For sure, back in that time, I had never spent such a horrible night! It was afwul, terrible, exhausting!
Let's give a bit of context. We were a group of about 20 students going on a kind of four-day trip which we called a "retraite" (my dictionary doesn't seem to have a translation for that term), supposed to be a so-called retirement journey to I-don't-know-what. Two teachers were with us, namely M. Schyns (Biology teacher) and M. Delrée (Geography teacher, the funniest teacher I've ever had, a genius).
Our trip started in Herve (town where my college lies) and we took the bus to Verviers, then to a remote place called Wavreumont, not far away from Stavelot, in the Belgian Ardennes. Instead of staying at a hotel kept by monks, we had to stay in a wooden cabin—it was actually that—that the owners dared to call a hotel… Inside this crappy place, where mushrooms and moss and other disgusting organisms were copulating and feeding each other (you got the picture, I think), humidity was at its highest (it nearly rained), and we had to warm this cabin with a fuel radiator (see the picture, on which you can see that thing warming up the taps which were nearly frozen). I suddenly remembered that M. Delrée told us two weeks before we go, concerning Wavreumont:
"Si vous comptez prendre une douche… n'y comptez pas.". I got his point.
It was soooo cold, sooo chilly that the toilets were frozen!!! I had never seen that before, and I haven't seen that ever since.
In fact, we had to heat up water on a hob in order to cook pastas, and save a little to have a wash. The dinner was terrible, because we had to eat in plates that were wet (due to humidity) and it tasted really bad. Later in the evening, a monk came to talk about his life as an authentic monk. He looked rather depressed and our question about being single in the middle of a group of old bachelors seemed to make his distress bigger.
After a couple of games or I don't know what, it was time to go to bed. In sleeping bags: the blankets seemed so dusty and moth-eaten that it was safer not to use them. We had to shut down the fuel radiator: it was too noisy, and we could have been poisoned by the toxic gas which filled the one room where boys and girls had to sleep, along with the teachers.
That night was the worst one of my entire life. Ever. I couldn't sleep. Why? For many reasons:
- Once the radiator shut down, the temperature dropped 20 degrees (at least).
- I tried to cover my face as much as possible, but it was pure stifle after 2 minutes.
- My nose was frozen.
- The others had managed to doze off, and it disturbed me that they weren't disturbed.
- The tap in the "bathroom" hadn't been properly tapped, so that a drop was falling every second. I was becoming mad, insane, crazy!!! I wanted to commit suicide, escape from this frozen hell!!!
Anyhow, I have sleep. But only for two hours, I think. The next day, 25 km of walk were waiting for us…
PS. I found something in my archives… Previously, I gave you my account on the "retraite" — you know, that painful walk though the Ardennes. I found the paper that M. Delrée gave us during an information session about the trip. Here's what you could read on it. Square brackets refer to notes that I wrote on the text, basically the funny comments by M. Delrée.
Retraite itinérante (mardi 07/03 au vendredi 10/03/06)
Cher(e) …………………………………….,
Il est grand temps de te communiquer les dernières indications concernant ces trois jours.
Départ
Nous quitterons Herve, tous ensemble, le mardi 7, avec le bus 38B. Rendez-vous à l’arrêt de bus devant l’IPH, à 16 H 00. A Verviers nous prendrons le bus 395 jusqu’en bas de la côte de Wavreumont. Nous serons au gîte du monastère peu avant le souper.
Programme
• mardi soir : souper, rencontre avec un moine. [1]
• mercredi : messe à 8 H 00 suivie du petit déjeuner, remise en ordre des lieux, puis parche vers le Foyer de Charité de Nivezé (+/- 25 km). [2] Installation, puis barbecue [3] et animation sur le “”commerce équitable” par une personne de l’association“ Miel Maya”.
• jeudi : petit déjeuner, remise en ordre des lieux, puis marche vers Banneux (+/- 20 km). Arrivée au Foyer Notre Dame de la Fagne, souper et animation avec les sœurs.
• vendredi : petit déjeuner, remise en ordre des lieux. Passage au sanctuaire de Banneux, puis marche vers Verviers (+/- 15 km). [4]
Retour
Nous serons à Verviers vers 15 H 00 ; les parents qui le souhaitent peuvent reprendre leur fils/leur fille à la gare, les autres reprennent le bus jusque Herve ; arrivée prévue vers 16 H 00.
L’accompagnement
Est assuré par Didier Schyns et Jacques Delrée.
