I need to finish writing my post about the wedding and my last few days in Belgium... So let's see, I have already talked about the actual ceremony... Well after the wedding was over, the bride and groom hopped in an old '59 Chevy convertible and the rest of us got in our (not as cool) cars and started a parade driving through the town, all honking our horns. Little kids came out into the street and we threw candy out the windows to them. It's a Swiss tradition. Then we went to the place where we would have the first part of the reception, basically to talk, have a drink, and the appetizers. We socialized, ate food, and took pictures for a couple hours, then got back in our cars and made our way to the hall where we would have the dinner. The bride threw the bouquet and then we went inside and had our meal. The hall was beautifully decorated and the food was delicious. They did cake afterwards as well, which was also beautiful. Throughout the meal, there were little skits, songs, videos and games that were organized to keep everyone entertained. And it was so much fun! That night, Jeff and I stayed at Yann-Amael's parents' house. The next morning, we got up and had breakfast and then went to the train station to catch our train with Miguel and Kelsey to Geneva, where we caught our (late) plane home. We then took a train from Brussels to Landen where my host mom picked us up and we went home to sleep.
The next day was our day in Brussels. We went to the train station and caught our train there and spent the whole day walking around, taking pictures, and touring the city. I think it was the first time that I got to see it in the sun. We saw things I've seen multiple times, but also things that I've never seen before. We had mussels and fries for lunch and Jeff tried his first Belgian waffle with banana, nutella, and whipped cream on it. One of the coolest parts about the day was that it was the 4th of July and even though the Belgians do not celebrate it as an Independence Day, the Mannekin Pis was all decked out in America garb, complete with a hat that said "YES WE CAN". We also found out that Talia, Eduardo, and Gaby were all in Brussels as well so we met up with them and went to get a drink. We went to a bar called Delirium and each got a different beer and played a sort of "game" called "the Roto" where we passed the beers around the circle until they were gone. We got a two different kinds of normal beer (Delirium and Kwak), a banana beer, a passion fruit beer, and, ready for it? A Cookie Beer. It. Was. Disgusting. I don't think I've ever tasted anything so nasty. The passion fruit was bearable, and the banana smelled awful. But we passed them around until they were gone.
Eventually, Ben met up with us and we moved to another bar where Jeff tried a few different kinds of Belgian beer. The others left us and we just hung out for the night. But we eventually had to go home, so we took the metro to get back to the car. This is where things started to go wrong. We got to the street where the car was and these two guys came up to us and asked if we had a cigarette. Benjamin, being the ridiculously overly nice person that he is, stopped to give them one. Well, this meant that they would follow us. One of them disappeared but the other one was talking to us, especially to Jeff, talking about soccer since he was wearing a jersey. They had a sort of broken French/English conversation and he was putting his arm around him and just being strange. Eventually he left. We got in the car, but Ben noticed that the glove compartment was open and starting freaking out. Turns out that there had been a GPS there and somebody had broken into the car and stolen it. The next thing we know, Jeff is telling us that that guy had stolen the gold chain that he has been wearing around his neck since his aunt gave it to him when he was 13. So Ben jumped out of the car and ran up the street looking for the guy. Jeff ran after him and I ran after Jeff who told me to stay by the car. I, of course, protested, saying that I wasn't going to stay anywhere alone. Well, the guys were long gone by then and there was no trace of them. So we got in the car and started heading home. But of course, Brussels is potentially the most poorly marked city in the world, and we ended up lost, unable to find the highway. We didn't get home until very late, and when we did finally make it, we came home to two random donkeys in the middle of the road. Talk about an odd day... We went upstairs and went to bed that night, happy for the day to be over.
The next day we took a bus to take a train to head into Liège. I got us lost on the bus IN Liège, but we quickly fixed the mistake and got back on our way. We didn't have much time there, but we managed to get lunch, get a waffle, walk around a little, and get Jeff some Belgian chocolate before he caught his train back to Germany. I went back home to Hannut and realized that I didn't have much time left in Belgium...
Until I left, I just spent time with friends and family. I was packing frantically, trying to get everything together, and I eventually succeeded. On the evening before I left, Talia put together a little party for me and Mikayla as a sort of going away. All the most important people were there and we had a good time together. The next day, as you all know, was the big drama in the airport.
