All done!

This week has been filled with classes, study time and our exam!  Three hours to complete and great relief when it was done. We found at yesterday's class that we had all passed! and received our certificates from the Dean at the Proclamation Dinner last night. Happy with a magna cum laude and a pin to show that I am now a member of the KU Leuven Alumni!!!

Once our exam was done and the pressure was off it was nice to wander through the shops of Leuven, enjoying a leisurely coffee and finally having a Belgian waffle or two!

So now the bags are packed and after one last trip to the Capital (they have a whisky beer) one last meal of Flemish stew and an early night the taxi will collect Ben and I to head to the airport at 6.30 tomorrow morning. Arrive back in Melbourne at 6.35pm Sunday.

In Bruges (it's in Belgium)!

We had a free weekend last week and decided to travel on the train to Bruges, about an hour and a half trip. Bruges is well known for its chocolate, waffles and lace as well as it's series of canals - some call it the Venice of Northern Europe. We were lucky to get a beautiful sunny day and wandered the pretty streets checking out the scenery.

We spent our time on a canal boat tour, chocolate shopping (lots of samples), visiting a couple of churches (we saw Michelangelo's Madonna and Child and a first class relic of Jesus' blood?) and smelling the waffles.

Sunday was spent going to mass (this time in Dutch) and tasting the beers on tap at the Capital (they have 20 on tap and 2000 in their cellar!). Ended the night at the Irish pub (Stapleton's) watching Man U vs Chelsea with the locals - surprisingly it was a 1-1 draw!!

In Flanders Fields

Last Friday we visited Ypres in Flanders, Belgium. Our first visit was to the 'In Flanders Fields' Museum which was a history of WWI and the involvement of Belgium. Along with most towns in Belgium, Ypres was almost totally destroyed and the countryside became the battleground. The Belgian forces were very under developed and their initial encounters were on their bicycles!!

The museum is in the old Cloth Hall which was rebuilt to the original after the war.

The afternoon was spent visiting memorials and cemeteries around Ypres which is dotted with Commonwealth cemeteries - even in the middle of fields. 

A German cemetery where 44,000 are buried including mass graves of unidentified soldiers. 

Tyne Cot Cemetery - the largest Commonwealth War Cemetery. We found the graves of two Australians who received the Victoria Cross. 

Polygon Wood Cemetery which also has a memorial to the Australian 5th Battalion. 

We then headed back to Ypres for the 8.00pm ceremony at the Menin Gate. The Gate has the names of thousands of soldiers who have no known resting place. Each evening the Last Post is played by the bugler and wreaths laid. 

Brussels again!

In the past few weeks we have found ourselves in Brussels but haven't actually had a chance to look around. Our visits have been for meetings and to go to particular places of interest in our course.

Last Thursday we spent most of the day with the staff from the Catholic Education Service - Primary section. With the Catholic sector being the largest in Belgium they have over 1500 schools to service and as the money is funded directly to the schools from the state the schools can then choose to fund the CEO 1% of their budget for their services. Or they can choose not to!

The staff were very welcoming, had spent a considerable amount of time preparing for our visit and were very eager to learn about the Australian education story. A very productive and hopeful day after our other visit which see Catholic schools as very secular and almost no different to government schools at home.

The afternoon was spent visiting the Chapel of Disclosure located at the De la Salle headquarters in Brussels. The Chapel is a bare place with a floor of sand that allows the sacred to be brought by those who enter. A very moving place.

Cologne

We arrived in Cologne late in the afternoon and headed to the Market Square to sample the local ale followed by dinner at the Sion Brauhuis (brewery). The local police came out in force - they were everywhere - to deal with the visiting English hooligans. We think they were fighting each other which isn't as big a problem.

We visited the Dom (Cathedral) for mass on the Sunday with the local Cardinal/Archbishop Woelki and then again on the Monday for a walk around. A beautiful building which has the remains of the Three Wise Men. 

We also enjoyed a cruise on the Rhine and a visit to the Chocolate Museum/Factory and dinner at another brewery. 

Streudel!!!

Road Trip!

Sorry I haven't been filling you in on what is happening over here. I'll try to fill in a few gaps!

Last weekend we had four free days so a group of us decided to hire a car and travel to Amsterdam in The Netherlands and Cologne in Germany.

I have never seen so many bikes as we saw in Amsterdam!  When crossing the road you have to look out for bikes, cars, trams and once you get safely to halfway you have to look out for the reverse - trams, cars, bikes!!!  There were even bike jams at traffic lights!

We visited the Anne Frank Museum which was in the actual house where Anne, her family and another family hid in the upper two storeys during the war. Once they were captured they were sent to Auschwitz  and Birkenau (Col and I visited there last year) where Anne died of typhus one month before the camp was liberated.

We also went on a canal trip through the maze of canals throughout the city, visited the Beginhof and the Rijks Museum.

After two nights in Amsterdam we travelled on the autobahn to Cologne - no speed limit in some stretches!  They go very fast!

The Netherlands or Holland?

Today's quiz question: why is the country known as The Netherlands and Holland and they speak Dutch - not Hollandaise?

