Birthday And Theatre

Yesterday, we had yet another birthday in our little family of exchange students. It was the birthday of our best Mexican friend, Eduardo! He turned 19. He's old. So even though we already had his surprise party, we decided to celebrate a bit yesterday as well :) Since the exchange students have two hours of study hall after lunch on Tuesdays, and our teachers were absent yesterday, we were able to leave at noon and went to get some food for our friend's birthday. We went to the bar and got a free drink for him, followed by more free ness at a different bar. Also, Mikayla and I went to get a piece of bakery for him. We chose a nice yellow cake with chocolate cream inside and covered in more chocolate. I have to admit, it was difficult to hand it over. But we sang to him and everything and it was a good time.

Also, last night I had my second dance exam. This time, it was for jazz. It was really just like a normal class, except that the director was there and like at the ballet one, another woman who was "grading" us. Except that this time, the woman grading us was a woman who is normally in the class. So she knows us all and she knows all the combinations and such by heart. Overall, I did very well, although I'm consistently discouraged when I realize how much I'm losing this year in my dancing skills...

Today, however, was excellent. Today, everyone who is involved in the school theater was excused from classes for a full day of rehearsal. That means that when we got there, at 8 30am, we were right away getting ready to run our show. I got there with my huge bag full of costumes and make up, ready to work. The first thing we did was have me teach the finale to the whole cast. The finale is to "Bad Romance", as you know if you keep up with the blog. And I did the choreography for it, with the intentions of having the entire cast join us 13 dancers at the end to do the last chorus together to end the show. So this morning I taught the choreography and despite all the doubt that I was getting from the teachers, everyone learned it in less than twenty minutes!! We went over it a few times, and it. Looks. FANTASTIC. I couldn't be happier!

After that, we went through the show once really quickly for technical reasons, so they could figure out the sound and lights and such. Then we had our lunch break, and afterwards went through a real run of the show. It was rocky, it's true, but I had a lot of fun. I had almost forgotten how much I missed doing shows and theater and spending hours upon hours in a theater with a cast, bonding over the common goal of putting on a wonderful show. And I have to say, after today, I do feel like I really did a lot more bonding with the cast. Remember after the Cent Jours party when I felt like I really opened up and was better recognized by everyone? I had another one of those days. Every time something like this happens, I feel so much more energized to be here and to be at school and make friends. I get closer to people all the time, and you have no idea how fulfilling it is to see people practicing MY choreography in the halls with each other and be so excited about it, sometimes even stopping me to say "Look! I know what I'm doing!" or "Can you help me? I forgot what comes next." It just makes me feel so good about everything. I find it really difficult to put what I want to say into words, but I think you all understand what I'm getting at.

Anyways, we finished up the run through around 5 30pm, and the finale was INCREDIBLE. Dear Belgians, if you're reading this, I'm so proud of you. Thank you so much for everything. You made the image in my head become a reality.

Afterwards, I went home on the bus, got some weird looks from people, because of the fact that I was all made up with red lips outlined in black and my hair teased up to the heavens (the Belgians thought that was AWESOME). I ate dinner with my host family, and I have every intention of making it a pretty early night, considering tomorrow is opening night!!!!! I'm so excited.

So, goodnight everyone!!

A Lovely Day

I had such a wonderful today. Even though I wasn't so sure t would be as fun as it was. Today was the first day since we stopped our first hour classes with the Père Boly that we had to go back to see him. And it was because today was the day that has been scheduled since the beginning of our exchange. Today was the day that we presented ourselves at the meeting of Probus, a sort of Rotary type club for very old people that he is involved in.

We got to school this morning, all four of us exchange students, and we had our first two hours of class with the Père Boly to practice our little speeches for when we would present ourselves in front of anyone, in French, at the meeting. For the rest of the morning, we stayed and practiced for the rest of the morning until we had to get ready to go to the meeting for noon. Because it was still going to be in Hannut, close to school, the exchange students went on foot. So we left school and walked the fifteen ish minutes that it took to get to the room that Mikayla's and Talia's Rotary club uses for their meetings. When we got there, Père Boly was already there, but we were still almost the first people to show up. Talia and I changed into our heels, and we went into the room (which was vey nice) and got ready to say hi to everyone that came through the door. We spent the next hour sipping champagne and munching some really delicious little hors devours (with caviar!) while we shook hands and gave bisous to everyone. Another Rotary exchange student that we know, Haffa, actually came too, which we weren't expecting. She is Brazilian.

