Let it Snow

Not that I can do anything to stop it from snowing :)

But really, it has been snowing tons here! And it's the talk of the town, or should I say country. It's all that's in the news and it's all anyone talks about anymore it seems. The kids in my class are saying that I brought the snow with me because they've never seen this much before! I told them I did the secret Sierra Valley Snow Dance. The other night on the news they interviewed an old man who claimed that he hadn't seen a winter like this since 1978! So it's definitely a big deal here. More proof of that is that hardly any of the public transportation is functioning, the buses have been running inconsistently due to road conditions and today I was going to go into Charleroi with a friend but her train was cancelled due to ice on the rails! However, there is an upside to all the mayhem, it's going to be a white Christmas after all! :D

Well since I am still lacking the motivation/inspiration to blog I'll just upload some pictures from this month :)


This is the view from my bedroom window, look at all the snow! :P


Our quaint little Christmas tree :)


This is a "buche de noel" it's a tradition here :) I made it in my cooking class, it's a cake!


Last but not least, I got to sit on St. Nicola's lap! The black boy next to him is Perfetta (I'm not sure about the spelling) and while St. Nicola gives candy to the good kids Perfetta hits the bad ones! Nothing wrong with traditions but it seems a little racist to me.

Anyways, Merry Christmas, Joyeuse Fetes! <3

Buffet or Dance Club?

Friday was my host dad, Jean-Paul's, birthday. The family didn't do much on the day, it was the end of the week and everyone was pretty tired, but Pascal, my new host mom, planned a surprise dinner for last night...and it was quite a surprise :)

First off she arranged everything so that all of us kids would be out of the house when Jean-Paul got home from work so she could ask him to go out to dinner "just them two." So in the afternoon she drove Estelle, my little host sister who is 11, and me to her sister's house where we were to stay until 7:30 when we would go to the restaurant and set up for the surprise. What a fun way to spend my Saturday afternoon (no sarcasm there) Pascal's sister has three daughters, the oldest of which spent last year in Longbeach, CA! It was really fun to get to talk to her in English and French (when other people were in the room we switched to French so we wouldn't be rude) it was funny to hear some of the things that she noticed about the US and what things she missed, we also Skyped with the boy from Longbeach that she lived with who lived with her family in Belgium the year before and is now spending a year in Germany, confusing enough haha? Needless to say it was a good afternoon.

By the time we finally got to the restaurant, China Garden, I was starving and unfortunately it was a buffet. So while we were getting everything set up and waiting for Pascal and Jean-Paul to arrive I was being tortured by the tantalizing sight and smell of delicious Chinese food! But, in the end it was worth the wait, Jean-Paul was (I would say) pleasantly surprised and everyone was smiling and laughing and the evening was off to a great start :)

I expected to stay for a few hours until everyone had had their fill of food and conversation but this time I was the one who was surprised. After we'd gone back for seconds...and then dessert, the turned off the overhead lights, turned on some strobe lights and brought in a DJ! WHAT? It's like Chinese buffet by day dance club by night? There was a dance floor cleared around the speakers and soon it was packed with almost everyone in the restaurant. We ended up staying until 1 am and everyone had a great time.

I'm really happy here in my new home, my French is picking up, I'm becoming more integrated...I think I'm gettin to the real good stuff :P

Briefly

Wow, I have quite a bit to write about but not enough time! I moved to my second family yesterday and most of what I have to say pertains to them, however, I don't want to rush it and at the moment I must get to bed-school tomorrow :( but a rather funny thing happened to me today so I'll just write this quickly (I'll write more later).

So today, in a parking lot, I saw an average (by American standards) sized Chevy truck trying to park and I thought to myself "What a ridiculously large and impractical car!" Then I immediately remembered Big Red, my family's king cab F350 (aka enormous truck) and I almost laughed out loud. I'm getting to used to being here that I'm even starting to think American cars are over-sized :D I'm thinking it'll be really weird when I come home, which thankfully (no offence Mom, Dad) is not for quite some time.

Reflections

I'm going to be changing families this coming weekend, which means soon I will be repacking my suitcases, though I'm not sure how I'll do that. Do you remember those cool little hand towels that were folded up really tiny in the shape of a star, heart, or some animal and when you put them in warm water they magically expanded before your eyes and somehow became a normal sized hand towel? Well that's what I think happened with everything I brought with me, somehow after I unpacked in August all my belongings have slowly expanded and I now have no idea how I'll cram them all back in...

All these thoughts of packing and moving has brought to my attention that I'm already a quarter of the way through this year! Crazy isn't it? Anyways, all this thinking has brought about several realizations.

First: I'm living here. I know that that one seems painfully obvious, "No Maggie, you've simply been...resting there for three and a half months..." But hear me out on this one. Practically all of last summer I daydreamed about this year, who am I kidding, since Fanny lived with us I've been imagining this year when I would get to learn French and live in Europe for a whole year, and here I am...in Europe...for a year. So far it has been everything I imagines, and all those things I didn't imagine. But thinking about it now, it couldn't really be any better than this, just because I'm in Europe doesn't mean that my life suddenly becomes perfect, like some sort of movie or something, it's still my life. There are good days and bad ones, irritation and fatigue, familiarity and habits....and honestly I couldn't be more content (which is not to be confused with perpetually happy haha :]).

Second: French. My comprehension of French is way up, I really can understand almost everything when spoken at a normal speed, without explanations. So, obviously I've been feeling really good about that, but lately it has come to my attention that my spoken French is lagging, way behind. I know that listening comprehension always comes first and speaking after, but it had been getting me down. I was starting to feel like I'd never learn this blasted language, I mean it's already been three and a half months! When I confessed my frustration to my classmates, they looked at me like I was crazy. They all immediately reassured me that I'd improved so much since September and then they even kindly pointed out that I still had seven and a half months to get it down. Seven and a half more months of this! I know that patience is a virtue...but why!?

Thanksgiving...sort of.

So this post is a little late (as usual) but my host family here and I had a little "Thanksgiving" on Friday. We decided to move it from Thursday for several reasons but overall it was just easier for everyone to do it Friday since here everyone still had work and school all week. The change of date, however, wasn't the only reason for it's not-so-Thanksgiving-ish feeling.



First off we had hardly any of the traditional foods, as a matter of fact all we had that was traditional was the turkey, cranberry sauce, and salad...though I doubt the salad counts. Mano helped me cook everything, actually, it was more like I helped her cook, she's an amazing cook so for the sake of everyone eating the meal this was a much better arrangement. We didn't make a pie because we ended up not having time, there were no sweet potatoes because we couldn't find any, and she decided that instead of good ol' mashed potatoes we could just eat the leftover rice and chicken dish that she had prepared for lunch.






Secondly we didn't have the whole family together, it was just Mano, Isa, Mamy, Mamy's special friend, and me.

