Well, the past week has sped by and it's the night before - no, not Christmas - but even more exciting - the day of departure for Belgium. Unbelievably, I still haven't packed properly. I did make a start yesterday but then realised how little was going to fit in the bag and decided it was too soon to be depressed.
I avoided packing this evening by going to my 9 year old niece's choral festival - much more enjoyable. The festival began with a beautiful rendition of 'God Defend NZ' and it did occur to me that I wouldn't be hearing much of that for the next year.
The performances included a Tongan stick dance, a Samoan song, and a multi-lingual song called 'Aotearoa'. The Beach Boys, Justin Bieber and the NZ group Avalanche City were also included for good measure. The singers themselves were a veritable United Nations.
The festival reminded me that despite the negative statistics which are promoted by the media, NZ's a great little country and I'll miss it.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Fortunately ... Unfortunately...
Fortunately, I now have a visa. Yay! Yay! Yay! My passport should arrive back in BB with the seal of approval tomorrow.
Unfortunately, I must now wait for another week to leave.
Fortunately, I was able to fill in time usefully today by helping out at a local secondary school.
Unfortunately, I must now try to squeeze as much as possible into my 20 kilo allowance.
Fortunately, friends have pointed out that there are shops in Belgium.
Unfortunately, I must now wait for another week to leave.
Fortunately, I was able to fill in time usefully today by helping out at a local secondary school.
Unfortunately, I must now try to squeeze as much as possible into my 20 kilo allowance.
Fortunately, friends have pointed out that there are shops in Belgium.
Monday, 22 August 2011
The journey interrupted
Still no news on the visa front. I really did think I would hear something positive today. What to do?
Things to do whilst awaiting a visa:
Things to do whilst awaiting a visa:
- walk around Broad Bay listening to bellbirds and tuis twittering, enjoying the sunshine, the beautiful view, and the peace and quiet whilst reminiscing what an idyllic place this was to grow up.
- check emails for news of visa
- do some French revision on aboutfrench.com
- eat leftover banana bon voyage cake- delicious thanks Pete!
- do the ODT cryptic crossword - still 4 words to solve
- check emails
- repack some boxes of stuff stored at Dad's
- check emails
Sunday, 21 August 2011
My Belgian Family
I have been emailing my Belgian Homestay Family since Wednesday. Chantal and Guy-Michel are only a little older than me and have three children in their twenties - two of whom are still at home.
They have homestayed students and teachers before and know the right things to do to make you feel welcome. They have emailed photos of themselves and their home and have told me something of their lives and interests. Like me, they enjoy reading, movies and walking. They also go cycling.
Liège is close to the Ardennes and Chantal has assured me that we will go walking there. I had best do some exercise while waiting for my visa!!
Movie-wise, Chantal and Guy-Michel have seen 'Bienvenue chez les Chtis' and 'Rien à déclarer' and preferred the former. Moi aussi, although both were amusing. Thank goodness for the subtitles though. I think I could understand about 15% of the French without them. Hopefully, this percentage will increase greatly after a year in Belgium.
They have homestayed students and teachers before and know the right things to do to make you feel welcome. They have emailed photos of themselves and their home and have told me something of their lives and interests. Like me, they enjoy reading, movies and walking. They also go cycling.
Liège is close to the Ardennes and Chantal has assured me that we will go walking there. I had best do some exercise while waiting for my visa!!
Movie-wise, Chantal and Guy-Michel have seen 'Bienvenue chez les Chtis' and 'Rien à déclarer' and preferred the former. Moi aussi, although both were amusing. Thank goodness for the subtitles though. I think I could understand about 15% of the French without them. Hopefully, this percentage will increase greatly after a year in Belgium.
Bonjour from...Broad Bay!
What a week it's been! A regular rollercoaster. I finished school on Friday 12 August thinking that I would be in Belgium the following week. True, I didn't have my passport or visa, but I had airline tickets and faith.
On Friday afternoon in response to my emails, I heard from Sharon at Orbit that they were expecting my visa to come through on Monday and it would then be Fed Ex (whatever that means) to Wellington and then couriered up to me in Auckland on the Wednesday ready for the flight to Brussels on the Thursday.
I zipped around doing last minute things in the weekend and farewelling friends. There was a family farewell planned for the Sunday but those plans went awry due to the 50 year snowfall! The last minute trip to the dentist also had to be abandonned. (Hope that I don't have cause to regret that - all that chocolate etc). The airport was closed in Dunedin and this was indeed a sign of things to come.
