Learning French with Johan, Pirlouit et Claudette

When someone asks, "What is the hardest thing about living and working in Brussels?" we always say, "learning French".  This is the one thing our entire team agrees on. We are not in an environment where we are totally immersed - you can always find someone who speaks English. A salesperson or receptionist might have to go and search for them for a few minutes.  We don't always ask.  We would prefer to try to converse in French, but they often hear our accent and slow speech and go to find the multilingual people.

I started out with a professional, expensive business school.  I was able to keep up, but I never really completely understood the concepts before we would move into the next part.  The most we ever had in the class was four students - three women and me.  Several units were just me.  They finally decided after a particularly bad final exam that I should not go on.  I felt that they should have realized that closer to the beginning rather than expecting me to repeat the last class when I felt lost for a long time. It would be more economical to do something else. Next I studied with a very good private tutor at our apartment.  She was excellent but also expensive.  Then after that I went to a commune class, kind of like Continuing Education in a local school.  I enjoyed that.  It was a class of twenty-five students and we spent a lot of time conversing rather than just learning grammar and verb conjugations.  I made a lot of progress but I didn't finish because I returned to the States to visit friends and relatives.  Upon returning to Belgium, Elizabeth and "Claudette" (not her real name - if I fail I don't want to embarrass her), decided that I should study with Claudette for a half hour every day.  Claudette lives on the top floor of our building, the sixth.  We live on the second.  I rode the elevator up to find that we would be using a Belgian comic strip book as a text book.  That seemed great until I started to read it to her.  It was incredibly difficult!  It looked like a children's story but it had high school vocabulary!

"Johan et Pirlouit" was written by Payo, who also developed the Smurfs out of this series. In French the Smurfs are called les Schtroumpfs.  Anyways, Johan is a knight in training in the king's court and Pirouette is a short guy who is the Court Jester and rides a nanny goat for a horse.  This, and going over a grade school phonetics book, is working very well.  The difficult words provoke conversations about the definitions and the comic book promotes laughter, so it working quite well and by the time that I am seventy-five I expect that there will be no need to search for the person who is good in English.

meetup.com

We have met a lot of nice, interesting and kind people in Brussels because of Meetup.   When we first arrived here, we only knew our friends from the church in Smyrna.  We needed a way to meet other people, and we had heard of Meetup.com before we left.   We researched what kind of group we could do and decided that we would start one about English conversation while doing fun things around town. 

So, we registered and paid our fees, and then we chose the initial event.  It was at Cook and Book, a nice book store/restaurant, kind of like Barnes & Nobles.  We went ahead of time and reserved a table.  When the day arrived we went and explained to the server that we didn’t know how many would come.  We sat there by ourselves for an hour.  The next month – July, we tried again and this time six people signed up and two came besides Liz and me.  We were on our way!  We have found that, to get started at least, people like to get together and just chill.  They don’t want to do an active event like hikes and movies.  When we have combined coffee and a hike that worked, but they want to have the community time together.

It now has been fourteen months, and they just keep getting better and better!  The group is up to over 300 registered and 20 to 40 people come to an event.  Some of the people have never gone to anything, kind of like church or a fishing club.  Usually about half to two thirds of the people who RSVP for an event come, and some come who haven’t responded.  Everyone enjoys each other’s company and many friendships are formed. 

Meetup was started after 9/11 by someone who felt that they did not know their neighbors.  They knew lots of people through social media and work but they did not know anyone locally.  For us it is a very pleasant experience.  No one expects anything or tries to influence people about an idea or products; it is just a pleasant experience in your busy life.  We recommend it to people everywhere!

Anseremme

I love boats and the water.  All of my life I have been on the water. When I was little, my family would travel to Northern Michigan to go camping and fishing.  One year we visited a neighbor from home, who had a cabin on the Thunder Bay River, and we floated down the river in a canoe.  That was an amazing experience for me. You see this was in the 60’s and what you watched on black and white TV was Cowboys and Indians, and Indians used canoes. Eventually my father found a deal on a used Boy Scout canoe.  It was an old aluminum canoe and I learned to do all the paddle strokes so that I could make it move however I wanted in our pond.  After three years of marriage, living in Michigan, Elizabeth and I moved to Tennessee and within a year the canoe moved too.  Unfortunately it sank when a friend borrowed it. It had rained a lot, and the water was too high. (That story may become a facebook series.) A friend who was a SCUBA diver rescued it.  It was never the same again; the rivet holes were now oblong instead of round.  So we sold it cheap and bought other canoes and kayaks of various types over the years.

