Back to the… past (for a change) – Part III: Stay at the seaside

What can I tell you that's worth sharing about my holiday in my favourite coastal town?

First I arrived there on 30 June, in the evening. We went there by car, my parents were just staying that night because they had to take care of Curtis (our cat) the following days. From 1 July to 6 July I rode my bicycle with my uncle and my brother on the smooth and safe coastal roads, and it was great fun: 300 km in total. I could have ridden a little bit more if there had been less wind and rain.

Apart from that, I saw a dozen of new Belgian licence plates, i.e. three digits preceding three letters, such as:

This one was the very first one I saw, hence the picture. Such plates are given out by the DIV (Direction pour l'Immatriculation des Véhicules / Dients voor de Inschrijving van de Voertuigen) since 25 June, but just for car owners that apply for a plate via the Internet. Plates with the now older code (e.g. YRJ-983, the newest plate I've seen so far) are still issued in local DIV offices. If, like me, you prefer that older code, you know what to do if you want to get one. I'll tell you more about these new plates in a forthcoming blog entry.

On 4 July (Independence Day, I know) my brother and I decided to go to Knokke. In Zeebrugge we got to see this amazingly huge ship:

We couldn't resist going to the "Place M'as-tu-vu" (as we nickname it, instead of Place Albert) and act as chavs in the middle of obviously rich people wearing white trousers and shirts with awful pink stripes. We ate a "Luikse wafel" and made silly comments about the city. I was surprised by the number of vanity plates I had seen, e.g. SAY·007, IJS-101, GRA-004, TM-865, OOO-200, RAP-001, BOB-004, etc. "Spekje voor m'n bekje", as I can recall from Konnex.

Notice the yellow stickers with a Flemish lion on both our bikes…

We also saw an old Russian submarine that we visited some ten years ago in Zeebrugge harbour. Admire this symbol of the communist warefare!

Another day, I saw this interesting vanity plate:

Maybe the owner works for Toys'r us or something…

An interesting photo for trainspotters: 78 + 13 + 16 (these numbers representing the locomotive's type, or, as we say, the "series").

Well that's about all I have to tell about my trip. I'm already looking forward to my next stay at the Belgian (or should I say "Flemish"?) seaside.

Back to the… past (for a change) – Part II: Results

On 27 June we had the opportunity to take the train to go to Ypres for a bike excursion organised by Prof Mettewie, Mrs Lievens and Mr Van Mensel. Most of us took the train in Namur and we arrived some three hours later in Ypres. We visited the In Flanders Fields museum, which focuses on the different origins of soldiers who fought during the First World War. Later we took a bike and visited several places such as graveyards, riding along canals. We were back in Namur For more details (and pictures) about this excursion, I refer you to the unofficial germanistes blog, germanamur.skyrock.com.

On 28 June we were "kindly invited" to go to the faculty to get our exam results. Just like a year ago (time flies!) the L4 room was crowded with students and parents — let alone the teachers. First the names of the first year students who had passed: out of the 45 students that had taken the exams, only 13 of them had passed — which is not a surprise: same rate as last year. Then the three deparment heads gave the names of those who woudn't have to resit exams in August. Fortunately I was amongst them. Here is my full results:

Formation générale
Critique historique : 15
Initiation à une troisième langue étrangère moderne
Stylistique et maîtrise de la langue allemande I : 17
Approches linguistiques
Stylistique et maîtrise de la langue anglaise II : 14
Stylistique et maîtrise de la langue néerlandaise II : 15
Linguistique anglaise II : 18
Lingisitique néerlandaise II : 16
Approches littéraires
Histoire des littératures et des civilisations anglophones II : 16
Histoire des littératures et des civilisations néerlandophones II : 18
Analyse de textes littéraires néerlandophones II : 18
Formation générale à caractère philologique
Linguistique générale (en anglais et en néerlandais) : 15
Théorie littéraire : 16
Résultat : Grande Distinction
Moyenne : 16,18/20
Les crédits correspondant aux activités d'apprentissage de programme de cette année d'étude sont octroyés par le jury.