I did leave the 11th, even though they offered me the same deal once again. But I took those two flights home. They were extremely long and I had cried in both planes and I was ready to be with my family. My mom and dad and sister picked me up at the Cleveland airport, drove me quickly home to shower, and then we went out to meet up with my grandparents for a nice welcome home dinner at Red Lobster. I have never enjoyed crab legs and Cheddar Bay Biscuits more in my life. And my water was free. And I used the bathroom for free. It was amazing.
There you go. The end of the journey, the end of the chapter, the end of the year. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I left. I can't believe that I did it. I succeeded. I went through a year of a foreign exchange, something that people only dream of. A year in Europe. A year in a world where I didn't speak the language, know the culture, or have any connections. I left that place bilingual, feeling like it was my home, with countless friends and a new family. Belgium will always hold a special place in my heart. Now that I am back at "home" in Parma, Ohio, I realize how much little Hannut was like a second home to me. I find that I had rooted myself there. And pulling up roots is not as easy as it looks. Although some of them come out clean, there are always some that have soil stuck to them, and then those few that break. But what is on the other end of those roots? A beautiful, full, open flower. Full of color, wisdom, and experience. I have never been prouder of myself. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I have no regrets, and I would not change the year for anything. It was not all sunshine and rainbows, but in the end, each hardship that I had to face made me stronger, and built my character. I am who I am now because of the effects of the year, both good and bad. And I do believe that I am more mature, well-rounded, rational, and overall a better person. I met people, and made connections and relationships that will last for a lifetime. I visited seven different countries, have friends from all over the world, and made one connection that will never break. This year, I learned to cry, laugh, love, feel, scream, whisper, smile, but most importantly, live. I learned about the world, but most importantly, me. I learned that not everything is easy, but most importantly, that everything happens for a reason. I learned so much that I cannot put into words. And I can't believe it has ended. It feels like I closed my eyes eleven months ago and dreamt it all and am just now waking up, back in Ohio, in my life. Part of me feels like I never left. But the other part knows that it only feels that way because it DID happen. I DID do it. And contrary to everyone who thought I'd never leave, or thought I never had the guts, I say HA. Because I succeeded. I made it, and yes, I can do it all. This may be the end of a year, of a blog. But for me, this, my friends, why this is only the beginning.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Weddings And Parties And Packing, Oh My!
So I have over a week to catch everyone up on... This is nuts. The fact is that I'm lazyyyyyyyyy and now that it's getting to be the end, the motivation to spend my precious time in Belgium on my blog is fading... And fast. Instead of going day by day, let me just let you all know how it's been going.
Last week was the week of parties. I had barbecues, surprise parties, and nights out every day. It's because people are planning things to celebrate the end of the year. The eventful parts? Well, Thursday was a party that I left early because I had to go to Liège to pick up my friend Jeff that was coming from the States to go to a wedding in Switzerland and asked me to go with him. He was coming in from Germany, and I was supposed to meet him at Guillemins around 8 30pm. First of all, his train wasn't scheduled to come in until 8 44pm, which I realized once I got there, and second, it was going to be a half hour late. So I waited and his train came and passed and he didn't get off of it. On top of it all, my host mom got mad at me cause we were going to be coming back later than expected since the train was late. So I had to call Ben who was out of town and gave me his friends' numbers to call to see if they could pick me up. And I'm super stressed out at this point because Jeff is nowhere to be found and doesn't have a cell phone number in Europe. So I ended up paying 10 euros to get the wifi in the train station to check Facebook and everything and found out that there were problems with the trains (of course) and he missed his connection. So he couldn't get to Liège before 11 30 at night. Well the problem there is that after that time there are no more trains that go back to Landen! He gave me his cell phone number from the States, which I called, draining my phone credit, and it ended up that he was going to stay in Germany that night and take the first train the next morning, which he did. I went back home with one of Ben's friends and woke up early the next morning and went with my host dad into Liège, since he works there. I finally found him and we went back to my house to settle in a little.
But not for long because I had my dance rehearsal and show that day. So we went back into Hannut for that, and I spent the entire day dancing while he amused himself on my computer. That night was the show, which went very well and Ben met up with us afterward (he couldn't get to the show to see it :() to drive us to the airport since we had to be there around 4am for our 6 30am flight to Switzerland. We got a drink and then he drove us to Brussels. We were the only ones there so we got through security and everything really quickly and then found a couch to try to sleep. That was unsuccessful and when we woke up, we found out they had changed our gate so we ran down the length of the terminal at 6am. But we got on our plane and successfully took off towards Geneva. We got to Geneva in about an hour, grabbed some very expensive breakfast, and then got on a train to get to Neuchâtel, which is where the wedding would be. I slept. We were met there by some of Jeff's family, his aunt Sharon and cousin Cerena, who was the one getting married. They were super nice and we walked around the city a little bit to run some errands before going back to their place.
