MY FIRST ESPACE-TEMPS

18/09

I've been here in Belgium for almost a month now but it wasn't until last Thursday that I had my first "Espace-temps".

I have espace-temps every Thursday from 14:00 to 15:35. It's a special class where we get to choose an activity. This semester we could choose between yoga, crochet in Dutch, manga drawing or playing ultimate frisbee. My friends and I chose yoga.

During the last class of the day we went to the gym with other 10 students and we meditated.  It was really relaxing. We did some breathing exercises,which I found really helpful to avoid stress.

I couldn't take pictures of the class since the use of electronic devices is prohibited inside the school. However I'm going to upload some pictures I took throughout the week.

THE WALLOS

23/09

Last weekend there was huge festival in Namur called "Les Fêtes de Wallonie". Or as young people prefer to call it "Les Wallos"

This is the region's important festival. People from all over Wallonie and Belgium travel to Namur to meet their friends, drink with them and to assist to some of the many concerts they have in the afternoons.

I went to Namur the Sunday after lunch to see the Echassehurs.

The Echasseurs is a sport only practiced in Wallonie during the festivals. The people who do this sport use giant slits to run and walk. There are two teams, the red sticks and the yellow sticks.

Th objective of the red team is to nock of their slits the other team members, and viceversa. The game stops when one of the teams is eliminated. After that the remaining team divides in to two other teams until only one person remains. He is the winner. 

Here are some pictures I took: 

SOME EVERY DAY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPAIN AND BELGIUM

I can't believe I've already been here for three weeks. 

I can't help but notice some small differences between my day a day here and in Spain. These are a few of them:

• Everyone is really polite here, even the younger children. For example, you have to say good morning to the driver when you get on the bus, and also say thank you and goodbye when you get off.

• There is a lot of respect to the teachers in general. When they arrive me must be standing behind our tables and we aren't allowed to sit down until they tell us to.

We aren't allowed to call them by their first names either.

• During classes we must ask permission to drink water or blow our nose.

• The dress code is really strict also, we aren't allowed to show our shoulders nor our legs. Wearing sport clothes during normal classes isn't permitted either.

• All of the meals are really early. Lunch is at 11:30 and we have dinner around 19:30.

• People here are used to the bus' irregular timetable. Some days it may arrive really early, but most of them come really really late.

Besides all of this, nothing really special has happened during these last weeks.

There was a party last Saturday in the town hall, and I went there with my fiends.

Here are some photos I took last week:

FIRST WEEK IN NAMUR

This first week hasn't been as dreamy as I had imagined. It hasn't been easy to adapt and make new friends, but somehow I've managed to do it. 

By far, my biggest difficulty has been with the language. Translating everything all the time is way more tiring than I'd expected. Nonetheless, I've been following the classes the best way I can, taking notes and participating when possible. 

Over the weekend my host family took me on a tour around Wepion, the village where we live. I find it really beautiful and charming. 

I am attaching some of the pictures I took yesterday to this post.