So it was rather quiet and very unlike the boisterous Thanksgivings I'm used to at home, and Mamy got it a bit confused and thought it was like the American equivalent of their Saint Nicholas, who comes with gifts on the 6th of December, and brought Isa and me each a box of chocolate (no complaints there haha).



But overall I think it was somewhat successful, we all had a good time and I think that they did get a little taste of Thanksgiving, or at least I hope they did.



Well I'll be going now, by some miracle, even though it's literally freezing outside, there isn't hardly a cloud in the sky. I think I'll take a walk and soak up every ray of light I can while it's there!

Birthday Blues

Yes, on this day when I should be very happy I've been rather sad, though to be honest it's not because I'm a year older (19 really isn't a big deal). I'm just feeling a bit distant from everything and everyone especially since it's that time of year when everyone is getting together. It's almost Thanksgiving!

I know that in the past I've made it clear that Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday, it tends to steal my birthday thunder, but as I've gotten older I've come to enjoy it more and more and this year, seeing as I'm not with my family like everyone else, I really am going to miss it. It really is a beautiful holiday, a day to give thanks for family and friends...a day of the year when everyone makes time to get together and laugh, joke, eat way too much turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy and then still manage to stuff in that slice of pumpkin pie. There really is nothing like it here, they've gone straight to Christmas and I'm really seeing what I'm going to be missing this Thursday.

Even though I am planning a Thanksgiving meal for my host family there is no way that it will be the same. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to cooking all of it tomorrow by myself, I get done with school too late to cook it on Thursday. It's something that I want to share with the people here but the disheartening truth is that I can't. Not really. Yeah, I can cook yams and turkey and pie and everything else, I can tell them the story of the first Thanksgiving and describe what it's like at home, but there is no way I can recreate it, they don't understand it, not really. And all of this together along with all the other pressures of being a foreigner here has definitely increased my feelings of isolation.

On the bright side, I received a package from Spain today :) A little something that created a feeling of "birthdayness" for the day and gave me a distraction from my depression. "The Mother Tongue-English and how it got that way." I know that I should be studying my French rather than reading a book, in English, about English but I'm feeling a bit anti-French in my craving for an American Thanksgiving. Anyways, the book (or at least the 60 pages)is fascinating! It's extremely well written, entertaining, and informative, I didn't know there was this much to English! I highly recommend it. And since it is the time of year for giving thanks, thank you Viola!

I know this wasn't the most upbeat post, who am I kidding, it wan't really upbeat at all, but no one can be happy all the time....well except Mom haha, but I already feel better having written it, so thank you for listening to my homesick ramblings.

When it rains, it pours!

And I'm not just talking about the weather! Although it did rain for three days non-stop, causing some minor flooding around here. But no, I'm talking about my activities. Really, for the first two months of my exchange I got into a pretty relaxed and inactive routine...wow has that changed! Though this is good news for me, now I have an excuse for my lack of blogs, I'm actually doing stuff! So I'll just make this into a quick update.

I don't know if you remember but at school I was taking all the general classes with a science focus, which meant I was taking chemistry, biology, physics, etc. Even though I had seen most of the stuff they were learning before, let me tell you it is not easy to take those classes in French, especially when it's your "gap year." Take that and add the general stress of being in a foreign country where I don't ever really know quite how to act or what to expect and you get a completely burnt out me. It was to the point where I had to literally drag myself out of bed in the mornings and try to keep a pleasant look on my face as I sat in class after freezing class doing nothing, when every word or phrase I didn't understand was another slap in the face, a reminder of how much more I had to learn. Finally I manned up and asked my host mom for help, something that has never been easy for me, and boy did she help me. First off she had the idea that maybe it would be better if I could take classes that are more easy, like art and cooking, the kinds of classes that I can participate in and could be sort of relaxing for me. Now, here it's not like at home where you can choose all your classes and take a variety of courses, here you choose an "option" like 'general' 'artistic'or 'technique'. General is what I was in, the kids in general are usually the ones who are planning on going to college etc. Technique is more like job-training, and artistic is well, art. So, usually if I wanted to take art classes I would have to transfer into artistic and I wouldn't be with any of the same people who have become my friends. But, here I got really lucky, Mano knows everyone at my school and she talked to the secretary who in turn talked to the director and since I'm a "free student" I was able to just change some of my classes and I'm now taking several art classes and a cooking class! (This Thursday we're making Belgian waffles :D) I've only had one art class, but it was soo nice! Even the atmosphere in the classroom was so much more relaxed, I think that this is going to be really good for me.

But, not only is my situation improving at school, as I think I mentioned a few posts ago, I actually have some friends now :D and this last Wednesday (we didn't have school Thursday or Friday) I went to my first disco tech with Alice. It was insane. We got there slightly before midnight-we had to if we wanted to get in free-though most people don't get there till 12:30 or 1. But let me describe it to you, we got there and as we walked through the doors, between the huge bouncers in black leather jackets, we were surrounded by people drinking and dancing, flashing lights, techno music so loud it was literally rattling my bones, and I'm still not sure if the smoke was from the smoke machines or the cigarettes. I had tons of fun but it's not something I could do every week especially with the ringing in my ears and the stench on my clothes when we left. We got back to Alice's house at 5 and slept until 1! But like I said, it poured, and I had one night of recovery before I headed off to see Justine and her family. It was soo nice to see them! Not only did I get to see sweet Teeny, Cathy, Philipe, and Valentine, I got to meet pretty much the whole family! This weekend was their celebration of Justine's birthday, the 16th, and her grandma's, the 23, and then because they're so nice they threw me in there too. (I can't believe my birthday is a week from Tuesday....time is flying!) It was so nice to be surrounded by a big happy family! Not to mention all the delicious Belgian cake! I ate so much chocolate...I never thought I'd say this but I may have to lay off it for a few days. :] But it really was a fantastic weekend and the only thing I would want to change about my exchange is that I wish I were closer to them (though, this is Belgium...nothing is that far haha).

Well, my fingers are getting tired of typing, and I'm sure you're getting tired of reading so I'll finish up real quick. It doesn't stop there, I have some activities with the school this coming week and I'm looking into finding a dance class around here :] then next weekend is my birthday "celebration" one of Mano's friends has the same birthday as me so on Saturday we are going to have a lot of people over here at the house and have a kind of potluck :] and somewhere in all of this Mano and I are going to go see Harry Potter 7 Part 1 in Brussels at a theater where they have the original with subtitles! Which is perfect 'cause I'll understand it (lol) and Mano doesn't like it when movies are dubbed anyways :D

So overall things are picking up :] the only downside is that I get the feeling time is gonna fly by even faster now.