Finally, we all sat down to begin the meal. The president, who was a woman, made a few announcements and then we started the meal with a salad that had cream cheese and salmon in it with a sort of creamy pink dressing. The main course was rabbit in a beer sauce, which was actually delicious, with a spinach broccoli mix and some sort of creamy hash brown thing that was super yummy.

After we finished eating, it was time for all of us to speak. Haffa started, followed by Talia, Mikayla, Eduardo, and I finished. We all introduced ourselves and talked about our homes and our experience here a little bit. Afterwards, they asked us a few questions, but it went pretty quickly. All in all, it was a definite success and we all spoke well!

Then it was dessert time: mango and raspberry sherbets with a crisp waffle triangle. Delicious. And then Eduardo said the quote of the day. Here is how it went:

Mikayla: Eduardo looks more Mexican than usual.

Me: It's because he's more tan.

Eduardo: MAYBE, it's because of the sun!!!!

It was so cute and so funny. Then the waiter took his sherbet before he was done and Eduardo kinda freaked out. But the waiter brought him more after so it was ok. And then an old man asked who the chief exchange student was. We said Mikayla and he then proceeded to take out his wallet and hand her two 50 euro bills and tell her to split it between us. So we each got 20 euros today!

We left soon afterwards, I caught my bus home and changed my clothes and went for a picture walk, since it was gorgeous out today. I took over 100 pictures in just over an hour of my little village here. The good ones will be up on the photo blog soon. I then went back to the house to drop off the camera and then went right back out for a run. I did a good 2 kilometers in 12 minutes, which isn't great, but it's been a while. I got home, did some abs and yoga, and grabbed a book and went back out into the sun to read in the grass. Which was LOVELY. Oh how I love the sun. Can't wait for summer weather. Anyway, it's dinner time now and then I'm going to bed early tonight!! À demain !

Birthday Party!!

Today was the surprise birthday party for Eduardo that his host parents put together. A few weeks ago, before the week of Carnaval, I had received a message on Facebook from his host family telling me that they were going to throw him a surprise party. They invited all the people he hangs out with from AFS and then us three Americans that he goes to school with. And we kept it secret until today!!

I got up this morning (late, since we did the daylight savings switch last night) and had breakfast and got myself ready, and around 2pm Talia came over to get me and her host mom drove us to the train station in Huy, where we met up with Eduardo's host parents and the other guests. Mikayla wasn't able to come, but she was there in spirit. Anyways, we all piled into the host parents' cars and they took us to the room that they had rented out for the party. There were probably 15 of us total, and we were there a half hour before Eduardo arrived. Which gave Talia and me a chance to meet everyone, since we didn't know them. When Eduardo was scheduled to get there, we all stood in the doorway holding masks over our face to give a little bit more to the surprise and when Eduardo came through the door, we all started singing to him in French, then English, then Spanish. He was pretty surprised, even though he kind of had an idea of what was happening. He was really happy to see us all though! Once he got there, we played some games, listened to some music, and of course, ate food. There were a bunch of different kinds of cakes, the biggest one being his birthday cake. It was a really delicious layer cake with layers of cream, pineapple, and a sort of pound cake. Lady fingers went all around the edge and there was whipped cream, more pineapple, and cherries on top. It was heavenly, and I'm sure extremely fattening. There were also different waffles, a sugar tart, an apricot pie, a chocolate cake, and a couple other goodies to much on. We passed the whole afternoon there having fun and joking around with our favorite Mexican!

Happy Birthday Eduardo!! Even though it's not yet actually your birthday... I'll write your big post on Tuesday, when it is.

On another note, I would like to update all of you on where I am emotionally. The exchange students have gone through a lot of roller coaster emotions and ups and downs since we've been here. We had the It's-All-New high, the homesick/culture shock low, the rise again, the holidays hardships, and the slow mount back up to being accustomed and adjusted. Now we're going through the We're Bored stage. This is the part where we aren't sad and we aren't homesick, but we miss our lives back home. We want to be able to get in our cars and go. We miss our friends and our family, but not in a sad way. We just want to see them again. We're unmotivated to go school because, let's face it, we're done with high school. We want to hang out with Belgians, but find it hard because everyone's so focused on studying. The exchange is ending, but at the same time, it's just firing up because the big stuff is going to happen soon. But the weird part about it is that even though there is SO much to look forward to right now, the theater, Easter break, trips, the end of the year dance, none of it seems exciting. To be clear, once again, it's not that we want to go home. We're just tired. We're mentally exhausted. We speak the language, yes, but the barrier is even more frustrating now because we know we are more fluent than we think, and to not understand, as rare as it is now, is incredibly annoying. But at the same time, the thought of going home is depressing. We are finding ourselves wanting both at the same time. We have less than four months left here. It's scary to think how fast this is going, and how little time we have left. And though, yes, I do find myself nostalgic and missing home, and yes, I am a little bored of my life here, it will be over before we know it. Which is freaky.