A emporter
Un sac à dos confortable, un sac de couchage, de quoi se changer et se laver pendant trois jours, des chaussures ou des pantoufles pour l’intérieur, un petit nécessaire de pharmacie (prévoyez de quoi soigner les ampoules), de bonnes chaussures de marche (pas neuves si possible) et une gourde. Prévois la pluie, la boue, les températures fraîches…(à titre facultatif: un chansonnier, une lampe de poche, un instrument de musique, …). Prends aussi un peu d’argent de poche pour les trajets en bus (10 euros suffiront amplement). [5]
Ne pas emporter
Une radio, un baladeur (MP3 ou autre), des boissons alcoolisées ou toute autre chose susceptible d’être confisquée ou de “casser” l’esprit de cette retraite. L’utilisation des GSM sera interdite durant la marche et les autres activités de groupe Les fumeurs éventuels recevront des règles strictes à respecter.
Remarque importante
Mardi 7 au matin, tu déposeras, dans le frigo de la salle des profs (avec une étiquette “retraite itinérante”) un morceau de viande (emballé dans un sachet plastique) pour le barbecue de mercredi. Demande à un prof de lee placer dans le sac qui sera prévu à cet effet dans le frigo.
Pour que cette retraite soit un bon moment pour tous, nous comptons sur chacun d’entre-vous pour respecter les consignes, respecter les endroits qui nous accueillent (propreté, ordre, calme, …) et les personnes que nous rencontrerons.
Si tu as une question spécifique, n’hésite pas à nous contacter le plus rapuidement possible.
Jacques Delrée (087/661427) et Didier Schyns.
En cas d’urgence uniquement : J.Delrée 0494/171835, Wavreumont 080/862318, Nivezé 087/793090 et Notre Dame de la Fagne 04/3608408. [6]
——————————
NOTES:
[1] “Vous pourrez lui poser des questions, comme pourquoi est-ce qu’il n’aime pas les femmes…” (…) “On ne loge pas au monastère, mais au gîte.” (…) “Si vous comptez prendre une douche, n’y comptez pas”. Puis il a dit qu’il y aurait assez d’eau chaude seulement pour eux, les profs…
[2] “C’est l’étape la plus belle.”
[3] “(…) un barbecue avec un petit homme de Nivezé, un ex des Village People…”
[4] “(On passera par Tancrémont), vous connaissez les tartes de Tancrémont… très chères…”
[5] “(Pour payer quand on s’arrêtera, vous prendrez) un chocolat chaud, une bière pour nous…”
[6] (À un élève qui mâchait un chewing-gum) “Dis, vieille méduse malade, tu ne vas pas jeter ton chewing-gum par terre…?”
Phone numbers, names and places are authentic. Spelling mistakes too (e.g. "rapuidement" instead of "rapidement").
And so we continued our journey through the marshes, swamps, will-o'the-whisps and other troublesome natural features… No, it wasn't as bad as I describe it. I've already told you about the Tuesday evening and the Wednesday. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photograph on that Thursday, and I can't precisely remember what we did… I know that we walked a lot, under the rain (fortunately, our sleeping bags were now useless), from Nivezé to Banneux, where we were rather well accomodated by sisters and we got single rooms (!!!) with a shower, a toilet, a tap (with hot water) and a desk, etc.!!! (The picture sums it up.)
We left round 10 o'clock, after breakfast and a cheap montage about the creation of Banneux, and the story of the so-called apparitions to Mariette Beco — who's by the way now an old lady who can't talk to the media. We walked towards the next village of Tancrémont, where you can, as they said, find the best pies around. (When I was a kid, we used to go there to eat something with my grand-parents. I didn't like the pies that much: I prefered playing in the huge sandbox.) On the picture, you can see that I walk really faster than the others… They were 100 metres away…
Later on, we had to cross a river, and the only way to succeed was to use a rusted bridge… What a kerfuffle! I thought somebody was going to fall in the water, but no.
Later in the day, after another 10 kilometres in the woods and using crappy, muddy paths, we arrived at the border of our destination: Verviers, as you can see on the picture, we were cheerful to see that board!
OK, we still had 5 kilometres to walk, and we did. I had enough energy left, and I arrive 10 minutes sooner than the others… I had achieved my goal: seeing that beautiful chip-shop in front of the Railway Station! When my mother came to pick me up, I ate a lot of chips with a "cervelas" (imagine a saussage with unidentified stuff in it). I was exhausted. I came back, I had a shower and I slept.
After having slept for two hours, we had to get up at 7 o'clock. At last, I was going to warm up… And annihilate that f*****g metalic tap! The others seemed to have slept rather well, actually. I wanted to get out of this crappy place. But before doing anything else, we had to clean that big room up… What a kerfuffle! We first packed our bags and stuffs, then we took a broom and brushed the thick layer of dust on the ground (a wooden one…) while girls were trying to have a wash with the frozen water.
