The Year Is Almost Over

I'm not sure when the last time I blogged was... I'm pretty sure the day that I went to Talia's for dinner. Yes that's right. Ok so I should pick up with yesterday.

So yesterday, Mikayla and I woke up at my house, under the impression that we would have to leave the house around 9 30am because we had heard my host mom say something about that the night before. So we got up, even though we had stayed up talking and watching How I Met Your Mother for hours and didn't get to sleep til 3am. Great quotes from last night: "It's not even a one word do!" "It's like a log of duck with a layer of fat on it. Well maybe ducks are just made that way". Anyways. We woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready for the day. But it turned out that we didn't have to leave until the afternoon. So instead of going back to sleep, we wasted time on the computer and talking. Eventually, right before lunch, we went, both of us, over to Mikayla's house. I was going to spend the night there because there was a little get together in Hannut that night at the café to introduce Talia's sister to all the Belgians. But more about that later.

We got to Mikayla's and threw all our stuff in her room, and then almost immediately went downstairs to eat. Of course. We had some couscous and found that the FAHB had taken the Jello that Mikayla had gotten him, and put it in the fridge. Not the made Jello, just the powder in the box. In the fridge. And when he came walking through the kitchen, we asked him why he had put the Jello in the fridge and he thought it was supposed to go there. We laughed at him, telling him that it's just the powder and it doesn't need to be refrigerated until you make the actual Jello. The FAHB cracks me up. We then talked about how the Belgians are not very creative with their food and just stick within the realm of meat and potatoes and blandness. I have to say, being here really makes me appreciate the food I eat in America. You know, all the Belgians make fun of Americans and say that we don't know how to cook and we make terrible food and all we eat is McDonald's. I detest that stereotype. Because I can 100% testify to the fact that the food that I eat in my house is better and more interesting than the food I eat here. I miss beef stroganoff and chicken paprikash and cottage cheese and noodles and macaroni and cheese and tacos and chicken salad and all the wonderful food that was made in my house daily. Don't get me wrong, I lucked out with families and I eat well here. But the food I ate in the States was much more interesting. I didn't just eat omelets. I ate omelets with tomatoes and zucchini and cheese and onion and all kinds of good stuff. And when I didn't know what to eat, I made something up. Belgians don't make things up. They don't experiment with their food and it's boring. They don't even have banana bread! And I really do think sometimes that when Europe came together to decide what European culture was going to be, Belgium was just kinda like no thanks we're good over here. I mean, you think of gourmet food, you think of Italian meats and pastas and French sauces and breads. In Belgium, we have waffles, fries, chocolate and beer. Oh yes. Very high class. I'm just frustrated with the lack of creativity in certain areas of my life. And it's not like I can just be creative on my own. The fact of the matter is that food isn't just sitting around the kitchen. They buy food for what they will make that night and there are never leftovers. Things like sour cream are hard to come by and food is limited. There is cream cheese, but there is only regular. No strawberry, no herb, no cinnamon. And I suppose that could just force me to be even more creative, but when there are no vegetables in the house and I can't just jump in my car and run up to the Giant Eagle, it gets a little complicated. Ok there is my little rant about Belgian food. Let us continue with the events of the days.

Mikayla and I then took a leap of faith. We cut my hair. Not all of my hair, just my bangs. I decided I wanted my straight across bangs back. So that is what we did next. I watched a few tutorials and looked up instructions. We grabbed a pair of scissors and went at it. They turned out pretty darn good, too. They're a little shorter on the sides than I wanted, but they look good and they will grow out. And after they do, I'm going back to the style I had a couple years ago. Which means cutting off a good four or five inches... But we'll get to that in a month or so. We then watched a few more episode of How I Met Your Mother, ate dinner, which was pasta with ketchup, and we were on our way to Hannut. We had to drop of Mikayla's little host brother at the de Wulf house first, but then we met up with Talia and her family at Mister Patate in Hannut. You know, the place with the giant sandwich and all the fries? Mikayla and I split fries and talked with Talia and her family. Eventually, some kids from school met up with us. Mathieu and Maxime sat with us and they spoke English so that the family would understand. They speak very well. I was impressed. Lately, we've all been speaking French so I forget how well some of the Belgians speak English. After we were done eating, we said our goodbyes to the parents, and they went back to the house that they were staying at. The rest of us went over to the café down the road that we always hang out at. I swear, everyone and their mother was there. Ok not for real, no mothers were there, but you get what I mean. There was really nowhere to sit and it was a cloud of smoke. I think Abbey (Talia's sis) was a little overwhelmed at first. But we started talking with the Belgians and they all took a liking to her and she loosened up fairly quickly. We had a good time talking and standing around. But there weren't many places to sit, and the radiator was not comfortable. Towards the end of the night, things started to get a little weird and Mikayla and I were starting to get aggravated, so we left around 10 30pm. We went back to Mikayla's and made ice cream sundaes with peanut butter, Nutella, sprinkles, and speculoos paste. The speculoos paste wasn't our best idea ever. We stayed up til about 2am watching more How I Met Your Mother, and then crashed for the night.

We had to get up early again this morning because Mikayla was supposed to catch a 10 30 train to go to Maastricht with the other girls from her Rotary club. The plan was to drop me off and home and then go to the station. But things got a little complicated and Mikayla's host mom decided that she would drive, and it wasn't quite understood that I was supposed to get dropped off at home before picking everyone else up. So it worked out that I just went too. We picked up Bella, an "oldie" from Australia, at the train station in Waremme and then Gabby from Guillemans in Liège, and then we were off. Basically, Maastricht is just another town, but it's in the Netherlands. So I can now add one country to my list of European countries that I have visited during my stay here. Fortunately for us, everyone there speaks English. We got stuck in some traffic on the way, but it was fine because with us four girls in the car, there was plenty to talk about. We got there, spent a good chunk of time trying to find a parking space, and then we went off to explore the shops of Maastricht with the understanding that we would meet back up with Mikayla's host mom at 4pm. First off, we found food. I got a sandwich with ham and cheese and pineapple, which was yummy. The bread makes it. Bella had this giant hotdog on a baguette with cheese, and the other two had Nutella crèpes. Then we did some shopping. But I did not buy anything. Be proud world.

In Belgium, there is a yearly sale. Almost to the extent of our Black Friday. Except it last multiple days, and it is really the only sale of the year. It takes place normally a few days after the New Year, and the discounts grow progressively as the days wear on. Well the sale had already began in Maastricht, and the stores and streets were very crowded. The giant two story H&M was pretty nuts. Mikayla waited a good 20 minutes to try on a few pairs of jeans. But it was worth it cause she found a great pair!

Around 4, we met back up with Mikayla's host mom, though she had to move the car because she had been parked outside of a "Sex Shop". Not joking, it said that on the sign and there were pictures of women, topless, on the shop window. The parking was just for the... *ahem* customers... of the shop. So we had to walk another ten minutes to get to the car. Which, normally, wouldn't be an issue, but I was not prepared to go shopping, so I was wearing my heeled boots and a very thin sweater under my coat, and with the cobblestone sidewalks and roads, it was a little rough. Luckily, though, I had earmuffs in my purse. So I didn't freeze to death. Bella and Gabby had decided to stay longer in Maastricht and take a train home, so they grabbed their things, we said goodbyes and then me and Mikayla were headed home with her host mom.

On the way home, we stopped at a GB to grab a recharge for Mikayla's phone and some chocolate for her... needs. Then we went back to her house, and waited for my host mom. We didn't wait long, but I ate a good amount of peanut M&Ms in that time. I really need school to start again. I'm much better about my diet when I'm at school...

So I went home after that and ate dinner and searched frantically for a way to watch that good old "Pippi Longstocking" online. However, no dice. All I could find was the 60s version, and I want the 1997 cartoon. Poo. Oh well, at least I'll sleep tonight. Which is very necessary, considering tomorrow is the New Year. It's pretty nuts to think that the year is almost over and pretty soon we'll be in 2011.

2010 was a hard year. There were a lot of hardships, difficulties, and losses. It taught us all how to grieve, how to cry, and how to be angry. But out of it, also, came how to love and how to support the people around us in times of need. In reality, it was was a great year for me. It is filled with lots of memories. I did some amazing shows in 2010. I graduated from high school. I went to my senior Prom. I had a wonderful boyfriend. I grew closer to my parents. I went to Belgium. I began learning French. Here's to 2011 being even greater! I have a lot to top. We'll see how it goes, but let's make 2011 a year of opportunities received and risks taken. No regrets, and don't take anything for granted. Live in the moment, and cherish what you have right now. Because tomorrow, it could be gone. Appreciate everything, even the struggles. Because the truth is, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We wouldn't be who were are right now without the things that tested us. We passed the tests of 2010. Now let's throw that in 2011's face. Bring it on. No matter how hard it may seem, we can handle whatever life throws at us this year. Happy New Year everyone. Remember not to party too hard, and let's go into 2011 with a smile, holding hands, ready for a year of challenges and rewards. The prizes get bigger and better every year.

Yesterday And Today

So I had every intention of blogging yesterday, but it didn't happen for the sole reason that I forgot. I'm a terrible person, yes I know.

