Plaisirs d'Hiver

From now until the new year, Brussels (and many other cities in Belgium) play host to winter markets, festivals and celebrations.  The series of events and activities in Brussels is called Plaisirs d'Hiver (Winter Pleasures).

It is a very fun time, and I've already gone 3 times!  (It's been open for 5 days.)

There are a few different parts to it, but here's the website (in English!) and you can see for yourself!

The main places to be are the Grand Place, and the Christmas Market.  Those are different links than the regular ones, so check them out!  There are tons and tons of little cabins that are selling different crafts and things.  It's a really warm, Christmasy environment.  Well, I wouldn't call it warm; it has been cold here lately - today there was snow outside when I woke up!  Actually, it's still there...

Right, so here are some pictures from the great festival Plaisirs d'Hiver!

This is the café / restaurant thing.  It is 2 floors.

A view from one end of the Christmas market.  This was on Saturday.  It was much less busy on Monday when I went, and I talked to the girl at the Québec booth for like an hour!

Colourful Bourse!

Grand Place looking festive

Nativity in the Grand Place

This guy is always here, but with the tree I thought it made a nice picture!

Mom - this is for you!

A little game for kids - you pick up an ornament and get a prize!

Skating!  

Very very popular - vin chaud (mulled wine).  The smell is so nice and it's sold at every other booth so the whole festival smells like it.  It is very delicious.  You can get things like amaretto added to it for .50€.

As I mentioned before, the best part (and most magical) was the light and sound show in the Grand Place that was projected onto the hôtel de ville (town hall).  It was one of those moments where I realize how lucky I am to be living in Europe right now!  Every day I have those moments, but this one filled me with so much joy because I just love the Christmas season!

Here's the video!  It takes about a minute to get into it, but after that it's fun fun fun!

This week is going to be an exciting one for me.  I love bowling, and I am going on Wednesday and Thursday!!  yay!  Wednesday will be with David and his Mom, then Thursday will be with the meetup group again.  I told them that I will beat them all next time so I sure hope I can live up to that expectation!  Perhaps the practice on Wednesday will help.

J'ai etudié le français hier, et je vais étudier après finir cet post.  Puis, je vais aller à la bowling alley à  faire une reservation pour mercredi soir.  Je ne dois pas faire une reservation pour jeudi, parce que l'homme qui faire le meetup group a ça fait.  Aujourd'hui j'ai déjà rangé ma chambre et mis quelque livres sur un étagère.  Un étagère à eux a cassé aujourd'hui et presque moi tué!  Ah well.  D'accord, à grâce de écrir en français je veux la étudier maintenant, puis je vais finir à present.  


K bye!

Pictures from Liège

Well as promised, here are the pictures I took in Liège.  Yesterday I went to an amazing Christmas market / festival.  The truly amazing part was when, for 7 minutes, they projected video onto the City Hall in the Grand Place.  I really mean it was jaw dropping, sooooo cool.  Of course, I video taped the whole thing!  That video will be coming shortly.  It was really something else!

For now, here are some pictures from Liège.  I will make a separate post for the Christmas festival.

Some of these pictures are a little blurry because I took a video and cut the picture from the video.  I did that because my camera really doesn't work well in low-light conditions.  anyway, here I am in the Cathedral of Liège.

 This is the train station!  Really modern!

 A flower peacock

 Meuse River

 Québec festival!  (poutine is on the sign!!)

 They also had their own Christmas market, but it wasn't open yet.

 The Canadian booth where I was talking to that guy

 A Belgian coloured lollipop!

That's all for now!  Today I'm going to the Musical Instrument Museum, so I'll take lots of pictures there!  K bye everyone, hope you're having a nice weekend!

Following 66 year old footsteps

Yesterday I went to Liège.  It is a city in Eastern Belgium, close to the border of Germany and the Netherlands.  Yesterday I also called my Grandparents, and my Grandpa told me that he went through Liège quite often during  the war because it was on his route through Belgium!  It's so interesting to hear the stories he has to tell about the places I'm in right now!  It's like living in a text book (but more interesting... I was never one for reading text books...)

Yes, so I went to Liège.  I didn't see much because I wasn't there for long, but I want to go back so I can go to a few museums, and maybe tour some more parts of the city.  They had a winter festival that was being set up (it will open up today or tomorrow for the weekend) and one of the booths had a Canadian flag!  I was SO excited.  I went up to the guy and (in French) asked if he was Canadian, which he was!  He asked me where I was from (in overseas situations I usually say Toronto because Hamilton isn't generally known internationally) anyway, it ended up that he knew Hamilton quite well, because he worked in St. Catherine's for years and years!

I asked what they'll be serving at his booth (they're more like little cabins actually, I'll put up pictures later) and he said he'll be serving liquors that are popular in Québec.  Also, in a different part of the city they are having a Québec festival!  They're celebrating everything Québec and on the sign... get ready... it said... POUTINE. I will refer you to this blog entry from Korea.  Here is a little excerpt of the first time I found poutine in Korea.

