La Fête de Wallonie

Ok so as everyone knows, it is time for me to talk about the epic weekend that I had in Namur, at the annual Fête de Wallonie. Basically what it is, is a giant party that takes place in the streets of Namur. Almost like a street fair. There are tents and stages set up all over the place and bands play in some and in others there are big speakers set up blasting music (American, of course). And Namur is great because there are little squares and open spaces everywhere between the old shops and buildings. There were little stands set up everywhere, lining all the cobblestone streets, selling beer and fries and fair food and even some with jewelry and clothing. But mostly drinks. The most popular, other than beer and krique (cherry beer), is "pecket". Which, from what I understand, is like the equivalent to flavored gin shots. Talia says they taste like cough medicine. There are a bunch of different flavors in a bunch of different colors. There is about a 35-40% alcohol content in pecket. And that, along with many many other kinds of alcohol, was being sold on the streets! Because, hey, I'm in Belgium!

The first night, Friday, I went with Talia and her host sister and a bunch of people from school. And I would like to say that I had a fantastic time, but I would be lying. It wasn't very much fun for me, but it started out bad from the beginning. We spent a lot of time chasing after the Belgians as they weaved through the crowds and very quickly ran through the streets. I wasn't even paying attention to where we were going because I was so focused on not getting lost. There was also another problem. See, I am deathly afraid of puke, puking, and anything that has to do with it. I'm serious. It's a phobia. And one of the first things that we saw when we got there was a man lying in between two of the stands, in his own vomit. I was beyond disgusted and felt sick for the next half hour. I just cannot handle that. And then one of the people we were with got sick after chugging a beer. And he was sitting next to me. Let's just saying I about died. I jumped up and even though there was a table behind us and I couldn't get out, I literally jumped over the table to get away from him. So it was just not good to begin with. The other problem is that I really don't drink. If you've been keeping up with the blog, you know that I have never had anything alcoholic to drink before I got here, and even when I did try the beer at the Rotary gathering, I didn't like it much. Soooo therefore I wasn't really having as much fun as everyone else. We didn't spend a lot of time listening to the bands either, and when we did go to one of the places with music, it was lame and freezing. And another thing... Guys were just peeing in public. They would just go up to the corner of a building and do their business. Which was disgusting. So I didn't enjoy that aspect of it either. Basically, I just was not having a good time. And then I started to get homesick and actually started crying like a little baby because everything was just bad. Then everyone started hugging me and telling me they loved me and it was a little better then. I just missed hugs so much and when I was constantly being hugged, things were ok. And then Talia and I went on a quest for another piece of pizza and things were good. We moved to another tent, with good music and dancing and such. That's when the Belgians broke out in the "rock" dance. Which is this super awesome swing-type dance that they do and I so very much want to learn! It looks like so much fun! At 1 30, we met Talia's host brother in front of the train station to take us home. I stayed at Talia's that night, along with another friend of Geraldine's (host sister). We made Mac&Cheese at 3am and ate half with the cheese sauce and half with ketchup and cheese. Which was quite interesting... Talk about Belgian delicacies :P

The next morning I woke up at 10 30am and decided that I should go to dance class. So my host mom picked me up at 11 and I went to my class. Afterwards, we picked up Talia and went back to my house to chill for the afternoon. We had lunch (pumpkin soup, rice, stuffed tomatoes, vegetable sauce, with apple cake for dessert), took a nap, and got ourselves ready to go for night two. Around 6pm, Benoit drove us to Namur since he was going anyways. While it was still light out, we took advantage of that and walked around Namur and tried to figure out where everything was and where the things were that we went to last night. We found the Pizza Hut pretty easily, where Talia got a piece of pizza. Then we went on the big adventure to find the tent with the good music. Which took us about an hour as we wound through the complicated streets of Namur. At the same time we were in hot pursuit of a sandwich for me, which was surprisingly difficult to find. After finally stumbling upon the tent, we went out and kept looking for a sandwich. Which we did eventually find and it was delicious. I was very happy. Then we spent the rest of the night chilling, talking to random Belgian people and eating Churros. Eventually we met up with Mikayla and her host brother and had a dandy time :) Until a drunk guy fell on me and I freaked out and ran away. But still, Saturday night was sooo much better than Friday. I had a lot of fun! The music was better, also. At midnight, we met my host mom in front of the train station and Talia and I went back to my house for the night. We slept until about 11am this morning, and then got ready and went down to eat lunch with my family. And guess what we had? A blast from the past, (well the beginning of my exchange anyways...) stuffed zucchini and zucchini flower!! And pumpkin soup, which I really like. And beans. With some really delicious crème brulée type cake for dessert. We then took Talia home, picked up Damien from a friend's house, and then I worked out. After a nice hot shower, I took a little nap and then went down for dinner. Zucchini soup, salad, and fancy cheese with bread and ham. I then watched "The Proposal", Skyped with my parents, and now I am about to get ready to hit the sack. It was a pretty good weekend overall :) Now another crazy week at school. Are you ready? Cause I am!