Good Weekend, Good Day :)

I know, I know. It's completely uncharacteristic of me to refrain from posting two whole days in a row! But I'm still here, and alive, and all is well. Today especially was a very good day, along with a whole weekend of goodness, and I am about to share it all with you :)

As you all know, I spent Friday night at my good friend Talia's house. We had a good time Skyping with different people, taking funny pictures, eating wayy too much peanut butter for our own goods (by the way, I have a serious peanut butter obsession... It's really bad! I can't stop eating it!), and just being typical American girls. The next day, I had dance class in the morning. Remember how I had said it was disappointingly easy? Well it still wasn't super difficult, but I was a bit challenged, and it was so much fun for me! I really enjoyed the class and one of the other students told me that it would continue to get more difficult as the younger girls learned different things. I still have not had a pointe class, but I have my first jazz class tomorrow with Talia. I'm really looking forward to it!

Anyways, on Saturday, Talia and I had planned on going to Namur, which is the other big city that is relatively close to Hannut for some shopping since we both have enormous shopping lists... My host parents were going to a birthday party for one of their friends and they were going to go while Talia and I explored the city, and then we would all head back home at night. But that didn't end up working out since all the shops around here close at about 6pm and it wasn't a very practical plan. So I ended up going to the birthday party with my host parents. And I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't too thrilled about it, because I knew that when I got there, there wouldn't be anyone my age and I would end up answering all the typical questions to all the adults there. "How are you doing this?" "Where are you from?" "Do you speak French?" "Do you speak Enlish?" "Where are you living?" "Where do you go to school?" "Do you miss your family?" etc etc. And I was pretty much right. Although it was a really nice party and I had my first glass of champagne ever. Again, didn't like it that much. But the food was excellent! (Of course, I have to talk about the food!) It was sort of like the concert thing I went to a couple weeks ago, where someone circulated with trays of little finger foods that were absolutely gorgeous! There was not a formal dinner, just these little finger foods, but they were delicious. I had "foie gras" for the first time. Which, in case you didn't know, is goose liver. I was really skeptical about it, but I decided I might as well try it. And I did eat it all, and I didn't think it was bad, but I just had to distract myself from thinking about what I was eating!

It did end up being a lot of fun though, because there were a couple girls around my age: the daughter of the man who's birthday it was and her best friend. There were also a couple guys my age, but they were not very social... So I spent the evening with these two girls, Mathilde and Florence and we had a great time! They both spoke English, so we talked all night about different things, mostly about the States because they were completely amazed by everything that has to do with America! I thought it was so funny how interested they were in everything American. And they both kept saying how badly they want to go there. They loved everything I told them. So we had a good time. And I ended up spending the night there! We listened to lots of music, both American and Belgian, and watched Legally Blonde 2. Which, by the way, is a much worse movie than I remember... The first one is definitely better. After the movie, we were all exhausted and we had to get up sort of early in the morning to catch the train, so we went to sleep.

In the morning, we got up, ate breakfast and then I left my new friends in Namur to catch a 10:20 train to Huy, where my host mom picked me up and informed me that Talia had invited me over to her house since her whole host family was going to a family event and she would be in the house alone. And guess what? They invited me to spend the night! So I spent a few hours at home and at 3pm, I headed back over to Talia's for another sleepover :) This time, we spent our time doing our English homework, trying to figure out her Chemistry work, going for a run (more of a walk, I'm in so much pain!), and watching half of "Julie & Julia". We also took a big risk when Talia decided it was time to trim her bangs. So there we were, two teenage girls with no hair-cutting experience whatsoever, with a shiny brand new pair of hair scissors, trying to figure out how to give Talia lovely swoopy bangs. As she risked the life of her hair, I decided to straighten mine since I haven't had the chance since I've gotten here. And it was a success! Her hair looks great :) Then it was time for bed, since it was a school night.

In the morning, we got up and got ready, her with her brand-spankin-new bangs, and me with my straight hair, and headed off to the bus stop to go to school. It was interesting for me; I haven't taken a bus to school since 8th grade. Neither of us were really looking forward to dealing with school again, but I have to say, it ended up being a really good day! My classes weren't too terrible, I even took some notes! Even if I did copy the person's next to me... But hey, that's what the teachers told me to do. I just can't keep up yet! Everyone talks so fast. Today, I started the day off with our daily French lessons with Père Boly, followed by Social Sciences, then French and Math. That was my morning. And it went pretty well! I actually like Math the best. Which is weird, because I hate Math... But it's the only class I have that I really understand because Math is the same in all languages! Then it was lunch time. And that a lot of fun because I ate outside with Talia and a bunch of other kids! We all had a great time for that lunch hour as Talia and I shared our peanut butter and watched the faces as the guys tried it. After lunch, it was double English. I really don't like that class... I have a test tomorrow already and I have a lot of studying to do! For English class!!! It's because I don't know all of the French translations. After that, Talia and I were finished since we didn't have class for the last two hours. So we were able to leave and we went to the Grand Place in Hannut and hung out with some of the guys from school, having a drink and just chilling outside in the nice weather.

My host mom picked me up around 4:30 and we went home, where I was greeted by a package from home! My aunt and uncle and cousins had sent me the cutest stuffed animal: a dog with a red shirt that says "Bonjour"! It is absolutely fantastic and I was so happy to get that. Plus! When I got home I was told that the eggs that we have here from the chickens had hatched and we now have eight baby chicks! So basically, it was just all-around a good day.

Now it is about 6pm here, I have written a novel of a blog post, and I have a bunch of homework to do. So I end my crazy post here, with lots and lots of bisous for my friends and family back home! Love you all!