A day trip to Brussels!

Well, today was one very busy busy day, I had a day trip in Brussels!! With about 300 other Rotary kids, here take a look at them!

Yup, everybody in that picture is either a Rotary Exchange student or a Rotex. It was very exciting, let me walk you through my day: I woke up, late of course, to my host mother calling me down, I was introduced to Lucy, another exchange student who is leaving near me, our parents had arranged for a carpool. Here, meet Lucy.

We made the 40 minute drive (blergh) and met with the other Exchange students in the park outside the Royal Palace. Royal Palace you say?? Why yes, I visited that! Would you like a picture?? Of course you would!

Yeah, it's in black and white, don't really know how that happened. Beautiful though, am I right? Take a look at the inside!

So that's the Royal Palace, it was nice, kinda touristy though. From there we all walked to a city square, incredible city square, probably where the term came from! Fricken beautiful!

We went into this building below, don't remember what it was called, but it was hot, and stifling, and very crowded once we all got into a room in the middle.

The ceremony was long, we all went up to a podium, shook the hands of some Rotary officials, and handed over our District Flags. Only I forgot my flag, so I just shook hands....

After the Ceremony the 300 kids split up for Lunch, half of us, my half, went to the Restaurant Manneken, the other half went to something that started with a Ch if I believe. I ate a fulfilling meal of Meatballs and Fries, conversed with some exchange kids from Mexico, and then joined the Canadians for the walk to The Parliment Building!!! Here's a photo of said builiding!

We had some fun inside, got to sit around in chairs that are actually used by Officials instead of roped off for tourists. We (the Rotary group) sat in these chairs and listened to some pretty heavy hitters welcome us to the country. By heavy hitters I meant important members of Parliament!! It was fairly awe inspiring to to hear these men treat us so formally and respectfully. 

After all the speeches and the pictures the Rotary kids got to socialize in a main hall, well, actually the entire outing was one big social gathering, I loved it!! I wrapped up the day with a very different kind of Rotary gathering, in the Schwankiest place I've ever been in. Ever!!!

I ate so much good food it was ridiculous, ever eaten Cantaloupe on the same fork as Ham?? Because I have!! I also ate fish, I don't even like fish! But it was still good!! HOW?!?!? Any way, long long day, but it was a good one, definitely one of my best in the country. Ta ta for now, I'll write you in a few days!

Monday!

Today is in fact, Monday, the beginning of a week, this morning I went with my host parents, Luc Andre and Valerie to my new school! (http://www.iata.be/?action=home) I am enrolling in 3rd Degree, and taking the Audiovisual course. Let me take you through my day, first we went to my school, I met my next host Mother, she is very sweet, and knows next to no English, after conversing with a school official and enrolling me in my courses we took a little walk around the campus here are some pictures:

I didn't want to hold everyone up so I only took a few, the place is pretty awesome though, after walking around for a bit we left and dropped Luc Andre off at what I can only assume is his job, then Valerie took me to run some errands. We stopped at the Hôtel de Ville de Namur, which is where people register for Citizenship, that was a long wait, over an hour I believe but we got through it, and now I have all the paperwork, I am not sure what the next step is but it seems that is okay. Next we went to a Fritterie, where they sell fries, Belgium is famous for its fries, I did not know this but it is apparent when you get here as there are Fritteries on every corner. I don't know if anyone reading this has seen "Pulp Fiction" but if you have you will recall a scene where John Travolta talks to Samuel L. Jackson about people in France using Mayonnaise on their Fries. I can officially confirm this!

I decided not to try it out however, and ordered Ketchup with mine. Now, I only wanted a few fries, so I ordered a small, or maybe it was medium and they don't have small, anyhow, the Moyennes. This is what I got!






Now, I put the Coke can in for size comparison, pretty big no? I think so. After Frites, we went to the Bank to create my account, once again I sat and listened while Valerie did all the talking. Once finished there we stopped by a camera shop and a pharmacy, then drove back home. It's been a rather productive day, tonight my upcoming host family is coming over for dinner, I am excited to meet them all.

So far my stay has been amazing, the people are nice, the food, oohh the food! so far, I have only had three meals prepared by my family, each meal has been something I typically avoid, but here, well, here every meal has been delicious, I don't understand it. I have been walking around Jambes, which I learned is pronounced: Jam-buh. I have gone biking around Namur and Down the river Muese, I have made many observations, too many to write down, but I will share my favorites with you. Observation 1, These:



These are made of plastic, they bend very easily, I discovered this when I attempted to jump on top of one. Observation 2, here ice cream is a typical midday snack! Observation 3, everyone speaks inhumanly fast. The rest of my observations are a bit boring. I leave you now, until next time, to close, I will post the view from my room!

First day

Say hello to my new room, its small yes, but absolutely charming, exactly what comes to mind when you think "Belgian Home". My host family went out of their way to make sure I feel comfortable in the space, they even put up pictures they found on my facebook profile! The drive from Brussels to Namur was beautiful, it was raining the whole time but I managed to love it! I haven't had any sleep for over 24 hours, but I am way too excited for that to even slow me down. Tonight we are going into Namur for the firewalk, which I think is a large candlelit stroll akin to winter walk, that is what I gather at least, but I understand so little that I could be more than way off base. More pictures to come! Stay tuned!

Today is the day! It has been a long time coming but still managed to completely sneak up on me. I am starting to wonder what on earth I was thinking, a whole year! Geez! Still, the Exchange experience is worth it, the opportunity to experience another culture is something that I will always jump wholeheartedly into. All the same, I am going to miss Minnesota desperately, yes, even the stifling humidity and frigid nights, I might not miss mosquito's, no I definitely wont miss mosquito's, but that's an understandable exception. I am going to miss the people, one of my favorite activities when I haven't anything to do is simply to wander downtown and see who I can run in to. Odds are I will have several very pleasant conversations, and maybe make plans for the next day, or that night. It speaks to the close nature and open attitude of the Northfield community, and I cherish my community, leaving it is going to be the hardest part. On that rather sad and melancholy note I say goodbye or as the people of Belgium say Au Revoir! my next post will be from that same country! All the best, wish me luck!

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to my blog! As you probably know, because your'e reading this, My name is William Marroquin-Haslett, and I am going to be spending a year on exchange in Belgium. Rotary Exchange Students are not recommended to spend a lot of time on Facebook, so I will be sharing my experiences and stories on this blog. I am very excited as I've never had a blog before, I plan to post videos, pictures, and stories on a monthly if not weekly basis. I intend to only go on Facebook to share posts linking to this blog, but Facebook is an addicting thing and I'm sure I won't  be able to resist checking up on people. I will be relying on my readers to keep me diligent in keeping the site updated, be sure to remind and pester me if I don't. So far I haven't spared too much thought to my departure date but it is starting to sneak up on me, I leave in 10 days, which is very soon if you ask me! In closing to this short introductory post I thank you for taking the time to read it, and hope that you will continue to. I am very pumped for this adventure I am about to take and I can't wait to share it with you too!