Bye!

My traveling get-up. Big backpack in the back and little in
the front. Although from this photo, the "little" one looks
quite large!!

The following songs were songs that I listened to or came into my head at certain moments on my trip. Since my ipod got erased, I think I'm missing some, but since I can't remember them, then I guess they weren't that poignant!

Coty's Fall 2011 Playlist:

1. Rose Laurens - Africa (french version)
2. Mary Chapin Carpenter - I Take My Chances
3. Joni Mitchell - All I Really Want
4. Stevie Nicks - Sable on Blond
5. Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken
6. Joni Mitchell - Urge for Going
7. Figgis on Figgis - the whole album
8. Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy
9. Neil Young - Natural Beauty
10. Angus and Julia - Yellow Brick Road

wrapping up Belgium (for now)

Just a little Belgian wrap up. (Although i will be returning briefly in November!)

What a great "10 year anniversary of my exchange to Belgium" trip. It was so great to re-connect with my family, fall right back into the every day living with them, to a point where it almost felt like I never left.

*highlights

- getting closer to Adele and Camille. Since leaving Belgium Apolline had been my major contact and she probably was the one that was a major factor in keeping my ties to the family. She visited Montana, wow, six?! years ago, so we have kept up correspondence. She had to work a lot while I was here this time, so I didn't get to see her as much, but it gave me an opportunity to spend time with others. When I was here last, Adele was only 8/9 and Camille 11, so coming back when they are more on my maturity level and realizing how well we get along has been a real highlight. Bicycle rides with Adele, playing pool with Camille. I really feel close to those two!

-traveling around with Antoine. He has been so great about going out and about with me. He is another one that I really connected with. We had some really great, insightful conversations that I will treasure.

- laughing around the table late evening with Paul and Veronique, sharing stories and sipping on wine. I have been really surprised at my ability to carry on a real conversation in French! I know that sounds silly, but I hadn't talked in French for so long (practically six years since my last French class!) that I didn't know what would happen! I feel like I was able to really talk with Veronique and Paul this trip and connect in ways that I couldn't when I was here last.

- realizing what a cool countryside place I lived in for a year and really appreciating its beauty!

- Seeing a few of my Belgian friends from school in Nivelles at the Inauguration of the Grand Place ! What a great 10 year reunion. And none of us had really changed; we all had the same haircuts, clothing styles and everything! And by the way, the best fireworks, light show, historical parade that took us through all the centuries of the town and town square(church)! (complete with blaring several Barbra Streisand songs after the show was over)

I leave you with some pictures~

bicycle rides through the country
wind turbines in the background
Everywhere in Belgium to comply with the
Kyoto Protocal


Adele and I frolicking through the farmland


homemade chocolate mousse that Adele and I made!
(Elly we must try to do this!)


Me, Camille, and Apolline
at Villers-en-Fete


Friends from Reves -
Stephanie, Marie, Me, and Julie

Travels (an unexpected adventures!) around Belgium

In addition to my country bicycle rides, I have been trying to get out and see some the sites I didn't manage to see when I was here. Of course I have not kept up in posting as I have done these things so here are some miny snippets! (Waterloo, Ghent, and Namur)

Adventure to Waterloo (a.k.a. experiencing the back of a postman's mail car)

The 'Butte du Lion' or Lion's Mound

On Monday, I decided to go to Waterloo to visit the Butte du Lion, where the Battle of Waterloo took place and where Napoleon was defeated. It was something that I drove by many times while living here but never managed to visit. So I woke up that morning with a resolve to go! The bus line 365a is the line that runs between Charleroi and Brussels and was the bus that I got to know well when I was here. The stop is at the edge of town, so I got up early to make the half hour walk to the stop. But when I got there I saw the posting that the stop had been suspended until Thursday due to construction on the road. It then gave the names of a couple other stops that could be options. Knowing the direction the bus ran on the N5 (the highway) I started walking on a road right next to the highway, hoping that it would lead me to the next stop. So probably walking maybe 600 meters down the road, I was feeling good, accepting I'd have to catch a later bus, but ready for the adventure anyway!

