For the last four months I've been working for an aerospace engineering company in Liège, Belgium, as a placement/internship for my degree. But very soon it will be time to move on to sunnier (and hopefully snowier) pastures in France. Sadly four months isn't enough time to really learn and get involved in the culture, but I've certainly tried to make the most out of it! I managed to visit all of the sites and cities I'd aimed to visit before I arrived (with the exception of Antwerp, but I still have another 2 weeks to get there).
I'd have to say the highlights were Ghent, Bruges (and the ice sculpture festival), les gaufres de Liège, le carré in Liège, Maastricht, the friendliness (with the usual exceptions of course) of the Liègeois, and just the general international atmosphere as a result of the Erasmus exchange students I spent so much time with here. That last point is something I've missed during my university studies in England. But Belgium is a fantastic place for visiting old cities, within the country as well as in neighbouring countries, with its great transport links and easily accessible sites. In the future I'm not sure it will be as easy to get up one morning and hop on a train on a whim just to see where it goes. I think the two most interesting things that I have experienced in Liège or that the city has given me are 1) the chance to live in a country without a government and 2) a new-found appreciation for the cleanliness of the streets in Paris, particularly with regard to a certain type of animal excrement... I mean I've lived in dirty places before, but in terms of that, the scale of the problem in Liège is remarkable.
There are people and places I will miss naturally, but they will be replaced by other people and places in France - that's just a part of moving on. The problem with such a short expatriation is that you go into it knowing that you'll be leaving so soon - which leads to you questioning the point of putting effort into meeting people, making friends and getting attached to the place. I've met people here who I've had great times with, staying up with a beer (or several) until the early (or late) hours of the morning just talking, or visiting other Belgian cities, but the entire time I've known that this day would come. From previous moves I know that, despite the advent of MSN, Skype, e-mail, etc. we will lose touch. There's nothing that quite replaces a person's actual voice or presence. But all good things have to come to an end. In this case, if it wasn't now it would be next June when everyone else I know leaves. And I know that although I've enjoyed my time here, Liège certainly isn't the place that's going to convince me to put my suitcase down.
So I'm off to France until next August, again for a placement. Having more or less lived there before (or at least spent enough time there to know) I pretty much know what to expect and it's not going to be wildly different to Belgium. But until then, I'll be soaking up the atmosphere here for the last few times (insert terrible pun here about the weather). The christmas market has just opened and looks like it should be very interesting, plus it will give me the opportunity to stock up on things like beer, chocolate and peket to take with me!
