Promised Post

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




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

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





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

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

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

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

Back To Blogging...

I've really sucked at blogging these last couple weeks... See I have this short attention span and the fact that I've kept it up this long surprises me. But the fact is that I must press on! I have to finish this year of blogging!

Ok to catch us up on the last couple weeks...

Things are going very well at my new host house! I love having sisters again. We spend time together eating (a lot), talking, laying out in the sun, etc. The weather in Belgium has been uncharacteristically lovely and warm with lots of sun lately. Which is beautiful and I am getting really dark with some of the most gorgeous tan lines you've ever seen. I've been to Namur and Liège a couple times since changing families, mostly on Wednesday afternoon. There has not been too many exciting things happening around here that I can post on my blog... Except...

Two weekends ago, Talia and I were invited by our Rotary district to be a part of the Outbound Weekend, which was basically the weekend orientation for the future Belgian exchange students who are going to leave next year on exchange. There were only about 23 inbounds there, so it was kind of a big deal that we were chosen to go. We had a nice bus adventure trying to get from Liège to a town called Wigemont. We got off too late and had to walk back, not exactly sure of where to go. And of course, we found the building but stood outside of it for about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get in and where to go. We finally figured it out, (Rotary, you could put up some signs next time) and met up with the other exchange students where we just socialized until the Belgians got there. We met the 70 or so future exchange students, ate dinner with them, and then it was time to give our country presentations. There were quite a few Americans, so we did a quick PowerPoint and sang the 50 Nifty United States song, which if you don't know, is all the states in alphabetical order. And I got roped into singing the National Anthem. Right there, on the spot, without warming up. Singing what is potentially the most difficult song written in the history of American classics. Basically what happened was Mr. Biname had heard from De Boyer that I sing well and he told me that I was going to sing. I protested, but he just laughed and told me it was already in the program. And when we got up to do our presentation (almost last, as the USA is second to last alphabetically, followed only by Venezuela) he announced that I would sing. And then everyone started cheering for me. So basically I had no choice at that point. It didn't go terribly, but not well either. It's been way too long since I've sang... But my French was good for the actual presentation. All the kids found out then where they were going the next year, we then met our roommates (each inbound in a room with outbounds) and it was time to head to the rooms. I was rooming with three girls who were each going to the States. They didn't seem too excited to leave, but hey, it's scary at first.

The next day, the inbounds spent most of our time preparing the presentation for that night while the outbounds had their presentations of the rules and such. But in the afternoon, we all got a break to take a "hike" (walk) together through the country side and talk about the coming year. We were broken up into groups by countries, and I talked to a bunch of the different students. By the end of that walk, after talking to us about what it's like in the different countries, I think the majority of them were stoked for their exchanges if they weren't already.

That evening, we started off by doing a sort of skit about the process of the year of an exchange student. I played the exchange student, a Belgian going to the States, and we played the whole story, going to the airport and through customs, culture shock, being homesick, making friends, falling in love, and finally leaving our new second home. Afterwards, we each told our own personal stories about the hardships, the funny things, and just the problems that can show up. I talked about how I didn't get my visa until the day I left and my relationship story. And then the Rotex kids talked about going home. And Talia and I cried. That was when I really realized that I don't want to leave this country... But that is for a different blog!

That night, the exchange students got to stay up later and eat frites and just chill. I got a massage from my good friend Remi, who very well may have a future career in massage therapy. We all then snuck around to take our showers and get into bed without waking up our outbounds. Sunday was spent just hanging out. We could leave if we wanted to, but the night before, De Boyer had asked me to give a speech for the parents that afternoon about my exchange. I was one of two exchange students that were asked, so I couldn't exactly turn it down. So I had to stay, which turned out to be a good thing because I bonded with some of the outbounds. And I worked on my speech and by the time it was time to give it in front of everyone, I was fairly confident, even though I only had the first half written out. But once I got up there, Rotary struck again. I was once again, in the same fashion, roped into singing the Star Spangled Banner. This time with absolutely NO preparation. But it went MUCH better than the first time. Then I gave my speech, which just flowed nicely in French and at the end of it, I was proud of it all. I went home with Géraldine and her parents and spent the rest of the day just chilling and catching up on the sleep that I had missed over the weekend.

Last weekend I went to Brussels with Rotary on Saturday to see the Atomium and the Royal Greenhouses. They're only open a couple weeks in May. And I had never seen the Atomium. I took some nice pictures. What the Atomium is, is basically a giant silver sculpture of an atom. And you can go up into the different balls of the atom. At the very top, you can look out of the windows over Brussels. The other ones have exhibitions in them. We went up to the top and then did the lower ones afterwards. After our visit there and going up and down the fastest elevator in Europe, we had lunch (I had FALAFEL!! And a milkshake. Good day), and then headed over to the greenhouses, which were lovely. Again, took a million pictures. It took a while to walk through. We did have some chilling time afterwards where Mikayla and Christian and I did a nice photoshoot. Then Rotary gave us, of course, waffles and orange juice. However, we still had free time so we stopped by yet another European church. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really pay attention... Plus I was really tired and I had eaten too much waffle. But we went back to Liège and I took the train back to Landen and went home.

I'm pretty sure that is all that's been happening around here... Last Thursday we were off of school because the teachers went on strike. Good old Belgium. I'm attempting to diet again, though it doesn't work well in this house when there are cookies and chocolates EVERYWHERE. Yesterday marked two months left here. I'm freaking out a bit... Again, that's for another blog, later. Exams are coming up, but I'm not entirely sure how that is going to work out this time around... We'll find out! And I'm going to try very hard to get back to regular posting. Now, it's bed time. Bonne nuit !

ITALY!!! Part IV

Alright here we go. The last in the series of posts about my magnificent ten days that I spent in the beautiful country of Italia.

Day 9: We woke up nice and ridiculously early on the morning of Day 9, had our breakfasts, and packed up the bus once again for a morning of driving. Once again, we took packed lunches from the hotel and got ready for a fairly long drive. We spent the majority of the morning sleeping, watching movies, and just basically recuperating from the last several days. Most of us were already getting sick, and by the end of the trip, it would spread through just about all of the exchange students. But that's besides the point. We stopped around noon to eat, but this time we stopped at a random little gas station on the side of the road next to a Holiday Inn. And we just chilled in the parking lot, half in the middle of the road also, and ate the really gross lunches that we were packed. I admit, I picked the meat off of my sandwich and just ate the bread. It seemed like a very American moment, just vegging in the middle of the pavement...

The afternoon, we found ourselves on the shore once again, goofing around in souvenir shops, ready to take another boat over to the island of Murano. We would spend the rest of the day visiting that island, and another called Burano. They are both parts of Venice. But this time the sun was shining, the water was incredibly calm, we did not have far to go, and luckily it was a lagoon rather than the open waters of the sea, so this boat trip went actually very well. I was calm, there was no freak out, and I enjoyed myself. We took pictures, took advantage of the sun, and goofed around a bit. Finally, we made it to the Murano, where we were given some free time to explore. Murano is known and famous for it's glass (Venetian glass) so that was the big item that we were searching for in this part of our journey. The island is very cute. There are colors all over the place and we stayed mostly on the pier, so there is water everywhere. And it's not weird green murky water. It's clear, bright, turquoise water. The kind that you just want to gulp down. Anyways, we were going into all the shops, admiring all the glass work, and looking for the perfect thing to buy to remember our time there. I finally decided on a really pretty gold necklace, all in glass beads. I decided that it would be something that I would wear even as I got older and it's just gorgeous. The beads are actually pieces of gold that are surrounded in crystal that are surrounded in glass. All hand made. A lot of people bought watches where the face is surrounded in colorful Venetian glass patterns and colored bands. We didn't have a whole lot of time before we had to get back to the boat, so we hurried back to meet Rotary and then we were off to see the second island, Burano.