Vacation

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As you probably noticed, I didn't blog much in October. But I'll be honest here, October was a tough month, everything seemed to have plateaued off, especially my enthusiasm...which is why this last weeks vacation couldn't have come at a better time :D

To start it off last weekend I went to visit a fellow RYEer who is living in Cottemweg, conventiently located between Oostende and Bruges! It was my first real "venture" into Flanders, and it was wonderful! Not only was it nice to be able to just "hang out" and tour the gorgeous city of Bruges, it was also a somewhat eye-opening experience. I think most of you know that Belgium is a very divided country, I have even heard rumors of talk of seperating Flanders and Wallonia alltogether, but I really had no idea how it could be so severe until I went there. Literally it was like another country. The cities seemed different, the people were different, and obviously the language was different. I really realized all this when I was sitting on the train there and it occured to me that if I wanted to talk to someone else on the train, I wouldn't even know which language to use, French, Dutch, or English! I am amazed that such a small country can be so completly diverse, I mean look at the US, you can fit about 12 Belgiums in the state of CA alone and yet we all speak English...so basically, I now have a much better grasp on what exactly this country's political leaders are struggling with.



Next, on Tuesday I got together with most of the kids in my class and we all went out to eat Belgian fries (:P) and ice cream! It was so much fun and even though I ate way too much I went home feeling great :D



And finally (best for last) I went on a trip with the Rotary to London. It, was, AM-A-ZA-ZA-ZING! I can't even describe to you the impact it had on me. The city is such a beautiful mixture of history and modern day and so totally...alive, the atmosphere is wonderful and completely unique. On one of the days we just walked through the city for three hours and I never once wished to be doing something else...even though my feet were killing me and I'm not a big fan of walking in the first place! I know that it's not the right city, but I literally think I left my heart in London, and I can't wait to go back!



Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy to be spending this year here in Belgium. I was even a bit comforted to be surrounded by French again this morning waiting for my train home.

So hopefully this month I'll be a little bit more on top of my blogging, talk to you soon :]

Oh and I'm planning on uploading all the pictures from London and Bruges to my web album :]

About Time

Alright I think it's about time I posted on here, honestly I have started several posts (which means I've typed in the title and then lost interest) but I never seem to be able to finish them. I am suffering from a serious case of the lazies. I have a hard time getting myself to do anything!

In spite of this lull, I am getting better with French. Besides the fact that several people have complemented me on my progress :) I have noticed it myself-which is even better! It's gotten to the point that when I'm sitting in the "cafeteria" eating lunch with my friends (yay friends!) I can follow their conversation, and though I don't catch every word, I can totally follow what they're saying! Also, now when people talk to me they speak at normal speed (I think) and I understand, but the weird thing is that when I try and think back on what they said (right after they said it) I think it in English, of course, so I always catch myself wondering if they spoke to me in English, this thought is always followed by a miniature panic attack (I hate it when people speak to me in English) and then the realization that my brain must have just gotten really fast at translating French to English! It's really a weird thing, but I'm taking it as a good sign.

Earlier today I went shopping for sweaters with my host mom. Yes, I was in desperate need of sweaters, let me explain the situation to you. First off, it is definitely true that humid cold is way worse than dry cold, and secondly, my school apparently does not believe in adequate heating...maybe they think the cold stimulates brain activity? I have no idea, but imagine sitting still in a chill room for two hours and then having to stand outside in the cold for twenty minutes during "recreation" then going back to a cold room! It's awful and once I get chilled it's really hard to get warmed up again. So I decided to stick it to the cold and wrap myself up in layer after layer of warm, loving wool. We just drove to Anderlues (which is actually where my next family lives) because there are a few shops there, but if you really want to go shopping you head to Mons, they have a shopping mall there! So anyways, as I was saying, we went to Anderlues and in the first shop I found quite a few sweaters, long-sleeved shirts, and turtle-necks that I liked...until I looked at the price tag. In this way I truly am my father's daughter. But really who would pay 30 euros (about $40) for a long-sleeved shirt! The second store was the same story, and I was starting to think I might just be warm enough if I just layered all four of my long-sleeved shirts from home....when we went to lucky store number three! It was the Belgian version of Ross, and I was in heaven! I ended up getting seven warm articles of clothing and a few packages of thick wool socks :) Needless to say, I was quite literally skipping as we went back to the car to come home.

Which leads me to the next thing, I way over packed! As I was sitting on my bed lovingly eying my spoils I looked at my shelves, already full of the thin shirts I brought from home that will rarely, if ever, see the open Belgian air. I came here thinking it wouldn't be that cold, after all, I'd checked the internet and it gets colder at home! I guess I should have listened when they said wait till you get there to go shopping....but on the bright side this is another reason for little Lucy to come visit me...and bring an extra, empty, suitcase :)

Mousse au Chocolat, les Americaines, and Mysterious Allergies.

It's a well known fact chocolate is a good cure for a case of the blues, but I am now under the impression that the absolute best cure is mousse au chocolat! And not just any mousse au chocolat, but the kind you make with your host mom :]

It's true that I've been feeling a little down lately. It's bizarre and kind of comes in waves, sometimes I just find myself unmotivated and a bit pessimistic and I think the cold gray weather isn't helping. Literally the other day I was daydreaming about shorts, tank tops, and sunshine! But really it isn't all that bad, I just keep myself busy by going for a walk, going for a run, or cleaning up around the house, and now I have found the ultimate cure, and though it is no good for my waistline, it is excellent for my spirits! :D



Alright, on a happier note :] I think I am really making progress with the other kidsin my class at school. I actually feel comfortable claiming to have actual friends here! I mean, they've all always been nice to me but just civility doesn't mean a friendship. I have no doubt that my (slight) progress in French is helping, being able to communicate is crucial haha! So about once a week I go to the 'sandwicherie' just up the street from the school with the girls in my class to eat "Americaines." Weird huh? That's a tye of sandwich here, but I've never seen it before, and of course it's a little weird to eat something called 'an American'.....Just yesterday Eduina commented on how bizarre it must be for me because she can't imaging going to the states and having people be like, "Oh! You've got to try a Belgian!" :D


Eudina and Alice

This last Thursday Mano took me to the doctor to figure out what I am so allergic to here and get me some medication in case I have another reaction, and you'll never guess what it is. Sagebrush!! Well, not exactly sagebrush, but it's in the same family and the main difference is that it's so much more damp and humid here, that's why I was never allergic at home. Crazy huh? So basically I'm finding that I'm a lot more like Mom than I ever thought. Not only am I cleaning more but now we have the same allergy! Honestly, it's kinda freaking me out, next thing you know I'll start buying pants that come up to my ribs...YIKES! I love you Mommy :P

Déjà en Octobre

It's only been October for five days and I already have so much to tell you! But alas, I have caught the lazy bug, I'm finding it difficult to finish anything I start and this is taking an enormous amount of will power, so it'll just be a quick post :]

Let's start with Friday. After school I Mano took me to meet my mysterious second family! Yes, believe it or not they do exist! For those of you who didn't know, I didn't even know their last name until last week so meeting them was a pretty big deal :] They live in Anderlues, which is about 15 from my current house, and they are oh so nice! There are five kids in the family, three boys and two girls, so it should be a pretty big change from my current situation. It was definitely a reassuring experience, and now switching houses, though sad, isn't quite as intimidating.

