Tuesday, June 28, 2011

11 Days...

And the Countdown begins... I have 11 days left until the Big Day when I leave this country and go back to the one that I call "home". Before I get all sentimental, let's recap the last few days.

Friday was the day after the ball. Which meant that everyone was EXHAUSTED. But what does this mean? The perfect day to throw a surprise birthday party for Manon! I had to go into Hannut for a dance rehearsal (that didn't seem to exist. I waited around an hour for people that didn't show up) but once I came back, it was a mad house. We were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things ready and organizing and reorganizing around Manon who was wanting to come home early because she was tired, like the rest of us. But we got it all worked out with another one of our friends, Vanille, who made up a story about fighting with her boyfriend to get Manon to stay the whole afternoon with her. Around 7pm, people started arriving at the house and by 7 30, Manon was walking through the door and being greeted by a huge SURPRISE from all of us. I have lovely pictures. The best part about it? Because of the course of events and circumstances, she came home with her hair still pinned up from the ball, her pearls still around her neck, and her pajamas on. Nicely done Manon :) She went upstairs to shower and change and then we all spent the evening together, eating barbecue (again) and chit chatting. Eventually, we got back into Belgian customs and the alcohol came out. The big news of the night? There was a party (techno, of course) just a few feet away from our house and a couple of the kids went over there around midnight. Well, they came back early, around 1am, because there was a huge fight involving a cult-ish group of people, knives, the police, and an ambulance. Serious stuff, man. I went up to bed around 1 30am because I needed to get up in the morning to dance.

Which I did. Saturday was just that. I went to dance in the morning and then went to see Ben in the afternoon. We had to go our separate ways in the evening because I had yet another surprise party, this time for Romane before she leaves. She is going to Australia for a couple of months and her friends organized a little get-together for her. We all walked in a group (about 25 of us) to her house, her sister blindfolded her and then brought her outside and we surprised her. She was very happy and we all spent the evening with her. I didn't know many people there, so Perrine and I passed the night peeling the foil off of bottle caps and then stacking them. It's more entertaining than you think. We had a whole group of people doing it by the end of the night.

Sunday I slept in. Til almost 2pm. It was lovely. That afternoon, I had yet another little party to go to, this time with the students of Madame Noel. We all got together around 4pm, ate ice cream, sat around and chilled. My camera wasn't working, oddly. But it works again now, so I'm not asking questions, I'm just going with it. Eventually we ate dinner also, and then I left around 10 30pm because I was just so exhausted. I went home and I slept.

Yesterday was Monday, a pretty average day, but also topped off by a surprise birthday party. This time for our friend Lucie who's birthday was actually in January. It was cute though because when she came in, they put on "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". We, like all the other parties, spent the night eating and socializing, even dancing like crazy people at one point. Manon and Talia and I left around 11 30pm, again, to sleep. Though I stayed up til about 2am Skyping with my Daddy :)

Yesterday, also, I started to pack. I went through all my clothes and made a nice big pile of stuff that I don't really want anymore. I'm starting to get nervous about getting everything home, even with my nice pile. The fact is that I just have a lot of stuff. I have to continue going through it all and getting rid of things. I'm sure I'll be going home wearing about ten layers of clothing, all heavy and hot and I may die of heat stroke. Hopefully not, but we'll see. I also have to decide where I want to eat the night that I get home, which is proving to be one of the most difficult decisions of my life. What from the States have I missed the most?! It's really hard to choose. But i already told my family that I want a giant American breakfast the next morning. Hopefully the time difference won't mess too much with my head.

I'm not ready to get emotional on this blog yet. I'm already a little ball of emotional wreckage. Can't we wait to publicize it? Sorry, it'll come after I get back from Switzerland. Bye!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

A Belgian Prom






So, Thursday was the day of the Bal Rhéto, which is basically Belgian Prom. I woke up that morning, went home, and slept for a little while longer. Once I got up, I ate lunch and then Talia came over. Together, her, Manon and I all got ready for the dance together. All three of us had our hair done by, well, me. But there was a crisis. Just before finishing my own hair, the power went out in the whole village. I don't know why, but this meant that there was no more heating device. Which, like I said, was a crisis. After waiting a half an hour and nothing happening, we decided that we couldn't wait any longer and all got in the car and went to Manon's grandma's house to finish getting ready. By this time, I only had about an hour and a half left before my date came to get me. I managed to do both Manon's and Talia's hair in about 35 or 40 minutes and even touch up my own. Then we ran back to our house to finish our makeup and get dressed. I went to the dance with a boy in my class named Maxime. He showed up around 6 30pm, just as I was finishing up. Of course, Manon and Talia lucked out and had a little more time than me. But in the end, I was ready to go and we were out the door on time, in the car, on the way to the ball.