Burano was bigger than Murano and there was much more to actually see, rather than just shopping. We went farther into the island and we were given more time. Burano is famous for their lace. So this time, the goal was to find something lace to take back home with me. Burano is beautiful also because there are, again, the canals that run through it and the houses are all different colors. It's all very much the way you picture a Venetian landscape. Of course, these islands are touristy, but it's pretty to see. We spent the next couple hours of free time going from shop to shop, looking at different things, trying to pick the right souvenir. I had been debating over a salmon colored lace scarf, which I did eventually end up buying. But the big purchase of the day had been completely unexpected...

You see, the big purchase that I wanted to make in Venice was a Venetian mask. I have wanted a Mardi Gras mask forever and since they are a specialty in Venice, I knew that this would be the place to get one. But I was planning on waiting until the day that we went to the actual island of Venice to look for one. I had looked at some of them on the other islands but I hadn't quite found exactly what I was looking for. I knew I wanted something elaborate, unique, with bright colors and music on the face. Then Jordann told me to go look in one of the stores. By this point, I was overwhelmed by masks because they were literally everywhere. But the minute I walked into this store, my eyes were glued to one that was on the wall. It was gold with a big fan surrounding the face. The fan was actually sheet music. There were rhinestones lining the eyes and gold fringe hanging off a few different parts of the mask. There was a gorgeous design painted on the face and the whole thing was lined in lace. I knew that that was my mask and I had to get it. I ended up paying about 50 euros for it too, which in the end, I found was actually a terribly wonderful price. And I never saw another one like it on either of the islands.

By this point we were running late, so we hurried to take a couple pictures, I went quickly to buy the scarf I had been debating over, and we went to meet Rotary. We all got back on the boat and headed back to the mainland, where we got back on the bus to head to our last hotel of the trip. We got to our hotel on the beach and were told that we had a nice long couple of hours before we had to be down at dinner. So we took advantage of this and went to the beach! And what did we do? Well we took pictures of course! I have a beautiful series of dance pictures from that evening. And we also goofed around and had a great time. But eventually, the time came for us to go back to the hotel. So the last couple of us started walking back, but about halfway there we realized that the key had fallen out of Savannah's pocket. So we went back to look for it but couldn't find it anywhere and assumed it had been taken by the sea and was out in the water somewhere. So we had no choice but to go back to the receptionist and tell her what the problem was. They told us that we would have to pay three euros to replace the key, which we expected and was no big deal. We went up to the room with our new key to get our money, but found when we got up there that the door was open and our missing key was sitting on the bed. Some kind soul had found and returned our key! So we were able to return the new one and didn't have to pay a cent.

We went down for dinner that night and discussed what we were going to do for the evening. Again, since it was our last night we really wanted to go out. Some exchange students started parties in their rooms, but Savannah and I decided that was lame so we went out to go try to find something to do. But of course, Rotary knows what they're doing and had booked a hotel in a city with zero nightlife. So we went back to the hotel and met up with some of the exchange students and the Rotary adults in the hotel bar. We had a drink together and then a song that Savannah knew a dance to came on over the speakers. And she got up and started doing the dance. And I decided that I wanted to learn said dance so I got up too. Before we knew it, we were all dancing, they had turned out the lights, turned up the music, and we were having a dance party! One of the Rotary ladies even joined us while the Rotary men looked at us all like we were completely mental. But they thought it was funny and they knew it was good wholesome fun so there were no problems. So we did get our dance party after all. Then it was bed time and sleep time.

Day 10: Day 10 was another early morning. We packed up the bus for the last time and had our breakfast. I took a bunch of packets of those wonderful biscotti cookies that tasted like the GirlScout shortbread cookies for the road. We piled on the bus and were off to take that boat once more to the island of Venice. Again, there were no problems on the boat. We were each given a map with the different meeting points on it and once we got to the island, we split back up into our four language groups. Mr. Lemoine was, as always, in charge of my group and we spent the morning touring the important buildings of Venice. We saw the beautiful canals, the churches, the buildings, etc. Venice is gorgeous. Truly a beautiful, beautiful place. But also a confusing place where it is ridiculously easy to get lost... And of course, a few of us found ourselves split off from the group and completely lost. We ran around through the little alleys and back streets of Venice to find the Rotary guys to give us our money for lunch. Well, we were late to get to them, but we did manage to find them in time and we each received ten euros. We then spent a good while looking around for a place to actually spend the ten euros since everything was looking expensive. Finally we found a nice looking place that had a lot of seafood on their menu. I didn't get any of the seafood, but one of the girls got a pasta dish where the sauce was made out of cuttlefish ink. It came to the table black. Literally, black noodles. We all tasted it and it was surprisingly good. It just tasted seafoody and salty. I got gnocchi and a salad and Savannah got a pizza and a salad and we split as usual. I love gnocchi. And real Italian gnocchi is incredible. I'm so glad I had the chance to try it. Along with the black pasta :)

The afternoon was given to us as free time, and we had lots of it. Savannah and I spent the first part of it with our group of friends, looking around and shopping, but we eventually got separated from them because we went looking for prices for a gondola ride and couldn't find them again. P.S. we never got to actually do the gondola ride :( But it's on my bucket list. Anyways, we got some gelato (mint chocolate chip, yah baby) and walked around some more, made our final gift purchases and realized that we had so much time left. So, knowing us, what do we do? We start our final dance photo shoot. We found a nice bridge over one of the canals and a little pathway that went ride along side the river and started there. I put on my pointe shoes and the fun began. We did plenty of different kinds of things and immediately people started staring at us. But not in a weird way. More of in a very impressed, "oh look at that!" kind of way. I'm not gonna lie, it was really cool. And it was an amazing way to discover the island because we just walked around looking for places to take the pictures. And we got some incredible shots. This series was not only beautiful dance wise, but artistically too, the pictures are fabulous. Plus, something really cool happened. Of course, there were a lot of people taking pictures of us taking pictures, but one of them was in the middle of the road. And he had a huge camera with an amazing objective lens. And he starts taking shots while Savannah is taking them too. After we were finished and started walking away, he ran after us asking if we wanted to see the picture. Well of course I did! So he showed it to us and it was gorgeous! Then he asked me if I wanted it. I said definitely and he gave me his card and told me to email him. Turns out he was an amateur photographer in France! How cool is that! Other highlight of this adventure: There was a little girl and her mom who were walking through one of the alleys that we were in and the little girl stopped as soon as she saw me and just stared at me. Her mom was speaking to her in Italian, obviously, but since I had been there for ten days, and thanks to my knowledge of French, I could kind of pick up what she was saying. Along the lines of, "Yes look, a real ballerina!" The little girl was so adorable. She just stared at me in awe. So I asked if she wanted to take a picture with me and her mom was saying "yes yes!" but she was too shy. We all giggled about it and I ended up just showing her how I went up on my shoes and such. We talked a little with the mom, who spoke very good English and she told us that her daughter wants to be a dancer. I just thought that was one of the cutest things... There were one or two other little girls like that too. It was too adorable :)

Well Savannah and I got a little wrapped up in our project and eventually we realized that we had to meet Rotary to go to dinner. Well again, Venice is big and confusing. And we were in some little random alleyway. So we ran around Venice for the next hour or so, asking around, completely lost. Eventually, though, we managed to figure out where we were going after getting the help of some very nice and fluent English speaking Italians. We were late for the meal, but it was no big deal. One cool thing about the restaurant: The door to the bathroom was activated by a little square on the wall that detects your hand. But you don't even have to touch it. So it's like Star Trek. You just hold your hand up in front of the sensor and the door opens. It was awesome. Anyways. We met up with them, ate our final meal in Italy (pasta, followed by a meat and potatoes dish that was disappointingly nothing special) and then we were headed off to go back to the boat to go back to the bus to go back to Belgium. We took our final pictures and then we were on the boat going back to the mainland as the sun set. A beautiful end to a beautiful trip. I couldn't have asked for more.

