Saint Nicholas Est Passé!

December 6th is an important holiday in Belgium: the holiday of Saint Nicholas! (La Fête de Saint Nicholas) Traditionally, Belgians give more gifts on the day of Saint Nicholas than Christmas. However, like many other countries, Christmas (December 25th, Santa Clause, etc.) is becoming more of a celebrated holiday. Personally, I think it is kind of disappointing that the traditional cultures are slowly beginning to disappear. I think cultural diversity is an important thing and we should try to keep it for as long as we can.

"It was the day of the science/economy exams at Saint Louis. Skyler, who did not take the course, had the chance to stay at home for the day. It started off as any other day off of school; waking up with the late morning sun and walking down the hardwood stairs in a sleepy daze. She entered the kitchen and took a mug and tea bag from the cupboard to prepare a nice hot morning drink. As she reached for the faucet, something orange caught her eye. She abruptly turned her head and looked into the dining room. There, on the table, sat an arrangement of extravagant gifts surrounded in gold ribbon; bright orange clementines, boxes of cookies and biscuits, bags of candy, and most importantly, chocolate statues of the famous Saint Nicholas! Skyler had been a good exchange student, and she had been rewarded. Saint Nicholas est passé!"

"Cat Tongues"...chocolate!

(December 6, 2012)

Saint Nicholas hanging out with all of the other Nicks.

(December 6, 2012)

Saint Nicholas is serious about giving out gifts to children. Just look at that face.

(December 6, 2012)

Clementines! My favorite fruit.

(December 6, 2012)

This entire week we have been having little snow showers. I love the snow, but it seems like the Belgians don't like it. They always complain if they hear it is going to snow!

(December 6, 2012)

Little bits o' green.

(December 6, 2012)

Dimanche en Bruxelles and Other Thoughts

Last Sunday, my host family and I took a day-trip to Brussels. Even though I stayed in Brussels with AFS when I first arrived in Belgium, I didn't have the chance to walk around and explore the city. It's about an hour away from where we live, so we drove in the car. We started the day by walking though the government district of the city. My host parents are very knowledgeable about politics and government, so whenever they ask me about United States government (which I don't know very much about) I feel embarrassed because I never have any answers. Maybe I should touch up my knowledge on these things!
After that, we went on a hunt for Belgian chocolates! In fact, I had not tried the "authentic Belgian chocolate" from a chocolate shop, I have only had the bars of chocolate that you buy in the grocery stores. We decided to go to Pierre Marcolini, which is supposed to be "the best". It turned out that Belgian chocolate deserves all of the hype! It's amazing. But then again, it's hard to find bad chocolate.
Next, we visited "La Grande Place", which is a very famous little spot in Brussels that is tourist central. However, it is tourist central for good reason! The buildings are beautiful and the atmosphere is fun and inviting. The rest of the day, we went to several more places including the Cathedral of St. Michael, a really cool restaurant, the Manneken Pis (the famous peeing baby statue), and a movie theater to see Skyfall. It was a fun day filled with new things and new places!

I have realized that I have not talked much about school or my daily life very much. To be honest, I don't enjoy school very much because it's much more difficult than in the United States and sometimes it's very frustrating. The school that I go to is the best school in Namur, and so in addition to not understanding French very well, the material is very hard. Obviously, I don't receive very good grades yet. Not to sound arrogant, but that is a bit difficult for me because I used to be a fairly good student. Being an exchange student is a very humbling experience, but I am grateful for what I'm learning. I always have to remind myself that I came to Belgium to learn French and have a great experience, not to be an outstanding student. While studying is important, school is not the reason why I came!

Overall, good things take time. I love everything about my exchange so far except for school, and I think that it's pretty natural to feel that way. There are some times when I am overcome with homesickness, but it quickly passes. If anything, I miss my family and friends the most. I'll be honest, it's hard to connect with people on the level that you want to when there is a language barrier. However, it has only been three months. I think I have progressed in French quite a bit, and I know that with time, things can only keep improving!

Until the next time!
Skyler

A beautiful day in Belgium.

(November 11, 2012)

La Grande Place -Bruxelles- 

(November 11, 2012)

If you have ever seen the movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop", you will understand this photo!

(November 11, 2012)

Mid-day sunlight

(November 11, 2012)

You can never take too many tree pictures.

(November 11, 2012)

With fancy chocolates come fancy booklets.

(November 11, 2012)

Chocolate covered strawberries; never a bad decision.

(November 11, 2012)

The dish that my host dad ordered- canard! (duck)

(November 11, 2012)

Street artist doing his thing.

(November 11, 2012)

Christelle's waffle. You know you want some!

(November 11, 2012)

Le soleil dans nos yeux!

(November 11, 2012)

The Manneken Pis!

(November 11, 2012)

This is a cool effect I can do on my camera that makes everything look like toys. I love it.

