Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Quick Post

You know what I've realized? I go through my whole day thinking about what I'm going to write about in my blog that night, and then by the time I get to my computer and lay down for the night, I have forgotten everything that I was going to say. So let's just recap my day.

I actually had a freaking fantastic day in Belgium today :) It started out with me waking up pretty late, because I didn't have school today, and going down to the breakfast table. And what is awaiting me there but a package. Now I love getting mail, especially when I'm not expecting it. And the last thing I expected to see in my place this morning was a package. I thought it would be from family or maybe Kaitlyn, but I looked at the label and it was from Ryan's family back home! Which I just thought was the sweetest thing ever. So I frantically ripped it open and a bunch of little individually wrapped Christmas presents fall out, along with a card. First Christmas presents in Belgium! I received a shirt that says Hope on it, a few pairs of socks and a pair of gloves. Which I'm grateful for because all the socks I have here are ankle socks and they just don't cut it with the boots. So that was basically the best surprise ever.

After breakfast, I went back upstairs and went hard to work on crossing the 50 000 word finish line of my novel. AND I DID IT!!!! I wrote 50 000 words in 30 days and I am so proud of myself! The book is nowhere near done, but I set a goal, and I achieved it. Now, I'm going to get to work on finishing the actual first draft of the book and then revising it. Because honestly, with some serious polishing, I really do think it could be publish worthy. Which excites me :)

I spent the afternoon with my host mom and Talia. We went to a MALL. This is a big deal. There are like three malls in all of Belgium. Ok more than that, but you get the picture. They're hard to come by. It was so American I couldn't take it. I bought a pair of ear muffs, some pretty earrings, a winter hat and some ridiculously soft, lined leggings that will be super warm. I was on the look out for Christmas presents, since I have begun my search, but no luck today. I also found an absolutely adorable pair of suede gloves that were lined and warm and wonderful, but they were 25 euros, and I just could not justify that. Although they looked lovely.

I came home and Talia stayed for dinner and then I had three hours of dance, the first of which was a mini rehearsal for the show that I have on Saturday. You know, the one with the blue fabric tubey-thingys. And then jazz. But I really started to feel sick during my jazz class. Sort of heartburn ish. Not fun at all. Now I'm at home, ready to make it an early night. Sorta. It's already almost eleven. But I took a shower, so that ate some time. Ok well I'm rambling now. I need to sleep. À demain!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Another Thanksgiving, An Exotic Dinner, And Snow

It's Monday night. I haven't posted for a few days, because I've been very busy and very tired lately. There has been a lot going on this weekend.

Friday, I went to school like any other day. And I spent the night at home, trying to pound out a few thousand words for my novel, which I did successfully. That is due tomorrow, by the way, and I think I will actually finish! I have about 2600 words left, and I will do that in the morning, and then I will be good to upload tomorrow afternoon and everything will be wonderful :) Anyways, I spent Friday night doing nothing else, and that was pretty boring. I might have had some good food, I don't even remember hehe Sorry world.

Saturday, I went to dance, as usual, and we continued preparing for the show that I will be participating in this weekend, on Saturday. It's pretty interesting. Basically, the idea is that there are these four musicians, and they are playing these little one minute pieces, a bunch of them, and there are four dancers that are dancing with them, and I'm one of them. We have these weird blue fabric tube like things that we dance in. But all the weirdness works because it goes with the music.

After dance, I rushed to the Huy train station to catch a train to Liège to catch a train to Welkenraedt to catch a bus to walk to Hadley's house. I know, it sounds complicated. And it would have been a lot more complicated, had I missed my train out of Huy, which I almost did. Thank goodness it was five minutes late! I spent about forty five minutes at the Liège station waiting for my connecting train, but I spent it eating my lunch and writing more of my novel. I also continued writing on my train, but stopped about halfway through to have a conversation with the guy sitting across from me, who told me I speak French very well. I still really enjoy getting that comment.

Anyways, I successfully caught my bus and managed to get off at the correct stop and walk the fifteen minutes to Hadley's house, where Hadley, Brittany, Alexanne, and Oakley all were, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. I had brought the things for green bean casserole and I had a couple of cans of cranberry sauce that had not made it to me in time for Mikayla and Talia and my Thanksgiving with our host families. I immediately began helping. This time we had an actual turkey, and we stuffed it and everything. We made a bunch of food, including some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had, and eventually Brittany's host family came, plus Hadley's host family, and we all ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together, complete with turkey. The menu was turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, corn bread, cranberry, stuffing, gravy and I think that's all. We had had another corn dish, but it ended up being wayyyyyy too salty and we could not serve it. We had bruschetta for an appetizer, which Hadley made and it was absolutely delicious. The problem was that we had done so much tasting of things during the cooking that by the time dinner came around, none of us were hungry! But we piled our plates high anyways, and I somehow managed to eat the majority of my food. It was absolutely wonderful and sooo delicious. And the host families really enjoyed it too. The turkey was moist and flavorful, the stuffing was perfect, and I was very happy to have my cranberry. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Duncan Hines brownies. Yummm. Again, not sure how I managed to eat it all, but I did, and I did not explode.