We drove the entire night and the entire morning of the next day and got back to Liège, where I saw some of the kids coming back from Greece and my host dad picked me up. From there, I've missed a few days up until now, which we will catch up on tomorrow. As of now, this is the end of my Italy blog. It's been a long and detailed one, I know. But it was such a wonderful ten days, I couldn't help but tell you all every last detail. I love that country and I definitely want to go back. Thank you, to Rotary for organizing such an incredible experience for us. It's something that I will never forget, and it will always be a highlight when I look back at this exchange year. Viva Italia!! :)

ITALY!!! Part I

Ok here we go. The epic post of the best ten days EVER: Italia 2011.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? After all, it's a very good place to start.

Day 1: This was Wednesday, April 10, 2011. I was all packed up, ready to go. I had to be at the train station d'Angleur in Liège around 12 00pm, so we put all my stuff in the car (one suitcase, one bag for the bus, and my laptop bag) and my host dad drove me to the station. I was actually the first one there, and we waited around for a little bit, though it wasn't long until people started arriving in a steady stream. I said goodbye to my host dad and hello to the exchange students who I hadn't seen in a long time. Oakley was there and we stuck together for most of the trip.

When the bus arrived, there were already some people on it, as the first stop had been in Brussels. We loaded up our stuff and hopped on the big two-story bus. Jordann was already there and she had saved us seats. We were on the top floor with a bunch of other exchange students that I had never met before, but we quickly got acquainted and everything was great. we started off on our journey, and I wasn't feeling to good, but it was on and off stomachy stuff, which I'm sure was just stress, and I did not get sick, so it was all good. After just a couple hours, we stopped again to pick up the last of the kids in Luxembourg. We had a bit of time to chill and I talked with some of the people that I didn't know. Once we got back on the bus, everyone knew each other and we were blasting music and having a great time. We spent the rest of the trip making hippie daisy crowns, listening to music, playing guitar, singing, and watching movies. We spent the night on the bus too, with a couple more stops, one being Switzerland where I found the biggest Toblerone ever. And let me tell you, sleeping on that bus sucked. I've slept on other buses for big trips like that before, but this was awful.

Day 2: The next morning we had to wake up really early, on top of everything. But it was ok because we were in Italy!! We stopped and everyone changed and made themselves presentable. Next stop, Roma!!!

We stopped in a parking garage in Rome and everyone got off the bus and split into four groups: two English speaking groups and two French speaking groups. I was in the higher of the two French groups (it was the Rotary that chose the groups and it was marked on our nametag/lanyards). From there, we made our way into the city towards the Vatican. On the road that we took, there was a sort of exhibition of the Stations of the Cross in giant wooden sculptures. They were beautiful and for me, very moving since they were incredibly emotional and realistic. And they were just chillin' in a line on the side of the road on podiums. Normal. From there, we continued until we saw the castle of Saint Angelo and the Angel Bridge that is right in front of it. We took our pictures and the Rotary guys in charge of our groups told us a little bit of history that had to do with the monuments. On the bridge, there are statues of angels lining it. Fun fact #1: Each angel is holding something that had to do with the crucifixion of Jesus. Also on the bridge, people put locks around the wrought-iron bars with their name and the name of their significant other written on them. I love that :)

We then made our way to the Piazzo San Pietro (Saint Peter's Square) to meet up with everyone else, take a few pictures, and then follow the leader to the restaurant where we would eat lunch.

Ok here we go, food time. Jordann and I walked into the restaurant and realized that there really weren't any places left, so we ended up sitting at the table with the Rotary adults. Which wasn't a big deal since we had the opportunity to talk to them and, yes, suck up a little bit. And then they ordered a bottle of wine. Italian wine. And Jordann and I got to have a glass too. So let's just say, sitting at the adults' table = major win. For lunch, we had a wonderful full Italian meal, starting off with the first course of pasta. Little penne pastas in a delicious cream sauce with peas. The only problem was that I was still kind of not feeling 100%. I ate anyway and really enjoyed it, but it would have been even better if my tummy had been agreeing with me. Anyways, for the main course (no, the pasta was not the main course), we had a breaded chicken with salad and potatoes. Yum. And for dessert, a sort of puff pastry cake filled with a vanilla cream and then a lighter cream on top with a little chocolate drizzled over it. Seriously, awesome first meal in Italy.

After our lunch, we made our way back into Rome and towards the Vatican. We spent the rest of the afternoon in a guided tour of the Vatican, including the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Our guide was an Italian who spoke French, and though he spoke really well, his accent was thick and sometimes it was a little difficult to understand him. The way it worked was each of us had a little radio type device with headphones and the guide had the microphone. So we could hear everything he said, though we didn't have to be right next to him. It was a good system. But it was starting to get really hot and even though the Vatican is gorgeous, it gets to be a lot after a while. We went through different rooms that were covered in murals and paintings and they were just beautiful. But of course, I was looking forward to the Sistine Chapel. Towards the end of the visit, I found myself standing inside a giant room with ridiculously high ceilings and paintings covering the ceiling and the walls. It wasn't until I saw the famous painting of God reaching out to Adam that I realized where I was. We spent a good twenty minutes in the Sistine Chapel, trying to take it all in. But it was difficult, considering it was packed with wall-to-wall people and there is just so much to see. It really is incredible, although it was much different than I expected it to be. I expected it to be smaller, and the paintings to be less separated and more of a giant mural. But it was beautiful nonetheless and I was by no means disappointed.

After the Sistine Chapel, we continued our tour, passing through the maze of tombs of the past popes (I stopped to give a little prayer at the grave of Pope John Paul II), seeing more of the outside grounds, and finally ending up in the big Basilica. Again, it's just so much at once to take in, it's difficult to truly experience it all. But it really was gorgeous and my breath was taken away by everything that was going on around me. We also saw the Swiss guards who are dressed in loud orange and blue costumes. They were cool. We ended our tour just in front of it all and Rotary set us free for a couple hours of free time to explore Rome a bit and do a little shopping. I bought myself a pair of earrings and a few gifts for my family back home and Jordann, Savannah, Oakley, Oliver and I walked around back by the river. We met up with everyone again by the Vatican museum and all went back together to the bus to go to our first hotel, which was a really nice 4-star hotel tucked away outside of Rome, really close to the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. We didn't have time that night to go out onto it, since you're not allowed on the beaches in Italy after the sun goes down, but we were way too tired anyways.

We ate dinner at the hotel, starting again with pasta. This time it was in a red sauce with zucchini in it and the second course was fish with green beans. For dessert they put a big bowl of fruit on the table and we could have our choice (apple for me!) Afterwards, we all went up to our rooms to catch some z's. I was rooming with Jordann and Oakley and another Australian newie named Alex. She's super nice and we all got along really well. I went to bed nice and early that night, knowing that the next day was going to be just as tiring as this one had been.

Day 3: Can you believe we're only on day 3?? Well we are. Day 3 was spent, again, in Rome. We started off with a nice bus ride to the Colosseum, and we all slept. But once we got there and we saw that the sun was out, everyone had a decent amount of energy and we walked from the parking lot to the Colosseum, taking pictures like mad people and being ridiculously touristy. We spent the whole morning in our four groups with the same guide that we had had at the Vatican, though this time, no walkie-talkie devices. We went into the Colosseum and were guided around the whole thing, hearing the history of it all and imagining real gladiators fighting inside of it thousands of years ago. We also saw some graffiti carved into the walls and wondered how old that was... In the process, I also met some new people and talked to people I new but never really talked to before.

After the Colosseum, we moved on to the ruins of Ancient Rome. Here, we walked around and saw the remains of all kinds of different buildings. It's crazy to think that even after the wear and tear of thousands of years, these things still exist... And people actually lived there! It's so interesting to see. Fun fact #2: At the beginning, all of that was white. So when you came into Rome, you were walked into a white city. Nuts!

