Fiesta City and Shrimp Fishing

The last 2 days have seemed so much longer... Haha soooo much longer. The day after we looked at family photos I woke up the next day pretty late... around 12 or so. Then I went with my host dad to Fiesta City and we saw tons of different bands. See, the festival takes place in Verviers, a city really close to the village where I'm living. And in the center of the city there are several different stages set up in different areas and each has a different band/ artist playing at the same time, so if you don't like one, you can always go and see another. A lot of the musicians here sing in English, I've noticed. They all have pretty thick accents, but not any more than some of my favorite bands like Led Zeppelin. Then it started to rain, and all the umbrellas were packed with people, so we went inside this little bar called "Spirit of 66", which I feel would be a nice little hang-out spot for me, if it wasn't on the opposite side of the village. See, I will go to school in Herve, which is to the east of Chaineux (I think), and Verviers is on the other side, to the west of Chaineux. I need to pull up google maps and check...

Anyways, this little bar called Spirit of 66 is an "American bar", where they have only American-style decorations and everyone in there wears shirts with many of the bands I like (though some of the people there aren't the sort I would pal around with...) and everything is based around Route 66. They have tons of old western stuff and all sorts of Route 66 merchandise and posters and such. Anyway, we waited in there for a bit while the next band got ready, and after about half an hour, Leah (the exchange student from Canada) and her older host brother came in and stood with us. After a while it got really hot from all the people standing so close and dancing and whatnot, so Leah and I went outside and stood in the rain for a bit. She told me all about things she was noticing that were different than in Canada, but they were all things that I think are universal everywhere else in the world... things like guys being very rude and aggressive towards passing girls, litter, trash, and smoking in public.  But anyway, it was nice to be able to hear some english again and not have to rack my brain trying to figure out if she said "hair" or "horses"... french speakers will know the reference, but for everyone else, the word for hair is "cheveux" and the word for horses is "cheveaux", only a slight difference in pronunciation, if your ears aren't trained to hear it.

So then my host dad and I left because we had to wake up at 4:45 the next morning... We were going shrimp fishing! It was very interesting to see and take a part of. The nets on the boat would lower into the water, we would move for about half an hour or so, then the nets would be brought up and the shrimp/fish/crabs would be dumped into a huge bin and sorted by this big strange machine. All very cool, but I didn't take my camera for fear of dropping it into the North Sea. So about 12 or so guys and 2 kids went "shrimp fishing", but really it was just an excuse to drink, talk, and get away from les femmes. ;) Haha by 8 o'clock in the morning, we were working on the 3rd bottle of wine, and I taught them the phrase "it's five o'clock somewhere". My dad would be proud that I quoted Jimmy Buffet.

Then we came back and I took a shower. We ate and then we went back out to Fiesta City, as it is a 3-day long festival. We went back to Spirit of 66 and we also ran into a bunch of people that my host dad knew, and a few I knew as well. We met his sister and her husband, who live in Normandy, France. His accent was very different from the Beglians'. He said he has a hard time understanding them too. Then we went around and listened to even more music. We even listened to a jazz band, and I tried to explain New Orleans and my parents' history there to him, but he didn't know New Orleans, so it didn't really work too well. Then we sat outside at this cafe and waited for my host mom and her nephew, Maxime. He is 9 years old and the cutest thing I have ever seen. I've decided I want a Belgian baby. Some day I will come back and marry a Belgian girl and raise our kid here. Or at least teach my future kid french from the time he is little...

At the cafe I had a dish called Boulettes a Liegeois, which were like these little meat "bullets" in a nice sauce, and of course les frites a la mayonnaise. I also tried my first Chimay Bleue (shout-out to uncle Lance, it was really good, and not at all too strong!) and then we took Maxime to get ice cream. In the store, a little Asian girl ran in, snatched my host mom's jacket and Maxime's leftovers off the table, and ran outside into a huge crowd of people. I found her, and her mom who looked very confused about where the items came from. I explained that they were mine, and she gave them back and apologized. I came back in the store before my host mom ever missed me or the jacket/food. She was helping Max pick out an ice cream flavor. Then we took Max home and I came home and passed out. It was like midnight and I had been up since like 5... It was a very fun few days and I made lots of memories, but unfortunately I only have like 10 pictures... I will post those later.

