This year, Belgium is the guest nation at the Festival of International Understanding in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia. I read this on the Internet and I've been asked if I could write about Belgium to tell you a little bit about the country, its people, the lifestyle,...
First of all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jochen Savelberg, I'm a 21 year old college student and I live in East-Belgium, 5 KM from the German border. I consider myself a real European: my father is Dutch, my mother is from Belgiun, I was born in Germany and our dog comes from Italy...
In 1993, I've been an AFS-exchange student to Happy Valley (20 KM south of Adelaide, South Australia) where I had the time of my life. As my first name is diffcult to pronounce for non-German-speaking people, I've translated it to "Joe". In Oz, I've been given the nickname "Joe Buff" and towards the end of my stay I was only known as "Buff". So from now on, you may call me Joe or Buff or both.
During my Aussie school holidays, I went on a trip with my host family - the Procter's (who I'd like to greet here, on this occasion). We visited Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and everything inbetween - including Cowra. I really loved the Japanese Garden and also visited the World War II camps as well as the War cemeteries. Coincidently, my birthday is on the same day as the day when the problems at POW Camp 12 started - August 4th.
Now let's talk about Belgium. This is a small European country squashed between Germany and France, only to name its largest neighbours. It is about half as big as Tasmania but there are more than 10 million inhabitants. Three offical languages are spoken in Belgium: Flemish (almost the same as Dutch), French and German. I have to stress the fact that German is also an official language, because most Belgians don't even seem to know. And I happen to be one of the 68,000 Belgians who speak German as their native language. We are probably the best protected minority in the world as our region has a government, 3 ministers and a parliament.
Belgium is a federal state divided into 10 provinces. These are part of 3 regions and 3 communities. The regions are Flanders (where the people speak Flemish), Wallonia (the French and German-speaking part) and Brussels (bilingual - French and Flemish). The communities are divided by language. There is a community, i.e. government..., for each language. The local governments are in charge of education, tourism, trade, social issues, work,... And there is still one federal government for all Belgians. Yes, life is too short to worry about politics, especially in Belgium.
I reckon these are enough boring facts. Here are some more interesting ones: Belgium is the country where French Fries were invented. Belgian chocolate, waffles and lace are world famous. Tintin, the Smurfs and many more comic strips also originated in Belgium. Belgium is a country of beer with more than 200 different sorts.
TopBeer plays a big role in social activities here in (East-)Belgium. The legal drinking age is 16 years - but this law is not enforced so many kids experience their first grog-induced headache long before they are allowed to drive a car.
Unlike as in some other countries, the 18th birthday is more important than the 21st birthday. When you turn 17 you can get your "L's" and drive a car with your parents. A final exam is taken after you've turned 18 before you get your licence. Alternatively, you can wait until you are 18 and then drive alone on your "L's" during 3 months. This is more like the Aussie "P" system. However you may not drive on weekend nights and are only allowed to have one passenger.
For those who care, I drive a small Japanese car: an '87 Nissan Sunny GTi 1.6 Twin Cam 16 valves. I think this car is called Pulsar or Astro in Australsia. But what's in a name? I once took this car for a test drive onto Germany's famous Autobahn. A big Mercedes in front of me, a fast BMW behind me and all three of us cruising at 210 km/h... in Belgium you may drive 120 km/h on highways (most people tend to speed at 140), 90 km/h on national roads and 50 km/h in town.
Belgian roads are bad and sometimes even worse. When you drive from Germany into Belgium, you'll immediately notice the difference in the quality of the roads. However driving on highways at night is nicer in Belgium. The Belgian motorways are lit all night long. Should you ever get a chance to travel to space, look out for Belgium - we're illuminated! Speaking of light, the Australian sunlight is much different from the Belgian sun... Strange but true. Australia is so much brighter.
The Belgian weather changes from rainy to more rain. The summers are OK and sunny, but not quite as hot as in Australia. The peak temperature is around 33° C. In winter it gets really cold in my region. A month ago we had -26° C. Brrr. We've also had a foot of snow. The global warming is also noticable here: when I was a kid, we had sometimes 2-3 feet of snow. That was a lot of fun - for us kids. I really liked going to the beach while in Adelaide. Now I only get to surf the Internet...
More information about Belgium will follow in the next weeks. I've still got a couple of stories and facts that I'd like to share with you. Any questions or feedback are very welcome. Please send your remarks on the Internet to my e-mail address: joe@buff.euregio.net
That's all folks! See ya next week!
Joe Buff.