Luxembourg

The day after Christmas, my host family took a drive around part of the perimeter of Luxembourg. First, we drove right across the country into Vianden, a village just on the border of Luxembourg and Germany which is home to a rather famous castle. In the 1860s and 70s, Vianden castle was host to Victor Hugo, who wrote about the castle. There is a Victor Hugo museum in Vianden, as well. I didn’t see that, but here is the castle.
On November 19, 1944, this was the site of the Battle for Vianden Castle, notable as a battle in the Luxembourgish resistance against Nazi Germany. Since there is a view of Germany from the castle, the Luxembourgish military could look into the German territory and report the movements of German troops to the Allies. There is a memorial for the American soldiers who had liberated Vianden.




We went into Germany...

In Igel, Germany (close to Trier), there is a preserved 23 meter Roman column. It dates back to the 2nd century. Covered with sculptures, it serves as a funeral monument for Secundini family. Apparently, it is the only surviving funeral monument north of the Alps (pun intended).


Igeler Säule

Christmas

I finished school on December 24th. I had a Biology exam that morning and then we waited around in the Rotonda for our scores. I only failed one of my exams! Unfortunately, it was History, the only one I actually needed to pass. But on the bright side, I did get a better grade than some of my Belgian classmates, even though most of the information was completely new to me. So, all in all, I don't feel too badly about it. Here are the rest of my scores...the grades are out of 20 and a 10 is still passing.

Morale: 20
French: 11
Math: 12
History: 8
Geography: 10
Biology: 11
Drawing: 18
German: 16

I didn't take my exams for Chemistry or Physics. I was required by AFS to take four exams, and I took eight out of a possible ten, so I think I did pretty well.

After our exams, I went to a few cafés with my friends to celebrate the end of exams. I had to remind myself that it was December 24th...it just did not feel like Christmas. We got back home at around 5 in the afternoon and I wrapped some gifts for my host family. We opened gifts before dinner on Christmas Eve. Among other things, I got a book of French expressions from my host family. They told me that I'm not allowed to leave until I learn the entire thing...



...we'll see how that works out.

I went to the church in my village on Christmas Eve. It's the only time I've been to a mass since I left Ogdensburg, and we weren't even sure what language it would be in. As it turns out, it was in Luxembourgish, so I didn't actually understand any of it.

On Christmas day, my host family went to Habay to spend the day with my host father's family. We spent the entire day just talking and eating. It was wonderful. It seems that, in Belgium, Christmas is not as big a deal as it is in the U.S. Sure, our vacation here is "les vacances de Noël," but Christmas itself seems to be just another reason to get together with family. There are gifts, but not too many, which is nice. It seems calmer, somehow, which may have been the reason I didn't feel Christmas spirit like I do in the States. In short, Christmas was different...but I liked it anyway.

I'll explain the rest of vacation in another post.

Liège

Last Sunday, December 19th (yes, I am actually up to date now), I returned to Liège to meet up with the other American AFSers in Belgium. This time, I took the train from Arlon to Namur alone (I'm basically as far south in Belgium as it is possible to be) and met up with about half of the group there. It had almost the same hype as the flash mob- which was the last time I had seen any of these people. From Namur, we took the train to Liège. Our group was almost complete...we were just missing 2 of the remaining 13. It is a little sad, really. We started out as a group of 16 overly excited Americans going to Belgium- 12 in Wallonia and 4 in Flanders. Now, at four months, we're 11 in Wallonia and just 2 in Flanders. But I'm happy to say that we are still thoroughly overexcited.

Although, according to Johanna, overexcitedness is likely a universal trait of exchange students. Something we'll never lose.

Anyway, we spent the day walking around the Marché de Noël, mostly not paying attention to where we were going. We stopped occasionally at a stand to buy something to eat or drink. We tried hot wine, hot chocolate with Bailey's (mmmm), as well as Peket, which is just really sweetly flavored alcohol. We also bought baked marzipan and these odd chocolate coated marshmallow fluff candies. You could buy them with all kinds of flavors on the inside. And, of course, we stopped to buy gaufres de Liège (not to be confused with gaufres de Bruxelles).

Here's Austin and I with our gaufres.


It snowed all day long. Since all of us come from places where there is snow all winter, we were certainly content. Although, we were also certainly soaked through at the end of the day.