So yesterday was a pretty average day. I didn't really do anything special. I woke up and ate breakfast, hung out for a while, wrote some of my book ate lunch, and went to the gym. At the gym, there was a group of four guys who did their entire workout in Santa hats. They would head bang to the music and the end of the hat would be all over the place. It was really funny. After that, I went home and watched "All About Steve", which was a terrible movie and I'm very upset to know that such a wonderful and talented actress as Sandra Bullock has her name attached to that piece of dog poo. Although, Bradley Cooper made it worth suffering through the hour and a half of bad cinema.

There's my review for you.

Today, I woke up, ate breakfast, went to the gym for two hours, came home, ate lunch, took a nap, and then got ready and went to Talia's house with her family (real family) and two of her host families and Mikayla for a dinner. Mikayla and I got there before Talia and her family, and it was odd. But it was only about ten minutes later when they got there and we hit it off right away. I need to keep this short because Mikayla is here and I feel rude. But basically we had dinner and talked to her family. They are super super nice and her sister is a little sweetheart. Manon came a little ways through the dinner and we had fun talking with her and Geraldine and watching Talia's sister and host sister try to communicate with the language barrier. Anyways, now I'm laughing my butt off with Mikayla. She says hi. We're laughing really hard. Goodnight world.

I Think I May Die...

Ok a word to the wise: When you're full, STOP EATING.

I'm so full of food I can't stand it. I don't even know how my little tummy is holding it all. It's been like five hours and I still feel as if I'm going to burst. Let me back up and explain. Today, we went to my host dad's sister's house for the Christmas dinner that we were supposed to have yesterday. I met my host dad's brother and sister and their families, and his parents were there too. I really like his family! His sister is very nice, and she told me about the American store that is nearby, and his brother was nice too and we had some good conversation. P.S. My host dad is definitely the crazy in the family. But he did wear normal pants today.

The dinner was four courses. We started off with a salmon and something that resembled deviled eggs with a different taste. But the salmon had a weird gelatin on the bottom of it, and that really bothered me. I tried to ignore it and it was good overall. Next came the soup. I think it was a pumpkin soup, but I couldn't tell you for sure. After that was the main course. We had stuffed duck with oranges, green beans wrapped in bacon, potatoes, a celery purée, and these little fruits that I've never seen in the States with a name that I don't know how to spell. It was a good meal, but everything had this weird taste behind it that I didn't much care for. The thing about European cooking is that there is always fatty meats involved, which I really don't like. Green beans are great! But why must they be wrapped in bacon???? The duck was good, but it had a layer of fat across the top, and I think I was the only one who took that part off. I just can't handle the texture of fat in my mouth. I just can't chew on it. But after that was the dessert, and that was my poison. I intended on trying maybe two of the six cakes and tarts that were out on the table. But no, everyone was piling my plate until I had a piece of every single one. There were two ice cream logs, one with vanilla and raspberry and one with mocha. There was another log with mocha and chocolate, but it was more of a cake. There was a fruit tart, a rice cream tart, and an almond tart. And I had a piece of each. I really did think I was going to die. But after a half hour, I somehow managed to finish it all. They were all very good. I especially like the almond and the raspberry. The fruit tart was good, but it had a layer of that weird gelatin on it, and I didn't like that. I'm surprised I didn't burst. And I'm still feeling very full. My host brothers and dad ate dinner when we got home, but my host mom and I couldn't. I still feel like my stomach could burst any second. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep it off.

They did get me presents though! I received more Galler chocolates and a jar of Skippy crunchy peanut butter. YUM. Thank you American store in Antwerp.

Ok this wasn't the best post ever, but I'm tired and full and I want to go to sleep. I need to work out for like 5 hours tomorrow. Goodnight!

NOËL

Joyeux Noël tout le monde !

It's Christmas. December 25th. The day that Jesus was born.

Well let's start with yesterday. So yesterday was Christmas Eve. Obviously. The day started off pretty much like any other. I was supposed to go to school in the morning to pick up my report card, and I woke up late so I ran around getting ready really quickly so that we could get to school before 10 30am. But the snow was really bad so my host mom said no let's wait a bit and see if they come by to plow the roads. So I sat down to eat and then went upstairs to finish the present for my host parents. My host mom then came upstairs. She had gotten a text from school saying that they were going to postpone the report cards until January 10th. So no worries. I finished up my host family's gift and went down to lunch. It was a nice lunch. We had salad with little fancy meat thingys and big heaping portions of delicious wonderful melted cheese resting on top. It was so delicious. I love cheese so much. Then Benoit came home. He actually had class on Christmas Eve. So he ate lunch too with us and then I went to work wrapping all my gifts for my family and putting together the Christmas package to send home. It took me a while, but I did finish. And then I cleaned my room and got ready to go to my host mom's parents' house for Christmas dinner.

Around 5 30pm, we all got in the car and put on a Christmas cd as we drove to pick up Damien from school. Cue the beginning of Emma's homesickness. Although I sang along to the songs anyway since they were mostly in English. But after the first half hour I just stared out the window and listened to the music and thought about home. We got Damien from school and then eventually made it to my host grandparents' house. We walked in to a warm welcome from them and my host mom's brother and his wife and kids. They have four children, three boys and a girl. The oldest is seven, the next is five, and then there are two three year old twins, one boy and one girl. They are all so adorable too. We said our hellos and Joyeux Noëls and took off our coats and such. And I learned that mistletoe here is a New Years tradition, not a Christmas one. You kiss someone under mistletoe at midnight on New Years. Interesting.

Everything was warm and sweet and pretty. That house is so full of warmth and love, I can't take it. It reminds me so much of my grandparents' house in the States. And my host grandparents remind me of my own grandparents. It's nuts. We all sat down in the living room and talked and such. And then out came the appetizers. All kinds of little things stacked up on mini crackers. The specialty of grandma. There were some with crab, anchovies, salmon, egg, ham, all kinds of things. I tried anchovies for the first time in my life. I didn't like it much. But I also tried caviar for the first time, and that was wonderful. I have expensive taste I guess. I also drank quite a bit of champagne and couldn't turn my head too fast without a little bit of dizziness. But nothing at all to worry about. They just kept filling my glass before I could say no thank you.

Then it was gift exchanging time. I didn't expect to receive anything, but I did get a few things, and it was very sweet and I felt bad that I had left my present for my family at the house, under the impression that we would exchange on Christmas day. From Damien, I received a nice big bottle of Kriek, which is that cherry flavored beer that I do in fact like. My host parents got me a turquoise Ice Watch, which is very Belgian. I think I'm going to swap it out for the green though. I'll explain why in a bit. My host grandparents got me a nice little dainty silver necklace with a rhinestone peace sign pendant. And my host mom's brother's family, who I had just met that day, gave me chocolates. A nice pallet of little sample sizes of all the Galler flavors. And a little box of "chacolat" which is a box with a few chocolates in it and a comic strip starring a cat (cat is "chat" in French). I was touched by my gifts and liked them very much. Everyone got some nice stuff too, including a GPS for my host dad.

By this time everyone was ready for dinner. So we sat down to our first course, which was a sort of log of pureed lobster and vegetables with a white sauce. The sauce also had little pieces of vegetables in it. We had rolls with it also. It was absolutely delicious and the sauce was so creamy. I was already full by the end of the first course. I helped clear the table and get the next round of plates ready. Each person got their own little tiny cornish hen. They were seriously the smallest eating birds I've ever seen. Each person got one, along with some vegetable that is called "chicon" and a couple of these deep fried potato type balls. It was all covered in a wonderful thick gravy. That was truly delicious. Of course, the kids all got something else to eat, and by this time they were all sitting in front of the television watching some Tinkerbell movie. I could not finish all my food. I thought my stomach was going to burst. But we still had dessert! We took some time in between the courses though. I was drinking wine with the meal too! Which is very different for me. I had a glass of white and of red. And I have to say, I did enjoy it. The first time of my life that I enjoyed drinking wine. Anyways, we took some time now to just chill out. I played with the kids a little and talked to my host brothers. But then it was time for my death: dessert. There were two cakes. They were the yule log type cakes. One was ice cream, and the other was an actual cake that was mocha flavored. They insisted that I take a little of each, so I tried them both. I can't believe my stomach didn't burst. But then they brought out the macaroons, and I was obligated to try one of those too. And then the chocolates, but I passed on those. Then we took some family photos. By this time, it was about 11 30pm and it was time to go. We packed up our gifts and drove home, stopping about halfway to change drivers because my host dad was sleepy. We got home, I showered, watched about half of "The Incredibles" and fell asleep with my homesickness.

This morning I woke up with 20 minutes before the Christmas mass. I hurried up and got ready and then me and host parents went to the church behind the house and Benoit met up with us. It was probably the saddest Christmas mass I've ever been to. There was hardly anyone there and the music was very depressive. But it was a Christmas mass nonetheless, and although I didn't understand much, I kept up as much as I could. When it was over, we went back to the house and had a breakfast of bread and Nutella and jelly. Which my host brother thought was especially strange. I then went upstairs to take a nap, but instead ended up writing a bit more of my novel, applying to another university, sending a few emails and writing a letter to Ryan. Then it was lunchtime. We had pheasant, though I had chicken instead (I'm not sure why), grilled mango, cooked cinnamon apples, and roasted potatoes. We were supposed to go today to my host dad's sister's house for Christmas dinner, but because of the snow, we are going tomorrow instead. Then I Skyped with my family for 2 hours and read the story of Christmas with them, watched them open their gifts, and talked with them about things going on in life. I then amused myself with Skype and StumbleUpon, since my host parents went out and my host brothers were each in their rooms doing their own things. Very odd Christmas. I was feeling pretty homesick. But then it was dinner time, which was just fish soup with shrimp and cooked oysters, which I didn't eat. But the conversation was very good and I gave my family the cookbook of American recipes that I had made them for Christmas. We flipped through it together, and it turns out I didn't make that many mistakes in it! I had translated all the recipes from English to French and converted them from US to metric. It took a while, but it was worth it because they really liked it and appreciated it.I spent a good chunk of time downstairs afterwards talking with my host mom and a little with my host dad, and then I Skyped with the whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, for about a half hour. And then I showered and now I'm blogging and my eyes are closing. It's time for Emma to go to sleep.