Now the weekend. Apparently it was the weekend for Maggie to pig out on amazing Italian food! Which is totally okay with me :] There are a lot of Italian immigrants in the region of Belgium I'm in (a lot of them came here originally to work in the coal mines) so, of course, there are tons of amazingly delicious Italian restaurants :D On Sunday after eating an wonderful breakfast (fresh croissants both regular and chocolate) with the whole family, I went with Mano into Charleroi to the "Sunday market" to restock our fridge for the coming week. It was so cool! I mean I guess it's like a farmer's market in the States but, I think, more endearing since it's in Belgium and it's windy cobbled streets lined with old brick buildings crowded with people meandering along while the vendors yell out their prices :] We bought a lot of fruit, cheese, and lunch meats, oh yes, I will be well fed indeed this week!

And now school. I can't remember if I've told you, but my school never has subs, if the teacher is gone we just don't have that class. Pretty sweet eh? So yesterday my English teacher wasn't there (I don't know why) so for two hours I sat in the cafeteria with another girl in my class. Overall it was extremely boring and I wouldn't even tell you about it except for this: Eduina commented on how much better my French is getting! I could have hit the roof I was so happy :] It's really good to hear that I'm making progress because from my point of view it's very difficult to notice since it's something I struggle with daily. When I got home yesterday Tiffany had arrived. Tiffany is a young girl from Luxembourg who is doing a sort of job study and she is staying here all week and working with Mano. So for the week it's a house of four girls (plus the animals) oh, I feel so at home! :]

Les Bus Sont En Greve! :]

Bonjour :]

So you might be wondering, why is Maggie blogging at 10 am, why isn't she in school? Well I will gladly tell you the reason I'm at home, curled up on the couch with my sister blanket, drinking hot coffee...the bus drivers are on strike! :D Usually I don't go to school on the bus but my ride didn't show today, Mano had to go to work, and since there was no bus (and today is a short day anyways) I got to stay home! So I say by all means bus drivers of Belgium, stay unhappy and strike all you want, I don't mind :]

I just realized that this means I'll only have two days of school this week! My day just keeps getting better haha, no school really isn't that bad but it's always nice to have time to just relax at home. I don't believe I've told you why I didn't have school yesterday or the day before have I? Well Monday was a holiday so there was no school and all the businesses were closed but get this, it was only in Wallonia! The 27th of September is the day that the Belgians chased the Dutch out of Brussels, and the holiday is actually "a celebration of the french-speaking Belgians." This is just so weird to me, having a national type holiday in only half of the nation. I think it would be something like if all the confederate states back home had an official holiday celebrating a battle they'd won in the war and everything was shut down in only the south, it kinda seems like it'd be a slap in the face to the Dutch-speaking Belgians, it's really kinda bizarre! But it was a nice vacation, I just hung around the house with Isabelle and relaxed, and Dad you'll be proud of me I even worked on my French! Hahaha

Now yesterday was a much more interesting day! I went to "Aventure Parc" with my class! Contrary to my usual pre-departure anxiety (thanks Dad :P) I had tons of fun! It was a sort of ropes course, but not like any I'd done before because you didn't have people on the ground holding your rope (I can't remember what that's called for some reason) there were just two little hook things (can't remember what they're called either) attached to your harness and you just attached yourself to all the various wires, it was really convenient and fast moving except when we got stuck behind the kids who were really freaked out and moving slowly. But the best part was spending the day with my classmates outside of class, it was cool because we could talk and joke and I now feel closer to all of them then before :]


This is my class minus two people who weren't there :]

Speaking of which, I have finally discovered the secret to my tiny class! Yes, my school is small and there are less students than in most schools but also there are other "options" for 6th, and I think 5th, year students (I'm in the 6th year) so there are more students in their last year of school, they just aren't in general! So I haven't figured out what all the other options are, I'll let you know when I do, but I think they're more like job training type stuff, et voila! It's kinda sad I've been here this long and am just figuring this out haha but hey there is a language barrier!

Oh and one last thing, the other day in class we were talking about how expensive it is to fly here, when I said that I wasn't sure how much my ticket was but I thought it was somewhere around $800-$900 one boy in my class exclaimed, "Tu es folle! 900 dollars pour venir a Belgique!" I had to laugh :]

Kayak Adventures

Saturday was Rotex activity number 1: A kayak trip with my fellow exchange students 20 km down the Lesse river. It was quite a day!

First, I had to get up at five to be at Jackson's house by 5:55. I had decided to go with Jackson (Texas), Mark (Arizona), and Laura (Colombia) because it's more fun than going by myself and if I went with them Mano wouldn't have to drive me to the train station at 6:30 am! So I walked to Jackson's house and then his dad drove the four of us to the train station in Marcienne-au-Pont around 6:20, our train was set to leave at 6:35. Let me just say that at this point it was still dark out and absolutely freezing and we were all standing outside waiting for the train, which turned out to be an hour late! Yes, it was getting light out by the time we actually got on the train and we were a little worried that we would miss our next train because of the delay, luckily we didn't :] The rest of our trip there was uneventful, thankfully.

When we finally arrived I was beginning to second guess my decision to go, first off kayaking isn't really my thing, I was there mostly to get to see the other students, and secondly the sky was a menacing gray, rainy kayaking anyone?? Also, I was definitely not prepared, I had a raincoat to wear and at the last minute I'd thrown a pair of leggings in my bag, and that's it. No change of clothes, no nothing! Fortunately one of the other girls had an extra pair of water-resistant pants that
she let me borrow and I managed to stretch my outfit into two so I would have a dry change of clothes at the end. Then another stroke of good luck, the clouds began to dissipate and the lovely sun shone through :] So with my awesome pants and the sun shining on my face I was starting to feel more optimistic about the day and Jackson and I set off in our kayak.

I was immediately grateful for the pants, even though it wasn't raining, it was cold and my paddles kept dripping on my legs, I would've been absolutely miserable in jeans! The first half of our journey was rather uneventful, for us anyways, Laura ended up flipping her kayak and when she did, for some reason she started to take off her clothes (not sure what the thought process behind that is) and ended up losing her shirt and socks in the river! Luckily some guys helped her out and gave her their extra clothes! As for us, we just kind of meandered along and ended up "joining" kayaks with some other guys and we just joked and laughed the whole way :] For lunch we stopped at a little like campground thing that had a little place selling frites and beverages, by the time we got there I felt like a Maggiecicle so you can only imagine my utter joy when I saw a someone drinking a steaming mug of hot chocolate! It was amazing! The only thing was that I wished the mug was like giant sized so I could just wrap my whole body around it, yes that's how cold I was. Then to make the hot chocolate even more amazing, in the lunch I'd packed I'd stuck in some little cookies that went perfectly with our hot coco :D

So after we'd gotten a bit warmer we headed out for the second half of the day. Unfortunately our luck didn't last, almost as soon as we were back on the river it started to rain, and I mean it was really raining, it was pouring buckets of freezing water on us! We started screaming and paddling as fast and hard as we could and tried to take shelter under some trees hanging over the river, though that didn't make much difference and we ended up just paddling through it and soon enough it cleared up. Apparently it was only raining over the part of the river we were on and just to give you an idea of exactly how soaked we were, when we caught up with the kayaks who were in front of us they'd thought we'd flipped our kayak!

