As promised, I am going to tell all of you right now just how fabulous my weekend was. But first, let's start back a little bit farther, on Wednesday night.
Wednesday night, I went with the rest of the exchange students in my district to see "La Bohème" at the Opera. I had never seen an opera before, and let me tell you, I loved it! I was really excited to see this particular opera because my favorite musical, "RENT", is based off of it. Plus, I got to dress up all nice and fancy and see all of my exchange student friends that I don't normally see. My host mom came with me since there was an extra ticket in our Rotary club. We got there about an hour early and got our tickets and two tokens for free drinks. I decided to keep mine as souvenirs, since I wasn't very thirsty. So for an hour, I was able to go around taking pictures with my friends and catching up with the other exchange students.
Finally, around 8pm, it was time for the show to begin. We went in, had a difficult time finding our seats, but managed to get settled with a few minutes to spare. The opera was held in a tent, because the opera building in Liège is currently getting a face lift. So, from what I understand, an opera company in Italy sold this huge tent to the company in Liège that was performing the show. I have never been in such a fancy schmancy tent. It was small and intimate for a theatre, but it was well heated and the acoustics were great. The orchestra was huge and the music was just beautiful. The opera was sung in Italian, and there was a small screen above the stage that read off subtitles in French, Dutch, and German. Some of it was tricky to understand, but I was able to follow the show for the most part, and it really helped knowing "RENT" beforehand also. It was absolutely gorgeous. The cast was perfect and it was just a very beautiful opera. I'm very glad that I got to see it.
Jump ahead to Friday. I had been invited to go to a party in Liège with my friend Brittany because her host sister had a party at the university. So I got to go with Brittany, her host sister Justine, her friend, and Hadley. We all got dressed up, again, and I wore my favorite white dress that I wore for my senior year Homecoming in the States. I caught a 5:50 train from Huy to go to Liège to catch a bus to get to Brittany's house. However, once I got to Liège, I had to buy a recharge for my phone so that I could communicate with my host mom the next day for the return home. And I used the rest of my cash. And of course, it would be my luck that the ATMs in the train station are empty and not giving out any cash. So there I am, stuck in Liège, it's already dark outside, and I have no money for the bus. Needless to say, I freaked out. And because I'm in Belgium, there is an ATM once every like, three kilometers. So they are not close. So I decided to go into a little grocery store that was attached to the station to see if the cashier knew if there was another machine close or something that I could do. He was very nice and tried to help me by telling me that I could buy something small, like a candy bar, and then he could give about fifteen euros extra. But of course, this didn't work. He apologized and I could tell he felt really bad for me. So I went back to the train station and decided to ask one of the people at the ticket windows. That guy wasn't so nice to me, but he spoke English and was able to get me twenty euros off my card once I told him the situation. Thank God. So I was able to catch the bus and get myself to Brittany's house.
Once I got on the bus, another kid got on, and his eye was bleeding and he had blood running down his face and his lip was open too. You could tell he had gotten into it with someone. But me being the polite person that I am, I did not make any sort of reaction. Another girl sat next to me and we struck up a conversation and we spoke some French and some English. She ended up asking the boy what had happened, and apparently there was a disagreement with a girlfriend and another guy and he got punched in the face a couple times. I felt really bad for him, and the girl told me that there is a lot of violence in Belgium, which I was really surprised to hear, because everyone else has told me that it's pretty calm for the most part. Obviously there are problems, I mean, there are problems everywhere, but she made it sound like it was a daily thing...
Anyway, I got to Brit's, we ate dinner with her host family, who I have met before, but was very impressed with my French, and then we got ready to go. We took a few pictures and then went out into the cold and piled into the car for Brittany's host mom to drive us to the soirée. We got there, left our coats in the car because she said there would not be a coat check, and stood in the cold for a few minutes before we were able to go inside. But once we got in, we realized how awesome the night was going to be. Everyone was dressed up and there was music booming on the bottom floor. There was another room up some stairs where the real party was, and we headed up there. But then we noticed that was a coat check and we could've had our coats... Oh well.
We went up to the room, which also had music going and there were a lot of people there. We wove through the crowd towards the front because that's where there were at least some people moving. Nobody was dancing yet, but there were some people doing the whole Belgian fist pump move. But before we knew it, it was kicking up and everyone was dancing. Actually dancing! They played all different kinds of music, not just techno. Which was great. I like techno, but sometimes, I'm ready for something else. We left the room a couple times to go find something to drink or go to the bathroom or just sit down. We were all wearing heels and it started to hurt! But we danced through the pain and ended having so much fun! We met some new people, spoke French, took pictures, did a lot of dancing and even did the macarena! It was the best party that I have been to yet. Until a very tall man stepped on Brittany's foot and made her toe hurt so bad she thought she had broken it... All the same, it was a fantastic night.
We left around 4am, but didn't actually get in the car driving until 4 30. We had taken two different cars getting there, but had to take one coming home, so we literally piled into that little car, with two people sitting on laps in the back seat. Good thing it wasn't too long of a drive. However, when I got out of the car, my dress had somehow magically ripped and the bottom later of tulle had separated from the rest of the fabric, and I was beyond angry. But it was 5am and there wasn't anything we could do about it, so we just went to bed and decided to wait until morning to figure out a solution.
We woke up on Saturday around 1 30pm. And attempted to make pancakes, since Brittany had some Aunt Jemima mix. But for some reason, the Belgian pans didn't like our pancake batter, and they instantly burned when we poured the batter in. It was very strange. But once we scraped off the char, there was a lovely fluffy pancake in there that was absolutely delicious. I ate mine with peanut butter.
We then looked at the train and bus schedules for me to get home by five, since I had a dress rehearsal to get to at six. And it looked like it was going to be impossible to catch a decent train. There was a bus leaving at 3:15 and a train leaving at 4:08. The bus takes about 50-55 minutes. It was a long shot, but I had to try since the next train wasn't until 4:50. So I caught the 3:15 bus and prayed the whole way there that I would make it. The bus didn't get to the station until about 4:06, and as soon as I got off the bus, I booked it to the station, through the doors, and up the escalator, literally running. I got to the platform, asked the conductor if the train went to Huy, and jumped on. It was moving before I sat down. I could not believe I had made it. But I hadn't had the time to buy a ticket, so I had to pay a little extra to buy it on the train, but I didn't care. I was just glad to have made the train.
So I was able to get home by 5, change, and be ready for my dress rehearsal at 6. I was in a performance at a little something called the "Bal de Bourgmestre", which was a ball that the mayor of the town was throwing. And my jazz class was going to be performing. I had learned the dance and gotten a costume and everything. So we had our dress rehearsal, and then went over to the studio space where we did our hair and makeup, got into costumes and ran the dances a couple more times. We then went back over to the space and did our dances. I had almost forgotten how much I love performing. I just feel like I belong on a stage. Seriously. It's the best feeling in the world. After the performance, we went BACK over to the studio, ate, and got ready to actually go to the soirée. My friend Mathilde and I hung out together for a while, shared a sandwich, and met up with our friends there. I only stayed until midnight since I had such a late night before, so I was only there for a little over an hour. Nobody was dancing anyways, since it was a live band. It was all the old people. But I still had fun! And I was happy to have gotten to do a performance.
And I went home and slept.
Today I did college apps, worked out, and worked on my book. Not interesting. And I still have about 2000 words to write tonight, because I'm so behind. But no worries! I have nine days! I will finish!
Bonne nuit!
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