Tomorrow, we continue Christmas. Bonne nuit !

Joyeux Noël

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

A Christmas post coming later.

Love,

Chicken Paprikash

So about that party last night... I didn't go. Because I started to feel sick. And I really freaked out. If you know me, or if you've at least been keeping up with the blog, you know that I am deathly afraid of puking. And my host mom and brother came down with a sort of stomach flu the other day. And then yesterday, I was fine all morning. I went to the gym and worked out for 2 hours (and did really freaking great too), came home and cleaned my room and continued writing my Christmas cards and putting together the few packages I'm going to send, and worked out rides and stuff to get to the party. It was all ready to go. And then I decided to take a shower. And all of the sudden my stomach just started hurting. I wrote it off at first, but then it started to really bother me. So then I said, oh it's just an anxiety attack since I'm so freaked out by the rest of the people around me being sick. Plus my host mom had conveniently told me that it was on the news how there have been a lot of cases of stomach flu in Belgium this winter. So needless to say, I was nervous about it. So I said I would just wait a couple hours and see how I was. I laid down in my bed and began watching "The Princess Bride" and told my host mom I wasn't feeling well and didn't know if I was gonna go to the party. Eventually I started to feel a little better, but still decided not to go because I knew I would kick myself the next day if I got sick from going out when I wasn't in good shape. So I stayed home. Over the course of the night, I drank only water, didn't eat anything, and watched "The Princess Bride", "Ella Enchanted", and "Men in Tights". Kind of on a medieval/Cary Elwes kick. But I enjoyed myself. The I watched "Bride Wars", and then fell asleep to an episode of "Big Bang Theory".

I woke up this morning feeling tip top. I ate breakfast, continued with my Christmas stuff, and then after lunch, did some more Christmas shopping with my host mom. Don't worry, I didn't buy anything. Then for dinner I decided to try my hand at one of my dad's classic recipes: chicken paprikash. I had him send me the recipe last night and my host mom got some sour cream for me and I was doing great with it! The chicken was cooking perfectly and I had the sauce simmering and everything.

And then I tried to make the dumplings.

I totally failed. I'm just going to come right out and say it. I can't make dumplings to save my life. I don't know what was wrong with them. But they would not cook through. I put them in the boiling water by the spoonful just like Daddy said. And I was texting him simultaneously and he told me to just keep boiling them, but they wouldn't cook. They turned out totally yucky looking and they didn't taste right either. So I threw away the first attempt, changed the batter a little with more flour, but take two was no good either. So in the end, we ended up just making some pasta and my host mom and I sat down to eat. I have to say though, I totally aced the sauce and chicken. The sauce was a little bit richer than I'm used to, and I'm not sure if there was too much sour cream or I'm just all adjusted to the less flavorful Belgian food. Regardless, it tasted good and my host mom LOVED it. My host dad then came home and tasted it too and he said it was also very good. So I win :) And it was not bad over pasta, though it would have been better if I had done the dumplings right... But the chicken was extremely tender and I am very proud of that part.

By this time it was already past 9pm. And now it's past midnight. Which means technically it's Christmas Eve. And it couldn't feel farther from it. But apparently later today I'm going to have the best Christmas meal of my life at my host grandma's house. We'll see! For now, it's sleepy time. Goodnight all!

No Title

You have to push past that mental wall. Once you do, you'll be amazed what you can do.

Thank you, Ryan Chambers.

Christmas Shopping

Today I went to Liège with Brittany and Hadley to do some mad Christmas shopping before the big day on Saturday. No, nobody's getting married. It's Christmas you silly gooses!!

I woke up this morning to find that the buses still are not running in my little village of Fumal. Convenient. Not. So my host mom drove me to the gym this morning around 10am. We got there just as they were opening and some other people were already waiting outside. These people are intense when they want to be. Anyway, Talia met me there and we worked out for about an hour and a half, just doing the regular circuit as is habitual. Then we took a quick run over to the grocery store so that Talia could pick up a few things, and then we caught a bus back over by the gym with only a minute to spare. Talia took it home, but I stayed on and rode all the way to the Waremme train station, where I caught a train to Liège. I met up with Hadley and Brittany around 1 15 and we caught a bus over the Médiacité, which is like a mall in the middle of Liège. I had no idea it existed! And I discovered Primark, a wonderful store with very well priced clothing and jewelry and shoes and stuff. I finally bought myself a pair of man shoes that I've been looking around forever for! And I got myself some slippers too, since I tend to be so freezing. Then I helped the other two find presents for their host families, which was successful. We all walked out of the store happy. We then did some other shopping and eventually decided to head over to where the Marché de Noël is, where I've been spending a lot of my time lately. But first we dropped Hadley back off at the train station, since she had to catch an earlier train. But then me and Brit headed over and we finished up our Christmas shopping and then caught a bus back to the station, where she got her bus and I, my train. The station was cool because all the lights were shining red for Christmas and there was a group in the middle of the station performing. Not Christmas carols, but they were singing. Songs like "What A Wonderful World" and "Oh Happy Day". Nice.

My host mom picked me up from Waremme and then I went straight to dance, which went very well today. Then I went home, ate the dinner I hadn't had before, and took my shower. Now I'm getting ready to go to sleep since there's a big party tomorrow in Hannut for the end of exams. Woo! As you can see, today wasn't too exciting. And I haven't eaten anything noteworthy the last couple days. I probably won't blog tomorrow since I have the party, but I'm sure I will have plenty to say the next day!

Bonne nuit :)

Is It Christmas Yet?

Christmas is in less than a week. And it feels so very much like it's not. I don't think I've ever experienced a December that felt less Christmas-y. Here's why: There's no Christmas concerts. No carolers. No caroling. No Christmas cookies. No Christmas lights. No extravagant decorations. No Santa's ringing bells. No malls with lines of children waiting to take their pictures with Santa. No television specials. No Christmas songs on the radio. No Christmas movies. No Nutcracker performances. No "The Christmas Carol" to go see. No gingerbread houses. It feels like there's no Christmas. Not to mention on Christmas Eve, I have to go to the school to pick up my report card. On Christmas Eve!! Ugh. Anyways, this is what I did today.

I woke up kinda late, 10 30am, and didn't eat breakfast. I got myself ready and actually put in my contacts this morning. And they're fine! They haven't been bothering me all day and they're not red or anything! So I found that exciting. I then went down for lunch, which was duck and stuffing, green beans in cream sauce, these potato fried things, and some other sort of vegetable that I didn't recognize. After lunch, my host parents and I went out to Liège for another Rotary event. It took us a long time to get there because there is actually a decent amount of snow on the ground now and the roads are legitimately bad. The Belgians actually have reason to freak out now.

We went to a church in Liège, where we were the first ones to get there, other than the President of the club and the musicians. It was a sort of Christmas concert. So yes, finally something festive. There was a piano/harpsichord/organ player and flute player also. But the kind that looks more like a recorder. Wow, yes, I sound incredibly musically educated right now. Anyways, some of the concert was just them playing, but other parts, we sang. All 25 or 30 of us. Yah, there weren't that many people there. But it was funny because some of the songs were in English, so obviously I had no trouble, but it was funny to hear the Belgians trying to sing in English. Especially the more upbeat ones like Jingle Bells. So I enjoyed myself. And I don't think I failed too bad at the French singing either.

It then took us a good hour and a half to get home when it normally takes a half hour. Then I spoke with my mother, ate dinner (cheese, bread, pizza, typical Sunday dinner), and Skyped with my parents. Now I'm waiting to see if I'm going to talk to Ryan tonight. But it is kinda late so we'll see. Tomorrow, I finish my Christmas shopping. Yay shopping! By the way, red pants again today.

And for your own Christmas enjoyment, this is my gift to all my readers: http://theuglydance.com/?v=vjeqsomvwt

Bonne nuit!

I Ate Twice My Weight Today...

It's Saturday. I really feel like all I did today was eat. It's almost 1 30am too and I'm so freaking exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open as I write this blog. So it may be a little less detailed than normal.

I woke up at about 10 45 this morning, but that was after not getting to sleep until 3 30am. But I got up and got ready and went to dance for 11 20 as is customary on Saturday mornings. And it was a terrible class. I did not do well at all. I'm pretty sure it's cause my whole body is sore and tired from working out all week, not to mention that I have not been getting enough sleep (as I write on my blog at 1 30am). So things just did not go well at dance today. Afterwards, my host mom picked me up and we went back to the house quickly before going out to Liège to sell oysters with Rotary. On the way home, Karine was driving slow, as usual, but she somehow got off the road for a second and when she got back on, the car slid and did a nice 360 turn, landing in some branches, just missing a telephone pole. It was fine and we were fine and there might have been a few scratches on the car, but that was it. The Belgians really need to discover snow tires.

