Views from a few Belgian Teens

Last spring I went to an 8th grade English class as a guest speaker. I was asked to tell them a little about myself and then we opened it up for them to ask me questions they had prepared. The majority of the questions had to do with what life was really like in America, especially for teens. At the end of the time, I had a few questions for them, including how they would describe their life in Belgium to an American teen and what they think life is like for American teens. It was at the end of the class time, so it became an assignment the teacher had them work on before the end of the school year. I had an email from the teacher yesterday - she'd gone back to school to get ready for the new year and found 3 of the assignments and enclosed them in the email. They're below, just how they were written by the kids...

P.S. The kids are in only 2nd year English. They learn English quickly partly because they hear so much of it in music and in movies (played in the original language with Dutch and French subtitles). Because of the sources, they know and use English swear words a lot, even at young ages!

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Hi Stephanie!

I'm Alex. It was nice to meet you! I'm 14 years old ans I live in Kortrijk together with my parents and my brother. I don't have any sisters.

My dad is a booking agent, he's the manager of several American music bands. So I have a lot of contact with American people.

My life is all about music, sports and friends. I'm perfectly happy with the life I have and I would never want to change it.

I play soccer, my 8th year allready, at KV Kortrijk. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have soccer practice and every Saturday I have a game.

When I come home from school I do my homework and in my sparetime I go out with friends or chat with them on the computer.

In the weekends or vacations, most of the time I go out with my friends to parties, gigs and/or festivals or just chill out somewhere in the city of at their places.

My favourite food is steak with French fries. I could eat it every day, I love it!

And of course, I love fastfood too, but I wouldn't eat it every day. I'd become wy too fat :P

I'll end my letter here. If you want to know more about what I do or how I live, shoot your questions!

See you!

Greets

Alex

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I think it's a bit like in the movies: a place where the people eat a lot of fastfood and where there are a lot of big people. I also think that there is a big change because Obama is the new president. I really think it's a good thing that he's the president now.

I think that there are a lot of big shopcities where you can sometimes buy expensive brands for a less exensive price, but there are alos shops that are really expensive.

I really hope that I can visit the US to know if my conclusion is right or wrong. I do think that our view on America is determined by movies like The Simpsons: The Movie and stuff. I also know that my view is a bit exagerated and that probably isn't right, but I still stay with my conclusion because that is a proof that we really think that the American life is like in the movies. (Lisa)

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Hello, I'm Merel ans this is what my life looks like. I live with my parents and brother in Bellegem. My brother is 12 years old. i have 2 rabbits ans 4 guinea pigs (but 2 are my brother's). Every Wednesday I go to the art academy and on Sundays I go to BlueBerryHill (That is an indoor climbing club). At school I am also busy with art.

Actually, I'm glad that I live in Belgium because I don't like it if it's too hot. There is also a disadvantage to living in Belgium: everywhere you hear it is going bad with Belgium (crisis, the earth, environmental disasters,...) Later on all those things will be ours to deal with. Sometimes they call us the All Gore generation because we are growing up with the warming up of the Earth.

To conclude with, I like animals and street theater. I hope that I sketched an image on how my life looks like exactly.

Ice Mountain

We (finally) went to Ice Mountain, an indoor skiing/snowboarding facility 20+ minutes from our place. We've driven past the big, supported ramp (looks a bit like a huge airplane wing) but only Cameron had been there before, a few months ago. We got there as the evening rates started - 21 euro/person for unlimited access between 5 and 11 p.m, including equipment rental. Not a bad deal! Cameron was decked out for snowboarding, Jordan, Nathan and I suited up for skiing. J and N have skied before but not often. The inside of the facility is pretty cool, especially for snow boarders and beginning skiers. There is a large "hill" with a snowboard park (jumps, rails and other things to "grind" on) on one side and a flat hill on the other side, with tow ropes on either side. Then there is a smaller hill, with a slower tow rope for beginners.

As soon as he was geared up, Cameron was out the doors to the snow and headed up the tow. He spent the next 4 hours (minus a dinner break) going up and down the hill. He's a natural snowboarder and after getting good air on a big jump a bunch of times, he tried the bigger jump - with a 5-6 foot gap between the take-off and landing - and cleared it without problem. He was in his element. The younger two started on the smaller hill, to get used to skis again and to get used to the pull of the tow rope. It didn't take long for them to get their ski legs going and they moved to the big hill with the fast tow. They were very happy to ride up and zoom down, making only enough turns to keep from crashing. There was a jump at the bottom of the run and they went for it every time. They could have stayed for days!

Starting on the ride back and over the last few days, I can't count how often they've asked when we'll go back and if there's a chance we'll go again next Sunday night. They obviously loved it, so we'll be going back. For me, having skied since I was in 4th grade, it wasn't much of a challenge and there wasn't much variety. When we go back I think I'll go for snowboarding, it'll be more challenging. (I've done it before, but not often and it's been a while.) But, it was a pretty cool place (pun intended), especially when standing at the windows at the top of the big hill and looking out at the green, warm, summery countryside below (windmill included).

Even after 2 years!

Even after 2 years, we apparently still don't know when stores are open or not around here! We've come to know they're not open as much as we were used to in the US. But, we didn't think twice about going to shop for some dress clothes for Kevin on a Saturday afternoon. The mall was closed! We called our friend who informed us it was August 15 (we knew that much) and that it was a national holiday in honor of Mary ascending to heaven. So every store is closed for the day! Every Belgian knows this, like they know Dec. 25th is Christmas and July 21 is their "Independence Day". But we had no clue.

We also planned to get some dinner things, but we'll have to make due with what's in the fridge. All we could do was laugh - we still have no real clue about the store hours even when we think we've got it figured out. Oh well.

Later this weekend I will get the Belgian holiday schedule out and make sure I have all the days on my calendar!