Fast forward to Belgium: as soon as it was a possibility to move, I started researching rivers and found that the kayaking rivers were in the South Central area of the country by a city named Dinant.  They have three companies, Blue, Red and Yellow (catchy names, eh?) The next problem for me was how to get there.  I haven’t had any luck meeting someone from here who likes to do that.  I could rent a car - 100 euro for same day rentals plus 40 euro for fuel about 200 miles round trip.  TOO Much!!  Then this year I found that you could go by train as a combination with the kayak companies for about 4 euro more than the kayaking itself.  We asked a friend from Africa, who we met at our English classes, if he would like to come with some of his friends from the Military Academy.  There were going to be six of us.  He went on a trip to a camp in the south of France and while he was gone we kept reading and translating, and we realized that you have to purchase the tickets four business days in advance.  That wasn’t going to work unless I paid for everyone, because our friend was still away at camp up until two days before we planned to go kayaking.  That seemed kind of risky as someone might back out. So we then found out that there was a summer excursion fare for 15 euro round-trip anywhere in Belgium on weekdays, so that was the Answer.  Elizabeth called the kayak company and they said you don’t need reservations on weekdays. I sent emails to my friend but he was occupied until Monday the day before the trip.  We met up and discussed the details over lunch.  It was raining hard, so we had to find somewhere close. Two of the friends could not go.  So we went to the train station and bought four tickets for the next day at 7:20 a.m.  The next morning was a typical Belgian morning - overcast but it was supposed to get all the way up to 69 degrees Fahrenheit and be sunshiny.

We had a great train trip - nice conversation, beautiful countryside.  We rode beside a river for much of the journey.  After an hour and a half we arrived at Anseremme, and when we walked up to the ticket window of the kayaking place we were told that there had been too much rain and the river was closed to kayaking!!  We were so disappointed!  It rains almost every day in Belgium in the summer! The website didn’t say anything about that possibility and when Elizabeth called they didn’t advise us of that possibility either.  So we went back to the train station and waited for the return train.  We did have a nice ride back though!  And I still have something to look forward to!

How to Contribute

If you have not contributed financially and would now like to, you can do so by sending financial gifts to:

Dan & Elizabeth Christensen
LifePoint Church
506 Legacy Dr
Smyrna, TN 37167

(Please fill out the check to LifePoint Church and do not write on the memo line; please put a note in the envelope signifying it is for Christensen - Belgium.)

You can also give online by going to http://lifepointchurch.org/give and specifying in the memo section that you are giving for “Christensens - Belgium”.

Please continue to pray.  It is making a difference!

MY SECOND BROKEN ARM

I first broke an arm when I was in the fifth grade in Mary Jo Wilson’s class in Sandusky, Michigan.  That was in the ’60s before anyone heard of global warming. It was cold back then and every year we wondered if we would make it to the family Christmas celebration because of a blizzard.  Many times we would make it almost to Grandma’s or an Aunt or Uncle’s house and have to turn around, or have to go home early because of snowy roads.  My dad plowed out our driveway with his Oliver Tractor outfitted with a plow that he built from scrap metal.  He would push it up into a big pile and we would take our toboggan and slide out into the icy driveway.  In the late ’60s Evel Knievel and ABC’s Wide World of Sports were at their peaks and everyone wanted to be a daredevil.  So I made a jump on the side of the hill with a shovel.  I wasn't very good at engineering then because I went flying down the hill and STOPPED! No flying through the air just instant pain when my chunky body slammed my arm into the top edge of the toboggan breaking my right arm.  Somewhat lucky, I am left handed/ambidextrous - I write with my left but can do almost everything else with either hand.