Switzerland. Is. Gorgeous. Everything about it is beautiful. The mountains, the water, the nature, the scenery, it's all one giant postcard. The house that we stayed in had two balconies and overlooked the lake. It was incredible. We got there, took our showers, and then I napped for a while. But soon we were back up because we were going to go out on the boat with Yann-Amael, Cerena's fiancé, and we went tubing! It was a lot of fun and I didn't get sick and I was very happy I did it. Afterwards, I napped and then it was off to Yann-Amael's parents' house for a sort of rehearsal dinner with the whole family. It was beautiful out and we shared a wonderful meal together and spent the evening talking and getting to know one another. I met some awesome people including the man who would perform the ceremony, who is in fact, Belgian! After the dinner, we all went to the church to see the decorating that they had been spending endless hours on over the course of a few days. And it was beautiful! It was like they had completely reconstructed a forest in the church. Just amazing! But we quickly headed back to the apartment for a much needed sleep.
The next morning we got up fairly early to go with Jeff's Auntie Sharon and her husband to Neuchâtel and see the city a bit. We drove there, found parking, and spent the morning looking around and exploring. There was a market going on too, which was cool. We bought some fresh bread and some raspberries that were delicious, and Jeff bought some real Swiss dark chocolate with hazelnuts in it. I took plenty of pictures, no worries! We also stopped by a local grocery shop to pick up some cheese and meat and then headed back to the their place for lunch, which consisted simply of baguette, cheese, meats, and jams. But it was probably one of the best meals I've ever had. They're not kidding when they say that Swiss cheese is the best... And remember the cheese with ashes in it that I used to eat in my first family? Yah, I chowed down on that too :D
After dinner it was time to go get ready for the actual wedding. When we got back to the house, we found that there were two new people there, Kelsey and Miguel. Kelsey is one of Cerena's friends from college and Miguel is her Spanish boyfriend. Kelsey and I bonded as we did our hair together and we all managed to get ourselves ready in less than two hours. I wore my dress from senior year homecoming, and it was a pretty snug fit since I've gained weight here... But we all looked nice and classy and piled in the car to head to the church. We were some of the first people to get there and spent a little while just standing outside, chatting with people, and enjoying the sun. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Eventually, though, it was time to head inside for the ceremony. It was done in French, of course, so I played translator for Jeff, and I have to say, I did a pretty good job. This was, actually, their third wedding (the first was just with the papers, so it was fast and small, and the second was a religious ceremony, but in Virginia, where Cerena's family lives) so it wasn't exactly completely traditional. It started off with a woman playing a violin and singing and Cerena and Yann-Amael came down the aisle together. They wrote their own vows, and Yann-Amael's were actually not words, but a song that he played for her on the piano. There were also times when groups of people would come to the front of the church and do a sort of singing performance. The whole wedding was absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I got to be there to see it.
Ok so this is Part I. I'll post part II after I get home cause I'M LEAVING TOMORROW
Last week was the week of parties. I had barbecues, surprise parties, and nights out every day. It's because people are planning things to celebrate the end of the year. The eventful parts? Well, Thursday was a party that I left early because I had to go to Liège to pick up my friend Jeff that was coming from the States to go to a wedding in Switzerland and asked me to go with him. He was coming in from Germany, and I was supposed to meet him at Guillemins around 8 30pm. First of all, his train wasn't scheduled to come in until 8 44pm, which I realized once I got there, and second, it was going to be a half hour late. So I waited and his train came and passed and he didn't get off of it. On top of it all, my host mom got mad at me cause we were going to be coming back later than expected since the train was late. So I had to call Ben who was out of town and gave me his friends' numbers to call to see if they could pick me up. And I'm super stressed out at this point because Jeff is nowhere to be found and doesn't have a cell phone number in Europe. So I ended up paying 10 euros to get the wifi in the train station to check Facebook and everything and found out that there were problems with the trains (of course) and he missed his connection. So he couldn't get to Liège before 11 30 at night. Well the problem there is that after that time there are no more trains that go back to Landen! He gave me his cell phone number from the States, which I called, draining my phone credit, and it ended up that he was going to stay in Germany that night and take the first train the next morning, which he did. I went back home with one of Ben's friends and woke up early the next morning and went with my host dad into Liège, since he works there. I finally found him and we went back to my house to settle in a little.