(November 11, 2012)

Une Promenade Dans Le Bois

One thing that I really miss about Pennsylvania is the forest. Here in Belgium, there are forests, but I don't get to visit them on a regular basis because I live close to the city. Fortunately, the weather on Sunday was great, so my host family and I went on a little outdoors adventure. However, it was also a day for the hunters, which we didn't know about, so we had to stay on the road and we couldn't go into the woods. It was no big deal, because it was still beautiful. Since it is Autumn, the trees are bright and vivid with color. It was a perfect day to spend outside! After our little hike, we went to a restaurant that served their dishes in cast-iron pans. I ordered an "omelette aux champignons" (omelette with mushrooms). Afterwards, we went to Bastogne, which is where American and German armies fought each other in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. My host parents told me that "all of the Americans go to Bastogne", so I guess it was just part of my duty as an American citizen. Overall, it was a really fun day, and I'm thankful to have such a great host family!

I saw more forest mushrooms in one day than I have in my entire life.

(October 21, 2012)

My host sister Christelle with some fall leaves.

(October 21, 2012)

Nature is awesome.

(October 21, 2012)

This picture is a terrible representation of what I was actually seeing.

(October 21, 2012)

Welcome to Belgium, where everything is written in at least two languages.

(October 21, 2012)

Mushrooms, encore.

(October 21, 2012)

Just look at those colors.

(October 21, 2012)

If you come to Belgium, you will eat like royalty. This was some sort of delicious pastry with apricot. I'm not really sure what it was called because I have learned to not ask questions when it comes to food. 

(October 21, 2012)

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My host dad took these pictures. (Behind the scenes!)

I never thought my host sister was that tall until I saw this picture. (Or else my host mom and I are really short).

"When in Belgium, don't eat waffles", said no one ever. 

Representing the mother land.

Doing the tourist thing. 

Sunday in Antwerp

This past Saturday night at the AFS welcome party, my friend Karla from Guatemala randomly invited me to go to Antwerp with her the next day. As an exchange student, you learn to live by the motto "pourquoi pas/why not?" So, I invited some other friends along and we all took the train the next morning from Namur to Brussels to Antwerp. I must admit, I loved Antwerp. While it's much bigger and a bit more modern-looking than Namur, I loved how vast and open it was. Also, bikes were everywhere! One thing I miss about the United States is riding a bike. Where I live, my host family doesn't even own a bike, so that is a big change for me.

In Antwerp, we visited an art house/garden called "Rubens House". It was really great to look at the art, but honestly, I am not the biggest fan of art from the romantic period. (I'm more of a fan of the surrealism style) Nevertheless, it was still really cool, and the garden was awesome! It had tons of cool plants and statues.

After the art house, we went to the pier. One thing that I really like about Belgium is that there is graffiti everywhere! It was no different there. There was a man playing accordion, the weather was beautiful, and the pier had tons of awesome graffiti...what more could one want? Overall, Antwerp was really spectacular. Because Belgium is so small, it is easy to travel to cities in just an hour or two. I am excited to visit even more places as the year continues!

It could be the Fountain of Youth. Who knows.

(October 7, 2012)

My friend Caleb hanging out with some creeping plants.

(October 7, 2012)

My friend Anita looking down from the balcony of a Turkish restaurant.

(October 7, 2012)

Shadow People

(October 7, 2012)

Grote Markt 

(October 7, 2012)

Grote Markt

(October 7, 2012)

Port of Antwerp

(October 7, 2012)

Antwerp train station. (I was obliged to do the tourist thing and take a picture)

(October 7, 2012)

Namur

Namur, the capital of Wallonia, is the city that I travel to by bus every day for school and where I go occasionally on the weekends with friends. Luckily, it is only about fifteen minutes away from my house. It's a very "typical" European ville, with cobblestone streets, brick buildings, and lots of restaurants and cafes. I am very fortunate to live so close to a city because Belgium has lots of country side. It is very small compared to Philadelphia, but I have found some great little spots and it is common to see people that you recognize passing you on the street. Even though I really do miss the trees and forests of PA, it has been great to live everyday in an urban setting. It's a different life here, but that doesn't mean it's a bad life! These are just a few photos of Namur that I have taken since my arrival in Belgium.

View of part of the city from the Citadelle de Namur.

(August 29, 2012)

An important building of which I forget the name.

(August 28, 2012)

My friend Callie (from Texas!) sitting in the park in Namur.

(September 23, 2012)

Leave it to the birds.

(September 23, 2012)

Callie monkeying around under the bridge that crosses the Sambre River.

(September 23, 2012)

En fin, a waffle was eaten. And yes, they do deserve the hype!

(September 15, 2012)

fiesta! or i mean, fête d'anniversaire

To have godparents is a very common thing in Belgium. On Sunday, my host mom's god-daughter had a birthday so we went to her house to celebrate. I quickly learned that parties in Belgium consist of eating lots of food, talking, and eating even more food. This adds up to a total of about seven to eight hours of eating and talking. In other words, when Belgians have a party, they make the most of it!

Lighting the candles of the exotic fruitcake

(September 9, 2012)

Un, deux, trois...

(September 9, 2012)

Belgium should get more credit for their whipped cream

(September 9, 2012)

This cat was not amused

(September 9, 2012)

Mirror, mirror on the wall, 

why is there another bird in my house

(September 9, 2012)