Un Peu De Lady Gaga Pour Ma Vie

Alors... Ça fait super longtemps depuis j'ai fait un post en français, et franchement, je vois ça et je vois toutes mes fautes et ça ne va pas. Alors, il faut que je fasse au moins encore un avant de partir la Belgique.

Comme toujours, il n'y avait pas de grandes choses qui se passaient hier ou aujourd'hui. Hier, je me suis réveillée super tard (11h30!! Oh mon Dieu!), j'ai mangé avec ma famille, et puis je suis partie en vélo pendant deux heures et demi. Il faisait beau, mais j'avais l'impression que j'allais contre le vent, malgré le direction. Je suis allée de Cras Avernas jusqu'à Hannut, j'ai fait un tour d'Hannut, puis j'ai fait tout le trajet jusqu'à Landen. Je ne sais même pas comment j'ai fait, comme c'est loin et pas super plat, mais je n'ai rien fait à pied. Je suis hyper fière de moi! En plus, j'ai tout fait accompagnée par Lady Gaga. Son nouvel album, "Born This Way", est génial! C'est un peu un mélange de Madonna, les années 80s, et du pop moderne. Je l'adore!!! Finalement, mon aventure a pris assez de temps pour écouter deux fois et demi l'album. Ça a mesuré 31 km (19.5 miles). Maintenant, j'hésite pas à dire que j'ai mal partout et je peux surement tout sentir dans mes cuisses et mes fesses. Mais c'est bien! Ça veut dire que je deviens plus forte!

Grâce à mon vélo, j'étais totalement crevée hier soir et j'ai presque rien fait. J'ai mangé avec la famille et j'ai fait un peu du Skype. Mais c'est tout.

Aujourd'hui n'était rien de spécial, comme d'habitude. L'école, et c'est presque tout. On avait les dernières deux heures de gym de l'année et on a fait du "baseball". Pas exactement comme le baseball aux States, mais bon. On s'est bien amusé! Et Lady Gaga restait dans ma tête toute la journée. J'ai chanté et dansé dans les couloirs en plein de bonne humeur! En plus il faisait méga beau aujourd'hui! Je crois bien que tout le monde pense que je suis un peu folle... Mais c'est vrai, je suis un peu folle. Pensez ça si vous voulez. C'est plus amusant comme ça.

Ce soir j'ai mangé avec ma famille et puis après, j'ai gouté une "boule de Berlin". Ça veut dire simplement un donut avec de la crème dedans. Et c'est super super bon. Avec plein plein plein de calories. Comme Manon dit, "La vie est rempli de calories". J'essaie vraiment de faire régime mais c'est plus en plus évident que c'est impossible en Belgique, surtout dans ma famille pour l'instant... Mais je profite, hein? C'est ça que je me dis tout le temps comme excuse pour mes habitudes de manger ici...

Vous savez quoi? J'ai super mal au dos... C'est pas du tout bien.

Ce soir je dors chez Talia parce que demain c'est notre aventure à Anvers! Je sais pas attendre, même s'il va pleuvoir. J'ai trop envie de voir la ville! J'ai congé pour la reste de la semaine en plus, alors pour ça, je suis contente.

Je pense que j'ai oublié une grande quelque chose, mais je sais pas quoi dire... Bref, c'est pas grave. Si je me souviens, vous allez vite savoir :) Bonne nuit tout le monde !

I'm A Little Behind...

So obviously my blog has been a bit vacant for a while... I suppose I shall catch you up with the important stuff.

Saturday, I spent the day in Brussels with my friend, Liza, who is another exchange student. We met at the exotic dinner (remember that?) and we hit it off right away because let's face it, theater kids just get along. So we met up in Brussels at the station Centrale, which is gorgeous by the way, and then spent a good amount of time wandering around, seeing the Mannekin Pis, which is a statue of a little boy peeing, getting lost, making note of where we wanted to eat Chinese food, and eventually finding the road with all the stores. I did some hard core shopping and by the end of the day, I had two new scarves (the true Belgian ones with all the different colors that I've been looking for forever!), a dress, a pair of shoes, a tube of face mask stuff, another scarf, a sweater, and a lint roller. We did eat our Chinese food too, and way too much of it, and had no room for waffles... But it was ok because when I got home, I found out that my host mom had made homemade ones! There were the two little cousins over too. So I sat down to dinner with my host parents, Benjamin, and the two little ones. We had a typical German dish of sauerkraut with different kinds of meat and mashed potatoes, and then the waffles for dessert. I have to say, I didn't care for dinner much. I'm not a sausage/meat/sauerkraut person. I spent the evening hanging out with my host brother after playing a game with the little ones.

Sunday, I felt sick, so I pretty much stayed calm all day. Though I took a couple hours to watch some Big Bang Theory with Benjamin. We bond over television.

Monday was a normal day at school, followed by some normal time at the gym, followed by a normal dinner and a normal evening. There is a lot of crap going on in Belgium right now. We watched the news and it talked all about how there were 35,000 people in Brussels on Sunday for a big rally because there hasn't been a government in Belgium for over seven months now. I can't really explain further than that, because I don't really understand, but from what I get, Wallonie and Flandre don't like each other and there is talk about them breaking apart... Which is quite terrifying actually...

Yesterday was a normal school day, followed by a Rotary meeting that I had to go to. In fact, Karine came to get me to take me there, which was nice because we got to catch up and everything. I got in the car and it was just like the past four months. The meeting was held at a reception center because there were going to be four different mayors from different villages that were going to be there. There was also another guest who was kind of like the dean from the university in Liège. Once everyone was there, including Christian (the Canadian exchange student, you know him), we sat down to dinner. It started off with a salad, then the main course was rabbit with potatoes, and cinnamon pineapple and ice cream for dessert. It was the first time of my life that I ate rabbit, and I have to say it wasn't bad. The man from the university spoke for probably two hours, and I'm going to admit, it was very hard to sit through. Not to mention that...

