It's the end of my first day in a new country. Things are going pretty well so far. I had a long few flights that left me hungrier than I could tell, but I ended up in Brussels all right. I met my host family for a few days, the Pariettis, and they actually took me on a small tour of Brussels, which is a really nice place. The Pariettis took a picture of me in front of a big important building whose importance I forget right now, but with any luck I'll figure that out before too long. That was the only picture taken today. Sorry, mom, I'll try to get more later. But I was in Brussels, and the Pariettis (M. Didier and Mme. Claude) bought me a meal at a Brussels restaurant. It was pretty good. They're very generous; they kept on reminding me to ask them for stuff if I wanted it. We'll see how long that lasts. We really are way out in the country; Les Avins is a really small town surrounded by fields, and the Pariettis' home is kind of on the outskirts.We're way out. So right now I don't know if this will ever actually see the light of day; only one computer at a time can have internet access here, and I don't know how big a deal it would be to hook it up to this one instead of theirs. I also discovered tonight that the electrical converter I have is designed for obsolete models. It just won't fit in the socket. It's also missing a grounding wire hole on the front, so it wouldn't have worked anyway. The two big things I need to buy and now an electricity converter and toothpaste. We'll see how everything goes.
I've now moved to my first semi-permanent host family, chez les Pirards. There are four children in this hosue, four more than in the Parietti house. It really is beautiful here, there's quite a vista, I'll try to get some pictures later. I'm trying not to use the computer too much because I still don't have an adapter and the battery is now in the high 60% power range and falling. But everything is going great. Belgian keyboards are wierd, by the way. Instead of having a "qwerty" keyboard, they have an "azerty" keyboard with just a few letters switched, and the "m" and ";" keys switched and you have to hit Shift+; for a period, and it's all screwed up. I used one a bit at the Parietti's, and it's just totally screwy. Here at first glance, the Pirards seem very nice, but I'll get to know them better later. We'll see then.
Oh! I visited Liege; it's a very nice place. Mom, Dad, as you may have noticed, I made a purchase there of 57.XX euros, which was all comics. Fullmetal Alchemist is released all the way out to volume 21 here, so I got those (things are really starting to heat up in the plot), along with a book by Junko Mizuno (whom I've wanted to read for a long time) and two books by Moebius, a famous european artist who's impossible to find in the US. All well spent, I assure all of you. By the way, Kyle, I can't wait to show you this Moebius stuff. It's really awesome. All in all, I'm finding plenty of comics here that I don't know, and that's great. There's one well-known character called Largo Winch; the Largo Winch stories are essentially James Bond, but with Bruce Wayne as the main character instead of a Brittish secret service agent. It gets a bit like Rumble in the Bronx sometimes, where you're wondering if it's supposed to be serious or not and then it slaps you with something so ludicrous you realize it can't be serious. But it's a lot like James Bond in that matter, too. It can be entertaining, if not terribly profound.
One thing I'm discovering about Belgian culture is that drinking happens slowly. This is in part because the portions tend to be smaller, so you have to make them last longer (yes, here a "small" is actually small. Maybe half the size of a small at Wendys). I have to moderate my pace so that I don't finish too far ahead of anyone else. Also, talking is a big pastime here. Maybe that's just because we're out in the country, or maybe it's more Walloon and less Flemish, but whenever I've stopped by somewhere with the Pariettis, we've always recieved invitations to sit down and have a drink. That would seem to contradict the Belgian Formality that my guidebook professes. At any rate, it's pleasant here for the meantime.
We'll see what happens when school starts.
I have an electrical adapter now, so perhaps I can be a bit more liberal with my updates. I have some pictures now, too.
I guess I should start by saying that the Pirards must be pretty well off. The man of the house, Philippe, is a nurse at the local hospital during the day, and the woman of the house, Catherine, is a night-shift nurse. Huy, where I'm now located, is pretty suburban, but the Pirards live on the outskirts and have a sizable estate; they raise horses, sheep, and rabbits. They ride the horses, and they eat the rabbits and sheep. I guess I'm helping with the rabbits and sheep. Here are some pictures of the house; I'll try to take more later. It's quite a view from the back. So at any rate, Huy isn't nearly as in-the-boonies as Les Avins is. That ought to go well. There are only two children living here right now; one of the girls is away at university at Liege, and the other is in Senegal with her boyfriend, who's Senegalese. So here there are currently five people: Philippe and Catherine, patriarch and matriarch; Colin and Emma, their progeny; and I, the american.
The daughter who's away at university now was recetly an exchange student to Holland; Her host family stopped by for a visit a day or two ago. It was very interesting; Those from Holland spoke Dutch and English; those from Belgium spoke French, sparse English, and even sparser Dutch; and the American spoke French and English. Well, the daughter who's away at university was there for the visit, and she spoke French and Dutch. But I spoke a lot of English to the Hollandaise so they could understand. I had to translate a bit between French and English. Overall, a good time was had by all. There's a small castle not too far away, so we visited it. The daughter who's away at university works there, so we got free admission. I'm not sure if that's a stated benifit or not: "free entry for family and friends." We all sang "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "Frere Jaques" in three languages simultaneously; we even did "Frere Jaques" in a round. One of the Hollandaise was somewhat familliar with anime; he said he was very fond of Dokuro-chan.
I went to see a play yesterday. It was very interesting. It was a play in two parts: The first part was a drama about a recently widowed woman who wants to move back into an old home of hers, so she'd be living alone. Some of her family is for it, some of her family is against it, and the play ends with the widow commiting suicide by asphyxiating herself with a plastic bag rather violently in front of the audience. For the second part, the cast asked the audience what could have been done at what moment to avert the ultimate tragedy, and invited audience members with ideas of how to fix things onto the stage to replace the actor for a character and act out what they think the character should have done differently. It was really cool. I couldn't understand a lot of stuff, but I understood enough to get by.
By the way, the consensus is that my French is very good. In general, people say that they've seldom had an exchange student so fresh speak such good French, and never an American. People comment frequently on how few Americans speak French.I feel fairly competent, but there are frequently times when I don't know exactly what was said or I have to interpolate certain words or phrases, but in general things are going well, and after all, I've been here only a week. As a postscript, if there's anyhting you want me to write about, or anything that you think is missing, send me an email. The address is garton(undersore)kevin(at)hotmail(dot)com ; natually you're expected to decipher it before entering it into the "to" field of your chosen email program. But you probably knew my email adress anyway. Also, spread the word around about this thing. I don't think I actually told very many people how to access this website, so try to disseminate the information among the social web you've all woven.
As a final note, I hope school is going well for all of you currently in session. I start September 4 or 5.