But not for long because I had my dance rehearsal and show that day. So we went back into Hannut for that, and I spent the entire day dancing while he amused himself on my computer. That night was the show, which went very well and Ben met up with us afterward (he couldn't get to the show to see it :() to drive us to the airport since we had to be there around 4am for our 6 30am flight to Switzerland. We got a drink and then he drove us to Brussels. We were the only ones there so we got through security and everything really quickly and then found a couch to try to sleep. That was unsuccessful and when we woke up, we found out they had changed our gate so we ran down the length of the terminal at 6am. But we got on our plane and successfully took off towards Geneva. We got to Geneva in about an hour, grabbed some very expensive breakfast, and then got on a train to get to Neuchâtel, which is where the wedding would be. I slept. We were met there by some of Jeff's family, his aunt Sharon and cousin Cerena, who was the one getting married. They were super nice and we walked around the city a little bit to run some errands before going back to their place.
Switzerland. Is. Gorgeous. Everything about it is beautiful. The mountains, the water, the nature, the scenery, it's all one giant postcard. The house that we stayed in had two balconies and overlooked the lake. It was incredible. We got there, took our showers, and then I napped for a while. But soon we were back up because we were going to go out on the boat with Yann-Amael, Cerena's fiancé, and we went tubing! It was a lot of fun and I didn't get sick and I was very happy I did it. Afterwards, I napped and then it was off to Yann-Amael's parents' house for a sort of rehearsal dinner with the whole family. It was beautiful out and we shared a wonderful meal together and spent the evening talking and getting to know one another. I met some awesome people including the man who would perform the ceremony, who is in fact, Belgian! After the dinner, we all went to the church to see the decorating that they had been spending endless hours on over the course of a few days. And it was beautiful! It was like they had completely reconstructed a forest in the church. Just amazing! But we quickly headed back to the apartment for a much needed sleep.
The next morning we got up fairly early to go with Jeff's Auntie Sharon and her husband to Neuchâtel and see the city a bit. We drove there, found parking, and spent the morning looking around and exploring. There was a market going on too, which was cool. We bought some fresh bread and some raspberries that were delicious, and Jeff bought some real Swiss dark chocolate with hazelnuts in it. I took plenty of pictures, no worries! We also stopped by a local grocery shop to pick up some cheese and meat and then headed back to the their place for lunch, which consisted simply of baguette, cheese, meats, and jams. But it was probably one of the best meals I've ever had. They're not kidding when they say that Swiss cheese is the best... And remember the cheese with ashes in it that I used to eat in my first family? Yah, I chowed down on that too :D
After dinner it was time to go get ready for the actual wedding. When we got back to the house, we found that there were two new people there, Kelsey and Miguel. Kelsey is one of Cerena's friends from college and Miguel is her Spanish boyfriend. Kelsey and I bonded as we did our hair together and we all managed to get ourselves ready in less than two hours. I wore my dress from senior year homecoming, and it was a pretty snug fit since I've gained weight here... But we all looked nice and classy and piled in the car to head to the church. We were some of the first people to get there and spent a little while just standing outside, chatting with people, and enjoying the sun. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Eventually, though, it was time to head inside for the ceremony. It was done in French, of course, so I played translator for Jeff, and I have to say, I did a pretty good job. This was, actually, their third wedding (the first was just with the papers, so it was fast and small, and the second was a religious ceremony, but in Virginia, where Cerena's family lives) so it wasn't exactly completely traditional. It started off with a woman playing a violin and singing and Cerena and Yann-Amael came down the aisle together. They wrote their own vows, and Yann-Amael's were actually not words, but a song that he played for her on the piano. There were also times when groups of people would come to the front of the church and do a sort of singing performance. The whole wedding was absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I got to be there to see it.
Ok so this is Part I. I'll post part II after I get home cause I'M LEAVING TOMORROW
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
11 Days...
And the Countdown begins... I have 11 days left until the Big Day when I leave this country and go back to the one that I call "home". Before I get all sentimental, let's recap the last few days.