I was kind of aggravated also because I had been told that night that someone told Rotary that I spend too much time with other exchange students, I don't have any Belgian friends, I'm not integrated at school, and I don't speak French well at all. And apparently, someone was thinking about emailing one of the head honchos of Rotary and scheduling a test for me to see if it was true or not. But it's a load of crap because everyone I talk to says that I speak well. I know that I'm improving and I know that my French is better than decent. I would never say that it's perfect, and I still have a lot of learning to do, but I try so hard to speak correctly and my accent is not bad and I know that I do well most of the time. And yes, I do spend time with other exchange students, but we are all kind of in the same group of friends. Of course it's convenient to go to a soirée with another exchange student or carpool or whatever. God forbid... Point being, JE PARLE FRANÇAIS.

Today, I had to do an oral presentation with two other girls in my French class. We had to read a book and then watch the movie that was made from it and do an analysis. We did "The Road", which in French is "La Route". It was really convenient for me because I read the book last year in my English class. So last Wednesday we watched the movie together (at a BELGIAN'S house) and did the work for the analysis. And today we presented it. And although I made a few pronunciation mistakes and Madame Gallo had to stop me a couple time because she didn't quite understand what I said, she was very impressed with me and said that I did well. Not to mention that we had the best analysis of the groups that went today and she said that all three of us were brilliant girls and she was happy with our presentation. And she was impressed because she asked a question about the movie and I was able to answer it completely correctly in French. So, HA. I win.

After school today I went to Liège with Talia and Mikayla and Eduardo and Aymeric. Talia and Eduardo and I took the bus to Huy, where we literally walked up to the train and pulled the handle as the train was pulling away. So we missed it and had to wait another forty five minutes. Once we got to Liège, we met up with the others, but it was too late to get the sushi that we were planning on getting. So in the end we had Pizza Hut. We just a couple pizzas and split them between us. Then we did some shopping. I walked away with another pair of shoes, but hey, it was the deal of the day. They were only six euros!! So I win. Again. HA. Then Mikayla and I got a waffle and went home after the others had left. We spent some quality talking time and her host mom kindly dropped me off at home. I then ate dinner with my host mom and now I'm contemplating a quick shower and bed... Yes that sounds like a plan. Goodnight. Bonne nuit tout le monde !

TGIF. Although Thursday Was Pretty Great

It's Friday. Which means I'm officially done with exams and I'm on vacation! Yay for no more school! Kinda... Call me crazy but I'm not too psyched for break. I guess it's cause Christmas is in a week and it doesn't feel like it at all. There are no Christmas songs on the radio, no lights on the houses, no TV specials, no movies, no Nutcracker, no Christmas cookies, no big crazy decorations... Not to mention it's hard to be away from home on the holidays. But I really do think it would be a lot worse if I was still on Facebook. So I'm actually really glad I deactivated. Today I had Social Sciences as far as exams. Mikayla and I were able to take it together, and I think we did a really good job on it.

But the really interesting part of this post is yesterday. I had my Science exam, and I just did not haven enough time to finish it. I really only got through about half. The genetics part, because that's what I knew well. But I'm not too concerned about it. But after that, me and Talia went to the gym, as usual, and we biked, worked out our legs, and then did some elliptical. But then for some reason, my arm is really killing me today... Anyways, we also did some ab stuff and took a nice long stretch at the end, which hurt really bad, but also did a lot of good. Then afterwards, we took the bus to Talia's, where we chowed down, talked to her host family, and just chilled for a couple hours. Then we got in the car and her host brother drove us back to the school to meet up with Madame Gallo.

She had decided that she wanted to sort of be in charge of us as exchange students, and kind of act as our counselor and mentor, since she had been an exchange student when she was in high school. She spent the year in Oregon. And she's awesome. So she asked us if we would like to organize some activities with her. And last night, she took us to she her show. She's a comedian. And she wrote a one woman show that she is performing in Brussels. So she took us with her! I was super excited. The entire ride there, we talked, in French of course and just had a really good conversation. And it was snowing. OH MY GOD. But Mme Gallo is so cool, she has snow tires so she doesn't drive like a 86 year old woman.

We got to the cultural center, and she showed us into the theater, and even showed us backstage and her dressing room. But then, obviously, she had to get ready for the show, so we went into the town to find some chow for Eduardo. After taking a few pictures on the stage, of course. We went out into the snow and found a fries and pita place, and Eduardo ordered a taco! He said it was kinda similar to what he had in Mexico. But it had fries on it. It was interesting. I didn't taste it though. After that, we took a few minutes and went into a café and sat down for a drink. Then we went back to the theater, got our free tickets, and waited for the doors to open. And then it was show time. It was a little studio theater so it was pretty intimate and we sat only three rows back. And it was a WONDERFUL show! I laughed so hard. And a big part of it too was the pure fact that she's my teacher doing ridiculous things on stage. The best part of it was that I understood almost every single word that she said. The show she wrote was about American cinema and she talked about classic films like Casablanca and Bridgette Jones. And showed a bunch of different props that were "from the movies". And it was really hysterical. She had this giant pillow beanbag thing that she would use for different things, and at one point she danced the tango with it to "Roxanne" from The Moulin Rouge.

After the show, she took us back to Mikayla's house, and on the way back she told us stories about her exchange and we just had a really great time talking and laughing and everything was splendid. Then we got to Mikayla's house, all of us, and crashed. After having a midnight snack. By the way, peanut butter and Nutella and jelly is a wonderful sandwich combination.

This morning, we woke up and went to school. I went to the gym by myself afterwards, since there were no buses running because of the snow, so Talia could not come up to meet me. But when my host mom picked me up, we went to pick up Damien from school and brought his friends home too. But before, we did a little shopping at the mall there (yes a MALL) and I bought some presents for my family.

When I got home, I went to work on Christmas cards. I got about halfway through. Now I'm getting ready for bed. So bonne nuit tout le monde !

Remember That Day That I Called Exercise Day?

So if you've been reading the blog since the beginning, you probably remember that during the first week that I was here, I named one of the days "exercise day". I think I had biked and gone for a run that day or something... I'm not sure. Anyways, I was seriously wrong.

