Thuis is Overal: India, Italy, Turkey

Hello everyone!

Last weekend was this year's first edition of Thuis is Overal (home is everywhere), a project that I introduced to my AFS chapter last year. It is an opportunity for the exchange students to present their home country and serve delicious food. On top of that, it is a good opportunity for everyone in our chapter to get to know each other.

Last year, the exchange students gave a general presentation about their country. This time, we decided to turn things around and focus on stereotypes and the daily life of the students. First, I asked the audience to name a few things and stereotypes they knew about Turkey, India and Italy (the countries presented during this edition). Most of the things that were named had to do with food, politics and landscapes. Then, the audience could ask the exchange students specific questions about a special subject, namely food and cooking. The students talked about who cooked in their family, what their habits were regarding breakfast, lunch and dinner, and if there are any special traditions in their family.

Ulaş, our exchange student from Turkey, said that his mother cooked most of the time at home, although they often go out because his parents are very busy and do not always feel like cooking. On special occasions, Ulaş's mother cooks with his grandmother. Giuseppe and Francesca, our Italian ambassadors, said that both their parents cook at home, or their grandmother. As in Turkey, the Italian mothers and grandmothers cook together on special occasions. Niyati, our favorite Indian, explained that her family has servants, as most Indian households do apparently. Niyati rarely cooks herself, but her father likes to make fancy food – I am not sure what that means to be honest – from time to time.

Afterwards, it was time for the exchange students to react on the stereotypes named earlier. Ulaş admitted that about half the population in Turkey smokes, so that stereotype is correct. Giuseppe insisted on saying that not every Italian, and especially his fellow Sicilians, are not all in the maffia. Francesca reassured us by explaining that they are not arrogant and the men are not macho's. Niyati did not understand why people keep saying that Indian people have a funny accent when speaking English. It is just how they talk. To Niyati it seems pretty normal compared to the posh British accent and the silly American English.

Finally, it was time to eat! Niyati, Francesca, Giuseppe and Ulaş had prepared some small typical dishes. There was bulgur, wine leaves filled with rice, tiramisu, samosa and padoka, which are Indian fried appetizers. I think it was the first time I ate Indian food that did not make my mouth feel like it was on fire. While everyone was eating, still a lot of questions were asked about the countries of our exchange students. Everyone seemed to enjoy learning more about the exchange students' lives and families. I hope the next edition, in March, is also such a success!

Thank you everyone for participating with so much enthusiasm, and thank you Gilbert Verbeken for the pictures! 

AFS End of stay-camp 2016

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I last posted something here. I apologise! I have been quite busy though. I (finally) finished my first year at university! I started a new writing project, and I went to the AFS End of stay-camp for foreign exchange students!

I was the only volunteer from my chapter to be there so I felt a huge responsibility for our students but, not surprisingly, they are very nice, smart, responsible, and independent so I didn't have anything to worry about! I was very pleased to notice they know how to deal with difficult situations, they have grown into lovely adults during this year. The BHV students have also managed to stay very humble, for example because they have learnt Dutch better than they give themselves credit for!


During the camp, I was charmed to see how much the exchange students truly love Belgium. It reminded me of my own patriotism. Camille (de Keyser, also an AFS volunteer) was right, it is rare to see so many Belgian flags together in one room! It was also cool to see that they've become such a tight and friendly group!















The camp was a lot of fun, but there were also some serious moments. One of the most interesting workshops, according to me, was "Take it or leave it". The students had to write down three memories: one they wanted to forget, one heartwarming, and one that taught them something valuable. The memory they wanted to forget was thrown into a trashbag - I was pleased to hear though that the students still considered that bad memory as a lesson for the future -, the two others were placed in a "treasure box". The heartwarming memories mostly revolved having a birthday or celebrating Christmas with the host family. This workshop was nice for me in some way, because through the memories of "my" students, I could relive my own exchange year. It's funny how exchange students often experience similar things even though they aren't necessarily in the same country.

The Pyramid workshop 

AFS BHV and NOL chapters reconstructing Da Vinci's Last Supper

The AFS airlines was also a fun workshop. Everybody participated in this one! The point is to show the students what will (likely) happen the day they go back to their home country. The students enter a "plane" with their chapter, but leave with their compatriots. In the middle, a poem by Andrew Hunt was read and volunteers gave a little speech thanking their respective chapters for the good times.

In short, thank you everyone for this lovely camp! I would especially like to thank Charlotte Baudot and Toon Van Miert for organising everything!

Thuis Is Overal - China en Hong Kong

Hello everyone! 

A couple of weeks ago, I organised with my AFS chapter our second country-afternoon. This time Liz and Anran talked about their native land, respectively Hong Kong and China. They presented she general facts about their countries and also talked about the differences between them. 

After the presentations, we ate, of course. Anran had brought some appetizers and rice dishes. Liz took care of dessert. We had enough food to feed an army I think, but as a real AFS'er would do, we ate and ate and kept eating. With all that eating, everybody still got to take some food home. In other words, we had way too much food but now we can all laugh about it. 

Tampere

During my stay in Finland, I also went to visit my host families and friends in Tampere. Emilia, my host sister, and I took the bus together from Helsinki. Our (host) dad came to pick us up at the bus station. We went straight to the school in Ylöjärvi where our little sister Milla's wanhat/prom was going to take place.

Emilia and I had our wanhat (read more about it here) together two years ago, so we had lots of flashbacks and fangirling moments. It was nice to notice that I actually remembered most of the steps, the wiener waltz is forever engraved in my memory, and this year's 'oma tanssi' (the students' own choreography) is too. Everyone, especially Milla of course, looked so elegant and fancy! I loved being able to experience the wanhat again, but from a different point of view and without my feet hating me. I also took the opportunity to catch up with some of my former teachers and friends.

On Friday and Saturday, I took some time to walk around in Tampere, take pictures, do some shopping - I finally bought a Muumin book! - and feel nostalgic. I also visited an exhibition with my friend Samuli, you can read all about it here. And of course, I took time to catch up with all the lovely animals, and (crazy) host siblings. 

Helsinki

Hello everyone!

As most of you know, I went back to Finland recently. This time, I took the plane to Helsinki instead of Tampere which gave me the opportunity to visit Finland's capital for a bit.

I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, Emilia, my host sister, was so sweet to pick me up from the airport. We then went to the city where I met my friend Sofia, who was my AFS councillor while I was on exchange. Sofia and I walked around in the city as the sun was setting. The city and the sky were beautiful, it was a very good day to take pictures!

In the evening, Emilia, my host sister, and I went out to meet some friends. We went to the Kaisla Beer Room where I saw a great opportunity to promote the Belgian culture. It's always fun to share something from your home country while you're visiting your host country! 

The next morning, I went to university with Emilia! She had a Finnish-German translation class and I thought I'd see how it all works there. I noticed the atmosphere is much more relaxed, and the groups are smaller, which, according to the teacher, gives more opportunity to make interesting exercises and not only focus on the theory. 

Emilia and I then took the bus to Tampere after class. On Sunday afternoon I was back in Helsinki though, and I took some time before my flight to walk around the city again, in daylight this time, and to have a coffee with my host brother, Juhani.