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 !

A Lovely Day

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

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

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

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

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

Mikayla: Eduardo looks more Mexican than usual.

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

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

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

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

Sore Day And The Cookie Mountain

Can anyone guess what day comes after exercise day? You guessed it! Sore day! Ok, truth be told, it wasn't that bad. My arms were really the only part of me that was in pain. My legs ached a bit and my chest and shoulders too, but my arms were horrible. But Talia and I stuck it through and after our very easy morning, we went for day 2.

Our morning consisted of our English exam. The exchange students had to give a presentation of everything that the class had covered over the course of the semester. This pretty much included topics like why language learning is important, why English is important, the different songs they studied, "A Christmas Carol" and the presentations that some other exchange students had come to give. The prof gave us the first 2 hours of the exam time to prepare while the rest of the class was taking the first part of their exam. So Eduardo, Talia, Mikayla and I worked on the presentation. We had decided to put on a little skit where Talia was the teacher and us three were the students who were in an English class. So we wrote the script and then at the beginning of the second half, we put it on for the class. And it was a big hit! We even got some laughs. And afterwards, the prof could not stop raving about it. She thought it was absolutely excellent. She used the word "extraordinary". Go us! So I think we passed.

We finished our skit in about twenty minutes and then the three girls went over to the GB to look for a pumpkin for Mikayla. We couldn't find that, but she bought some Pringles and I got a little pasta thingy for my lunch, along with some Christmas cards and a new white out. We then went over to the café to eat our brown bag lunches and relax before Talia and I were scheduled to be at the gym at 1pm.

Around 12 20, Talia and I started heading over there. We stopped at the GB again to grab a water bottle, and then we were back on our way. We got there close to one, changed, and then had another run through of the circuit, this time with a guy showing us around. He had us do basically the same things as yesterday, with just a few changes in the exercises and adding a machine or two. At 2pm, Géraldine, Talia's host sister, came up to the gym to join us and do the workouts with us. We stayed until almost 4pm, and I have to say, I had a blast! We had fun talking and joking and laughing with the gym guy, even though I thought I was going to die from time to time due to my very sad lack of arm strength. Tomorrow, we do just cardio.

After we finished at the gym, I went home to begin my next adventure: Cookies! I decided to do cookies for Christmas gifts to my friends at school, and I spent the entire evening making two batches of my famous chocolate chip cookies. You see, in the States, every year for Christmas I make chocolates. All different kinds. Peanut butter cups, peanut clusters, chocolate covered marshmallows and pretzels with different sprinkles, all kinds. My specialty is a chocolate covered pretzel rolled in peppermint pieces. I was a pro at my chocolate making. Even my molds were special. I had all different colors of chocolates and I would make the molds very artistic. The teddy bears would get red hearts. The snowmen were white chocolate with orange carrot noses, colorful hats, scarves and buttons, and black for the eyes and mouth. I was very meticulous about my snow men. I even had little paper cups for the clusters that had holly leaves on them. And then I would take a bunch of the chocolates and put them in little cellophane bags with snowflakes or Christmas trees or holly or whatever decoration on them and tie them up with red and gold Christmas cord. They made wonderful gifts and everyone always loved them. But since I'm in Belgium and they don't seem to be really into that kind of stuff and there's no cake/confectionary store nearby, I went for cookies. Also, all the Belgians rave over my cookies, so why not? I made them a bit smaller too. And since Belgian appliances are considerably smaller than American ones, I could only make nine cookies at a time. Talk about time consuming. But I spent the time in between batches talking to my friends back in the States, catching up with my sister and trying not to raise my arms too high.

By the time I had finished all the cookies, which was after dinner (that pasta dish that my host dad makes with the shrimp... The whole ones... That you have to dismember yourself... The ones that stare at you), I had formed a small mountain from the 143 cookies that I had made. Of course, occasionally Benoit would come downstairs and steal some, and I ate way too much dough and cookies and chocolate... Kinda defeating the purpose of today's workout, but I confess and I will try harder to get back on my diet!

However, the fun did not stop there! I then spent the next couple hours making little satchels for my cookies out of red napkins and plastic wrap and tying them up with gold ribbon with Christmas trees on it. But then I ran out of plastic wrap. So I put a paper towel on top of the red napkin and wrapped that up instead so that the red was on the outside. But then I ran out of paper towels. So I used foil. But only for like two or three of them. In the end, I had forty satchels ready to take to school tomorrow. And now I'm in bed after a lovely hot shower and I'm ready to sleep.