I don't really know how to wrap that up... I'm just very alfkjdglkahksl;dfjsd right now. Which isn't totally bad, so nobody should worry. This is not a depressing post. Not in the slightest. I'm happy and things are going well. We're just bored and tired. But it will pass. Like I said, we have a lot coming up!!

For now, I'm going to sleep. I lost a whole hour of it last night. Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Dance Exam!

Quick recap of yesterday: I didn't do anything exciting. But I was rejected from NYU.

Today is Saturday, which means normally I would have had a dance class for two hours this morning. Instead, though, I had the EXAM for ballet today. Which, I have to say was quite stressful. Lucky for me, I danced for a good two hours beforehand because I had to go up to school for rehearsal for the theater. Then I went to the Academy, where the teacher was there, along with another woman who came and the director of the Academy. Everyone was all snazzied up, looking exactly the same with white tights and black leotards and black skirts (except me with the ballet pink tights) and we went through our normal barre routines that we've been practicing for weeks for this exam. Then we had a few combinations in the middle before four of us changed into pointe shoes to do a couple more combinations and then a huge piece across the floor. And I have to say, I think I did really really well! Which I was relieved about, considering I've been really worried about my pointe shoes because they're still not very well broken in and I fell on Thursday... But no falls today and I did some pretty rockin turns. After that, we each showed a little piece of choreography that we did ourselves. I did mine almost completely improvised on the spot because I, like always, procrastinated and couldn't remember my choreography. But it went very well and I was told multiple times by the woman that it was wonderful and I had danced very very well :) :) So I'm content with the exam!

The rest of the day was pretty normal. I went home, made myself some odd combination of rice and egg and tomato, watched Julie & Julia for maybe the 10th time this exchange, ate dinner with the fam and little Léo, and tried to understand League of Legends. It's only 9 30 at night but I'm exhausted. Bonne nuit !

Sick Sick Sick Sick Sick

I stayed home again Tuesday because I was sick. I have this terrible cough which is causing my throat to hurt, and I'm almost positive that I had a fever Monday night. It's just a nasty cold, but it was enough to keep me in bed until noon on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to go to a Rotary meeting on Tuesday night, regardless of my physical state. So around 6 30pm, I got myself up off the couch and Karine came to get me to go to the meeting.

It was a rather calm and uneventful meeting. We had a sort of shrimp scampi, followed by lamb stew with potatoes and apple cake with strawberries for dessert. However, I never did taste the dessert because I became once again very ill, but this time with the worst chest pains/heartburn I've ever had in my life. We had two men presenting something about some sort of organization having something to do with the Jews doing World War II, but to be honest, I hardly heard a word of it as I was pretty sure my heart was exploding. Finally, towards the end of the presentation, I was able to leave the room and go outside and get some air. Thankfully, one of the Rotary men is a doctor who speaks decent English, and as I couldn't find the words to describe the sensation I was having other than "my chest hurts, my chest hurts", it was fortunate to have him there. He was pretty sure it was a bout of acid reflux. Yuck. But I went home, drank a bunch of water, took a good hour and half to fall asleep, but woke up the next morning completely fine. Even my cold seemed to be decently diminished.

Wednesday was yesterday, our half day, and nothing happened out of the usual. School, lunch, hang with the host fam and talk to a couple friends. The only thing was that it was super nice outside and I walked home, which did me a lot of good. Having the sun shining on my back as I walked along without a coat on was glorious.

Today, it also was beautiful out. So during our study, the exchange students went over to that spot in the middle of Hannut. Remember? Where we hung out for Aymeric's birthday way back when? Mikayla and I took a little rush to the grocery store to get grapes and raisins (where they were playing Ice Ice Baby and we rocked out, getting weird looks) and then we just all hung out in the sun, eating our various forms of fruit. We got out of class early and did the same thing after school. I then walked home again, which I enjoy more than I remember in the States. I also had dance tonight, which wasn't terrible, but I'm still kinda down on the fact that I really feel like I've lost some of it since I got here... But now I'm exhausted and it's sleepy time. À demain !