View from the top of the mound overlooking
the site of the Battle of Waterloo

But then to my dismay, I say that this road connected with the N5 just before the next little village, with little shoulder and LOTS of cars. I didn't think I should walk on it, so i just accepted the fact that maybe today was not the day to go to Waterloo and turned around. Oh well, adventure thwarted, or so I thought! As I was walking back the mail man came driving up and stopped at the house next to where I was walking, so I went up to him and asked if he knew where the next stop for the 365a was. It was, as I had thought correctly, just down the road. I thanked him and was going to just go home as I didn't think I could walk along the highway, but then as an afterthought, I asked, "Can I walk on the road there?" He replied, "Sure!" and then almost as an afterthought said, "Would you like me to drive you?" I accepted (enthusiastically), but was then informed I would have to ride in the back with all the mail! Not a problem for me. Just another thing I can check off my things to do in life! So there I was sitting in the back of a post man truck with all the mail rolling along a Belgian road. Not what I expected to happen that day, but an adventure nonetheless.

Riding in the back of a mailman's car!

He dropped me off at the stop, and voila! I made it to Waterloo and enjoyed hiking the steep steps up to the lion, overlooking the countryside, thinking about all the history that had happened just in this little spot. Then I descended, headed to the bus stop, and hopped on just as it started to full on rain. So I then had to run home in the downpour, arriving to find my just purchased (and expensive!) raincoat sitting on my bed. (Many of you all know that I managed to live in Bellingham for 6 years without ever owning a real raincoat, but I broke down and bought one for this trip, thinking it could be useful in Italy for working outside in the rainy season!)


Ghent (language party!)

Tuesday I went to Ghent, a town in northern Belgium that at one point in Europe's history, was quite the force. Read about the history of Ghent HERE. Ghent is in the north, so when we arrived very disoriented as to how to get to the center of town, it was amusing to try to communicate. Antoine, with his minimal knowledge of Dutch from school, me with my English, and some French thrown in. A lanuage melange! But most everyone spoke English, it was just fun to watch Antoine initiate conversation in Dutch, then try to communicate in French, and then me take over and talk in English.

Picturesque old-town Ghent
(look close and you will see the canal)

*side language note: That night, after getting back to the house, I went with the family to a Rotary dinner, where Adele was giving a presentation on her past year as an exchange student to Australia. There were other students there - one from Australia, one from Brazil, and two other Beligans who just got back from Peru and Argentina. We all sat at the same table together, and it was such an exciting melange between English, French, and even Spanish. So fun to see how the brain can just kind of just weave in and out of these different languages. Communication is fun!

So BACK TO GHENT:

I just love visiting old churches (the two biggest being Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael) . There is something about theme that is so calming and full of wonder. Ghent has several of these whose history dates back almost 1000 years. Walking around, looking at all the intricacies of the architecture and carvings, its really a wonder how much care and detail were put into these worship spots. I just think about all the centuries of people who have visited these halls, all the different changes that has happened around these walls and yet here they are still standing. (I'm sure you are going to hear plenty about this after all my visits in Italy!)

The day wasn't the best day to do a tourist tromp around a town, as it kept raining on and off all day long (hey, I remembered my raincoat!), but regardless, Ghent's old-town is just beautiful. We also visited the Granvensteen Castle, which was first constructed in 1180 , and as of recent decades been restored. aaaaah! Oh I just remembered, I had a wonderful flashback to 6th grade in Mrs. Bradshaw's class when we studied about medieval times and the one thing I remember was talking about 'toilets' in castels (basically a big, long shoot down to the bottom). Well I saw one! hehe... Does anyone else remember dressing up and making food for the medieval banquet we had?!

Churches, churches, churches!

Okay, so somehow I managed to take a picture that
makes the castle look like a toy lego model,
but I swear it was actually quite large!
(with steep, lengthy staircases!)


Ah, that is a little better.


An example of a slight cultural difference between the north and the south:
As soon as we entered Flanders, at every train stop there would be lots like this -
hundreds of bicycles parked every which way. More people bicycle in Flanders
and according to Antoine, tend to be a bit more environmentally conscious.

NAMUR - the citadel **okay, I could not get a picture that captures how cool this thing is, so you probably want to click on the link to get a better idea!**

Looking out from top of the citadel over
old-town Namur

I hopped in the car with Paul, Camille, and Gaspard to do a quick tour of Namur - Gaspard was getting dropped off at his school (where he spends the night during the week) and Camille was going to a friend's house. Paul took me up to the citadel of Namur, which was constructed by Louis XIV (yes, the one associated with Versailles). Wow, what an amazing thing. This citadel is built into the hill which sits right up against Namur and the two rivers that flow in the valley. A perfect position to watch and guard 360 degrees around the valley. Up and up and up you drive to the top, And then descend down, down down. There are hallways and underground passages and little spots for archers to shoot their arrows, and I'm sure many other fascinating things that I didn't see due to the fact that it was evening so the entrances were closed. How is it that these things were built?!

well you can kind see how it sits in the hill...