That night, Oakley stayed at Hadley's house, and I went back to Brittany's with her and Alexanne and the host family. We went to bed pretty much immediately, and Britt woke me up around 9 30am the next morning because we had to hurry up and make food for the "Diner Exotique" with Rotary that we were doing that day. We had to make a typical American dish that would feed 40-45 people. So we made stuffing. I went downstairs and got to work tearing bread and chopping celery and onions. We managed to get the stuffing done, eat a big beautiful breakfast, and get everything packed in the car ready to go. I still don't know how I can fit so much food in my stomach. I really stuffed myself at that breakfast. But it's cause it's just all so good.

The Rotary gathering was in Visé, which was about 20 minutes from Brittany's house. Her host mother drove us and we got there around 11am, which was actually a little late. We put our stuff on the American table, next to a ridiculously tall stack of PB&J sandwiches, and wandered around looking at the other stuff. All the countries had brought wonderfully delicious looking food, and I started getting really depressed because I was already so full and wouldn't be able to eat much. But I met a bunch of other exchange students that I hadn't known before and we had great conversation. Eventually, the host families began to show up and try our food. Then we got to go around and get food. I took some food and shared a lot of it with one of my new friends, Sarah. I took a bite of everything I had, but I have to say, I couldn't finish it all. I was just too full of food.

After that was over, the majority of the exchange students caught a train back to Liège. Then Brittany and I and another exchange student from Canada went to check out the "Village de Noël" in the center of Liège. Basically what it was, was a bunch of little wooden huts that were set up and vendors were selling things from them. Some were selling food and drinks, others were selling homemade trinkets and the like. We walked around the whole thing and eventually met up with Brittany's host sister and her boyfriend and we walked around some more and eventually found somewhere to get a drink. The patios in front of the ones with drink had heating lamps, so that was nice. I tried hot wine, which I actually really liked, even though I really don't care for wine. We spent the next couple hours just talking and having a good time. Then Canada left and the rest of us went to an indoor place where we enjoyed a nice cup of tea. We then went to the train station, they caught their bus home and I caught my train. Which was fifteen minutes late. But it's not a big deal. It was just really cold. But I went home and ate lasagna, and I was happy.

Today, I got up, worked out, and continued writing my book. My host mom came home from the dentist, we ate lunch, and then we got in the car and went to visit one of the family friends who just had a baby yesterday. We went to see her and the newborn in the hospital. The baby is named Iris, and she is absolutely adorable! She is only a day old and wow is she a beautiful baby. We spent some time there, and then we went to the big IKEA store that was nearby and walked around that. I really actually enjoyed it! It was interesting to look at. And the other thing about today: the first real snow of the year! It had snowed once before, on Thursday, but it didn't stick at all and it was only a few minutes. But today it really snowed here. There had already been snow out by Brittany too, but that was there and this is here.

Tomorrow, I finish my book! Well, at least I finish 50 000 words. There's no way the book will be done. But I gotta get up early to finish, so bonne nuit!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving, On Time, In Belgium

Today is the real Thanksgiving in the States. And I'm in Belgium. I'm telling you, it's hard. It's really hard to be away from my family today. The holidays are very important to me. They are the days when I get to see my whole family. When we come together to celebrate having each other and being lucky to spend the time together. And for the first time in my life, I spent it thousands and thousands of miles away from my family. It was truly difficult.

Today was a hard day anyways. I was tired, even though I had slept so much yesterday. I had tests in my classes and little things are really starting to get to me. I'm short tempered lately and I find myself getting really homesick, especially thinking about the boyfriend that I left at home. The French seems to get more difficult instead of easier, as well. Then I dropped my iPod after school and the screen cracked, and that's about when I cracked too. It's just starting to feel like thing after thing is going wrong or being unnecessarily difficult. I binged today and had a chocolate eclair after school, even though I'm on a diet. I had fish for dinner on Thanksgiving. So not right.

But then I went to dance and everything started to get a little better. Dancing really is a stress relief for me. It's a shame I don't get to dance as much here as I did in the States. I have a couple of special performances coming up, one that is actually going to be in Brussels. So that was a good thing for me to think about. And when I got home, my host mom said she had something for me. She gave me a little cake from the local bakery, the raspberry mousse one, one of my favorites. It had a little sign in it that said "Joyeux Thanksgiving Emma!" She said it was for Thanksgiving, so that I could eat with my family while I Skyped with them today. It was probably one of the sweetest gestures I've received here. So that made me smile. And I did eat my cake while I Skyped with my family. It was hard to watch them all be in my house, around my dining room table, eating their turkey dinners, without me actually being there. But it was great to talk to everyone and catch up.

And here is what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

-Family
-Friends
-Kaitlyn (best friend)
-Ryan
-This opportunity in Belgium
-All the people that made this possible for me to be here
-My host family
-My education
-The roof over my head
-The food in my stomach
-My bed
-My memories
-The things that I get to participate in
-My clothing
-My overall health
-My good fortune
-The technology that makes it possible for me to communicate with the people back home
-The support of my family
-This beautiful life

Bonne nuit

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Lady FREAKING Gaga

It's Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning). Last night, Tuesday night, I went with Talia and Mikayla to see LADY GAGA in Antwerp. And holy cow, it was spectacular.

Here's the thing. When Lady Gaga first came out, I really didn't like her. She was too bizarre and I thought she was just going to be around for a while and then people would forget about her, or remember her as just being a disgusting artist with no real talent. And then she came out with hit after hit. And let's face it, you can't help but dance to her music.

And then, one day, I took a master class and met her college roommate.

Not a joke.