Dress Rehearsal Day Two

Today we had our second day of general repetition at school for the theater show. The dancers got to go in late, and after waking up sick with a sore throat and a cough, I was very grateful. I ate breakfast here and then sludged off to school, where I stayed from around 12 30 to 6 30. We rehearsed through the whole show and I'm fairly convinced that all the dances are going to end being really good and go very well for the actual show, especially "Bad Romance". We finally started adding all the actors in at the end and they all seem to be as excited about it as I am!

After rehearsal, I went home and ate dinner with my host family. We had turkey, and I explained to them that turkey makes you tired, though I couldn't remember the reason why. They had never heard that before. But I wish I could remember why that happens...

I am sick and exhausted and going to bed. Goodnight all.

I'm Sick.

I would just like to let everyone out there know that I woke up this morning feel like crapola, and I have this big old dance rehearsal today. Wooo!!!

Dress Rehearsal

Today was our first day of the weekend of theater. I woke up bright and early around 8am to be at school at 9am for our full day of dress rehearsal for the show at school. Except almost none of the dancers brought their costumes today. And of course, we started late as always. The dancers were banished to a classroom (not really, but they needed to run scenes on the stage), and we spent the morning rehearsing and finishing the dances. We also discovered that Bad Romance will now be sung by three very talented singers who actually sound really really great. And it was sprung on me today that I am still going to do a number to a song called "Libertine" with another girl named Julie. We are going to do a little Chinese number with lights and screens and silhouettes in a more classical ballet style. But we only have a week and a half to get it ready. Plus, I have the rhéto dance, another short number, and a duet thing with a girl who is singing a song called "Luxure". It's a lot to do!

After our lunch break, we ran through the entire show. Which took over 5 hours. The show is estimated to be about three hours long in the end. And all my stuff is in the second act. But after today, I do feel better about most of the dances. A lot of people told me that the dances look really great and especially Bad Romance. I really think things are starting to fall into place. We have another rehearsal all day tomorrow and then about a week and a half until "opening night". The show is based around the 7 capital sins. The few scenes that I saw today were really well done and a lot of them were hysterical! The Belgians are really surprising me with their skills. Hopefully after tomorrow, we'll be even farther along the path to success!!

Oh and after a nice dinner of racqulettes (remember, the melted cheese with potatoes and meat and stuff? That makes you fat fast?) my host brother and father had fun trying to crack hazelnuts with their hands and elbows and smashing them with the nut cracker instead of actually using it. It was really very entertaining. Then I had chocolate chip cookies that resembled EXACTLY Chips Ahoy. With a glass of milk. It was a good day.

Now I must sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Lots to do, little time and all that. Bonne nuit tout le monde !

A Movie And A Flower

So yesterday was Thursday. And what did I do with my Thursday? I went to Brussels to see the biggest flower in the world! This particular flower is housed at the Botanical Gardens in Meise, which is a Flemish town right outside Brussels. Talia and I caught a train out there, and after a confusing bus debacle, finally got to the gardens to see this flower. And why did I go yesterday? Because the flower is only in bloom for a few days every three years. And it was supposed to be open the last couple days of this week.

Note the words "supposed to."

Talia and I got all the way there on a rainy, gray, gross day, and found the flower, closed. It was still cool to see and I photographed it anyways, but I was disappointed that it wasn't bloomed like the internet said it would be. Don't trust technology, people. Anyway, the flower measures up to be about two and half meters (that's almost three yards for all of you who are unfamiliar with the metric system). And it's supposed to smell really really bad, but since it wasn't open, it didn't really smell like anything. The gardens themselves, I have to say, were kind of unimpressive... I imagine that the grounds are gorgeous in the spring and summer when the sun in shining, but here in the middle of March, on a cold and rainy Belgium-y day, I was a little disappointed. Plus side, we got in for free with our student IDs. After the flower, we were going to go to see the Atomium since it's basically a Belgian icon and I still haven't seen it yet. But it was so foggy that we decided it wasn't worth it since I would pay to go up there and not even get good pictures out of it. So we went and got pizza instead :)

Today, I went to school as usual, almost falling asleep multiple times since I was so exhausted after Skyping with my mother for two hours last night talking about school and summer and all that jazz. Plus I think I'm getting a little sick. But that's besides the point. The point is that I was tired all day. After school, though, I forced myself to go to the gym, only to find out that my membership has expired. I was still able to work out today, but I am membership less.