Well, we found the subway station alright, and yes the New York Fries was there. I felt like it was too good to be true. Like I had just been Buddha in front of the Himalayas being urged by the God of Temptation to turn the mountains into gold... like I had just been wandering the desert for 40 days only to see a waterfall or a glorious Coca-Cola pop machine. 

Ok people, you have to take me seriously, I REALLY like my poutine.

Anyway, I ordered the poutine, shakily looked in my wallet for my money (how awful would that have been?!? To come all this way and forget the simple task of taking out cash!), handed the lady my money and it was all real. I think I might have slipped into nirvana when they handed it to me. I took a picture of it, the colours, the scents... it was all a blur really.


Oh the font just changed.  Oh well.  Yes, that was when I found poutine in Korea.  I really hope I can find it here.  It would be an expensive poutine if I decided to go all the way to Liège again to eat it, because the train is expensive.


Right, so yesterday we went to the National Bank of Belgium's museum.  It was really really great! So interesting!  We saw the history of money!  Did you know there is a Pacific Island (Island of Yap) that still uses 4 metre wide stones to pay for houses?!  Amazing!  We had a guided tour in English which was great too.


A while back (I mean a LONG while) I applied for a Villo card.  This card allows me to rent a bike (there are bike stations situated throughout Brussels) with just a card!  The service is free for this year, then next year it is not much, but I forget.  Anyway, it's free for a half an hour, then 50 cents for the next half hour, then 1 Euro for the next half hour, then 2 Euros for each half hour after that.  If I don't return the bike at all, I get charged 150 Euros.  That is their way of making sure people return them!  Well, I just received my card yesterday, so now I can go bike riding around Brussels!  There is a very large somewhat circular ring trail around Brussels that goes through woods, trails and city parks.  It's for bikes, or people etc.  I will check that out.  I would put a link to the map here, but ''given it's size, the map isn't available for download on the internet''.  


That is all very exciting news.  Well, pictures of Liège are to come, as well as pictures of my Villo cycling adventures!  I'm sure there is something I've forgotten to mention here, as there usually is, but when I review my pictures I'll remember and update again!  Ok bye now!

Stuff

Well, 2 days ago it was the 2nd anniversary of my going to Korea!  Doesn't seem that long ago, but it has been! Speaking of Korea, N. Korea attacked S. Korea today (click here to read the story).  Stuff like this would happen from time to time when I was over there and would scare me a bit, but it usually blows over.  The difference this time is that they actually attacked them instead of just launching missiles and things.  In March they torpedoed a submarine or something, so things are getting more and more serious.

I still know lots of people there.  The Canadians have been given this to look at, and the Americans this.

So far, nothing is happening in Belgium, so that's good.  Well, starting yesterday there is a train strike which is "paralyzing Belgium", but since I don't have to take a train, that doesn't affect me.  I've been thinking of going on a trip to somewhere nearby.  I think a trip to Western Germany (specifically a place called Aachen) is in the cards.  Aachen is the western-most city in Germany, and shares a border with both Belgium and the Netherlands.  It's especially famous for it's cathedral and it's Christmas Festival.

Here in Belgium, I worked last Thursday, but haven't since then and I have no plans to work until someone calls me to replace someone else who's sick.  I've decided I need more work, so I'll start to hunt maybe today and see what is out there.  Don't get me wrong - not working is just great, but not having money isn't so great!

As for plans in the immediate future... I'm washing towels at the moment, and am playing host to a significant amount of hunger.  Alors.  I will dry those towels soon, and eat.

Je n'ai pas écrit en français depuis longtemps!  Peut-être je vais faire un post qui sera seulement français!  Bien que j'étudie encore le français, je toujours oublie de l'écrit ici.  Alors - aujourd'hui je vais: chercher du travail, laver des serviettes et vêtements, boire du café, et peut-être aller au centre-ville.  Ça c'est tout!


You can copy & paste that text here if you don't know what that means and you want to know!

That's all for now!

Updates and such

Well, I saw Harry Potter on Wednesday.  It was so different from the rest of the movies, but then again the book was the same.  It was a good movie, but I think I'll like the 2nd half better, because more stuff happens.  Last night was very fun for me.  I am a member of 2 meetup groups here, and I have been to 2 meetups so far - one for each group.  Yesterday evening we met up and went bowling!  I met some really nice people from all over the place.  I didn't bowl very well though!  At the end of last season, my average was 127.  I bowled a 113 and a 122 I think.  It's always my goal to beat my average, but even though I didn't do that, I still had lots of fun.

Afterwards we went out to a bar to grab a drink together.  It was so nice to meet English speakers!

Today I went to the commune (a sort of city hall for the district of Brussels I'm living in) to become a registered immigrant.  I was supposed to do that within 8 days of my arrival here, but they told me to come back today.  The Belgian system isn't exactly efficient.  Anyway, in order to receive a card, I will have to wait another 6-8 weeks!  The guy told me I should be able to take the paper he gave me and bring it to the bank to open an account though, so that's good.

Tomorrow we're having a party here at the house.  It is kind of a goodbye Alex (the girl who used to live here) welcome Ian party (although I'm more than half way through my sojourn here).  Anyway it will be fun and I'm sure lots of people will be here.  As for Sunday, I'm not too sure what is going on.  Alright, time to go!  I think I will put on some coffee.