Anyway, we got back to the house and I ate lunch as my host mom and Benoit went out to get the other car's tires filled, since the one was almost completely flat. I had three little sandwiches on baguette: one with a soft cheese and apple jelly, one with the soft cheese and the sirop de Liège, and one with ham and American cheese and mustard. The baguette today was especially delicious. And I was pretty darn full after.

My host mom and I then went out to Liège to meet up with my Rotary club. My host dad was already there. We were supposed to be there at 3, but with the snow and the fact that there was nowhere to park, we ended up being about a half hour late. We got there and said hi to everyone and then the Rotary people tried to get me to eat an oyster, but I couldn't. I really do want to try new things here, but I couldn't bring myself to eat that uncooked, raw, slimy crustacean. Which, apparently is a shame because everyone was saying how delicious they are. But then there weren't that many people coming to the stand, so my host mom told me I could go for an hour and do my Christmas shopping. So I did, and I came across my host brother and his girlfriend in the process, but I was able to find some good gifts and I'm happy with them. But I'm not quite finished and I think I'm going again on Monday. Oye shopping.

I then returned to the stand and was able to stay in the shop that was behind it where they were preparing the food in the warmth. Which was a plus. There wasn't really anything for me to do though, and I just ended up talking with my counselor and such. Christian wasn't there. But eventually we got to talking, and I have been invited to go with him for 2 weeks on vacation in the south of France!!! We would leave the day after Christmas. Now this isn't positively for sure, but it's a good chance that I would get to go and I'm so excited!

Anyways, we stayed there til about 6 30 and I had been snacking on these little chip things the entire time. But we returned to the house again, just for a minute to pick up my host dad, and then we were off to Namur for dinner with some family friends. By this point, it was already 8pm ish. We got there and I met the couple and their daughter and her boyfriend. They were very very nice and really funny and the house was warm and cozy and a little eccentric, which I appreciated. And they had a dog. A huge one. Like a bear. Really furry too. But it stayed outside the whole time.

We first sat down in the living room where they brought out some appetizers like little bits of sausages and such. But then it started getting fancy and the wife brought out some more little pre dinner foods that had garnishes in little porcelain dishes with itty bitty spoons and other fancy stuff. There was pate with some caramelized onions, but a very tiny portion with the smallest spoon you've ever seen in your life. Then she brought out this other one which was a skewer of a special kind of Belgian meat and a piece of a warm apple. Delicious.

Then it was time for the oysters. My host parents had bought a box of them from the stand and brought them with us. So the man of the house sat with us and spent the next fifteen or twenty minutes opening the oysters. I didn't realize that that is all the preparation that goes into eating oysters. You just open them. Ew. But they were all on a plate and the shells are pretty. Once they were all opened, we moved into the dining room to eat this first course of the giant meal. I did take one oyster, but the minute I opened it and saw it, I just lost my appetite. I really do pride myself on always trying things, but the fact that it wasn't cooked... If you know me, you know I have a fear of puking, which leads to my other irrational fears, such as roller coasters. This also includes my fear of raw meat/seafood. So I just couldn't eat it. I wanted to try it, but I couldn't. My body was rejecting it before it was even in my mouth. But the family understood and we all just laughed about it.

The next course was the main one. We had some sort of meat, which I think was lamb, green beans, and cheesy potatoes. Although the meat was kinda fatty, and I had to trim it a lot, it was really good and had a wonderful flavor. The potatoes were amazing. The best cheesy potatoes I've ever had. Technically, they were potatoes au gratin, but I like saying cheesy potatoes because it's more fun. And they were cheesy, and they reminded me of home. And of course, I love green beans, so that was good too. But by this point, I had so much food in my stomach, I thought I was going to burst and I couldn't figure out how I was going to finish what was on my plate. And then everyone started taking seconds and I felt bad saying no thank you, but I was beginning to feel sick and I couldn't eat anymore. But I did manage to clean my plate, except for the meat trimmings. They cleared away those dishes and I really did begin to feel ill. Which was not good. But it passed very quickly. That's when my eyes began to droop. We must have already been there for two hours.

Then they brought out the next course. The cheese. I couldn't figure out how I was going to do this. But I took very small portions of just a few of them and the smallest piece of bread that was in the bowl and ate just enough to get the tastes of the cheese. One was a brie, the other was another similar soft white cheese, one was a gouda type with bits of violets in it, and the other was a goat cheese that was covered in different kinds of crushed flowers. We ate it with a pumpernickel type bread that had nuts and such in it. The cheeses were delicious. I wish I could have had more.

But the food didn't stop there. They cleared those plates and fifteen minutes later, it was time for the last course. The most deadly. Dessert. The daughter brought out a platter of cookies she had made, some chocolate macaroons, lemon macaroons, and other really thin crispy cookies. I took one of each, even though at this point my stomach really was full to bursting. I successfully finished my cookies without any major problems. You think that was it? Oh no. There were also two cakes. One chocolate one with raspberries on it that made me want to die and go to heaven so that I could eat that all day long. The other was a crumble with red berries inside. That one looked rich and decadent also. But I couldn't eat anymore. Ten minutes later I asked for the crumble. I took half of a piece that my host dad had taken the other half of. I was halfway through the crumble when I really started to feel like I couldn't take another bite. It was so delicious. It was a crust, then some sort of custard, then raspberries and strawberries and cherries, mixed with a red berry mousse and topped with the crumble. I let myself rest for a couple minutes and then somehow, with the help of the Lord, finished the cake. And then I stared at the half of a piece of the chocolate cake, but successfully stopped myself from taking it. By this point I couldn't believe how much food I had eaten, but it was all so good. SO GOOD.

Then we left and it was midnight and I fell asleep in the car. We got home, I took a shower, and now I'm blogging and I want to go to sleep. Goodnight all.

Host dad's pants for today: red.

TGIF. Although Thursday Was Pretty Great

It's Friday. Which means I'm officially done with exams and I'm on vacation! Yay for no more school! Kinda... Call me crazy but I'm not too psyched for break. I guess it's cause Christmas is in a week and it doesn't feel like it at all. There are no Christmas songs on the radio, no lights on the houses, no TV specials, no movies, no Nutcracker, no Christmas cookies, no big crazy decorations... Not to mention it's hard to be away from home on the holidays. But I really do think it would be a lot worse if I was still on Facebook. So I'm actually really glad I deactivated. Today I had Social Sciences as far as exams. Mikayla and I were able to take it together, and I think we did a really good job on it.

But the really interesting part of this post is yesterday. I had my Science exam, and I just did not haven enough time to finish it. I really only got through about half. The genetics part, because that's what I knew well. But I'm not too concerned about it. But after that, me and Talia went to the gym, as usual, and we biked, worked out our legs, and then did some elliptical. But then for some reason, my arm is really killing me today... Anyways, we also did some ab stuff and took a nice long stretch at the end, which hurt really bad, but also did a lot of good. Then afterwards, we took the bus to Talia's, where we chowed down, talked to her host family, and just chilled for a couple hours. Then we got in the car and her host brother drove us back to the school to meet up with Madame Gallo.

She had decided that she wanted to sort of be in charge of us as exchange students, and kind of act as our counselor and mentor, since she had been an exchange student when she was in high school. She spent the year in Oregon. And she's awesome. So she asked us if we would like to organize some activities with her. And last night, she took us to she her show. She's a comedian. And she wrote a one woman show that she is performing in Brussels. So she took us with her! I was super excited. The entire ride there, we talked, in French of course and just had a really good conversation. And it was snowing. OH MY GOD. But Mme Gallo is so cool, she has snow tires so she doesn't drive like a 86 year old woman.

We got to the cultural center, and she showed us into the theater, and even showed us backstage and her dressing room. But then, obviously, she had to get ready for the show, so we went into the town to find some chow for Eduardo. After taking a few pictures on the stage, of course. We went out into the snow and found a fries and pita place, and Eduardo ordered a taco! He said it was kinda similar to what he had in Mexico. But it had fries on it. It was interesting. I didn't taste it though. After that, we took a few minutes and went into a café and sat down for a drink. Then we went back to the theater, got our free tickets, and waited for the doors to open. And then it was show time. It was a little studio theater so it was pretty intimate and we sat only three rows back. And it was a WONDERFUL show! I laughed so hard. And a big part of it too was the pure fact that she's my teacher doing ridiculous things on stage. The best part of it was that I understood almost every single word that she said. The show she wrote was about American cinema and she talked about classic films like Casablanca and Bridgette Jones. And showed a bunch of different props that were "from the movies". And it was really hysterical. She had this giant pillow beanbag thing that she would use for different things, and at one point she danced the tango with it to "Roxanne" from The Moulin Rouge.

After the show, she took us back to Mikayla's house, and on the way back she told us stories about her exchange and we just had a really great time talking and laughing and everything was splendid. Then we got to Mikayla's house, all of us, and crashed. After having a midnight snack. By the way, peanut butter and Nutella and jelly is a wonderful sandwich combination.

This morning, we woke up and went to school. I went to the gym by myself afterwards, since there were no buses running because of the snow, so Talia could not come up to meet me. But when my host mom picked me up, we went to pick up Damien from school and brought his friends home too. But before, we did a little shopping at the mall there (yes a MALL) and I bought some presents for my family.

When I got home, I went to work on Christmas cards. I got about halfway through. Now I'm getting ready for bed. So bonne nuit tout le monde !