Today, December 14, 2010, and every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday that is going to follow this Tuesday is going to be name "exercise day". Why? Because Talia and I went to the gym for the first time today to actually work out. And it was AWESOME. We got there and nice lady behind the counter showed us first where the locker room was, we changed, and then she took us through the whole circuit. First, we did 10 minutes of cardio on the stationary bikes. Which was sadly difficult and my thighs were on fire afterwards. I was so depressed at my lack of in-shape ness. After that, we went through the weight training. For each machine we each did 4 set of 15 reps. The first was a leg press, just simple feet-on-panel-push-back-and-forth type thing. That was followed by two different machines, one that worked your inner thigh and the other worked the outer hip area. Then we went on to arms. Two different machines. Those weren't too bad. The next ones made me want to die. The sort of replicated push ups, which I'm terrible at, and I felt so weak. Especially the one that you push over your head. I can't believe how weak I am sometimes... But give me a couple weeks! After that we did crunches, but with this really cool thing. I don't even know what to call it. You laid on a mat and put your head and shoulders under this light-weight thing. It had a little something for your head to rest on and then there is a bar above your face that you put your hands on, but you don't push with it. You use your abs to do the crunches, but it supports your head so your neck doesn't hurt afterwards. SO COOL! I want one. After the crunches, we went back to weight training and did more arm work. After that, those machines where you push the bar down with your calves to work your thighs, and then another where you push it up to work the backs of your legs. I felt the burn. After we finished that, it was time for more cardio, and this time we did 20 minutes on the bikes. But for some reason it was much easier that time.

By the time our workout was finished, it had taken us almost 2 hours, which we were very satisfied with. We plan on going almost every day after school and most Saturdays. So why are Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays exercise days and not Mondays or Wednesdays or Fridays? Because I have dance. And today went ok, but I'm tired and I'm sure I'm going to die from soreness during my next class.

By the way, the fact that I can't wear contacts anymore is killing me in dance.

As far as school today, I had my French exam, which went rather well if I do say so myself. The first part, I did the same as the rest of the class, though my teacher gave me the option. She said I could try or just work on something else. I decided to try, why not? So she just told me to do my best. She's awesome. Out of the four questions, I was able to finish three of them. Two of them were analyzing texts, excerpts from books, one was a poem analyzation, and one had two paintings to explain. I was able to do the paintings with no problem, and the poem was actually the one that I had come across last night while I was studying and absolutely fell in love with. So I read it over and over and was an expert on it. WIN! I was actually able to understand the texts without translating in my head, which made me very very proud, but I had to read very slowly, so the text itself took me a good half hour to read. But I was able to write a great analysis about it and I'm so very proud of my work. The second part, the rest of the class had to write about the books they had read. As far as me, she gave me two questions to answer. The first asked what the most important book in my life is and why, and the second asked if culture is important to the young people of today and why. I think I answered those fairly well also. Overall, I'm very proud of my French exam, regardless of the grade I receive. After that, Talia and I got food and then went to the gym.

Tomorrow is English. And then food. And then gym. Yay! Right now, sleepytime. Bonne nuit!

Pour Mes Amis Aux États-Unis

Ok, on y va... Je connais quelqu'un aux États-Unis qui a dit à moi que je dois écrire quelques fois en français. Alors, c'est pour vous. Pour rester avec le thème du français, je vais écrire aujourd'hui de mon progrès avec le français.

Je suis pas contente avec mon français maintenant. Je ne sais pas si c'est possible, mais je me sens que mon français et pire maintenant qu'avant. Et ça c'est triste. Il faut penser trop quand je parle avec mes amis belge ou ma famille d'accueil. Et c'est vrai, je veux parler correctement, mais ces dernier jours étaient horrible avec le français. Je comprends tout, ça c'est pas un problème. Mais mon accent est moche et les conjugaisons sont pas tout à fait correctes. Je pense, et c'est logique, je parle anglais trop. Et je suis ici pour apprendre le français, donc, pourquoi parle anglais? Parce que c'est plus facile. Mais si j'ai voulu facile, pourquoi j'ai fait cet échange ? À cause de ça, Talia et moi avons décidé de ne parler que le français. Ce sera très difficile, mais c'est vraiment nécessaire. Si je ne suis pas fluent à la fin d'année... Je ne veux pas penser à ça maintenant.

Aujourd'hui, je n'ai rien fait spécial. Je suis allée à l'école, et car il est le mercredi, c'était une demi-journée. Mais j'ai réalisé aujourd'hui que je suis très fragile, et je vais me casser à tout moment. Comme aujourd'hui, je ne sais pas pourquoi, parce que normalement je suis la plus calme pendant le première heure avec le Père Boly, mais aujourd'hui, je m'ai cassé. Je me suis senti vraiment stupide et je ne peut pas faire ça. Et j'ai crié un peu. Pas de tout les choses impoli ou mauvais, juste frustré et fâché. Mais ça va. Je vais essayer rester calme et contente. Mais c'est vraiment difficile, parce que tout m'énerve à ce moment. Hier, j'ai trouver que je dois porter les lunettes pour la reste de l'année parce que j'ai développé un allergie de mes lentilles. Donc, je ne peux pas les mettre. Si j'en veux, j'ai besoin d'aller chez médecin pour les nouveaux. C'est chiante, ça. Et c'est cher. J'ai payé pour mes lentilles aux États-Unis et maintenant, j'ai tout les lentilles pour un an, et je ne peux pas les utiliser. Rawr. En plus, je déteste mes lunettes.

On va inscrit à la salle du sport à Hannut. Talia et moi. On allait y aller demain, mais Talia est malade, donc c'est pas possible sauf si j'y vais toute seule. Ah bien. Je pense ça c'est tout. Oh j'ai fait des cookies aujourd'hui. Vous connaissez, avec les "Hershey's Kisses". Oui. Mais sans le beurre de cacahouète. C'était juste les cookies du sucre avec le Kiss. Ils ont un bon goute. Mais c'est pas vraiment le goute je veux pour les cookies du sucre traditionnel. Alors, je vais essayer encore une fois. Mais maintenant, je vais coucher parce que je suis crevée. Bonne nuit.

A Note On Fluency

So these last two days, I have absolutely nothing to write about because I have been sitting at home, sick. But I think I need to just get out some of thoughts, as I do every so often. This time, my topic of choice is language, and speaking it.

