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!

Home

I'm going to take advantage of my jet lag - so bad this time for some reason - and add a post about our trip. We returned Monday morning from 17 days back in Oregon. It was SO great to see family and friends, it's always good for our souls. We brought our neighbor, Charlotte, from Belgium, who was a great travel companion and a real trooper.

We flew in Friday, July 3 and headed on down to my mom's beach house that night. 24 hours of travel door-to-door. We adjusted to Oregon time over the weekend at the coast with my mom. We watched the local parade - 100 years this year, so classic - and participated in the games on the beach. Nathan joined in a "coin hunt" in the sand and the other kids ran in 50-yard dashes, horse races and relays. Kevin even ran in the dash for "boys over 30". Such a fun small town 4th of July atmosphere. We had a bonfire on the beach with s'mores (of course) and watched the fireworks. Loved it.

Monday it was back to Lake O, all of us staying at my mom's condo. - Kudos to my mom for dealing with 7 extra bodies for 2 weeks. She does so much to help make our stays enjoyable. Getting favorites like root beer and Chai tea, supplying towels and other utility stuff and making yummy meals (when we're not out running around). - We spent Monday doing some errands and miscellaneous things, and Kevin and the boys went to the West Lynn skate board park.

Tuesday after lunch Kevin and the 4 boys went to his parents' ranch for a visit. They stayed until Thursday afternoon. (He'll add more about that in another post.) While the boys were gone, it was time to get some shopping done. Charlotte had a list of things to get while in America. So she, my mom and I went out Tuesday afternoon - to Target and some places in Washington Square. Wednesday, Charlotte and I headed to NW Portland, starting the day with chai tea, hot chocolate and pastries at St. Honore's with my friend Marissa and her daughter Bella. Charlotte and I walked and shopped around NW 23rd for a while and then took the trolley to the Pearl. We had lunch at Piazza Italia, very yummy pastas, with ice cream next door for dessert. From there we headed to Powell's Books before meeting up with my mom for a ride back to LO. We did a little more shopping Thursday morning. Between all the trips we managed to find nearly everything on her list, and a few extras!

Thursday the boys came back from the ranch and we all went to our house - the Levin's house for now - for play/swim time and a BBQ. It's always fun with the Levins and the boys were very happy to get back in the canal. They jumped in, floated on rafts, kayaked, canoed, swam and jumped on the Keating's huge water-trampoline. After a delicious dinner, we boated over to the other side of the lake for ice cream at Tillamook Ice Creamery (I think it has a new name?) It was a such beautiful night! (Thanks Levins!)

Friday morning we hit the road to Seattle to see all the cousins' families. We stayed with Eric and Ann-Marie's family and spent Friday catching up with them. Saturday we went to watch Travis' game - they won - and I spent some of the time with myfriend Noemi. I got to see her new home and catch up. Afterwards we were back to E and A-M's and had such a great night eating outside on the patio, talking about everything and nothing, and feeling very much "home" with them.

Sunday was the big Foster/Clarke cousins' reunion. We headed over to my brother, Jack's, house. There were 22 of us - my mom and aunt, me, my brother, and Kevin's 2 brothers' families. 11 cousins aged between 14 and 8. We had a big brunch at Jack and Renae's beautiful home and then went to see the M's play against the Rangers. It was a blast to be there all together, and it was Charlotte's first experience with Major League baseball. (She learned lots of details about the game from Kevin's brother, Eric, while watching Travis' game Saturday.) She was a super Mariner's fan, foam hand and all. The kids had fun throwing popcorn at each other, goofing off and walking around during the game. Oh, and watching the game, too. After the game we drove back to LO.

Monday morning we dropped Kevin at the airport and then spent our week meeting up with friends. The boys had lots of time with their buddies: there were a bunch of sleep-overs; we spent a few afternoons at the swim park; we went to a 1 am showing of the new Harry Potter movie; I had a couple of good hikes and lunches with girlfriends. It was a great week of catching up with a bunch of our favorite people. There are some people we were hoping to see that we just didn't find a chance to see. It's always tough to try to get in as many visits as we can while staying sane and not overdoing it.

Overall it was just what we needed in the way of a touch of "home". While we'll make the most of this last year ahead in Belgium, we'll be very happy to move back next summer!

Mother's Day

This year Mother's Day was on a Saturday for me. (Kevin was in Oregon that weekend and on Sunday one of the boys had a basketball tournament all day). So we made an adventure of it one day early. The boys and I went to Paradisio, an hours' drive south into the French-speaking half of Belgium. Paradisio is a huge nature and animal park. A couple of the boys had been there for a school trip and raved about being a very cool place.

The first thing we did was to walk through the area with at least 20 large bird cages. There were so many types of birds with the

most vivid colors! Dozens of vibrant, rainbow-colored parakeets, bright yellow canaries, goofy-looking black and white birds that jumped from branch to branch in their cages. Bright pink flamingos burning red, pointy-billed birds, lapis colored ones, emerald green shimmery ones. We walked through a "tropical rainforest" enclosure with wildly colored birds. It was pretty amazing.

In the tropical bird enclosure area, there was an access to the rope bridge which traverses the park. It spans from one end to the other and has stops along the way with "Japanses-style" towers (Cameron's description) and stairs down into other areas of the park. When lots of people were walking on a section of the bridge, it really started bouncing. It was hard not to hold onto the sides to keep from loosing balance. The boys thought it was great and, of course, tried to make it shake as much a possible to jostle each other's balance. Thankfully the people in front of us were far enough in front of us that I don't think my guys caused them any harm. (No one yelled at us, at least.)