At one point, we went into a mall, to be greeted by none other than Père Noël! Being the absolutely and wonderfully ridiculous exchange students that we are, we had a group photo with Père Noël, an elf, and Rudolph.



It was an excellent way to celebrate our 4-month anniversary of meeting each other. Occasionally I consider what my life would be like if I had not become an AFS exchange student this year, in this country, with this group of people...and it's impossible. I love serendipity.

Anyway, at the end of the day, we went back to the train station. Since the train we wanted to take was late because of the snow, several of us took a train to another, larger station in Liège. From there, I took the train to Namur with a few others. When we got to Namur, however, it really hit me how much snow there was. I had meant to take the train that left just before 7, but I thought I had missed the connection, since I had come on a late train from Liège. But it was okay, it was late too.

And then it was cancelled.

So I took the next train, an hour later than the original.

Which was then 10 minutes late.

It was also twice as full as usual, so I didn't have a seat for an hour of the hour and a half trip. Luckily, I wasn't alone on the return journey. On the train from Liège, we met two other English-speaking exchange students from a different organization, and one of them was taking the train almost to Arlon. It was especially nice since I barely had enough space to move.

In the end, I got back to Arlon at 10:43. I was supposed to get back at 9:17. Nice.

But I got back...and I still love the snow. And serendipity.

Credit to Austin and Lila for the pictures...thanks. :)

St. Nicolas (**Edited, with Notes on a Racist Tradition)

I woke up on December 1st already expecting something out of the ordinary. After all, it was the St. Nicolas Journée à Thème at school and it would be the first time I would be teaching solo at the primary school. Still, I went downstairs and ate breakfast like usual...and didn't even notice the chocolate in my shoe that was sitting on the staircase until my host father pointed it out. At first, I was rather confused, because I thought that St. Nicolas was on December 6th. As it turns out, children put their shoes out for St. Nicolas starting on the 1st, and then each day until the 6th. So each morning, I came downstairs to find some chocolate in my shoe. Then on the 6th, it was a bigger celebration. There wasn't anything in our shoes, but I walked into the kitchen to see the table full of food, candies, and a gift for each of us. So, now we have enough chocolate to last until Easter and I have a new wallet. This is from December 1st: So, as for the Journée à Thème. Athénée Royal d'Arlon has unquestionably the most kickass St. Nicolas celebration. To give an idea how excited the Rhétos were, here's a poster my host sister made. It was hanging in the window facing the courtyard for more than a week before the event, along with a countdown to the day. I know a lot of schools had visits from St. Nicolas, but I doubt many of them had a visit like this. So here we go...there are about 100 Rhétos at Athénée and we are separated into 4 classes: A, B, C, and D. I'm in 6°C. Anyway, each class elected one student to dress up as St. Nicolas. The rest of us wore all black [**edited, see important note] , like this:  

 [**photo removed, see note]

Then, during the 10-minute recreation period (most days it's 20 minutes, but on Wednesdays it's only 10 because it's a shorter day), we Rhétos ran out into the courtyard and attacked the younger students with paint and tape, all while making as much noise as possible. At the end of the 10 minutes, every single student had a face full of paint. Many students had paint in their hair and clothing as well. But that's not the end of it. During 4th hour, we attacked again. This time, each Rhéto class was assigned a hallway or certain classrooms. We pounded on the door, entered, and plastered the already very colorful students with yet more paint. Then, we sang a song about St. Nicolas. Any student who didn't sing got an extra faceful of paint. And then we threw them some candy. My fellow Rhétos were very much more intense about the day than I was, mostly because they had put up with getting painted for the past 5 years. Here's my class after 4th hour: 

[**photo removed, see note]

 After St. Nicolas, all the Rhétos traditionally go to a café in town, still with painted faces, and drink all afternoon. However, since I work at the primary school on Wednesday afternoons, I didn't go. Danielle was on a Rotary excursion, off to a Marché de Noël. So I had the class solo. During the first hour, I described the parts of a house. I drew a basic house on the board and then allowed students to come up and draw and addition to the house. Then, I told them the English word for whatever the student had drawn. During the second hour, I used the house theme for an activity. It was originally inspired by gingerbread houses we make at Christmas in the United States. We used biscuits, different types of spreads, and candies to create houses. Many students brought their creations home to show their parents, although some did eat their houses right away. So, here's our class with their houses, some of them half-eaten: I'd say it was a successful day.