I have been told by different people that it is possible to achieve fluency of a foreign language by the emersion method within three months. Actually, Miss Courtney Burnside over there at Baguettes, Berets, and Mlle Burnside just blogged about this particular topic a few weeks ago. My point is that I will have been here for three months on Thursday, and there is no way that I have reached fluency. However, I do believe that fluency is upon us. I cannot say that I have yet dreamed in French, even though basically every other exchange student that I have talked to has, and I don't quite think in French yet either. I feel very behind on the whole process. However, I do find that words that I didn't know that I knew, I hear coming out of my mouth. And there are times when I speak without thinking, freak out, but then think back over what I said and realize it was very correct. These are all obviously steps to fluency.

But fluency comes differently to different people. For example, the majority of people achieve comprehension first. But my dear friends Brittany finds that that is the hardest part for her. And then there is whole conundrum of reading and writing. For someone like Talia, who has never studied French formally, this is the hardest part for her, while for someone like me, I would rather write than speak because I almost always write correctly because I have more time to think. The hard thing about becoming fluent is having the chance to practice. Because, sure, you can talk to your host family or your friends, but it gets to a point where they don't want to listen anymore because you have such the urge to speak correctly that you speak slowly and back up sometimes to correct yourself. Of course that gets aggravating! And then you realize that and you want to give up. But you can't. You force yourself to keep trying and you continue to be rejected, even though you know that in the long run, your French will be better for it.

Well, that's my personal experience anyways. It can be quite disappointing and a little discouraging, but like I said. You can't let it stop you. I know that by the end of this year, I will speak French almost the way I speak English. That prospect is wonderful, and I cannot wait to achieve it. And although people say things about becoming fluent in three months, I guess some people would say I'm "fluent". I understand just about everything that is said to me. "I can get by and hold everyday conversation. People understand me when I speak and I am able to joke and laugh and understand nuance. So I guess in a way, it's also about how you define "fluency". For me, I define it as speaking easily, without thinking. So have I reached fluency after three months? Not to me. Do I think I can get there? Definitely. In fact, I think by the end of month four or five I will be at a point where I can call myself almost fluent. But I don't want to make any rash judgements.

For now, I'm just going to continue to try to write my English novel, speak French, and absorb as much of the language as I can. Well, first, I'm going to sleep. Bonne nuit!

A Wonderful Weekend With Mlle Burnside!!!

Well it is Monday. Thursday, Courtney came, from France, to visit me!!! And let me tell you, we had an absolute blast!

The fun started Thursday afternoon, when I met Courtney at the airport around 3pm. As soon as we saw each other, we ran up to each other and, disregarding European tradition, gave each other a huge hug. But one wasn't enough. We had TWO giant hugs! Which, I have to say, I've been needing for a while now. It was just so wonderful to see someone that I've known for more than two and a half months. No offense, friends of Belgium, but I really needed someone from home. I think my host mom thought I was nuts. But I introduced them and everything and then we were off, back to my house.

On the hour long car ride back home, Courtney and I talked about school and life and just everything in general. We spoke some French and some English and discovered that we're at about the same level of French speaking, which we were both pretty relieved about. Once we got home, Courtney and I headed up to my room to drop off her bag, and my host mom left for a bit to go do... something which escapes my mind. Regardless, we made up her bed and I showed her around and then I realized that I never ate lunch. Of course, it's four o'clock already, but I really needed to eat. So we headed down to kitchen and I made myself eggs in a nest with cheese and Courtney and I sat the kitchen table and just talked each others' ears off for the next couple hours. We talked about our families, news from back home, deep stuff, the usual.

Eventually my host mom got back and drove Courtney and I into Hannut for dinner and some Belgian culture. We ate at the good old Mister Patate, and we ordered the giant, artery clogging "Baguette au Mister Patate". Which is that same sandwich from a couple posts earlier. I'm sure you all remember. The baguette with two hamburgers cut in half and stuffed in there with lettuce, french fried onions, and cocktail sauce. We also got two small fries and I had a water. Which was tiny and cost me an outrageous amount of money, but that's ok. We soon found that we really should have ordered one fry, because a small is not a small. But we split the sandwich and ate our fries and all was good. I felt bad throwing away so many fries, but it was really just too much fattening food. Again, I wouldn't say that sandwich is particularly amazing, but it was a fantastic way to show her real, true Belgian culture! :)

After our meal, we headed over to the Copain, as is normal, and sat ourselves down on the super comfy couches. It just so happened that a few of my friends from school happened to be there too. And of course, they were the crazy ones. So Courtney got to meet my truly insane friends, who kinda hit on her, but that's ok! It was a super fun time. I ordered her one of my favorites, and we just sat around and spoke French with our (new for her) friends. Eventually, Talia came to meet us, and then slowly but surely, the Belgians began trickling in. Around ten, they all left to go to a Discoteque, and Courtney and I took the opportunity to walk around the town a bit. I showed her my school, the places we hang out, and where we sat in the middle of the town, sipping champagne out of plastic cups for Aymeric's birthday. We got back to the Copain right on time for my host mom to pick us up, and headed back to my house for a good night's sleep to be ready for the rest of our wonderful weekend!

The next morning, we woke up decently early, got ready, ate breakfast, and caught a train out of Waremme to spend the day in Liège! We spent the 30 minutes train ride doing what we do best, talking. Upon arrival in Liège, we caught a bus to the center of town, and then began our crazy shopping adventures! Because we are both poor, we did not focus too much on shopping just to buy whatever we saw. We had a couple missions, a present for her boyfriend and a dress for her, but mostly, we just wanted to have fun. So we quickly came up with the brilliant idea to copy outfits on mannequins exactly and have our own little fashion show in the dressing rooms, complete with sneakily taking pictures of our insane outfits, and mocking European fashion a bit... And yes, I confess, this was all with the intention of creating a bomb scrapbook spread when we got back to the States... Crazy, aren't we?

Soon our plan to copy mannequins became just dressing weirdly and creating a montage of this furry vest trend that has hit Europe by storm. We ignored the weird looks we got from people as we took our crazy picks into the dressing rooms, complete with shoes and accessories. We stealthily took pictures of our outfits, sometimes waiting ten or fifteen minutes for people to leave. Yes, we are that committed to scrapbooking.