We were some of the first people there. Everyone was dressed up nicely, chit chatting, waiting for the rest of the rhéto to get there. We got our pictures taken, took some pictures ourselves, and just socialized for a while. People trickled in and eventually we had all shown up and were making the rounds, talking, laughing, admiring one another's dresses. It was sunny but it sprinkled rain every so often, which was no fun. We stayed outside for a while, went inside, changed our minds and went back out, pretty much all night. Some of the students in the lower grades were there too, working the dance. The came around with little appetizers and drinks, serving us like the respectable adults that we are ;)

Prom in the States and Prom in Belgium are two very, VERY different things. For one, yes everyone is dressed up. But there were very few boys in tuxes and very few girls in long dresses. The majority of us wore short ones. The whole concept of corsages and boutonnieres doesn't exist. And yes, everyone goes with a date. But you don't really stay with your date the way you do in the States. There were hours of time that I didn't even see Maxime. Another thing is that we didn't eat until about 11 30pm. And we didn't have many tables to sit down at either. It was a buffet-style thing, and in the customs of Belgium, there was no line to get your food, but rather a mob. We each took a bowl (a paper one, by the way) and chose between shrimp, chicken, and beef stir-fry. Then we chose either noodles or rice to go with it. And that was the meal. We did, of course, have the appetizers before hand, which were much classier. But once we got our dinners, we stood around and ate them or sat in random chairs that just happened to be there. There were a few tables, but not enough for everyone. Another difference, obviously, was the presence of alcohol. And there were teachers there. I still find it weird to drink alcohol in front of, even with, teachers. And I do find it a shame that at an event like this, that is supposed to be classy and sophisticated, people were still drunk as anything, doing stupid things and getting sick on themselves... The music did not start until after midnight, and even then not everyone danced. During the course of the entire night, there was one slow dance, and not even half of the people there danced to it. Dessert was also in a buffet style, which is "normal". There were a few different mousse type things in little cups, one of the chocolate, one with raspberry, and one vanilla.

Overall, I did have a good time, though I found it weird to not be with my date all night. But I danced and had fun. It wasn't what I expected, and very different from at home. And I'm sorry Belgium, but I do prefer American Prom. I left around 3 30 or 4am, but since I left with a bunch of other people who had to get dropped off, I wasn't in bed til about 5 15am.

I have other updates to give, yes, but I am exhausted beyond belief and I need to go to sleep. I will continue tomorrow. Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Week's Worth Of Blogging...

I'm a bad blogger...
Alrighty, so. In my crazy attempt to update everyone on Spain, I have fallen about a week behind on my blog, and that week includes my birthday celebrations in Belgium. So here we go. You have a week's worth of blog to read about, so get ready!

Wednesday, after I got home from Spain, I rested for a bit, but I went back out that night after showering and eating with my host family. Also, Manon gave me what is possibly the most awesome gift ever! A full-size Belgian flag with the signatures of all the rhéto on it! I couldn't be happier with it, really. Ben picked me up and we went and got a bottle of champagne and then headed over to Olivier and Marie's house. We spent a few hours together, talking and catching up and having a good time. And then it was time for surprise number one. Marie came out of the kitchen with a raspberry tart with nineteen candles on the platter and sang Happy Birthday to me (in French of course)! I hadn't been sung to yet for my birthday or had cake, so that was a very nice surprise! And it was delicious. But I love raspberries, so I'm biased. We ate together and then Ben's phone alarm went off around 9 30 or 10 (I don't remember exactly) and informed me that it was time for us to get moving. But get moving to where? I had no idea. He told me to go pick out some music so with the help of Marie, i rummaged through their CD collection and picked out a few tunes (including Norah Jones). We said our goodbyes and Ben and I got in the car and that was the start of surprise number two. We ended up in a little clearing just outside the villages as it started to get dark out. He parked the car and we put in the Norah Jones CD and then he told me we had to go find the moon. But it was still too early, as the sun was just barely setting, so the moon was nowhere to be seen. In the meantime, he pulled out a big blanket, the champagne, two glasses and a telescope and asked me if I had ever seen a lunar eclipse before. Well, I have never seen a lunar eclipse. But there was going to be one that night, so he had it all planned out that we were going to watch it to celebrate a little bit my birthday! We got all situated, toasted with champagne, and watched the sky as it got darker. Disappointing part: We never did see the eclipse. It happened while the moon was too low in the sky and by the time we could see the moon at all, it was already coming out of the eclipse. But we watched as it grew back to full size and flooded the countryside with light. Honestly, it was the most beautiful moon I've ever seen. Why it didn't even matter that we didn't get to see the eclipse: The sky was still gorgeous and full of stars and, even without the moon, we were together and had a great night. Probably the best post-birthday celebration I've ever had.

Thursday was Manon's birthday. All the Belgians were still in exams, so they had to be at school all morning. I, however, along with the other Americans in Hannut, had already finished my exams so I could sleep! But I did go into Hannut after the exams were over to say hi to everyone and catch up. Yes, everyone was jealous of my Spain adventure. Around noon, Manon and I went back home and ate lunch with the family and then Manon went to study. That night, we all ate dinner together and then Manon and I both shared in a little birthday celebration with my host family, again involving cake, candles, and singing. I received two pairs of beautiful silver earrings from my host family as well. That night, I went to dance, as usual for Thursdays. We are getting ready for our show that we are putting on in a week and a half. When I got home from dance, I was surprised by the presence of Talia and Alex in the house, who stopped by for Manon's birthday. They hung out for a while, eating cake and talking. After they left, it was back to studying for Manon and sleep time for me.

Friday was yet another exam day for the Belgians. Again, I didn't have any exams to take, but I did ride my bike up to Hannut afterwards to meet up with everyone and have a drink. We all hung out for a while, but eventually the crowd dwindled out and I left as well on my bike. I passed by Ben's to say hi. We watched "The Matrix", which believe it or not, I had never seen before. I ate dinner there and then went home to get to bed early because I had an exciting weekend ahead of me!

