Friday, I went to school like any other day. And I spent the night at home, trying to pound out a few thousand words for my novel, which I did successfully. That is due tomorrow, by the way, and I think I will actually finish! I have about 2600 words left, and I will do that in the morning, and then I will be good to upload tomorrow afternoon and everything will be wonderful :) Anyways, I spent Friday night doing nothing else, and that was pretty boring. I might have had some good food, I don't even remember hehe Sorry world.
Saturday, I went to dance, as usual, and we continued preparing for the show that I will be participating in this weekend, on Saturday. It's pretty interesting. Basically, the idea is that there are these four musicians, and they are playing these little one minute pieces, a bunch of them, and there are four dancers that are dancing with them, and I'm one of them. We have these weird blue fabric tube like things that we dance in. But all the weirdness works because it goes with the music.
After dance, I rushed to the Huy train station to catch a train to Liège to catch a train to Welkenraedt to catch a bus to walk to Hadley's house. I know, it sounds complicated. And it would have been a lot more complicated, had I missed my train out of Huy, which I almost did. Thank goodness it was five minutes late! I spent about forty five minutes at the Liège station waiting for my connecting train, but I spent it eating my lunch and writing more of my novel. I also continued writing on my train, but stopped about halfway through to have a conversation with the guy sitting across from me, who told me I speak French very well. I still really enjoy getting that comment.
Anyways, I successfully caught my bus and managed to get off at the correct stop and walk the fifteen minutes to Hadley's house, where Hadley, Brittany, Alexanne, and Oakley all were, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. I had brought the things for green bean casserole and I had a couple of cans of cranberry sauce that had not made it to me in time for Mikayla and Talia and my Thanksgiving with our host families. I immediately began helping. This time we had an actual turkey, and we stuffed it and everything. We made a bunch of food, including some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had, and eventually Brittany's host family came, plus Hadley's host family, and we all ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together, complete with turkey. The menu was turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, corn bread, cranberry, stuffing, gravy and I think that's all. We had had another corn dish, but it ended up being wayyyyyy too salty and we could not serve it. We had bruschetta for an appetizer, which Hadley made and it was absolutely delicious. The problem was that we had done so much tasting of things during the cooking that by the time dinner came around, none of us were hungry! But we piled our plates high anyways, and I somehow managed to eat the majority of my food. It was absolutely wonderful and sooo delicious. And the host families really enjoyed it too. The turkey was moist and flavorful, the stuffing was perfect, and I was very happy to have my cranberry. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Duncan Hines brownies. Yummm. Again, not sure how I managed to eat it all, but I did, and I did not explode.
That night, Oakley stayed at Hadley's house, and I went back to Brittany's with her and Alexanne and the host family. We went to bed pretty much immediately, and Britt woke me up around 9 30am the next morning because we had to hurry up and make food for the "Diner Exotique" with Rotary that we were doing that day. We had to make a typical American dish that would feed 40-45 people. So we made stuffing. I went downstairs and got to work tearing bread and chopping celery and onions. We managed to get the stuffing done, eat a big beautiful breakfast, and get everything packed in the car ready to go. I still don't know how I can fit so much food in my stomach. I really stuffed myself at that breakfast. But it's cause it's just all so good.
The Rotary gathering was in Visé, which was about 20 minutes from Brittany's house. Her host mother drove us and we got there around 11am, which was actually a little late. We put our stuff on the American table, next to a ridiculously tall stack of PB&J sandwiches, and wandered around looking at the other stuff. All the countries had brought wonderfully delicious looking food, and I started getting really depressed because I was already so full and wouldn't be able to eat much. But I met a bunch of other exchange students that I hadn't known before and we had great conversation. Eventually, the host families began to show up and try our food. Then we got to go around and get food. I took some food and shared a lot of it with one of my new friends, Sarah. I took a bite of everything I had, but I have to say, I couldn't finish it all. I was just too full of food.
After that was over, the majority of the exchange students caught a train back to Liège. Then Brittany and I and another exchange student from Canada went to check out the "Village de Noël" in the center of Liège. Basically what it was, was a bunch of little wooden huts that were set up and vendors were selling things from them. Some were selling food and drinks, others were selling homemade trinkets and the like. We walked around the whole thing and eventually met up with Brittany's host sister and her boyfriend and we walked around some more and eventually found somewhere to get a drink. The patios in front of the ones with drink had heating lamps, so that was nice. I tried hot wine, which I actually really liked, even though I really don't care for wine. We spent the next couple hours just talking and having a good time. Then Canada left and the rest of us went to an indoor place where we enjoyed a nice cup of tea. We then went to the train station, they caught their bus home and I caught my train. Which was fifteen minutes late. But it's not a big deal. It was just really cold. But I went home and ate lasagna, and I was happy.
Today, I got up, worked out, and continued writing my book. My host mom came home from the dentist, we ate lunch, and then we got in the car and went to visit one of the family friends who just had a baby yesterday. We went to see her and the newborn in the hospital. The baby is named Iris, and she is absolutely adorable! She is only a day old and wow is she a beautiful baby. We spent some time there, and then we went to the big IKEA store that was nearby and walked around that. I really actually enjoyed it! It was interesting to look at. And the other thing about today: the first real snow of the year! It had snowed once before, on Thursday, but it didn't stick at all and it was only a few minutes. But today it really snowed here. There had already been snow out by Brittany too, but that was there and this is here.
Tomorrow, I finish my book! Well, at least I finish 50 000 words. There's no way the book will be done. But I gotta get up early to finish, so bonne nuit!