**Important Note on Edits: In Belgian and Dutch Christmas tradition, St. Nicolas comes to give presents to good children on St. Nicolas Day. He is usually accompanied by a group of characters called "Zwarte Piet," or "Black Peter," who give out candy. Traditional Zwarte Piets are usually dressed in bright colors, color their faces black and lips red, and wear curly wigs and big earrings. Students at my host school wore all black with no accessories, which at the time I believed were a reference to charcoal on the characters' clothing and skin from coming down the chimney-- but I've come to realize this is only part of the story. 

Over the past few years, as the tradition has come under scrutiny in Europe and I have read more about it, I have come to understand that the Zwarte Piet is a racist characterization of enslaved people and a relic of the Dutch and Belgian colonial era. While St. Nicolas celebrations have been happening for hundreds of years, the Zwarte Piet tradition only began in the 1850s, coinciding with the start of the Dutch colonial era. 

I regret my ignorance, and hope this note reflects the learning and changing that Western tradition has yet to do. It is past time to recognize and rectify the damage done by colonial powers, including ending the tradition of Zwarte Piet. Please refer to the links below for further information and actions to stop the racist tradition.

You can read about the issue in this 2019 article in the Brussels Times: https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/81413/sinterklaas-who-is-zwarte-piet-belgium-the-netherlands-december-blackface/

Check out this art project, "Zwarte Piet is Racisme," which was started in 2011: https://www.visibleproject.org/blog/project/zwarte-piet-is-racisme/

Follow this link to sign a petition to stop parades of Zwarte Piet in The Netherlands: https://www.change.org/p/the-dutch-government-zwarte-piet-end-the-blackface-minstrel-show-in-the-netherlands

ML 8/15/2020

"Thanksgiving"

So, Sunday November 28th.

My brother's birthday, my first (and likely last) Belgian medal, and a European "Thanksgiving."

So, first, the medal!

As I've likely mentioned already, I go to Athletic Club Dampicourt with my host family on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We sometimes have competitions on Saturdays, but the club also hosts other events, such as a 5K I did earlier this year in Habay...and a cross-country meet in Arlon. My entire my host family decided to participate in the meet. There were different distances to choose from. My age group could choose between a short (1500 meter) and long (3000 meter) run. Florence and I were going to do the short one, but an official told us that if we did the longer one, we could get more points for the club, and possibly get a place on the podium. So, despite the fact that we're both throwers, we did the longer run. As it turned out, there were 4 competitors in our age group, so I did end up with 3rd place. I may not have huge bragging rights, but hey, I have a medal that says I got 3rd place in the Province of Luxembourg!
Plus, I got St. Nicolas speculoos afterwards.

After we finished the race, we went to pick up Danielle, the other American exchange student at my school. We returned home to cook. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about cooking my first turkey without any help. Because actually...I didn't even make it. I made some bread (which we ended up eating the next day, because we had enough food) and Danielle and I both made the apple pie. However, I did manage to make gravy for the first time. It was a little lumpy and not thick enough, but it tasted fine. And that just gives me something to work on for next time!

In addition to Danielle, we had Michel's parents over for dinner. They brought me a book, La Marquise du Pont d'Oye, which tells the story of a Marquise that lived in a palace near the Pont d'Oye, which is close to where they live. I actually visited there earlier in the fall. The book is illustrated by a local artist...and signed just for me.

The dinner was wonderful. Not just the food, which was great, of course, but the family. One thing I really love about Belgium is how close everything seems to be...how close my family is. In the United States, I rarely get to see extended family. I have some cousins that I haven't seen in five years. Here, though, I see my host grandparents at least every few weeks. I see one of my host family's cousins almost every day because he goes to the same school as me. It is really great to have family so nearby.


So, here we are at dinner. On the left is Nicole (Michel's mother), Danielle, and me. On the right (starting in the back) is Victoria, Florence, Michel, and Isabelle. Marcel (Michel's father) took the picture, so he's not in it, unfortunately.

Around Wallonia

I've been rather busy of late, so I have a lot to write about. But, for the sake of comprehension, I am not going to do one long post. Instead, I'll do a few short(er) posts, organized chronologically. First, I'm going to take a big step back to the end of November.