And I found out that Miss Stephanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta went to the New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, majoring in musical theatre. Wow. That changed my entire view of her. She was picked out of THOUSANDS of applicants to go to what is arguably the best arts school in the country. She has real talent, and a lot of it. She also plays piano like a mad beast. You can find videos of her on YouTube performing at showcases at NYU and they're incredible. I also found out that she really is pretty nutty in real life, so just in case you were wondering, it's not all an act.

Then, last night, I went to see her in concert. After school, Talia and I went over to Mikayla's house with all of our crazy clothes and makeup and went to work for about an hour getting ready to see Lady Gaga. It was quite a process. It involved hair, makeup, clothes, the whole nine yards. I even attempted to the famous hair bow of Lady Gaga, and I have to say, I pretty much succeeded. Talia and I wore false eyelashes, and we all did really heavy eye makeup. The red lipstick was also a definite. Of course, we had to eat dinner too, which was Kraft mac and cheese that Talia and Mikayla had from home. Yummmmm



Around 5:50pm we left the house, the FAHB driving. Antwerp, or Anvers, as it's called in the French part, was where we were going, and it was about an hour and fifteen minutes away. But we got lost once and had to turn around, and once we got close, the traffic was horrendous. We spent the car ride eating cold ish mac and cheese and Snickers bars, finishing makeup, and painting our nails red. I would tease my hair back up every so often too. For pictures of course. My comb kept disappearing though, and that really started to get on my nerves.

We ended up parking kind of far away and had to walk about ten minutes to actually get to the arena. We passed it on the way, and the crowd outside was ridiculous! I'm not sure when the doors opened, but our tickets said something about eight o'clock and we were late, so we were a bit nervous. But I think doors just opened at eight. Whatever. It doesn't matter. The point is that I was wearing heels and tights and I was cold walking there. But it wasn't too bad, because I had my new coat.

OH YAH side note: The coat that I ordered forever ago finally came. I'm not super freezing in Belgium anymore!! It's super cute and I love it and there's nothing like it anywhere I've been. The only thing about it was that I had to pay again when it got here because of stupid European taxes. There are some things about Europe... It just makes me angry. We already paid for shipping! But that doesn't matter cause there was a tax. Aghhhh.

Anyways, getting back to Gaga... We got in and I hid my camera in my pocket and we went inside. It was pretty much just like the Gund Arena back home (for those of you from Cleveland reading this) and there were posters on the walls for Disney On Ice that was coming soon. Which I smiled at. We then proceeded to climb a million flights of stairs. Talk about my workout for the day. We found our seats, which were all the way to the side at the top most row of seating. But, then we found that we were able to see backstage, and everything was good and happy :)





Mikayla and I jetted to the bathroom, we all took some pictures, and then we settled in for the start of the show at 9pm. The room went dark and everyone went nuts. And then we saw her, Lady Gaga, before anyone else! Basically, there was a huge curtain and screen covering the stage for everyone, but we were sitting at the side, so we could see between the curtain and the back wall, and we saw her!!! There was also a screen hanging from the ceiling that was showing closeups throughout the entire concert. She started off the show with "Dance in the Dark" and a crazy outfit, of course. Basically, the whole concept of the show was that we were all on a journey to go to the Monster Ball, sort of like the Wizard of Oz. After the first set of songs, she stopped to talk to her audience. She is completely insane. She just looked out over the sea of people and talked to us about being the way we were and not changing for anyone because "you were born this way". Quote of the night: "I don't want you to leave here loving me more. I want you to leave here loving yourselves more." So clearly, even though she's nuts and she spends a lot of the concerts in heels and leotards, she was giving a good message. Throughout the entire concert, she talked about how you can't let people get you down when you're different, because everyone has a superstar inside them and you should never change who you are for other people. It was inspiring, really. As much as it may have been rehearsed, she made it sound so sincere. She even tied an American flag bandana around her head that someone "had thrown on the stage".


At one point, she played a flaming piano. Seriously. That woman ROCKS the piano. She played "Speechless" and a new song, "You and I" on the flaming piano. It. Was. AWESOME. She continued the concert with the rest of her upbeat dance music and we all stood up and danced to Poker Face, except the FAHB, who just sat and watched, astounded at some points. He definitely enjoyed it though. His face when she said certain things, so priceless. She did the entire concert in English, which makes me wonder how many people truly understood what she was saying, but the FAHB at least understood things for the most part. She talked about Thanksgiving at one point, and Talia and I and Mikayla went wild, but nobody else really did. I don't think they understood.




She rocked out to "Teeth" and "Monster", and how he ate her heart. And, typical Lady Gaga, there was fake blood involved. Though she did not hang herself at this concert like at the MVAs. But that's a different story. Eventually, we followed the "glitter path" and we all made it to the Monster Ball. Of course, she closed the show with "Bad Romance". At which point I went over and pulled the FAHB by the wrist and made him stand up, though he didn't dance. He just kinda laughed at me as I danced. I did the dance with her and everything. It was such a fantastic closing. Couldn't have asked for anything more. By the end, my throat was hoarse from screaming and singing at the top of my lungs. It was soooooo so much fun. I had never seen anything like that show before in my life. First concert of my life. It was a super win. Regardless of what you think of her music, you cannot say she is not a magnificent performer. Her show is spectacular. It's high energy and fun and interesting and it may be over the top and just bizarre at times, but that's what keeps you guessing. I wouldn't have had it any other way. And I am not sure how I feel about this, but I can now honestly say that I am a Lady Gaga fan. For sure.