The rest of the evening went rather well. Romane came and picked me up and we headed off to Liège to see "Black Swan". The movie is about a dancer in a ballet company who is producing "Swan Lake" and she is casted in the role of the Swan Queen. Well, the role definitely takes it's toll on her and we see her fall into a bout of schizophrenia. One thing leads to the next, and, well, let's just say it got pretty creepy. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was incredibly well done. Who knew Natalie Portman could dance like that?!

Tomorrow, I have to be at school for 9 HOURS for what I think is going to be the equivalent of a dress rehearsal for the theater... Followed by a party... Somewhere... For now I need to rejuvenate with a good night's sleep. Goodnight!!

Fire Drill! And A Birthday :)

For the first time since I've been here, we had a fire drill at school. I was starting to worry that the Belgians were unaware of the very important practice of fire awareness and safety. But alas, they did not. So at some point this morning I found myself outside on a fire escape, you know the grid kind, wearing high heels and fearing for my life, but not for the reason of the possibility of fire.

ALSO much more importantly, today is the birthday of the one and only Talia Saville!!! I made her a cake and posted a video on YouTube with a nice little note about how much I love the girl! Talia, you rock, you're awesome, and you know how much I love you. I truly hope that this day was wonderful for you and that you enjoy the first part of your nineteenth year on Earth with me in Belgium :)

On another note, we had a nice four hour rehearsal after school today for the dance part of theater, as I have been talking about. We finally finished Bad Romance. Hopefully, it will turn out to be as good as I see it in my head!

If any members of NDW are reading this, I just want to take a moment to let you guys know how much I appreciate you and your hard work on the senior show last year.

Also, with dinner tonight we had mushrooms. I am surprised to say that I find that I actually like mushrooms now. If you know me, you know that I detested them before. Oh Belgium, how you change me (ha).

Bonne nuit tout le monde !

On A Fait La Grève

Today, we had a strike at school. The first time in my life that I participated in a strike, and it was completely involuntary. We started school two hours late today after having Monday off (which I spent watching How I Met Your Mother at Talia's house) and when I got there, I found out that in fact, we did have class the third hour either cause we were on strike. And actually, it's the teachers who decide when we strike and they just basically say no, were not giving our courses today. Thankfully, it was super sunny and warm out today, so we were able to go outside and talk to our friends and catch up with everyone since we'd all been apart for the last week on vacation. Also, during our strike, a couple of the teachers set up a barbecue in the courtyard. Interesting, right? After strike time was over, we went to class as usual and then went home and ate, made a cake for Talia, who's birthday is tomorrow, and went to dance. Which may very well have been the most frustrating class of my life. Sometimes the language barrier really gets to me. Not to mention that I'm aggravated that I've been progressively losing my dancing skills since I got here. But enough complaining. Life is good, right? Right. *sigh* ok, it's bed time for Emma. Goodnight all.

CARNAVAL

Alrighty, I'm finally doing this post for the week!! It was such a crazy, jam packed week, and I do apologize for the lack of blogging during it. And fear not, it will be very detailed (since my wonderful host brother has so very kindly commented on the fact that I talk about everything in my blogs, I can't let him down!).

So, we shall start with Sunday. It was pretty average as far as Sundays go. The day consisted of eating, family coming over, celebrating a birthday with three different cakes, and good conversation and company. And one of those cakes was a yellow one. Like a legit American yellow cake out of a Betty Crocker box. And they were all drenched in melted chocolate. Let's just say I found myself in heaven for about ten minutes.

Monday, we started the insanity of the week. As planned, I went to Liège with Jordann. I caught my bus at the last second and then caught my train, and surprisingly made it there with no problems. BUT, we shall not doubt the Belgian train system. Without fail, there was a complication. Jordann's train came over an hour and a half late. Talk about a long wait... I spent the time watching Ocean's 11 on my iPod :) Once she got there, we walked over to the MédiaCité to that wonderful sushi place. Remember? The one that Talia and I went to with the magical conveyor belt of all-you-can-eat Chinese food and sushi? Yah. We probably spent two hours there stuffing ourselves full of the delicious food. Afterwards, we did some shopping there and around Liège, managing to avoid paying for a bus. I bought a nice new pair of boots for only 10 euros! I was excited. After our day, my host parents met up with us in Liège and we all drove over to a cinema not to far away to catch a movie. We saw "Le Discours D'un Roi", or "The King's Speech" as you probably know it, after grabbing some food. It was a very VERY good movie. We saw it in French, obviously, but I really do think it would be even better in English. Afterwards, Jordann came back home with us and slept over.