After a 6.00am start we contemplated the possible answers and came up with nothing. When we arrived in Utrecht (in Holland/The Netherlands) we couldn't find the answer either.

We visited The Museum Catharijnecovent which is in an old monastery. The team there have developed a project to teach students about religious feasts and their stories. The Religious Education in the schools we have visited is very different to our Catholic Schools as their society and culture is deemed to be very diverse. The display was very well done and would engage students on a basic level.

We then visited a Catholic primary school called de Achtban - the Rollercoaster in English. After searching and searching we couldn't find anything that demonstrated that it was a Catholic school. They did have an RE program that they spend 45 minutes a week teaching and the students visit the Church when they get to their last year at the school. No praying or anything too serious!!  That's what they told us!

On the way home we played windmill!!!

Where in the world...?

By now you will be missing me and wondering what I've been doing!??

Last week, after a very quiet Monday morning, the rest of the days flew by. A couple of very heavy and lengthy lectures let me know that we have hit the study straps and my brain has been hurting a little bit. The coffee shop across the road from our lecture building helped out though!

On Thursday we headed for London on the Eurostar via Brussels arriving in London late afternoon.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Kensington, just around the corner from the Natural History Museum and the V&A Museum. We conveniently found the closest English pub and enjoyed a noisy and
packed evening in the bar.

Friday morning we had a visit to Westminster Cathedral, the Catholic one not the Abbey. We then headed around the block to the equivalent of their Catholic Education Office where the Deputy Director gave his presentations on the challenges in Catholic Education in England and the Religious Education Curriculum. At times we weren't sure if he was being serious, trying to be funny or taking the mickey.  An 'interesting' person. 

We then had a visit to the St Vincent de Paul Primary School which is right next to the Cathedral. There are 250 students in eight classes (30 to a class), over two floors in very small rooms. Not sure how they all fit - it was lunch time when we were there. Our briefing was held in the chapel which doubles as a library area and meeting room. The Principal, dressed in jeans!!!, gave us a talk about the school - 99% Catholic (the 1% is Russian Orthodox). The school families apparently go to mass 

as the students get points which help them get into the good secondary schools - that's one way to get 

bums on seats!

What else did we do?

The M&M shop - four floors of all things M&M!  No, didn't buy anything!

The HoHo bus - just for something to do!!

And we got tickets to 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' which was very clever. You could even buy a Wonka bar - no Golden Ticket though!

I know, it's upside down!

Mass at the Cathedral and a walk to see Betty - no changing of the guard due to the London Half Marathon. Back on the Eurostar and to Leuven by 10.30pm. Phew!

Off to Paris!

After a quick two hour lecture on Thursday morning we made a mad dash for the train station to head to Paris via Brussels. We left Leuven at about 12 noon and arrived in Paris at 2.30pm!!  Fast train!

• First stop was the Ecole Sainte Clotilde (Primary School) where the Principal gave us a talk in French - we had a translator - and then a tour. The school was built in 1704 as a house and then converted to a school a hundred years ago. It's very small and pokey but a fascinating space. There is an eating space upstairs for the under 5s as the canteen is underground and there's a law that children under 5 can't go underground in schools!

• The Royal Hotel Paris was less than 100m from the Arc de Triomphe! Happy Hour from 5-9pm in the cafe across the road and the Champs de Elysses a 2 minute walk for dinner!

• Friday morning found us on the Metro - we ended the trip one wallet and one mobile phone lighter - neither of them mine. 
• Visit to the French equivalent of the Catholic Education Office and then Notre Dame de Sion Secondary School. A talk from the staff, lunch with champagne and then a tour of the school. 100% of the students achieve their Baccalaureate and they have a very good reputation. 
• Saturday's timetable in photos - 

• Sunday was mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, visit to Gus' tower and a boat cruise on the Seine. Very hard!
• Fast train at 7.30pm and back in Leuven by 9.30pm. Free morning today was good for a sleep in and washing!

Brussels

So now I've got to try and catch up on what we have been doing. I've been a bit slack at blogging as it's a pain not having access to wifi in our rooms and it's difficult to find a place to sit and get things done. First world I know!

Last Wednesday we travelled to Brussels for a couple of meetings. The first one was with the teacher training college. It's a bit confusing how they work out their tertiary system but there are university colleges where you can do courses for training for professions or there are universities where academic studies are done, such as research, philosophy etc. Anyway, the staff at the College were very excited to have us visit and explained to us the training programs for nursery school - 2.5 to 5/6 year olds, primary/elementary school - 5/6 year olds to 11 year olds and then the secondary school which breaks into academic, vocational, arts and training facilities. The staff were very hospitable and we even had Australian wine on the tables.

We then visited the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula which was impressive and had beautiful stained glass windows from the 1500s!

Our guide Ann explained to us the symbol of the pelican which you often see in churches - people used to think the adult pelican coughed up its body and blood, instead of regurgitating its food, and so they made the link with the Eucharist. In the Mary chapel of the cathedral there was an amazing altar with the pelicans...

Our afternoon was spent listening to a member of the European Committee of Catholic Education talk about the 26 countries involved - there was a fear that he would read out the report from all 26 but thankfully he only read ten!