Belgian Tour 2011

I'm back in Belgium, for the tour I make every two years. I arrived on Saturday. Today I was at Collège Saint-Louis in Liège. I left Louvain-la-Neuve this morning at 7:30 by train. Around 9 the train pulled in to the new Liège-Guillemins train station. Last time I was in this city, some years ago, this didn't exist! It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and is quite impressive.

I walked from the train station about 25 minutes to the school, crossing the Meuse river:
In Belgian cities, it's common to see a mixture of very old and very new architecture.

Quite near the school is the brand new Médiacité. It's a confusing name, because in fact it's a large shopping mall and entertainment center, not just for media. You can see a little bit of it between these buildings, the red and white structure that looks a bit like a bouncy house. This is where I went for lunch in between shows.
On to the school. I really enjoyed myself, both with the students and with the teachers, who welcomed me warmly.

Collège Saint-Louis has an English immersion program, in which students study for part of each day in English. I had two performances, one with the immersion students in 2nd year and one with the students in 3rd year. I think, though I'm not certain, that these are the equivalent of 7th and 8th grades in the US (12-14 year-olds). Because some English immersion schools are for younger children and because I forgot to ask who the audience would be (note to self: ask all the pertinent questions!), I took my puppets. I did what I normally do: I asked these adolescents if they'd like to meet the puppets I have for the younger kids. As usual, they said yes.

The students today were excellent listeners. With adolescents I often start with a creepy story, so the listeners understand that this is not for babies. Today I told the old English story Mr Fox (not an actual fox, but a sly man), a version of Bluebeard. Then on to other stories. I had more time with the first group, so we had a longer Q & A period at the end.

I took a couple of pictures out the window just outside the small auditorium at the school. Despite the typical gray winter weather, it's a pretty view:


Fun day. I will say, though, that I came close to falling asleep on the train on the way home, from the combination of travel and satisfying work.