Eventually, we decided that food was a necessity, and paused our adventure for some serious refueling. Since I don't know the food of Liège very well, we just stopped at a corner bakery and got some pieces of chicken pizza with veggies. Cheap and delicious :) But we couldn't stop there, because regardless of whether or not I know the food, I do know the waffles, and it was imperative that Courtney tasted the best waffles in Liège. So we stopped at my favorite waffle place and each got that waffle that I talk about all the time. You know, the one stuffed with chocolate? And needless to say, she really did find it to be the best thing she had ever eaten. Mission accomplished! Well... one of them at least. We then continued on our shopping antics, and we did end up finding the perfect present for her boyfriend. Which I will not reveal, in case he for some reason stumbles upon my blog and reads this :P We even stopped in a SuperDry, which is probably the most American store I have seen in Europe so far. But it's ridiculously expensive. So what did we do? We put together the most American outfits that we could, and added up the prices.

My outfit added up to be 443 Euros. Not joking. Here's the breakdown: Tank top, 39. Jeans, 95. Sweater, 95. Sweater over, 99. Coat, 115. Ridiculous. But I'm not going to lie, I really liked that sweater...

After we were shopped out, we decided to check out the "Foire" that was taking place in the heart of Liège. Basically, it was a street fair. We walked through it once, surveying what we had. There were tons of stands selling food, fries, waffles, crepes, candy apples, chocolates, etc. Then there were some rides and some games and a fun house or two. We paid attention to what we saw, deciding what we wanted to do and spend our money on, because things were not cheap.

But before we did that, we headed over to the GB grocery store quickly to grab Courtney some chocolate covered waffles to take home with her, since that is the closest you can get to a true Belgian waffle without buying one from a street stand. We also bought some pears and a couple drinks since we were parched and it was cheaper than buying anything from a restaurant. Of course, we thought we were absolute geniuses for coming up with this plan. But, this is Europe. And you know what? Europeans like using glass bottles with lids that do not twist off. So we had a dilemma. There we are, sitting on a bus stop bench, eating our pears, unable to open our bottles. We tried everything! Keys, rings, everything. Eventually, we had to go back to the store and buy a bottle opener. But no, we couldn't buy just one, we ended up buying a pack of three, because it was cheaper. So now, we each have a bottle opener and we have an extra, if anyone is interested.

After that little adventure, we went back to Foire to commence our decisions on activities. We decided to ride the carousel with the young children. Yes, we are little kids and heart :) After that, we decided to leave the Foire for a little while and get some dinner. So, we headed over to one of my favorite pizza restaurants and got a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple and ham, which we split. We then went BACK to the Foire to get our desserts before heading to the train station. Courtney had tasted one, and couldn't resist. She got a waffle. But not just any waffle. She got the king of waffles. A huge Brussels-style waffle, covered in chocolate, and topped with three dollops of chocolate whipped cream, and three of vanilla. Then more chocolate. And then strawberries. And they wrapped it up in, get this, a little blue box. Direct quote from Courtney: "It's like the Tiffany's of waffles!!"

I searched all over that Foire for the Speculoos crepes that I had seen a sign for. But I didn't see them anywhere. So I ended up getting a candy apple since I've never had one, and they don't seem to know what caramel apples are here. Which is a shame. But they call them "pomme d'amour", which I think it lovely :) It means "apple of love".

So we headed back to the train station, and sat and ate our treats. I tried that waffle of Courtney's and oh baby. We'll never be able to eat Eggos again. Oh and my candy apple was pretty good too. We caught the train home, my host mom picked us up, and we went home and hit the sack to be ready, because the weekend was only halfway over.

Saturday was our Brugge day. We got up nice and early to catch and 8:30 train out of Waremme. We met up with Talia and got on the train, and at Landen, Aymeric joined us, and we all rode that train for about two and a half hours to get to Brugge. But it went fairly quickly as we were talking and joking and just enjoying each others' company. Once we got there, we relied on Aymeric to get us into the heart of the city, as he was the one who spoke French and Dutch. Turns out, he had only been there once before, like me, and didn't know where he was going. So he stopped a few people on the street, who were very nice and pointed us in the right direction. It took us about twenty minutes to get into town, and right away, what do we decide to do? Eat.

We stopped at a frites stand and got some fries with sauce and just sat on benches in the Grand Place and ate our food. Courtney loves Belgian frites. But then again, who doesn't?

We then started walking again, and since I was never able to get the Speculoos crepe, we stopped in at a little bakery and I made Courtney get a little gingerbread man, who was actually not gingerbread, but Speculoos. Belgium strikes again! She loved it! Plus one more point for Belgium.

We continued walking a bit and then Courtney and I decided that we should be touristy and do some sight-seeing. So we took the opportunity to take a boat tour. We paid about seven euros each, and climbed in a little boat with a bunch of other people and our guide took us along all the canals that run through Brugge. It was absolutely gorgeous.

The thing about Brugge is that it's a very touristy area. So everyone that works there speaks a million languages. Our boat driver said everything in English, then French, then Dutch, then German. So luckily for us, we were able to understand. But we spoke English the majority of the day, though I seemed to be unable to say "thank you" and always said "merci".

By this time, it was time to find a restroom. Which is practically impossible. We ended up wandering into a random building, and when we went in, a man handed us a couple of flyers about a food show and told us that if we paid for one, we got the second free and we could taste everything. We didn't really listen, but took the flyer anyway and found the bathroom for Courtney. But by the time she came out, we had decided to look into this thing. So we talked to the woman at the desk, and we found out that for five euros, we could go in and sample all the food. So we figured, why not? So we paid our five euros (2.50 each) and entered into the show. What it ended up being was a bunch of stands with people selling their food and offering free samples. So we went around and tried some different meats and cheeses. One woman was sampling soup broths, some were sampling chocolates, one had mustards, and one man had crepes. Everyone immediately spoke Dutch to us, but we always politely asked them to switch to English. Which they did seamlessly. I was jealous. We had some conversations with some of them, which was fun. We were slightly disappointed at the end, because there was not much, and it only took us maybe ten minutes to go around the whole thing.