Monday came and went - no visa! I realised that this meant I wouldn't be leaving Dunedin on Wednesday. On the positive side, I had an email from Françoise, a Belgian friend Marie had made while on her LIA. She sounded warm and friendly so that lifted my spirits.
On Tuesday, came the official news that I was in limbo until my visa came through and nobody knew when that would be. After an initial "My goodness me - c'est incroyable!", I resolved to 'go with flow' as I didn't have many other options. Wednesday brought no news about the visa but excellent news about a homestay family. (As part of the LIA, I am supposed to be homestayed for the first 4-6 weeks.) I have been emailing Chantal and her family ever since.
So now it's Sunday 22 August and here I am chez papa in Broad Bay. I have been inundated with emails and texts from friends and relations wanting to know if I've heard anything. Honestly, I have an idea of what it must be like to be pregnant and overdue, with everyone wanting to know if you've had the baby yet. ( I do appreciate your concern though :))
I will certainly be texting and emailing thick and fast when the visa comes through.
On Friday afternoon in response to my emails, I heard from Sharon at Orbit that they were expecting my visa to come through on Monday and it would then be Fed Ex (whatever that means) to Wellington and then couriered up to me in Auckland on the Wednesday ready for the flight to Brussels on the Thursday.
I zipped around doing last minute things in the weekend and farewelling friends. There was a family farewell planned for the Sunday but those plans went awry due to the 50 year snowfall! The last minute trip to the dentist also had to be abandonned. (Hope that I don't have cause to regret that - all that chocolate etc). The airport was closed in Dunedin and this was indeed a sign of things to come.
Monday came and went - no visa! I realised that this meant I wouldn't be leaving Dunedin on Wednesday. On the positive side, I had an email from Françoise, a Belgian friend Marie had made while on her LIA. She sounded warm and friendly so that lifted my spirits.
On Tuesday, came the official news that I was in limbo until my visa came through and nobody knew when that would be. After an initial "My goodness me - c'est incroyable!", I resolved to 'go with flow' as I didn't have many other options. Wednesday brought no news about the visa but excellent news about a homestay family. (As part of the LIA, I am supposed to be homestayed for the first 4-6 weeks.) I have been emailing Chantal and her family ever since.
So now it's Sunday 22 August and here I am chez papa in Broad Bay. I have been inundated with emails and texts from friends and relations wanting to know if I've heard anything. Honestly, I have an idea of what it must be like to be pregnant and overdue, with everyone wanting to know if you've had the baby yet. ( I do appreciate your concern though :))
I will certainly be texting and emailing thick and fast when the visa comes through.
The country and now... the city!
After quite a few months of wondering where in Belgium I would be based and quite a few discussions with previous LIAwardees (Thanks Marie, Guy, Louise and Suzanne) about their experiences, I believe that I have struck the jackpot with Liège.
I learnt just a few weeks ago that I would be at Athénée Royal Lucie Dejardin in Ougrèe on the outskirts of the City of Liège. Once again, I was onto Google to see what I could find out. In a nutshell, it is a co-ed lower socio-economic state school of approximately 500 students.
Guy was based at this school when he was on his LIA 2009/10 and was very enthusiastic about the experience.
One of the links for the school sent me to youtube where a couple of teenage girls had a lot to say in French - most of which I was unable to understand. I obviously needed subtitles!
I learnt just a few weeks ago that I would be at Athénée Royal Lucie Dejardin in Ougrèe on the outskirts of the City of Liège. Once again, I was onto Google to see what I could find out. In a nutshell, it is a co-ed lower socio-economic state school of approximately 500 students.
Guy was based at this school when he was on his LIA 2009/10 and was very enthusiastic about the experience.
One of the links for the school sent me to youtube where a couple of teenage girls had a lot to say in French - most of which I was unable to understand. I obviously needed subtitles!
Friday, 19 August 2011
Facts about Belgium
- Capital: Brussels
- Area: 32,547 sq km (not very big. If my maths is correct, it would fit into NZ about 5 times)
- Population: 10.8 million (approximately) Brussels has the largest population: just under 2 million
- Language: French (40%) , Dutch (60%) and German (1%) are all spoken
- Government: Parliamentary democracy with constitutional monarchy
- Unit of Currency: Euro
Thursday, 18 August 2011
The journey begins...
Actually the journey really began about a year ago when I won an Language Immersion Award to go to a French speaking country for a year. That was pretty exciting. Towards the end of 2010, I learnt that the French-speaking country was Belgium so I immediately went googling to see what I could find out, apart from that it was famous for the necessities for life i.e. chocolate, waffles, frites and beer ( not so keen on the latter but who knows what a year will do!).
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