The next morning, we woke up and got ourselves ready for MARDI GRAS!!! We didn't have set costumes, so we improvised. I just threw on every piece of colorful clothing that I own, including multiple scarves and crazy tights and my new boots, along with some nice fake eyelashes. Originially, the idea was that I would be color and Jordann would be darkness. But once the makeup was on, she turned into more of a cat and I don't know what the heck I was hehe We left the house with my host dad, who drove us to the train station in Namur since he was working there that day, and we caught the train from there to go to Binche. We did our makeup on the train and ended up talking to some really nice people who were American. The trains were packed with people who were all going to same place as we were. Eventually, we got there and ended up finding another exchange student who I hadn't known before, Raquel. She was there with her host parents. We walked around, following the huge crowd of people that were all going into the center of town. There were a bunch of guys dressed up in costumes as "gilles". I don't know how to describe the costume, so just look at the pictures. But I can tell you that they wore wooden shoes and marched to the beat of drums behind them through the crowds. It was very interesting and really really awesome! We spent the morning walking around and taking pictures and trying to find an ATM. But almost everything was closed, except for a few places to get food. For lunch, we ended up meeting up with Raquel's host parents and going to a Rotary stand to get some sandwiches. We spent time talking with them and then ended up finding another few exchange students and a rogue Canadian who was there for work (modeling, ha). His name was Ian and he spent some time with us since he was alone and we spoke English. Finally, around 4 30, it was time for the big event: the parade. We met another Australian exchange student, Shaun, and met up with another American girl named Stephanie, and somehow lost Jordann. We planted ourselves in one spot to get ready for the parade. Here, all the gilles and some other groups of people who were dressed up walked down the street throwing oranges into the crowd. For this reason, all the windows and doors on the building were covered in wooden frames and fencing to protect them, because let me tell you, they whipped those things. The gilles wore giant hats piled with feathers as they walked to the beat of drums. Between us four exchange students, we caught 33 oranges. We would have caught more, but there was a guy in front of us who had crazy reflexes and caught almost every one that came our way. We took turns getting on each others shoulders and catching the oranges and at the end, we split them up and went back to the train station to go home, which was also packed tight full of people. But I successfully got home without train trouble!

The next day was Wednesday. It was Ash Wednesday, and I failed to go to church. Which I feel terrible about. But I did spend the day much more calmly than the rest, though I did have to go up to the school for about five hours for a big rehearsal for the dance for the theater. I continued to teach Bad Romance, and we still have yet to finish. I really hope that by the end of things it turns out well. I spent the rest of the day just resting up for the rest of my week.

Thursday was our day in Lille, France. Although there weren't really any problems with the trains or bus, I did realize a little too late that I had forgotten my wallet at home. Well, by this time I was already on the train and couldn't very well go back. Jordann did owe me some money though, so we were able to get our tickets taken care of and I just didn't buy anything all day ha. Monday and Tuesday had been lovely days and Wednesday wasn't bad either. But just our luck, Thursday was pretty ugly. It didn't rain, but it was cold and windy and gray. Still, we managed to enjoy ourselves walking around the city, led by a map, and taking plenty of pictures. We even did a little shopping in the cute shops that were tucked away in some of the back streets. We managed to find a couple second hand stores as well, one of which was called "The Hippie Market". It was awesome! We even splurged and split a speculoos macaroon from a ridiculously overpriced high class bakery. We were very tired though, and after seeing quite a few churches and monuments, we decided that we needed some relaxation and made our way to a cemetery that was on the edge of the city to calm down a little. Then we walked around the giant mall before making our way home. And I was exhausted.

Friday was our day in Maastricht, which is a city in Holland. I remembered my wallet, caught my train met up with Jordann on the train from Liège after being harassed by some creepy kids who sat next to me on the train. But Jordann saved me and we go to Maastricht without problem. That day was more chill. We had no map, but instead just walked around and explored, coming across some churches and big buildings, but mostly doing window shopping. We also indulged and got some fish fry from the market, which was nice for me since at home we go to a fish fry every Friday during Lent. We took some nice pictures there also and caught our train back home. Ben picked me up from the train station and asked me if I wanted to go out with them that night, but it was absolutely impossible because I was DEAD TIRED. So I went home and went to sleep!