We continued and finally arrived to our destination (of the day): a kind of hotel held by sisters in Nivezée, on the highs of Spa. There, we were absolutely thrilled that we had rooms (!) for 3 (!) with three radiators (!) with hot water (!) and a bath (!) and plenty of food was waiting for us. In the evening, our two teachers prepared a barbecue for us, as you can see on the picture. I think I ate 2 kilos of meat—no kidding. And I was still starved.
For sure, back in that time, I had never spent such a horrible night! It was afwul, terrible, exhausting!
Our trip started in Herve (town where my college lies) and we took the bus to Verviers, then to a remote place called Wavreumont, not far away from Stavelot, in the Belgian Ardennes. Instead of staying at a hotel kept by monks, we had to stay in a wooden cabin—it was actually that—that the owners dared to call a hotel… Inside this crappy place, where mushrooms and moss and other disgusting organisms were copulating and feeding each other (you got the picture, I think), humidity was at its highest (it nearly rained), and we had to warm this cabin with a fuel radiator (see the picture, on which you can see that thing warming up the taps which were nearly frozen). I suddenly remembered that M. Delrée told us two weeks before we go, concerning Wavreumont: "Si vous comptez prendre une douche… n'y comptez pas.". I got his point.
It was soooo cold, sooo chilly that the toilets were frozen!!! I had never seen that before, and I haven't seen that ever since.
OK, the title of this post is not great, but this is what I thought when I saw this picture in my album. This is the Rancor, a creature that we see in Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, which wants to eat Luke Skywalker, sent to death by the sluggy-shaped Jabba the Hutt (Tatooine's greatest gangsta). In fact, this is the puppet which was used to shoot the seen: it's only 30 cm high!
I see that the time goes by pretty fast: we are, with this picture, in January 2006, in Brussels. We were on another school trip (don't assume that we were always doing it: it was only once in a blue moon, but I talk about that here because it was special) whose goal was to see the exhibition "Made in Belgium" for the 175th anniversary of the independence of Belgium.
In the morning, we took the train in Verviers (the nearest station): we were 150 students and a dozen of teachers. An hour later, we arrived in Brussels Central and we walked to the Grand-Place, where a man (a retired one) took care of us: he was going to show us the most famous places of Brussels—strange that some of us had never ever come to Brussels… We went in front of the Manneken Pis (hence the photo) and walk towards the Royal Palace (how original), then the Royal Library, and back to the Grand-Place. Pretty boring when you have already seen that 100 times.
Later, we arrived in the Hall of Inventions, where we found this splendid ancient engine in front of which M. Kuta stands on the picture. We were kidding by saying that it was his first car's engine. At school, he was talking of his car being a Kutamobile or Fardier de Kuta (after the name of the first steam engine), and we tought it had to be precesely that. We also found his first wheels, as you can see.
Each year, my parents, my brother and I go to Brussels just to have a walk. Our tour starts with a cup of coffie on the Place des Palais, just in front of the Royal Palace, where there's a huge Christmas tree coming from Norway or something like that—it's sad to think that these trees are 60 or 80 years old, had overlived the War and end up to be cut and (what a glorious end) be shown to thousands of indifferent citizens.
There again, you find a giant Christmas tree and also a living barn with real sheep. We walk along the famous statue of de T'serclaes (you'll get to see a picture of it with several of my English teachers in a later post) and we continue up to Brussel's most famous statue(tte): the Manneken pis. Usually, the statue is bare, but sometimes it wears specially designed costumes (e.g. Santa Claus). And everytime I go in front of the Mannekenpis, I have to take a picture of it, just like that. So, you'll get to see other pictures that look exactly the same. By the way, a couple of weeks ago, Mr Bean came to Brussel for the advertising campaing of his new film (where he makes fun of those frog-eaters Frenchies), and of course photographers were there to immortalize this moment.
We used to have a week of holiday on the first week of November. It's no more, because the "great" university wits think that we don't need these those days off. Enough criticism for now. As I was just saying, we used to go spending one day or two at the seaside in a really small flat of Middelkerke that my uncle (the minigolf freak) had rented from a guy that he knows, M. Haverlant. This time, I think I was with my parents and my brother, and we got up so early that we managed to watch the sun going up on West Vlaanderen. Nice, isn't it? Normally I should go back to the seaside one day during the Easter (so-called)break, just the time to take a deep breath of the coastal air, eat a half chicken, walk and go back to where I live, a village where it never snows and where Dutch farmers throw their manure… (Poetic).