Saturday, I left in the afternoon to catch a train to go the North Sea that borders Belgium. It's one of those things that you have to see, and I hadn't been there yet. But by 5pm, I was there, the wind whipping at my hair and sand flying up into my face! We found a little hotel in the city of Blankenberge (Flemish), dropped off our things, and then headed back to the shore to look for a place to get dinner. But we were looking for something specific. You see, there are a few things that are very stereotypical Belgian. You all know about the beer, the waffles, and the chocolate. But the thing that I still hadn't tried yet was the mussels. And this was the day. We found a little place that looked really nice (all old people. You know it's good when it's all old people) and I sat down to my first ever dinner of Belgian mussels and fries. The mussels were cooked in white wine with plenty of vegetables, all hot and simmering in my own little personal pot, overflowing with the big shells. Eating mussels is not the easiest thing in the world... For one, sometimes your fork just pulls right through it and you don't actually end up with anything in your mouth. Instead, you have a strand of dismembered crustacean hanging out of the shell... Second, when you get to the bottom of the pot. they are extra hot and swimming in the broth, so you may burn yourself and/or have the mussel slip right out of your hand. Third, you find yourself chewing on the shell sometimes, when they are more brittle than you thought. And fourth, even though you may want to inspect each and every one, it's a bad idea to look at the mussels you are eating or even to think about it too much. Because eventually you realize that you are eating it all. Whole. The brains, the organs, everything. But once you get past these minor details, it's really an enjoyable meal. And of course, we had them with your typical fries. One word to wrap it all up? YUM.

After eating, we headed down towards the actual sea, slipped off our shoes and walked along the beach. One thing about the sea in Belgium... The wind!! It is STRONG. But I liked it a lot because you could see the sand floating over the shore and the waves crashing and even though it was cloudy, the sun was shining through the clouds and I just found the whole thing beautiful. But, eventually, the wind gets to you and you have to go back up by civilization. We went to get a drink afterwards and just sat and talked for a while before heading back to the room for the night (typical European, there was a communal bathroom and shower, just saying).

Sunday, we got up and checked out by 10am and headed out into the town in a failed attempt to find some breakfast. Again, Europe. Bob Evans breakfast all day doesn't exist here, sadly. But we got a tea and chilled out for the morning. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, exploring all the different paths and even checking out a couple churches. We went to the boat docks, where people have their "yachts" (they weren't really yachts, more like sailboats), and walked out onto a giant pier that had a restaurant at the end of it. Again, the wind was strong and there were a few guys deep sea fishing off the end of the pier. The waves were beautiful and they came up and crashed against the supports of the pier, spraying us every so often with their mist. We walked and talked, got lunch, looked in shops, got a waffle, just chilled out all day. Around 5pm, we went back to the train station to catch a train home, and I was home by 8pm, in my bed not much later.

Monday was the last day of exams for my classmates. They had their math exam. Afterwards, everyone went to the bar to hang out and I was going to go join them, but in the end, getting there was way too complicated and I ended up just staying home and working on my Spain pictures. But that evening, my whole class came over to the house for the class barbecue (since my house is actually Manon's house). This includes Madame Gallo. I still find it odd to party with the teachers... Regardless, everyone was here by 7 30pm and the guys went at it to attempt to start the barbecue. I'm not gonna lie, Americans do it way better. But they did eventually get it and we did eventually eat our sausage sandwiches! We spent the evening talking, goofing around, taking pictures, talking, and sometimes just being plain ridiculous. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time hanging out with the people that have made this year absolutely amazing! I love my class, I really do, and I really do think that I was incredibly lucky to fall into such an awesome group of Belgians, along with an awesome teacher! As is typical for a Belgian party, a few people got sick as the night wore on. Evening quickly turned into night, but by 2am, mostly everyone who wasn't sleeping at the house had gone home and the rest of us were setting ourselves up in the living room to sleep.

Note to self: When you have a bed to sleep in, don't think it's a better idea to sleep on the ground with everyone else just because you don't want to be alone.

We woke up the next morning, yesterday morning in fact, tired and some of us cranky. We didn't move for a couple hours, but instead just stayed on the ground and on the couches, talking and retelling stories from the night before. Eventually, it was down to me and Manon and Talia and Maxime and we cleaned up the mess and got the house back into semi-order. Talia and Maxime left and then Manon and I took to cleaning up ourselves and recovering from the party. This meant sleeping all afternoon. That night, I had jazz, earlier than usual, and it made me feel pretty lousy. Dancing is getting harder and harder for me the longer I stay in this country and yesterday it seemed to really take a toll on me. Hopefully once I get back into my habits next year, it'll all go back to normal... After dance, I met up with Manon and a bunch of people from school in Hannut to celebrate Manon and Iris's birthdays together. Ben stopped by too and I eventually ended up going back with him and his friends and we hung out for a while in that same clearing with a bonfire and a guitar, just chillin.

This morning, I went to go back to my house early, but sadly, nobody was home and the house was locked. Needless to say, I was stranded outside for about two and a half hours before I managed to get a hold of my host sister who had been sleeping after working a night shift. I finally got into the house, ate lunch, and am now blogging before sleeping away the rest of the day. This blog also took longer than I thought it would... But like I said, a whole week's worth, involving some exciting stuff! But there you go, world. All the updates! It's naptime now. Goodnight!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day And A Birthday

This weekend was full of celebrations that I was not home for... For instance, Saturday was my sister, Olivia's, birthday. And today is Father's Day. Things like this are always the hardest parts of exchange, I'm finding... Because as much as you love that person and as much as you want to be with them to celebrate with them, you can't always be there because there are 4000 miles of ocean between you.

