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?? --------------->

2 Days and Counting

Hello there, to anyone actually reading this.

As the title indicates I'm heading out in two days! I wasn't planning on starting to actually blog until I got to Belgium and had something to write about, but I have been told several times that I should write an opening post, before I leave. So here goes...

Today I started packing. I know, you could say that it's a little early to be doing such things, but I usually wait till the last minute and ALWAYS forget something. Which is fine when I'm just leaving for a few days or even a week. But you see my trip here is a bit longer than that, and I really would hate to arrive and realize I'd forgotten something and have to try and explain to my hosts whatever it was I had forgotten and, even more difficult, figure out how to replace it. All of this, of course, taking place en francais! It's a good thing that I started today because sure enough, I forgot several things. I think I'm going to have Mom help me by making a list, she's really good at those sorts of things.

So besides my firsts attempts at packing, I am working tonight and then tomorrow is my last night, Monday is going to be sort of a family day in Reno, then Monday night we're staying in a hotel across from the airport since my flight leaves at 6 am, and then I'm off! It's really weird to think that in just a few short days I really am leaving. I've said most of my goodbyes, and even though I haven't left yet I'm finding myself feeling all nostalgic already! It's sickening. The other day I saw a Cow X-ING sign and felt oddly saddened. And yes, this is coming from the person who couldn't wait to get out of "Suckville." Even though I honestly don't think I'd stay here if you paid me, I'm finding it hard to leave. I guess that where you grow up really does become a part of you...Portola is starting to look like a cute little town, so that's okay I suppose.

Well I have to go to work, next time you hear from me I'll be in Belgium :]