A Week's Worth Of Blogging...

I'm a bad blogger...
Alrighty, so. In my crazy attempt to update everyone on Spain, I have fallen about a week behind on my blog, and that week includes my birthday celebrations in Belgium. So here we go. You have a week's worth of blog to read about, so get ready!

Wednesday, after I got home from Spain, I rested for a bit, but I went back out that night after showering and eating with my host family. Also, Manon gave me what is possibly the most awesome gift ever! A full-size Belgian flag with the signatures of all the rhéto on it! I couldn't be happier with it, really. Ben picked me up and we went and got a bottle of champagne and then headed over to Olivier and Marie's house. We spent a few hours together, talking and catching up and having a good time. And then it was time for surprise number one. Marie came out of the kitchen with a raspberry tart with nineteen candles on the platter and sang Happy Birthday to me (in French of course)! I hadn't been sung to yet for my birthday or had cake, so that was a very nice surprise! And it was delicious. But I love raspberries, so I'm biased. We ate together and then Ben's phone alarm went off around 9 30 or 10 (I don't remember exactly) and informed me that it was time for us to get moving. But get moving to where? I had no idea. He told me to go pick out some music so with the help of Marie, i rummaged through their CD collection and picked out a few tunes (including Norah Jones). We said our goodbyes and Ben and I got in the car and that was the start of surprise number two. We ended up in a little clearing just outside the villages as it started to get dark out. He parked the car and we put in the Norah Jones CD and then he told me we had to go find the moon. But it was still too early, as the sun was just barely setting, so the moon was nowhere to be seen. In the meantime, he pulled out a big blanket, the champagne, two glasses and a telescope and asked me if I had ever seen a lunar eclipse before. Well, I have never seen a lunar eclipse. But there was going to be one that night, so he had it all planned out that we were going to watch it to celebrate a little bit my birthday! We got all situated, toasted with champagne, and watched the sky as it got darker. Disappointing part: We never did see the eclipse. It happened while the moon was too low in the sky and by the time we could see the moon at all, it was already coming out of the eclipse. But we watched as it grew back to full size and flooded the countryside with light. Honestly, it was the most beautiful moon I've ever seen. Why it didn't even matter that we didn't get to see the eclipse: The sky was still gorgeous and full of stars and, even without the moon, we were together and had a great night. Probably the best post-birthday celebration I've ever had.

Thursday was Manon's birthday. All the Belgians were still in exams, so they had to be at school all morning. I, however, along with the other Americans in Hannut, had already finished my exams so I could sleep! But I did go into Hannut after the exams were over to say hi to everyone and catch up. Yes, everyone was jealous of my Spain adventure. Around noon, Manon and I went back home and ate lunch with the family and then Manon went to study. That night, we all ate dinner together and then Manon and I both shared in a little birthday celebration with my host family, again involving cake, candles, and singing. I received two pairs of beautiful silver earrings from my host family as well. That night, I went to dance, as usual for Thursdays. We are getting ready for our show that we are putting on in a week and a half. When I got home from dance, I was surprised by the presence of Talia and Alex in the house, who stopped by for Manon's birthday. They hung out for a while, eating cake and talking. After they left, it was back to studying for Manon and sleep time for me.

Friday was yet another exam day for the Belgians. Again, I didn't have any exams to take, but I did ride my bike up to Hannut afterwards to meet up with everyone and have a drink. We all hung out for a while, but eventually the crowd dwindled out and I left as well on my bike. I passed by Ben's to say hi. We watched "The Matrix", which believe it or not, I had never seen before. I ate dinner there and then went home to get to bed early because I had an exciting weekend ahead of me!

Saturday, I left in the afternoon to catch a train to go the North Sea that borders Belgium. It's one of those things that you have to see, and I hadn't been there yet. But by 5pm, I was there, the wind whipping at my hair and sand flying up into my face! We found a little hotel in the city of Blankenberge (Flemish), dropped off our things, and then headed back to the shore to look for a place to get dinner. But we were looking for something specific. You see, there are a few things that are very stereotypical Belgian. You all know about the beer, the waffles, and the chocolate. But the thing that I still hadn't tried yet was the mussels. And this was the day. We found a little place that looked really nice (all old people. You know it's good when it's all old people) and I sat down to my first ever dinner of Belgian mussels and fries. The mussels were cooked in white wine with plenty of vegetables, all hot and simmering in my own little personal pot, overflowing with the big shells. Eating mussels is not the easiest thing in the world... For one, sometimes your fork just pulls right through it and you don't actually end up with anything in your mouth. Instead, you have a strand of dismembered crustacean hanging out of the shell... Second, when you get to the bottom of the pot. they are extra hot and swimming in the broth, so you may burn yourself and/or have the mussel slip right out of your hand. Third, you find yourself chewing on the shell sometimes, when they are more brittle than you thought. And fourth, even though you may want to inspect each and every one, it's a bad idea to look at the mussels you are eating or even to think about it too much. Because eventually you realize that you are eating it all. Whole. The brains, the organs, everything. But once you get past these minor details, it's really an enjoyable meal. And of course, we had them with your typical fries. One word to wrap it all up? YUM.