To my sister:

Olivia, you drive me insane. You make me want to bash my head against a wall. Consistently. But if there is one thing I've learned this year, it's an appreciation for my family. And I love you, sister. And I'm positive that I love you the way I do because you are the way you are. And yes, I would like very much for us to get along. And I hope that we can find a way to make our relationship better once I get back to the States and we have to live together once again. I guess what I'm trying to say is simply that I love you and I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Judging from Facebook, you did!

To my dad:

Faja, I love you more than I can express. I miss you so much. I miss your daddy hugs, our lunch dates, and the egg sandwiches that you made me in the morning. I miss watching stupid movies with you and laughing at screwed up Burger King signs. I miss going to Home Depot with you and running out through our swamp of a backyard to the shed to tell you that you have a phone call. I miss a lot of things, dad, and I can't wait to see you again. I know that you love me a lot and that you have been missing me this year. And on this Father's Day, I hope that you know that I'm thinking about you and sending all my love home. Here's to my amazing father, and the hope that we will soon be eating Mickey Mouse pancakes together again. I have realized more than ever, this year, that you mean so much to me, both as my dad and as my friend. You have done so much for me over the course of my life, caring for me and raising me to be an independent, strong girl. I wouldn't be here, in Belgium, doing what I'm doing without your love and support. So thank you, Dad. Thank you for everything. I LOVE YOU.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

España Cuatro

Alright so... Onto the fourth part of our adventures in Spain. Monday was almost completely uneventful, as Talia and I were both tired and she wasn't feeling great. We slept til almost 1 in the afternoon and stayed at the house to eat lunch with Susan and her kids, who got back from school around 1 30. We had salmon and vegetables for lunch, but the salmon was almost like a slab of steak, which I've never had before... I guess it never occurred to me that fish do have fat... Anyway, for the afternoon, Talia and I set off into the town of Alcala to have a look around and just explore. We took the map and went to a park first to just chill out a little bit. Then we made our way to the city center in hot pursuit of ice cream, which we found and ate successfully. I had mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream. Yum! Although the mint chocolate chip was so minty that at a certain point I started to feel like I was eating toothpaste... Regardless, we sat down for a white to eat our ice creams and came across two kids that were doing flips and jumps off of ramps and walls and videotaping them, probably to put on YouTube. I'll give them credit though, they were cool jumps. We walked a little more, went into a few shops, and I bought a pair of sandals. Then we sat down outside at a little cafe to get a drink. And I had non-carbonated iced tea for the first time since I came to Europe. Lovely :) In Spain, they do this thing called "tapas". Basically, when you get a drink, you get a little sort of food thing with it. They used to be free everywhere, all the time, but now most places charge you for them, and they're expensive. BUT! Not in Alcala!! They are still free there, so Talia and I took advantage of it and got a sort of chicken sandwich and a hamburger. (We don't speak Spanish so we just pointed at pictures that looked tasty) After enjoying that, we went into a few more shops, including a market, and then headed back to Susan's to eat dinner with the family. We didn't have anything really special that night. Some salad, cheese, vegetables, and what are basically croquettes, that once again, I don't know how to spell in Spanish...

That night, Susan and her daughter came into our room and told me that they knew that the next day was birthday and nobody should go without a gift on their birthday. And they gave me this beautiful Spanish shawl. It is black with embroidered flowers on it in all kinds of colors. I absolutely love it!

Tuesday was, yes, my birthday! Talia and I left the house around 11 30 with all of our things because we were going to stay our last night at Irene's. Susan walked us down to the bus stop so that we could meet up with Irene in Madrid and we said our thank yous and goodbyes. But of course, Talia and I had just missed the 11 30 bus so we had to wait for the noon one. We got to Madrid by 12 30 and met up with Irene. We took the metro back to her house and dropped off our things and then we were out once again for the day. Irene took us to this huge mall in Madrid with tons of stores. It was bigger than any of the malls I've seen so far in Europe. We did a little shopping and eventually ended up eating lunch at the same restaurant that we had that first day with the little sandwiches. Then for the afternoon, we looked around some more in the shops, but didn't buy anything this time. Around 5, Irene had to go to her university to find out her test scores, so Talia and I headed back to the Madrid city center to do some souvenir shopping. We also made a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and I got half a dozen donuts for Ben, since I remembered that he loved them so much when he was in Chile and there are no Dunkin Donuts in Belgium. We did a little more shopping and then took the subway back to Irene's, getting a little lost once we got out of the underground. But we found it alright and waited at her door until she got home, since we did not have a key.

That evening, I met Pablo, Irene's very cool boyfriend. We got ready to go out for the evening and took the subway back into the city. Pablo left us, but Irene guided Talia and I to a nice little restaurant where we would have my birthday dinner. The menus were, of course, in Spanish, so Irene just ordered a bunch of stuff and they brought them out, one plate after another. We had croquettes, calamari, and then a dish that was potatoes with three sunnyside-up eggs over them and pieces of bacon-type meat sprinkled over it. Man was that good stuff. After we had finished eating, we got back on the metro and headed over to Irene's university to meet up with a couple of her friends. We hung out there, just talking and having a good time, and around 1am made our way to a nearby club called "Nuit". The girls got in free (ha!) and we spent a few hours there, dancing and having a good time. We left around 3 30am and started making our way home. But the subways in Madrid don't run at that time, so we walked. And eventually got too tired and decided to take a taxi the rest of the way. It was my first time ever in a taxi. We got back to Irene's and crashed for the night.