Brussels!

aaaack....I typed up this whole post and the internet went out and I lost it all! So trying again here (several days later!):

Last Friday (over a week ago now, whoops..) Antoine and I spent the day in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

Me at the Grand Place

Ah, the memories of Brussels. The town of street-side waffles, the Grand Place, Mannekin Pis (of course!), but mostly meeting fellow exchange students Blythe and Maxine on the weekend to see a movie in English and visit Waterstone Books, our English book store. The city to have a little break from french and relax our brains in English speaking mode! When you are immersing yourself in a foreign language, especially at the beginning, you get tired a lot, because the brain is working so hard to try and comprehend what exactly is going on. I'm glad to notice that this trip, I am not having this experience at all! I really understand about 95% of what is being said - without any thought that it is not my normal language. The brain just understands! Yay! I know French!

Anyway, Brussels. Blythe and Maxine got to be my closest exchange student friends (Blythe from Oregon and Maxine from New Zealand) and we spent many a Saturday or Sunday hanging out in Brussels, each catching a train from our respective towns to meet up in the center of the country. So it was good to revisit this city with my host brother Antoine and revisit the sites, although it made me miss those times I had with Blythe and Maxine!

So Antoine and I walked around and saw the Grand Place, wound our way through the little streets around the center, saw Mannekin Pis (A very small statue of a peeing boy. One of Brussels major tourist attractions.) and the Royal Palace, and generally had a good time in Brussels! Although I did have one major disappointment. There was this great little sandwich shop right on the other side of the Grand Place that I just loved going to. They had this wonderful tomato and cheese sandwich on a baguette and pressed kind of like a panini. Oh yum!! For lunch we went on a search for this place, and I was utterly disappointed to see that it had been replaced by none other than, well the picture says it all.

But disappointment can lead to a new discovery! Antoine introduced me to a very Belgian sandwich, a Mitraillette. What is a Mitraillette? Well basically some kind of meat (not sure what it was) with french fries (which by the way is actually a Belgian invention, saucy stuff, some corn, salad mix, on a big bagette. Yum!

Antoine eating a Mitraillette and a look inside.

Brussels is an interesting city and is important not only for the European Union (whose center is located in Brussels) but also for Belgium itself. As many of you know, Belgium has not had a central government well over a year now. By the way, it now hold the world record for a country without an official government, a title which formally had been assigned to Iran.

The north, Flanders, which is Flemish speaking (a form of Dutch) and the south, Wallonia, (which is French speaking) have always had tensions, but it is really at a real high right now. (Oh by the way, there is also a little part in the east that is German speaking. And this is a country the size of the state of Maryland. Brussels, which is technically in the Flanders territory is officially its on region, but more people speak French in Brussels than Flemish. I had an interesting conversation with Antoine about what it means to be Belgian (or French or American etc...). He was lamenting that in Belgium right now, people don't really know what it means to be Belgian. Yes there are waffles, beer, and chocolate, but what is it that makes someone Belgian? He said there are not strong national holidays (like for us in America) and the two main regions are not only different language wise, but also culturally. And he was really unsure if the country could really come back from this recent crisis of the lack of central government.

The Royal Palace with the Belgian flag flying on top

But Brussels plays a big part because it really ties the two regions together. It is in the region of Flanders, but is mostly French speaking, so people in Brussels for the most part wouldn't want to be part of Flanders if the country actually did split in two, which there has been talk. I remember when I was here last and went for a visit to Brugge (which is an amazingly beautiful city in the north) my host mother told me that it would be better for me to speak English there because the people would treat me better if I spoke English. That's the kind of distrust there is between the two regions. (Although on the way back from Ghent (in another post!) I talked with a lovely woman who was very happy to have the opportunity to speak French to us because she never gets to. So you can't apply these things to everybody!)

p.s. If you want to read about the history of Belgium and what has historically tied the two regions together as a country, wikipedia has a nice article HERE.


A COUPLE MORE PHOTOS :-)

For those of you have been on my pain au chocolat hunts (JENN!)
- a real pain au chocolat for less than a buck. And it was GOOD :-)

One of the many building murals of cartoon figures - something Belgium is known for
(Smurfs, Tin-Tin etc...)

Belgium!