But then on the way out, a woman stopped us and asked us if we had gone up to the second floor already. We both just stopped and said, second floor? Turns out there was a whole other room and whole other floor that we had missed! So we turned ourselves around and that's where the real fun started. We had conversations with the vendors, both in French and English, and sampled some really fantastic stuff, including champagne, crepes, full size waffles, more cheese and soup, breads, butters, candies, etc. One man who offered us soup right away asked us, "Are you here by accident?" And he said in that way and we knew that he knew that we were not there to buy things, just to get some (almost) free food. But he laughed and joked with us and told us that by the end of it, we wouldn't be hungry and we would be drunk. Which was hysterical. And when we went to another stand, the man was offering little samples of cocktails and when we came up to the stand, he just looked at us and said, "You're drinking soup?", with that kind of "really..." look on his face. And he shook his head, and then let us choose which cocktail we wanted to sample. At one stand, we tried Turkish delight also. Which was good, but I have to say, after watching Edmund betray his family for it in the Chronicles of Narnia, I expected it to be better. By the end of that, we were stuffed full of delicious food, and very satisfied with our 2.50 meal. All because Courtney had to pee...

After the food show, we walked around the town, going into souvenir shops, buying postcards, and meeting a bunch of Americans. It was like a radar. When I heard American English, everything had to stop and we had to go over and talk to them. And I bought Courtney some of my favorite Belgian chocolate. We walked through a pretty path by the water for a while, and eventually ended up back in the center of town where we went to work looking for a dress for Courtney. We did find a stunning pick for her, which again, I will not disclose in case Chris is reading this ;) And I found THE cutest pair of shoes ever. They were 85 euros. And I would have bought them too. Thank God they didn't have my size...

Around six, Courtney and I and Talia and Aymeric decided it was dinner time. So we went to a little Italian place and they split a pizza and Courtney and I split pasta. It was quite delicious. After dinner, we, of course, stopped at a waffle stand and the girls got Brugge style waffles. Because let's face it, they're different, and the ones at the food show were Liège style! I actually prefer Brugge waffles. And yes, they were totally delicious. So Courtney ate four waffles in two days. And she only had a few of the prepackaged ones to get her through the rest of her life... I don't know what she's going to do! We're addicted.

We caught an 8:30 train back home, and I ended up sleeping on the train. But from what I heard, some interesting stuff went down with some Scottish people...

Benoit picked up me and Courtney and Talia at Waremme. Aymeric had gotten off at Landen. We dropped Talia off and her house, and Courtney and I went back to mine. We headed right upstairs and stayed up until 2am talking, swapping pictures, and sharing YouTube videos, cause that's what we do. Then Sunday morning came around and we were absolutely exhausted. We got up around 7am, got ready quickly, ate breakfast and got out the door for the hour long car ride to the airport so Courtney could go back to France. We saw her off with huge hugs, and my host mom and I went back home. I proceeded to sleep for a few hours, trying to ignore the huge car race that was happening around our house, eat lunch, sleep some more, and then work on my novel. Then the internet went all funky and I spiratically (sp?) Skyped with my family.

This weekend was an amazing huge success! Courtney and I had the time of our lives, and it was absolutely wonderful to see someone from back home. It was a blast, and it took me a good hour to write about it! It's probably the longest blog post yet, but it was totally that awesome! Wonderful, wonderful weekend with Mlle Burnside!!

The Best Sleepover Everrrrrrr

My host dad wore red pants today.

Today was an average day at school. I had quite a few hours of study because a lot of the teachers are gone on the retreats with the students. So that was pretty boring. But it was also good because I managed to write a whole 2 and a half page long letter to my French teacher back in the States. All in French! I was really proud of myself. Yes, thank you, I know I'm amazing.

Just kidding.

Also, an interesting tid bit, Mikayla found that she was wearing the same shirt as Edwardo today. Just a button down shirt from H&M, but we found it very amusing and decided that it was picture worthy.

After school, Mikayla came home with me and we stopped at a woman's house to get some fresh vegetables. It was pretty cool because it was like a grocery store in this woman's backyard. Interesting right? I thought so. Afterwards, we stopped a bakery where Mikayla and I each picked out some delicious little cakes for a snack. When we got back to my house, we ate our cake and then decided to make ourselves useful by introducing the Belgians to the wonders of pumpkin seeds. They never eat those here. My host mom conveniently had decided to make pumpkin soup part of our meal this evening. So Mikayla and I spent a while removing the goo from the seeds and then threw them in the oven for about a half hour. And they were delicious. My host family was amazed.

We then spent some time in front of the television and computer, watching MTV in French and not understanding anything, but being a little bit shocked and appalled at how disgusting MTV can be. No surprise there. We then had dinner, which was pumpkin soup, followed by a meat with the delicious Liègois sauce over rice with beetroot (I don't expect anyone to recognize that. We don't seem to have it in the States. It's a vegetable) in a cream sauce. Wonderful dinner. Although right after dinner, we discovered that my eye had turned a lovely shade of red. And was beginning to hurt. So I took out my contacts and took off my makeup and I have no idea what the problem was/is, but it's slowly returning to normal.

Mikayla and I then decided it was time to put my expertise to work and make chocolate chip cookies. Which turned out PERFECTLY. I am the best. Well, at cookies at least. Arnaud, you'll be glad to know that these won't make you cry. They are perfect slightly warm with cold milk. Even my host mom agrees. Hopefully, there will still be some there for us in the morning.

Now, we are going to figure out which movie to watch, and then it's bed time. Tomorrow, we're thinking French toast for breakfast. Yum. Bonne nuit.

Better Day. And Orange Pants.

I'm going to start a list of the interesting colored pants that my host dad owns. Today, we add orange to the list.

Today was rough. But better than last night. Last night, I had a major breakdown. I haven't cried that much since before I got here. It was pretty bad... And Belgians don't seem to believe in Kleenex so I was blowing my nose in toilet paper. Lovely, right? But I didn't do any crying today, though I came close once or twice when I got really frustrated with life.