The last week in November, I traveled all over Wallonia. On Thursday, my French class went to Namur to meet François Emmanuel, the author of La Question Humaine, a novel that we read in class. In the afternoon, we had a poetry workshop. I actually succeeded in doing one of the exercises! We had to write an 8-line poem using an ABAB rhyme scheme and iambic tetrameter. We also had to choose from specific rhyming words, and then add in our own. We could choose from the words lumière, paupière, and ouvert, or dormir, rire, and dire, or the imperfect rhyme of mien and main. We could also use the assonance ciel and soleil, as well as the words yeux and ombres. And, to top it off, we were supposed to write about a woman, but I can't remember why.

Anyway, here's a picture of my class (well, half of it):


And here's my take on the exercise:

Le ciel est noir sur tout le monde
Mais elle ne fait rien que rire
Elle me raconte un histoire quand
L'ombre noir préfère dormir

Maintenant il y a de la lumière
Elle cherche le soleil avec sa main
Mais la fenêtre n'est pas ouverte
Et, en fait, elle trouve la mienne

Here's the translation, for those of you who don't speak French:

The sky is black over all the world
But she does nothing but laugh
She tells me a story of when
The black shadow prefers to sleep

Now there is light
She searches the sun with her hand
But the window is not open
And, actually, she finds mine

I'm not sure if the French is perfect, but I thought it was a pretty darn good try for an Anglophone, especially considering I didn't use a dictionary. And it certainly made me feel pretty awesome when the workshop leader asked me to read the poem again, and then complimented me on the imagery of the 6th line. I'm not even sure if he knew that I'm an exchange student.

------

On Friday, I had another field trip! All of the Rhétos (Seniors) went to Liège for Ethics class. We were supposed to see two expositions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, but the one in the morning was cancelled. Instead, we went to the aquarium and biological museum at the University de Liège in the morning, and then we had the other exposition in the afternoon. I found the exposition to be very interesting. It was called Enfermement (I think) and it was all about the prison systems in Belgium, shown through pictures and a video. Unfortunately, only half of the group got to see the video, and I was in the half that didn't. But at least I had a good game of President.

Here's the building that held both the aquarium and the exposition hall:


And here is the river that runs through Liège:



Before the exposition, we were free for two hours to go eat lunch. At first, I was with my host sister and some friends. Since we had a lot of time, we went into a store. This particular store had some American clothing, including Abercrombie. I took a look at the price tag...


...this particular sweater cost 118 Euro. People really pay that much!

Most of the group went to eat at Quick, a fast-food restaurant that's quite similar to McDonald's. I'm not a huge fan of fast food, so the two other exchange students and I split away from the group in search of another place to eat. We ended up with another group of friends, and we went to...

Pizza Hut.

Yes, really.

It was a little strange to eat such "American" food in Belgium, but it was just as greasy, cheesy, and horribly satisfying as I remembered.

I didn't take many pictures at the exposition, but I did take a picture of one quote from a prisoner. Dad, I thought you might appreciate this:



Here's the translation:

"In prison, I learned to like books. Reading is the only escape allowed. Reading is also a good way to learn to know the lives of others."

------

Then, on Saturday, I went to Brussels with my AFS Comité. We went to a Chocolaterie to learn how chocolate is made (and to eat some samples, of course!) and then we walked around a Marché de Noël and in the main square. It was a beautiful day. It was actually sunny!



It was even decorated for Christmas.



I didn't buy anything at the Marché de Noël, but I did find a bookstore and I bought a children's book. It was one of my favorite books when I was little, but I actually don't own it in English. At least I now own it in French. It's called The Three Robbers in English and Les Trois Brigands in French. It's written by Tomi Ungerer, if you'd like to read it.

I also saw two really cool pieces of street art in Brussels. Here they are:





On Sunday, I returned to the south, to Arlon. But Sunday will be the next post. It's time to go decorate the Christmas tree!

Update: I corrected the poem and now the French IS perfect. As it turns out, I only had two faults. I just put masculine instead of feminine.

Landmark

Today is a landmark day!
3 months ago today, I came to with my host family. That's 3 months of not completely understanding what's going on, going to bed early because I'm so exhausted from trying to comprehend another language, and actually getting up in the morning to eat breakfast and take a shower (because I actually have time to sleep here!). But most of all, it's been 3 amazing months of learning about Belgian and Luxembourgish culture and French language with the help of this wonderful family.