So leaving the concert... Well, it took a while. We walked back to the car and got in and it was about 11 30. Not too bad. But then it took a good hour to finally get going and we didn't get home til 1 30. We then spent the next 45 minutes taking pictures and deconstructing ourselves. I'm not sure if I got all the teasing out of my hair yet... We went to sleep around 2 30, and got up at 7 to get ready for school. We went through a normal day at school, and thank God it was a half day Wednesday. I got home, ate lunch, and then went up to my room to upload all the pictures to Facebook. Then I decided to nap, and somehow ended up sleeping for 8 hours. I woke up at 11 45pm and was amazed. I had slept through dinner and everything. So now it's past 1am, I'm awake, and I'm hungry. And blogging. Sweet. I'm going to go write more of my novel now. 5 days and 17 000 words. fjsdka;hgaklsfdj;sgha

Bonne nuit!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

My Wonderful Weekend

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!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I'm Here I Promise!

I know it may seem like I dropped off the face of the planet. I haven't posted since Tuesday... I'm afraid that I'm becoming lazy with blogging... And I refuse to let that happen!

However, I'm not posting a real post tonight. It's one am exactly and I didn't get to sleep until 5am last night (morning) and I'm just really exhausted. But I have a lot to write about so tomorrow's post will involve some great stories and fabulous pictures :) Look forward to it and make sure to check back in tomorrow!!!!

Bonne nuit

:)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A Note On Fluency

So these last two days, I have absolutely nothing to write about because I have been sitting at home, sick. But I think I need to just get out some of thoughts, as I do every so often. This time, my topic of choice is language, and speaking it.

I have been told by different people that it is possible to achieve fluency of a foreign language by the emersion method within three months. Actually, Miss Courtney Burnside over there at Baguettes, Berets, and Mlle Burnside just blogged about this particular topic a few weeks ago. My point is that I will have been here for three months on Thursday, and there is no way that I have reached fluency. However, I do believe that fluency is upon us. I cannot say that I have yet dreamed in French, even though basically every other exchange student that I have talked to has, and I don't quite think in French yet either. I feel very behind on the whole process. However, I do find that words that I didn't know that I knew, I hear coming out of my mouth. And there are times when I speak without thinking, freak out, but then think back over what I said and realize it was very correct. These are all obviously steps to fluency.

But fluency comes differently to different people. For example, the majority of people achieve comprehension first. But my dear friends Brittany finds that that is the hardest part for her. And then there is whole conundrum of reading and writing. For someone like Talia, who has never studied French formally, this is the hardest part for her, while for someone like me, I would rather write than speak because I almost always write correctly because I have more time to think. The hard thing about becoming fluent is having the chance to practice. Because, sure, you can talk to your host family or your friends, but it gets to a point where they don't want to listen anymore because you have such the urge to speak correctly that you speak slowly and back up sometimes to correct yourself. Of course that gets aggravating! And then you realize that and you want to give up. But you can't. You force yourself to keep trying and you continue to be rejected, even though you know that in the long run, your French will be better for it.

Well, that's my personal experience anyways. It can be quite disappointing and a little discouraging, but like I said. You can't let it stop you. I know that by the end of this year, I will speak French almost the way I speak English. That prospect is wonderful, and I cannot wait to achieve it. And although people say things about becoming fluent in three months, I guess some people would say I'm "fluent". I understand just about everything that is said to me. "I can get by and hold everyday conversation. People understand me when I speak and I am able to joke and laugh and understand nuance. So I guess in a way, it's also about how you define "fluency". For me, I define it as speaking easily, without thinking. So have I reached fluency after three months? Not to me. Do I think I can get there? Definitely. In fact, I think by the end of month four or five I will be at a point where I can call myself almost fluent. But I don't want to make any rash judgements.

For now, I'm just going to continue to try to write my English novel, speak French, and absorb as much of the language as I can. Well, first, I'm going to sleep. Bonne nuit!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

I LOVE TECHNO!!

Friday, I spent my day just laying around, because I have been sick, and I was recuperating. But that night, I ate pasta with those shrimp again... You know, the ones I talked about before where I have to deconstruct it myself? Yah I have a real problem with those, even though they're delicious...

Then yesterday, Saturday, I went to dance in the morning, where I discovered that I will be performing at two special performances. One here in Hannut and one in Brussels!! I'm very excited about this :) Then I went home, showered, ate some really delicious cheese, and then got ready for the event of the evening: I LOVE TECHNO!!

Around 6:30, my host mom drove me into Hannut, where I met up with a bunch of other kids from school, plus a whole bunch more that I didn't know, and we all piled on a big bus (Greyhound style) and traveled the hour and half to Gent, where I LOVE TECHNO was going to be. The bus ride was a lot of fun! We spent it talking and laughing and taking pictures. I met some people that I didn't know before and had a lot of really good conversation. I even met someone who had gone to the States the year before for a few months. The guy who had organized it went around the bus, too, and passed out these bags that had flyers and such in them. They conveniently had chips in them, which was good because Talia and I hadn't eaten any dinner. They also contained condoms, which I found very interesting and I just pretended they weren't there...

