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Global Citizens

~ a blog for Tourists, Expats and Locals

Global Citizens

Tag Archives: thunderstorms

The Sorrow of Belgium

20 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by katti in Belgium, blog

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Tags

belfort, belfry, code oranje, cool guy, Flemish, Gent, het verdriet van belgie, johan opdebeek, languageproblems, podcast clara, stormchaser, the sorrow of belgium, thunderstorms, Walloons

The best thing about summer temperatures is that they are generally followed by thunderstorms. And that’s exactly my favourite kind of weather. As much as Belgians fear temperatures above 25 degrees, they also fear thunderstorms. The country even gets ‘codes’ when there might be thunderstorms coming. Code yellow, code orange, code red… depending on how ‘dangerous’ the coming storms might be.

Yesterday was code orange so I got my gear out and drove to Gent. I have been wanting to go up the belfry for a while now so I thought this was the right time.

This 90 meter high watchtower dating from the 14th century is a great place to see thunderstorms coming. It’s a not very comfortable narrow passageway, constantly ‘invaded’ by tourists, but nevertheless a great photographic spot.

Belfry

So I was waiting for the storm (that didn’t really come), watching the clouds, watching the tourists passing me. Brits, Americans, Dutch, Scandinavians, Germans, a lot of Spanish speaking and many many Chinese. The Chinese, probably the most avid selfie-takers.

Then a group of French speaking ‘cool guys’ came up. You know the type 16-something, impeccably dressed, loud, showing off… This one guy saw me and automatically said “Bonjour madame!”. I answer back in French and he said, startled, “Mais vous parlez français!”, you speak French! “Of course!” I told him, “I am Belgian!”. ‘Oh, where are you from then?’, he asked. Obviously expecting me to name some south Belgian city as he seemed genuinely surprised when he found out I’m Flemish. Without thinking I ask him the rhetorical question, “but you can speak Flemish, can’t you?” and to my surprise his answer was “oh no! I don’t!” And added an apologetic “but I am from Brussels”, as if to say ‘they don’t speak Flemish there’.

By then the group had moved on and our conversation ended as rapidly as it had started. I was a bit annoyed. Don’t they learn Flemish anymore in our bilingual Belgian capital? Are we (Flemish) the only ones who remember that Brussels is -officially- bilingual? Do they really expect us to speak French, all the time?

The usual Flemish thoughts.

I had nothing on my mind except thinking, as the clouds weren’t really coming, so started thinking about that particular delicate Belgian issue : 2 different people, the French speaking Walloons in the south and the Flemish speaking in the north, ‘stuck’ together in a country called Belgium. Both languages equal, theoretically, but practically it’s always the Flemish that must adapt to the French. Or so it feels to us.

As far as I remember it has always been an issue. Language was one of the reasons Belgium came to exist, it was an important issue in the desire for independency. Back then it was the French speaking elite who were afraid they would lose power to the Flemish ‘people’. It took the Flemish a long time to become ‘equal’ as a language, with the university of Leuven (Flemish town) changing from French to Flemish only in 1968!

When I was in school French was one of the main subjects, next to Maths and Flemish, and generally Flemish was taught in the Walloon schools. Nowadays English is more and more taking the place of Flemish/French as a second language in schools on both sides of the language border.

Thus making the language tensions no longer an issue. There are no longer losers in the battle between Flemish and Walloons on what language they will speak to each other. They just speak English. That’s what I usually do anyway.

So Mr. Cool Guy’s lack of knowledge of my native language is forgiven. -I do hope he speaks English though- ;-).

This is as bad as the clouds got …

“Verdriet van Belgie”, the sorrow of Belgium, a podcast on the Belgian independence by Johan Opdebeek. Only in Flemish I am afraid. Highly recommended.

The language battle I mention here is only in unofficial matters. In political matters and official matters what language is spoken is subject to many strict rules. The prime minister for example will give all speeches half in Flemish half in French.

The panorama photo is taken with my cell phone. The other photos with my camera. check out http://www.kattiborre.com for more of my work.

The saint who lost track of time…

17 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by katti in blog

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Tags

Santa Rosa, thunderstorms, Why on earth

So today, to my big disappointment, she was mentioned again : the saint, responsible for the the heavy thunderstorms around the end of the month august. She is called Santa Rosa.

It turns out that she has completely lost track of time. She is due around the end of august, a few days before and after the 30th, and here she is tormenting us, day after day after day for a few weeks now, actually from the day I got back from my trip. It is so early in the month that I didn’t even think about her, although I was surprised there were such heavy thunderstorms in the middle of winter. Where I come from, they only occur after heat waves. That means they are quite rare. Now I lost count of how many times I jumped up in bed, startled by the loud thunderclap. Because here, because we are in the city and the concrete seems to enforce the loud bangs, and maybe because we live in an old apartment and the building shakes and the windows rattle endlessly, here it all sounds so much worse then where we used to live. Its louder and it seems to last forever.

Now today I was told that if Santa Rosa comes early, say, about a month early, that she stays all month. So we should brace ourselves for another 2 weeks of rain and… sleepless nights. Although one does get used to about everything, right? When a friend of mine complained about the loud thunders keeping her awake last night, I realized I had slept through them.

And I realized I have -again- Argentinized : I go out less and less and less… It rains too hard and even with boots and an umbrella you get wet.

So looking in my fridge, I know it is time for Santa Rosa to go and leave us in peace.

Tormenta de Santa Rosa (Storm of Saint Rosa)

23 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by katti in blog

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Tags

Santa Rosa, spring, thunderstorms, weather, Why on earth, why un earth

I am sure it is a coincidence : good weather phenomenons are called after male saints and bad weather phenomenons are called after female saints. After the Veranito de San Juan, it looks like we are now getting the Tormentas de Santa Rosa. After the first spring-like days at the end of august, beginning of september, come the thunderstorms. Named after the saint Santa Rosa de Lima.

The legend says that in 1615, the city of Lima feared an attack by Dutch pirates, and a nun called Sister Rosa (real name Isabel Flores de Oliva) prayed for salvation, and just when the Dutch were about to arrive, a heavy storm prevented them from attacking the city….

Eventhough it as been a while since the Dutch (or others) tried to attack ‘us’, the thunderstorms always come around this period, as it is now that the first warm  winds bring an air of spring to the southern hemisphere, and they are always followed by thunderstorms. Some say these storms are the worst storms of the year, but statistics don’t confirm this.

We have just had (and are still having) these first warm winds together with our first days of spring weather. Let’s just wait and see what Santa Rosa has in store this year.

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