After that it rained off and on for the rest of the trip but nothing near as intense as that first downpour. Though it was cold and wet the view the entire time totally made up for it! It was absolutely beautiful, about three quarters of the way through we even saw this old castle on a sort of bluff right above the river it was so cool! Unfortunately since I was gawking at the castle and our kayak was just floating down the river, I didn't notice the little "waterfall" until we were practically going over it!

Here are some pictures from the river:









By the time we finally got to the end I was drenched and my arms were starting to get tired. I was actually very proud of myself, I paddled the whole way while Jackson was the "rudder" aka sit in the back and do nothing, at one point he even said, "wow, you're really strong, I wouldn't want to get in a fight with you" that was a little awkward haha. So I grabbed a hot chocolate before catching the train home...by the time I actually got home it was 9:30, I was still slightly chilled and my arms were throbbing! Thank goodness my family had made soup for dinner :] Nothing tastes better than warm creamy potato soup after a long day in the cold! All in all I throughly enjoyed myself, and this blog really does no justice to my experience!

Just a Few Things

Hello :]

So nothing really big has happened but there have been a few funny little things, plus I've been told if I blog more then Dad will too, so here goes!

Yesterday I went to my second Rotary meeting and it was quite different than Rotary back in good ol' Portola. First off it literally is a bunch of old guys in suits, I don't think there is an actual dress code but needless to say I never go without my blazer (even with it I'm under dressed). Secondly they are not near as obnoxious (used in the best possible way) as the Portola club, for example there is no welcome song...sigh. Though they do joke around with each other, I never get the jokes of course, I just know they're joking around because someone will say something and everyone else will laugh. All of the members are super nice and very welcoming. But enough about the people, to the most important part! The food. Oh my goodness, it is amazing! So when we first get there there are some hors d'oeuvres and drinks out, and the members mingle for about twenty minutes until the bell is rung to signal that lunch is ready. Then it only gets better! All the tables are completely set with two bottles of water (one bubbly one flat) and three bottles of wine. Then we are served the first course, yesterday it was like a sort of shrimp dish. I ate the whole thing, and I don't like shrimp! Then the server brings out the main course, oh my gosh delicious, yesterday it was a shish kabob with different kinds of meat, a salad, a baked potato, and some garbanzo beans. But it's still not over after that! Then it's dessert, yesterday it was a crepe served with ice cream and chocolate sauce (but it's actual melted Belgian chocolate, oh so much better than Hershey's chocolate syrup!) And then, yes I'm still not done, this is followed by an espresso. Needless to say I love going to the Rotary meetings!

So besides that here are just a few things that have happened:

-I had my first Belgian waffle! Dear Lord :D It wasn't even just the delicious waffle, it had banana, ice cream, and chocolate sauce on it!



-My English teacher corrected my English, and she wasn't even right. She had passed out a paper on Anne Frank and we had to read it, then she gave us another paper with phrases from the text and we had to make sentences out of them. I quickly did it in English and then she told me that I could do it in French as well and she would correct it for me at the end of class. At the end of class I gave her my paper, and when I got it back I was surprised to see that she had not only corrected my French, but my English as well! So the phrase was "in 1942 (or close to that date anyways)" so I wrote, in 1942 Anne Frank and her family went into hiding, she changed it to say "went INTO THE hiding PLACE." Huh?
Another thing in English class, she corrected a boy who said that on the weekend he liked to go to the movies (?) apparently that's "American" and incorrect...? So of course I was a little annoyed at that but she redeemed herself by saying that there were a lot of English dialects and she had to focus on teaching only one, so that phrase wasn't wrong it just wasn't the type of English she's teaching. However, taking English as a second language does have it's up sides, I'm learning a lot about our language that I never knew before, like where it comes from! It's a rather interesting history, I suggest you check it out :]

-I'm really allergic to something here (I don't know what it is) but randomly my hands/neck swell up, get really red, and start to itch. It's pretty miserable :/ Mano is looking into getting me some allergy meds for it.

-Today was a beautiful sunny day (about 71 degrees out)and hardly a cloud in the sky, definitely reason to celebrate! :D Especially since this weekend it was so cold I was wearing my winter coat and scarf!

And now very quickly, a little bit about the French. Thank goodness, I think I can see a bit of progress! :] It's definitely easier for me to express myself, and understand what is said, though people still need to talk to me rather slowly. Yesterday I realized this is because I need to translate everything into English (not word for word but just sort of re arrange things so they make sense to me), like when they are talking to each other, I actually recognize a lot of words they're saying but if I stop to think of what they said by the time I get it all figured out in my head they're way ahead in their conversation and I don't know what they're talking about anymore. This is much better compared to when I could hardly tell when the words ended!

Alright I just got invited to go look at a prospective house with Mano (for those of you who don't know my family is moving to a nearby town in January/February)Talk to you soon! :D

Already a Month

Can you believe it? I can't, it really doesn't feel like I've been here that long! It's weird to think that I've already been here a month and I only have 10 left! It brings up a range of very mixed emotions.

Firstly, being here has really made me come to realize what I have at home and how different it is here (not better or worse, just different). Okay, wow I really have no idea how to say what I'm thinking, it's pretty complicated, so I'll just tell you a little story of what happened yesterday that really highlights the point I'm trying to make.

So yesterday was just an average day at school, neither fantastic or horrible, just school. However, after school was another thing. Long story short there was a mix up with the buses and I didn't get home until 5:50, and when I did finally get here I was on the verge of a breakdown and quite seriously considering just going up to my room and crying. So as I walked in the door, barely holding it together, Mano told me that my package was here! The package I had been waiting for all week had finally arrived, and the timing couldn't have been better, as you can see I really needed a pick me up. So I got the box and completely destroyed it 'cause I was trying to open it so fast. When I finally did get it open, I swear I heard an angelic chorus of, "Ahhhhhhhhh!" as light poured out of that battered box that had traveled across the Atlantic, just for me. And I literally yelped in joy as I peered inside to see not only my beloved vans but also tons of good ol' American candy! Every little package had a pink post-it on it with something completely dorky, yet endearing, and totally Mom, written on it. I started to laugh and looked up to find my host sister eying me like she thought maybe I should be locked up and I had no way of explaining to her the post-its because they just "are" Mom. Then in that moment I realized why lately, contrary to my way of thinking before I left, I've been thinking that it would be nice for my family to come, if not this year then I'm definitely bringing them back the year after. Not only do I want them here to share my experience (an experience that without them would have undoubtedly been impossible) but also, I want to show them off! How crazy is that? Haha but even more bizzare, a few post-its from my mom made me realize all of this in a few seconds. Needless to say that little "care pack" from home turned my day around :]

