Drunk Belgians And Cigarette Smoke

I had three tests today. The first one was in Science and I don't think I failed. The second was in Social Sciences and I think I did well. The third one was supposed to be in Math, but Talia and I left today at lunch because we were really not doing well at all. We went back to her house, made Mac & Cheese for lunch and napped til about 4 30 when her host family got home. There are two little girls in her family, and I met them both. I woke up in Talia's room to find that there was nobody there so I went downstairs and there they were, sitting at the table eating ice cream. I joined them with a small bowl of vanilla and we just chilled for a while. The kids are so cute! We then went back upstairs, the girls keeping close behind, to make a card for our friend, Kathleen, who's birthday we would celebrate later that night. Eventually, we went down to dinner and ate with the whole family. This time there were the two little girls, the host parents, and another fourteen year old girl. Plus Talia and I. Needless to say there were plenty of us at the table. After dinner, Talia and I went back upstairs to get ready to go into Hannut for the night with all our friends for the birthday (and ate way too many Hershey's kisses in the process). Eventually we were ready to go and her host dad drove us into Hannut, where we met up with the others.

For Kathleen's birthday, Manon had the wonderful idea of putting together a sort of care package for her for when she goes away to Spain next year (yes everyone is leaving next year). Part of it was a shirt on which we were going to write "Don't forget you're Belgian". Well of course I get roped into being the one to do it, so to make sure that Kathleen didn't see, we retreated to the parking lot outside the big church in Hannut and I wrote on the pretty in pretty lettering, almost forgetting the g in Belgian. I also managed to get a little tiny black mark on Manon's shirt with the fabric marker. Sometimes I'm just way too smart. Anyways, we finished up the box, including the shirt, some Easy Mac, Cracker Jack, a little pocket French/Spanish dictionary, an American flag keychain, a letter, a card, some earrings, and a pen. Plus the underside of the lid was covered in pictures of her with all her friends. It was really cute.

We ran back to the café with the box and met up with everyone. We then sang to Kathleen and watched her open the box. I really think that she loved it and it put a smile on my face to see her so happy. We stayed for a drink, but around 10 15 everyone decided that they were hungry so we ran over to Mister Patate (which is now actually Chez Patate, lame) to grab food. Of course we went back to the café after. It was freezing outside, of course, and I was wearing a dress that I borrowed from Talia, so I was really cold. Manon and I stayed until about 1am. Here comes the story that gave me the title of this post. Géraldine was with us and eventually her brother showed up to pick her up. But he didn't come alone. He came with a whole gang of guys, all already on their way to plastered. Well we were all tired and wanted to go home, so we worked out a system so that everyone could get home with a sober driver, safely. This meant that three of the crazy drunk guys came in our car with us until we were close to the house where they were all staying. So there we are, blasting music at 1am as we drive down the road with three hammered Belgians in the back seat chanting and shout singing while drinking caramel vodka. I'm not gonna lie, it was hysterical. And super classy.

I have a complaint to announce here. I HATE CIGARETTES. I hate everything about them. But what I hate most is the smoke that I have to breathe because someone around me decided to light up and fill their own lungs with toxins that may eventually kill them. But almost every single Belgian smokes. Which sucks. Because it means that wherever you go, there is someone nearby smoking. Which means that I am constantly in a cloud of second hand smoke, which is terrible for you. And I really have no choice! Smoking happens everywhere. And it gets blown in your face. And it's gross. And I seriously do think it's taking a toll on MY health even though I've never touched the stupid things. And of course it would be one thing if it didn't smell terrible. But it's disgusting. I hate cigarettes and smoking and just the whole concept of putting SMOKE in your body. Your precious body that is supposed to be clean. You only get one, why would you soil it with SMOKE?! And plus, the choice that THEY make to smoke is taking an effect on ME even though I choose not to. Alright there is my rant and my anti-cigarette campaign. I hope you enjoyed it.

I need to sleep now. À demain.

