Another First: My French Course Begins

At last I have started a French course.  The classes are for three hours each time on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. On Wednesday there is no afternoon school but I miss the afternoon classes at Lucie Dejardin on Mondays. It’s another two-bus affair but thankfully not a lot of people seem to use the buses at lunchtime and Chantal and Guy-Michel had shown me where to go on Sunday.

I had time for a little lunch on Rue St Gilles – un petit sandwich (about half the size of the sandwich we get at school) a coffee, and I treated myself to a macaron – strawberry flavoured – yum! My first cafe dejeuner in Belgium.

Afterwards, I caught a second bus up the winding cobblestoned streets to annexe Waroux where the course is being held. As I was early, I introduced myself (in French of course!) to the others who were waiting and had a bit of a chat or as much as I could manage.

 Eventually the Prof,  Madame Demaret, arrived and we had to introduce ourselves and say why we were there. Madame corrected our French as we went around the class. She then wrote the list of countries on the board. There were 36 students in the room from 26 different countries. They included China, Japan, Togo, Mongolia, Italy, Russia, Morroco and Peru. It was like the United Nations.  Most of the students are women and married to Belgian men. They probably range in age from twenties to sixties and most have been here for several years. I think mostly they can speak okay but they need to practise their writing.

 Afterwards, we had a grammar and vocab test. While I know I didn’t score 100%, I think I did reasonably well. It wasn’t very hard but we shall see on Wednesday! Interestingly, I had befriended a woman from Togo, Florence, who had reasonably good spoken French ( i.e. better than mine) but she kept asking me for the answers during the written test and I had to tell her I couldn’t give them to her as it was a test. She kept asking though and trying to sneak a peek until Madame gave her a stern look.

 We finished early – at 4 o’clock -  as it was our first day and Madame wanted to mark our tests. I chatted to Lily  from China at the bus stop. She is here because she wants to do business in Belgium. She came here a year ago and this year has brought her 15 year old daughter over to learn French too.

I’m looking forward to the next class and finding out more about our united nations class ( and learning more French of course!).

The Ardennes, Pavlova, Police, Apples, Raclette and the Quebec Café

The above sums up the past week for me in Belgium. Now for a little more info. Last Sunday, we (Guy-Michel, Chantal, their friends Claire- who could be mistaken for Chantal’s sister – and her partner Dominique and I) drove about 30 minutes into the Ardennes to go for a walk and pick blackberries. The walk was a very pleasant 9kms on country lanes and muddy tracks over undulating  lush green hills. We were never far from a cow, a house or another walker. Unfortunately the search for blackberries was unsuccessful but we had a wonderful dinner and evening back at Chez Chantal et GM.

The following Friday night, Claire and Dominique returned for pizza and pavlova. No, I did not stupidly volunteer to make pavlova – we all know my abilities as  a cook. However, GM who is basically a gourmet chef had suggested he make pizza (with a  crispy base made from scratch) and Claire who is obviously somewhat fond of alliteration suggested I make the pavlova.  As I found out, making a pavlova is a mission in a foreign country! First, the ingredients had different names. Yes, an oeuf is an oeuf is an ouef but how about farine de mais, sucre de semoule (I had quite a conversation with the supermarket ladies about them)  and vinaigre du vin blanc . I didn’t manage to find any vanilla essence – we had extrait de just about everything except it. In the end, I bought something that came in a bottle but turned out to be granular – those little bits scraped from the vanilla pod  I think. My other difficulty was the cream. I definitely didn’t want any of that UHT stuff (horrendous when you are used to  the real thing – changes the taste completely!) Unfortunately, I hadn’t bought my recipe with me, so I went surfing on the internet and used one of Alison Holst’s.  You can’t believe how stressed I was thinking that the reputation of that Kiwi icon, the pavlova, was resting on my shoulders! Suffice to say it wasn’t the best pavlova in the world – the outside was not as hard and crunchy as it should have been and it had collapsed somewhat by the time we ate it – smothered in real cream (courtesy of Claire), kiwifruit and strawberries. Everyone was very kind about it and even had a second helping because they felt so sorry for me! Never mind, it was washed down with plenty of wine, coffee and tisane.

On Saturday morning, there was a knock at the door – it was the Police. No, I hadn’t done anything criminal. He was there to check that I really did reside at the address that I had given when I applied for my carte d’identite. He asked if I spoke French and when I replied ‘not much’ he spoke with GM and Chantal. I may have misunderstood what he said but  I’m pretty sure he said something like there were too many foreigners in Belgium and they were taking the jobs of the real Belgian people. After he left, they told me that he was very stupid and refused to tell me what he had said!