And so I have arrived! I flew into Brussels

without any flight hiccups and my host father, Paul picked me up. We then went to pick up one of my host siblings, Antoine at his apartment in Brussels, where he (and two other siblings) study.

note: Just in case you don't know, I lived in Belgium for a year as an exchange student my junior year of high school. (2001-2002) I lived with a wonderful (and large!) family in a little village called Mellet, which along with a few other villages make up "Les Bons Villers." This is about an hour south of Brussels. My host family consists of :

Father: Paul
Mother: Veronique
Kids: Francois (adopted from Ethiopia),
Antoine (adopted from Colombia),
Apolline (adopted from Colombia),
Camille (adopted from Ethiopia),
Adele,
Gaspard (adopted from Haiti).

My Belgian Family!
(plus friend of Francois bottom right)

*Coty internal brain side note: In an attempt to actually update this blog, I am really going to try and let go of my wanting to write about everything (saving that for my journal entries!), and I'm just going to go ahead and post what I can, when I can.... and let go of the fact that I'm not going to have the time or energy to get out every thought and event!

So I arrived on Wednesday, got to the house and was greeted by the family. We all agree that it is a little strange, because in one way it really seems like yesterday that I was sitting at the table with them last (save for the fact that everyone was ten years younger!), but then when I think about about so much has happened - 10 YEARS! I finished high school, went to college in Bellingham, met a whole new set of friends and community, went to grad school in North Carolina, made an album, playing shows - became the person that I am today. And to think the very first time I tried to teach myself guitar was actually here in Belgium, with the family guitar that only had four strings! I'm smiling thinking back on how I tried to play Stevie Nicks songs using that guitar. But when I got back home, that's when I knew I wanted to take guitar lessons, and the rest is history!

left: Camille and Gaspard
(who is only one day younger than my actual brother!)
right: Adele at the computer

Since my arrival, I've done a lot of hanging out with my family, playing pool, ping-pong, swimming in the pool, going for walks and bike rides, and going to Brussels with Antoine (separate post to come). It has really been interesting to see just how much I have adjusted to being back in a French speaking household, and how different it is this time coming in already having a good grasp of the language - being able to already understand and talk has really quickened the learning curve. When I was first here, it took till about Christmas to really be able to understand, and then longer to feel confident in talking. But now because I already have that base, I feel like I am really soaking up the language. I already find myself doing much of my thinking in French and although I am by no means totally fluent, I find that I really can say what I want to say. It's so reassuring and quite fun to look at myself and see just how quickly this immersion into the language is going. If it is like this in only a few days, I'm sure I will have made significant progress at the end of my two weeks, and I wonder what it would be like if I were to be here another here?!

The other thing that I have really loved doing is the bike rides. I have taken to just grabbing the bike and going. Mellet is a little village and the farms go right up to it, and even into the village, so there are cows and horses everywhere. The fields with corn and other things (I'm not exactly sure what's growing out there!) surround the town and winding through all these farms are the little country "roads" (I put that in quotation because while the cars do drive on these things they are more the size of a golf cart path!) But I have been just riding - going where my heart desires and enjoying the countryside, the smell of the farms and the animals, and seeing what I can see. Tonight I wound my way through two different villages before making a full circle back to Mellet. (Belgium is flat, so I can always keep an eye on where I am at!) I'll just see something interesting in the distance (usually a church spire!) and aim for it.

There are moments when I think, why did I not get out and explore this countryside when I was first here?! Then I have to remind myself that it is my journey that has brought me here and enabled me to want to take this bike out here and soak in the beauty of my surroundings. I had to come to Belgium to appreciate the mountains and beauty of my home in Montana, something which I continue to appreciate more and more. I had to come to Belgium the first time and go through everything there is to being an exchange student, where I gained confidence in myself and my abilities which took me off to college. And I had to go off to Bellingham and North Carolina to explore and get to the point where I am now, which brings me to wanting to go take this bike into this field and enjoy and explore this countryside and feel confident that I can just ride my bike not knowing exactly where I am going and still be able to find my way back home!

Mellet, with the church (and center of the town) in the distance)

And so here I am! Next up - my trip to re-explore Brussels! The city where I would go weekends to meet up with fellow exchange students Blythe and Maxine to go see a movie in English, visit our favorite bookstore, buy waffles from the street vendors, etc...etc... (oh yeah, and the Grand Place and Mannekin Pis!)


MORE PHOTOS: (you can click on any image to have a larger view)

More Belgian countryside and the 'Rue Sottiaux' - the street where the house is