Wednesday, we were supposed to have a practice for the dancing for the theater at school. But Madame Jadot's children were sick, so it ended up being canceled. This was actually good news for me because it meant that I could go through with my original plans, being going to Brussels to see some of the other exchange students from other districts that I don't get to see often. Of course, trains seem to be causing me a lot of drama lately, and there was a problem with me getting my new GoPass. I asked the guy at the window, and he told me he couldn't issue me one because there was something wrong with his computer, so he told me to the use the automated machine. But that machine does not take Visa, which I then told him. So he wrote me up some paper and told me to give it to the conductor on the train. But the paper was in Dutch, which I don't speak a word of, so I had no idea what it meant or what was going to happen on the train. But I had no choice, I had to take that train. So I got on and when the conductor came around, I asked him if he spoke English, because it was complicated, and he explained that I would buy a ticket on the train at normal price and then once I got to Brussels, I would take them both to the window and the guy there would issue me a reduced price GoPass. So this is what I did. But I had to stand in line for like a half hour. Finally, that was all smoothed over and I met up with Liza and another girl named Jordann and we went to a bar pretty close to the station where the exchange students go. It's called Celtica. I met some new people and had a lot of fun. Except when one of the guys who worked there freaked out about our things being on the floor and threatened to throw our stuff away. And then me and Jordann and another new friend named Janelle made plans to go to Waterloo the next night since none of us had school on Friday for a teacher's day.
So Thursday, I went to school as usual and then afterwards, caught a ride home with Romane, ran into Amandine and Marie and Léo, and then ran to catch my bus which was fortunately a few minutes late. I ended up meeting up with my friend Fabiola on the bus since she was going to Brussels too. So I met her friends and we rode the train together and caught up on everything. It was really nice to talk to her. I then got to Waterloo, but Janelle wasn't there yet and Jordann was busy until 8 30 ish. So I walked around the center of Waterloo in deep pursuit of food, but of course, it's Belgium, so nothing was open. But I was starving so I finally settled for a pita with falafel and vegetables. Normally, I try to stay away from places like that because it's all fried food that isn't very good for you. But it was cheap so whatever. Finally, I met up with Janelle and we walked around looking for a bathroom. And then we came across a 24 hour store where we bought rice cakes and boursin cheese. We then proceeded to sit on a ledge in front of a church in the middle of the city and eat our rice cakes and cheese and recount to each other the stories of our lives. Good times. Eventually, Jordann met up with us and we went to a little bar on the corner where we just chilled out and had a drink. I tried raspberry beer, which I'm a huge fan of. Of course, I'm on this diet still, and there was probably way more sugar in there than I should've allowed myself... But it was tasty. And again, we had great conversation that got really very deep and philosophic at points.
Around midnight, Jordann's host dad picked us up and took us back to the mansion that she is living at right now. Seriously, it is probably the most beautiful house I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. But their upstairs was under construction, so I wasn't able to appreciate it's full beauty. But it had an indoor pool and everything. After some more conversation and a lot of looking at photos, we fell asleep. We had to get up pretty early, around 8 30am because of the guys working in the house. We went downstairs for breakfast and made banana chocolate pancakes in a gorgeous kitchen, and then ate them with syrup and peanut butter. Don't worry, I only had two. And they were delicious. We then got ready for our day and saw Janelle to the bus, since she had to leave. Then Jordann and I had an adventure. There was a big run down, deteriorating house on the corner, and we decided to take pictures of it. There was a path that ran behind it and we followed it and were eventually able to go inside. It was awesome and covered in amazing graffiti. The colors were extraordinary, and along with the cobwebs, broken brick, and piles of wood, it made some gorgeous photos. They are on my photo blog. Check it out dudes! (photography tab) But then we thought we heard someone coming so we ran... Well, as fast as we could without dying in the broken down building. We then went back to her house so she could grab some stuff, and headed out to the center of Waterloo. We checked out a second hand store, and some other shops, but didn't buy anything. Then I caught my train back, which was late, causing me to miss my bus. However, it turned out that I was on the same train as my host brother and his girlfriend, so I went home with them. Once we got back, we ate a pizza dinner and then I went out with them and some other friends to get a drink in Hannut. Of course, when Ben asked me if I wanted to go get a drink with them, I thought we would be home by 1 30, maybe 2am. Well, these hours past. And then 3am passed. Finally, we left around 4am. I had had a great time, but the fact was that I had to be awake in an hour and a half to go to Luxembourg with the Rotary. I had to be in Liège by 8am, and the 7 34 train got there too late.