Friday was the day after the ball. Which meant that everyone was EXHAUSTED. But what does this mean? The perfect day to throw a surprise birthday party for Manon! I had to go into Hannut for a dance rehearsal (that didn't seem to exist. I waited around an hour for people that didn't show up) but once I came back, it was a mad house. We were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things ready and organizing and reorganizing around Manon who was wanting to come home early because she was tired, like the rest of us. But we got it all worked out with another one of our friends, Vanille, who made up a story about fighting with her boyfriend to get Manon to stay the whole afternoon with her. Around 7pm, people started arriving at the house and by 7 30, Manon was walking through the door and being greeted by a huge SURPRISE from all of us. I have lovely pictures. The best part about it? Because of the course of events and circumstances, she came home with her hair still pinned up from the ball, her pearls still around her neck, and her pajamas on. Nicely done Manon :) She went upstairs to shower and change and then we all spent the evening together, eating barbecue (again) and chit chatting. Eventually, we got back into Belgian customs and the alcohol came out. The big news of the night? There was a party (techno, of course) just a few feet away from our house and a couple of the kids went over there around midnight. Well, they came back early, around 1am, because there was a huge fight involving a cult-ish group of people, knives, the police, and an ambulance. Serious stuff, man. I went up to bed around 1 30am because I needed to get up in the morning to dance.
Which I did. Saturday was just that. I went to dance in the morning and then went to see Ben in the afternoon. We had to go our separate ways in the evening because I had yet another surprise party, this time for Romane before she leaves. She is going to Australia for a couple of months and her friends organized a little get-together for her. We all walked in a group (about 25 of us) to her house, her sister blindfolded her and then brought her outside and we surprised her. She was very happy and we all spent the evening with her. I didn't know many people there, so Perrine and I passed the night peeling the foil off of bottle caps and then stacking them. It's more entertaining than you think. We had a whole group of people doing it by the end of the night.
Sunday I slept in. Til almost 2pm. It was lovely. That afternoon, I had yet another little party to go to, this time with the students of Madame Noel. We all got together around 4pm, ate ice cream, sat around and chilled. My camera wasn't working, oddly. But it works again now, so I'm not asking questions, I'm just going with it. Eventually we ate dinner also, and then I left around 10 30pm because I was just so exhausted. I went home and I slept.
Yesterday was Monday, a pretty average day, but also topped off by a surprise birthday party. This time for our friend Lucie who's birthday was actually in January. It was cute though because when she came in, they put on "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". We, like all the other parties, spent the night eating and socializing, even dancing like crazy people at one point. Manon and Talia and I left around 11 30pm, again, to sleep. Though I stayed up til about 2am Skyping with my Daddy :)
Yesterday, also, I started to pack. I went through all my clothes and made a nice big pile of stuff that I don't really want anymore. I'm starting to get nervous about getting everything home, even with my nice pile. The fact is that I just have a lot of stuff. I have to continue going through it all and getting rid of things. I'm sure I'll be going home wearing about ten layers of clothing, all heavy and hot and I may die of heat stroke. Hopefully not, but we'll see. I also have to decide where I want to eat the night that I get home, which is proving to be one of the most difficult decisions of my life. What from the States have I missed the most?! It's really hard to choose. But i already told my family that I want a giant American breakfast the next morning. Hopefully the time difference won't mess too much with my head.
I'm not ready to get emotional on this blog yet. I'm already a little ball of emotional wreckage. Can't we wait to publicize it? Sorry, it'll come after I get back from Switzerland. Bye!
Friday was the day after the ball. Which meant that everyone was EXHAUSTED. But what does this mean? The perfect day to throw a surprise birthday party for Manon! I had to go into Hannut for a dance rehearsal (that didn't seem to exist. I waited around an hour for people that didn't show up) but once I came back, it was a mad house. We were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things ready and organizing and reorganizing around Manon who was wanting to come home early because she was tired, like the rest of us. But we got it all worked out with another one of our friends, Vanille, who made up a story about fighting with her boyfriend to get Manon to stay the whole afternoon with her. Around 7pm, people started arriving at the house and by 7 30, Manon was walking through the door and being greeted by a huge SURPRISE from all of us. I have lovely pictures. The best part about it? Because of the course of events and circumstances, she came home with her hair still pinned up from the ball, her pearls still around her neck, and her pajamas on. Nicely done Manon :) She went upstairs to shower and change and then we all spent the evening together, eating barbecue (again) and chit chatting. Eventually, we got back into Belgian customs and the alcohol came out. The big news of the night? There was a party (techno, of course) just a few feet away from our house and a couple of the kids went over there around midnight. Well, they came back early, around 1am, because there was a huge fight involving a cult-ish group of people, knives, the police, and an ambulance. Serious stuff, man. I went up to bed around 1 30am because I needed to get up in the morning to dance.