Oh and my host dad wore his red pants today.

Bonne nuit!

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!

St. Nicholas Day And Mommy's Birthday!

Today is December 6th. In any Catholic culture, this is the day dedicated to St. Nicholas, the man that eventually became known as Santa Claus. And the tradition is, you put your shoes outside your door and St. Nicholas comes and fills them.

We celebrate this tradition at my house in the States. And most Belgians do too. However, I sadly woke up this morning with nothing in my shoes. Which, I have to say, I didn't really expect anything. Benoit is the only other one in the house right now and he wasn't there, plus he's 23 years old. So whatever, that's ok. I ate my 36 euro chocolate and was happy!

Today was also the first day of exams at school. I had history and geography. I opted to not take the geo one, but I did my best on history. Except I was totally like twenty minutes late to school today because the Belgians are freaking out about the roads. I'm not joking when I say there's less then two inches of snow on the ground. Now granted, it was icy today because everything that melted yesterday has frozen over, but it is not necessary to crawl down the streets people! I drive faster in the States when I'm going under the speed limit! But regardless, the point is that I was late to school. Nobody stopped me or anything. I just walked into the classroom late and sat down to take my test. The teacher told me that he didn't have time to make a special test for me, so I just had to do my best. Which I was totally fine with. And I did try my best. There are some things that I definitely think I failed miserably on, but some that I think I actually did quite well on too! The test was one part multiple choice, one part describing documents, a timeline and a synthesis of different charts and graphs. It lasted two hours. I used all my time and I can't believe I finished.

After that, Mikayla and I went into Hannut to the beauty store where we spend all of our time, and I bought myself a whole hair care system because I have determined that I really have to take better care of my hair. I'm going to get it cut soon. Even though I've spent the last three years growing it out. Sorry Ryan :/ On the way back to the center of town, I slipped on the ice and sorta fell. But no worries and no pain! It was actually really funny. Then Mikayla and I took advantage of the fact that we were out of school on a Monday and went to the marché in Hannut which is there every Monday. Basically it's just where street vendors come and set up their stuff, mostly clothes. We looked through everything, but didn't buy. Then Mikayla got some fries and we shared those. We went back to school and spent the lunch hour in Père Boly's office with Talia, just chatting. Then we went through the second half of our day. Some of teachers handed out little candies and such for St. Nicholas day :) That was really cute.

Talia and I have decided to join a gym. We're going to go tomorrow to check it out. Neither of us are happy with the lack of exercise going on and the toll it's taking on our bodies. So tomorrow, we hit the gym by storm! It'll be great :)

Just so everyone knows, I had curry chicken and rice with broccoli for dinner. It smells so good. I love when my host mom makes that. Then I had one of my fancy chocolates and a couple speculoos cookies since my host mom has made them from scratch. Ugh I really need to get back on my diet.

I have deactivated my Facebook. *GASP* Just until after the holidays. I find that I just speak too much English and I spend too much time on Facebook. But the thing about deactivating is that I can go back whenever I want and reactivate it. So I'll be able to be back on Facebook in a few weeks. But for now, I just need to be disconnected from ALL the people back home. I will continue to talk to them people really close to me, and I'm still going to have email and Skype, but no Facebook for a while.

TODAY IS MY MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY!!!! And I am not there to celebrate it with her. But I did send her about 10 ecards over email, all hysterical. Basically I couldn't pick just one. So I sent a bunch. I love my mother so very very much and I want her to know this:

Mom, you really are the best mother I could ask for. I wouldn't be here, doing this without your constant support. Not only that, but if weren't for the way that you raised me, I wouldn't have even had the motivation or the courage to even think about doing something like this. You are responsible for everything that I am, Mother of mine. A hard worker, a loyal friend, a dreamer. And I love you so much, you could never even know. The support and the love that I get from you, I know it's there. You are the best, Mom. I thank God for you every day, and I am so grateful that I was blessed with such a wonderful, giving, caring mother. I love you Mommy. I can't wait to come home and hug you.

:)

Exercise, Letters, And High School Drama

You know, I had almost forgotten that being in high school included being surrounded by petty drama all the time. I'm not going to disclose the details of said drama, but you know, I just find it completely pointless. What do you achieve by talking about someone behind their back? And what advantages are there to starting rumors? And answer me this: What do you get out of immature insults and comments?

