Fall Break

Today was the last day of school before my Fall Break. I have the whole All Saints' Day week off, so tomorrow to begin it's off to Paris. On the visit list are:

• Versailles
• le Louvre
• Musée D'Orsay
• Montmartre
• Notre Dame 
• the Eiffel Tower
• river cruise on the Seine

It should be a fun weekend, despite the lack of Halloween activities. We will take the bus tomorrow morning, and the return is scheduled for Monday night. I hope that this will only be the first of many trips to Paris, I doubt that I'll ever have seen it all. 

Today is Wednesday. All is well.
Today I my day began by walking in the near-freezing rain to the bus-stop for school. Classes started at 8:10, but I was late because of Mons traffic, there was no trouble at school though. I had English, study hall, Dutch, Math, French, and religion. I got out around 1:30 and hurried down to the Mons SNBC to catch my bus several minutes later. When I got back in, went to talk and pet the chicken, then upon Spiri's arrival, we set out together to do some grocery shopping. We bought lots of cheese, fruit, sandwich meat, etc. Then at home I helped her make stuffed cabagge- basically meatballs wrapped in cabbage leaves. Then I skyped with my parents for a while and went down for dinner. It was tasty, as always. Spiri knows how to cook.
Friday begins my Congé de Toussaints, where I get full week off of school. The first weekend (Halloween) I am going to Paris with other Rotary kids. Then I get back on Monday and will (hopefully be able to) sleep all of Tuesday. Wednesday I leave to go to the Netherlands to visit family for the rest of the week near Utrecht. Then I will switch Dutch hosts during the second weekend of vacation and finish my stay in Holland in Dordrecht. I am looking forward to a break from school, these have been long weeks.

Weekend of Relaxation

For the only weekend this month, I am grasping the opportunity to rest a bit. It has been long weeks at school, with a new and final schedule change, and I have been singularly worn out by this week. Today I slept for nearly 11 hours, which did very well for me. I am really happy to just be able to take the weekend to get things done, study a little, and sleep.
I finally uploaded all the Bratislava photos, which you can see at: http://s1037.photobucket.com/albums/a456/noahidsmith/
 Enjoy!

Bratislava

This weekend I went with my Rotary club and Rebeca to Bratislava. We left Friday morning to fly from the Charleroi airport with RyanAir. We got in during the afternoon, settled into the hotel, then did a tram tour of the city. We visited Bratislava Castle which overlooks the city and is used for presidential meetings, a large Baroque-style church, and other important sites of the city. Then it was quickly back to the hotel before eating at a Slovakian restaurant set in an old wine cellar. There I had some absolutely amazing duck.
I watched television with Rebeca that night before turning in.
Saturday morning we ate continental breakfast at our hotel, and then we all got onto the bus to go the the Devín Castle outside the city. Here there were ruins of a rather extraordinary castle literally built into the side on a mountain. Though we couldn't enter much of the ruins, we read about tunnels inside the mountain carved out in order to connect the rooms. Afterwards we went back into the city center for a tour of the Royal Palace before lunch in the city, where I ate roasted goose with potato crêpes for the first time. That afternoon we just toured the city, went to the Blue Church, took more pictures, and had a bit of free time before dinner at an Argentinean restaurant downtown. Afterwards I slept well having had a very long but enjoyable day.
Sunday morning we left after continental breakfast to a Slovakian porcelain and earthenware furnace, where we saw people make traditional pottery, ornaments, and dishes. Next we visited a few small villages, took pictures, and went for lunch where we had lamb and rice. The afternoon consisted of a visit the the Red Stone Castle before dinner at a small village restaurant. There I had goose pâté with crêpes as well as roasted goose with crêpes again. There were lots of geese and crêpes to be had this weekend.
Monday morning we ate a big breakfast at the hotel. There was a quick city tour round two in which we tried to visit the city cathedral (but it was closed) and went for last minute souvenir shopping. I took the last chance to snap some good city shots. We took our bus back to the airport at noon, and took our flight at two.
It was a quite enjoyable weekend, and I will have the photos up soon, so if you read this now,  check it again within the next few days, and hopefully I will have posted a link with all the photos.
A+
Noah

Busy Week

This past week has been very busy for me. Friday after school I went into the city quickly with some friends before meeting with Rebeca in the Grand Place. We were then taken to the ethias trophy tennis tournament of Mons. We watched three matches over the course of six hours, all of which were singles. We saw:

• Dustin Brown (Jamaica) against Igor Sijsling (Netherlands)
• Steve Darcis (Belgium) against Denis Gremelmayr (Germany)
• and Marc Gicquel (France) against  Kristof Vliegen (Belgium

The former of each listed won the respective match. It was long, but entertaining nonetheless. After all the matches had finished Rebeca and I were dropped off by a Rotarian at Rebeca's house in town, where I spent the night. 

Saturday morning we woke up early in order to catch our train at 7:00 to Namur. All went well and we were received with all the other exchange students from Belgium at the station, whereupon we left and trekked across the city by foot to visit the Walloon Parliament. Afterwards we all went out in little groups to have lunch in the heart of the city. Afterwards we took a boat ride along the Meuse (Maas) River that flows through Namur. We went all the way down to Wépion, where I saw the Chinese restaurant Chez Chen that I had eaten at with the Rossis before dropping Andrea off at Gembloux earlier in September. Afterwards they let  us go, and we walked around the city, went to a café and then took the train back to Mons. That night we went to ethias trophy again for a gala, with a really nice dinner. Afterwards, I went to the Rossis.