About halfway there, we stopped at a gas station. Gas stations here are not shady like in the States. So everyone got off and people were buying beer and such. Talia and I then realized that all we had had to eat was chips, so we bought food. And what did we buy? A loaf of bread. That's all. So we munched on the bread for the rest of the drive, and the person who had organized the whole thing passed out our tickets. We left our bags and our coats on the bus and went out into the cold. It wasn't that bad, and it was only about a ten minute walk to the building, but there were puddles and I ended up with wet feet :(

We got into the building, and it was HUGE! There was a sort of hallway with a red carpet and tons of chairs and really cool lighting and atmosphere. That led into an even BIGGER hall where there were the bathrooms and a couple performance spaces, food, and places to buy tickets for drinks and food. It was obviously the most well-organized event that I have been to yet. And it should have been; there were 40,000 people there!

Off the giant hall, there were five other rooms, each labeled with a color, and there were different DJs and bands in each one, and they changed every so often. Also, everything was in English. Interesting. And water was free. PLUS! We spent the night going into the different rooms, listening to the bands, dancing and just having a lot of fun! Talia and I even met up with our friend from Rotary, Matheus. He is also and exchange student from Ohio, and we spent a few hours with him, catching up, dancing, and me screaming O-H! And him responding with I-O!! It was just endless hours of techno music and dancing. Pretty sweet, huh?

Around 2am, I started to get really tired and my feet were hurting, but by 3am, it was all ok and I was back to dancing. By the time 5am came around, we were getting food and we sat down and just chilled. I started to doze off.

At 5:30, it was time to go back to the bus. We left, and it was raining. With no coat. So we went quickly, but after ten minutes, we realized we were going the wrong way and had to turn around. So it took us fifteen or twenty minutes to get back to the bus, and by that point, I was soaked, exhausted, and freezing. I put my coat on and ate a little bit of bread and then my eye started acting up. So I took my contact out and was half blind the whole way home, but it didn't matter because I had my eyes closed most of the time. Which was good, because later, Talia told me that someone had puked on the bus, and if I had been awake, I wouldn't have been able to handle it.

We got back to Hannut around 8 and my host dad was there to pick me up. We drove Talia home also, and then stopped at a grocery store. I stayed in the car because by this point I really was not feeling well, and the car ride was not helping. We got back to the house, and I was starting to feel really awake. I went upstairs to take a quick shower, because my feet were disgusting, just like after KickAss, and people had been spilling beer on me all night. (It wasn't that bad, don't worry!) Then I went downstairs, had a bowl of Special K, and realized that I could probably make it through the day and be ok, even though I didn't. I went up to my room, watched an episode of Frasier, and made myself go to sleep. I was sleeping by 9:30, and I didn't wake up until 5:30. It was beautiful. Although when I woke up, I was five times sicker than before, and now I'm hacking up a lung every few minutes. But I did write a good 2500 words for my novel today and had some quality Skyping time with my sister.

Overall, I'm really really happy that I went to I LOVE TECHNO. It was so much fun, and even though it was tough at the end and I'm sick and exhausted, it was worth it!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Thanksgiving, Three Weeks Early, In Belgium

So it's November eleventh, and I just finished having Thanksgiving dinner at Mikayla's house with her, Talia, and our three host families.

We have been planning this for a while. I have wanted to do a Thanksgiving dinner with my host family since I left as just kind of an American experience. I'm experiencing and living the Belgian culture. Why shouldn't I open the eyes of my host family to a little taste of the States? At least the delicious parts... And today, it happened.

Last night, Talia slept over my house. I did not have class yesterday due to teacher absence, and today was a day off for the whole school because it is celebrating then end of World War One for Belgium. And we have off tomorrow too :) So this morning, around 10 30, Benoit, being the wonderful host brother that he is, drove Talia and I over to Mikayla's to begin our day of preparation for the Thanksgiving feast.

We got to her house and chilled for a while, sharing videos we had "Stumbled Upon" and just chatting. We went down to lunch, ate lasagna and talked with Mikayla's host family. After that, the fun began. We had a whole menu to prepare, and not a whole lot of time to do it in. Our original menu consisted of:

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Corn
Salad
Cranberry Sauce
Yams
Crescent Rolls
Gravy
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie

We were pretty proud of our menu, and had everything all planned out so that we would be able to make it all. Until... We found out it's actually very difficult to find a turkey in Belgium. So instead, we had two chickens. That was probably the biggest disappointment of the whole experience for me. But there was nothing we could do about it, so we kept plugging away. And then we found out that we didn't have any corn, because garbonzo beans had accidentally been bought in place. So no corn. And my mom had put a couple cans of cranberry in the mail. You know, Ocean Spray cranberry in a can. The kind that keeps the shape of the can and you slice up? Yah, it's my favorite Thanksgiving food. But since it was a holiday, there was no post today. So I didn't get the package. So no cranberry. No crescent rolls either, so we settled for Bisquick biscuits, since I had some Bisquick from the English store in Waterloo.

So we started our cooking off with the stuffing and the pies. Talia went to work cutting up a baguette, and I began peeling apples. Which, out of the eight that I had, only one was a tart apple. But that's ok. Mikayla was getting the rest of the things together for the stuffing and they were making progress quickly. We were all working very hard and thing were going great. The stuffing was coming along and my pie was looking fantastic. We had originally had a little problem with oven space, but we quickly resolved that and found that it wasn't going to be necessary to go to Mikayla's host grandma's house to bake some things. So I put my pie in right away and since the stuffing was done, Mikayla went straight to the pumpkin mixture that she had made by hand from an actual pumpkin the night before, since pureed pumpkin in a can doesn't seem to exist here either. That pie came along quickly too, and pretty soon we had the apple pie out of the oven and the pumpkin one in.

