this amazing broadcast would ever be available for free but it completely is and I'm having a blast getting all these lessons downloaded onto my computer so I can put them on my Ipod and have them to listen to whenever. Really for anyone taking high school French or for anyone like me going on exchange to a francophone country with an intermediate level of French this Podcast which you can subscribe to totally free is an invaluable resource so do yourself a favour and check it out because it's really cool.

So what I'll do is put the link for the French Pod Class website on the right sight of the page so you can go have a look once it's back up as it's down for the time while it's being remodelled. Other than that I think that should about do it for what I wanted to say, I'm sure I'll be posting a few more times before I hop the plane over to Belgique but for the next few weeks I'll be busy with exams so I'll take my usual leave of absence. So, à la prochaine. -Andrew

First Contact

So after returning home today after a long day at school I was very pleased to find that I had recieved an e-mail from my first host brother. His name is Fabrice, he is 16 years old, and he is the youngest of his family. Here is his e-mail:


Je m'appelle Fabrice et je t'envoie cet e-mail de la part de toute la famille, je suis le derniere enfant de la famille. Excuse nous pour le retard pour prendre contact avec toi mais nous avions beaucouo de travail en ce moment. Nous sommes ta premiere famille a t'acceuillir pour échange du Rotary. Si tu as des questions à nous posez tu peux toujours nous envoyez un e-mail sur cet address: ..............................., nous te repondrons le plus vite que nous le pourrons. Nous sommes ta premiere famille et tu restera bien 4 mois chez nous. Si tu ne comprend pas tu peux toujours nous envoyer un e-mail pour que on te le traduise


Of course I understood what it said because luckily he kept it very simple, even I found humour in the last line; I mean, if I didn't understand French, how would I know they could translate the e-mail for me? Whatever, I'm just so glad to have finally gotten some word from Belgium.

I also sent Fabrice a short e-mail to introduce myself and explain that I would have lots of questions for him and his family in due course (actually, when I can get some help from my Belgian friend or my French teacher) which I'm hoping he will be able to understand despite my mediocre French. Now if only my guarantee form would finally come! -Andrew

Orientation Pictures

At the hotel: Marie-O, our resident Belgian inbound and my good friend sporting her very heavy blazer.















The sessions: stuck in the back at the Belgium table.















The weather: Firday night and Saturday morning the was a blizzard in Edmonton which put down probably one of the most significant snow falls of the year being that it was the warmest Canadian winter on record EVER.




















The dinner: Terry, the new-back from Belgium who stayed in Liège, carrying the Belgium flag and leading the five of us marching under it into the dinner in the parade of nations.
















The end: Our district banner, I found out 5370 is actually the second largest Rotary district in the world which is funny because it's in Canada which is the second largest country in the world.

Spring Orientation

Whew, so I'm finally able to get beck here and get working on this blog again after a few busy weeks at school, the good news is I OWN at chemistry and my average so far for grade 12 is 90%! Well, back to exchange stuff I guess. So I thought a good place to start for this blog would be the spring orientation which was held in Edmonton, Alberta on March 17-19, 2006.

I honestly didn't really know what to expect going in to the weekend but I tried to stay open because it was my first experience as an exchange student and I knew probably my only experience I will have as an exchange student before I'm actually in Belgium.

So we drove seven hours to Edmonton and stayed at a hotel there which had big convention rooms which the Rotary took over for the weekend to hold the many information sessions. Friday and Saturday were both full days with sessions for each of the three groups (outbounds, inbounds and new-backs/rebounds) and an assortment of guest speakers lecturing on everything from health topics to cultural sensitivity. We also had our pictures taken and were fitted for our blazers. Saturday night there was a big dinner and dance (I steered clear of the dance so as not to reveal my vulnerability of having two left feet). We had to sing to our parents before dinner which was a little weird but luckily they also brought in a couple of guys who did an improv comedy act which was pretty entertaining so it wasn't too bad in the end. On Sunday we were given binders which included rules, contact information, preparation and after arival/during information and work, a section with information about Canada, and some recipes. They were really well done and it was nice to get a resource like that all put together making it no longer necessary to do that yourself. So a big thank you to, I think, Sally Schilds, and also to whoever helped her out with those. Also I guess it is necessary to thank everyone from Rotary who put together the whole weekend, I'm really looking forward to seeing them all again when it is my turn to teach the outbounds in two years.

Probably my favourite part of the weekend was meeting everyone, the inbounds, the new-backs, my fellow outbounds, and also the district exchange commitee who seem very dedicated to running a great program for the students. The most informative sessions for me were the ones which focused on life on exchange, the majority of those being done by the new-backs who all had very interesting stories and some useful advice.

One thing about the orientation weekend which I didn't really enjoy was the fact that we spent a fair bit of time in sessions which really didn't need to be sessions. That is, if instead of sending us to a session on travel health or staying safe on exchange (not to say those are not important) they had just given us information pamphlets, we could have had more time to focus on some of the topics which become of more concern when it comes to preparing for exchange. The other thing which personally offended me a little bit (though that may well have just been me) was that the outbound students were left out of all the seesions which had the information on things like travel arrangements and insurance, which I found to be a bit patronizing. This becomes of particular concern to me now as I am someone who feels that I, as the exchange student am responsible for my preparations and I have no intention of relying on my parents to do things like visa applications for me when I am perfectly capable of doing them myself with a little information; information which I am finding extremely difficult to get now.

Well that ought to about do it I suppose, I praised, I bitched, I revealed awkward secrets and I hopefully was able to shed some light on what the orientation was about and how it worked. Being so dorky I've taken a minute to add up the days to when I could potentially be leaving (I used the computer calculator and calendar so it didn't take long, I'm not that dorky to go to my wall calendar and count each day) and if I were to leave on August 15 then it is actually 100 days exactly which provokes both feelings of anxiety and excitement right now. Ah well, here's some eye candy, no it's not me in short shorts, it's pictures from the weekend:

Okay, I tried twice and they won't upload to this post so I think I'm just going to put them in a seperate post.

first post/le premier posté

Hello, and welcome to my blog/Bonjour, et bienvenue à mon journal électronique. As some of you may know my name is Andrew and starting this August I am beginning a year on exchange in Belgium through Rotary International. With a little effort on my part I should be able to keep up with posting on this blog weekly and on special occasions as the year goes on, though I know there will be times I will be doing so much it will be hard to stay on top of it. I'll try my best though.

So anyways, I've decided that this blog really needs to become something of a resource for future outbound students as I've found it hard myself to get good answers some of the time. This means that in addition to sharing my adventures I'll be doing my best to be critical and elaborate on some of the negative aspects and learning experiences I go through in the months leading up to, and during my exchange. I'll also start to make this as much of a bilingual blog as I can once my French improves and I meet more people in Belgium who I can share it with.

Well I'm still four months away from leaving but I've already got quite a story to tell and even some things to offer my two cents on, so I'll finish this introductory entry now and let you get on to seeing what life as an exchange student is like. -Andrew