Which I did. Saturday was just that. I went to dance in the morning and then went to see Ben in the afternoon. We had to go our separate ways in the evening because I had yet another surprise party, this time for Romane before she leaves. She is going to Australia for a couple of months and her friends organized a little get-together for her. We all walked in a group (about 25 of us) to her house, her sister blindfolded her and then brought her outside and we surprised her. She was very happy and we all spent the evening with her. I didn't know many people there, so Perrine and I passed the night peeling the foil off of bottle caps and then stacking them. It's more entertaining than you think. We had a whole group of people doing it by the end of the night.
Sunday I slept in. Til almost 2pm. It was lovely. That afternoon, I had yet another little party to go to, this time with the students of Madame Noel. We all got together around 4pm, ate ice cream, sat around and chilled. My camera wasn't working, oddly. But it works again now, so I'm not asking questions, I'm just going with it. Eventually we ate dinner also, and then I left around 10 30pm because I was just so exhausted. I went home and I slept.
Yesterday was Monday, a pretty average day, but also topped off by a surprise birthday party. This time for our friend Lucie who's birthday was actually in January. It was cute though because when she came in, they put on "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". We, like all the other parties, spent the night eating and socializing, even dancing like crazy people at one point. Manon and Talia and I left around 11 30pm, again, to sleep. Though I stayed up til about 2am Skyping with my Daddy :)
Yesterday, also, I started to pack. I went through all my clothes and made a nice big pile of stuff that I don't really want anymore. I'm starting to get nervous about getting everything home, even with my nice pile. The fact is that I just have a lot of stuff. I have to continue going through it all and getting rid of things. I'm sure I'll be going home wearing about ten layers of clothing, all heavy and hot and I may die of heat stroke. Hopefully not, but we'll see. I also have to decide where I want to eat the night that I get home, which is proving to be one of the most difficult decisions of my life. What from the States have I missed the most?! It's really hard to choose. But i already told my family that I want a giant American breakfast the next morning. Hopefully the time difference won't mess too much with my head.
I'm not ready to get emotional on this blog yet. I'm already a little ball of emotional wreckage. Can't we wait to publicize it? Sorry, it'll come after I get back from Switzerland. Bye!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
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!
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!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
España Cuatro
Alright so... Onto the fourth part of our adventures in Spain. Monday was almost completely uneventful, as Talia and I were both tired and she wasn't feeling great. We slept til almost 1 in the afternoon and stayed at the house to eat lunch with Susan and her kids, who got back from school around 1 30. We had salmon and vegetables for lunch, but the salmon was almost like a slab of steak, which I've never had before... I guess it never occurred to me that fish do have fat... Anyway, for the afternoon, Talia and I set off into the town of Alcala to have a look around and just explore. We took the map and went to a park first to just chill out a little bit. Then we made our way to the city center in hot pursuit of ice cream, which we found and ate successfully. I had mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream. Yum! Although the mint chocolate chip was so minty that at a certain point I started to feel like I was eating toothpaste... Regardless, we sat down for a white to eat our ice creams and came across two kids that were doing flips and jumps off of ramps and walls and videotaping them, probably to put on YouTube. I'll give them credit though, they were cool jumps. We walked a little more, went into a few shops, and I bought a pair of sandals. Then we sat down outside at a little cafe to get a drink. And I had non-carbonated iced tea for the first time since I came to Europe. Lovely :) In Spain, they do this thing called "tapas". Basically, when you get a drink, you get a little sort of food thing with it. They used to be free everywhere, all the time, but now most places charge you for them, and they're expensive. BUT! Not in Alcala!! They are still free there, so Talia and I took advantage of it and got a sort of chicken sandwich and a hamburger. (We don't speak Spanish so we just pointed at pictures that looked tasty) After enjoying that, we went into a few more shops, including a market, and then headed back to Susan's to eat dinner with the family. We didn't have anything really special that night. Some salad, cheese, vegetables, and what are basically croquettes, that once again, I don't know how to spell in Spanish...