Sore Day And The Cookie Mountain

Can anyone guess what day comes after exercise day? You guessed it! Sore day! Ok, truth be told, it wasn't that bad. My arms were really the only part of me that was in pain. My legs ached a bit and my chest and shoulders too, but my arms were horrible. But Talia and I stuck it through and after our very easy morning, we went for day 2.

Our morning consisted of our English exam. The exchange students had to give a presentation of everything that the class had covered over the course of the semester. This pretty much included topics like why language learning is important, why English is important, the different songs they studied, "A Christmas Carol" and the presentations that some other exchange students had come to give. The prof gave us the first 2 hours of the exam time to prepare while the rest of the class was taking the first part of their exam. So Eduardo, Talia, Mikayla and I worked on the presentation. We had decided to put on a little skit where Talia was the teacher and us three were the students who were in an English class. So we wrote the script and then at the beginning of the second half, we put it on for the class. And it was a big hit! We even got some laughs. And afterwards, the prof could not stop raving about it. She thought it was absolutely excellent. She used the word "extraordinary". Go us! So I think we passed.

We finished our skit in about twenty minutes and then the three girls went over to the GB to look for a pumpkin for Mikayla. We couldn't find that, but she bought some Pringles and I got a little pasta thingy for my lunch, along with some Christmas cards and a new white out. We then went over to the café to eat our brown bag lunches and relax before Talia and I were scheduled to be at the gym at 1pm.

Around 12 20, Talia and I started heading over there. We stopped at the GB again to grab a water bottle, and then we were back on our way. We got there close to one, changed, and then had another run through of the circuit, this time with a guy showing us around. He had us do basically the same things as yesterday, with just a few changes in the exercises and adding a machine or two. At 2pm, Géraldine, Talia's host sister, came up to the gym to join us and do the workouts with us. We stayed until almost 4pm, and I have to say, I had a blast! We had fun talking and joking and laughing with the gym guy, even though I thought I was going to die from time to time due to my very sad lack of arm strength. Tomorrow, we do just cardio.

After we finished at the gym, I went home to begin my next adventure: Cookies! I decided to do cookies for Christmas gifts to my friends at school, and I spent the entire evening making two batches of my famous chocolate chip cookies. You see, in the States, every year for Christmas I make chocolates. All different kinds. Peanut butter cups, peanut clusters, chocolate covered marshmallows and pretzels with different sprinkles, all kinds. My specialty is a chocolate covered pretzel rolled in peppermint pieces. I was a pro at my chocolate making. Even my molds were special. I had all different colors of chocolates and I would make the molds very artistic. The teddy bears would get red hearts. The snowmen were white chocolate with orange carrot noses, colorful hats, scarves and buttons, and black for the eyes and mouth. I was very meticulous about my snow men. I even had little paper cups for the clusters that had holly leaves on them. And then I would take a bunch of the chocolates and put them in little cellophane bags with snowflakes or Christmas trees or holly or whatever decoration on them and tie them up with red and gold Christmas cord. They made wonderful gifts and everyone always loved them. But since I'm in Belgium and they don't seem to be really into that kind of stuff and there's no cake/confectionary store nearby, I went for cookies. Also, all the Belgians rave over my cookies, so why not? I made them a bit smaller too. And since Belgian appliances are considerably smaller than American ones, I could only make nine cookies at a time. Talk about time consuming. But I spent the time in between batches talking to my friends back in the States, catching up with my sister and trying not to raise my arms too high.

By the time I had finished all the cookies, which was after dinner (that pasta dish that my host dad makes with the shrimp... The whole ones... That you have to dismember yourself... The ones that stare at you), I had formed a small mountain from the 143 cookies that I had made. Of course, occasionally Benoit would come downstairs and steal some, and I ate way too much dough and cookies and chocolate... Kinda defeating the purpose of today's workout, but I confess and I will try harder to get back on my diet!

However, the fun did not stop there! I then spent the next couple hours making little satchels for my cookies out of red napkins and plastic wrap and tying them up with gold ribbon with Christmas trees on it. But then I ran out of plastic wrap. So I put a paper towel on top of the red napkin and wrapped that up instead so that the red was on the outside. But then I ran out of paper towels. So I used foil. But only for like two or three of them. In the end, I had forty satchels ready to take to school tomorrow. And now I'm in bed after a lovely hot shower and I'm ready to sleep.

Oh and my host dad wore his red pants today.

Bonne nuit!

Remember That Day That I Called Exercise Day?

So if you've been reading the blog since the beginning, you probably remember that during the first week that I was here, I named one of the days "exercise day". I think I had biked and gone for a run that day or something... I'm not sure. Anyways, I was seriously wrong.

Today, December 14, 2010, and every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday that is going to follow this Tuesday is going to be name "exercise day". Why? Because Talia and I went to the gym for the first time today to actually work out. And it was AWESOME. We got there and nice lady behind the counter showed us first where the locker room was, we changed, and then she took us through the whole circuit. First, we did 10 minutes of cardio on the stationary bikes. Which was sadly difficult and my thighs were on fire afterwards. I was so depressed at my lack of in-shape ness. After that, we went through the weight training. For each machine we each did 4 set of 15 reps. The first was a leg press, just simple feet-on-panel-push-back-and-forth type thing. That was followed by two different machines, one that worked your inner thigh and the other worked the outer hip area. Then we went on to arms. Two different machines. Those weren't too bad. The next ones made me want to die. The sort of replicated push ups, which I'm terrible at, and I felt so weak. Especially the one that you push over your head. I can't believe how weak I am sometimes... But give me a couple weeks! After that we did crunches, but with this really cool thing. I don't even know what to call it. You laid on a mat and put your head and shoulders under this light-weight thing. It had a little something for your head to rest on and then there is a bar above your face that you put your hands on, but you don't push with it. You use your abs to do the crunches, but it supports your head so your neck doesn't hurt afterwards. SO COOL! I want one. After the crunches, we went back to weight training and did more arm work. After that, those machines where you push the bar down with your calves to work your thighs, and then another where you push it up to work the backs of your legs. I felt the burn. After we finished that, it was time for more cardio, and this time we did 20 minutes on the bikes. But for some reason it was much easier that time.

By the time our workout was finished, it had taken us almost 2 hours, which we were very satisfied with. We plan on going almost every day after school and most Saturdays. So why are Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays exercise days and not Mondays or Wednesdays or Fridays? Because I have dance. And today went ok, but I'm tired and I'm sure I'm going to die from soreness during my next class.

By the way, the fact that I can't wear contacts anymore is killing me in dance.

As far as school today, I had my French exam, which went rather well if I do say so myself. The first part, I did the same as the rest of the class, though my teacher gave me the option. She said I could try or just work on something else. I decided to try, why not? So she just told me to do my best. She's awesome. Out of the four questions, I was able to finish three of them. Two of them were analyzing texts, excerpts from books, one was a poem analyzation, and one had two paintings to explain. I was able to do the paintings with no problem, and the poem was actually the one that I had come across last night while I was studying and absolutely fell in love with. So I read it over and over and was an expert on it. WIN! I was actually able to understand the texts without translating in my head, which made me very very proud, but I had to read very slowly, so the text itself took me a good half hour to read. But I was able to write a great analysis about it and I'm so very proud of my work. The second part, the rest of the class had to write about the books they had read. As far as me, she gave me two questions to answer. The first asked what the most important book in my life is and why, and the second asked if culture is important to the young people of today and why. I think I answered those fairly well also. Overall, I'm very proud of my French exam, regardless of the grade I receive. After that, Talia and I got food and then went to the gym.

Tomorrow is English. And then food. And then gym. Yay! Right now, sleepytime. Bonne nuit!

Les Personnes, Ils Changent

C'est vrai quoi ils disent... Les gens changent. Tout le monde change un peu pendant sa vie. Parfois, c'est pour avoir un caractère mieux, mais parfois, et ça c'est quoi donner peur, c'est plus compliqué de ça. Nous tous connaissons quelqu'un qui nous avez perdu comme ami à cause de quelque chose pas de notre choix. Et c'est dur quand ce personne était une grande partie de ta vie. Mais on dois accepter le réalité. Les personnes changent. C'est difficile, mais c'est la vie. Et avec le support de la famille et les amis qui sont autour de nous, on continue avec la vie.

Si on veut, c'est toujours possible être proche de les personnes qui ne sont pas les mêmes. Parfois, on n'a pas le choix. Mais c'est nécessaire accepter et vouloir accepter ce personne pour qu'il avait devenu. Moi, j'ai pas envie de supprimer mes amitiés, mais peut-être change un peu. Les personnes dans ma vie sont tous importants de moi, et si j'ai perdu un... ça ne va pas. Maintenant, je vais juste être là pour n'importe qui a besoin mon aide. Et je vais supporter ce personne, parce que ça c'est qui je suis. C'est un leçon en accepter la vie.

Aujourd'hui, j'avais mon examen de maths. Je suis sure que j'ai raté cet examen. Mais c'est pas grave, je vais essayer demain pour français. Aussi aujourd'hui, Talia et moi sommes allées au gym pour inscrire. Mais c'était un peu compliqué parce que, être la fille très intelligente que je suis, j'ai laissé mon portefeuille à la maison et ma mère d'accueil l'a apporté à Hannut pour moi parce qu'elle est très gentille. Et après on a inscrit, la sœur d'accueil de Talia a téléphoné et Talia avait sa calculatrice. Donc, nous avons retourné chez Talia et pas fait du sport aujourd'hui. Mais demain, on va encore pour faire de régime! Et ce soir, je dors chez Talia aussi. C'est bien, non?

