I went downstairs for breakfast today, and Anne-Michele said, "I'm feeling good because of the sun. Do you want to go to Liege?" Of course, I said yes, and within ten minutes we were off. We stopped at Carrefour, a grocery-type store here in Belgium that we went to on Sunday as well. I had to buy some cell phone minutes (prepaids are expensive!) and I think Anne-Michele bought something as well. After that, she went to the bank to try to work out some problem Alix was having with her debit card over in Florida. I think it's because in the U.S., we have a magnetic strip on the back of our cards so we can buy things, whereas here, there's a chip in the card and you have to insert the card into a machine instead of swiping it. Anyway, that took forever and a day, and I think Anne-Michele parked illegally (I wasn't sure there was such a thing, but she kept muttering about "la Police" as she pulled into the spot). So, naturally, I stayed in the car while she went into the bank, running through scenarios in my head if a police officer actually did approach the car.
When Anne-Michele came back from the bank (the cops had left the car alone), she had a book. She gave it to me, saying it was a gift. It's titled: BRAFA 10: BRUSSELS ANTIQUES & FINE ARTS FAIR. The beginning is in French and Flemish, but the other parts of the book are in English. I haven't quite figured that out yet. Anyway, it's full of museums and art shows and the like, with three pictures of what you can find at the various art places. Some of the art really popped out at me, like Happiness in crime by Felicien Rops, a Belgian artist, as well as Metamorphose and Woman by Joan Miro. I looked online to see if I could find pictures of them, but I couldn't. :( I'll have to show you when I get home. I seriously love Happiness in crime. Seriously.
Anyway, after we parked the car in a parking garage designed to hold match box cars, Anne-Michele and I walked around Liege a little on our way to an art museum. She pointed out the Palais de Justice (which, I believe, was the home of a prince many years ago) as well as La Meuse, a grand fleuve en Belgique. When it reaches Liege, La Meuse is divided into two pieces as it gets close to Liege. On the outskirts of the city, it is redirected into one river.
The museum we went to is called "Le Grand Curtius." The main gallery (is that what you call it?) starts with Neanderthals and has artifacts and art all the way through the French Revolution and beyond. There were a lot of coins from different eras and a whole section devoted to depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. There were tea sets, clocks, robes for clergy, different types of jewelery, bones, a painting of Napoleon twice the size of my bed, and some furniture, to name a few things. The exhibit seemed to focus a lot on the region and what has happened here over the last.... 10,000 years or so. It was really cool to get a grasp of how many different cultures had influenced the area.
There was another exhibit at the museum as well, and Anne-Michele and I walked through it. It was much, much smaller than the general gallery, but still just as interesting. It was an exhibit featuring Santiago Calatrava, who is part artist, part genius, and part architect. He designed the train station here in Liege, which is brand spanking new. Calatrava also designed the Milwaukee Art Museum. there was a little area featuring his drawings of that building as well as pictures of the real thing. I don't want to say that it was odd, or weird, but how... coincidental that the first museum I went to had a blurb about Milwaukee. I feel like it's some sort of sign or symbol. It was such a strange feeling to look at the photos and think "Oh, I've been there. I stood right there with Hannah and Shannon; I have a copy of the picture in my room at home." I think it was a "world traveler" feeling, for lack of a better term. It was my first taste of being able to say, "I've seen that. I've been inside it. I know what it's like." It's a pretty cool feeling. I recommend it.
In between the exhibits, Anne-Michele and I stopped for lunch. We split a long, sub-like sandwich that contained a large slab of brie and some walnuts. I liked it, but I can only handle brie for so long. I ordered Apple-Cherry juice to go with my half, and Anne-Michele had a glass of wine. My juice came in a bottle and a glass to pour it into came alongside it. Normally (well, in the U.S.) I would have skipped the glass and just sipped straight from the bottle. I'm 100.2% certain that that is a huge faux pas here, so I used the glass. It'll take some practice for me to become good at pouring things from container to another. I'm not blessed with that skill as of right now.
Tonight, we had pizza for dinner. I'm pretty sure that Etienne ordered a pizza just for me, and it'll probably take the rest of my time here for me to finish it. For some reason, even though I'm hungry, I get full here REALLY quickly. I had the equivalent of one piece of pizza in the states and I'm stuffed. I don't really know why it is. Oh. And we eat pizza with forks and knives. I felt like I was breaking the American Code or something. Etienne and Anne-Michele were teasing me, saying that I would have to eat pizza tomorrow for breakfast, and the next day, and the next, and the next. That's fine by me. There's nothing quite as delicious as cold pizza first thing in the morning. I'm serious. :)
At dinner, Anne-Michele and Etienne were harping on Adrien to study some more. Apparently, he doesn't like to (please introduce me to a 19 year old that does). They kept telling him to practice his English with me. I'm fine by that, but I'm afraid it would take us about a million years to have a conversation. He was trying to say the word "schedule" and it took me about 10 minutes to figure it out. It wasn't his fault, I was just trying to think of what it was in French so I could ask him if that's what he was trying to say. I'm still not entirely sure what that conversation was about. Something about schedules and when Anne-Michele works, Etienne doesn't, I think. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.
Language:
My first... 2 or 3 days here, I was hellbent on learning as much French as I could as quickly as I could. I was listening to everything everyone was saying, all the time. I was talking more than I am now. I think I've fallen into the "silent period." It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't want to miss out on opportunities because I'm afraid of saying the wrong word. The huge barrier is speaking. I know I've said that before, but it's true. There's something so terrifying about uttering a sentence in a foreign language. I'm afraid that if I just try to "let it flow," I'm going to end up all backwards, saying the equivalent of "I like well these flowers. They pretty are." I know that that will happen, but I want to avoid it. I never liked feeling foolish. I've always been a know-it-all (imagine that), and being in a position where I hardly know anything is rough. But I know it'll be worth it.
The other thing I've realized is that my accent is HORRENDOUS. In French class throughout the years, I was always told by my peers that my accent was soooo good. Here, I sound like I'm chewing cement when I speak. It's just hard for my mouth to figure out what to do with the words. I feel like Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" when Rex Harrison makes her put the marbles into her mouth and try to speak. It's horrible. And in case you were wondering, the American accent is not a pretty one.
One thing I find frustrating is the lack of "Oh rats!" words. In French class, we were told we could say "Zut!" or "Zut alors!" I've been saying 'zut' while I've been here, but Anne-Michele told me that it's something you say only with family, not with other older guests. So... what do you say? Her suggestion was "Awaaaoooh." (a combination of "ooooh" and "awwwww"). It's not cutting it for me. I guess I'll just have to say zut in my head.
Fast food is a French word. I tried explaining how many "magasins de la nourriture vitesse" (stores of speedy food) there are in the U.S., and Anne-Michele laughed, saying that they say fast food as well. So there ya go.
Well, I finished reading my English books (I highly recommend Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as well as anything remotely involving David Sedaris) and I'm moving on to Harry Potter in French. At the party on Saturday night, a guy I was talking to said that when he first started learning English, he was still writing in French and reading in French, and it was hindering his learning. He said that once he started reading in French, he learned a lot quicker. So I'm going to try that. I figured Harry Potter is safe because I've read it about a dozen times, so I know what's happening. Amaury handed me a little kids copy tonight, which I'm grateful for. It has smaller words and a simpler story (it's only 302 pages as opposed to the actual book's 422 or something like that). It's made for people at about a 10 year old reading level, and since (in French) I'm at about a 4 year old reading level, I think it's a good match. Maybe it'll help me learn French faster? J'espère.
Nighty night,
Mikayla
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