College Applications

Make me want to kill myself.

I'm really tempted to leave that being the only thing I put on this blog post, because it pretty much sums up my day. However, I'm way too talkative to let that be the only thing. If you've been following, you know how long my posts can be, but when you actually think back to what it was about, I probably could have summed it up in a paragraph if I wanted to. But I enjoy typing my little heart out, so let me gosh darn it!!

Today I successfully submitted two out of my four applications for college. Now I am working on the one for New York University, and I have been sitting here staring at this question for the last three or four hours. It's terrible. I just cannot seem to come up with an answer. Not to mention that I'm only allowed 500 characters for these very complex questions. Kudos, NYU. You really know how to challenge your applicants.

Other than that, nothing exciting happened today. I Skyped with a few people back home, got upset once or twice, and wrote to my sister. Chill day of writing, studying, and listening to music. Tomorrow I have my math exam. Four hours. I'm going to die. But after that, Talia and I are going to the gym to sign up and work out and I have never been so excited in my life to work out. Seriously, I am so inspired. Go us!

Now I have nothing else to say. Bonne nuit tout le monde !!

Les Cookies, Au Naturel (Oh And College)

I'm back in my normal house. Where the internet connection works :) After doing a lot of research on the problem, I found that it is a pretty common issue with Macs. Some routers just aren't compatible. And at first I was crushed. My Mac has betrayed me. I thought they were perfect. I guess not. But then I realized that was stupid, and it's not that big of a deal. That's life. There will always be a problem with something. Thank God it's just an internet connection and not something more crucial to life!

However, that did mean that I couldn't post on my blog last night again, and I apologize to my faithful readers (though I'm not sure if you exist... Do you exist??)

Yesterday was Wednesday, and that means a half-day of school here in Belgium. And I have decided that that is the single most ingenious idea for the school systems of America that I have ever heard of. Because I finished school at noon yesterday, I was able to a lot of things with my day. Productive things. I ate lunch with my third host family, did my daily Facebook check (with the help of an ethernet cord), sent a few emails, worked on my college apps, wrote 5 college essays, made cookies with Manon and Philippine, ate dinner with the fam, and watched MTV and House in French.

The cookies were quite an operation. I got the recipe for good old-fashioned American Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. Apparently, it is not normal to use baking soda for cooking in Europe. Also, chocolate chips are uncommon, the vanilla extract is like a thick goo, and the butter is different. Not to mention that "packed brown sugar" is impossible when you have to use a scale to measure things out in grams. So even though they were delicious and the Belgians enjoyed them immensely, they were not quite the same as the cookies that I used to make at home, and I was slightly disappointed. But I got over quickly because they still tasted fantastic.

The other thing that I noticed: I was eating cookies here, from a box this time, and I turned the package over to look at the Nutrition Facts. Thing is, they don't put Nutrition Facts on anything here. Ironic, isn't it, that in the States we put that on things because we are supposedly concerned about our health, but we're obese and in Europe, where there are no Nutrition Facts, people are thin? Anyways, there was no Nutrition Facts. But there were ingredients and there was a set in English. And do you know what was listed as being in those cookies? Milk. Eggs. Chocolate. Flour. Sugar. Vanilla. Etc. Not hydrocarbonpolyglycerinbicarbonatjkfjdksaljfhsglajsdf. I was amazed and impressed.

In other news... College is stressing me out. So far I have picked out four that I will apply to. My top choice is NYU. I have about eight essays to write for said colleges, plus filling out the common app. PLUS because I am in Belgium and want to pursue an audition-based program, I have to make a DVD while I'm here of my dancing, singing, and and acting skills. Ugh. It's a lot of work and it is difficult for me to handle right now. BUT I did get a lot done yesterday and it makes me feel a little better.

P.S., I went down to dinner just now and Campbell's tomato soup. It was definitely the taste of home and now I am happy :)

I am now off to dance, and afterwards, I will crash. Bonne nuit!

A Day With Rain, But A Day Without Tears.