So I got up at 5 45am to catch my 6 34am train. I successfully got to the train station on time.
But.
There was only one train in the 6 hour. It was at 6 34, but it didn't stop in Liège. In fact, it went in the other direction! So me, having had only an hour of sleep, started to freak out. I asked at the window to make sure, and that 7 34 train? Yah, it was the first one that stopped in Liège. So I had no choice but to wait by myself in the station for an hour. About ten minutes after the 6 34 train left, I realized that I did actually need to take that train, and when I was told to take it, it wasn't a direct train and I was supposed to get off at one stop and take another train to Liège. But by this time it was too late. So I laid down on one of the heaters by the window of the station, put my camera bag under my head, and closed by eyes to rest for the next hour. I wasn't feeling well because of my lack of sleep, I was freezing, and I had no appetite, though I made myself eat something.
Finally, I got to Liège and ran to meet up with Rotary, who I caught at the last minute. All the exchange students piled on a double decker bus and rode for two and a half hours to Luxembourg. I slept a good hour of it. Once we got there, we first went to visit a brasserie, where they make beer. It was quite interesting. It ended with us getting to taste the beer, which the exchange students were big fans of. I actually liked it, though I didn't drink much of it as I'm on a diet. We got some time to just sit with our friends and talk before heading out. We walked to a restaurant from there where we ate our lunch. We got a few slices of some sort of meat, lima beans in a gravy, and potatoes. Which when I say like that, sounds kinda gross. But it was actually pretty good! The meat was fatty, and at the end I had a nice little pile of the trimmings, but it was still good food. They offered us more beer, but I declined. After lunch, we went to a meat packing place/butcher, which the majority of us thought was a poor decision on the Rotary's part, since we had just eaten. And I took a bunch of pictures, but they were somehow deleted multiple times, though I have no idea why. I think my memory card may be corrupted... Dommage, eh? After that, we got back on the bus and drove again until we got to the city of Luxembourg, where we were given about an hour and a half to do what we wanted. Me and some friends walked around and did a little window shopping, had a dance party with an employee in a Levi's store, and had a coffee. Then we met up with everyone else and drove another two and a half hours to go back to Liège. This time I slept the whole way. Once we got to Liège, Talia and Mikayla and I caught a train back to Landen, and Talia came to sleep over my house. We ate dinner here (some sort of garlic steak, stuffed baked potato, and salad) and talked with my host parents for a while, watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and then went right to bed since both of us were exhausted.
This morning, we got up and ate breakfast, talked some more with my host parents, and then went to school around 10am for a repetition for the dance at school. I am choreographing a number to "Bad Romance", which is the finale in the show. So far, it's going very well! And everyone seems to be pretty impressed with the choreography and the girls (and Eduardo) are picking it up well. I think it's going to be a good number, especially cause we have an awesome surprise planned for the end.
I then went home, ate lunch (roast beef in a really delicious sauce with raisins, fries, and salad) with my host family, and spent the afternoon editing photos. Then we had a visit from Jacques's sister and her husband. They were very friendly, and we talked about a lot of different things. They even helped me figure out some stuff for when my parents come. They left, we ate a dinner of sandwiches, and I introduced Benjamin to PB&J sandwiches, which he found very good! One point to the Americans!
I'm really going to get back into the habit of posting every day. I'm still on my diet, I'm still doing yoga, though I only went to the gym once this week. But things are good! And just in case you are just starting to read, you should know that I always always always post what I eat. It's just kind of what this blog has become.
Goodnight everyone!!
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