Forty three years later, I am living in Woluwe Saint-Lambert, Belgium. It has been a long time since I went flying through the air in anything other than an airplane.  It was a nice sunny morning around 60 degrees on the 26th of March and I was riding my XL touring bicycle with panniers and two baskets on the way to the grocery store.  I was flying down the street looking for danger, when suddenly I spotted it.  To my right behind a too-tall hedge was a minivan accelerating up the street.  In Belgium we have a yield-to the-right rule, which means that if the two roads are equal, the person coming from the right has the right of way similar to a four-way stop in the US.  So I put on the brakes as hard as I could.  The bike almost stopped completely, but I did not.  I went over the handlebars and landed on my head (not on my helmet though - on the side of my face) and my hands.  I was in a heap a foot away from where the minivan stopped.  I felt like I could have been dead.  I used to ride my dirt bike very fast in the woods when I was in high school and fell lots of times.  None of the times ever felt this bad.  I hurt all over and felt like I might faint.  The three guys from the laundry truck got out to help me.  I forgot most of the French I had learned, and all I could remember was “Je parle anglais, je suis desolee”, which means “I am sorry, I speak English”.  One of them also spoke a little English and we exchanged information.  I was the one at fault in the eyes of the law so they didn’t have much to worry about.  I picked the bike up and one of them picked up the smashed front basket.  When I felt good enough to walk home I pushed the bike home.  It felt like both arms might be broken.  It was very hard to unlock the doors and I could not lock the bicycle.  I made it up the stairs to our apartment and Elizabeth.  I had smashed glasses with blood on one lens.  She checked my pupils for signs of a concussion and I lay down in bed.  I eventually decided that something was wrong and went to the Urgency.  Everyone was very nice and I was examined by a future ophthalmologist.  She didn’t think anything was broken but she had her supervisor/teacher check me out. He thought my right elbow might be broken and ordered x-rays which confirmed it.  They put on a temporary cast and told me that I would get a permanent one the following week.  I couldn’t write, which made taking notes and tests very difficult in my French class.  Ten days later I went back for the permanent cast and they took another x-ray and said that I had healed well enough that I didn’t need a cast.  If I had another one I would lose mobility.  So my arm is still broken but it only hurts when I twist it.  Therefore I am trying not to twist it, only by accident.  But I can write and type - something very important to me. 

Thanks for praying!

367 days

Because of leap year, we have been here 367 days. We arrived in Brussels on the 10^th of March 2011, on a Thursday.  It has been one of the best years of our life.

  

We have met more people than we ever imagined and they have all been nice and very interesting.  We have met people from all over the world.  We have taught English to people from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.  Elizabeth and I have gone to church in French at least forty times and I know what was taught maybe twenty-seven times. (Elizabeth knew thirty nine times).  I have studied French with four different teachers and I am hoping that eventually I will get past the first level.  I am getting really good at learning humility and patience for people that don’t speak my language.  I thought I had learned those lessons long ago.

Our team has seen the dream of starting a Church become a reality.  We have had four Sunday morning services and six Sunday evening services that included people other than our three families.  Our goal is to present the Gospel through personal relationship so people will be interested in learning about our Savior.  They can find out about Jesus on the internet, media etc., but they need a live person to show them that Christianity isn’t about dogma, doctrine and “don’ts”.  They need to discover that it is about a real God who loves and cares about them.

As we start the second year we are looking forward to making even more friends and seeing more of Europe’s splendors.

Parlez-vous français?

I am coming to the end of my formal language study. I am now in a pronunciation course. It is one hour a day, two days a week, for four weeks. (That’s eight hours if you do the math.) I thought this would be a relaxing, non-stressful way to finish. Wrong! In some ways it is less stressful – hardly any homework and I don’t think there will be a final exam. However, in class it is very stressful. I felt fairly confident in my pronunciation skills and thought this would merely be a tweaking – a slight improvement. However, it seems everything I say is wrong! As the teacher goes around the room, student by student, and we each try to reproduce some little sound, I push some little squeak out of my throat with all students’ eyes on me, and the teacher exclaims, “pas compris!” (not understood). Really though, the teacher tries to make it fun for us, and I am really learning a lot.

Here is a resume of my French language learning. Growing up in Canada, French was introduced into my school when I was 12. I studied French the next 10 years, through high school and Bible college. With 10 years of French, you would think I would be able to speak it right? Wrong! I could not carry on a conversation. In the next 30 some years, living in the United States, I did not speak French at all. In the year before moving to Belgium, we had a lady come and give lessons to our team. Then, after we moved here, I began lessons at Alliance Française. I found that my 10 years of French gained me about 4 months worth, although I think it really helped with vocabulary, pronunciation, and being able to accept that French is different from English. April through June, I took the semi-intensive course (3 days a week, 2 ½ hours a day). I was off for July and August. In September, I took the extensive course (2 days a week, 2 hours a day). I landed in that class because the semi-intensive class was full. I intended to try to change classes after the first month, but I decided I liked the pace; I liked the teacher and had grown attached to the other students. In January, I thought I would like to continue in that class, but the teacher left and took most of the students with her (oops!) so there were not enough students to make the class. So, I chose the intensive class (5 days a weeks, 3 hours a day). I realized I would need a good study plan to survive at this pace and not be overwhelmed and fall behind. This is the plan I devised:

1. Make study cards: a). Vocabulary b). Conjugations c). Rules
2. Study new material
3. Complete homework
4. Supplement new material with grammar exercises from other books
5. Re-write written assignments with corrections
6. Review old material (for current course)
7. Review old material (previous courses) and conjugations, etc. from back of textbooks, other materials

I followed this every day, but I rarely got to the final step because by that time each day I found I had spent about 2 hours on study and homework. I think it really helped me though, because at the end of the course I did not have to cram for the exam. The intensive course was a great experience for me and a great way to finish, but I could not see myself doing that month after month. My study plan might not work for you, but I would strongly recommend to anyone studying language to find a plan that works for you and to stick to it.