Then it was chicken time. After a couple calls to Mikayla's mother via Skype, her and Talia figured out what they had to do to prepare the chickens. I stayed out of that whole mess because I have a problem with raw poultry and I can't handle the prospect of salmonella. Yes, I'm insane and yes, I know it. So I got going on the green bean casserole. Pretty soon that was good to go and we were swapping out yams for casserole and got the chickens in too. The yams got peeled and covered in brown sugar and butter, and I started making my own french fried onions, since those don't exist here either. Those got put on the casserole, and then the pumpkin pie went in the oven. Before we knew it, we had yams ready for the oven, chickens baking, two beautiful pies, and a green bean casserole. But there was still so much to do.

We continued to finish the yams, peel potatoes, chop vegetables for salad and mix up Bisquick. At some point in there, too, we had changed and made ourselves pretty for the occasion. Mikayla's host dad came in and checked the chicken for us, and when they were done, he carved them. We were carefully timing everything out for when we had to throw things in the oven to reheat, and when I had to make the mashed potatoes.

Around 7 30, our guests began to show up. But because this is Belgium, everyone had some champagne and snackage before the meal. We didn't end up eating until after eight. But we had a little disaster before that...

In an attempt to reheat the gravy that Mikayla had made, the flour in the gravy had somehow cooked and our gravy became this lumpy, disgusting substance. We tried everything to fix it, but nothing worked. We even scraped out some of the extra and had another batch, but that got screwed up in an attempt at reheating also. So we didn't have gravy at our Thanksgiving dinner either. But we couldn't worry about that too much. We took all of the food out to the beautifully set table, and sat down to eat. We explained everything, and all of our guests tried all of our food. And the verdict? They loved it! They really really enjoyed our meal, and so did we. The conversation was good, the ambiance was great, and the food was really delicious, even though it wasn't quite the traditional Thanksgiving dinner that we're used to in the States. The only difference was that they didn't completely stuff themselves and then flop down on the couch to undo the top button on their pants, though I probably could have if I wasn't worried about cultural differences...

We cleared away the plates and brought out the pies. And those were a huge hit!! I was pleasantly surprised to see how much everyone loved the pumpkin pie. It was a total success. After we were all finished eating and talking and laughing, Talia and Mikayla and I cleaned up, and then we took a few pictures, said our goodbyes, and now I'm here and it's almost 1am and I'm so exhausted I'm falling asleep at my computer.

I hope you enjoyed by Thanksgiving post, because I did!

What am I thankful for? This crazy experience in BELGIUM!!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

A Wonderful Weekend With Mlle Burnside!!!

Well it is Monday. Thursday, Courtney came, from France, to visit me!!! And let me tell you, we had an absolute blast!

The fun started Thursday afternoon, when I met Courtney at the airport around 3pm. As soon as we saw each other, we ran up to each other and, disregarding European tradition, gave each other a huge hug. But one wasn't enough. We had TWO giant hugs! Which, I have to say, I've been needing for a while now. It was just so wonderful to see someone that I've known for more than two and a half months. No offense, friends of Belgium, but I really needed someone from home. I think my host mom thought I was nuts. But I introduced them and everything and then we were off, back to my house.

On the hour long car ride back home, Courtney and I talked about school and life and just everything in general. We spoke some French and some English and discovered that we're at about the same level of French speaking, which we were both pretty relieved about. Once we got home, Courtney and I headed up to my room to drop off her bag, and my host mom left for a bit to go do... something which escapes my mind. Regardless, we made up her bed and I showed her around and then I realized that I never ate lunch. Of course, it's four o'clock already, but I really needed to eat. So we headed down to kitchen and I made myself eggs in a nest with cheese and Courtney and I sat the kitchen table and just talked each others' ears off for the next couple hours. We talked about our families, news from back home, deep stuff, the usual.





Eventually my host mom got back and drove Courtney and I into Hannut for dinner and some Belgian culture. We ate at the good old Mister Patate, and we ordered the giant, artery clogging "Baguette au Mister Patate". Which is that same sandwich from a couple posts earlier. I'm sure you all remember. The baguette with two hamburgers cut in half and stuffed in there with lettuce, french fried onions, and cocktail sauce. We also got two small fries and I had a water. Which was tiny and cost me an outrageous amount of money, but that's ok. We soon found that we really should have ordered one fry, because a small is not a small. But we split the sandwich and ate our fries and all was good. I felt bad throwing away so many fries, but it was really just too much fattening food. Again, I wouldn't say that sandwich is particularly amazing, but it was a fantastic way to show her real, true Belgian culture! :)


After our meal, we headed over to the Copain, as is normal, and sat ourselves down on the super comfy couches. It just so happened that a few of my friends from school happened to be there too. And of course, they were the crazy ones. So Courtney got to meet my truly insane friends, who kinda hit on her, but that's ok! It was a super fun time. I ordered her one of my favorites, and we just sat around and spoke French with our (new for her) friends. Eventually, Talia came to meet us, and then slowly but surely, the Belgians began trickling in. Around ten, they all left to go to a Discoteque, and Courtney and I took the opportunity to walk around the town a bit. I showed her my school, the places we hang out, and where we sat in the middle of the town, sipping champagne out of plastic cups for Aymeric's birthday. We got back to the Copain right on time for my host mom to pick us up, and headed back to my house for a good night's sleep to be ready for the rest of our wonderful weekend!


