ARTTU in Belgium

STUDENT LIFE IN BELGIUM written by Eliah

Arttu arrived 10th February in my hometown Antwerp! He was hanging around with Eliah Peeters, Nicole Thomas and Clara Werner! (Former exchange students of Raahen lukio)

Arttu was eager to see the town, so I gave him a tour. First stop was the new museum! Because every important town has a museum. We explored the museum and enjoyed the panorama of the town!

Antwerp got it's name from this statue. In english Antwerpen is hand throwing... you see the boy throwing a hand (from the bad giant) into the water!

Next stop was one of the hundred bars. There we drank a hot chocolate, with real Belgian chocolate! It was a really small and cozy bar and Arttu felt home immediately! We biked to the town centre, where I revealed the history of my town. Antwerp is a really old town and was originated around 1400. 16th century was the ”golden century” for Antwerp, because his harbour was the most important one. Therefore we can still find a lot of beautiful medieval buildings in Antwerp, but also in Gent and Brugges!

Later that month

Arttu really wanted to visit the capital of Europe. So on a cold, rainy day (typical Belgian) we took the train to Brussels! Of course we stopped by at Manneke Pis ( little boy who pisses), Atomium, which was built in 1958 for the world exposition.

Arttu at the famous Manneke Pis!

And when you are in Brussels you have to eat a Brussel waffle! We walked by the house where Karl Marx used to live, at the big market square, nearby cityhall! In Brussels you also find the European Parliament and the office of the NATO! And a lot of medieval houses, really beautiful!

Karl Marx used to live here.

9 balls, cause Belgium has 9 provinces (in 1958) nowadays we have 10! 🙂

Because Belgians love sports, Arttu went to some sport games! He loved watching basketball and even played for a few seconds on the court of the Port of Antwerp Giants! it was an European game against a team from Turkey and Antwerp won with 79 – 62. Belgium is a small country but has excellent athletes in tennis, athletics, cycling, sailing, motocross, hockey, triathlon, swimming…

But sometimes students have to be in class. So, Arttu has been a lot of times in our big classrooms for more than 500 students!! Because Arttu couldn’t understand the weird language, he played a lot of Angry Birds and he even seems to be good!!

Arttu playing ANGRY BIRDS in Belgium.

After class, Arttu often ate delicious student food! Students love to cook together so tehy can split costs and don’t have to eat alone. Arttu really loved this and got the idea of saving money and afterward using the saved money to buy himself some Belgian specialty: beer!! Arttu wasn’t really prepared for all this beer, so we wouldn’t publish the picture! Nevertheless, he tried a lot of different beers, cause Belgium has more than 300 different ones! After some dancing and drinking Arttu was really hungry and ate the real Belgian frenchfries!! Nothing better after clubbing!

In the weekends Arttu went to the countryside to visit Eliah’s parents and family. He chilled and walked around. he was surprised to see the amount of cows! And was a bit scared, that’s one of the reasons I think why he loved to go back to town sunday evening… Or maybe he missed all the beer… who knows!

Arttu’s last weekend in Belgium he celebrated Eastern. In the morning he enjoyed a lovely brunch. During Eastern time we eat a lot of eggs; boiled, scrambled and of course: chocolate eggs! The little children search in the garden for eggs, and they can be everywhere!!