We woke up around 9 30 the next morning and Talia and I packed up all of our things to go to the airport. We were each also wearing about 6 layers of clothing, since we had to compensate for the things we had bought in Spain. Irene went with us to the subway and we met up with Pablo there, and then we all went to the airport together. There we said our thank yous and goodbyes once again and Talia and I were off through security. We got through it all no problems and then we went to find some breakfast and hung out until it was time for our flight. Once again, I slept through most of the flight until we were landing. And we had a rough landing... We were 20 minutes early, so Talia and I ended up waiting a while at Charleroi for our ride home. But around 4pm, Ben showed up to take us home. I gave him the Dunkin Donuts, which he was thrilled about, and we shared a couple before the leaving the airport.

And then it was home sweet home. There ya go, folks. Our Spanish Adventure in four parts. Hope you enjoyed it and tune in next time for more stories from The Belgium Blogger.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Barcelona!!!

Here we go for Spain Part Three: Our Weekend In Barcelona. Here's how it went down: Saturday morning I got up and ate breakfast, quickly packed up all my last minute things, and Susan and her husband drove me to the airport in Madrid for 8am. It was a little early, but I was excited so it was all ok. Once I got there, I found my terminal and met up with Talia and Irene, who were with Irene's parents. They are so sweet! I only wish I understood the things that they were saying... But it was all in Spanish so I suppose it's understandable... Anyways, we got through security and everything with no problems and waited for our flight. This time, I was ready with motion sickness meds that I bought the day before in Madrid. Although most of you know me as the girl who never takes anything for anything EVER, motion sickness pills are something I swear by. So I took my pill and I have to say, it was the smoothest flight ever. Of course, it was only an hour long. But I don't care, I'm happy.

We arrived in Barcelona and had to figure out the way to get to the city center. Not the easiest thing to figure out. It involved a bus and a train (where there was a random guy playing an accordion. ON the train) and we did eventually get it and everything was fine. We did plenty of sight seeing during the day, including the buildings designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. The first thing we saw when we got to the center was a giant cathedral, very detailed and absolutely gorgeous, but unfinished, because he died before it was done. It had baskets of fruit on the points of the towers and huge carvings of Jesus on the cross and the saints on the walls. We considered going inside until we found out that it cost 12 euros a person and the line wrapped all the way around the building. We settled for a few pictures outside it and then set off to see his other buildings. Of course, none of us were familiar with the city, so we ended up lost more than once and walked around for a while, turned around a couple times before we found the correct street. On this street were a few more buildings designed by the same man, and they were also beautiful. I'm a big fan of Spanish architecture. By this time of day, I was feeling like my stomach was going to cave in on itself. But we couldn't seem to find a restaurant anywhere. Finally, we found a little Italian place, classy, but not too expensive and we ended up there. The first thing that they do is put bread and olives on the table. In the States, things like this are included in your meals and it's just something that you get when you go out to eat. But of course, not in Europe. And I knew this. So I asked Irene that if we didn't eat them, would we have to pay for them? She said we would have to pay regardless. So Talia and I each ate one by the end of the meal, thinking well if we're going to pay for them anyways... I got a cheese pizza and Talia got risotto and we split them. Once we got the check, we realized that we were in fact charged for the bread that we ate and not for the one roll that had been left. Fail. One euro for each one. Oh well.

That afternoon, we took the subway and went to the Park Guell. Basically, it is a huge park with a ton of really cool sculptures, buildings, and architectural beauties. The iconic thing there is this huge lizard that made out of different colors of glass pieces. I can't even explain the place because it was so different and unique. I've never seen anything quite like it. There were also street performers everywhere there. But these were very entertaining. One group in particular was a group of five guys, one reminding way too much of Steve Seritti (if you're from my neck of the woods, you know who that is) who played the trombone, and another with dreads that went almost to his knees. They played a sort of Spanish ska. They called themselves "Microguagua" and they were ridiculously entertaining. We stayed and watched them for at least 15 or 20 minutes before walking the rest of the park and watching some other guys blow huge giant bubbles. After we finished up in the park, we went back towards the city center to try to find our hostel. This was the fun part...

We spent the next three hours walking around the city, asking tons of different people, looking for this place. Finally, we called the hostel and they gave us directions. Turns out that their website didn't have the correct information on it so our Google maps weren't right. But in the end we did find the place and it was a very very nice hostel. Even bigger and nicer than many hotels that I've stayed in. We had our own shower, though we had to share a bathroom with a few other rooms. But it was clean and comfortable and we were all happy with it. We took a nice nap, only to wake up around 10pm to go grab dinner. Yes, people eat dinner that late in Spain. We decided for dinner that we would just go to a little grocery store a few numbers down the road and grab something to take back to the room. We got cream cheese and crackers, yogurt, I got a salad, and a couple of donuts plus drinks and headed back to the room to eat. We talked and ate and got ready to go out for the rest of the night.

