Walibi!!

Hello! Yes, it is Sunday, so it's my day to write!! The highlight of my week was a visit to the Belgian amusement park, Walibi!!

I went with some friends from school on an absolutely beautiful day. One of those rare ones here in Belgium, sunny and warm!! But not too warm, just enough that you can wear a t-shirt you know?

Walibi is an amazing place, and it is situated rather in the middle of nowhere, which allows for some really awesome scenery!

Now, since it is Halloween time Walibi has some extra "themed" attractions! Lots of horror stuff, obviously. We visited 2 different haunted houses, which were very scary and made me realize that I haven't actually done haunted houses before, unless you count those TAB ones, (Teenage Advisory Board to the Northfield public library) and somehow I don't quite think those were on the same level.

I couldn't take pictures inside the attractions, because I was too busy having my pants scared off! No but really, there were some pretty terrifying moments, the second haunted house was by far the scarier! Allow me to elaborate. It was within a large warehouse, as far as I can tell, it was hard to distinguish anything with all the noise and flashing lights and screaming. But you go in, and you can't see a blinking thing, you have to go through tons of doors, and every time you go to the next area there is something new to scare you, but you can't tell where it is gonna come from or what it is going to be! The scariest point for me was when a huge man, probably over 300 pounds came lumbering out of a hole in the wall, covered from head to foot in blood and brandishing a running chainsaw. The smell of gasoline, and the strobe lights, and him charging straight at me put me in quite a state I can assure you, especially when he actually attacked with the chain saw. It was quite safe, he had taken the chain off the saw, so really the tool was harmless, but as I didn't know that at the time the effect was very good.

Walibi has all sorts of other things to do, we went on the roller coaster "Dracula" the king Tut ride, the story of Ali Baba, a tower of power, Project Z, Etc. The only draw back was the lines, looooong wait times. Once it got dark they put on a fireworks show, complete with accompanying music, trippy lights, flame throwers, and confetti cannons!!! Please refer to the video below for an excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNodv1UTCWM

Trop cool non? I thought so, have I told you about the Zombies yet? I don't think so! So, wandering around the park all day were these brilliantly made up actors that looked like Zombies, they walked around and you could take pictures with them or they would sneak up on you and scare you! That was always funny, one poor woman turned around and one of them was inches away from her, so she jumped backwards into a hedge out of fright, in full view of more than a hundred people waiting in line.... I really can't think of anything so mortifying, I would be crazy embarrassed. She took it in stride though! 

Yeah so, I think that is all That I have to tell you for now, thank you for reading! I will finish this post with pretty pictures that I took while waiting in various lines :) Until next week then!

Antwerp-Antwerpen-Anvers... Oh! And a Halloween Party!

I just a little bit ago so I am gonna keep this one short. It is Sunday!! My day of rest and relaxation. I attended a Halloween party Friday in Nivelles, and spent all of Saturday wandering around Antwerp, so as usual I am very grateful for the respite provided by that magical day: SUNDAY!! 

Any how, Halloween in Nivelles. Yes I know it is a bit early to be celebrating Halloween but it seemed to work for these guys. A Rotary friend invited several of us to spend the night at her house in Nivelles and attend the soiree. 

We got to dress up, note the guy in the background in the picture, that isn't a photo effect, that guy bought these weird contact lens' and wore them, suuuuuper creepy, also really cool. There were a lot of cool costumes there. unfortunately the theme was "Horror" so the typically hilarious and inventive costumes were lacking. But there were a LOT of zombies! 

The next day was an interesting one, a couple of us decided to check out the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. 

Antwerpen, or Anvers (as it is called in french) is a beautiful city, very old fashioned, and unfortunately very touristy. The majority of the city looks like this: 

 It is a very magical atmosphere, I would say that at moments I felt transported back in time. not too far back mind, but far back enough that they would use horse and buggy:

The city just has this magical air about it. But like I said, it's rather touristy, especially around the central station. There, your daydreams of rustic slumbering villages are broken by the sightings of restaurants like this one:

Not that I don't like Subway! In fact I adore the establishment, it's just that it kinda spoils the magic, just a little. But worry not, because once you stray away from the main streets, just a little bit, you can find some truly beautiful spots!

I know it's beautiful, but I would just like to take a moment to discuss the strangeness of that statue. The man is in the process of throwing a hand, why? I feel that the scene requires just a teensy bit of context. And forgive me for this but it really gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Need a hand?" doesn't it?? :) Ha ha! I just crack myself up sometimes! But really, it's very strange, very strange indeed.

