Liege, Rotary, and my first day of School

Well, a few things have happened since I last posted, I have started school, taken a trip to Liege, attended another Rotary meeting, had a delightful poolside supper (swimming included)  and met so many new people. Lets start with the trip to Liege, the prompt for the trip was the arrival of a family friend: Penny. Now, those of you who know me will understand when I tell you that upon arriving at the Minneapolis airport I discovered that I had forgotten a few items. It was too late at that point to do anything about it but during my first weeks in the country my parents came up with a solution for the problem; that solution was Penny. Penny was planning her own trip to Belgium in order to visit some friends her husband had made during the second World War, the details of how her husband made those friends are best heard from her but suffice it to say the circumstances were very thrilling. Penny agreed to ferry those items which I had neglected to take with me over the ocean and into Belgium. The friends she was staying with were in Liege, about a 50 minute train ride from Namur (my town), so I wasted little time in arranging a meet and hopping on a train. Now I must say that retrieving my prized possessions was not the sole reason for this trip, Liege is a city rich with culture, and more enjoyably, Tintin references.

  

That picture is from the Liege-Guillemens Train Station, a very impressive expanse of shiny shiny metal!!

The day in Liege was beautiful, filled with sun, adventure (what I call getting lost) and some cafes. This trip was on the same day as my first day of school. Now, my last school was ARTech, I attended ARTech for 7 years, and apart from the 6th grade I had never had any misgivings about school, it was always great to go back and see all the friends you hadn't seen all summer. ARTech was such a small school, with only 120 people it was very easy to feel comfortable and I loved it. Well, my first day of school here was a whole different kind of animal. 1,700 students, 10 different buildings into which classes are divided, 2 buses and a hike to get to campus, and so many kids standing around smoking outside the entrance I could hardly see. My host brother Jean helped me figure out the different buses to get to school and introduced me to a couple of his friends, then every body stood around and listened as our names were called so we could come forward and collect our class details, Jean waited with me patiently as I jumped every time I heard the name William (apparently very common) and calmed me down by explaining my class wasn't being called yet. When 5 AT opcion Audio Visual was finally called I made my way forward to get my papers and Jean was gone. At that point I wasn't quite ready to face the day by myself but since I had no choice, I proceeded to the woman with the papers, pretended to understand what she told me, and went to stand with the other kids who had been called along with me. Thus began the most grueling first day of school I have ever had, and that was only a half day... Luckily I had Liege to look forward to and I made it through with no lasting damage to my psychie and have been progressing with every new day. It is now a Saturday, Samedi, and I have enjoyed a long but informative briefing on my districts specific Rotary rules, a repetition of the five D's was given (no Drugs, no Drinking, no Dating, no Driving, and no Disfigurement) and our counselor told us his views on the five D's and which ones you really need to listen to, that bit was the most informative and also rather funny. That is where I will leave off today, as usual I am learning something new every day, and enjoying every minute of it, special thank you to my parents for packing all those things  forgot, and to Penny for being so gracious as to transport them, also to Arlo for the signed copy of "The Great Glass Jar" I can't wait to sell it on ebay some day :P  Ciao for now, thanks for reading!