Further to last week, Thursday and Friday did go much better at school thankfully. I also have two ‘Yes’s from the Heads of the schools, so my request to stay, with their letters included, is sitting by the door ready to post.
Last Saturday I went to Belgium for the day, to Gent and Bruges, with a group from Christchurch. I had wanted to go on a day trip to Belgium since nearly the beginning as it’s so easy from here, and this day didn’t let me down. There were sixteen of us and we went over in cars. First, we took a stroll around the town and cathedral in Gent. It is a very pretty town, even when you have to dodge the building works going on in the middle! Then we moved on to Bruges, again very nice, we walked around and stopped off for a late lunch in a friendly little pub.
To my amazement there wasn’t much interest in the chocolate shops coming from my friends, but I decided to go in to one to get a little something for someone (Can’t mention who, they haven’t received it yet…and sorry I couldn’t buy you all chocolate!) We wandered into another shop where they offered us a taste of a nice raspberry jam filled biscuit, which I happily tried, and liked, but didn’t buy! In the same shop there were chocolate ‘olives’. At first, one of my friends hadn’t understood that they were chocolates made out to look like olives and they didn’t actually have olives inside, so she turned to me and exclaimed at what she had come across, to which I swiftly looked for an explanation and found one. Almonds or some other nut covered in chocolate, covered in an iced coating, painted various shades of green and brown called ‘olives’. Then we carried on the joke in trying (and almost succeeding) to kid our other friends that the Belgians have some strange olives in a confectionery shop!
Going to Belgium and seeing so many things written in Flemish made me feel pretty lost (even though it was quite touristic and I knew I could speak English to people there). It made me very glad to realise how much I have learnt of the French language. I also thought that how I see Flemish must be how some people see French or English and so I need to be sensitive to that when other people don’t know these languages.
After returning from Belgium, it was straight on to a youth group outing to play a laser game in the evening. This was lots of fun (I always enjoy that game!) and played in good spirits, even if I did receive some death threats at the end from one girl I’d hit a good number of times! My team came first, which was a plus :)
Sunday was a very pleasant day, going to l’Église du Triolo in the morning, lunch with a French family, youth group prep and then Christchurch evening service/meal! On Monday evening I had a lovely chat with my sister which gave me a real boost and also Mum and Dad.
Next Thursday I have been given permission (after initially being overlooked) to join a school trip to the Tower of London, which I am very happy about, even if it means getting up at stupid-o’clock! It’s a nice group of kids, I know a good number of them and the Tower of London is one of my favourite attractions.
Over and out for now,
Fiona x
No comments:
Post a Comment