Sunday I went to a procession - la procession de Saint Denis, which went to little chapels around the village. Sunday evening we went back for the last time to ethias trophy to see the final match of the tournament for singles: Steve Darcis (Belgium) vs. Adrian Mannarino (France). The Belgian unfortunately lost. 

Yesterday I began my sixth week of school. Today I was invited by some nice Belgian girls to lunch for the first time with them, and I enjoyed myself, they were very nice and inquisitive. 

À la prochaine! 

Week Five of School

Things are going well. I am settled at school, still making friends, enjoying classes, and whatnot.
There's nothing really new to tell you all, so I will make a brief list of all the new food I have tried here in Belgium as of my arrival.

• pumpkin soup
• double-fried french fries with:
• samuraï sauce - not Japanese, just spicy
• Andalouse sauce - its orange and good
• Americain sauce - not American at all
• mayonnaise 
• *note: they don't really eat fries and ketchup
• pain au lait
• Italian pastries
• pain au chocolat
• rabbit:
• in a sauce with polenta
• baked in the oven
• fresh apricots
• French yellow prunes
• chicons (we don't have these)
• rhubarb jam
• cherry jam
• gooseberry jam
• pineapple yogurt
• pâtes au sucre (pasta with sugar)
• Bruno's classic Italian Bolognese (with olives)
• olive and eggplant sandwich spread
• countless Belgian cheeses
• countless French and Dutch cheeses
• lots of goat cheeses
• almond pie
• pain perdu (kind of like French toast, and no maple syrup)
• Greek vegetables
• Greek pastries and sweets
• tiny shrimp from the North Sea
• fish
• fried frog legs
• horse = (French) cheval :
• cheval steaks
• cheval as sandwich meat
• cheval in pasta sauce
• cheval sausage
• boiled wheat - the actual kernels of wheat, not ground
• potage de trouffe - truffle soup 
• mango shrimp
• rum ice cream
• filet of York
• boudain blanc - traditional white sausage with herbs
• boudain rouge - blood sausage, one of the few things I try and don't like
• ChaCha bars - chocolate and wafer candy bars
• Galler chocolate pieces
• mortadella (donkey)
• wild forest mushrooms
• cultured, white mushrooms
• and many other things I will have to think about and list another time

And also, here is a link to a video about Belgium if you are interested about the catastraphe of a government, but,

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED, contains rude humor, and a spot of foul language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceg6NQKHd70

Tuesday was back to school, whereupon I started a long chain of visits to the school office, continuing every day throughout the week. I was in the process of changing my "options" at school from science to language. I was failing math, and having received a 20 on my first test, I thought it best to reconsider where I should be. So now I am taking easier math and sciences, with the addition of a German class. But I will remark that this was not easy, and consisted of lots of paperwork and a total of five visits to the office. For now though, my schedule is not without flaws, I currently have 7 hours of Dutch and English with the kids a grade below me. I went to have it straightened out with a certain Madame Cubert, but she doesn't have time for this sort of thing right now, so I will have to wait until mid-October when the new schedules come out. Though now, I am happy with my classes.
Thursday I had my first "après-midi sportif," where we play handball all afternoon. I still don't really know what handball is, but from what I have so far gathered, it is like soccer but you throw the ball. I have yet to been explained the rules, so for now that's all I can honestly say about it.
Thursday night I had a Rotary meeting at the Trois Fontaines in Bel Œil, as our Mons-Buyères Rotary Club had been invited by the Saint Ghislain Rotary for the evening. There I met an Australian girl named Julia who is being hosted by the Saint Ghislain group, and she, Rebeca (the Mexican in my club), and I had a really nice time at our end of the table through our five-course meal filled with "aperitifs." It ended just at midnight, where there began a nasty chain of events about which I will not go into to much detail. To make it short, I was locked out of the house, then I went to sleep at a Rotarian's, then I ended up going back to the house, and finally went to sleep around 2 AM. Needless to say, I was quite tired Friday.
I began my first German lessons on Friday at school. Thereafter I came home to take a bike ride and have dinner. Andrea and I went downtown to the Marché that night despite the rain, and we went to our respective groups of friends, all of which were driven inside to the bars in light of the weather. It was a good night, and we came back around 1 AM to go to sleep.
Yesterday I slept in before having the house to myself for a while while Bruno and Andrea were at the doctor's and Spiri at work. I took the bus into the city, where I met Rebeca for our afternoon to Tournai with other Rotary kids in Belgium. We took the train and met up with all the others around 2. From there we walked around the city, went to the Tournai cathedral, and ascended the Middle Age Tournai bell tower (Europe's first). Afterwards we went to the Grand Place for a waffle and drinks, enjoying the company of other exchangers. Around 6:30 we headed back to the train station, but beforehand on account of out later train to Mons, I went with a few Americans and Canadians to a friterie for some Belgian double-fried fries. They are so delicious. I was happy to have gone, and it was nice to meet other exchange students from around Belgium. Upon my return to Mons, I took the day's last bus back to Saint Denis, and enjoyed a "gourmet" at dinner, which here is when you grill little pieces of meat on an electric skillet at the dinner table while you eat. It was pretty good.
Today is Sunday, and I enjoyed sleeping in a bit to catch up on this week's lost sleep. We ate a late breakfast, and this afternoon I believe we are going to an orchard to pick apples. It's been a good week overall.