The next thing after Ancient Rome was free time. Which meant food time. Savannah and I went off after receiving our ten euros from the Rotary to try to find an authentic Italian restaurant with cheap-ish food. We found ourselves at a little restaurant with good deals and quickly realized that it was becoming an exchange student hub, which happened continuously throughout the trip. We ordered bruschetta to start off with, which is basically toasted bread covered in a tomato and basil mixture with salt and olive oil. It became my new favorite food very quickly. Then we ordered a margherita pizza and a salad to split. The best thing about Italian food is that it isn't heavy, even though you would think it is. For our salad, our dressing was just balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The pizza had a super thin and crunchy crust and you could tell that it was home-made. Just overall, it was a delicious meal and I was falling deeper and deeper in love with Italian food.

After we ate, we realized that we were going to be late to meet back up with everyone else, so we ran back to the square where we had to meet, but it turns out that we were not nearly the last ones to get there. So we snuck off for a bit to check out a really cool looking store with different shapes and colors of pasta, biscotti, and fancy spices. Who remembers the explicit chocolate from Brugge? You know, the ones that were in the shapes of a certain male appendage... Yah, well it turns out it's not just for chocolate. We found pasta in the same shape. And we laughed. Anyways, we sampled the different biscotti and finally decided on a couple to buy, along with really cool bow-tie pastas that were colored to look like the Italian flag as gifts for our host families. By this time, we had missed the group, which was no big deal because we knew exactly where they were going and we quickly caught up with them at the Pantheon.

The Pantheon is really cool because in the dome ceiling, there is a giant hole. Just in the center, just like that. And it doesn't matter what gets in. Again, there was marble and statues everywhere and that was really awesome to look at too. We took our pictures and went outside. By this time, Savannah and I had met back up with Jordann and we were about to break away from our group. You see, Jordann has a friend in Rome who was an exchange student in her town. Her name is Sabina. And as we were in Rome, she contacted her friend to see if she wanted to get together. So Jordann took Savannah and me with her and we went to meet Sabina. She is really nice and we had a great afternoon together! We started off by going to a gelato place with so many flavors, it's impossible to pick which ones you want. I finally ended up choosing one scoop chocolate and strawberry combo, one scoop wild berry. It was my first gelato ever and boy was it delicious.

Our next stop was the famous Trevi Fountain. It was really cool being shown around the city and going to the big monuments with someone who actually lives there. And of course, we followed tradition and flung coins over our shoulders into the fountain. I have the best series of photos of that :) And it means we're coming back to Rome! After the fountain, we went to the Spanish steps. We asked Sabina why they are called that, but she didn't even know. They're just in a Spanish style I guess. But it is a really beautiful view from the top. And there are painters and vendors all over selling pretty pictures and paintings of Italy. We went down the steps, took pictures and continued being the tourists that we were. But it was soon coming upon the time that we had to meet back up with Rotary, so what do we do? We make like the Italians and use the subway! Sabina showed us how it works and for one euro we were able to take the two different trains to bring us back to the Colosseum. Of course, once we were at the Colosseum, finding our group was a little difficult. We walked almost all the way around it and it turned out that we needed to be pretty much where we started... But it was no big deal because we got to meet an awesome Italian girl and see an incredible Italian city in the process. We said goodbye to her, met up with Rotary, and then the whole group walked back to the buses where we started the journey back to our hotel.

We got back and we had about 15 minutes so I ran to the beach with my friend Mallory who is also a dancer and we took a few fun dancing shots in the black sand with the dark ocean behind us. It is incredible, the Mediterranean Sea. Because the sand really is black. And it's just sand that happens to be black. It's not rocks or shells or dirt. It's sand. And it's AWESOME. So we had fun taking our pictures quickly and then we ran back to the hotel to catch dinner. That night, we started off with pasta, of course, and had a sort of pork and potatoes for the meal and finished off with more gelato. So I had two gelatos in one day... But no biggie :) After dinner, all the exchange students gathered in the courtyard of the hotel because it was the birthday of one of the guys, Jackson (who has insane orange hair, just throwing it out there). We sang Happy Birthday, the Rotary guys gave him a gift, and we shared cake and champagne in the courtyard. Afterwards, I think some people went to the pool, but my room went upstairs to shower and sleep since we had to get up early the next morning.

Day 4: We started off our next morning getting up wayy too early and packing up all our luggage. It wasn't very nice out in the morning; it was cold and windy and dreary. But we packed up the bus and drove for a while until we got to our first stop for the day: Ostia Antica, the door of Ancient Rome. It started to rain when we first got there, but it quickly cleared up and after just a half hour, the sun was shining and life was good. We started off in our four groups and we were given the option to stay with our Rotary person who would give the explanations or go off on our own. Savannah and I started off in the group but eventually broke off by ourselves to explore a little bit. Then we came upon the ancient theater. Right behind it were some steps with old broken down columns. Next thing I knew, we were ready to take dance pictures. I had been carrying around my pointe shoes like a dork for the whole trip, so I pulled them out and we took some really lovely dance photos among the ruins. It was fun, except for one instance where my skirt was literally blown all the way up... Classy. Pretty soon it was time to go meet back up with the group and we started to head back towards the entrance. But after we were about halfway there I realized that I had left my badge on a rock all the way back where we had taken pictures. So we ran back to grab it. Needless to say, we were late meeting the group, but we were not the last ones, so it was ok. We all got back in the bus for more driving towards our next stop, the Monastery of Monte Cassino.

On the way there, we stopped along the highway to grab lunch. And you know what's sad? Even in a quick roadside place on the highway, the food is better than quite a few of the sit-down restaurants that you can find in the States. Savannah and I split a three course meal, which was a delicious salad with mozzarella, risotto, and a vegetable dish in a red sauce that was as hearty as a beef stew. On the side of the road!! It was delicious, not gonna lie.

The afternoon was spent in the monastery, and I have to say, I've never been in such a beautiful, calm, peaceful place in my life. The minute you walked in you just felt... Light. And full of happiness. The monastery is situated in the mountains, above a village and from the balconies of the estate, you can see out over the most stunning landscape... It was the first time in a long time that I can truly say I felt God's presence, especially since I've been in Belgium and not going to church regularly. We did not have a guide, we just walked around quietly, taking it all in. The whole place is white, and with the sun it was just shining with beauty. Eventually we ended up in the actual church of the monastery and that was just beautiful. We ended up staying there through a prayer service that was given by the monks and that was very interesting because it was basically just them chanting prayers in Italian, which was so lovely to hear. It was really exactly what I needed. And then something wonderful happened. I found myself praying. In French. For 40 minutes. The words just coming and spilling out of me. I felt like I couldn't even pray in English because the words just weren't there. It was one of the best experiences I've had here in Europe, and probably the best spiritual experience I've had in my life. I felt so at peace.

Afterwards, we found our bus and winded our way down the mountain to the road towards Naples, where we would spend the next three nights. But that, my dears, is for another blog :)

Pictures coming later!

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 !

Sick Sick Sick Sick Sick

I stayed home again Tuesday because I was sick. I have this terrible cough which is causing my throat to hurt, and I'm almost positive that I had a fever Monday night. It's just a nasty cold, but it was enough to keep me in bed until noon on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to go to a Rotary meeting on Tuesday night, regardless of my physical state. So around 6 30pm, I got myself up off the couch and Karine came to get me to go to the meeting.