Saturday afternoon was my second encounter with the gathering of apples in Belgium. This time, however, we didn’t actually pick them.  GM, Chantal and I drove about 40 minutes west of Liege to Jean-Michel and Colette’s  house. About five minutes down the road from their house was a paddock with 4 huge apple trees or ‘pommiers’ as they are known in French. There were about 14 of us. Some climbed the trees or used a long stick with a prong to shake the branches while the rest of us held up large tarpaulins in order to catch the falling apples. The call ‘Attention – a la tete’ was often heard as the apples fell quickly and heavily like little green cannonballs. We gathered up the apples and put them in containers. They were to be taken away to a farm to be made into apple juice. The supply of apples was bountiful so we didn’t even finish the last tree. About 300 kilo I think it was.

We trotted back to JM and Colette’s place for apero (pre-dinner drinks and eats) and then a magnificent meal. Everyone had brought something to share and JM, heated up the raclette cooker – an oblong shaped piece of metal that was heated and then half of a huge round of cheese was put under it. When the cheese was bubbling and browning slightly, the cheese was skimmed off the top and put onto a plate with boiled potatoes and salad. Delicious! Yes, I did go back for seconds! Naturally there were also yummy desserts and copious wine and a highly alcoholic drop of something local to finish off. It was a fun night – I spoke lots of French, my tongue no doubt somewhat loosened by the quantity of alcohol and we arrived home in the early hours of the morning.

Sunday dawned and it was off to the Quebec Café in Liege for brunch. GM, Chantal, Julien, Fanny and I went there to celebrate Julien’s success in his first year exams. It is so popular that you need to book in advance. The café was decorated in all things Quebecois – hockey sticks and snow shoes and posters and decorations from Quebec. Wonderful – and the pancakes were scrumptious too! I did try to shout the family but they said I could pay next time. It’ll be a definite return date! 

The first week already!!

I can hardly believe that I've been here a week already. The time has flown. During the week,  as I described in my last entry, I started school in Ougree (still don't know how to do the french accents on the laptop, alt and numbers doesn't work!) at Lucie Dejardin. Pierre who is the husband of a friend of GM and Chantal sometimes takes me to school as it is only about 20 minutes in car but 2 buses and at least a hour in the bus. I have been catching the two buses back home. This was an experience in itself - knowing where to get off to change buses when you haven't been there before can prove interesting. The first bus is from Embourg to Liege and the second Liege to Ougree via Seraing. Embourg and Seraing are polar opposites. Embourg is leafy and green with lots of large houses while Seraing is rather like Coronation Street only greyer, with lots of rubbish and more depressing. It was the site of a huge steelworks but there is plenty of unemployment there now.

As for the school itself, I am settling in okay. This week I was in Daniel's classes which were interesting. Next week, I am going to look at some other classes as I think it's useful to see a variety of styles and methods. Daniel seems very keen on rugby and we have been checking the scores in class! In one class, the students' homework was to write down 10 questions for me and the next period was spent with them asking and me answering their questions.

Lunch at school is amazing. I ordered sight unseen a 'sandwich' and I got a shock when I saw what it was. The sandwich was a 50 cm baguette filled with ham, cheese and lettuce. It came with a drink, a salad and soup. This was all for the princely sum of 3 euros - about $5.50 - amazing. The sad thing was I couldn't even eat half of it - it was enormous. Luckily, a colleague was able to polish it off for me!

On Friday morning, Daniel had no classes and wasn't at school so I decided  to go into Liege. I had a bit of a walk around and went to FNAC a really good bookshop - they even have a few books in English. Also bought an umbrella at C&A which I promptly went on to leave somewhere - I'm hoping it is at school.

I caught the bus to school but sadly I was unable to get through the gates at first as they were all locked. It was during the first lunch period. Most of the teachers have a swipe card  so they can drive through. There was a gate with an intercom but nobody answered when I pushed the button. The student entrance was also locked. Finally I asked a boy who was waiting on the street. It turned out he attended the school and had a key so he let me in. Not sure how I would have got in otherwise. Maybe texted one of the teachers?

After school on Friday, Chantal took me to Rue Jonfosse to sign up for some French classes. I start on the 19th and am really looking forward to making (hopefully) quicker progress.

