The Belgium Blogger: As Promised...

Ok so here's my blog with pictures for the last couple days. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, Sunday. It seems that this house can get a little crazy. I tried not to get up too late on Sunday. I think I woke up around 10 00 or 10 30, and was down at the table at 11am. Sundays here mean pastry. So I had a really delicious pain au chocolat, which is really a fancy chocolate filled croissant. Which was a wonderful leap of faith that someone took somewhere long long ago. After breakfast, I donned my coat and gloves, and my host mom and I went on a walk through my new village, Bertrée. She showed me all the houses of the people she knows, the church, the roads, and a little monument that is on a corner that marks the borders. It was cold, but it was nice because there was some sun and the village looked kind of happy, which I haven't seen in a while.

Once we got back to the house, I finished up arranging my room, though I still need to hang my pictures and such. And my jewelry is still in a bag. So it's almost done. I then went down to eat lunch with my host parents, Amandine and AB. We had soup to start off with. Colette explained that she always makes soup on Sundays, because she has the time, and then we have soup for the week. Cool system. This week, it was a broth made from all kinds of different vegetables, and it was wonderful and kinda cleansing in a way. We started off with that. Next, we had a sort of salmon torte thing... I don't really know how to describe it. There was a crust, but it wasn't like a pie crust. Thinner and crunchier. And it was filled with salmon and a sort of cheese filling. But not very thick. And each slice had a nice big hunk of broccoli on it. I know I didn't do a very good job of describing it, but it was very good. I just really like salmon. The actual meal was chicken in a mustard sauce, rice pilaf, and the rest of the broccoli that didn't go on the torte. The mustard sauce was a little spicy, but had great flavors in it and everything was just really good. I didn't think it was possible to beat the cooking at the Crismer house, but Colette is really giving them a run for their money! As we finished up eating, we had visitors at the house. I'm not really sure how they are related to the family, but they were there and Colette heated up some food for them and we had a conversation. It was a young couple and the man had been to the States for a few months. He actually lived in Ohio. And liked it. No, loved it. Weird... But he was in Columbus so I guess that's legit... Then Olivier and Marie and Léo popped in for a visit. Amandine and AB had left already, because Amandine had to get things ready for a show she was stage managing. And we were going to go see it. So Olivier left little Léo with us to see the show, and Colette and Léo and I got in the car and drove not too far to get there.

The show was held in a barn behind a house. That sounds way worse than it actually was. It was a very nice room where they had it, though it was small. The show was for children, and was all about dreaming and imagination. There were a lot of cool lights and effects used and overall, it was very very well done. And Léo stayed nice and quiet through it all :) After the show, we went out and my Colette got herself a coffee, a piece of chocolate cake for Léo, and a piece of apple crumble and orange juice for me, even though I didn't really ask for anything. But it was very nice of her and the crumble was excellent. And Léo ate almost all of the cake! It was too cute. He is just a little bundle of cuteness! I love him, I do. We met back up with Amandine and then we all went back to the house, where we sat down with the couple who was there earlier, Amandine, Marie, Olivier, and my host parents, and we ate... More cake. Another king's cake. This time, Jacques was the king. The cake was very good, but it gave me a stomach ache cause I hadn't eaten any real food since lunch. I watched the news with my host parents, and then we ate dinner late around 9pm and I did not feel well. But I managed to have some soup and half a sandwich after calming myself down and convincing myself I was not going to be sick. After dinner, I went upstairs and finished my English presentation. Which kept me up til 3am.

I woke up the next morning at 7am. And I went to school for the first time in three weeks. And remembered that I don't have English on Mondays because of the session with Père Boly. So I had stayed up for nothing. But at least it was done. I also got my report card. I did alright. Not fabulously. I failed three classes: religion, math and science. I was really close in religion... One point. The other two, I knew I wouldn't do well, because in math I miss quite a bit because of the class with Père Boly, and in science, I only failed the exam, not the class, because I wasn't able to finish in time. So I'm not stressed about it.

After school, Talia and I went to the gym and there were a million people there. We figured it's cause of New Year's resolutions. Which they do here as well. My host dad picked me up around 6 30 and I went home and ate dinner with my host parents. We had soup and then this turkey that was breaded and stuffed with boursin cheese, which is a garlic cheese. We also had potatoes and cooked lettuce, which is actually really good because the sauce she made was creamy, but it was from the vegetables. Again, win. I did not have any dessert though, because I need to stop eating bad things. Though there is a ton of chocolate in my room from Christmas, and I can't stop eating that... After dinner I watched the news with my host mom, but was dozing off during it and went upstairs and fell asleep by 10 00 after tweaking my presentation a bit.

Today was nothing special. I got up and went to school. I did my presentation today and Talia got through most of hers. I had a mistake in mine and felt like an American idiot (ha...) but whatevs. The teacher thought it was great. I went through the school day without many problems, although I snagged two holes in my new tights and I'm pretty upset... After school, I took the bus home. I wasn't sure when to push the button to get off, but luckily somebody else took care of it and everything was good and I got off at the right stop. Nobody was home, but I just went upstairs and though I was going to take a nap, I watched about 4 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" before my dance class. Then I ate dinner. My host dad made me some pasta and some pork, though I didn't finish it all. We talked about the marching band, which I enjoy talking about because they don't have that here and people are interested in it. I then went to my jazz class.

I'm getting really bored of the dance classes here. It's the same thing all the time, and we never learn anything new. All the choreography is the same stuff just put into different orders. I know that I'm used to a higher level, but it's really starting to have an effect on my own personal level of dancing... Which is difficult to handle. But it was funny today because one of my friends said something about a "foque". In French, the word "foque" means "seal". But if you say it out loud, it sounds like a certain word in English that I will not spell out because this is a family-friendly blog, and I would hate for my PG rating to jump to R with one post. So use your brains, people, and catch onto my subtle innuendoes. In other news, we started a new dance to the opening song from "A Chorus Line", which is up there on my list of favorite musicals. Although we're using the movie version, which is not half as good as the stage version, but hey I'll take what I can get.

Now I'm here writing this post and getting ready to add pictures and then hit the sack. SO TIRED ALL THE TIME. Good things tomorrow's a half day... And all with Madame Gallo!! Win!!! Bonne nuit :)