It was a rather calm and uneventful meeting. We had a sort of shrimp scampi, followed by lamb stew with potatoes and apple cake with strawberries for dessert. However, I never did taste the dessert because I became once again very ill, but this time with the worst chest pains/heartburn I've ever had in my life. We had two men presenting something about some sort of organization having something to do with the Jews doing World War II, but to be honest, I hardly heard a word of it as I was pretty sure my heart was exploding. Finally, towards the end of the presentation, I was able to leave the room and go outside and get some air. Thankfully, one of the Rotary men is a doctor who speaks decent English, and as I couldn't find the words to describe the sensation I was having other than "my chest hurts, my chest hurts", it was fortunate to have him there. He was pretty sure it was a bout of acid reflux. Yuck. But I went home, drank a bunch of water, took a good hour and half to fall asleep, but woke up the next morning completely fine. Even my cold seemed to be decently diminished.

Wednesday was yesterday, our half day, and nothing happened out of the usual. School, lunch, hang with the host fam and talk to a couple friends. The only thing was that it was super nice outside and I walked home, which did me a lot of good. Having the sun shining on my back as I walked along without a coat on was glorious.

Today, it also was beautiful out. So during our study, the exchange students went over to that spot in the middle of Hannut. Remember? Where we hung out for Aymeric's birthday way back when? Mikayla and I took a little rush to the grocery store to get grapes and raisins (where they were playing Ice Ice Baby and we rocked out, getting weird looks) and then we just all hung out in the sun, eating our various forms of fruit. We got out of class early and did the same thing after school. I then walked home again, which I enjoy more than I remember in the States. I also had dance tonight, which wasn't terrible, but I'm still kinda down on the fact that I really feel like I've lost some of it since I got here... But now I'm exhausted and it's sleepy time. À demain !

My Adventures, Long Overdo

It's been wayyy too long since I last posted. I mean, the fact that I don't have internet in my room makes things a little difficult. And I haven't really been home since Wednesday. Let me catch all of you up on my week.

Wednesday, we were supposed to have a practice for the dancing for the theater at school. But Madame Jadot's children were sick, so it ended up being canceled. This was actually good news for me because it meant that I could go through with my original plans, being going to Brussels to see some of the other exchange students from other districts that I don't get to see often. Of course, trains seem to be causing me a lot of drama lately, and there was a problem with me getting my new GoPass. I asked the guy at the window, and he told me he couldn't issue me one because there was something wrong with his computer, so he told me to the use the automated machine. But that machine does not take Visa, which I then told him. So he wrote me up some paper and told me to give it to the conductor on the train. But the paper was in Dutch, which I don't speak a word of, so I had no idea what it meant or what was going to happen on the train. But I had no choice, I had to take that train. So I got on and when the conductor came around, I asked him if he spoke English, because it was complicated, and he explained that I would buy a ticket on the train at normal price and then once I got to Brussels, I would take them both to the window and the guy there would issue me a reduced price GoPass. So this is what I did. But I had to stand in line for like a half hour. Finally, that was all smoothed over and I met up with Liza and another girl named Jordann and we went to a bar pretty close to the station where the exchange students go. It's called Celtica. I met some new people and had a lot of fun. Except when one of the guys who worked there freaked out about our things being on the floor and threatened to throw our stuff away. And then me and Jordann and another new friend named Janelle made plans to go to Waterloo the next night since none of us had school on Friday for a teacher's day.

So Thursday, I went to school as usual and then afterwards, caught a ride home with Romane, ran into Amandine and Marie and Léo, and then ran to catch my bus which was fortunately a few minutes late. I ended up meeting up with my friend Fabiola on the bus since she was going to Brussels too. So I met her friends and we rode the train together and caught up on everything. It was really nice to talk to her. I then got to Waterloo, but Janelle wasn't there yet and Jordann was busy until 8 30 ish. So I walked around the center of Waterloo in deep pursuit of food, but of course, it's Belgium, so nothing was open. But I was starving so I finally settled for a pita with falafel and vegetables. Normally, I try to stay away from places like that because it's all fried food that isn't very good for you. But it was cheap so whatever. Finally, I met up with Janelle and we walked around looking for a bathroom. And then we came across a 24 hour store where we bought rice cakes and boursin cheese. We then proceeded to sit on a ledge in front of a church in the middle of the city and eat our rice cakes and cheese and recount to each other the stories of our lives. Good times. Eventually, Jordann met up with us and we went to a little bar on the corner where we just chilled out and had a drink. I tried raspberry beer, which I'm a huge fan of. Of course, I'm on this diet still, and there was probably way more sugar in there than I should've allowed myself... But it was tasty. And again, we had great conversation that got really very deep and philosophic at points.

Around midnight, Jordann's host dad picked us up and took us back to the mansion that she is living at right now. Seriously, it is probably the most beautiful house I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. But their upstairs was under construction, so I wasn't able to appreciate it's full beauty. But it had an indoor pool and everything. After some more conversation and a lot of looking at photos, we fell asleep. We had to get up pretty early, around 8 30am because of the guys working in the house. We went downstairs for breakfast and made banana chocolate pancakes in a gorgeous kitchen, and then ate them with syrup and peanut butter. Don't worry, I only had two. And they were delicious. We then got ready for our day and saw Janelle to the bus, since she had to leave. Then Jordann and I had an adventure. There was a big run down, deteriorating house on the corner, and we decided to take pictures of it. There was a path that ran behind it and we followed it and were eventually able to go inside. It was awesome and covered in amazing graffiti. The colors were extraordinary, and along with the cobwebs, broken brick, and piles of wood, it made some gorgeous photos. They are on my photo blog. Check it out dudes! (photography tab) But then we thought we heard someone coming so we ran... Well, as fast as we could without dying in the broken down building. We then went back to her house so she could grab some stuff, and headed out to the center of Waterloo. We checked out a second hand store, and some other shops, but didn't buy anything. Then I caught my train back, which was late, causing me to miss my bus. However, it turned out that I was on the same train as my host brother and his girlfriend, so I went home with them. Once we got back, we ate a pizza dinner and then I went out with them and some other friends to get a drink in Hannut. Of course, when Ben asked me if I wanted to go get a drink with them, I thought we would be home by 1 30, maybe 2am. Well, these hours past. And then 3am passed. Finally, we left around 4am. I had had a great time, but the fact was that I had to be awake in an hour and a half to go to Luxembourg with the Rotary. I had to be in Liège by 8am, and the 7 34 train got there too late.

So I got up at 5 45am to catch my 6 34am train. I successfully got to the train station on time.

But.

There was only one train in the 6 hour. It was at 6 34, but it didn't stop in Liège. In fact, it went in the other direction! So me, having had only an hour of sleep, started to freak out. I asked at the window to make sure, and that 7 34 train? Yah, it was the first one that stopped in Liège. So I had no choice but to wait by myself in the station for an hour. About ten minutes after the 6 34 train left, I realized that I did actually need to take that train, and when I was told to take it, it wasn't a direct train and I was supposed to get off at one stop and take another train to Liège. But by this time it was too late. So I laid down on one of the heaters by the window of the station, put my camera bag under my head, and closed by eyes to rest for the next hour. I wasn't feeling well because of my lack of sleep, I was freezing, and I had no appetite, though I made myself eat something.

Finally, I got to Liège and ran to meet up with Rotary, who I caught at the last minute. All the exchange students piled on a double decker bus and rode for two and a half hours to Luxembourg. I slept a good hour of it. Once we got there, we first went to visit a brasserie, where they make beer. It was quite interesting. It ended with us getting to taste the beer, which the exchange students were big fans of. I actually liked it, though I didn't drink much of it as I'm on a diet. We got some time to just sit with our friends and talk before heading out. We walked to a restaurant from there where we ate our lunch. We got a few slices of some sort of meat, lima beans in a gravy, and potatoes. Which when I say like that, sounds kinda gross. But it was actually pretty good! The meat was fatty, and at the end I had a nice little pile of the trimmings, but it was still good food. They offered us more beer, but I declined. After lunch, we went to a meat packing place/butcher, which the majority of us thought was a poor decision on the Rotary's part, since we had just eaten. And I took a bunch of pictures, but they were somehow deleted multiple times, though I have no idea why. I think my memory card may be corrupted... Dommage, eh? After that, we got back on the bus and drove again until we got to the city of Luxembourg, where we were given about an hour and a half to do what we wanted. Me and some friends walked around and did a little window shopping, had a dance party with an employee in a Levi's store, and had a coffee. Then we met up with everyone else and drove another two and a half hours to go back to Liège. This time I slept the whole way. Once we got to Liège, Talia and Mikayla and I caught a train back to Landen, and Talia came to sleep over my house. We ate dinner here (some sort of garlic steak, stuffed baked potato, and salad) and talked with my host parents for a while, watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and then went right to bed since both of us were exhausted.