As a slightly less impressive landmark (but a pretty darn awesome one), it is just over two weeks since I returned from a week in Italy and the south of France with my host mother and sisters. We left for Italy on Saturday, October 30, at 6:oo in the morning. We first drove from our village in Luxembourg, and then through Belgium to France. We stopped at a bakery in France to buy breakfast, so we had fresh croissants and baguette with (of course) Nutella for my host sisters. I ate my croissants plain. They were far too delicious to eat with anything on them. My sisters slept through most of France, but I stayed awake and watched the sun rise through the window. After France was Switzerland, which I learned is not part of the European Union. Switzerland had a lot of tunnels, so I wasn't always able to see the landscape. But when I could, it was striking. I'm pretty sure I had my mouth hanging open all the way through the Alps. My first reaction when I saw them was simply "But they're so tall!" Unfortunately, I don't have any great pictures of the mountains, but here's one I took from the car:


And here's one I took at a rest stop:


I'm glad I got to see Switzerland. I loved the mountains and I was lucky to have the sun to light the snow-capped peaks, but other than at the location of this photograph, we didn't stop at all (but that's fine-it just means I'll have to go back someday).

Anyway, we continued on to Italy.

After 12 hours and 5 countries since our departure, we arrived in Florence. We spent about 45 minutes trying to find the villa before finally calling...only to find out that nobody spoke French. However, they did speak English, and since we happened to have a fluent English speaker in the car, we were all set. A few minutes later, we were driving through the gate and on to the wooded path that led to the villa. Here's a picture of the villa during the day:

Unfortunately, although it looks beautiful, our room was not clean and had terrible lighting. But we didn't spend much time in it, anyway. We spent our first day walking around Florence, despite the rain.


It was October 31st, so it was nice to see a little Halloween spirit (even if it was only in a bakery).


The second day, we visited Volterra and San Gimingano, two walled cities. The view of the Tuscan countryside from each city was breathtaking. I had some cheeseless pizza in Volterra (a bit of a misunderstanding with the Italian menu, but it was delicious all the same) and my first Italian ice cream in San Gimingano. Hazlenut. Mmmmm.

The third day, we went to Pisa. I didn't climb the leaning tower, but certainly took enough pictures. It was finally sunny...and I'm glad, because Pisa is gorgeous. I especially liked the multicolored facades of the houses and shops that lined the river.

We spent our fourth and final day in Florence. It rained a bit, but it was sunny for the most part. The city looks so different in the sun. For one thing, you can actually look up without the risk of getting a faceful of water or getting hit by someone's umbrella. There are more merchants in the streets (though most of them did brave the rain, as well).

And then we were off to France. On the way, we stopped in Monaco and spent two hours walking around. We saw the casino, way too many yachts, and the palace. I think we worked of some of the Italian pasta walking up and down the hills...

Our next stop was St-Tropez, a tourist town on the Mediterranean. There aren't so many tourists at this time of year, so a lot of the stores were closed. But I put my feet in the sea (yes, it was warm enough). And later in the afternoon, we went to a beach for a few hours to wade in the sea. Victoria even put on a scarf as a miniskirt so she could wade further. The temperature was perfect.
After the beach, we drove to a very small town near Uzes, France to spend the night. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast, but we were able to eat supper there as well, which was great since we arrived fairly late. And we had the best supper...it was just the four of us and an older couple at the house, as well as the owner, but we ate extremely well. We had ravioli as a first course, fish as a second, then beef cheeks (yes, really, and they were absolutely delicious) with mashed potatoes, and, of course, a lot of wine. Dessert was tiramisu with raspberries, and then we had tea later on. The owner was extremely entertaining. His English was very good, so he spoke a little with me. It was really funny, because he kept mixing the French and English. He would say half a sentence in one language, and then switch, and then switch back again.
The next morning, we had a breakfast that was almost as delicious as supper the night before, and then we went to the market in Uzes. And then...we started the six hour trip home.
That evening, Flo and I made dinner...little baguette toasts with some pesto and parmesan we bought in Florence. It was a nice way to end the week.

I seem to talk about food a lot, so I hope you're all hungry now :)

Oh! And if you'd like to see all the pictures from my trip, you can click on this link for the first album:
Italy, with a touch of Switzerland
and this one for the second:
Italy and the sea

Enjoy!