After eating, we headed down towards the actual sea, slipped off our shoes and walked along the beach. One thing about the sea in Belgium... The wind!! It is STRONG. But I liked it a lot because you could see the sand floating over the shore and the waves crashing and even though it was cloudy, the sun was shining through the clouds and I just found the whole thing beautiful. But, eventually, the wind gets to you and you have to go back up by civilization. We went to get a drink afterwards and just sat and talked for a while before heading back to the room for the night (typical European, there was a communal bathroom and shower, just saying).

Sunday, we got up and checked out by 10am and headed out into the town in a failed attempt to find some breakfast. Again, Europe. Bob Evans breakfast all day doesn't exist here, sadly. But we got a tea and chilled out for the morning. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, exploring all the different paths and even checking out a couple churches. We went to the boat docks, where people have their "yachts" (they weren't really yachts, more like sailboats), and walked out onto a giant pier that had a restaurant at the end of it. Again, the wind was strong and there were a few guys deep sea fishing off the end of the pier. The waves were beautiful and they came up and crashed against the supports of the pier, spraying us every so often with their mist. We walked and talked, got lunch, looked in shops, got a waffle, just chilled out all day. Around 5pm, we went back to the train station to catch a train home, and I was home by 8pm, in my bed not much later.

Monday was the last day of exams for my classmates. They had their math exam. Afterwards, everyone went to the bar to hang out and I was going to go join them, but in the end, getting there was way too complicated and I ended up just staying home and working on my Spain pictures. But that evening, my whole class came over to the house for the class barbecue (since my house is actually Manon's house). This includes Madame Gallo. I still find it odd to party with the teachers... Regardless, everyone was here by 7 30pm and the guys went at it to attempt to start the barbecue. I'm not gonna lie, Americans do it way better. But they did eventually get it and we did eventually eat our sausage sandwiches! We spent the evening talking, goofing around, taking pictures, talking, and sometimes just being plain ridiculous. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time hanging out with the people that have made this year absolutely amazing! I love my class, I really do, and I really do think that I was incredibly lucky to fall into such an awesome group of Belgians, along with an awesome teacher! As is typical for a Belgian party, a few people got sick as the night wore on. Evening quickly turned into night, but by 2am, mostly everyone who wasn't sleeping at the house had gone home and the rest of us were setting ourselves up in the living room to sleep.

Note to self: When you have a bed to sleep in, don't think it's a better idea to sleep on the ground with everyone else just because you don't want to be alone.

We woke up the next morning, yesterday morning in fact, tired and some of us cranky. We didn't move for a couple hours, but instead just stayed on the ground and on the couches, talking and retelling stories from the night before. Eventually, it was down to me and Manon and Talia and Maxime and we cleaned up the mess and got the house back into semi-order. Talia and Maxime left and then Manon and I took to cleaning up ourselves and recovering from the party. This meant sleeping all afternoon. That night, I had jazz, earlier than usual, and it made me feel pretty lousy. Dancing is getting harder and harder for me the longer I stay in this country and yesterday it seemed to really take a toll on me. Hopefully once I get back into my habits next year, it'll all go back to normal... After dance, I met up with Manon and a bunch of people from school in Hannut to celebrate Manon and Iris's birthdays together. Ben stopped by too and I eventually ended up going back with him and his friends and we hung out for a while in that same clearing with a bonfire and a guitar, just chillin.

This morning, I went to go back to my house early, but sadly, nobody was home and the house was locked. Needless to say, I was stranded outside for about two and a half hours before I managed to get a hold of my host sister who had been sleeping after working a night shift. I finally got into the house, ate lunch, and am now blogging before sleeping away the rest of the day. This blog also took longer than I thought it would... But like I said, a whole week's worth, involving some exciting stuff! But there you go, world. All the updates! It's naptime now. Goodnight!

Spider In The Shower

Welcome back to another day in the life of Emma Clark. In Belgium, the country where Wind and Rain and Cold are the residents and Sun seems to have decided it has overstayed its welcome... Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's cold and gross again here, and I, once again, find myself not feeling very well.

It is now story time with Emma. Today's feature, "The Two Intelligent Girls". Ahem.