Yesterday, I didn't do much of anything until the evening when I went to Brussels with Ben for the birthday of my host sister, Marie, who I had not met until last night. Ben pretty much begged me to go with him, so finally I caved and decided that I had nothing better to do. But then of course, both of us being brilliant people, we got lost for about 2 hours in Brussels and eventually were rescued by some family who led us back to where we were supposed to be. But it wasn't bad because we talked and laughed and joked for those 2 hours. I met a bunch of new people there who all wanted to speak English with me, including my host sister. We ate dinner with everyone and then left around 11 30, managing to find the highway this time easily. We got home and spent some time in front of the television until about 2am, which probably wasn't the smartest decision I ever made, as I was exhausted.

Today, I have literally done nothing but sleep, eat, and sit in front of my computer. But, I figure I'm allowed since I had such a busy week. And no school tomorrow!!

There you have it. My week of vacation for Carnaval.

Excuses...

Here are the reasons I haven't posted in the last couple days:

I've been busy visiting 4 different countries.

I'm tired.

I haven't been getting home til late and have to get up early in the mornings.

I want to have the time to put up a really good post.

I promise I will catch everyone up as soon as my life slows down a bit.

Bisous à tout le monde !

Yet Another Train Adventure

Today is Sunday. I am officially on break! One week for Carnaval. Yesterday was a fun day, because I went to Germany with my friend Jordann, just like I told you all I would. We caught our respective trains to meet up in Liège around 9am to catch a 9 33am train to Aachen. Of course, there are always issues with me and the train between Landen and Liège and it was late and going extremely slowly. So I didn't get to the station until about 9 30. We were cutting it close. Plus, I almost took the wrong train. But I asked and ended up on the right train. We got on the train to Aachen, and I ended up buying some weird pass that was cheaper than a regular ticket.

Anyways, we got to Aachen around 10 30am and instantly set out into the cold with our map, walking around speaking English and looking so very much like tourists. We spent the day going from one big important building to the next, stopping at random cute shops along the way, although, sadly, I have nothing to recount as far as cool food. I had falafel for lunch in a pita. Which was delicious! But not important to Germany... Regardless, we saw some awesome stuff. Like a huge church that is in the middle of the city called the "Dom". The idea when they built it was to build "The New Rome". It's probably the most magnificent church I've ever seen. The moasic walls and ceiling along with the stained glass windows... Words cannot describe the beauty. And then you walked through and you think about it and realize that it has been there longer than anything you ever saw in the United States. Even with our technology today, we cannot create such stable, beautiful things such as that. The hand made churches like that are so much more precious and incredible than anything that has been built within the last 300 years. It's just incredible to think about...

Anyways, yah we did some sight-seeing and shopping and taking TONS of photos. That is really the purpose of this week: to have a photography week and take incredible pictures. Also, we met a very nice old man that explained some history to us and set in the right direction when we were a little lost. I was good and only bought one thing the whole day: A bag for school and the gym that will hold all my stuff so I don't have to carry six bags around all the time... Ok that's an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

We caught our train home around 4 30pm (and found out that we could have used my weird pass for both of us and Jordann hadn't needed to buy another ticket... But nobody told us that...) and were back in the Liège by 5 30. My train back to Landen was at 5 53pm, and I successfully caught it. I thought for once, there would be no problems getting home. And then we were almost at Landen when we just stopped dead in the middle of the tracks. Then half the lights went out. The few people that were on the train with me and myself, we just sat there for almost a half hour before an announcement came on over the loud speaker. But it was in Flemish. Well we were all francophones/anglophones, so that wasn't very helpful. It was about ten minutes after that that we actually found out what was going on. Turned out that there was an accident a little ways up the tracks and we had lost electricity and couldn't get to Landen. So they told us we were going to backtrack to Waremme. Well we sat there until a good hour and fifteen minutes after we first stopped. Plus, there were two people on the train who didn't speak any French at all, so I had to translate for them both. So I felt useful. One of the girls was an exchange student who was staying in Germany and we talked the whole way back to Waremme. She was very nice. And my host dad picked me up there, I went home, ate dinner with the host fam (I had legit MEATLOAF), and slept very very well.