So I ran upstairs, I had to call them and let them know I'd gotten it (we were kind of worried, they'd slightly butchered the address on the box) and how it made my day. I turned on my computer and waited impatiently while it booted up then immediately opened Skype and dialed the house. It rang, and rang, and rang (later I realized that they weren't at home at all, they were on their way to a volleyball tournament).....but while I was waiting for them to pick up Sasha called me! I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to miss her call or my family, luckily our message machine picked up so I answered Sasha's call and to add to the luck of my evening, it wasn't just Sasha, she was with Kiana and Golden! Which is indeed quite lucky, for those of you who don't know Golden has been in San Diego for school, Sasha in Reno for school, and Kiana at home (earning money for her trip to South Africa later this year) so to catch them all together was AMAZING! We talked and joked and laughed for a half hour. Afterwards I was left with the warm feeling of being loved :] I realized what amazing people my friends are (not to mention good looking) and what a close strong bond we share, in that half hour I was able to be the totally spastic me and have people laugh at me! Whenever I do something odd here everyone just looks at me-everyone is so much more reserved here! (Not that that's bad, it's just different)

I guess you could say that yesterday was the climax of all these thoughts and feelings about home that have been building up since I left. The longer I'm here the more I'm learning about not only Belgian culture, but American culture as well, and it's making me realize more and more what it is to "be an American." For example, in general I think that we are much more open, like the "constantly smiling American" is often viewed as being superficial when for us it's just normal. One girl in my class just yesterday asked me why I was always smiling! :] I didn't even realize I was lol. It's little things like this that I'm learning about our culture back in the states. With the generally negative view the world has of the US-or so I was always told- had made me almost self conscious about my nationality, do people really hate Americans?? But being here has made more clear to me how different and special our culture is, and how much I love it.

I am very much excited for the other things I will discover about Belgium, Belgian/US culture, and even myself. I think that this exchange was exactly what I needed, thank you Rotary! And now I'm off (with a big smile on my face) and I'm sending all of you my love, some "big American hugs," and Belgian bisous <3

Scones=Success

I've just made scones for my family, and I'm blogging immediately because I am oh so happy, because they turned out ok! :D And my host mom and sister REALLY like them.

This is the second time I've cooked for my family, and the first time, one could say, was a disaster! I attempted to recreate my Dad's delicious pancakes but it didn't work out. I didn't see the T/tsp I brought with me and had actually forgotten I had them at all so I was just guessing with some of the measurements and I discovered that I do not have cooking intuition, they were not at all light and fluffy, but God bless peanut butter, it made them edible! So, needless to say, after that experience I was nervous to try again but...SUCCESS! :D

Things are really calming down here and we're getting into a routine. I've been here almost a month and not everything is new anymore, the "honeymoon" period is ending I think. This isn't a bad thing though, I feel like now that the newness has worn off I'm going to be able to get to know my hosts better and form more deep and meaningful relationships with them. Like the scones for example, I can just come home from school and make them something to eat, it's getting to the point where I can give back to them now that I'm a bit settled. Although the "culture fatigue" comes in waves and sometimes I just feel exhausted, irritable, and like my head is gonna explode I'm looking forward to this upcoming phase of my exchange :]

Later gators :]

Web Album :]

Hey everybody :]

So I've decided to start a "web album" so that you can see pictures of what I've been up to along with what I post:

http://picasaweb.google.com/118295096554490452842

Talk to you soon!

My 3 Week Update

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while and I figured I'd just give you a quick update on what's been going on :] (plus I realized that as of today I've been here for 3 weeks!)

So, last week I was lucky enough to get a visit from Justine and Christope :) It was so great to see them! They came here and then we ended up going to Charleroi because there's nothing to do here (remind you of anywhere else? Ehm, Portola). Anyways we just got some Belgian fries, milkshakes, and window shopped a little. But it was a really nice break:)

Then on Saturday I helped the family get everything ready to send off to get their apples made into apple juice. First I helped Thomas wash about a hundred bottles, it took days! Then I helped pick apples, but it was okay, this time the horses weren't there :) Some of the apples we picked were enormous! And they had a very interesting way of picking them, they would "lasso" the tree and then shake the branches, it was literally raining apples.

So after that, I went with the whole family to Isabelle's best friend's birthday party, she was turning eighteen. And, wow. It was such a huge deal! She rented a small castle (no joke) and had about fifty people there. There was a DJ and a bartender and rows of tables all decorated in matching blue, honestly it looked like a wedding reception! And that's not all, there was a "dress code" I had to wear a dress and heels! But the weirdest thing, for me anyways, was that there were kids even younger than me drinking beer and wine right alongside their parents! It's just so odd I kept feeling like cops were gonna bust in and start handing out MIC's! The next day I went with Mano to another sort of "coming of age" party and this one reminded me of something Mom would put together. It was just in the backyard with a few tables set up, they had drinks out and some snacks, but the thing that just seemed so like something Mom would do was all the games! Yes, there were games set up all around and various people "working" them and the deal was that you could play a game and depending on how you did you got a certain number of beans, and I think you could "purchase" prizes with them since there was a table covered in little goodies, though I'm not sure. Now try and tell me that's something Mom wouldn't do haha.

And now, about school. It's pretty laid back, which is awesome, and now that I have attended three whole days I understand more what is going on. So this is kinda how it goes, I get up at 7 (oh so much better than 6 last year :)) and walk to a nearby bus stop at 8 where a friend of Mano's who works at the school picks me up so I don't actually have to take the bus. Then at school all the students just hang out in the "courtyard" until the bell rings at 8:25, but we don't go to class then we have to get into lines where the number of our class is painted on the blacktop (this kind of reminds me of CRC) then our various teachers come and get us to take us to class. The reason we can't just go to class is because the teachers move rooms, so it's not like you go to "Martinez's room" or something. Anyways then we have whatever class is first for about two hours! I'm not exactly sure on all the times, I just follow everyone else haha. Then we go back out into the courtyard for a sort of "nutrition break" which is like ten minutes, then it's the same drill for class number two, then lunch, then the same thing. It's pretty simple and the other kids in my clas have been helping me out. For example, since I have a "science focus" along with two boys from my class (yes there's just three of us) when we had chemistry or biology they came up to me and told me that now I had to go with them instead of the other people in our class, very considerate :)

Now very quickly a few thoughts on math. I had my first math class today and, dun dun dun, it went extremely well! We just did a review of what makes a function and it's inverse so it was something that I already knew and even though it was explained in French I still understood :) And I know that this makes me a huge math nerd but I was sitting there looking at my notes, and I realized how much I like math, I even liked the way my notes looked! With all the different symbols (plus the French I copied from the board was cool) and organization, it was exactly my "cup of tea." And I sat there feeling super happy and then I remembered that one poster in Womack's room -'Math lights my fire' and I suddenly realized that it applied to me and I had to laugh. I did have my doubts about studying math and physics in college but after today's experience I'm feeling a lot more sure that that is what I want to do.

