Weyburn student Hannah Bitz has been sharing a regular blog about her experiences as an exchange student in Belgium, including a memorable trip to Paris recently.
Hannah is a graduate from the Weyburn Comprehensive School, and is spending the next year in Belgium through the Rotary International student exchange program, with some of her experiences being shared with other Rotary students who are in Europe as well.
On one occasion when she gathered with the other Canadian exchange students, they visited the Belgian Parliament in Brussels and met one of the political representatives, and Hannah presented the banners from the home Rotary clubs in Canada to the Parliament.
One of the places she was able to visit was a huge zoo in Belgium called Pairi Daiza, which took most of a day to see.
“The park is interesting because it is split up in biomes and each biome has both the animals of that area as well as cultural and religious items from that area. When we entered India we got to see the elephants along with Geisha statues and a few different shrines, and in the Oriental part there was a Chinese garden which held bonsai trees that were close to two hundred years old,” she wrote in her blog.
“One of the other things I enjoyed about the park was that animals which were deemed to have little or no threat to the patrons of the park were in habitats where they could walk on the same trail as us. Both bird exhibits (including the birds of prey), Australia (with adorable wallabies), the lemurs, and some of the monkeys were in habitats where you could touch them (you’re not supposed to). As well, animals which co-habitat peacefully were placed in habitats together, it gave the zoo an overall more natural appearance,” she added, with the recommendation for anyone visiting Belgium to make sure they visit this zoo.
Her trip to Paris with other Rotary students was also a fun and memorable experience for her, as she wrote, “Paris was lovely and I very much enjoyed the trip. The first day we checked out the Palace of Versailles, it is very interesting and from what I saw of the gardens they are very beautiful.”
The group toured around Paris that night to see all the lights, and then they visited some impressive sights the following day.
“The second day we walked to the Muse D'Orsay. This was one of my favourite places, the layout is very interesting and the artwork is amazing. On the way to la Louvre we crossed the Pont de Arts, better known as the famous lock bridge; unfortunately since the locks had to be cut down the bridge is quite barren. La Louvre was also amazing, we definitely needed a few days to tour around and see everything,” she wrote, adding of their trip to the Eiffel Tower, “The tour is really cool up close, as well, it has an amazing view of Paris from the second floor (we couldn't get tickets for the top). The third day we went to Cathedral Notre Dame. The architecture and the interior of the cathedral are breathtaking.”
Hannah will be in Belgium until the summer of 2018 for the exchange program, meantime, her family at home is hosting the Rotary exchange student for Weyburn, Liza Biard, who is from France and is attending the Weyburn Comp for the next year.
Hannah’s blog can be viewed at http://ryebelgium2017.blogspot.ca/, and she is also on Facebook.