This morning, we got up and ate breakfast, talked some more with my host parents, and then went to school around 10am for a repetition for the dance at school. I am choreographing a number to "Bad Romance", which is the finale in the show. So far, it's going very well! And everyone seems to be pretty impressed with the choreography and the girls (and Eduardo) are picking it up well. I think it's going to be a good number, especially cause we have an awesome surprise planned for the end.

I then went home, ate lunch (roast beef in a really delicious sauce with raisins, fries, and salad) with my host family, and spent the afternoon editing photos. Then we had a visit from Jacques's sister and her husband. They were very friendly, and we talked about a lot of different things. They even helped me figure out some stuff for when my parents come. They left, we ate a dinner of sandwiches, and I introduced Benjamin to PB&J sandwiches, which he found very good! One point to the Americans!

I'm really going to get back into the habit of posting every day. I'm still on my diet, I'm still doing yoga, though I only went to the gym once this week. But things are good! And just in case you are just starting to read, you should know that I always always always post what I eat. It's just kind of what this blog has become.

Goodnight everyone!!

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 !

I Ate Twice My Weight Today...

It's Saturday. I really feel like all I did today was eat. It's almost 1 30am too and I'm so freaking exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open as I write this blog. So it may be a little less detailed than normal.

I woke up at about 10 45 this morning, but that was after not getting to sleep until 3 30am. But I got up and got ready and went to dance for 11 20 as is customary on Saturday mornings. And it was a terrible class. I did not do well at all. I'm pretty sure it's cause my whole body is sore and tired from working out all week, not to mention that I have not been getting enough sleep (as I write on my blog at 1 30am). So things just did not go well at dance today. Afterwards, my host mom picked me up and we went back to the house quickly before going out to Liège to sell oysters with Rotary. On the way home, Karine was driving slow, as usual, but she somehow got off the road for a second and when she got back on, the car slid and did a nice 360 turn, landing in some branches, just missing a telephone pole. It was fine and we were fine and there might have been a few scratches on the car, but that was it. The Belgians really need to discover snow tires.

Anyway, we got back to the house and I ate lunch as my host mom and Benoit went out to get the other car's tires filled, since the one was almost completely flat. I had three little sandwiches on baguette: one with a soft cheese and apple jelly, one with the soft cheese and the sirop de Liège, and one with ham and American cheese and mustard. The baguette today was especially delicious. And I was pretty darn full after.

My host mom and I then went out to Liège to meet up with my Rotary club. My host dad was already there. We were supposed to be there at 3, but with the snow and the fact that there was nowhere to park, we ended up being about a half hour late. We got there and said hi to everyone and then the Rotary people tried to get me to eat an oyster, but I couldn't. I really do want to try new things here, but I couldn't bring myself to eat that uncooked, raw, slimy crustacean. Which, apparently is a shame because everyone was saying how delicious they are. But then there weren't that many people coming to the stand, so my host mom told me I could go for an hour and do my Christmas shopping. So I did, and I came across my host brother and his girlfriend in the process, but I was able to find some good gifts and I'm happy with them. But I'm not quite finished and I think I'm going again on Monday. Oye shopping.

I then returned to the stand and was able to stay in the shop that was behind it where they were preparing the food in the warmth. Which was a plus. There wasn't really anything for me to do though, and I just ended up talking with my counselor and such. Christian wasn't there. But eventually we got to talking, and I have been invited to go with him for 2 weeks on vacation in the south of France!!! We would leave the day after Christmas. Now this isn't positively for sure, but it's a good chance that I would get to go and I'm so excited!

Anyways, we stayed there til about 6 30 and I had been snacking on these little chip things the entire time. But we returned to the house again, just for a minute to pick up my host dad, and then we were off to Namur for dinner with some family friends. By this point, it was already 8pm ish. We got there and I met the couple and their daughter and her boyfriend. They were very very nice and really funny and the house was warm and cozy and a little eccentric, which I appreciated. And they had a dog. A huge one. Like a bear. Really furry too. But it stayed outside the whole time.

We first sat down in the living room where they brought out some appetizers like little bits of sausages and such. But then it started getting fancy and the wife brought out some more little pre dinner foods that had garnishes in little porcelain dishes with itty bitty spoons and other fancy stuff. There was pate with some caramelized onions, but a very tiny portion with the smallest spoon you've ever seen in your life. Then she brought out this other one which was a skewer of a special kind of Belgian meat and a piece of a warm apple. Delicious.

Then it was time for the oysters. My host parents had bought a box of them from the stand and brought them with us. So the man of the house sat with us and spent the next fifteen or twenty minutes opening the oysters. I didn't realize that that is all the preparation that goes into eating oysters. You just open them. Ew. But they were all on a plate and the shells are pretty. Once they were all opened, we moved into the dining room to eat this first course of the giant meal. I did take one oyster, but the minute I opened it and saw it, I just lost my appetite. I really do pride myself on always trying things, but the fact that it wasn't cooked... If you know me, you know I have a fear of puking, which leads to my other irrational fears, such as roller coasters. This also includes my fear of raw meat/seafood. So I just couldn't eat it. I wanted to try it, but I couldn't. My body was rejecting it before it was even in my mouth. But the family understood and we all just laughed about it.

The next course was the main one. We had some sort of meat, which I think was lamb, green beans, and cheesy potatoes. Although the meat was kinda fatty, and I had to trim it a lot, it was really good and had a wonderful flavor. The potatoes were amazing. The best cheesy potatoes I've ever had. Technically, they were potatoes au gratin, but I like saying cheesy potatoes because it's more fun. And they were cheesy, and they reminded me of home. And of course, I love green beans, so that was good too. But by this point, I had so much food in my stomach, I thought I was going to burst and I couldn't figure out how I was going to finish what was on my plate. And then everyone started taking seconds and I felt bad saying no thank you, but I was beginning to feel sick and I couldn't eat anymore. But I did manage to clean my plate, except for the meat trimmings. They cleared away those dishes and I really did begin to feel ill. Which was not good. But it passed very quickly. That's when my eyes began to droop. We must have already been there for two hours.

Then they brought out the next course. The cheese. I couldn't figure out how I was going to do this. But I took very small portions of just a few of them and the smallest piece of bread that was in the bowl and ate just enough to get the tastes of the cheese. One was a brie, the other was another similar soft white cheese, one was a gouda type with bits of violets in it, and the other was a goat cheese that was covered in different kinds of crushed flowers. We ate it with a pumpernickel type bread that had nuts and such in it. The cheeses were delicious. I wish I could have had more.

But the food didn't stop there. They cleared those plates and fifteen minutes later, it was time for the last course. The most deadly. Dessert. The daughter brought out a platter of cookies she had made, some chocolate macaroons, lemon macaroons, and other really thin crispy cookies. I took one of each, even though at this point my stomach really was full to bursting. I successfully finished my cookies without any major problems. You think that was it? Oh no. There were also two cakes. One chocolate one with raspberries on it that made me want to die and go to heaven so that I could eat that all day long. The other was a crumble with red berries inside. That one looked rich and decadent also. But I couldn't eat anymore. Ten minutes later I asked for the crumble. I took half of a piece that my host dad had taken the other half of. I was halfway through the crumble when I really started to feel like I couldn't take another bite. It was so delicious. It was a crust, then some sort of custard, then raspberries and strawberries and cherries, mixed with a red berry mousse and topped with the crumble. I let myself rest for a couple minutes and then somehow, with the help of the Lord, finished the cake. And then I stared at the half of a piece of the chocolate cake, but successfully stopped myself from taking it. By this point I couldn't believe how much food I had eaten, but it was all so good. SO GOOD.