P.S. There was a band that had a lead singer who looked exactly like David Whitmore. It was hilarious because he was wearing black leather skin-tight pants and a black leather trench coat. I took a video but I can't put it on my computer. So for family members, I will save the video for when I get back in the states. Love and miss you all!

 On the way home from lunch, this was a weird road sign that turned out to be a marker for a natural gas pump

 This reminded me of the Willy Wonka door...

 Chateau de Jehay

 This badger made me think of my buddy Alex

 My host mom explained to me that after this type of insect mates, the female eats the male... That explains this very strange piece of art.

 A clock given as a gift to the count of the chateau from Queen Elizabeth 

 These tapestries were all over the place. They are a belgian specialty.

 A very early music box

 This harpsichord was very important, though I don't remember how... Something to do with a very famous name, maybe some king or queen...

 Lots of naked women statues... I think the count was a perv, many of them had their legs spread open, but I didn't take any pics of those...

 Some sort of well I think... There was nothing explaining it.

Where to even begin...? It's been 3 or 4 days since I've posted my last entry with the photos... Lemme think... OK, the first thing that happened was that I went with my host sister to her friends' house and we had lunch with her friends family and their new exchange student! She arrived that day! Her name is Leah and she comes from Canada. But she already speaks french so well! She has been studying it for 6 years and is so far ahead of me its not even funny. But she is very nice and I think we will become  good friends over the year, even though we are in different Rotary clubs. So on the way home, I took some pictures of some of the weird things I saw on the way... I'll post those later. Then when we got back, my counselor, Monsieur Jean-Paul Dembour was there waiting to meet me. He was very nice, but he scared me at first. He started off by saying "I saw your photos..." at first I didn't know what he was talking about, so I asked which photos. "Standard Liège..." haha OH SHIT, I thought. That was the soccer game I went to with my host brother. He said "There was lots of beer at that game, I saw in your photos." I agreed and he said in English, "Very interesting........" Then he laughed and told me "do not worry. Here, we are not America and we are not the police. Just be careful." I was so relieved it wasn't even funny. He was a nice guy. ;)

Then the next day, I went with my host sister and mother to the Chapeau de Jehay. It was very pretty, so much different from the last one we went to! This one was not fallen to the ground, and was actually like a small little palace. It had been turned into a museum because of all the rare furniture and artwork and trinkets that were on display. I can't remember it all, but the castle was super old, and they had treasures and artwork from all around the world between the 1500s and 1800s. I have tons of photos of that cuz it was super pretty.

Then the next day, (yesterday) I went with my host sister and a bunch of her friends (including Leah) to a big community pool in a nearby village. It was really nice, but none of the guys could get in the water b/c they didn't allow shorts or "long-legged" bathing suits. My host mom explained this is because a lot of teens wear those suits to do lawn work and then go to the pools to "clean off" and that is not looked highly upon at the pools. So I couldn't actually get in the water, but I chilled with everyone else up in this sunny field area until I had to leave. Thats when my host father took me to the bank to set up my Belgian bank account. Then afterwords we went and bought my cell phone, though I haven't used it yet, it had to charge all night. And then we had dinner and looked at a bunch of family photos/home videos together with the family, and two nephew/cousins. It was nice. Now it is the next day and later tonight I am going to go to "fiesta city" with my host father and some others. I will be sure to take tons of photos, it should be fun! :) I will also post the photos I talked about in this blog! :)

P.S. I almost forgot, I had (what I think was) pig intestines (or intestines of some animal at least) last night at dinner, and they were actually pretty good! It smelled like a dead yeti, but It wasn't bad once you got used to the texture! ;)

Here are the pictures from Spa and the soccer match. Post any questions, I'd be glad to answer!