Bonne nuit tout le monde.

College Applications

Make me want to kill myself.

I'm really tempted to leave that being the only thing I put on this blog post, because it pretty much sums up my day. However, I'm way too talkative to let that be the only thing. If you've been following, you know how long my posts can be, but when you actually think back to what it was about, I probably could have summed it up in a paragraph if I wanted to. But I enjoy typing my little heart out, so let me gosh darn it!!

Today I successfully submitted two out of my four applications for college. Now I am working on the one for New York University, and I have been sitting here staring at this question for the last three or four hours. It's terrible. I just cannot seem to come up with an answer. Not to mention that I'm only allowed 500 characters for these very complex questions. Kudos, NYU. You really know how to challenge your applicants.

Other than that, nothing exciting happened today. I Skyped with a few people back home, got upset once or twice, and wrote to my sister. Chill day of writing, studying, and listening to music. Tomorrow I have my math exam. Four hours. I'm going to die. But after that, Talia and I are going to the gym to sign up and work out and I have never been so excited in my life to work out. Seriously, I am so inspired. Go us!

Now I have nothing else to say. Bonne nuit tout le monde !!

A Date With My Host Brother, A Performance, And The Harry Potter Elevator

Today, I got up at 8 30am. On a Saturday! Of course, I also got up at like 6 30 and then 7 45 and then 8 00 because I was for some reason really worried about getting up this morning. I had a good reason for it though. Today, I had to be at the Academy at 9 30am to be ready to leave for Brussels for my second special performance with the blue fabric tube. And I successfully made it on time. I got there and there were already a few others in the building, but we had to wait another fifteen or twenty minutes for all of the other kids that were participating in the "spectacle". The adults talked amongst themselves and figured out who was taking who and who the most room in their cars. Eventually, we were all in cars and ready to go. I went with the director of the Academy, my ballet teacher, and one of the other girls who was dancing with us. It only took us about forty minutes to get to Brussels, which I was really surprised at, considering my host mom always says how it takes a good hour and a half to get there...

Anyways, the GPS led us and we parked in a parking garage and walked about five minutes to get to the theater. Once we got there, we put our things in a back room and went into the theater to watch a performance before our performance. It was a woman from... Somewhere... And she played a piece on the piano. A very interesting, contemporary, and lovely piece. But it was also very long, and I obviously didn't sleep very well last night, and let's just say I was much better rested afterwards. I tried, I really did, to stay awake through the whole thing, because I really liked it. But it was very very long, and I just could not keep my eyes open after a while. But really, it was beautiful.

After that performance, we went to get our things and then we went back into the theater and walked up onto the stage and through the curtains to the dressing room. The way the theater was set up, there was a regular stage, with a red curtain and everything, but then there was another mini stage on the floor right below it. And then the chairs ascended up from there and on the sides too. It wasn't a very big theater; it probably sat about two hundred. And call me crazy, but the minute I walked into that theater, I felt so much better than have in a really really long time. The second I was on the stage, I was home. It had been four months since I had been on a legit stage with curtains and lights and ropes and I just walked behind that curtain and saw the empty stage before me and all the breath came wooshing out of me at once because it was so wonderful to back in a theater. Seriously, sometimes I wonder what will become of me if I can't perform for a living...

We went back to our dressing room and put our things down and got dressed, but didn't worry about hair and makeup yet. Then we went out on the stage with our fabric friends and went through the dance once. It worked out very well. And then it was food time. Me and the other two girls who were dancing and the teacher all decided to try the elevator. However, we weren't sure which floor we were starting on, so we just decided to try 0. That took us to somewhere we did not recognize, though we had seen the elevator on the floor we needed, so we knew that wasn't right. So then we pressed -1. But that didn't even make the elevator move. So we tried 1. Again, we didn't recognize it. We tried 2, expecting to maybe be back where we started, but it opened to a completely dark and eerie hallway so we pressed 3, and we were back where we started. By this time, we were in hysterics, saying that we were lost in the Harry Potter elevator. And we took the stairs down to that back room where there was a sort of soup that I didn't try, a pasta salad, and hot dogs. But there was no mustard for the hot dogs. Just ketchup and mayonnaise. Ew. Mayonnaise on a hot dog. Crazy Belgians... So I had mine sans condiments. And it was ok. But of course, it didn't have all the artificial things that you find in American hot dogs, so the meat wasn't packed together well and the texture was funky. But I ate it anyways. Then I had a pear and we all stood around a garbage can talking and eating mandarin oranges as we threw away the peels and the white stuff.

After lunch, we went back up to the dressing rooms, not trying the elevator this time, and went to work on hair and makeup. The teacher did all of our hair in a French twist, which they call a banana, but it's a French twist. And she dug those pins so far into my scalp, I'm surprised her hand didn't come away with my blood on it. I did my own makeup, as usual, and I remembered why I never bothered with mascara and just always went with falsies. The amount of mascara it takes to get your eyelashes up to stage level is ridiculous. But of course, I had to wear my glasses because I'm allergic to my contacts.

Oh yah side note: I don't know if I mentioned this, but I've developed an allergy to my contacts due to the silicone in them. Way to go, body!

Anyways, we then sat in the room for the next hour ish just talking, waiting to go on stage. I was definitely sleepy, and I even dozed off in my chair once, but I was all ready to go when it came time to go to the stage. I took off my glasses, was blind, and followed closely behind my teacher, wrapped up tight in the fabric tube and it was freezing.

Before I knew it, we were on and off the stage, and we did great! No traffic problems, no major screw ups. The only disappointment was that the audience was pretty empty. We were all kind of upset with the lack of crowd, but it was fun either way. Afterwards, we gathered up our stuff and I went back to Hannut with the people that I had come with. My host mom picked me up at the Academy and I went home, my head aching from the pins, one digging in particularly hard. So after a few quick pictures of the updo, I took it down and combed it out and then laughed at my 80s hair. I found it so amusing that I actually did a little photo shoot with myself on the PhotoBooth application on my Mac.

Then Damien came upstairs and asked me what I wanted for dinner, as my host parents and Benoit were all out for the night. He made a Hawaiian pizza and an oven lasagna and we sat down to eat together. The places were even set and we shared our food and talked as we ate. It was actually quite enjoyable, spending the time with only Damien. He still messed with me, but we also had some real conversation and it wasn't awkward at all. We laughed and had a good time. Then after we finished eating, he gave me a quick geography lesson, as he was looking through the atlas to find out where Cleveland is, and he tried to explain Belgian politics to me. But it was fruitless, because the government here is so complicated, it's not even worth it. Then we watched a little bit of tv and then his friends came over and I vacated the situation, as I was sure that they were going to drink, and they are much older and I just decided that was a bad idea. Plus I wanted to take a nice long shower and get to bed decently early.

So now I'm here, after my shower, my feet all lotioned and my hair all nice after I treated myself to a moisturizing mask treatment, sleepy and ready for bed. Bonne nuit!

A Heard Of Cows And A Chinese Restaurant

I still say the Belgians don't know how to drive. But I'm not going to talk about that today. Instead, I am going to recount to you all the great tale of the Belgian cow heard.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Emma. She was an exchange student in Hannut, Belgium. One day, while she was at school, the bell rang for lunch time, like every other day. But on this day, when she went down the stairs and through the hallway to the lunch room, she was greeted by a huge mob of people! She did not understand why all of the people were in the hallway, but she joined the mob as it seemed to be her only option. She pushed her way through to the center, and then all of the sudden, she felt her feet lift off the ground as all of the people around her pushed together so that there was no air between them. She found herself moving without walking, and she laughed as she realized that she was being pushed through the crowd by the crowd itself. Eventually, the doors to cafeteria opened and she went inside with her friends and sat down for a nice lunch.

The End.

I'm serious, I have never in my life experienced a crowd like that. Not even in Disney World on New Years (which is a terrible idea, don't even think for one second that it's worth it). Not even like New York City! It was seriously like a heard of cows. Kudos to Madame Vanesse for coming up with that analogy.

Other than that, school was average today. After school, I went home and watched a few episodes of the wonderful series "The Nanny", and then my host family and I went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Cue a night of terrible jokes, crude humor, and lots of laughs. This was the first time I had been to Chinese restaurant while in Belgium, and I love Chinese food in the States, so I was ready to be picky. We walked in, and it was obvious that my host parents knew the owners. It was all of us for dinner: Karine, Philippe, Benoit, Damien, and me. We were seated at a round table with a lazy susan in the middle and very pretty pink silk napkins folded into cool shapes at our seats. Much classier than the sketchy Chinese joints in the States. We got our menus, and I immediately searched for orange chicken. Seeing that there wasn't any, I decided to go with wanton soup and orange duck. I had never tried duck before, so I knew this was going to be interesting.

First, the brought us the "imperatif", which is like the appetizer. It was those cool styrofoamy chips and we each got a cocktail of sorts. I'm not sure what it was, but it was red and had some sort of fruit on a sword in it. It almost looked like a white strawberry. Of course, Damien being the wonderful host brother that he is, told me that it was a testicle. Classy. Being smarter than that, I ate it anyway and it was good. The drink itself was VERY sweet, though the alcohol wasn't that strong. But I didn't much care for it.