I realize that this makes it sound like something monumental happened today. Just to clear the record, it didn't. These are just the types of things I think about. I wasn't really involved in the drama of the day, but I watched it happen and just thought, dumbfounded, how stupid is this? I thought I was done with all this when I graduated high school. I guess I'm just now realizing that I have a whole 'nother year of it to deal with.

Ok rant over. Now I have another topic to write about: The fact that I have had more fat moments in the past week than any person should ever have in their entire lives. Ok that's exaggerating a little bit, but I just feel so bad about myself physically lately. And I realize that's kind of a personal thing to be writing about on a blog, and no I'm not fishing for compliments, but I treat this blog kind of like an outlet and sometimes I just need to write. Anyways, I realize that I probably am gaining some weight, for multiple reasons, the biggest one being the amount of chocolate and bakery and I have been consuming. But seriously, if you were in my position, what would you do? Everything here is so delicious! Another big part of it is portions. It's completely normal to have two or three croissants on a Sunday morning. One with chocolate, one with cheese, and one with jam. How does one not gain weight like that? So I have decided to set a goal for myself. It's not a very specific goal, and doesn't have anything to do with numbers or inches. I just want to eat better and exercise more regularly for the next month. No more Nutella sandwiches in the mornings. No more midday runs to the vending machine for chocolate. No more going after school to get a pastry. More running, more biking, and more dancing. I think I can do it. And in a month's time, I should be able to get myself to a better state.

I'm on a letter writing craze, once again. I have a million people to write letters to. I don't mind though, because I really enjoy it. I love writing letters and folding them up and sealing the envelopes with a fresh stamp and sending them off to my loved ones. It's a good feeling. I just wish I would get some mail in return :/

This post was a little odd... But it worked for me! Tomorrow is an average day. We'll see what I come up with for blog material :) Bonne nuit!

School, Friends, and Boobs

Today was a pretty average day at school. But you know, it's the little things that make every day extra special. Today was great because I understood just about everything that was going on! I made plans for the weekend, had a good workout in gym, ate lunch with my friends, took notes in class, sent a package home, ate some traditional Belgian food and had a fantastic dance class. All very seemingly mundane, every-day activities. But just everything made today pretty great.

I had two hours of gym class today. You know, in the States, gym was right up there with math for classes that I detest. Actually, it was higher than math. It was ultimately the worst class in the world for me. I always hated gym because I was just bad at everything. Basketball, baseball, running, volleyball especially. Which is why, my senior year, I avoided the required class at school by taking Pilates and Water Aerobics at the local college instead :P But here, I really enjoy gym class. Because it's not a bs class where your success relies fully on your ability to smack a ball over a net. Here, physical education really is just that. The focus lies on the concept of being healthy and in good shape. They are not afraid, here, to tell us that we cannot sit on our bums all day. That it is necessary to exercise and be fit. They are not afraid to tell us that it is unhealthy to be fat.

Isn't that ironic? In the States, we put the most stress on having "the perfect shape" and "the perfect body", but yet we have the highest obesity rate in the world, and on top of that, nobody is allowed to tell students that for fear of being sued out of their minds. And then here, in Belgium, people care about health and the majority of people are in shape. What a concept!

So anyways, I haven't worked out in about a week and a half because of the rain. There has been quite a bit of it lately and every time I want to go out and run, it's raining. So it's been a while. And for those two hours of gym, we were running and doing some abdominal work and such, and I hate to admit it, but I was feeling pretty weak. But I just kept remembering something that one of my best friends told me: You have to work past your mental boundaries, and once you break that boundary, you'll be amazed at what you can do. I have been keeping that quote tucked away in the back of my mind every since I heard it, and it's wonderful. It kept me going all through the class, and at the end, I felt great because I knew that I had worked hard and gotten some good work in. And not even for the physical hardships. But for the mental too. It's a great thing to think about when I feel overwhelmed and upset. Because sometimes when I take a step back and look at what I'm doing, I am amazed. But we won't get into that right now!