Then we left and it was midnight and I fell asleep in the car. We got home, I took a shower, and now I'm blogging and I want to go to sleep. Goodnight all.

Host dad's pants for today: red.

RE: The Most Fun Weekend Yet

So it seems to be becoming a pattern for me to not blog on the weekends for the simple fact that I just don't have the time because I don't spend much of them at home... Which I have to say is a good thing because it means I'm being social and spending time with Belgians! Yay!

This weekend was honestly the best weekend I've had in Belgium. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? (This is going to be a very long blog)

FRIDAY:

Friday, I spent the day at the preschool again, for the last day of the retreat. Friday was less fun than the other days, for the pure fact that there was nothing for us to do. The other days we had gotten to play games with the kids, do crafts, and help with the little chores around the classroom. But we were in a different class on Friday and there just weren't things for us to do. So we spent the day observing and watching the kids play. Of course, if it weren't for the language barrier, I would've gotten down on all fours and played with the kids. But they don't understand a word I say and I barely understand them, even though my French is improving immensely (I'll talk more about that later). However, they played outside a lot and there were many accidents involving little kids falling down, kids bullying other kids, and lots of tears. And I felt awful because I couldn't really help since I didn't know how to say what I would've said in English.

After school was over, my host mom picked me up and I went home for a couple hours to run, shower, and pack up my stuff to spend the night at Talia's. However, before I left, I made... Ready for this?? GRILLED CHEESE. I was so excited! We had found a Laughing Cow cheese that came just like Kraft singles and the package said "with cheddar". However, that was not cheddar cheese. That was good old fattening American cheese. And I made my wonderful grilled cheese sandwich on delicious Belgian bread. If only I had had applesauce...

So anyways, Karine then drove me over to Talia's, where I got ready for the giant techno party called KickAss. Talia and I got all dolled up, ate dinner (spaghetti), and around 9:30pm, Talia's host mom drove us into Hannut for the party. When we got there, there weren't a whole lot of people there, so we hung around outside for a bit and then went in where the DJ was set up on the stage and strobe lights were going. Nobody was dancing yet and it was kind of that socially awkward stage when everyone is just standing around. But our friends trickled in and before we knew it, the whole sixième class was there and we were dancing and having a great time. Every hour, they switched DJs, so the style was changed up a bit. Talia and I spent the time going between the dance floor and outside, talking to friends, meeting new people and taking TONS of pictures. The Belgians dance very differently than Americans and they aren't very wild about it. So Talia and I had to contain ourselves a little, but it was still so much fun. I absolutely love dancing! Of course, we're in Belgium, so just about everyone was drinking, but it was nowhere near the type of intense drinking like people were doing at the Fête de Wallonie. But because it was a dance party, beer was sloshed out of cups left and right and it basically covered the floor. Not to mention I ended up getting splashed more than once with beer and stepped on multiple times, so by the end of the night, my feet were gross and beer had dried on my legs. Which is, yes, disgusting. But I didn't let that stop me from having a fantastic time! Most of our friends left around 1:30am, but Talia and I stayed until 3am with some others that we knew, and some we had just met. At 3am we met up with our friend Gregoire, who's mother graciously gave us a ride home. We creeped into the house around 3:30 and headed up to Talia's room where we immediately crashed (after washing off my legs, of course).

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning, Talia and I had to wake up around 7am for a Rotary outing in Namur. Which means that we got about 3 hours of sleep. We very quickly got dressed, grabbed our lovely Rotary blazers, ate some breakfast, made our lunches and then we were out the door, in the car, headed to meet up with Gaby to go to Namur. I didn't even have enough time to throw makeup on my face or do something to make my hair presentable, so I did my makeup in the car and just left my curls from the night before. And I have to say, I'm pretty skilled at car makeup and I found that I can do my mascara blind and not get it all over my face. I was impressed with myself.

After driving about twenty minutes, we met up with Gaby and her host dad on the side of the road, as is the Belgian way. We then got into Gaby's car and we all went the rest of the way to Namur. We met the other exchange students at the train station, and then all walked about fifteen minutes through the streets of Namur, which I know very well by now, to the city commune. We checked in there and then all went inside and waited for things to start.

During this time, I met a couple new exchange students, one who was from Argentina, and another from Finland. I can't get over the fact that all the exchange students that aren't from the States or Canada speak English so well. It makes me feel like us Americans aren't ambitious enough to learn more languages than just English... Once everyone was finally settled in, Rotarians talked to us about a number of different things, including rules and the trips that are happening throughout the year (again).

After that was all finished, we headed outside where they gave us something to drink and we just chilled for a while. I went outside to meet up with Rèmi and Talia, and proceeded to get yelled at for something. I have no idea what I did wrong, but all of the sudden one of the men there was yelling at me to get out. I was dumbstruck and just kind of said uh uh huh? And he yelled again, saying, "I asked for one thing, you go out now!" And I just said "Uh, uh, ok ça va," and went back inside. I was very upset about that for about five minutes, and then we all left that building and went to take a group picture. Group pictures always take longer than necessary.

Finally, it was lunch time. They gave us a little over an hour to either eat what we brought, or go buy food. Of course, we decided to do both. So I went with Rèmi, Talia, and another boy from Ohio named Matheus, and we all walked into town. All of us except Matheus had brought sandwiches, so we ate those on the way, and since I'm a nice person, I shared with him. We then searched for a place for other food. We came by a bakery where Rèmi got a really delicious pastry that came with a cool little wooden spoon that we were all amazed at, cause, ya know, we're all just 4 years old inside. We then went to seek out some substantial food for Matheus. We scanned just about the entire city when we finally walked back the way we came and saw that there was a sandwich shop that was right next to the bakery that we had stopped at earlier. It was definitely a "here's your sign" moment. So we stopped in there and Talia and I decided that we were still hungry so I got a sandwich too for us to split. She asked me to choose so I went with brie cheese, sirop de Liège, and pearl onions. If you don't remember, the sirop de Liège is the molasses type syrup made from apples and pears. It's very tasty, but very strong and it's best when it's with other things. It's a bit sweet also, so with the brie, it hit the spot. Of course, we're in Europe and it is typical for there to be music when you are just wandering the streets. There was a man playing the accordion outside the shop, and it was like a movie moment. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, we were standing in a little cobblestone square of town outside a cute bistro with accordion music. It was wonderful. We even danced a bit. After the accordion player finished, we went to check out the inside of an old church, and then proceeded to make our way back to meet with the rest of the exchange students.

We all met by the river and boarded a ferry for a ride along the river. It was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect, the river was calm, and the scenery was to die for. We spent the time talking and taking pictures and just really having a wonderful afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. After maybe an hour or two on the ferry, our time with Rotary was over, and I went to go search for something to occupy myself with. I met up with Brittany, Hadley, and Oakley, and ended up making plans with to join them for bowling with Brittany and Hadley's Rotary club, and then stay the night with Hadley.

We had some time before we had to catch the train, so we did a little shopping in Namur. As I promised last time, I didn't spend a single penny. But it was fun to go with them. Actually, that is a bit of a lie... I did buy makeup remover wipes, but that is only because I was out of them and that is really beside the point and you didn't need to know that... But that was the first time that I was given attitude for not speaking fluent French. The man at the register was not nice to me.