P.S. The contacts are working out well :D

Today was a calm ish Sunday. Some people came over, as usual, and we celebrated my host mom's birthday from a couple weeks ago. We had a yummy meal, starting with soup and tomatoes stuffed with little shrimps and salmon. Then we had roast beef and fries with a sauce with mushrooms. And I ate applesauce too :) For dessert, we had a couple different cakes. One was very much like an American yellow cake with chocolate on top. Another was like a pie with almond and pears. And the third was a sugar tart. All of them were topped with hot melted chocolate. YUM. And all of them were delicious. We then spent time talking and laughing and playing with little baby Léo. We even had a little party with balloons where we all played a game hitting them back and forth. It was truly a family effort.

Tomorrow, Liège with Jordann to get ready for Mardi Gras on Tuesday. Sleep time now!

Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Wednesday Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. Obviously. I went to school as I normally do, only to find that Madame Gallo was going to be late. Well she didn't get to school until the beginning of the third out of four hours of class because she had to take her little son to the doctor's this morning. But it was no big deal. After class we had a rehearsal for the dance portion of the theater, like usual, and I continued to choreograph and teach the dance to "Bad Romance". But we ended up cutting out another dance from the show and adding three girls into Bad Romance. Which was a little stressful, considering we had to figure out the new lines and counts, and the fact that six people were shouting in French in my ear wasn't helping. But finally we got it all straightened out and everything was good. Apparently I'm going to do a duet number with another girl in the place of the dance that we took out. Koolio.

After the rehearsal, Talia and I went to the store to grab some stuff because we made a cake tonight. I went home with her and we made our cake, talked a bunch, ate dinner, which was potatoes and I think dates and applesauce and a sort of meat that was completely and utterly raw. Although I felt very rude, I'm sad to say that I could not bring myself to take a second bite. The fact was that it was not cooked at all other than the very outside. After dinner, Talia and I went back to our cake and I made my signature frosting, and we sat and talked more as we cleaned the frosting off of the bowl and the mixer. So yes, I broke my diet a bit today. But I figure, once in a while is ok. I just have to be good for at least the next two weeks.

I'm spending the night here tonight. We will continue to exchange music and such and just have a good girls night, which we haven't done in a while. I have to say, I miss it. Talia Saville, you're my bud and I miss how things were at the beginning of our exchange. Love ya dear!

I'll sleep well tonight I think. Bonne nuit !

C'est Presque La Vacance...

On est dans la dernière semaine avant la vacance de Carnaval. Et je dois dire, je ne peux PAS attendre !! Contre de tous les belges, je pars pas pendant la vacance pour skier en France ou en Suisse. Alors, je dois faire "my own fun". (Romane m'a invité d'aller avec elle et sa famille, mais c'est pas possible pour le moment :() Alors, qu'est-ce on fait en Belgique pour avoir une semaine totalement inoubliable ? On quitte le pays.

J'ai organisé tout ma vacance aujourd'hui avec ma nouvelle amie Jordann (qui habite à Waterloo, vous vous rappelez ?). Vous êtes prêts pour l'itinéraire ?

Samedi: On va à Aachen. C'est tout près de la Belgique, mais en Allemagne.

Dimanche: On repose pour être en plein forme pour la reste de la semaine.

Lundi: Jordann vient chez moi et on fait un jour du shopping à Liège pour acheter les déguisements pour Mardi Gras. Le soir, on fait un petit "slumber party" chez moi :)

Mardi: MARDI GRAS !! On va à Binche avec plein du monde pour la grande fête !

Mercredi: Je repose et va à l'église pour Ash Wednesday. Aussi, j'ai un répétition pour le théâtre.

Jeudi: On va à Lille, une belle ville en France, tout près de la Belgique.

Vendredi: On fait une journée à Maastricht, en Holland.

Samedi: Je pense que j'aille à Anvers avec une amie de l'école.

Dimanche et Lundi: Je ne sais pas, mais je suis sur que je vais m'amuser super bien !

Alors, vous voyez ? Je vais visiter 4 pays pendant dix jours de vacance. Ça va être vraiment une semaine de photographie aussi. C'est pour ça que je fais tout avec Jordann. On aura des belles photos après qu'on peut voir sur mon blog de photographie. Aussi, on a déjà commencé de penser à Pacque, et qu'on veut aller à Amsterdam pendant la vacance là, même si on va avec le Rotary en Italie. :) Je vais beaucoup faire pendant mes derniers mois en Belgique :D

Pour aujourd'hui, il n'y a pas vraiment beaucoup de nouvelles. Je suis allée au magasin pour regarder les lunettes et j'ai choisi mes nouvelles et je crois que j'aille les avoir jeudi. Cool ! C'est vraiment tout. Je suis crevée, donc, je vais au lit. Bonne nuit tout le monde !