My second first day of my last year of "high school"

I SURVIIIIIIIIIIVED! :]

Today was my first day of school, well not really classes but I went for two hours, met my class mates (all eight of them) met my teachers, and got my schedule for next week. Everyone was great, not that I expected them to be mean or rude but they were more helpful than I had hoped. One of the girls in my class-I can't actually remember her name :/ I know that's not good but you have to remember I met a lot of people today and honestly I'm having trouble remembering a lot of things, my brain is pretty fried-anyways, she gave me a ride home so I didn't have to wait for the bus!

Et maintenant, my schedule. My understanding is that this is my schedule for next week only and then after that we can make adjustments, or something? I'm not sure. Also, we had to just write it down as the Dutch teacher read it and it's broken up into eight sections which I think are hours? I really don't know, when Isabelle and Mano get home I'm going to sit down with them and have them explain it to me then I'll let you know. Anywho, here it is:

Monday: 1&2 History, 3&4 English, 5&6 Chemistry, and then nothing for 7&8..?
Tuesday: 1&2 Biology, 3&4 Religion
Wednesday: 1&2 French, 3&4 Math
Thursday: 3&4 Physics, 5&6 Geography, 7&8 Math
Friday: 1&2 French, 3&4 they said 'gymnastics'?? 5&6 English, 7&8 Computers

I have no idea what it means when I have no class, or what I do. Overall I'm pretty confused but I'll figure it out. And yes Dad, I'm taking English, but it was that or Dutch! So I feel justified :] Plus I think that it will be good to have a sort of break in the day, or at least have an hour or two when I know exactly what is going on.

One last thing, I've never been one to get headaches often, but I get the feeling once school really starts these French induced headaches are going to increase in number and strength :( Oh well, I'll just have to keep some aspirin handy!

A plus tard.

The hazards of apple picking

So, yesterday I was sitting in my room looking at my french book. I know that I should work on it especially since I'm here and it will probably stick better since I am completely surrounded by the language but I just can't bring myself to most of the time. So, as I was saying, I'm sitting in my room admiring the cover of my french book when my host brother Thomas comes in and asks if I'd like to help him pick some apples-my family has a pasture with about six apple trees. Of course I say yes, so we slip on our muck-a-bouts and head outside.

We get out to the pasture and go to the first tree all the apples look absolutely delicious but we can't reach them, so Thomas starts tugging on branches and a few of the apples fall to the ground. He hands me one to try and oh my word! It was delicious :] But we can't get the rest of the apples so he runs back to the house to grab this long pole to reach the apples with and I'm left standing alone in the field. Which was fine until I look behind me and happen to see a horse approaching me! For those of you that don't know, I'm a little bit afraid of horses. So I kind of start to get nervous, and find myself wondering if anyone would hear my scream. The carnivorous horse is now a foot away from me and he starts to lower his head, I'm thinking he might headbutt me, but thank god he goes for one of the apples Thomas had managed to knock to the ground. I'm completely petrified when I realize I have my half-eaten apple in my hand still and the horse is eying it! So of course, I immediately drop it. Then Thomas comes back into the far end of the pasture and sees the horse eating the apples and yells at me to stop him! And I don't know what to do so I kind of step towards the horse and say "no" but really what am I suppose to do, I don't want to irritate it!! Thomas runs over and shoos the horse away and asks me what is wrong, I'm forced to admit that I'm a bit afraid of horses. He laughed at me! But that part doesn't matter, the important thing is that I was no longer one on one with the evil horse! Now we humans outnumbered him :]

This brief peace however did not last long. Thomas and I had picked about half of the good apples and I was holding the bucket when he looked behind me and said, "oh no." I instantly spin around to see what it is and of course it's the six other horses my host family has, charging toward me! I was so freaked out, and we spent the remainder of our time fighting off the horses! Or I should say Thomas fought them off and I just hoped that when he smacked them they wouldn't kick me.

So all in all, apple picking was nothing like I imagined. And just a word to the wise, if you ever go picking apples, make sure there are no horses!

Rotary day in Bruxelles

Today was a big day for us exchange students here in Belgium :] All of us (about 200) went to Bruxelles for the "official recognition of the RYE program by the Belgian government." It was a pretty big deal :]

But....the day got off to a somewhat rough start. So, last night my host sister told me, or so I thought, that we had to leave the house at 8:30 to catch the train so I set my alarm for 7:30 thinking an hour would be more than enough time to get ready to go...but, at 7:00 my host mom comes into my room and tells me it's time to get up, and since first thing in the morning I'm not able to translate my thoughts into french, I just got up thinking I'd have even more time. Alas, I was wrong..I got down to the kitchen at like 7:40 and my host mom says, "okay we will just drive to Charleroi because we had to leave ten minutes ago to catch the train here." Oh no, I felt so bad! It turns out we needed to leave at yes, you guessed it, 7:30. This is not the first time or, I'm sure, the last time that I will not fully understand what is going on.

So we caught the train with several other students and the district chairman, apparently each of the three dist. in Belgium has a color, mines is gold, and so all of the girls were given a gold scarf that we have to wear to all official Rotary events and the boys were given ties. So, with my skirt, blazer and scarf (all of which I was required to wear) I looked like a stewardess all day! Once we finally got to Bruxelles and met up with all of the other RYErs, we walked, somewhat resembling a herd, to the Royal Palace where we preceded to take a tour. It was gorgeous, like I think all palaces must be but there was one room that stood out in particular. In this certain room the ceiling was an iridescent blue-green and the cause of this bright coloring was that the entire ceiling was covered in beetle wings! It was sooo weird, I'd post a picture but we weren't allowed cameras inside.
After we left the palace we walked to City Hall, in the grand place. There we were forced to sit, or should I say stand, through the calling of every single students name. When your name was called you had to walk to the front of the room and present your clubs flag to the chairman of your district. It was a cool thing to do but it took so long and by this time it was one and I, having only eaten a piece of toast at 7:40, was starving. Also, it made me kind of annoyed with the other students because before they began the process they had asked us all to be quiet, and of course most of the students just kept talking and had to be reminded several times to "shut down" after the whole ceremony one of the rotarians even commented that he had thought gold fish had the shortest memory of all animals, about two seconds, but today he was proven wrong. I guess you could say I was disappointed in my fellow exchange students, is it really that hard to shut up for a half hour or so?