Today was much much much better than the past few days. It was day without tears. I was actually quite chipper today! And for good reason. I got a lot of things taken care of today that needed to be taken care of. We went to the city hall type building and confirmed my new temporary Belgian ID so I will be officially Belgian for the year! Then we stopped by the school and dropped off the paperwork that they needed and proceeded to the Academy of Dance and Music where I signed up for my dance classes that I will take while I'm here! From what I could understand (hehe) I will dance three days a week, taking both "danse classique" (ballet) and "danse jazz" (jazz). I am so excited to start dancing again! It is definitely something I miss.

On the note of dance, I started the process of applying to colleges for when I get back next year. The four schools that I have decided to apply to (so far) are New York University, MercyHurst College, Point Park University, and Baldwin-Wallace College. My major, though, is different depending on the college... For example, for NYU I am applying to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study so I can study theater and dance AND photography! That is really my dream school. It is ideal and I can study everything and get a degree in a major that I control. For MercyHurst, I am applying for their dance program. At Point Park, I will either audition for their dance or musical theatre programs, and at BW, I will audition for musical theater. It's really great because these are schools are extremely cooperative and working with me to do DVD auditions because of my situation. The MercyHurst people are especially cool :)

So today was Attack-Of-The-Crazy-Bugs Day. This morning I went for a run (2.5 kilometers in 11 minutes!! That's over a mile and a half! I was proud of myself) and on the way back I started to feel kind of sick so I stopped and sat down on a bench for a few minutes and all of the sudden I felt a pinch on the back of my ankle. I thought it was a prickly plant that hit me but then it really started to hurt so I looked down and it was just a tiny little red dot but it killed! Then all of the sudden everything started to go to a blur and I passed out the sidewalk, hitting my head on the cold, black pavement.

Just kidding. It was a fire ant. But it really did hurt. Then I was walking back and a freaking huge fly just rammed itself into my forehead. Lovely. And then later I went with my host mom to visit another family and there were tons of flies all over the place! They have horses and I felt so bad because the horses were just covered in flies, and they lined their eyes. It was really gross actually... But basically, the flies were crazy and everywhere. So it was Attack-Of-The-Crazy-Bugs Day.

I met another girl my age today, Manon. She will be at my school. She was very nice and I was so proud of myself because I was able to understand almost everything she said to me in French! My comprehension has improved so much. I still don't speak very well, but I think it's mostly a level of confidence because in my head I know what the sentence would be, but I can't spit it out because I'm afraid of being wrong. But it will all get better once school starts and I'm forced to speak it.

Food of the day: French fries. Which aren't actually French. They are totally Belgian and they are fantastic. "Frites" en français. I don't have much to say food-wise today because that is all that was really interesting... Dinner consisted of pork and salad with "les frites" which, like everything else here was delicious :) Oh I did have an eclair after lunch which was absolutely fantastic :) Anything with Belgian chocolate in/on it is wonderful.

Tomorrow I go with the other exchange students to Brussels to visit the Royal Palace and Parliament so that should be very interesting! Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post! Bedtime!

Un Jour Sans Zucchini!

Ok can we just talk for a minute about how environmentally conscious the Belgians are?? It makes me so happy! Everywhere I look I see giant white rotating blades. You know what those are? Windmills! To generate electricity. Which is awesome. And as I mentioned before, they recycle eeeeeverything. All of their cars are smaller and have better mileage to keep down air pollution. Plus, in the cities, people make use of electric cars. Forget about having a big Hummer to show off in. They would rather that people recognize their eco-friendliness :) AND if you decide that you want to take advantage of the wonders of solar power, the government will give you money to assist in the installment of solar panels on your house. They are basically paying you to use alternative fuel sources and help our great Earth :) It's very encouraging to see that some people actually care about this planet over their materialistic ego. Ok that's a little harsh, but you know what I mean.