Good news is that it is Wednesday and that means that it was only a half day. Now granted, the three hours of real courses that I did have (the first was Père Boly as usual, which doesn't count), all we did was take notes while our substitute teacher lectured. And this was incredibly frustrating for me, as she talked very fast, and everyone was speed writing and I just could not keep up, though I tried. I have found that if I just listen, I can usually understand, but the minute I start writing, my focus is split and I fall behind extremely quickly. It's not good. Plus, I'm sick. I now have a full blown sore throat and I am exhausted. Good news is that it seems to be just the throat. My head is fine, my nose is fine, I don't have a fever or a stomach ache. So hopefully this will pass soon. I slept for about four hours after school today (after a wonderful lunch of vegetable soup and omelet) and I'm sure that I will still sleep a full night tonight. After that four hour nap, I did feel much better, though I just sat around like a couch potato all afternoon and all night. Which I'm ok with.

Tomorrow, I only have to go to school in the morning because my afternoon teachers won't be there. Yay! So I will probably sleep more tomorrow night ha.

Today, I read a lot of posts on other blogs that I follow about body image. It seems to kind of be a theme for today. And it was so incredibly helpful. I'm quite grateful for it. Because that is what my entire breakdown last night was all about. It's funny how God works, eh? Through blog posts :) But I am being very cautious about what I eat now. And there is Belgian chocolate in my room and it is taunting me. I was supposed to run today, but I think the fact that I'm sick is a good excuse. Besides, it's so dang cold! But I do have dance tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...

This blog post is really spiratic and ADD but hey, that's me. It's 9pm now and I am going to do some homework and then go to bed. Bonne nuit tout le monde.

I Miss My Vocabulary...

Since I apparently don't have any faithful readers, I don't really know why I'm writing but here goes another day in Beligum. (hehe just kidding)

Ok so let's just talk a minute about the French language. It is so freaking complicated, I can't handle it. AND it doesn't even make sense that it's so complicated because there seems to be so many less words than the English language! There are far less idiomatic expressions, and when there are 5 ways to say things in English, each with a different intention or a different connotation, and then you find out there is one, expressionless, way to say it in French. Now I'm not trying to bash the French language. After all, it is gorgeous and I really do like it. I just wish there were more ways to express myself. But there are so many words in English that I would use that were "my" words. Like calling people "love" or "darling" or "dear". But you can't do things like that in French. There is no translation for "cool beans" or "that's so bomb!". I just find it really difficult to say what I want to say. There is one word that means both "always" and "forever" when they are different words that really do mean different things when you really think about it. I spent so many years building up my English vocabulary, and I like to think I speak fairly well. But even if there are translations for these words, there is no way that I can build my French vocabulary that much in just a year. It is just a little disheartening to know that I will never speak French the way I speak English. That's kind of a duh statement, but I don't like to think about it...

Anyways...

Today, the schedule at school changed. Which means next week, we start with a new schedule. And I really don't like the new schedule. I go from having two study halls a week, to having five. I don't get out of school early any more either. It makes me a little sad :( Also, I'm beginning to get a cold, and for reasons that I'm sure you can figure out, I have excruciating cramps and am pretty sure I'm gonna have to go to the doctor soon...

But it's not all bad! I am going to France tomorrow with my Rotary club to spend the night. I'm very excited for that :) And I had les frites with lunch and cauliflower with cheese sauce with dinner. Yumm

Now, I'm going to bed. Early. Because I cannot believe how tired I am. Goodnight all :)

There's Nothing Better Than Chocolate

I really don't have anything exciting to say today... I'm just beyond exhausted so I can't even come up with something creative to write about ha.

Today was Wednesday. In Belgium, that means half-day. I had my first hour with Père Boly, as usual, second hour was étude, followed by Math and then Geography. And that was the end of my school day! I proceeded to go to lunch with Talia and a bunch of people from school, except that the restaurant that we were going to go to, Mister Potate, was closed. Which is odd, considering everything is open Wednesday afternoons. Nobody understood it. It's supposedly the best restaurant in Hannut, so we were pretty upset. But we went to Point Chaud instead, which is kind of a sandwich joint. (ha... joint... I'm immature) I got a ham and cheese sandwich. But I should have gotten the panini with brie cheese... Stupid me. Note to self: Order the panini next time!! Oh and can I just say, good bread makes everything better!

Afterwards, Talia and I and a few of the guys went over to the bar as usual and chatted for a while. Another random note: I hate when people smoke. Just hate it. It disgusts me. It's so common here. Everyone smokes and it's no big deal. Almost everyone that I have met smokes. But I don't. I can't even stand the thought of it. And getting a face-full of smoke all the time is not fun. I'm going to have lung cancer by the end of the year, purely from second-hand smoke!

Anyways, once we were finished up at the bar, Talia and I and our friend Quentin jetted over to a local bakery to pick up some chocolatey goodness, since Talia and I were on some weird chocolate rush all day. We got a delicious cake that was covered in chocolate and topped with chocolate cream. We shared that as we walked to the bus stop to catch the bus to go to Talia's house. Once we got there, Quentin waited with us for a little while, but the bus didn't seem to be coming. After he left, Talia and I sat and had some girl-talk time, but it got the point where we decided the bus wasn't coming and decided to head over to the other stop to catch the 2:55. We had some extra time so we went across the street really quick to the grocery store and bought a chocolate bar and a package of chocolate-covered waffles. We shared half the chocolate bar, but don't worry. I stashed the waffles for another day :)

Once we got to Talia's, we decided to go for a walk, since it was absolutely gorgeous out today. The sun was brilliant and it was nice and warm. I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeve shirt though, and it was kinda toasty... But a good walk nonetheless. We ate the other half of the chocolate bar on the walk too. At 5:30, Karine came to get me and I went home where I proceeded to Skype with my sister and talk to Ryan and even get a little sleep in before dinner. Dinner tonight was pork chops (which I don't typically care for, but these were good, of course!) and cauliflower with a delicious cheese-sauce that was to die for. Of course, cheese sauce makes everything ridiculously tasty. And cherry yogurt for dessert.

My language skills have been increasing dramatically this week! I think it is, honestly, because I have just been speaking more this week! I have been talking more to my friends and family, especially Karine. I tell her about what is going on back home, what is happening with my family, etc. I have had lunch with Mathilde twice this week, and we spoke in French the entire hour. I speak French with Quentin and Talia and Talia's host family also. I find it easier to speak, especially when I have something to say! I feel that my accent is pretty good too. The only frustration I have is that I feel like French is not as expressive of a language as English. It's extremely difficult to explain why I think that. The bottom line is that there are not as many words. Literally. In English, we have many words to describe the same thing, but they all have a slightly different meaning. Here, there is one or two words for everything. And there are no equivalents to many of the phrases that I use in the States, such as "cool beans". I find that frustrating because I am a very expressive person with my words in English and I use many different phrases and have a pretty extensive vocabulary. Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure something out!