The next morning, we woke up decently early, got ready, ate breakfast, and caught a train out of Waremme to spend the day in Liège! We spent the 30 minutes train ride doing what we do best, talking. Upon arrival in Liège, we caught a bus to the center of town, and then began our crazy shopping adventures! Because we are both poor, we did not focus too much on shopping just to buy whatever we saw. We had a couple missions, a present for her boyfriend and a dress for her, but mostly, we just wanted to have fun. So we quickly came up with the brilliant idea to copy outfits on mannequins exactly and have our own little fashion show in the dressing rooms, complete with sneakily taking pictures of our insane outfits, and mocking European fashion a bit... And yes, I confess, this was all with the intention of creating a bomb scrapbook spread when we got back to the States... Crazy, aren't we?




Soon our plan to copy mannequins became just dressing weirdly and creating a montage of this furry vest trend that has hit Europe by storm. We ignored the weird looks we got from people as we took our crazy picks into the dressing rooms, complete with shoes and accessories. We stealthily took pictures of our outfits, sometimes waiting ten or fifteen minutes for people to leave. Yes, we are that committed to scrapbooking.


Eventually, we decided that food was a necessity, and paused our adventure for some serious refueling. Since I don't know the food of Liège very well, we just stopped at a corner bakery and got some pieces of chicken pizza with veggies. Cheap and delicious :) But we couldn't stop there, because regardless of whether or not I know the food, I do know the waffles, and it was imperative that Courtney tasted the best waffles in Liège. So we stopped at my favorite waffle place and each got that waffle that I talk about all the time. You know, the one stuffed with chocolate? And needless to say, she really did find it to be the best thing she had ever eaten. Mission accomplished! Well... one of them at least. We then continued on our shopping antics, and we did end up finding the perfect present for her boyfriend. Which I will not reveal, in case he for some reason stumbles upon my blog and reads this :P We even stopped in a SuperDry, which is probably the most American store I have seen in Europe so far. But it's ridiculously expensive. So what did we do? We put together the most American outfits that we could, and added up the prices.



My outfit added up to be 443 Euros. Not joking. Here's the breakdown: Tank top, 39. Jeans, 95. Sweater, 95. Sweater over, 99. Coat, 115. Ridiculous. But I'm not going to lie, I really liked that sweater...




After we were shopped out, we decided to check out the "Foire" that was taking place in the heart of Liège. Basically, it was a street fair. We walked through it once, surveying what we had. There were tons of stands selling food, fries, waffles, crepes, candy apples, chocolates, etc. Then there were some rides and some games and a fun house or two. We paid attention to what we saw, deciding what we wanted to do and spend our money on, because things were not cheap.


But before we did that, we headed over to the GB grocery store quickly to grab Courtney some chocolate covered waffles to take home with her, since that is the closest you can get to a true Belgian waffle without buying one from a street stand. We also bought some pears and a couple drinks since we were parched and it was cheaper than buying anything from a restaurant. Of course, we thought we were absolute geniuses for coming up with this plan. But, this is Europe. And you know what? Europeans like using glass bottles with lids that do not twist off. So we had a dilemma. There we are, sitting on a bus stop bench, eating our pears, unable to open our bottles. We tried everything! Keys, rings, everything. Eventually, we had to go back to the store and buy a bottle opener. But no, we couldn't buy just one, we ended up buying a pack of three, because it was cheaper. So now, we each have a bottle opener and we have an extra, if anyone is interested.




After that little adventure, we went back to Foire to commence our decisions on activities. We decided to ride the carousel with the young children. Yes, we are little kids and heart :) After that, we decided to leave the Foire for a little while and get some dinner. So, we headed over to one of my favorite pizza restaurants and got a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and ham, which we split. We then went BACK to the Foire to get our desserts before heading to the train station. Courtney had tasted one, and couldn't resist. She got a waffle. But not just any waffle. She got the king of waffles. A huge Brussels-style waffle, covered in chocolate, and topped with three dollops of chocolate whipped cream, and three of vanilla. Then more chocolate. And then strawberries. And they wrapped it up in, get this, a little blue box. Direct quote from Courtney: "It's like the Tiffany's of waffles!!"

I searched all over that Foire for the Speculoos crepes that I had seen a sign for. But I didn't see them anywhere. So I ended up getting a candy apple since I've never had one, and they don't seem to know what caramel apples are here. Which is a shame. But they call them "pomme d'amour", which I think it lovely :) It means "apple of love".





So we headed back to the train station, and sat and ate our treats. I tried that waffle of Courtney's and oh baby. We'll never be able to eat Eggos again. Oh and my candy apple was pretty good too. We caught the train home, my host mom picked us up, and we went home and hit the sack to be ready, because the weekend was only halfway over.

Saturday was our Brugge day. We got up nice and early to catch and 8:30 train out of Waremme. We met up with Talia and got on the train, and at Landen, Aymeric joined us, and we all rode that train for about two and a half hours to get to Brugge. But it went fairly quickly as we were talking and joking and just enjoying each others' company. Once we got there, we relied on Aymeric to get us into the heart of the city, as he was the one who spoke French and Dutch. Turns out, he had only been there once before, like me, and didn't know where he was going. So he stopped a few people on the street, who were very nice and pointed us in the right direction. It took us about twenty minutes to get into town, and right away, what do we decide to do? Eat.