It's Really Freaking Cold Here

It's Thursday. And it's like negative seven degrees Celsius. And granted, it gets much colder than that in Ohio, but I don't know what it is. It just feels so much colder here. Talia doesn't think she's going to make it through the winter. But she will. And so will I. If nobody else, Eduardo will. He's loving the snow. He was outside having snowball fights today :)

Yesterday, I went to school as usual, but I have the same teacher for all four hours on Wednesdays. And she wasn't there. So I had study hall all day yesterday. So I wrote out a Christmas shopping list and I also wrote out my bucket list. It's about two pages front and back and it's not done. Let's just say I want to do a lot with my life. Anyways, after school, my host mom picked up me and Talia and took us to the train station in Waremme where we caught a train to Liège, got sandwiches from Point Chaud, and met up with the majority of the rest of the exchange students to get a train to Welkenraedt, where ALL the exchange students from our district were getting together, along with the Rotary guys in charge. We all got on a bus from there and went to GERMANY for the Marché de Noël in Aachen. But like I said, it was really cold. I was wearing a pair of really thick lined leggings, my knit shorts under a skirt, socks, boots, a long sleeved shirt, a really heavy sweater, a scarf, three pairs of gloves, my new lumberjack hat, and my big coat and I was alright, but I was definitely shivering. Talia was wearing even more. Four sweaters, I think we finally counted. I lent my earmuffs to Hadley because she had no hat. But as we got on the bus, the Rotary people gave each of us Santa hats! Except they weren't the big fluffy ones that we are used to in the States. Regardless, they were pretty cool. The girls got ones with white braids coming out of them, and the boys got ones without those, but the puff balls on the end of the hats had jingle bells on them.

It took us about a half hour to get to Aachen from Welkenraedt. Once we got there, we all walked into the center of the town together. Germany is beautiful. There was all kinds of cool art on the streets, fountains and such. Plus everything was decorated for Christmas and it was just too cute! And, on my things I love about Europe, there was street music. So you walked through the streets and there was just music playing. It was wonderful. We all gathered and they told us we had about two hours and then we were meeting back up again. So we split off and I went with Hadley and Brittany and Oakley and Alexanne and we walked through the whole thing, and even found a Starbucks! I got a gingerbread latte, which I said in German, and it was great. I missed Starbucks! After that, we walked through it all again and this time actually looked to buy things. I found a few really nice gifts, and so did the others. We talked in English the whole time, though, because nobody spoke French, as we were in Germany. Duh!

After two hours, we met up with the other exchange students. This was around 5 30pm. And it was already dark. We each were given a ticket that we could redeem for either hot wine or hot chocolate. I got the hot wine because the last time I had tried it I really liked it. But I have to say, hot wine is definitely better in Belgium. But it was totally worth it because we got to keep the mugs and they were so cute! They were little boots with German writing on them. I like it :) After drinking our hot drinks and some people getting some food, we all piled back on the bus and drove the half hour back to Welkenraedt. There, the Rotary people gave us a each a bag full of marzipan candies from Saint Nicholas, since that is coming up. Everyone in Belgium is celebrating Saint Nicholas and after Monday, which is the official Saint Nicholas day, we start getting ready for Christmas.

So all the exchange students bombarded the train station and took over the next train to Liège. Which, unfortunately for the people already on it, was a small train. Once we got there, Talia and I were super lucky and our next train pulled up on the same tracks just two minutes later. Talia called her host mom, and since it was snowing, we worked it out so that I could just sleep at Talia's. That is one thing that is very interesting. The Belgians really freak out about driving in the snow. They find it incredibly dangerous and they won't go out if it's snowing. There was probably two inches of snow on the ground, if that, and to them, it was bad enough that I couldn't go back to my house. Which I didn't mind at all! We got back to Talia's, ate pasta, and talked with her host sister, Géraldine. Then we ate some chocolate, went up to her room, had a really deep conversation, and went to bed. We got up this morning, really hoping for a snow day, since her host brother had gotten off of university just a couple days before for the inch of snow that was on the ground, but alas, the buses were running and we had to go to school. It was very cold out though, and Talia's host mom said it was a record cold in Belgium since 1930 I believe. Wow.

So I went through a normal day of school, got a bunch of stuff done at home, like organization and post card writing, didn't go to dance because of the snow, and tomorrow I'm going back to the Village de Noël in Liège with Alexanne and Hadley :) More Christmas shopping! We're going to have a good time, I'm sure!

Yup, that's all for tonight. I'm very tired. It's bed time. Bonne nuit!