Yesterday(Saturday) was really hot again - about 29 degrees. Guy-Michel and I went apple picking at an organic orchard. The funny thing is that here I am from NZ where there are heaps of apples to pick but I had to come to Belgium to do it! There were quite a few other people there too. It was hot work but easy enough and one could always eat an apple if you felt hungry or thirsty. The orchard was near Brussels but in the Flemish speaking part. We picked about 60kilo of eating apples which wasn't bad for an hour or so's work. When we got back to Embourg, there was no-one else home so we had a beer - I tried a raspberry one - yum! It's probably too sweet for most males though. I had quite a good talk to Guy Michel in French. It is so much easier one on one. I am finding that I am remembering more words and learning some new ones. I am understanding more of what people are saying although if there is a group of people talking I still find that they talk too fast for me to understand everything they say. I think the Belgian French accent is quite different from the French French accent.

Last night Pierre and Carine came for a barbecue. We had a proper charcoal barbecue with sausages and meat and this was accompanied by des haricots verts and des pommes de terre. There was also plenty of red wine!!!! It is amazing how this loosens the tongue. P and C came for dinner last week. It was Carine who suggested that Chantal host me so I am very grateful. P and C are good friends of a former LIAwardee  (Guy) and in January are going to  live in Wellington for a year.

First Day at School

Actually, my first day at Athenee Royal Lucie Dejardin (sorry, I don't know how to do the accents on my laptop yet) was yesterday but there were no students there.  The buildings are reasonably modern and made of concrete blocks. There are over 500 students at the school.

The main teacher that I will be working with is called Daniel. He is very enthusiastic about teaching and his students, and I liked him straightaway. He has been teaching for many years, although in a former life he was a politician! He teaches academic and business English to senior students. He himself speaks excellent English. I was in two of his classes today.

This was the first full day for most students and it was interesting to see how he set up his classes. Unlike most of the other classrooms, he has decorated his walls with maps and posters. The other classrooms have bare grey concrete block walls. Daniel uses an interactive whiteboard (there are only a few in the school) and showed the students in his business English class the All Blacks doing the haka after introducing me. I hope they don't think I will be so fierce!!

 In the academic class, they were revising some question structures, so I suggested that they ask me some questions. The first question was 'Where were you when they had the earthquake in Christchurch?' Very impressive, eh? It turned out this boy is actually repeating the course even though he passed it last year because you must pass all of the classes to go to the next year. He is very capable but is not catered for in all of his classes, so he becomes bored and doesn't do anything.

By the way, the second question was 'How old are you?' As good luck would have it, the bell rang at this exact moment so I have left them in suspense until tomorrow!

Yesterday, I was introduced to most of the staff and they were very welcoming. I had lunch in the school canteen: le boulet et des frites -a meatball with gravy and apple sauce  and chips.  Apparently it is a traditional Liegeois dish. It was delicious. (Better watch out that I don't turn into a little meatball!) I also had salad and fruit and water. I could also have had soup. The teachers and students can get a hot meal or a sandwich every day except Wednesday because on Wednesday afternoon there is no school!

This brings me to the teaching load. The school day is from 8.15 - 4.10. Teachers teach 18-22 50 minute periods and when they are not teaching, they can be at home. Some days they might start in the afternoon or teach only in the morning. There is no duty slot and they do not have to take any extra- curricular activities. Food for thought indeed.

Some initial notes and impressions

I am just about to begin my fourth day here so I thought I'd jot down some first impressions and experiences. I am feeling quite exhausted - probably due to the long flight here, the heat (28 degrees is quite a contrast to 13 in Dunedin - not that I'm complaining) and trying to think and speak and listen to French all day. I am trying not to let the tiredness hold me back.

My host family are lovely:  very kind, patient and generous. They certainly do their best to make me feel that I belong. Chantal speaks excellent English: she studied it at university and has taught it in the Cameroon as well as spending time in English speaking countries. I think that she said she was an au pair in Scotland. Fanny, her daughter, went to England last year for 10 months as an au pair. She knew no English before she went but is very good now. She is an inspiration for me. At least I know some words and phrases. Of course, I am trying to speak as much French as I can but it is comforting for me to know that they can translate if necessary. Like Chantal, Guy-Michel makes me feel part of the family and is very patient. I have not seen much of their son, Julien but he also nice.

  They live in a very pretty area where the houses are detached and almost all have gardens and there are lots of trees.(This is unusual as most houses in the city appear to be  semi-detached. Most people, I think, live in apartments). It is probably like the Maori Hill of Liege. Guy-Michel and Chantal are very interested in the environment and fair trade. Chantal buys organic produce where possible. She says this is not typical of Belgian people.