We stopped at a frites stand and got some fries with sauce and just sat on benches in the Grand Place and ate our food. Courtney loves Belgian frites. But then again, who doesn't?





We then started walking again, and since I was never able to get the Speculoos crepe, we stopped in at a little bakery and I made Courtney get a little gingerbread man, who was actually not gingerbread, but Speculoos. Belgium strikes again! She loved it! Plus one more point for Belgium.




We continued walking a bit and then Courtney and I decided that we should be touristy and do some sight-seeing. So we took the opportunity to take a boat tour. We paid about seven euros each, and climbed in a little boat with a bunch of other people and our guide took us along all the canals that run through Brugge. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The thing about Brugge is that it's a very touristy area. So everyone that works there speaks a million languages. Our boat driver said everything in English, then French, then Dutch, then German. So luckily for us, we were able to understand. But we spoke English the majority of the day, though I seemed to be unable to say "thank you" and always said "merci".



By this time, it was time to find a restroom. Which is practically impossible. We ended up wandering into a random building, and when we went in, a man handed us a couple of flyers about a food show and told us that if we paid for one, we got the second free and we could taste everything. We didn't really listen, but took the flyer anyway and found the bathroom for Courtney. But by the time she came out, we had decided to look into this thing. So we talked to the woman at the desk, and we found out that for five euros, we could go in and sample all the food. So we figured, why not? So we paid our five euros (2.50 each) and entered into the show. What it ended up being was a bunch of stands with people selling their food and offering free samples. So we went around and tried some different meats and cheeses. One woman was sampling soup broths, some were sampling chocolates, one had mustards, and one man had crepes. Everyone immediately spoke Dutch to us, but we always politely asked them to switch to English. Which they did seamlessly. I was jealous. We had some conversations with some of them, which was fun. We were slightly disappointed at the end, because there was not much, and it only took us maybe ten minutes to go around the whole thing.

But then on the way out, a woman stopped us and asked us if we had gone up to the second floor already. We both just stopped and said, second floor? Turns out there was a whole other room and whole other floor that we had missed! So we turned ourselves around and that's where the real fun started. We had conversations with the vendors, both in French and English, and sampled some really fantastic stuff, including champagne, crepes, full size waffles, more cheese and soup, breads, butters, candies, etc. One man who offered us soup right away asked us, "Are you here by accident?" And he said in that way and we knew that he knew that we were not there to buy things, just to get some (almost) free food. But he laughed and joked with us and told us that by the end of it, we wouldn't be hungry and we would be drunk. Which was hysterical. And when we went to another stand, the man was offering little samples of cocktails and when we came up to the stand, he just looked at us and said, "You're drinking soup?", with that kind of "really..." look on his face. And he shook his head, and then let us choose which cocktail we wanted to sample. At one stand, we tried Turkish delight also. Which was good, but I have to say, after watching Edmund betray his family for it in the Chronicles of Narnia, I expected it to be better. By the end of that, we were stuffed full of delicious food, and very satisfied with our 2.50 meal. All because Courtney had to pee...

After the food show, we walked around the town, going into souvenir shops, buying postcards, and meeting a bunch of Americans. It was like a radar. When I heard American English, everything had to stop and we had to go over and talk to them. And I bought Courtney some of my favorite Belgian chocolate. We walked through a pretty path by the water for a while, and eventually ended up back in the center of town where we went to work looking for a dress for Courtney. We did find a stunning pick for her, which again, I will not disclose in case Chris is reading this ;) And I found THE cutest pair of shoes ever. They were 85 euros. And I would have bought them too. Thank God they didn't have my size...





Around six, Courtney and I and Talia and Aymeric decided it was dinner time. So we went to a little Italian place and they split a pizza and Courtney and I split pasta. It was quite delicious. After dinner, we, of course, stopped at a waffle stand and the girls got Brugge style waffles. Because let's face it, they're different, and the ones at the food show were Liège style! I actually prefer Brugge waffles. And yes, they were totally delicious. So Courtney ate four waffles in two days. And she only had a few of the prepackaged ones to get her through the rest of her life... I don't know what she's going to do! We're addicted.

We caught an 8:30 train back home, and I ended up sleeping on the train. But from what I heard, some interesting stuff went down with some Scottish people...

Benoit picked up me and Courtney and Talia at Waremme. Aymeric had gotten off at Landen. We dropped Talia off and her house, and Courtney and I went back to mine. We headed right upstairs and stayed up until 2am talking, swapping pictures, and sharing YouTube videos, cause that's what we do. Then Sunday morning came around and we were absolutely exhausted. We got up around 7am, got ready quickly, ate breakfast and got out the door for the hour long car ride to the airport so Courtney could go back to France. We saw her off with huge hugs, and my host mom and I went back home. I proceeded to sleep for a few hours, trying to ignore the huge car race that was happening around our house, eat lunch, sleep some more, and then work on my novel. Then the internet went all funky and I spiratically (sp?) Skyped with my family.

This weekend was an amazing huge success! Courtney and I had the time of our lives, and it was absolutely wonderful to see someone from back home. It was a blast, and it took me a good hour to write about it! It's probably the longest blog post yet, but it was totally that awesome! Wonderful, wonderful weekend with Mlle Burnside!!