Right now, I’m entering the second week of what’s probably the most tiring part of the year for me. And by this I mean the part when students from the University of Fukuoka are in Louvain-la-Neuve to learn French.

Each year, between 20 and 30 students take part in a 3-weeks “internship” during which they have a whole lot of French lessons, they go visit cities in Belgium and partake in “cultural activities” with students of Louvain-la-Neuve’s Université catholique de Louvain. And that what I’m doing : setting up and participating in those cultural activities that take place in the evening.

Seems like a cool way to spend some fun evenings, and it is, for sure. But it’s very tiring. On sunday, we went to visit Liège, and walking in the cold all day going from churches to museums proved to be pretty hard. And it’s only been a week, I don’t know how I’ll manage to get through the remaining time…

That being said, it may be demanding, but for what reward ! This year again, the group of students is a really cool bunch, and while we still did not have the chance to have them all at once for our activities, the ones that do come seem to be enjoying themselves, and we’re starting to feel friendships developping.

And to top it all, one of last year’s students, Keiko, is coming for a visit in Belgium next week. I’m really happy to see her again (last time was in August), the news was the icing on the cake of a very cool day in Liège.