We wanted mostly to go dancing. So we took a subway and a bus to where we knew there was a club to go to. However, once we got there we were told by the people around it not to bother and to try this chain of free ones first. We figured, why not, and spent the next hour or so in this sort of strip mall of bars that played music. The only problem was that we couldn't seem to get away from the creepy guys... But we did get pulled into one bar just to get free drinks! They all played music and had people dancing and many of them even had an... "exotic dancer" of sorts... After trying out each one, we decided that the first one was best, and went back there. This time around, we met a group of British guys that were there for a bachelor party and ended up hanging out and dancing with them for the rest of the night. We had a great time, and by the end of it, we had become pretty good friends with one of them who was named Max. I had a wonderful time! We didn't leave until about 6 30am and we didn't get back to the hostel until 7. We slept til about 10 45 because we had to be out by 11 and then we went to the beach for the day.

Sunday was calm and we didn't do anything except veg out on the beach all day and tan. The water was freezing, but absolutely beautiful. It was wonderful to be on the beach! One thing about the beaches in Spain... There are many women who walk around without tops on. Not all of them, but many. I'm not gonna lie, it did shock me a little. There were also people walking around trying to sell drinks, food, henna tattoos and massages. We fell asleep in intervals, and at the end of it all, each of us was somewhat burned, even me. Talia was the worst, and it turns out that she found herself with a bit of sun poisoning :( Around 4 30pm, we left, grabbed some food from another little grocery store, and headed to the airport to catch our plane home. P.S. They have Oreos AND Chips Ahoy in Spain. I'm so jealous.

We got to the airport with plenty of time and I took my motion sickness pill and everyone was good to go. I fell asleep before we even took off and stayed sleeping for the whole flight, only waking up slightly when we left the ground. We ended up being late landing and Irene's parents were there to get us. They very kindly drove Talia and I back to Susan's, where I took a quick shower and we crashed for the night, both exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I think it is a beautiful city and I'm very glad that we decided to go, even if it did turn out to be a little pricey. But I would definitely go back in a heartbeat!

Tomorrow I am headed off to the sea (here in Belgium, no worries), but I will try to post Spain Part 4 before I leave! For now, I want to get some sleep. Bonne nuit !

Thursday, June 16, 2011

España Dos






So this is technically the second part of my Spain blog since I did already post about the first day. We will try to keep it a little less extensive than the Italy blog since that got a little ridiculous...

Day Two of our adventure in Spain consisted of some sight-seeing in Madrid. Friday morning, Irene came by and picked up me and Talia and we went into the city to drop off the car. We then took the metro into the center of the city. The metro system in Madrid isn't too complicated and by the end of the trip, we were pros at it. Well Talia and I at least, Irene was already a pro. Anyway, the first thing we saw when we got into the center square were a bunch of tents set up because the people of Spain are in the middle of protests and such against the government. I don't really know the details, but it was calm when we were there. The first thing we did was walk to see a couple of the important buildings in Madrid which all have long complicated Spanish names that I don't know. However, in the ten minutes that it took to walk to said buildings, we passed more street performers than I think I've ever seen in my entire life combined. People were doing all sorts of things, from playing water glasses to being dressed up as an invisible man. Some of them were cool while others were just annoying, such as the guys who walked around with weird things in their mouths that made squeaky noises when they spoke. Some were even creepy, like a man who crouched behind a stroller with his head poked through and his face painted up like a baby's and a baby doll body attached to his neck... Regardless, it was interesting to see.

After being touristy, we walked the streets of Madrid and did some shopping. And you know what they have in Madrid? DUNKIN DONUTS. This was a big deal, though we didn't actually visit it until the last day. But we did shop and eventually stopped for lunch. We went to a really cool little restaurant that has this huge menu of 100 different kinds of sandwiches that you can get. But all in mini, so you pick out three or four, each for under two euros. We each got three different ones. I had a smoked salmon with cream cheese, tuna, and hamburger. And I paid less than five euros. AND we got free water, which definitely a plus. AND the bathrooms were FREE. AND it is illegal to smoke in public places. I love Spain. Anyways, lunch was super yummy and then we were back off to shopping. One of the main streets is... Well... The hooker street. I don't really have a lighter way to put it. Basically, you walk down the street and there is prostitute after prostitute leaning against a tree, wearing a ridiculously short skirt and ridiculously high heels and a ridiculous amount of makeup, waiting for a ridiculously desperate man to, well, give them some business. I will never understand those women... Once again, anyways... My goal for the trip was to find my dress for the Bal Rhéto here in Belgium (basically, Prom) and I totally succeeded that afternoon. It's very pretty and very me and I'm very happy with it. I even got 10% off because I was foreign! I'm not going to describe it, you all will just have to wait for the pictures!

After we were all shopped out and tired, we took refuge in a park across town. On the way there we passed a TGIFridays. Not a joke. I was amazed. Once we got to the park, we just crashed in the grass and chilled out for a couple hours, exchanging stories and eventually falling asleep. I'm pretty sure my camera almost got stolen too, but Irene saved it, thank goodness! After we woke up, we decided that it was ice cream time and went to find a good ice cream place. I got cookies and cream, which is not easy to find in Belgium, and we just relaxed again for a while.