Once upon a time, there were two very intelligent American exchange students. Their names were Emma and Talia and they were going to school in Hannut, Belgium. One day, they went to school and were supposed to take their exam for gym: 3 kilometers running and about 8 kilometers bike riding in one hour and a half. Emma and Talia were very ready to take this exam and felt good about their chances of passing. They went through their first two hours of school as usual and after the pause, went to the gym to meet the others and take their exam. However, once they got there, they realized that they were supposed to go at the beginning of the pause instead of the end. By this time, it was too late! The teachers had already left with the class and there was nobody there. The door was locked. So Emma and Talia missed their gym exam and spent the two hours in the office of the nice priest, Père Boly, feeling exceptionally smart about the mistake that they had made. The end.

Ok if you didn't pick up on that, that was sarcasm. We felt exceptionally DUMB. Other than that, the day went as usual. School, went home, ate with the fam, which tonight's meal was leftovers from the communion yesterday.

OK here's a weird Belgium thing. They think leftovers are like, the spawn of Satan. Ok that's a little overdramatic, but seriously. There is nothing wrong with leftovers! And if you don't eat it right away, they throw it out! Which I don't like. I'm all for cold leftovers the day after. But as I'm not feeling well, I couldn't finish the rice that they got rid of. Even though it was only opened yesterday. Oh Belgium...

Otherwise nothing happened. Oh yes, the title of my blog. I'm pretty sure there was a spider in the shower when I took mine just now... The reason I say pretty sure is because I had already taken out my contacts, so I just saw a black blob that resembled something with legs... On my leg. Ew.

This post is spiratic and weird... Oh well it happens. I'm going to bed early; I really am not feeling hot... Bonne nuit tout le monde.

Sore Day And The Cookie Mountain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh and my host dad wore his red pants today.

Bonne nuit!

Remember That Day That I Called Exercise Day?

So if you've been reading the blog since the beginning, you probably remember that during the first week that I was here, I named one of the days "exercise day". I think I had biked and gone for a run that day or something... I'm not sure. Anyways, I was seriously wrong.

Today, December 14, 2010, and every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday that is going to follow this Tuesday is going to be name "exercise day". Why? Because Talia and I went to the gym for the first time today to actually work out. And it was AWESOME. We got there and nice lady behind the counter showed us first where the locker room was, we changed, and then she took us through the whole circuit. First, we did 10 minutes of cardio on the stationary bikes. Which was sadly difficult and my thighs were on fire afterwards. I was so depressed at my lack of in-shape ness. After that, we went through the weight training. For each machine we each did 4 set of 15 reps. The first was a leg press, just simple feet-on-panel-push-back-and-forth type thing. That was followed by two different machines, one that worked your inner thigh and the other worked the outer hip area. Then we went on to arms. Two different machines. Those weren't too bad. The next ones made me want to die. The sort of replicated push ups, which I'm terrible at, and I felt so weak. Especially the one that you push over your head. I can't believe how weak I am sometimes... But give me a couple weeks! After that we did crunches, but with this really cool thing. I don't even know what to call it. You laid on a mat and put your head and shoulders under this light-weight thing. It had a little something for your head to rest on and then there is a bar above your face that you put your hands on, but you don't push with it. You use your abs to do the crunches, but it supports your head so your neck doesn't hurt afterwards. SO COOL! I want one. After the crunches, we went back to weight training and did more arm work. After that, those machines where you push the bar down with your calves to work your thighs, and then another where you push it up to work the backs of your legs. I felt the burn. After we finished that, it was time for more cardio, and this time we did 20 minutes on the bikes. But for some reason it was much easier that time.

By the time our workout was finished, it had taken us almost 2 hours, which we were very satisfied with. We plan on going almost every day after school and most Saturdays. So why are Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays exercise days and not Mondays or Wednesdays or Fridays? Because I have dance. And today went ok, but I'm tired and I'm sure I'm going to die from soreness during my next class.

By the way, the fact that I can't wear contacts anymore is killing me in dance.

As far as school today, I had my French exam, which went rather well if I do say so myself. The first part, I did the same as the rest of the class, though my teacher gave me the option. She said I could try or just work on something else. I decided to try, why not? So she just told me to do my best. She's awesome. Out of the four questions, I was able to finish three of them. Two of them were analyzing texts, excerpts from books, one was a poem analyzation, and one had two paintings to explain. I was able to do the paintings with no problem, and the poem was actually the one that I had come across last night while I was studying and absolutely fell in love with. So I read it over and over and was an expert on it. WIN! I was actually able to understand the texts without translating in my head, which made me very very proud, but I had to read very slowly, so the text itself took me a good half hour to read. But I was able to write a great analysis about it and I'm so very proud of my work. The second part, the rest of the class had to write about the books they had read. As far as me, she gave me two questions to answer. The first asked what the most important book in my life is and why, and the second asked if culture is important to the young people of today and why. I think I answered those fairly well also. Overall, I'm very proud of my French exam, regardless of the grade I receive. After that, Talia and I got food and then went to the gym.