So overall, it was a very average day. Nothing too exciting, so I'm not sure why I wrote so much, but I hope you enjoyed the play-by-play of my day :) À demain!

Good Weekend, Good Day :)

I know, I know. It's completely uncharacteristic of me to refrain from posting two whole days in a row! But I'm still here, and alive, and all is well. Today especially was a very good day, along with a whole weekend of goodness, and I am about to share it all with you :)

As you all know, I spent Friday night at my good friend Talia's house. We had a good time Skyping with different people, taking funny pictures, eating wayy too much peanut butter for our own goods (by the way, I have a serious peanut butter obsession... It's really bad! I can't stop eating it!), and just being typical American girls. The next day, I had dance class in the morning. Remember how I had said it was disappointingly easy? Well it still wasn't super difficult, but I was a bit challenged, and it was so much fun for me! I really enjoyed the class and one of the other students told me that it would continue to get more difficult as the younger girls learned different things. I still have not had a pointe class, but I have my first jazz class tomorrow with Talia. I'm really looking forward to it!

Anyways, on Saturday, Talia and I had planned on going to Namur, which is the other big city that is relatively close to Hannut for some shopping since we both have enormous shopping lists... My host parents were going to a birthday party for one of their friends and they were going to go while Talia and I explored the city, and then we would all head back home at night. But that didn't end up working out since all the shops around here close at about 6pm and it wasn't a very practical plan. So I ended up going to the birthday party with my host parents. And I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't too thrilled about it, because I knew that when I got there, there wouldn't be anyone my age and I would end up answering all the typical questions to all the adults there. "How are you doing this?" "Where are you from?" "Do you speak French?" "Do you speak Enlish?" "Where are you living?" "Where do you go to school?" "Do you miss your family?" etc etc. And I was pretty much right. Although it was a really nice party and I had my first glass of champagne ever. Again, didn't like it that much. But the food was excellent! (Of course, I have to talk about the food!) It was sort of like the concert thing I went to a couple weeks ago, where someone circulated with trays of little finger foods that were absolutely gorgeous! There was not a formal dinner, just these little finger foods, but they were delicious. I had "foie gras" for the first time. Which, in case you didn't know, is goose liver. I was really skeptical about it, but I decided I might as well try it. And I did eat it all, and I didn't think it was bad, but I just had to distract myself from thinking about what I was eating!

It did end up being a lot of fun though, because there were a couple girls around my age: the daughter of the man who's birthday it was and her best friend. There were also a couple guys my age, but they were not very social... So I spent the evening with these two girls, Mathilde and Florence and we had a great time! They both spoke English, so we talked all night about different things, mostly about the States because they were completely amazed by everything that has to do with America! I thought it was so funny how interested they were in everything American. And they both kept saying how badly they want to go there. They loved everything I told them. So we had a good time. And I ended up spending the night there! We listened to lots of music, both American and Belgian, and watched Legally Blonde 2. Which, by the way, is a much worse movie than I remember... The first one is definitely better. After the movie, we were all exhausted and we had to get up sort of early in the morning to catch the train, so we went to sleep.

In the morning, we got up, ate breakfast and then I left my new friends in Namur to catch a 10:20 train to Huy, where my host mom picked me up and informed me that Talia had invited me over to her house since her whole host family was going to a family event and she would be in the house alone. And guess what? They invited me to spend the night! So I spent a few hours at home and at 3pm, I headed back over to Talia's for another sleepover :) This time, we spent our time doing our English homework, trying to figure out her Chemistry work, going for a run (more of a walk, I'm in so much pain!), and watching half of "Julie & Julia". We also took a big risk when Talia decided it was time to trim her bangs. So there we were, two teenage girls with no hair-cutting experience whatsoever, with a shiny brand new pair of hair scissors, trying to figure out how to give Talia lovely swoopy bangs. As she risked the life of her hair, I decided to straighten mine since I haven't had the chance since I've gotten here. And it was a success! Her hair looks great :) Then it was time for bed, since it was a school night.

In the morning, we got up and got ready, her with her brand-spankin-new bangs, and me with my straight hair, and headed off to the bus stop to go to school. It was interesting for me; I haven't taken a bus to school since 8th grade. Neither of us were really looking forward to dealing with school again, but I have to say, it ended up being a really good day! My classes weren't too terrible, I even took some notes! Even if I did copy the person's next to me... But hey, that's what the teachers told me to do. I just can't keep up yet! Everyone talks so fast. Today, I started the day off with our daily French lessons with Père Boly, followed by Social Sciences, then French and Math. That was my morning. And it went pretty well! I actually like Math the best. Which is weird, because I hate Math... But it's the only class I have that I really understand because Math is the same in all languages! Then it was lunch time. And that a lot of fun because I ate outside with Talia and a bunch of other kids! We all had a great time for that lunch hour as Talia and I shared our peanut butter and watched the faces as the guys tried it. After lunch, it was double English. I really don't like that class... I have a test tomorrow already and I have a lot of studying to do! For English class!!! It's because I don't know all of the French translations. After that, Talia and I were finished since we didn't have class for the last two hours. So we were able to leave and we went to the Grand Place in Hannut and hung out with some of the guys from school, having a drink and just chilling outside in the nice weather.

My host mom picked me up around 4:30 and we went home, where I was greeted by a package from home! My aunt and uncle and cousins had sent me the cutest stuffed animal: a dog with a red shirt that says "Bonjour"! It is absolutely fantastic and I was so happy to get that. Plus! When I got home I was told that the eggs that we have here from the chickens had hatched and we now have eight baby chicks! So basically, it was just all-around a good day.

Now it is about 6pm here, I have written a novel of a blog post, and I have a bunch of homework to do. So I end my crazy post here, with lots and lots of bisous for my friends and family back home! Love you all!