Today, my host brother had to go to the university to take the first of many exams that he and my other host brother will have to take over the next two weeks. So I went with him and my host mom and we picked up my host brother's cousin and while Damien (host brother) was taking his test, Karine, Francois (cousin), and I walked around the campus, ate some good food (of course!) and had a great time! The college campus here is similar to in the States, but also really different. In the States, there is campus among the city, but it is primarily Cleveland or New York or Chicago or wherever the college is. Here, it is like there is city among the campus. There are shops and a mall and such, but it doesn't look like it is there for anyone except the college kids. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it was kind of weird to me. But it is definitely a nice place to be! It was absolutely monstrous. But there are no roads and you absolutely have to walk everywhere. Which doesn't bother me, but I didn't get much sleep last night, so I was pretty tired. But overall, I really enjoyed seeing it! According to Damien, during the year, it's party town all the time! Which I believe. There were bars all over the place! And it's completely acceptable. Which is definitely another difference. But that's just part of the Belgian culture. Like I said before, there is beer EVERYWHERE.

After our adventure on campus, we dropped Francois back off at his house and went home where I proceeded to begin filling out the Common Application for colleges, specifically New York University. This whole college thing is going to drive me bonkers. Yes, I just said "bonkers". But I need to do it, so meh. But then my host mom saved me when she asked me to go to the grocery story with her. And guess what I saw there! Mr. Clean! Except here it's called "Mr. Propre" and I laughed because it's the same tough bald guy, but when you say, "Monsieur Propre" it really does not sound tough at all, which I found quite funny.

Food for today! You know I can't go without it :) Good news: No zucchini! Bad news: There isn't any. Breakfast was good old bread and Nutella, but then Francois insisted that I get a croissant on campus so I had that a little bit after. Mmm flaky buttery delicious ness. Then lunch was... interesting... We went to a sandwich shop on campus but they had all these different kinds of sandwiches with really fancy stuff that you can't really get at the typical Subway. My host brother got beef tartar! I got smoked salmon with pearl onions and some herb that I don't know the name of. It also had tomatoes and a sauce of some type... Again, I don't like tomatoes. I don't really like onions either. But this was some good stuff. Of course, this also isn't your typical 6-inch sub. It was pretty big, and I can only handle so much semi-raw fish so I didn't finish it. But it was tasty. And dinner was a quiche with salmon, fennel, and probably some other stuff too but I'm not sure what was in it... But it was mmm-mmm-good! We had an average salad with it. But dessert was verrrry interesting! It looked like ice cream and strawberry sorbet, but then my host brother asked me what I thought the pink one tasted like. I said raspberries and he said no, it's roses. From the garden. And it was! With a strawberry sauce. It was really fantastic. And we had fresh honeydew with it. The food today was excellent! :)

I'm very tired. Off to bed with me! Bonne nuit :)

P.S. Photo creds today go to eltxupinazo.free.fr and jackmaryetc.com

College...

Today is a contemplative day. Today I decided that it was time I started seriously thinking about how I'm going to go about the dilemma that is college applications. You see, I am technically taking a gap year by doing this exchange. Which is a great option for me because I don't think I could have handled college applications/auditions during my senior year while taking both high school and college courses and trying to get all of this exchange stuff in order. HOWEVER it is now proving to be quite the conundrum. I really really really REALLY want to pursue a major in theater/dance. Of course, these types of performing arts programs require an audition. And of course, attending an audition next year is quite impossible as I will be out of the country! Not to mention most schools won't defer acceptance into audition-based programs. So that is proving to be a real issue. So I am trying to figure out a way to still attend college for the fall of 2011. I really do not want to take a second year off when I get back, although that may be my only choice... Of course I thought of applying to schools with a different or undecided major that does not require an audition, and in that case it would probably be photography, but then I decided that if I'm going to be accepted into a school under a major like that, I should finish out the four years and get a degree. But then I have no training for what I want to do! GAH this problem is really kicking my butt... I guess that's the price I pay when I decide I'm going to do something enlightening and potentially life-altering...