Then they brought us our soups. Like I said, I got the wanton soup. Taste-wise, it was very similar to the soups I've had in the States, though there wasn't any of that wonderful green leafy stuff in it. But the wantons themselves were very different. They were still stuffed with pork, but they didn't have any form. They were just balls of meat wrapped in noodle. And they looked a little bit like brains. Of course, Damien didn't have anything to say about that. Benoit got a spicy soup that I tasted, and the Belgians must have a really sensitive pallet, because I don't like spicy and I didn't think it was bad at all.

After that, my host brother were brought their next course, because they had each decided to get a little something extra in between the soup and the entrees. Damien got some sort of seafood dumplings and Benoit got a dish that had vegetables on it and then something that looked like a rectangular egg roll. I had a bite of it, and it wasn't very egg roll-like, although it was good. But then Damien asked me if it tasted like pubic hair and I was laughing so hard while being so disgusted at the same time that I couldn't eat anymore of it. And he asked this in English too, so my host parents couldn't understand why I was all of the sudden in hysterics. Mature, really, I know.

Then our entrees came. They put them all on these hot plates on the lazy susan, and we each took what we wanted. Turns out that orange duck is nothing like orange chicken. It's not breaded, and the sauce is very thin. And it's very fatty. But I still took a couple pieces, trimmed off the fat, and it was actually incredibly tasty. It melted in my mouth and the flavor was good. I also tried some fried rice, which was delicious, and I had white rice too. I tried this other dish that was more like the orange chicken I'm used to. It was chicken in that special breading with an orange sauce, but the flavor wasn't orange. I'm not sure what the flavor was, but it was good. And then there were these pork things, almost like ribs. With bones. So not much meat, and a lot of fat. And very difficult to eat with a fork and knife. But I tried. My host dad then asked me why I had left so much food on my plate, and I told him it was the bones and the fat, but he took them and ate the fat and scraped every last morsel of meat off the bones.

During all of this there was a lot of conversation and a lot of awkward moments, and a lot of laughs. But none so strong as what was about to come.

After they cleared away the entrees, they brought us shots. In shot glasses of course. And the shot was clear. So my host brothers tell me to look in the bottom. Turns out that it is normal to have some sort of erotic image in the bottom of your shot glass. But of course, I would get the worst one that you can get. Benoit's was of a girl. Doing... Things. But it was not a photo, it was a drawing. I don't know what my host dad's was. Mine. Mine was different. Mine was a photo. Of a man. Naked. Holding his... Package. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction to this. Then my host family asked me if that was the first time I had seen that. Seriously, what is the right answer to that? I had health class in high school... But I said yes and then they laughed at me some more and we all just laughed about it for the rest of the night. But really, talk about awkward. And now I'm home, ready to go to bed, and laughing to myself.

What a day.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Nothing particularly exciting happened today, but like I said before, I'm trying to back into the habit of daily blogging, so here's my little tid bit for today.

By the way, did everyone enjoy my little French post yesterday? I have to say, I'm pretty proud of it.

Today, we continued exams. I took the religion one this morning, first thing when I got to school.

OK PAUSE. I need to rant about something here. THE BELGIANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. Ok I got that out there. This is seriously something that is driving me bonkers. Ok first of all, they drive slowly to begin with because it's winter. But there's no ice on the roads. Not even snow. In fact, this morning it was above zero Celsius which means that it's not even freezing temperature. So the roads were completely clear. But they were still crawling. And then, oh baby, it started snowing. My host mom immediately dropped speed down to about 40 kilometers per hour. For those of you back in the States, that's about 25 mph. OH MY GOD. Nobody ever drives that speed in the States. Ever. EVER. I swear I was going to tear my hair out. It took everything in me to keep from yelling "ALLER!!".

If you couldn't tell, I'm a little stressed lately.

It has also hit me recently that I am actually living in Belgium. Obviously I already knew that, but yesterday when I was making cookies, I had my first conscious moment where I felt truly at home in my host house. The good part about this, I really finally am almost completely comfortable where I am. I truly feel at home here, and I am really no longer intimidated by my host dad. That's an accomplishment, trust me. The bad part? I leave in less than a month. Yessir, in a few weeks it will be time to change families. That boggles my mind. My exchange is creeping along, but at the same time, it's going so fast. Next weekend, I will have been here four months. Crazy!! But then the other thing I was thinking about was that it's probably a really good thing that I am leaving right as I am feeling homey. A good thing? she says. Why, she's crazy! What is good about that? Well think about it. How difficult was it for me to leave my house? How much time did I spend missing my family and being sad? Well if I stayed in the same house all year, it would become my home. And then I would have to do all of that over again when I leave in August. So I guess it's good not to get too attached to one place. Our heart can only be pulled in so many directions.

I got totally off topic here. So about that religion exam... I'm actually pretty confident with it. I answered all the questions that were necessary and I knew what I was talking about for almost all of them. They were all short answer, so by the end of it, I had written three pages worth of French. Which, a couple months ago I would have thought an impossible feat. But I am proud of myself and of my work.

On the downside, I received zero out of ten on my last geography test. And that, boys and girls, is why Emma Clark opted out of the geography exam.

Apparently I'm going to a Chinese restaurant this weekend.

My cookies were a big hit today.

I'm exhausted and I need to go to bed.

I'm ranting now and this is getting extremely random.

Bonne nuit!

Pour Mes Amis Aux États-Unis

Ok, on y va... Je connais quelqu'un aux États-Unis qui a dit à moi que je dois écrire quelques fois en français. Alors, c'est pour vous. Pour rester avec le thème du français, je vais écrire aujourd'hui de mon progrès avec le français.

Je suis pas contente avec mon français maintenant. Je ne sais pas si c'est possible, mais je me sens que mon français et pire maintenant qu'avant. Et ça c'est triste. Il faut penser trop quand je parle avec mes amis belge ou ma famille d'accueil. Et c'est vrai, je veux parler correctement, mais ces dernier jours étaient horrible avec le français. Je comprends tout, ça c'est pas un problème. Mais mon accent est moche et les conjugaisons sont pas tout à fait correctes. Je pense, et c'est logique, je parle anglais trop. Et je suis ici pour apprendre le français, donc, pourquoi parle anglais? Parce que c'est plus facile. Mais si j'ai voulu facile, pourquoi j'ai fait cet échange ? À cause de ça, Talia et moi avons décidé de ne parler que le français. Ce sera très difficile, mais c'est vraiment nécessaire. Si je ne suis pas fluent à la fin d'année... Je ne veux pas penser à ça maintenant.

Aujourd'hui, je n'ai rien fait spécial. Je suis allée à l'école, et car il est le mercredi, c'était une demi-journée. Mais j'ai réalisé aujourd'hui que je suis très fragile, et je vais me casser à tout moment. Comme aujourd'hui, je ne sais pas pourquoi, parce que normalement je suis la plus calme pendant le première heure avec le Père Boly, mais aujourd'hui, je m'ai cassé. Je me suis senti vraiment stupide et je ne peut pas faire ça. Et j'ai crié un peu. Pas de tout les choses impoli ou mauvais, juste frustré et fâché. Mais ça va. Je vais essayer rester calme et contente. Mais c'est vraiment difficile, parce que tout m'énerve à ce moment. Hier, j'ai trouver que je dois porter les lunettes pour la reste de l'année parce que j'ai développé un allergie de mes lentilles. Donc, je ne peux pas les mettre. Si j'en veux, j'ai besoin d'aller chez médecin pour les nouveaux. C'est chiante, ça. Et c'est cher. J'ai payé pour mes lentilles aux États-Unis et maintenant, j'ai tout les lentilles pour un an, et je ne peux pas les utiliser. Rawr. En plus, je déteste mes lunettes.

On va inscrit à la salle du sport à Hannut. Talia et moi. On allait y aller demain, mais Talia est malade, donc c'est pas possible sauf si j'y vais toute seule. Ah bien. Je pense ça c'est tout. Oh j'ai fait des cookies aujourd'hui. Vous connaissez, avec les "Hershey's Kisses". Oui. Mais sans le beurre de cacahouète. C'était juste les cookies du sucre avec le Kiss. Ils ont un bon goute. Mais c'est pas vraiment le goute je veux pour les cookies du sucre traditionnel. Alors, je vais essayer encore une fois. Mais maintenant, je vais coucher parce que je suis crevée. Bonne nuit.

A Day Without Facebook...

Ok so today was Day 1 sans Facebook. It's probably the first day in MONTHS that I have gone without so much as checking my page. And it was weird. I was constantly tempted to go back and reactivate it and just be on it. It just felt like something was missing. And I knew that I wouldn't have any notifications or anything to do on it, since when you're deactivated, you're not accessible. But still, I just wanted to be able to stare at the page and do nothing on it, as I normally do.

And that, my friends, is what we call an addiction.

Isn't it kind of sad how addicted we all are to Facebook? We spend hours on end doing nothing on it. Yes, you may post on someone's wall or respond to a message from a far away friend or reconnect with someone that you haven't seen in years. And that's all fine and dandy. But for all of those who are on Facebook, ask yourselves this. When you compare the amount of time you spend doing all those things with the amount of time you spend just absent-mindedly clicking around, going through people's photos or literally scrolling up and down your feed, fruitlessly looking for something new to occupy yourself with, what is that ratio? Think about it. It's a little depressing, isn't it? Think of all the things you could have been doing with that time. And today, I still just sat in front of my computer, looking for something to occupy myself with, even though I knew I had a book I could be reading or a drawing I could be finishing or a letter I could be writing. Or finishing the 50 000 word book that I started! But I didn't do any of those things because I'm just so programmed to waste time. We all are like that. Granted, in the States, I actually had things to do so it wasn't so bad, but it's a real eye opener, being off Facebook, even for just one day.

