Girls Night Out And A Dance Performance

So yesterday was Friday. A pretty average Friday. It was cold, as it has been here lately, and I went to school as usual. Except I ended up being late because I'm dumb and I didn't here my alarm go off. So I didn't get up until 8am when my host mom came to see why I hadn't come down to breakfast. I got myself ready super quickly, but still missed almost all of my first hour with Père Boly. Thankfully, my host mom didn't mind, and there were other people late too because of the snow. The rest of the day went pretty normally, except that Eduardo, Talia, and I all missed basically all of our two hour math courses because we went to Madame Vanesse's office to talk to her about exams, and ended up in there for the entire two hours just talking to her and letting her know how things were going. But it was good because we had good conversation, laughed a lot, and spoke a lot of French.

After school was over, my host mom picked me up and Benoit and his girlfriend were also in the car. The plan was to take me right to the train station in Huy, but because Benoit is male, he had not thought ahead and had to go back home to get some stuff for his weekend before my host mom could drop him off where he needed to be. Eventually, I got myself to the Huy station and was able to catch a train around 5pm. I actually ran into another Rotary girl and we took the train to Liège together. Once we got to the station, we came across Saint Nicholas, got some goodies and took some pictures with him.

I was going to meet up with Alexanne and Hadley for a girls night in Liège. I got a hold of them and met up with them at the station. Then we met up with Alexanne's host dad, and he led us back to the car, which was a good fifteen minute trek away, and we went back to her house. Which, by the way, is freaking awesome! We also met her host mom and sister. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda jealous.

After getting all settled in, we bundled up and took off into the city. It was already dark out, but that was ok. We caught a bus into the center of town and actually picked up another exchange girl once we got there and decided it was time to find food. Hadley and the other girl decided to go to Quick (the Belgian equivalent of Micky D's), but Alexanne and I wanted real food, so we went to a little corner café and got pasta, which was in a really cool dish. It was four cheese penne, and it was delicious. Although I think the waiter didn't really like us because the other two tried to come in with us with Quick bags, and he wasn't so friendly from then on... But it all worked out.

After our dinners, we headed over to the Village de Noël. However, to our disappointment, all the little huts that weren't selling drinks or food were closed up for the night. So what do we do? We decide to go on the big ferris wheel! It was awesome. It took us around four times and we were able to look out and see all of Liège. I was kinda freaked at first, because for some reason my paranoid brain thought that something would happen and it would end up dropping us and I would puke. Because that is always my fear. But it ended up being really great. After the ferris wheel, we walked around a little and then Alexanne decided to go to one of the Canadian stands and purchase an order of "putine". What it is, is fries, covered in gravy and a special cheddar cheese. And it is absolutely wonderful! We all shared it, since none of us were particularly hungry but wanted to try it. We ate it as we walked to our bus stop, and it was gone before we knew it. Despite our lack of hunger, it was hot and the air was cold and eating warmth was a good thing.

We caught a bus back to Alexanne's and conquered the two big hills that it took to get back to her house. We went in and basically just crashed. We were all so tired. We got our pajamas on, laid down and talked for a little, but were sleeping before midnight. We woke up the next morning and went down to breakfast to find that Alexanne's host mom had made us crèpes!! She is such a sweetheart. So we ate them with real Canadian maple syrup and brown sugar and had some excellent conversation with her host family. After that, we got ready for the day and headed back out into the city. We caught another bus and walked around the Village again, this time looking at the actual shops, since they were open. Alexanne found a Christmas gift! After finishing that, we went into an actual store, since we were freezing, to try to warm up a little. Then we caught a bus to the train station, Hadley and I bought our tickets home and we were ready to go. Then Hadley's train was cancelled. So they went and got some drinks and I caught my train home because I had to be in Hannut by 4 30. Once I got to Huy, I caught yet another bus that took me to Hannut. I walked to the Academy and was there ready to dance on time.

Today was the first of two special performances that I'm doing with the Academy. I talked about it before. It's the weird one with the fabric tubes. Well we had our practice, we got our hair done by the prof and then we did our thang. I think we did very well with it! Again, I just love performing. Afterwards, one of the girl's mother's was giving me a ride home, so I stayed for the second part where the profs all did a piece together. One man played piano, another played flute, another played cello, and then there was a woman who sang and another woman who played the clarinet. It was a very interesting piece, and I can't say that I particularly liked it, though they played it well.

I got home after a very slow, long drive. The thing is, it's snowing here. There's maybe two inches of snow on the ground, but all the Belgians are freaking out about it and saying it's too dangerous to drive. Which makes me laugh. But the drive that normally takes twenty minutes took forty. But regardless, I got home, stuffed myself full of Hawaiian pizza, took a nice hot shower, and now I'm ready for sleep. So with that, I say: Bonne nuit tout le monde !!