Birthdays In Belgium

Ok so everybody better really appreciate this blog post because I am writing it on an AZERTY keyboard and it's incredibly difficult for me and it's going to take waaaay longer than usual. But I can't help it. I can't connect on my laptop right now.

Anyways...

Yesterday was Wednesday. And like every Wednesday, we all got out at noon. Yesterday was also the birthday of one of our friends here, Aymeric. He goes to a different school along with about half the people that were coming to celebrate with us, so after school, Talia and I headed over the famous "Mister Patate" to wait for everyone. Of course, we expected everyone to meet us there. When we got there, we did meet up with a couple of the guys from school, but they had to eat and jet because the one guy had to be back at school for detention. So Talia and I waited, and after a while of nobody coming, we decided to do what we do best: eat. Talia ordered us a "pain Mister Patate". Which is probably the biggest, most fattening sandwich I've ever seen in my life. And that includes the BigMac. It's a huge baguette that is filled with two hamburgers that have been cut in half so they fit, lettuce, and special sauce. It is massive. Thank goodness we were splitting it. All the Belgians say that the best food is at Mister Patate. And don't get me wrong, it was very good, but wow I could feel my arteries clogging just looking at it.

I'm getting used to this AZERTY thing...

After finishing up at Mister Patate, we decided to spend some time chilling with our other group of friends while waiting to figure out what was going on with Aymeric. So we headed over to the usual hangout café, Copain. On the way over, we came across a couple of our friends and we all waited and had a drink until everyone else got there. Eventually, we were all there and Aymeric arrived, and after the usual rounds of bisous, we began the festivities.

In the States, it's normal for a friend's birthday to treat them to lunch and maybe a movie, eat cake and maybe do something a little out of the ordinary. But what does one do for a birthday in Belgium? Well, first you find the center of town. If you're lucky, there will be a random concrete pad next to a a parking lot with a gazebo and some steps. You proceed to sit on the steps and pull out the basket of goodies that the birthday person brought. In this basket, you will find a bottle of champagne, a half empty bottle of Christmas beer, some crackers, chips, and plastic champagne "glasses" that snap apart for easy and convenient storage. Then the party begins, and you spend a good 45 minutes in the middle of town, at 1 in the afternoon, sitting in a random spot out in the open, sipping champagne out of plastic cups without a care in the world. And when the Belgians want to smoke and nobody has a lighter that works, what do you do? You find a random boy on the street and he gives you his.

I'm not joking.

We then proceeded to go BACK to Mister Patate so that the people that weren't there before could eat. Talia and I just sat there and watched because there was no way we could've eaten more of that. But of course, eating is just a formality. After this, you recommence with the typical Belgian birthday celebrations, which include bar hopping to get your free drinks. But because we live in Hannut, our "bar hopping" consisted of two bars, one being the Copain. At the first one, we went in, got our drinks, and retreated to the far room where we all squeezed around a table and showered Aymeric in gifts that included a poster covered in pictures of him and his friends, brownies from Talia, and chocolate chip cookies from me. So needless to say, we stuffed ourselves with sweets. Then Talia pulled out the candy corn, which the majority of the Belgians thought was gross. The bar tender then brought us another bottle of champagne with cups that were not clean. So what do we do? We pull out the plastic cups from before, resnap them together and save some natural resources. We spent some time there, eating, talking, laughing, and playing with Silly Putty. Then we all packed everything up and migrated over to the Copain, where the atmosphere was much better and familiar and Aymeric got his drink there. Which was huge and orange and apparently was mostly vodka... We spent a ridiculous amount of time there eating more cookies and brownie, talking, laughing, and signing Aymeric's poster. I wrote every other word in French and the others in English. But he speaks English very well and he understood it all :D Oh and I bonded with Gregoire over "How I Met Your Mother". It was a beautiful moment.

Around 5, Talia and I caught a bus to Geer where my host mom met me to pick me up and I went home. I ate dinner which was, guess what, hamburger. But without a bun or anything. Just the meat. And broccoli that had been mixed with potato, which was delicious, and a veggie salad. And then, I had a chocolate eclair. I thought I was going to burst. But since there was no internet connection in my room, I did my homework right away and was sleeping by 9pm. Which was beautiful.

Today was average, but I have one comment. We had some speakers come in today and talk to the sixième class about university. Which was completely irrelevant to me, but I did catch one part of it... There is someone that helps them all out with the process and they are called the P.M.S. And because I am immature, I found this incredibly hysterical and laughed through the last 15 minutes of the presentation. Just thought I'd share...

I am never blogging on an AZERTY keyboard again.

Dinner time and then dance tonight. A demain!