Eventually it was time for me to get back to Alcala. Talia stayed with Irene that night. But we took the metro back to the bus station and I caught a bus back to the house, though I was a little lost and had to call Susan who had to send her daughter to the bus stop to get me. That night, she made a special kind of fish for dinner that I had never had before. Susan said that she had never eaten it either before being in Spain. Therefore, we don't know the name in English... But regardless, it was very good. We ate it with those shrimps that you have to dismember yourself and salad, along with the same cheeses. A nice variety of food that I wish I got to eat more often in Belgium...

That night I went to bed semi-early because the next day, Talia and Irene and I were off to Barcelona for the weekend! But that, my faithful followers, is for another post. Goodnight all!

So Much To Blog About...

I have so many things that I have to blog about right now... See, it's the end of the year, I am down to 23 days left in this country, and I am BUSY. I just got back from a week in Spain, and it was my birthday. So yes, there is much to tell. The thing is that blogging can be tiring and I just spent about 2 hours responding to all the Happy Birthdays that I received on Facebook. I'm a little typed out. But I promise there will be a Spain post up on this site before the end of the night. In the meantime, I am going to attempt to post those pictures from Antwerp that never worked and edit my Spain pictures so they can go up on Facebook. See, I have to update that as well. SO much to do! But all on the computer... How lame is that? I'm rambling now, which doesn't make sense since I'm sick of typing. Oh well, à tantôt :)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

In SPAIN

Yes, the title lies not. I am in SPAIN dudes!!! This morning, Talia and Mikayla and I had to take our Social Sciences oral exam, which we studied for at Point Chaud this morning for like 3 hours. We did really well on it, with a whopping 46/60 score! After our exam, Talia and I got a sammich and then Karine picked us up in Hannut to take us to the airport to catch a cheapo RyanAir flight to Madrid, SPAIN. We got there with plenty of time to spare, checked in, got all our bags together and life was good. Because we did not pay for any extra baggage, we each could only have one small bag, so we had a backpack and a tiny suitcase that we both shared. We had to move things around and rearrange a couple times, but in the end we succeeded in making each bag the right size and weight so that we could get on the plane. We had no problems going through security, and we even made a new friend! We met a girl who lives in Oregon who was also doing an exchange, but in college and with a different program. Her exchange was spent mostly in Spain, but she had been doing some traveling, so she spent a night in Belgium. We talked throughout all the time we had to wait for our flight and even sat together on our flight.

The flight went well. I had completely forgotten about a motion sickness pill until it was too late. And you all know me, I'm a complete worry wart and nervous Nelly. The flight only lasted about two and half hours, but I still managed to get nervous and everything. And of course, we were on a tiny little low cost plane, so that didn't help. In the end, I was fine. I didn't get sick and I didn't freak out too bad. We watched a few snippets of both "The Proposal" and "Julie and Julia" on my computer as well, and I did sleep a little tiny bit. After the flight was over, I really didn't feel good, but that went away after a few hours. Once we got off the plane and said goodbye to our new friend, we met up with one of Talia's friends who lives in Spain. Her name is Irene. She was an exchange student with Talia for two summers and they are really close. She is super nice and she was there with her family who very kindly offered to drive us to the house we are staying at. We're staying with some friends of my family who live here near Madrid. We got to the house around 8 30pm and settled in. The woman, Susan, is American and the sister of my dad's best friend. She married a Spanish man and now they live here with two kids at 10 and 12 who are adorable. We ate a traditional Spanish dinner with them, which was a sort of omelette with potatoes and onions, and bread drizzled in olive oil with a slice of tomato and a sort of ham meat on top of it. There were also a couple kinds of cheeses out that were very good. It was a delicious light meal that I really enjoyed, especially since I still wasn't feeling great from the plane.

After dinner, my mom called me and I talked to her for a little bit, and then I went out with Susan and Talia and we took a walk around the town of Alcala de Henares. Susan showed us the different points of interest. It's a really pretty city with plenty of sculptures and piazzas. It's very clean and we were walking around at night and it was safe and everything. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and took a few pictures, even if I was exhausted. We got back after 11 30pm and now it's bed time because tomorrow we are actually going into Madrid and it's going to be a long day! Bonne nuit tout le monde !!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Promised Post

Ok I have a lot to catch you all up on, so let's get started!




I spent my Wednesday afternoon in Namur and then Thursday I had to get up nice and early to catch a train to meet up with Talia and some other exchange students in Liège to catch a train to Verviers. Why did I need to go there? Because I participated in the Rotary Talent Show this weekend, and since pretty much everyone in Belgium had Thursday off, we started the preparation on that day. We got to Verviers and saw some Rotary guys that we didn't know who then drove us into the little village of Pépinster where we were holding the show. The first day, we got situated, picked out what we were going to do for the show, and got groups together. The whole thing was very confusing and not very well organized, since nobody knew what they were supposed to be doing when we got there. We had gotten a bunch of contrasting emails and things that didn't make sense. In the end, Talia and I got a group of girls together and we made a mix of Lady Gaga songs. We took a lot of her actual choreography and made up an awesome dance! The first day was literally just everyone figuring out what they were doing and getting themselves together. We showed the woman in charge a little bit of what we had and then we met our temporary 2-night host families. Talia and I managed to get ourselves in the same house to work on the dance. We were with a single mom who was extremely sweet and made us very healthy food for dinner. She lives by herself right now in a gorgeous house. Her son is studying abroad for the moment. We ate dinner together, with plenty of vegetables and fish. Of course, even though we've been dying to eat like that since we got to Belgium, once our host mom left the house for drinks, we were rummaging through cupboards searching for chocolate, which we did not find. In the end we toasted some bread and melted a few chocolate chips over it and called it good. We spent the rest of the night pouring over YouTube and figuring out all the choreography for our Lady Gaga dance. Even though we had our own rooms, we ended up crashing in the same bed.