Tomorrow is English. And then food. And then gym. Yay! Right now, sleepytime. Bonne nuit!

Les Personnes, Ils Changent

C'est vrai quoi ils disent... Les gens changent. Tout le monde change un peu pendant sa vie. Parfois, c'est pour avoir un caractère mieux, mais parfois, et ça c'est quoi donner peur, c'est plus compliqué de ça. Nous tous connaissons quelqu'un qui nous avez perdu comme ami à cause de quelque chose pas de notre choix. Et c'est dur quand ce personne était une grande partie de ta vie. Mais on dois accepter le réalité. Les personnes changent. C'est difficile, mais c'est la vie. Et avec le support de la famille et les amis qui sont autour de nous, on continue avec la vie.

Si on veut, c'est toujours possible être proche de les personnes qui ne sont pas les mêmes. Parfois, on n'a pas le choix. Mais c'est nécessaire accepter et vouloir accepter ce personne pour qu'il avait devenu. Moi, j'ai pas envie de supprimer mes amitiés, mais peut-être change un peu. Les personnes dans ma vie sont tous importants de moi, et si j'ai perdu un... ça ne va pas. Maintenant, je vais juste être là pour n'importe qui a besoin mon aide. Et je vais supporter ce personne, parce que ça c'est qui je suis. C'est un leçon en accepter la vie.

Aujourd'hui, j'avais mon examen de maths. Je suis sure que j'ai raté cet examen. Mais c'est pas grave, je vais essayer demain pour français. Aussi aujourd'hui, Talia et moi sommes allées au gym pour inscrire. Mais c'était un peu compliqué parce que, être la fille très intelligente que je suis, j'ai laissé mon portefeuille à la maison et ma mère d'accueil l'a apporté à Hannut pour moi parce qu'elle est très gentille. Et après on a inscrit, la sœur d'accueil de Talia a téléphoné et Talia avait sa calculatrice. Donc, nous avons retourné chez Talia et pas fait du sport aujourd'hui. Mais demain, on va encore pour faire de régime! Et ce soir, je dors chez Talia aussi. C'est bien, non?

Bonne nuit tout le monde.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Nothing particularly exciting happened today, but like I said before, I'm trying to back into the habit of daily blogging, so here's my little tid bit for today.

By the way, did everyone enjoy my little French post yesterday? I have to say, I'm pretty proud of it.

Today, we continued exams. I took the religion one this morning, first thing when I got to school.

OK PAUSE. I need to rant about something here. THE BELGIANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE. Ok I got that out there. This is seriously something that is driving me bonkers. Ok first of all, they drive slowly to begin with because it's winter. But there's no ice on the roads. Not even snow. In fact, this morning it was above zero Celsius which means that it's not even freezing temperature. So the roads were completely clear. But they were still crawling. And then, oh baby, it started snowing. My host mom immediately dropped speed down to about 40 kilometers per hour. For those of you back in the States, that's about 25 mph. OH MY GOD. Nobody ever drives that speed in the States. Ever. EVER. I swear I was going to tear my hair out. It took everything in me to keep from yelling "ALLER!!".

If you couldn't tell, I'm a little stressed lately.

It has also hit me recently that I am actually living in Belgium. Obviously I already knew that, but yesterday when I was making cookies, I had my first conscious moment where I felt truly at home in my host house. The good part about this, I really finally am almost completely comfortable where I am. I truly feel at home here, and I am really no longer intimidated by my host dad. That's an accomplishment, trust me. The bad part? I leave in less than a month. Yessir, in a few weeks it will be time to change families. That boggles my mind. My exchange is creeping along, but at the same time, it's going so fast. Next weekend, I will have been here four months. Crazy!! But then the other thing I was thinking about was that it's probably a really good thing that I am leaving right as I am feeling homey. A good thing? she says. Why, she's crazy! What is good about that? Well think about it. How difficult was it for me to leave my house? How much time did I spend missing my family and being sad? Well if I stayed in the same house all year, it would become my home. And then I would have to do all of that over again when I leave in August. So I guess it's good not to get too attached to one place. Our heart can only be pulled in so many directions.

I got totally off topic here. So about that religion exam... I'm actually pretty confident with it. I answered all the questions that were necessary and I knew what I was talking about for almost all of them. They were all short answer, so by the end of it, I had written three pages worth of French. Which, a couple months ago I would have thought an impossible feat. But I am proud of myself and of my work.

On the downside, I received zero out of ten on my last geography test. And that, boys and girls, is why Emma Clark opted out of the geography exam.

Apparently I'm going to a Chinese restaurant this weekend.

My cookies were a big hit today.

I'm exhausted and I need to go to bed.

I'm ranting now and this is getting extremely random.

Bonne nuit!

St. Nicholas Day And Mommy's Birthday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

:)