Food - this probably warrants an entry all of its own but here are a few notes, For breakfast, we eat homemade bread and a variety of homemade jams. There is also apple and pear syrup which tastes more savoury than sweet and looks rather like molasses.  Chantal and Guy-Michel have coffee at breakfast but I have an infusion (herbal tea). I haven't found any normal tea yet. The coffee does taste great (made in a machine - magimix- the machine brand not the coffee). However, they don't use fresh milk; it's UHT so I don't think that I would like a cup of normal tea with milk anyway! Chantal also makes yoghurt in an elctronic yoghurt maker. It's delicious.

Lunch is usually bread, wonderful cheeses and some sort of sausage (more like salami than what we would think of as a sausage). This might be accompanied by tomatoes or some salad. Chantal says this is atypical of Belgians - most would have a cooked lunch. The lunch is finished off with a coffee and some delicious chocolate - I am currently eating my way through a lot of individually wrapped 'Galler' brand chocolates. Each one is filled with a different flavour - yum!

Dinner - called souper in Belgian French - I will leave this until another time. It's worthy of its own entry!

Je suis arrivee!

Je suis arrivee en Belgique! It was a long journey to say the least. I still can’t believe what little room one has on an airplane – even with my short legs! However, Lufthansa showed up Air NZ by bringing out the hot towels – lovely! It was a trip of contrasts: hours of sitting followed by kms of walking through the terminals to get to the next departure gate.

I had to go through customs and immigration checks at both HK and Frankfurt. I set off the beeper at Frankfurt and had to go through the humiliation of an overzealous German Security woman giving me a pat down. This included me having to take off my shoes which were searched separately while she patted my socked feet!!!! Really!!!! After 35 hours or so of travel by that stage, I was not amused.

It was a different story in Brussels. After the problems with my visa, the customs and immigration were closed and I was ushered through without even showing a passport.

Chantal et Guy-Michel were waiting for me with a huge sign with my name on it but I would have recognised them from their photos. No sign of AFS who I believed would also be meeting me.  They are really lovely and Chantal speaks excellent English which is a bonus.

We chatted on the hour's drive back to Liege - me in my broken French. I was surprised at how empty the motorway was but I suppose it was quite late at night - 11.30 or so. Chantal and Guy Michel's house is charming  and they are warm and welcoming.  I am really lucky.

After a tour of the house and a final chat, I was off to bed for some much needed sleep.

Hello from Hong Kong

Ni hao - not great French I know but when in Rome (or in this case HK) do as the locals do, so somebody said.

 The flight here was an experience. I'm sure the space in cattle class has got smaller since I last travelled long haul (about 21 years ago!). And what happened to the lovely jasmine hot towels they used to hand out at the beginning and end of  the journey? I also remember the welcome packs with socks and an eye mask. I'm sure this was standard in economy even on budget airlines. Anyway, I was grateful of the business class pack Anne gave me.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful - I watched a couple of episodes of Miranda and then did a little reading and a little snoozing. About 11 1/4 hrs in total. Another 11-12 hours to Frankfurt coming up.

Very hot in the air terminal in HK. Looks very grey outside - probably smog I think! Am here for a few hours so making use of the free wifi - much more generous than AKL where it's user pays.

Well, before I keep rambling on - it's the lack of sleep - I'll finish this. Next time, I should be coming to you from Belgium.

Au revoir mes amis et ma famille

Finally, the day of departure was here. It took me most of the morning to pack and  apart from a slight drama attaching the small day pack to the main pack, all went smoothly.

 I  had weighed my bag on the bathroom scales and then when I found it was underweight added a few more things. I think Dad was concerned  that we weren't going to make it to the  airport I was so nonchalant about it all, but we did with time to spare.

And how much did the big bag weigh? 20.8 kg! Ye of little faith.

 My good luck continued when I cashed in a lotto ticket and won $22. Thanks to some clever marketing by Paperplus I spent the money on two dvds (one on NZ and one on Dunedin/Otago).

Eventually, it was time to go and I said my fond farewells to Dad, Kate, Em and Grace who accompanied me to the airport.  In Auckland, Margaret and her daughter Rebekah popped out to while away an hour or two and add some humour to the evening.

Thanks to all for their texts, phone calls and farewell dinners and coffees. I will miss you all - once it really sinks in that this is not just for a couple of weeks.

 Au revoir mes amis. I look forward to seeing you in 2012.