After passing out of the bird area the bridge lead us out over the japanese gardens. There was a river-like pond of koi swimming around and exotic birds roaming the edges of the water. Along the winding "river" was a Chinese-styled covered walkway, complete with pointed, curved ends on all the roof sections. It was covered with blue tiles and the woodwork was very stylized.

The first stop along the rope bridge was at the massive playground area. It had plenty of the standard playground fare - regular swings, tire swings, climbing walls, rope netting towers for climbing, and teter-toters.

And then there were things hadn't seen before - beyond seesaws. The had standing platforms the kids could stand on, and in addition to going up and down, they pivoted on the center stand!

The boys spent an hour or more running from one thing to another, pairing up to ride these balancing structures. There was an area for older kids with higher bars and more possibilities for really flying. There was also a climbing pole with a standing pad that would slide down if perfectly horizontal. But if the person standing on it pushed down with one foot to make it diagonal, then it would grab and not slide. It had a "handle" piece that did the same thing and, once he figured out how to make it work, Cameron was able to make it to the top of the pole. It was a tough challenge!

There were so many animals. The next ones we came across were the small climbing creatures. They were roaming freely in their areas, with no fences or bars to keep them away from us and vice versa. Once area looked like a safari camp" and there were a few very small monkeys climbing on and around the buildings and coming down to see if anyone had something tasty for them in their hands. Next was a lemur area, with a group of lemur mamas and babies hanging out in the shade of the bushes. The gaggle (or whatever you call a group of lemurs - anyone, anyone?) was only 3-4 feet away from us. I was able to video a couple of the youngest ones playing chase and trying to knock each other from the low branches of a nearby tree.

In the rest of the park we saw kangaroos, bats, penguins and birds of prey. There was also a tide pool area with urchins to hold and live shrimp, starfish and baby shark eggs. We didn't have time to go into the marine exhibit building - there was just too much to see. We can't wait to get back there later in the summer to see some of what we skipped and to show Kevin the cool things we did see. It was a GREAT way to spend the day with my guys.

Giving directions (also about language)

I get asked for directions often. One time when I was out for a run, a guy pulled over and asked for directions in French. As I tried to answer, he picked up on the English tones. He was originally from Mexico and learned English while working in LA. We ended up talking French and English because he was originally from Mexico, but married a French girl so now he lives in France. His English was spotty, like my French. But between the two languages we managed to communicate pretty well. He said it fun to speak English because it was more like being "home" on the other side of the world. I've tried to put him in contact with another Mexican friend of mine who married a Belgian guy and lives here now. Haven't heard if they connected.

Last week while out for a long run, a big truck pulled over and the older man driving asked for directions. Because he was in the dutch speaking area, he asked for directions in dutch. But when I started to tell him where to go (since I've gotten lost enough to know some of the roads now) he muttered "Oui, oui", which showed me he was normally French speaking. (I've come to the conclusion that the language people use for their little words, like yes and no, when talking about something else, is usually their mother tongue.) So, when he used the "oui" I finished giving him directions in French. He seemed to understand me. Hopefully he found Dottenijs.

Another time 2 ladies, who sounded like they might be Italian, came right up to me and asked, in English, if I could tell them how to get to the center of town. I wondered if I looked English-speaking, and asked them how they knew to ask in English. They said they'd asked a few people and English seemed to be the language the locals understood. (They didn't speak dutch.)

One guy I gave directions to asked me what we were doing for lunch. I turned him down, but it made me grin.

There was a time, early on, when I gave directions and as soon as the guy drove off I realized I'd given bad advice. Oops. I try to only give directions if I'm really sure I know the roads.

Vormsel (Confirmation)

Andrew and Cameron had their Confirmation Saturday, May 16 at our small, local chapel. Cameron is in the year kids do their confirmation in Beligum and we had Andrew do it also since he'll be past the age for it when we return (I think). It was more interesting for them to go through the process together. 

The boys were in a small group which met every 2 weeks or so throughout the year. Their group leader was Joske, a lively, friendly woman who was a fun leader for the boys. They had things to discuss in their group and then did outreach things like helping selling at an Amfar World Store, visiting elderly people at care centers and helping out at a soup kitchen downtown.

As the confirmation drew closer, all the groups met in the chapel to practice singing for the mass and the order for the service. The group of women who put it all together did a good job of getting the kids involved in the mass. They sang, brought things to the alter, gave readings and two girls played violins. 

All the kids wore robes for the service. We didn't try Andrew's robe on until the morning of the confirmation. (I know, not smart of me not to do it sooner.) Because he's older (and taller) than the other kids, the largest size of robe didn't go past his shins. This wouldn't have been a problem except that he put it on over his long, nice shorts (that all the kids were wearing) and I took one look at his skinny ankles sticking out the bottom and realized he'd look much better with long pants. Except his only long pants these days are jeans! So I grabbed a pair of Kevin's dress slacks, had Andrew put them on and he used his belt to cinch the waist. We all had a good laugh at Andrew in Kevin's bulky (on Andrew) pants!

The priest in red in the picture below is a Dom at a monestary and served as the Vormheer (confirmation bestower?) at the mass. (He stepped back onto the alter to reach Andrew's forehead to make the sign of the cross on it. Everyone chuckled at that.) Our neighbor, Jan, (also in the photo) stood in as godfather for both boys. He took the boys and Kevin on a day trip of river rafting the day after the confirmation. The boys told me it was one of the best days they've had since we've been here. Jan's brother arranged for the boats and had all the gear, and Jan's daughter, Charlotte, went too. (More about the raft trip in another post.)

The regular priest, Priester Michael (below), presided over the mass. Very nice man.

The whole group after the service.