Saturday, I spent the day in Brussels with my friend, Liza, who is another exchange student. We met at the exotic dinner (remember that?) and we hit it off right away because let's face it, theater kids just get along. So we met up in Brussels at the station Centrale, which is gorgeous by the way, and then spent a good amount of time wandering around, seeing the Mannekin Pis, which is a statue of a little boy peeing, getting lost, making note of where we wanted to eat Chinese food, and eventually finding the road with all the stores. I did some hard core shopping and by the end of the day, I had two new scarves (the true Belgian ones with all the different colors that I've been looking for forever!), a dress, a pair of shoes, a tube of face mask stuff, another scarf, a sweater, and a lint roller. We did eat our Chinese food too, and way too much of it, and had no room for waffles... But it was ok because when I got home, I found out that my host mom had made homemade ones! There were the two little cousins over too. So I sat down to dinner with my host parents, Benjamin, and the two little ones. We had a typical German dish of sauerkraut with different kinds of meat and mashed potatoes, and then the waffles for dessert. I have to say, I didn't care for dinner much. I'm not a sausage/meat/sauerkraut person. I spent the evening hanging out with my host brother after playing a game with the little ones.
Sunday, I felt sick, so I pretty much stayed calm all day. Though I took a couple hours to watch some Big Bang Theory with Benjamin. We bond over television.
Monday was a normal day at school, followed by some normal time at the gym, followed by a normal dinner and a normal evening. There is a lot of crap going on in Belgium right now. We watched the news and it talked all about how there were 35,000 people in Brussels on Sunday for a big rally because there hasn't been a government in Belgium for over seven months now. I can't really explain further than that, because I don't really understand, but from what I get, Wallonie and Flandre don't like each other and there is talk about them breaking apart... Which is quite terrifying actually...
Yesterday was a normal school day, followed by a Rotary meeting that I had to go to. In fact, Karine came to get me to take me there, which was nice because we got to catch up and everything. I got in the car and it was just like the past four months. The meeting was held at a reception center because there were going to be four different mayors from different villages that were going to be there. There was also another guest who was kind of like the dean from the university in Liège. Once everyone was there, including Christian (the Canadian exchange student, you know him), we sat down to dinner. It started off with a salad, then the main course was rabbit with potatoes, and cinnamon pineapple and ice cream for dessert. It was the first time of my life that I ate rabbit, and I have to say it wasn't bad. The man from the university spoke for probably two hours, and I'm going to admit, it was very hard to sit through. Not to mention that...
I was kind of aggravated also because I had been told that night that someone told Rotary that I spend too much time with other exchange students, I don't have any Belgian friends, I'm not integrated at school, and I don't speak French well at all. And apparently, someone was thinking about emailing one of the head honchos of Rotary and scheduling a test for me to see if it was true or not. But it's a load of crap because everyone I talk to says that I speak well. I know that I'm improving and I know that my French is better than decent. I would never say that it's perfect, and I still have a lot of learning to do, but I try so hard to speak correctly and my accent is not bad and I know that I do well most of the time. And yes, I do spend time with other exchange students, but we are all kind of in the same group of friends. Of course it's convenient to go to a soirée with another exchange student or carpool or whatever. God forbid... Point being, JE PARLE FRANÇAIS.
Today, I had to do an oral presentation with two other girls in my French class. We had to read a book and then watch the movie that was made from it and do an analysis. We did "The Road", which in French is "La Route". It was really convenient for me because I read the book last year in my English class. So last Wednesday we watched the movie together (at a BELGIAN'S house) and did the work for the analysis. And today we presented it. And although I made a few pronunciation mistakes and Madame Gallo had to stop me a couple time because she didn't quite understand what I said, she was very impressed with me and said that I did well. Not to mention that we had the best analysis of the groups that went today and she said that all three of us were brilliant girls and she was happy with our presentation. And she was impressed because she asked a question about the movie and I was able to answer it completely correctly in French. So, HA. I win.
After school today I went to Liège with Talia and Mikayla and Eduardo and Aymeric. Talia and Eduardo and I took the bus to Huy, where we literally walked up to the train and pulled the handle as the train was pulling away. So we missed it and had to wait another forty five minutes. Once we got to Liège, we met up with the others, but it was too late to get the sushi that we were planning on getting. So in the end we had Pizza Hut. We just a couple pizzas and split them between us. Then we did some shopping. I walked away with another pair of shoes, but hey, it was the deal of the day. They were only six euros!! So I win. Again. HA. Then Mikayla and I got a waffle and went home after the others had left. We spent some quality talking time and her host mom kindly dropped me off at home. I then ate dinner with my host mom and now I'm contemplating a quick shower and bed... Yes that sounds like a plan. Goodnight. Bonne nuit tout le monde !
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