Ok to catch us up on the last couple weeks...
Things are going very well at my new host house! I love having sisters again. We spend time together eating (a lot), talking, laying out in the sun, etc. The weather in Belgium has been uncharacteristically lovely and warm with lots of sun lately. Which is beautiful and I am getting really dark with some of the most gorgeous tan lines you've ever seen. I've been to Namur and Liège a couple times since changing families, mostly on Wednesday afternoon. There has not been too many exciting things happening around here that I can post on my blog... Except...
Two weekends ago, Talia and I were invited by our Rotary district to be a part of the Outbound Weekend, which was basically the weekend orientation for the future Belgian exchange students who are going to leave next year on exchange. There were only about 23 inbounds there, so it was kind of a big deal that we were chosen to go. We had a nice bus adventure trying to get from Liège to a town called Wigemont. We got off too late and had to walk back, not exactly sure of where to go. And of course, we found the building but stood outside of it for about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get in and where to go. We finally figured it out, (Rotary, you could put up some signs next time) and met up with the other exchange students where we just socialized until the Belgians got there. We met the 70 or so future exchange students, ate dinner with them, and then it was time to give our country presentations. There were quite a few Americans, so we did a quick PowerPoint and sang the 50 Nifty United States song, which if you don't know, is all the states in alphabetical order. And I got roped into singing the National Anthem. Right there, on the spot, without warming up. Singing what is potentially the most difficult song written in the history of American classics. Basically what happened was Mr. Biname had heard from De Boyer that I sing well and he told me that I was going to sing. I protested, but he just laughed and told me it was already in the program. And when we got up to do our presentation (almost last, as the USA is second to last alphabetically, followed only by Venezuela) he announced that I would sing. And then everyone started cheering for me. So basically I had no choice at that point. It didn't go terribly, but not well either. It's been way too long since I've sang... But my French was good for the actual presentation. All the kids found out then where they were going the next year, we then met our roommates (each inbound in a room with outbounds) and it was time to head to the rooms. I was rooming with three girls who were each going to the States. They didn't seem too excited to leave, but hey, it's scary at first.
The next day, the inbounds spent most of our time preparing the presentation for that night while the outbounds had their presentations of the rules and such. But in the afternoon, we all got a break to take a "hike" (walk) together through the country side and talk about the coming year. We were broken up into groups by countries, and I talked to a bunch of the different students. By the end of that walk, after talking to us about what it's like in the different countries, I think the majority of them were stoked for their exchanges if they weren't already.
That evening, we started off by doing a sort of skit about the process of the year of an exchange student. I played the exchange student, a Belgian going to the States, and we played the whole story, going to the airport and through customs, culture shock, being homesick, making friends, falling in love, and finally leaving our new second home. Afterwards, we each told our own personal stories about the hardships, the funny things, and just the problems that can show up. I talked about how I didn't get my visa until the day I left and my relationship story. And then the Rotex kids talked about going home. And Talia and I cried. That was when I really realized that I don't want to leave this country... But that is for a different blog!
That night, the exchange students got to stay up later and eat frites and just chill. I got a massage from my good friend Remi, who very well may have a future career in massage therapy. We all then snuck around to take our showers and get into bed without waking up our outbounds. Sunday was spent just hanging out. We could leave if we wanted to, but the night before, De Boyer had asked me to give a speech for the parents that afternoon about my exchange. I was one of two exchange students that were asked, so I couldn't exactly turn it down. So I had to stay, which turned out to be a good thing because I bonded with some of the outbounds. And I worked on my speech and by the time it was time to give it in front of everyone, I was fairly confident, even though I only had the first half written out. But once I got up there, Rotary struck again. I was once again, in the same fashion, roped into singing the Star Spangled Banner. This time with absolutely NO preparation. But it went MUCH better than the first time. Then I gave my speech, which just flowed nicely in French and at the end of it, I was proud of it all. I went home with Géraldine and her parents and spent the rest of the day just chilling and catching up on the sleep that I had missed over the weekend.
Last weekend I went to Brussels with Rotary on Saturday to see the Atomium and the Royal Greenhouses. They're only open a couple weeks in May. And I had never seen the Atomium. I took some nice pictures. What the Atomium is, is basically a giant silver sculpture of an atom. And you can go up into the different balls of the atom. At the very top, you can look out of the windows over Brussels. The other ones have exhibitions in them. We went up to the top and then did the lower ones afterwards. After our visit there and going up and down the fastest elevator in Europe, we had lunch (I had FALAFEL!! And a milkshake. Good day), and then headed over to the greenhouses, which were lovely. Again, took a million pictures. It took a while to walk through. We did have some chilling time afterwards where Mikayla and Christian and I did a nice photoshoot. Then Rotary gave us, of course, waffles and orange juice. However, we still had free time so we stopped by yet another European church. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really pay attention... Plus I was really tired and I had eaten too much waffle. But we went back to Liège and I took the train back to Landen and went home.
I'm pretty sure that is all that's been happening around here... Last Thursday we were off of school because the teachers went on strike. Good old Belgium. I'm attempting to diet again, though it doesn't work well in this house when there are cookies and chocolates EVERYWHERE. Yesterday marked two months left here. I'm freaking out a bit... Again, that's for another blog, later. Exams are coming up, but I'm not entirely sure how that is going to work out this time around... We'll find out! And I'm going to try very hard to get back to regular posting. Now, it's bed time. Bonne nuit !
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