Stilt fights, German gymnastics, and a little bit of folk dancing.

Right, so in my last post I said something about a nice quiet Sunday, well for half the day I achieved just that, I sat around, read a book (on my Kindle, Thank you Papa) and was overall lazy. But I had already decided weeks ago that I was going to check out the Combat de l'Échasse d'Or (Fight for the Golden Stilt). This is a time honored tradition that has been happening in Belgium for a very long time. Wiser, more learned men could tell you how long exactly..... But I am not one of them, and a Google search would take a bit of effort on my part. All you need to know is that the fight is between 50 Echasseurs (Stilt Fighters), 25 on stilts colored Black and Yellow, half on what I affectionately dub candy canes (or Candystripers), but in reality are white and red colored stilts. All fifty of these Echasseurs march in to much applause, drums, trumpets and a variety of festive sounds, they mill about for a few minutes displaying their stilt skills and then separate to the different sides of the square in which they are fighting. They face off, for a moment its very quiet, then the drums start again and that is the cue for the attack, and all of a sudden the fight has begun!! The fight is a very interesting thing to experience, I am not sure what to compare it too. The Echasseurs stay in close knit groups, never straying from the pack, because if they do, they are isolated and by the opposite team, cornered, and put to the ground. It is fascinating to watch, the Echasseurs shuffle around a large part of the time but when the moment comes to strike they move with astonishing speed and take down the unfortunate bloke who got separated. I want to show you some pictures I took of the fight:

Here you can see all the fighters filing in

Here (below) you can see the youngest Echasseurs, they have their own fight away from the rest and are left alone till they knock each other over.

 


Below the fighters are lining up on opposite sides of the square

Here you can see the two kids going at it, with an older fighter keeping watch.

Most of the fighting looked like the picture below, all huddled up waiting for an opportunity to strike and take down.

The falls were a little brutal, everyone went down hard, right on cement, without any padding, can't say I'm jealous.

These two black and golds attempted to take down a candystriper but he defended and ended up knocking the man on the left off balance.

A disappointed fighter on the ground 

Below is an example of some of the viscous swipes the fighters would take at each other.

This was a very common take down "move", one fighter would wrap a stilt around the other and attempt to force them down, if they are successful they put down the other fighter and walk away, if not, they both go down, which is what usually happened.

Some falls were really really bad, this poor soul twisted a foot on the way down, luckily paramedics were on site.

After about 45 minutes of fighting, the Echasseurs who had been downed created a barrier and shrunk the combat area.

 Here you can see the last Black and Gold fighter battling against 7 Candycanes!!

He survived for over 15 minutes! All by himself, it was very impressive.

Finally a Candycane took him down, the fighters celebrated for a moment and then after a few moments the remaining "Teammates" turned against each other and started battling to decide the last man standing.

These two below ended up knocking each other over and leaving the two who were hanging back to finish the fight.

And finally, the last two combatants facing off. 

Below the victor is shown being awarded with the Golden stilt, the last fighter from the Black and Gold team was also awarded with a stilt, I didn't get a picture of that one though.

There were quite a few other things going on that day besides the stilt fights, quite a bit of dancing actually, traditional dance and also some German gymnastic type dancers.

I even got some video for you!

I believe I said traditional dance:

There were also some very gaudily dressed fellas that had some fun with flags.

They had some pretty cool moves, definitely made me rethink my position on flag bearers.

Well, my Sunday definitely went different from what I planned, but I didn't mind too much, this cultural side of the Wallonie celebration was eye opening to say the least! I hope everyone enjoyed the post, keep checking back!

End of Fête

Yes, the sad time has come, the Fête de Wallonie has come and gone, a few activities still light up the streets but the bulk of the festivities have ended for this year. I have had a glorious time celebrating with the people of Belgium, and they do know how to celebrate! I have never had a more raucous time in my life, nevertheless I am grateful for a quiet Sunday afternoon and I intend for it to be nice and boring, with maybe some stilt fighting involved! What's a stilt fight? Hard to explain, I will take pictures. For now, her are some more pictures from Fête:

Oooh, and a video!

First night of the Fête!

First night of le Fete de Wallonie was an absolute success! I don't have much time to write about it but I took some pictures!

Sorry some of the pictures are so blurry, but I am not that good at taking photos, stay in touch everybody!

Fete de Wallonie!

Bonjour, Cou Cou, Allo, Ca va? All of those are examples of the many different greetings given in my new home. Now.... The last time I posted I dropped a little hint about "le Fete de Wallonie," since it started on Wednesday I figure it's about time I fill you in as to what it is! Le Fete de Wallonie is a celebration of Belgiums origins, specifically Wallonian Heritage. Namur is right at the center of the festivities and everyone celebrates every day and every night for over half a week. There are over 20 different concerts a day in various parts of Namur, every cafe and bar is open 24 hours a day and there is stilt fighting, boat jousting, old fashioned bowling and every different kind of activity you can think of going on from Wednesday till Sunday. Here are some pictures of the setup that I have taken:

I am very excited for the next couple of days, I will keep you updated on my activities!

School, and strawberries!

Today was the start of my second week of school, I have learned quite a bit in the short time I have been at IATA, and by learning I really mean observing, nothing academic really. I have noticed quite a bit concerning culture and first and foremost the antics of Belgian Students. 1 example is this, if a kid puts their bag on the desk, they intend to use it to shield their texting from the teacher. Now the most interesting bit here is that teachers know this, some will tell kids to keep their bags on the floor but others will allow it. It seems that as long as the students make an effort to hide it and aren't too blatant they are ok with it. Smoking is an enormous part of the culture here, really enormous, so much so that I even wonder if I might somehow start craving nicotine due to the sheer amount of secondhand smoke. School days are sometimes ridiculously long, today (Monday) for instance I was at school from 8 to 5, luckily that's just Mondays though. Kids don't really pack lunches, the fashion instead seems to be to buy from the school store or to walk to the grocery store or burger joint and eat there, we get an hour lunch break at 12 so plenty of time to do either. The dynamics of peer groups are interesting, I'm still figuring them out, but the ever common kiss on the cheek has been cause for a little humor already. It's not that I don't always know when to kiss and when to shake hands, its just that SOMETIMES I don't. And when I don't I usually cause at least a little nervous laughter and quite a bit of the "at my expense" variety. Yesterday I went on a bike ride with my host dad, we needed strawberries, well, we wanted strawberries, weeeellll, I wanted strawberries... Anyway, we biked to Wépion, about a 25 minute bike ride, and found a stand:

Wépion is the Strawberry capital of Belgium, and for very good reason, I have never tasted better. The guy at the stand even gave us some from the personal stash that he has for his own eating. After Wépion we biked back into Namur and Luc-Andre showed me all the hot spots, nice cafe's, good restaurants, and the different squares where concerts will be held during Fêtes de Wallonie. Now, that is something I am very excited about, but it doesn't start until Wednesday, besides, you will probably come back and read sooner if you know I have something exciting to talk about! To end this post I will first thank you all for reading, I got to 1,000 views today, pretty exciting! Talk to you all soon, have this picture of a big church!

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!