Bye!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1

Today (2 days before it comes out in Canada) I get to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1!  It's the 7th movie in what will be a series of 8.  There are only 7 books, but the last book is being turned into 2 movies.  I bought the tickets already, and now I just have to wait!

For movie 6 (Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince) I was in Korea.  This time instead of Korean subtitles at the bottom of the screen, there will be French and Dutch subtitles.

Here's the official trailer for the movie.  I'm so excited!!

The goings on of this week.

Alright, here we are in another week.  Another very rainy week.  Here's what's been happening -

Monday I taught at the school, it was a very long day because I was called in the night before to teach all day, rather than just the afternoon which is what I was originally supposed to do.  It's ok though, more work for me!  That night I had a concert that took place at a place called Place Flagey.  An orchestra played a symphony ... I forget now who's it was, although I still have the ticket and could easily look it up... then they played a violin concerto by Prokofiev which was very impressive.  Almost sounded like programme music.  The soloist was a student from the school.

Tuesday I subbed again (but this time only for the afternoon), then that brings me up to the last time I posted!

Thursday was Remembrance Day at home, and Armistice Day here.  Here it is a national holiday.  It was nice to see so many of my facebook friends acknowledging the importance of the day.  The best part of Thursday?  I got to have a nice video chat with my family at home including Kate (I know you're reading this!!) and my Grandpa who was in Belgium during WWII.  Actually, he was lost of places, but since I'm also in Belgium, I thought it was a special coincidence and worth mentioning!  Anyway, we had a nice visit and they told me all about the annual Remembrance Day ceremony that happens at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.  It's always a good ceremony.  This year the seats were full again and people were standing.  It's good to know so many people still go!

Thank you to all of the war veterans, and those serving now for allowing us to have what we have today.  You'll never be forgotten.

That night was a Thursday, so there were museums open late as usual.  We visited a museum called the Museum of Fantastic Art.  It was really strange, weird skeletons and mummies and stuff, but really cool anyway.  Here are some pictures!

Yesterday (Friday) I went to an exhibition in a huge old warehouse building (but surprisingly quite fancy) called "America: It's also our history".  I'm not too crazy about America, but alas I like to learn, so I went.  It was interesting.  Some of the history (I guess this could be said for any country) is just so sad.  The parts that were the worst were the slave trade and WWII.  It was just stunning the pictures and video they had about those things.  Aside from that very serious, very sombre stuff, they had really interesting visual aids about immigration and timelines about the history and stuff.  For me, being a visual learner as outlined by the theoretical and practical research of Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligences Theory, I was very happy with the visual aids they had!

Today is yet another rainy day and as such, I haven't left the house yet.  Well, if I never left the house whenever it rained in Belgium, I'd be a hobbit.  It rains quite a bit here.  But today I'm still deciding whether or not to go to a museum, or to just stay in and have a quiet day with the roomies.

Well, that is all for today, here are some pictures to bid you farewell.

This is the main building of the school.  There are lots of buildings on campus.  This one is where there are the offices, HR and stuff.

This is the building that houses the music department.  There is more of it to the right, but the camera couldn't get it all in its scope.

For more pictures, you can go to this section of the school's website.  Check it out, it's a very nice place!

That's all folks!

Pictures!

Ok, so here are some pictures from what I mentioned in my last post!

Well Thursday I met some of the people in the Brussels French Meetup Group and we went to a toy museum!

Friday I went to Leuven (Louvain).  The name is different if your speaking Flemish or French.  Here are some pictures from that day.

The train I took there had 2 floors, it was very exciting and of course I went on the 2nd floor!

They had some very interesting buildings there, both modern and very old

This is the town hall.  I ended up getting a private tour of it!  There are tours every day at 3pm and I happened to be the only person there, so they brought me around!  Just me and the tour guide!  What an experience!  It has a very fortunate history - during the first world war, it was used as the headquarters of the Germans.  In the second world war, a bombing of it was attempted.  The bomb scraped by the front of the building, but when it landed just metres away, it didn't blow up!  This building is still here from the 15th century despite almost everything around it in the city being destroyed in the 2nd world war.  The statues you can see were added in the mid 19th century.

 "Large Beguinage of Leuven" - The Flemish beguinages are a unique testimony to the medieval mystical movement which produced them.  Beguines were 'religious women', widows or spinsters who wished to live an independent but committed life outside the recognised orders with their vows of fidelity and poverty.  They organised themselves in self-supported 'cities of peace', with architectural and urban qualities.  Today, mainly professors and students live here.

That was such a fun day.  Then came Saturday, with the Science Museum!

A replica of the mars rover!

Here I am excavating dinosaur bones!

This type of dinosaur actually never stood like that, but when the assembled the bones a long time ago, they didn't know that.  Now, the bones are too fragile to be moved, so they're going to stay like that!

Well, that was that.  I have had a busy few days, but I've been seeing a lot!  I hope everyone is having a nice Wednesday, and I'll update tomorrow with Remembrance Day things.

Bye everyone!