Finally, it was lunch! We were separated into groups based on our nationality which was kind of a bummer it would have been cool to eat with and be able to talk to people from other places. But it was okay, we had meatballs and frites, which I discovered is a pretty typical Belgian meal. It was amazing, or maybe it tasted so good because I was starving....we'll never know. And after lunch the last thing on our list was to visit parliament. I think that this was a really cool thing, we got a tour of the building and actually got to sit in the seats of the senators and the representatives because at the moment there is no government in Belgium, they recently held elections and are trying to form the new government. The building itself was gorgeous, and what I thought was really cool about it was that in all the rooms there were huge portraits of past presidents of the senate and house, busts of the Belgian kings and queens, and in one room there were tapestries showing Belgium's history and all the various rulers they had, Spanish, Austrian, etc. In the actual senate there were lifesize paintings of various rulers throughout the history of Belgium before it was Belgium. (Pictured right haha)

By this time it was 5:00 and we had a "meeting" with the current president of the senate, he came and gave a speech while we sat, according to country, in the house. It's important that I tell you we were sitting with others of the same nationality because after his speech one person from each country took all the flags of our clubs and gave them to him, and when your country was called everyone stood while the flags were given. So of course with alphabetical order the US was second to last and when the US was called half the room stood up. It was pretty funny, there are like 40 Americans here I think.

So finally the day was done :] and as my host mom and I made our way to the train station, of course she was speaking french, and I noticed how much harder it was for me to understand her and respond after speaking english all day! I guess you could say it made me realize how right everyone was at the orientations before I came here when they said that every time you speak in english it's like taking a step backwards, so now it really is just french for me which is a pain but as the 'Wizard of Oz' said "language learning is like taking off a band-aid, you can pull it off bit by bit and it takes a long time and is overall more painful, or you can just rip it off, it hurts more at first but gets better quickly."

a beintot :]

Alright, so I have decided that I must limit myself to two, maybe three, topics per post....otherwise there is just too much to write about! So the topic of the day: The Harvest Festival!

Yes, I got to go to a harvest festival :) I think it's kind of like the Belgian version of a county fair.


First off I drove up there with Sebastian and Sophie, two of Mano's close friends-Thomas and Isa were already there working. There were so many people there that we had to park really far away but never fear! We were taxied in by tractors pulling hay wagons! :) As we got closer, I could see hundreds of people milling about a huge pasture with tons of old tractors lined up for viewing, plow horses and their owners demonstrating how the fields used to be plowed, a set up showing exactly how flower is made step by step with a cute little girl handing out flower at the end! There was a huge white tent where you could get food and drink, they also had little buggy rides going...and to top it off blaring out the speakers was what I would say is typical French music, you know the kind that plays in movies whenever the scene is taking place in France? Now all of this was set against the backdrop of an old Abby, Abbye Bonne Esperance. It was beautiful and crazy all at once!



As we walked around I noticed a lot of farmers working with various animals or machines, yes not out of the ordinary at a harvest festival of course, but every single one of them was holding a beer! Then I really realized that I was in Belgium, the land of Beer and Chocolate! Haha :) There were also two cows wearing flowered hats being paraded around! All in all it was a really cool experience :) While I may have missed Railroad Days in good ol' P-town...I don't feel like I've missed the general spirit of it. :)



And now very quickly a little thought that occurred to me today as I was being driven around town...the stupid Community Service Cop in Portola would have a fit if she came here...cars everywhere are parked all over the sidewalk! :)

And now I have to go to a going away party for my third host sister who will be spending the year in Brazil :) Talk to you soon!

Salut de Belgique :)

Okay, so I've uploaded several pictures, I hope you enjoy them! :) I know there are a lot but I want you to be able too see everything!

CouCou!
Today is my third day here in Belgium and everything is going well, but hey now I don't want to get ahead of myself, I'll start at the beginning.
So Tuesday morning, my family and I got to the airport around five, we ate breakfast and they gave me a Hershey's kiss necklace-which by the way Mom I haven't taken off. Anyways, after a difficult good-bye, I made my way through security and to my gate, C9. At this point I was sterting to feel really nervous so thank god when I got to the gate I saw Ashley! My fellow Belgium bound exchange student. For that first whole flight we were both just blabbering on at a mile a minute because we were both so nervous/excited we didn't know what to do! The rest of our flights were uneventful except for the fact that on our flight form Philadelphia to Bruxell there were 13 other RYE students to Belgium on the plane aith us, and somehow we were all sitting relatively close. My row of three actually was just RYErs :)
Ok, now the exciting part...the actual arrival! At this point in time I was just sooo excited!! Like WOW I'M IN BELGIUM! So I pick up my bags, and am having trouble manuvering them haha, I go through the little "walkway" to the ummm, greeting area? Anywho, the whole time I was thinking, I hope they have a sign for me so I can find them. So as soon as I come around the corner I see a huge sign-MAGGIE-and behind it was my third host Mom, brother, and sister. I was so happy I could have cried, which is not a regular thing haha. So I meet them, with kisses of course, and we go to a little cafe thing in the airport...mmmmm croisant :) They wanted to wait while their friends picked up their exchange student, Jackson from Texas. Apparently he will be like a neighbour when I live with them.

So we drove the 30 mins to their house and I got to see it, it's tiny and sooo cute! Then we came here to my first host family's house :) the reason my first host family did't pick me up is because my Mom, Mano, is working a lot this week, she works with mentally disabled people and horses and this week the people are staying here so she is with them like 24/7! So these past few days I have mostly been with my host sister Isabelle and Host brother Thomas, who went on exchange to Mexico 5 years ago. They are both being super helpful :) Everything here is so beautiful! All the houses are brick and just so different from home! My falily's house now is pretty big with a large backyard and stables and everything, Mom would love it! :) This is the view from the backyard --------------------->>



Yesterday Thomas took me to Bruxell. Oh mon Dieu! It is such a cool city! And it's only an hour by train, everything is so close here it's awesome! When I told Thomas tha to get to our capital it was like 4 hrs by plane he was blown away! Later this evening Mano is taking me to see the tourist spots around here I think it will be really nice, and of course I am bringing my camera :) I'm like the obnoxious American with her bright pink camera lol.

Now quickly before I go a bit about the language. It's so hard! I can get maybe half of what is said if they speak slowly...but when they talk to eachother, I'm pretty much at a loss. Occasionally I'll be able to catch a few key words and get the gist of what they are talking about but it's pretty frustrating. But what is even more frustrating is when they speak to me in English :( A lot of times what happens is that they will say something and I won't understand so instead of repeating it more slowly or in a more simple way they just say it in English. They did say though that they will only speak English for a little since I just got here...but I think I will just have to ask them to stop now. I imagine it is more efficient for them to just say it in English when I don't understand but I don't think it's really helping me. Now this may make it sound like they are speaking like only English, which isn't true..but Thomas does it the most, and I know it is because he is trying to help but I think that it's bad.

Whew! I'm tired, I had to write this whole thing on their keyboard....pretty difficult! :P Their wireless internet is down but Mano will fix it tomorrow I think and when she does I'll upload some of the pictures I've taken that are saved on my computer!

A bientôt mes amis :)


P.S. who knew that Manneken Pis had a sister?? --------------->