World!

Marseille! 12-05-10

Okay, so this is kinda a bit late as far as punctual blogging goes, but I'm getting there.

I'll start from the very beggining (I heard it's a very good place to start) I left Belgium in the middle of the day to head south in search of the sun. I arrived in Marseille that afternoon, and got a shuttle to the train station where I was found by Kyle's host grandparents who then took me to where Louise and Delphine were having dance classes, after telling me all about how Kyle is their adopted grandson and so on, so there you go Ky, they actually liked you (;

We just chilled out and chatted that first night because everyone was kinda sleepy.

The next day though was a public holdiay, a relgious holiday so there was no school or work, and we headed out to Aix en Provence. It was mostly warm, and I really liked the day. It was nice and relaxed. Here is a fountain we saw. Unfortunately we were only there because a pigeon pooped in Louise's hair so we were trying to wash it out. But I thought it was a nice fountain so I took a picture (: But the main thing we saw at Aix was the markets, it smelled so delicious there. They were mostly selling fruit and vegetables in this market but then there was another one for clothes and stuff like that. The guys in the background were busking, playing music in pirate costumes. It gives the market a nice ambiance.

Savon De Marseille.. smells sooooo yum! I bought some back for my host mums, definately scored some brownie points there.

And this is the Cathedral we visited there, I don't know why but it was closed. Pretty though isn't it? I like how gothic looking all the scultping is. It makes it seem more legit.

The next day was actually my 18th Birthday, so Guillame made me a cake. It was delicious, the parents and Guillame left though so we ate all of it just us three girls. He would probably like me to mention that he made it all by himself, considering he told me that several times. Cuteee (:

So then I spent the day in Marseille with Louise and Delphine. It was really nice but quite windy. We went to the new starbucks but the line was really really long. Then we just cruised around, we tried to go to the big church but the buses were all packed out cause there were heaps of tourists there, I don't know why...

So this is me and Louise by the old port of Marseille.

We went to a beach after that and just chilled out. It was nice. The next day was Saturday and we slept in after the celebrations from the night before. Then we went and got brunch in town and come back and made crepes.

Sunday, I went with the parents, Guillame and a family friend of theirs to Carry. We went there to do a walk which was pretty nice. It was a lovely day but the wind was cold.

So this is the beach we did our walk around:

We had brought packed lunches with us so after an hour and a bit of walking we sat down and ate, and then we just stayed lying down in the sun for a couple of hours.

The next day was monday, so everyone had to go to work and whatnot, so I went to school with Louise for the morning. She had greek which was impossible but then she had english, so I understood haha. The teacher was a nutter though.. Anyway after that we walked around near her school and she showed me this place, that's where they eat lunch when its sunny. Its a fountain that was put in to celebrate that there was enough water for the whole town.

Then we had lunch at the grandparents house with all the kids, it was nice.

After that I met up with Flo because Louise had an exam and that would have been boring. We did a tour of Marseille, a tour of the coast line and then we went to the Haribo factory but it was too late and the boutique was closed. It was nice though, he taught me lots of swear words in french haha. This is the palace of Justice:

The next morning I flew back to belgium. It was a really nice trip and I had a lot of fun with the Poets.

ANZAC Day 2010

ANZAC Day in Belgium

This year I spent the big day in Ypres, Belgium, which is practically on the western front. The day started off (very early) at the New Zealand Embassy in Brussels. We got there at six am, and after revelling in the lovely kiwi accent for a while we headed off by coach to Ypres.

Before Ypres (or Iepers, depending on whether you're wallone or flamand) we went to Mesen. When we got there we listened to a prayer at the Municipal War Memorial, apparantly this was to commemorate the Belgians who fought too, as a respect kind of thing. I was still effectively asleep at this point so my understanding of that little moment is blurry.. Haha.

Oh by the way, Mesen is the sister town of Featherston.

Then we went to the New Zealand memorial on the other side of Mesen. There was a prayer, and then some soldiers laid wreaths, and a wreath was laid there from the Government and the people of NZ by the ambassador HE Peter Kennedy.

This is the NZ memorial at Mesen with the wreaths under it. We sang the anthem too, it was cool (: and the Buglers sounded the last post as well. It was really eerie because we also got a very brief explanation of what went on there in that exact place, and it just freaked me out a little cause it was where they actually fought.

This is the sign that says:


Next we went over to Ypres. Once there, we all got together and walked to the Menin Gate. We were lead by the Ambassadors of NZ, Australia, Turkey and also the Mayor of Ypres. Once we were all under the gate, we had a lot of speeches and prayers, a kiwi sang 'a lamentation' and the buglars played the last post. Then we had a moment of silence.

This is the Menin Gate. The names of all the soldiers who died round there are written on the walls. Its really powerful to see all the names just listed like that, its huge so there are HEAPS of names.
There you can see the names of the soldiers. After the silence, people laid wreaths. First was the ambassadors, and in the end after all the official folks my Kiwi friends Anneke and Nouzar (both Rotary students also) laid a wreath on our behalf; here it is:

So after that ceremony we sang our anthems again. It was really cool, except the Aussies weren't too happy cause the band cut out like two thirds of their anthem. I don't know why.

Next we all marched back to the Belgian Memorial and the Kiwi and Aussie Ambassadors laid wreaths there to be respectful. They then sang the flemish and belgian anthems (and, just quietly, I can safely say by the lack of knowledge of the words of their anthem that the Belgians are not even nearly as patriotic as we Kiwis)

Following that we went back to the Ieper town hall. Mayor of Ypres, Luc Dehaene gave a speech, the Kiwi Ambassador and Aussie Ambassador respond to the speech, then Erin and I gave our speeches too. Here's me giving a speech (video to come) :

After the speeches Erin (the Aussie exchange student who spoke) and I got given a present from the Mayor of Ypres. The NZ Ambassador gave me a present too but that was in secret as to not show up the Aussie Ambassador. The one present was a book about Ypres and it's history and the other was a book of New Zealand War Photography.

Next we went to Zonnebeke; and this was mostly for the Australians but there was some small kiwi aspects:
So here's a tombstone thing for a Kiwi Soldier: "A New Zealand soldier of the Great War" and at the bottom it said "Known Unto God"

And here's a picture of a lot of graves. This blew my mind a little bit, I'm not sure if they were all ANZAC graves but quand meme, that's an enormous amount of deaths.

So overall it was a pretty awakening day. I think we as Generation Y are kept in a kind of shelter from what the war was really about, especially World War One. We don't (and will probably never) know much about the reality of the big wars and I hope we never get to find out for ourselves, but de tout facon I was glad to be there and was a very proud Kiwi that day.