Another little thing that made today great: My good friend, Mathieu, was talking to Talia and I today at break. And we were talking about stores in Hannut, and the lack of them. And he was saying how his aunt owns a store there and it's one of the only good ones and we should go check it out. And he likes to speak in English to us, so a lot of times when he doesn't know the words, he describes things in roundabout ways for us to understand. And he couldn't figure out how to tell us what kind of store it is, so he says, "With those things that you put your boobs in!" Meaning bras. It was the most hysterical thing that I have heard a Belgian person say yet. Talia and I laughed our butts off as soon as those words spilled out of his mouth. See, it's the little things that make me happy :)

Food for today: It's been a while since I have described my meals in depth... But I guess that is because I haven't eaten anything extremely interesting lately and there has been no theme, such as zucchini to laugh about. But today, I had a traditional Belgian dish that apparently comes from Liège. I'm not sure if it has a name but here's what it is: Green beans with potatoes and a sort of bacon, topped with a creamy sauce. Now that may not seem like anything out of the ordinary, but the sauce has a very distinct flavor... It is more like a gravy, made from the leftovers after the bacon-type meat is cooked. It's very good, but I did not care for the bacon. There was just so much fat on it and I despise chewing on fatty meat. But I sucked it up and ate it, and tried to get past the texture and enjoy the flavors because it was actually very tasty. But when my host family asked if I liked it, I did tell them that I didn't like the meat very much. They were not at all offended, yay! :)

Other little things that made me happy: Sending a package home with all different things for my family. Buying new face wash and body wash and mascara. (I swear, shopping for nice things to pamper myself with has become one of my new favorite past times) Going to my dance class. Talking with my friends. Eating lunch with the Belgians. Making plans for the weekend. Just having fun!

However, right now, I'm feeling a bit sick in the tummy region, but I think it is because I am dehydrated. So I am going to go seek out some water and hit the sack! Bonne nuit!

Day 3 Is Exercise Day?

Today I woke up to the sound of a rooster "cockadoodledoo-ing" for the second day in a row, no joke. And I decided today that I would be good and go for a run. So I ran on this nice little path outside the house. I have no idea how far I went, but my host brother says it was about 5 kilometers which is roughly 3 miles. I say that's not bad considering I swear I could hear my body saying "Why are you trying to make me run at 4:30 in the morning??" You see, it was that time in the States, and my body is not completely adjusted yet. Then I took a shower, changed, and made myself some breakfast: Nutella sandwich. Yummm.

But then I had nothing to do... And when I have nothing to do I think. And when I think, bad things happen. Ha not really. But it definitely started to get rough and I began thinking about how much I miss my parents and family and friends, and I got a little upset, but I didn't cry! Kudos to me! That's when I decided it was time to do something productive. So I pulled open my lovely SLR camera (Canon T1i, fabulous) and did some picture taking. I took pictures of the house, the garden, the garage, the kitchen, all kinds of things (some really awesome edited ones are on my photography blog, check it out!) And perfect timing, that is when my host mom came home and we all had lunch together. That was followed by some quiet reading in the garden (cute, right?) and then the main event of the day: bicycle riding. My host mom went with me down the same path that I ran this morning, but we went much farther, into different cities and took the roads back home. Everyone is Belgium is so kind and friendly! Everyone that we passed greeted us with "Bonjour!" and a smile :) Belgium really is beautiful. Where I am staying, Fumal, is much more rural than what I am used to, but all the greenery is just lovely. There was a point where we were on top of a hill looking over the small town, with the trees and the hills... Oh how I wish I had a camera at that point... It was wonderful.

When we returned, we drank milk. The reason I bring this up is because it's very different here... Milk is not refrigerated until you open it. Which I find weird and I'm not sure I like it... Because when you first open a new bottle, obviously the milk is room temperature... Yuck. And it's not like in the States where there is skim, 1%, 2%, and whole. Here the milk we drink is "half-creme". Which means that there is less fat in it... But I don't think it's comparable to 1 or 2% because it's still quite thick and creamy... But it tastes ok when it's cold :)

I attempted to drink wine at dinner with the family today... It didn't go well. I don't know, I just don't drink! I don't like it and I am sorry, but I can't help it... Oye :/ By the way, we had zucchini soup for dinner. They really are completely taken with this whole zucchini thing...

This evening, my host brother and I spent a lot of time comparing music. It was a lot of fun because I learned about a lot of new bands. But it's very interesting, because the majority of Belgian bands sing in English. And A LOT of the music that he had was American. Actually, almost all the music I have heard here has been American music. Like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and such... C'est interessant!

I know I've been posting a lot these last few days, but everything is so new!! There's much to tell :)