That's it. I was sure I wouldn't get the greatest fulfilment: it's really difficult to get four times 18/20. Next year it'll be totally unthinkable to get the greatest fulfilment: you need to have an average of 17…

After getting my marks I stayed on the fifth floor to talk with fellow students. Later in the day I went with some friends to a pub in order to have a drink. After that, we went to Mellet, where Melissa had organised a party to raise money for her Erasmus stay in Leuven.

Join me tomorrow for the account on my stay in Westende!

Back to the… past (for a change) – Part 0: preview

Oh, come on! It's been weeks that I haven't posted anything on this endless blog and I thought I'd read some words of support and encouragement when I'd come back… Well, once again I was too naive: I received just one comment. Same thing for my two other blogs (germanamur.skyrock and the outrageous one). Please send me some feedback: it's always nice to hear from you!

Now, after this "coup de gueule", let's rejoice because I've got a lot to tell you about what happened between the previous post and today's. I'll divide the events into three episodes (you know I love trilogies, and as was hinted in the heading): first I'll tell you about my trip to Barcelona (Spain), then I'll have a word about 28 July, when we all got the results for our exams, and finally I'll account on my stay at the seaside (more precisely in Westende). I think I've quite a lot to write about all that, but fortunately I've a lot of time to spend on that! I LOOOOOVE HOLIDAYYYYYYYYS!!!

"I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide" (Gandalf the White, The Two Towers)

Yep, I've come back from holiday. I'm slowly recovering from two weeks without the Internet, so don't expect me to write a lot in this blog for the next week. Of course, I'll give you a summary of my stay in Westende and I'll tell you about my trips on my bicycle (roughly 450 km, that is to say three times as much as last summer!). Besides, I still have to tell you about my exams, even if it is possible for you to read my results below.

Watch this little gem (from the Monty Python's Holy Grail)

A Little Bit of My Life

Given that this is a blog, I'm supposed to share private moments with you, who in a sense are a new kind of voyeurs…

Well, as I don't do anything which is spicy or, you know, well, typical for teenagers (yes, I work a lot for university, apart from writing this lovely blog to help me practise my writing skills), I'm gonna give you a comment about two facts that "rocked my world" not so far away in time.

When you see this picture, you wonder if I didn't turn mad. Not yet. Because this is a wooden leg, or a prosthesis, I should say. My flatmates found it as they were walking back to the Carmel (this is the name of the residence belonging to the University of Namur where there are students' rooms; precisely where I live most of the time now); they found it in a rubbish tin ! Why would the owner have thrown it away? My mum's hypothesis is that the owner passed away and that his family decided not to bury the prosthesis with the corpse… The most wicked element in the whole story is that my friends took it back! Hence the photo and this message.

During the Easter break, in which I was supposed to work instead of sleeping, my parents, my brother and I went to the seaside — that means 2,5 hours of car, then finding a parking lot, then walking 2 km towards the center of the city, then eating chicken at the Koekoek, then walking on the zeedijk, then getting back to the car, then going to Westende, then leaving the car somewhere, then walking on the zeedijk. As we were walking, I suddenly spotted this excavator and I fiercely decided to get into it. What the hell…??, said my mum. The reason why I did it is quite simple: the excavator's door was open, and I really thought we were on Sunday, while we were on a Tuesday… Fortunately, no angry worker came to shout at me that it was forbidden, etc. (If it had happened, I would have pretended that I was 6 of mental age.) Fortunately too, my brother took pictures of it…

My Uncle, Great (Mini)Golfer

Once again a photograph taken on holiday, in Westende. This is (again) my uncle posing as a specialist of minigolf. Usually, when my uncle, my brother and I go and have a game of minigolf, my brother wins the first holes, but gets 7 points for the other, so that he always loses—and my uncle wins, of course. This minigolf of the center of Westende is quite good, in comparison with that in Oostende, in the park, where the little houses have burnt or are movable, or the holes are filled with grass, etc. Anyway, it's always great fun to go to a minigolf with my uncle.