If I were to recommend places to visit in Belgium, this would definitely be at the top of the list. Not only is Antwerp a vibrant, beautiful, and strange city, it is also the most English friendly one I have come across. I was a little wary about entering a Dutch speaking city but as it turned out, practically everyone spoke English. Of course you come across that in Brussels and other French speaking cities too, but less.... 

All in all, it was a great day, I saw lots of cool stuff, and enjoyed myself quite a bit. That is my post for this week, see you again next Sunday!!! Thanks for reading.

Vive la Belgique!!!!

WE WOOONNN!!!!!!!!! Yeah! Belgium is going to Brazil!!!!!!!

I suppose I should explain what I am talking about. Well, Belgium played Croatia on Friday to determine which team was going to the world cup. I wasn't at the actual game, that was in Croatia. I saw the match on some jumbo screens at Place Grognon here in Namur. The atmosphere that day was very frenzied, I didn't know what was going on at first, I just noticed that everyone was dressed rather similarly, black yellow and red was abundant, and a lot of people had face paint on. Once I finally realized what was going on, I knew i had to see the game! So when school ended I headed to Place Grognon to check it out.

The game started at 5:30, or around then at least. The first score was at about 30 minutes into the game, Belgium scored. I have to say, I wasn't quite ready for the reaction from the crowd. Everybody went absolutely nuts, all of a sudden everybody was screaming, jumping, shouting, singing, pushing, dancing chugging and even crying. Then out of nowhere someone set off a huge smoke bomb, a red one. Immediately a dozen policemen converged on the spot, they were clearly expecting it so I can only guess that lighting the smoke bombs is a bit of a tradition. The man who lit it was long gone by the time the police had fought their way to the firecracker, I know this because the same man lit at least four more before the night was over. The game was very very tense, I found myself joining the crowd when the gasped and cheered, and especially when they sang, lucky for me the song of celebration is very easy, I tried to record it but the sound came out lousy, just know that it goes something like: Huay oh! huay oh! huayoh huayoh huayoh!! Oohayoh! Oohayoh! etc etc etc... It's very catchy. 

Belgium played again, this time against Wales, it was a tie. Tie's are weird, technically you won, the you can't really celebrate the same way you would if you won outright. Still, made for a very very dramatic game.

Boat ride!!! Rotary took all it's kids on a boat ride! Well, first we visited the Wallonie Parliament, sat through a few hours of briefings and explanations of government, and THEN went for a boat ride!

We took a short jaunt up the Muese river, saw some beautiful scenery:

I thought it was a gorgeous day, it was sunny, a bit nippy maybe, but still absolutely gorgeous by my standards. A couple kids thought it was a bit cold though.

This particular student is from Brasil, she wasn't too happy with the temperature. It was a good trip, we saw cool boats, classy restaurants, even a wedding party! After the boat ride, Rotary let us loose, and as usual we students seized the opportunity to socialize and speak our native tongues! Something that we are rarely able to do these days. But that was Saturday. 

Wednesday I had the honor and privilege to experience firsthand a Belgian detention! Only here it is called "Retinue", I was in with 5 other kids from my class, Belgian students. The Educateur in charge put us to work assembling school I.D.'s. This is a ridiculously mind numbing activity, remarkably simple; all we had to do was fold one slip of paper and stuff it into a plastic cover to be laminated elsewhere. The catch was that we had put together over 2,000 of these buggers. Of course the activity would have been quite bearable if it hadn't been for HIM. By HIM I mean the Educateur, he was rather hellbent on making sure his detention hall stayed silent. We weren't allowed to listen to music, or talk, or sing songs, or really do anything besides fold and stuff, fold and stuff. Once we finished he warmed up quite nicely however, even let us out early! That was the only interesting thing that occurred over the school week. Well, we ate pancakes for dinner one night, but that wasn't necessarily interesting, just fun :)

My host mom Valerie cooked them one night, we ate them with maple syrup and applesauce! Crazy delicious! 

Tomorrow is a Halloween party at a friends school! I am pretty excited, even if I haven't found a costume yet!

I am going to wrap up with another apology for not posting in a while, I have decided that Sundays are going to be my regular posting days, so look back every Sunday for something new!!! Ta ta for now!! À la prochaine!