I have mixed feelings about finishing language study. It is nice to have that off my schedule and be able to move on to other things. It is frightening to realize that I still have a long way to go and I have to go the rest of the way on my own. I still have two language partners that I will continue with, and that is a tremendous help. Also, I have lots of resources to continue learning on my own. It will take self-discipline when you do not have the structure of the language class.

The Prince, the Princess, and the Accordian Player

We spent the afternoon with Serve the City, Brussels.

On our way, on the metro, we entered the last car. In the area just where two cars join, there is a section with just two seats, close to the door. It was about 11:00 in the morning and there was a man, who looked like he might have been homeless, curled up in these two seats, sleeping cozily. At the next stop, a man got on with an accordion. We see him from time to time on the metro, playing for spare change. Well, he got on the metro and stood directly in front of the sleeping man, playing loudly. The sleeper stirred only slightly, but never opened his eyes. All of the passengers in our car got such enjoyment out of this, that we knew we would have to give him a coin. After he walked through our car with his cup, he passed by into the next car, giving one last loud pump on the accordion. A few moments later, the sleeping man stirred again and finally opened his eyes and reached for a large bottle of coke from his bag.

This was a special day for Serve the City, because Princesse Claire and Prince Laurent came to serve with us. At one point in the program we were to give a hug to three people we didn't know. The Prince and Princess got more than their fair share of hugs. Dan and I did not try to give them a hug.

The focus for the day was elderly people. There was a group that stayed in the community center and elderly people came for a dancing lesson. The other groups went to nursing homes and passed out chocolates. Dan and I were not in the group that Princesse Claire went with. She went with a group of teenage girls from a private school. The last we saw of Prince Laurent was him running (literally) in the opposite direction as the princess headed off down the sidewalk with the girls. I don't think he was scheduled to actually go to the nursing home.

This is the first time I have been in the presence of royalty. I wondered if you would have to bow or curtsey, but I didn't see any of that. They seemed to be pretty normal. Dan and I didn't try to actually meet them. We would like to have met them, but we didn't want to impose. We didn't take any pictures either, but a lot of people did. It seemed a little "paparazzi" to me. Still, I am very excited to have actually seen them.

The Day my Apple Died

Most of our days in Belgium have been very enjoyable.  As in “Can you believe God has called us to meet such wonderful people and live in such an agreeable climate?”  At least we think the climate is agreeable.  We like that it has never gone above 85 degrees Fahrenheit or below 30 degrees (so far this winter). 

Last Sunday was our second church meeting.  We had visitors, so we felt very blessed.  Afterwards we went to an Irish Meetup, which was another good thing.  The food and the company were very good, although the Irish jazz singer was ill and was absent.  We felt bad for the organizer. 

Then afterwards it happened that the macbook died almost completely (it was in the ICU).  The keyboard and trackpad quit working!

So, I started researching, and again, it is a very common problem with Macs.  What you need to do to correct it is remove the power source, then remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, reinstall all of the power sources, and then you push the switch.  That seems easy enough, but you also have to push the apple, option, R and P keys all at the same time and hold it until the PRAM resets, (about a minute).  It would be nice to have a Chihuahua to help.  It worked the first time and lasted about 5 minutes.  It worked the second time and lasted 2 minutes.  Then nothing happened.  But it would work with a USB mouse.  So I thought maybe it would work with an auxiliary keyboard.  So I went to bed, not to sleep right away though. 

The next morning I woke up, did everything I needed to do, and researched some more and found the extended warranty had expired last month.  I could buy a replacement keyboard for $65 to $129 USD.  I went to a computer shop that sells inexpensive accessories and bought a USB keyboard for less than 20 euro, but that didn’t work to reset the problem and it wasn’t QWERTY.

Then I decided that I would go to MacLine, the Apple authorized reseller, and see if they could at least tell me for sure that the keyboard was bad.  The keyboard was bad, but it was still under warranty because I had recently had it replaced there, and they had a rash of bad keyboards, and you could have the keyboard replaced three times over the life of the machine.  So I came home very happy and they even did the work while I waited.

So that is a good story to illustrate our life here.  There are lots of ups and downs.  We do a lot of research to do the simplest things.  We are so thankful for our friends here who are making the transition to a new country enjoyable.  We are also thankful for technology.  Even though technology is responsible for at least half our frustrations, it also makes it easier for us to live here.

Keep remembering us.

Dan and Elizabeth