Anyway, we then made our way to the station, but stopped for a few minutes to watch some streets performers dance, which was really cool. Upon arrival at the station, the drama of the evening commenced. I had no cash on me, and there wasn't at ATM in sight. We had to get the train right then because otherwise we would miss it, so I was forced to buy a ticket on the train. Somehow, the ticket from Namur to Liège is around 8 euros, and it is another 3 added on because I am buying the ticket on the train. Normally, they don't actually charge you that extra 3, especially once they find out you don't speak French. However, this controller was in an awful mood and made me pay 11 euros for the ticket. Which is outrageous and something must've been wrong there, but I couldn't figure it out and besides, I don't speak French. Also, this was 11 euros that I didn't have. Now Brittany had lovingly given me a ten to pay with until I could find an ATM. I had thought it would for sure cover it, and there was no way that this short ride could cost more. But there I was, with 10 euros, having to pay for an 11 euro ticket. Luckily, there were a bunch of other exchange students standing right there with us and Jonathan, from Texas, was able to lend me the other euro. Crisis averted. We then found out that Oakley had been charged extra also because she had forgotten to fill out her GoPass before we got on the train. The fine is normally 60 euros, but he only made her pay about 8. So I suppose that was lucky for her too. Finally, we made it to Liège and I went to find an ATM. This is where I found out that Rotary had not given me my allowance for the month yet, and I couldn't withdraw anything from my account. So I was forced to use my Visa, and I am anxiously awaiting to find out what kind of ridiculous fees I will be charged. By this point, I am super frustrated with life. Then we find out that our host parents had talked to one another and changed our plans around, so I was staying with Brittany. This wasn't really a big deal at all, but we were extremely confused on how this had happened. We then went to catch our second train to Vervier. I decided that I didn't want what happened on the Liège train to happen again, so I quickly ran downstairs to buy a ticket. As Oakley and I were heading back up to the platform, the others were running down, saying they had changed our train. So we hurried to another platform, where we waited, and I found out that I had bought the wrong ticket, and the stop we were getting off at was actually Welkinrodt (spelling is wrong, I know). So I hadn't paid for enough zones and the controller could fine me. So we decided that when the controller came around, I was going to pretend to be sleeping, since they hardly ever wake people up. However, we lucked out and nobody ever came to check the tickets.

Brittany's host dad was there to pick us up at the station, and we headed over the bowling alley. It was the nicest bowling alleys that I have ever been to! There was the part for bowling, of course, but then there was also a nice bar, a place to sit down and eat, a part with some games and pool table, and then a glass wall which separated all that from another part of the building with a giant structure of tubes and slides for children to play on. Plus, there was no smoking allowed in the building, so it was really nice. We didn't even have to pay for our game because Rotary was hosting the event. When we got there, we met up with one of Brittany and Hadley's friends, Antoine, and then another girl, Laurie, met us later as well. Thais, an exchange student from Brazil, was also with us. (Poor Oakley was with all of us French speakers, and she is in the German part of the country, learning German, so she was lost all night) We donned our lovely bowling shoes and headed over to our lane to play. We didn't have much time, and we only got to frame 6, but I won with 59 points. I know, impressive. But we had a great time! After our hour of bowling, Rotary treated us to dinner. So we went over to the restaurant part of the building and sat down to a pizza dinner. I got Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple. I have recently discovered how brilliant it is to put pineapple on a pizza. After we finished eating, we spent a couple hours just telling stories, speaking French and laughing a lot! Oakley and Hadley left early, and then Brittany and I and the others left around 11pm. We swung by Hadley's quickly to pick up some of Brittany's things, and then headed to Brittany's house. Everyone had fallen asleep in the car, and Brittany and I were exhausted when we got up to her room, seeing as how we had each gotten about three hours of sleep the night before. So after quickly setting up a place for me to sleep and getting some pjs of Brittany's to wear, we crashed for the night.

SUNDAY:

Sunday morning was much more reasonable. Brittany and I awoke around 9:30am and went down to breakfast. It was the first time since I've been here that I lounged around in my pajamas. Breakfast at her house is wonderful. There was melted chocolate for baguettes (which beats Nutella), pain au chocolat, breakfast rolls, sirop de Liège, more chocolate, and the cheese de Herve (which is the city where she lives). I was a total piggy and had some baguette with chocolate, a roll with the sirop and cheese, and a pain au chocolat. With coffee and orange juice. Oh and when her host mom offered me a piece of chocolate with hazelnuts, I had that too. I mean, it would be rude to say no, right?

After breakfast, Brittany showed me around the house and then we went outside and picked up walnuts that had fallen off the tree in their front yard while telling stories and just having some girl chat. In our pajamas, by the way. Who knew picking up walnuts could be so much fun? We then went back inside, ate some of the walnuts, and watched a ton of YouTube videos. She introduced me to a new comedian, Eddie Izzard. If you don't know his work, you need to go look him up. He's a British man who dresses in drag for his act, and he's absolutely hysterical. We also took a look at the bus and train schedules and decided that I would catch a 3:08 bus to Liège and a 4:20 train to Huy. So that was all taken care of. Her host mom then called us for a light lunch outside. I met Brittany's host grandmother at this point, and sat outside and ate together. It wasn't really a meal. There were bowls of cashews, chips, cheese, mussels, mini sausages, carrots, and cauliflower, and we drank champagne. They do this every Sunday because of eating such a big, late breakfast. Brittany's host family is very very nice and they were pretty impressed with my level of speaking. So I felt pretty accomplished. After lunch, Brittany and I went back inside and continued watching videos until about 2:50 when I decided it was time for me to finally change and get to the bus stop. I went outside to say goodbye and thank you to her host parents, but they wouldn't let me leave without giving me some cake, so I sat down for a couple minutes and had a small piece of cake, which was delicious. Brittany and I left the house a couple minutes after 3, and had plenty of time to get me to the bus stop.

More drama commences. I got to the stop around 3:04 and waited. And waited. 3:15 rolls around and still no bus. So Brittany and I head back to the house to figure out what the problem was. Turns out we had been looking at the wrong schedule and the bus had come at 3:01. So her host mom helps us and we find the right schedule. Now I have to catch the 3:58 bus. Ok no worries, but I can't take the same train. So we look at that schedule and there is a 4:50 train to Huy, and then next one after that isn't until 5:50. Now it's a 45 ride on the bus, so I will have to book it to make the train. But we figure that's the only option, so I'll go with that. So Brittany and I chill for about another half hour and then go back to the bus stop. The bus shows up at 4:02, and I get a little worried that I'm not going to make it in time to catch the train. But I trust that God will get me there, so I just put in my earbuds and try to relax.

The bus gets to the train station at 4:52. I was super angry. I ran up to the platform to see if maybe the train was late, but alas, it had come and gone. And now I was stuck. So I look at the schedule and find that there is a train leaving in a few minutes for Waremme, which is also close to my house. So I call my host mom, run down to buy a ticket, then run to the platform. But I find that platform 5 is not running a train to Waremme like the schedule says. So I run back down the stairs and find that they had changed the train at the last minute, and my train is now on platform 2. Thankfully, I made it in time, though I didn't completely trust myself and was afraid that I was on the wrong train. But I did make it to Waremme in one piece, completely shaken, but alive and well.

My host mom picked me up from there, we stopped at Talia's to pick up my things from the night before, and then went home where I ate some apple pie, worked out, had dinner, and now am waiting for the shower.

So, to wrap up a ridiculously long, dramatic blog post, this was a fantastic weekend, despite the mishaps. I had a great time, I spoke a lot of French, and realized that my French is rapidly improving. Everyone I talk to says that I speak very well, my accent is good, and I can obviously get myself through tough situations. I met some great people, and I had A LOT of fun! Tomorrow, I have school, of course, and things will go back to boring. I hope you all made it through the post, and enjoyed my antics. Until tomorrow! Bonne nuit!