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.