Quite the insightful post, today, eh?

Bonne nuit!

St. Nicholas Day And Mommy's Birthday!

Today is December 6th. In any Catholic culture, this is the day dedicated to St. Nicholas, the man that eventually became known as Santa Claus. And the tradition is, you put your shoes outside your door and St. Nicholas comes and fills them.

We celebrate this tradition at my house in the States. And most Belgians do too. However, I sadly woke up this morning with nothing in my shoes. Which, I have to say, I didn't really expect anything. Benoit is the only other one in the house right now and he wasn't there, plus he's 23 years old. So whatever, that's ok. I ate my 36 euro chocolate and was happy!

Today was also the first day of exams at school. I had history and geography. I opted to not take the geo one, but I did my best on history. Except I was totally like twenty minutes late to school today because the Belgians are freaking out about the roads. I'm not joking when I say there's less then two inches of snow on the ground. Now granted, it was icy today because everything that melted yesterday has frozen over, but it is not necessary to crawl down the streets people! I drive faster in the States when I'm going under the speed limit! But regardless, the point is that I was late to school. Nobody stopped me or anything. I just walked into the classroom late and sat down to take my test. The teacher told me that he didn't have time to make a special test for me, so I just had to do my best. Which I was totally fine with. And I did try my best. There are some things that I definitely think I failed miserably on, but some that I think I actually did quite well on too! The test was one part multiple choice, one part describing documents, a timeline and a synthesis of different charts and graphs. It lasted two hours. I used all my time and I can't believe I finished.

After that, Mikayla and I went into Hannut to the beauty store where we spend all of our time, and I bought myself a whole hair care system because I have determined that I really have to take better care of my hair. I'm going to get it cut soon. Even though I've spent the last three years growing it out. Sorry Ryan :/ On the way back to the center of town, I slipped on the ice and sorta fell. But no worries and no pain! It was actually really funny. Then Mikayla and I took advantage of the fact that we were out of school on a Monday and went to the marché in Hannut which is there every Monday. Basically it's just where street vendors come and set up their stuff, mostly clothes. We looked through everything, but didn't buy. Then Mikayla got some fries and we shared those. We went back to school and spent the lunch hour in Père Boly's office with Talia, just chatting. Then we went through the second half of our day. Some of teachers handed out little candies and such for St. Nicholas day :) That was really cute.

Talia and I have decided to join a gym. We're going to go tomorrow to check it out. Neither of us are happy with the lack of exercise going on and the toll it's taking on our bodies. So tomorrow, we hit the gym by storm! It'll be great :)

Just so everyone knows, I had curry chicken and rice with broccoli for dinner. It smells so good. I love when my host mom makes that. Then I had one of my fancy chocolates and a couple speculoos cookies since my host mom has made them from scratch. Ugh I really need to get back on my diet.

I have deactivated my Facebook. *GASP* Just until after the holidays. I find that I just speak too much English and I spend too much time on Facebook. But the thing about deactivating is that I can go back whenever I want and reactivate it. So I'll be able to be back on Facebook in a few weeks. But for now, I just need to be disconnected from ALL the people back home. I will continue to talk to them people really close to me, and I'm still going to have email and Skype, but no Facebook for a while.

TODAY IS MY MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY!!!! And I am not there to celebrate it with her. But I did send her about 10 ecards over email, all hysterical. Basically I couldn't pick just one. So I sent a bunch. I love my mother so very very much and I want her to know this:

Mom, you really are the best mother I could ask for. I wouldn't be here, doing this without your constant support. Not only that, but if weren't for the way that you raised me, I wouldn't have even had the motivation or the courage to even think about doing something like this. You are responsible for everything that I am, Mother of mine. A hard worker, a loyal friend, a dreamer. And I love you so much, you could never even know. The support and the love that I get from you, I know it's there. You are the best, Mom. I thank God for you every day, and I am so grateful that I was blessed with such a wonderful, giving, caring mother. I love you Mommy. I can't wait to come home and hug you.

:)

Bruxelles À Noël

Today, my host mother woke me up at 8 20am to tell me that they were taking me to Brussels to see it all decked out for the holidays. Needless to say, at 8 20 in the morning, I wasn't too ecstatic about this idea. But I rolled out bed after my six hours of sleep anyway and got myself dressed and ready to go as quickly as I could. Not really, I took my time. But I still managed to get myself downstairs for breakfast around 9am. There was some wonderful bakery and cheese on the table, and the minute I left my room I was greeted by the most amazing smell of cinnamon and sugar. This was because my host parents had been hard at work making the traditional Belgian cookie, speculoos. I've talked about speculoos before. It's like a gingerbread type cookie with cinnamon and almond. And it's wonderful and the scent is to die for.

So as I'm sure you can tell, I broke my diet and ate a couple cookies along with some wonderful breakfast pastry. And some cheese on a roll. And then my host mom made me tea. I was set for the day.

By the way, my host dad wore his red pants today.

We left soon after that and were off to Brussels by car. I sat in the back and read a book on my iPod as we went. I got through almost 50 pages on the way there. I was pretty content, and it's a wonderful book (Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louis Rennison). We parked the car and ventured out into the rainy Belgian city. It warmed up a little today, so the majority of the snow was gone and it was raining instead of snowing. I have to say, I prefer the snow. I hate carrying around an umbrella.

My host mom and I separated from my host dad for a while, and we walked through the city, going into a few shops here and there and looking at all the great window displays. There were chocolate shops everywhere, all with speculoos in the windows, molded into the shapes of Saint Nicholas. Everything was so warm and wonderful and they all smelled amazing. She took me into the Grande Place and I saw the decorations for Christmas there, which featured a huge Christmas tree in the center, all lit up and sparkling. I imagine that it's ridiculously beautiful at night, all lit up and glowing. But alas, it was rainy day, so as beautiful as it was, it was still a little bit sad looking. Hopefully I'll get to go back.

We met back up with my host dad in an art gallery. Ok I'm going to diverge a little bit here. What is with the Belgians and this ridiculous level of comfort with sex and nudity??? I just don't understand! Everywhere you go, there are paintings of naked women or people just going at it or just things like that. They're everywhere! Like yesterday at the Village de Noël, there was a stand where you could buy a license plate and have it engraved. There was one that had a cartoon guy giving the viewer the middle finger while in the process of certain activity that requires a female partner. And there are things like this all over the place. And I'm so not used to it. And what was worse in this case, they were all pictures of the painter's wife. That poor woman... But I suppose that's culture, so whatever. I just find it a little discomforting with my naive American mindset. walked through another shop that specialized in kitchen and bathroom design, and marveled at all the different furnitures and such. Don't laugh at me. I enjoyed it! I like stuff like that. And when I told them that the typical American oven is about three times the size of the typical Belgian oven, they were amazed. But it's true! Belgian appliances are so tiny. I can only do one batch of 9 cookies at a time in the oven here, when in the States I could make two dozen at a time. It's a little annoying...

Anyways, we then went to this wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch. Wow! We started off with a sort of appetizer, where they brought us a big plate that had a bunch of little quantities of vegetables all around the edge and a little pile of beans in the center, all drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Some of them were stuffed with cheese, others were spiced, and some were buttery. But they were all delicious. We all just went at it with our forks and it was gone before we could blink twice. Then we made like true Europeans and sopped up all the vinegar with the bread that they brought us. That was delicious. Apparently that is very Italian. For my entrée, I decided on one of the specialties, the gnocchi with a tomato basil sauce. My host mom got a ravioli in a white marscapone sauce and my host dad got pasta that was really spiced and served with mushrooms and a sauce also. They brought us our plates and I thought it was a pretty small pile of gnocchi. Until I started eating it. It was really, really wonderful. Flavorful and authentic, but definitely heavier than I remember in the States. Although now that I think about it, it did fill me up pretty quickly there too. I also tried some of each of my host parents' meals, and they were rich and wonderful as well. I somehow managed to eat all on my plate, and I was completely stuffed. But that wasn't the end of the meal, no. My host dad insisted on getting dessert. Although he didn't have any... But my host mom and I both got the panne cotta (sp?). It was served with strawberries and a strawberry syrup to pour over it and my God... It was so delicious. Creamy and light and flavorful and just really wonderful. I don't know how I managed it, but I ate the rest of that and I was so full.

Our day did not end there. We went to buy some speculoos from the best shop in Brussels, and then we went to the best chocolate shop in Belgium. This place was nuts. You'd think you walked into a fine art gallery. This was not just chocolate, this was true art. There were two floors. And it was just... Exclusive and luxurious looking. And delicious. And my host dad insisted on buying one of the biggest boxes of chocolates you can get. All different pralines and truffles. He spent 37 euros on one box of chocolates today. Not joking. But man, they are really amazingly tasty. I tried one that was infused with Earl Grey tea. Wow. New favorite chocolate. This might be a problem when it comes to my bank account...

We then attempted to go see an art exhibition but it had ended already for the day and we were too late. So we resigned to going to the car to come home. I ended up falling asleep for the majority of the ride. And now I'm sitting in my room, really cold even though my heat is up all the way, waiting to be called down for a dinner that I'm really not hungry for. But that is ok! I had a good day, and a good week, and I'm pretty happy. Plus one! :)

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 !!