The next day went almost the same as the first one. We continued to teach the dance and move ahead with that and go through the show a couple of times. In the end, I ended up being in the Gaga mix, a solo dance, a group song (Beatles!) and an accompanying dancer to Liz, who played the violin beautifully! There were some other really good acts, like the Mexicans who did a typical dance and an Indian girl who also did a traditional dance, which was absolutely gorgeous. Some people sang and played instruments also. At the end of the day, we went back with our host families, ate dinner and then Talia and I crashed right away. Saturday was the day of the show. We packed up our stuff and left our temporary host houses and spent the day getting ready for the Talent Show. We finished the dance and put it up on the stage and it looked great! I'm so proud of the girls :) Then it came time to put on the show. All the other exchange students from our district who didn't participate in the show had to participate in the district conference and part of that was to come see the Talent Show. So all the exchange students were there, along with the Rotary guys and a few host families. The show went pretty well, except that when I went to do my solo, my music didn't work. And then once it did work, it cut out about halfway through my dance. So I didn't get to show the whole thing and I was really upset. But the rest of it went smoothly and there were no other technical difficulties. The Gaga mix was the finale and it was awesome! After the show, I went home with Talia's host family and Benjamin picked me up from their house. I then spent a quiet evening with the Letawes and spent the night there. Sunday was just like I remember Sundays at that house. There were plenty of people at the house, including someone I didn't know, and we had a great big meal together, which I do have to say I missed. I then spent the afternoon chilling with Ben and his friends before going home that night and getting ready for my last few days of school.





Monday was an average day; Nothing really exciting happened. Talia came over that night and spent the night and we had fun with Manon taking pictures and being ridiculous. AND getting ready for Tuesday, which was the "last day" of school and we had turned it into a sort of spirit day. The theme was "old school". So all the girls were wearing collared shirts with skirts and kneehigh socks and plenty of us were wearing ties with pigtails in our hair. The guys were sporting plaid and suspenders, some with hats. It was all very Newsies. Of course, everybody pulled out the nerd glasses and the ties for the occasion. We were quite stylish. We went to class that way and took plenty of pictures. A few teachers talked about how much they were going to miss us and Madame Noel even sang to us and said something about each person in the class. It was so sweet and by the end we were all in tears. The day still went semi-normally. But that night, I had to get myself ready because I would be going to my last Rotary meeting to present to them my year in Belgium. This presentation was a big deal. My first host parents were there, along with Jacques and Ben, then my current host parents. Christian also presented. We were all dressed up and clad in our Rotary blazers and everything. Everything was going well, I had un-geekified myself, had dinner with the club, and was all ready to give my presentation after Christian when we found out that the computer that we were using didn't want to accept my USB with all my stuff on it. Thankfully I had my computer with me. We couldn't hook it up, but I was able to put my first presentation about Ohio on Christian's USB and then since there wasn't space for my Belgium video, I showed that on my computer screen. I feel really good about my presentation and everyone told me I did very well so I'm happy and I will call it a success. The club even gave us each a gift at the the end: a DVD and a few books of Belgian comics. Which was very nice of them indeed!

Today was our actual last day of school, but since it was a Wednesday, it was a half day, which means that it apparently doesn't count as our last day. (I wore my Rotary blazer to school today) Of course, this means I had all four hours with Madame Gallo, who succeeded in making me cry like a little baby. I'm not sure why, but today it really hit me that I only have a month left here. It has gone by so fast, I can't believe it. School is over! Tomorrow I take my last exam and I will actually, FINALLY, be done with high school forever. But in any case, it was a very sad day. We spent our class time just talking and exchanging words of love and wisdom. I'm so grateful to have fallen into such an awesome year at the Collège St. Croix. I was very lucky. And especially lucky to be in class with Madame Gallo. That woman is remarkable and inspiring and I am so grateful to have had her influence this year. But I will not get all sappy yet! I'm saving it all for the big post in a month where I pour my heart out. Anyways, after school I ate lunch with Talia and Eduardo at Mister Patate and then spent my afternoon with Ben. I went out to Namur with him so that he could straighten out some things with school and then for the rest of the afternoon we just chilled. The people I will have to leave at the end of the year... It's going to be the hardest thing I ever have to do...

Oh and this evening I did a test run on Manon's hair to see what we'll do for the Bal de Rhéto! It turned out great. She's going to be gorgeous :)

Alright I need to stop this post now. My fingers hurt, I'm tired, and tomorrow I'm going to SPAIN!!!!!! The faster I get to sleep, the faster I wake and the faster I get to leave. Bonne nuit !

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Updates Coming... Tomorrow!

Ok so. I know I haven't posted in a week. I also know that I have so much to update you guys on! For one thing, I had a whole Rotary weekend Talent Show. Today was also the last day of school and we all dressed "old school". Plus tonight I presented my year to my Rotary club! So obviously there is plenty to tell. But it is already 11 30pm and I'm SO tired. And my feet are killing me. So I will write all about it tomorrow. Promise!

Bonne nuit tout le monde !