That night, Susan and her daughter came into our room and told me that they knew that the next day was birthday and nobody should go without a gift on their birthday. And they gave me this beautiful Spanish shawl. It is black with embroidered flowers on it in all kinds of colors. I absolutely love it!
Tuesday was, yes, my birthday! Talia and I left the house around 11 30 with all of our things because we were going to stay our last night at Irene's. Susan walked us down to the bus stop so that we could meet up with Irene in Madrid and we said our thank yous and goodbyes. But of course, Talia and I had just missed the 11 30 bus so we had to wait for the noon one. We got to Madrid by 12 30 and met up with Irene. We took the metro back to her house and dropped off our things and then we were out once again for the day. Irene took us to this huge mall in Madrid with tons of stores. It was bigger than any of the malls I've seen so far in Europe. We did a little shopping and eventually ended up eating lunch at the same restaurant that we had that first day with the little sandwiches. Then for the afternoon, we looked around some more in the shops, but didn't buy anything this time. Around 5, Irene had to go to her university to find out her test scores, so Talia and I headed back to the Madrid city center to do some souvenir shopping. We also made a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and I got half a dozen donuts for Ben, since I remembered that he loved them so much when he was in Chile and there are no Dunkin Donuts in Belgium. We did a little more shopping and then took the subway back to Irene's, getting a little lost once we got out of the underground. But we found it alright and waited at her door until she got home, since we did not have a key.
That evening, I met Pablo, Irene's very cool boyfriend. We got ready to go out for the evening and took the subway back into the city. Pablo left us, but Irene guided Talia and I to a nice little restaurant where we would have my birthday dinner. The menus were, of course, in Spanish, so Irene just ordered a bunch of stuff and they brought them out, one plate after another. We had croquettes, calamari, and then a dish that was potatoes with three sunnyside-up eggs over them and pieces of bacon-type meat sprinkled over it. Man was that good stuff. After we had finished eating, we got back on the metro and headed over to Irene's university to meet up with a couple of her friends. We hung out there, just talking and having a good time, and around 1am made our way to a nearby club called "Nuit". The girls got in free (ha!) and we spent a few hours there, dancing and having a good time. We left around 3 30am and started making our way home. But the subways in Madrid don't run at that time, so we walked. And eventually got too tired and decided to take a taxi the rest of the way. It was my first time ever in a taxi. We got back to Irene's and crashed for the night.
We woke up around 9 30 the next morning and Talia and I packed up all of our things to go to the airport. We were each also wearing about 6 layers of clothing, since we had to compensate for the things we had bought in Spain. Irene went with us to the subway and we met up with Pablo there, and then we all went to the airport together. There we said our thank yous and goodbyes once again and Talia and I were off through security. We got through it all no problems and then we went to find some breakfast and hung out until it was time for our flight. Once again, I slept through most of the flight until we were landing. And we had a rough landing... We were 20 minutes early, so Talia and I ended up waiting a while at Charleroi for our ride home. But around 4pm, Ben showed up to take us home. I gave him the Dunkin Donuts, which he was thrilled about, and we shared a couple before the leaving the airport.
And then it was home sweet home. There ya go, folks. Our Spanish Adventure in four parts. Hope you enjoyed it and tune in next time for more stories from The Belgium Blogger.
That night, Susan and her daughter came into our room and told me that they knew that the next day was birthday and nobody should go without a gift on their birthday. And they gave me this beautiful Spanish shawl. It is black with embroidered flowers on it in all kinds of colors. I absolutely love it!
Tuesday was, yes, my birthday! Talia and I left the house around 11 30 with all of our things because we were going to stay our last night at Irene's. Susan walked us down to the bus stop so that we could meet up with Irene in Madrid and we said our thank yous and goodbyes. But of course, Talia and I had just missed the 11 30 bus so we had to wait for the noon one. We got to Madrid by 12 30 and met up with Irene. We took the metro back to her house and dropped off our things and then we were out once again for the day. Irene took us to this huge mall in Madrid with tons of stores. It was bigger than any of the malls I've seen so far in Europe. We did a little shopping and eventually ended up eating lunch at the same restaurant that we had that first day with the little sandwiches. Then for the afternoon, we looked around some more in the shops, but didn't buy anything this time. Around 5, Irene had to go to her university to find out her test scores, so Talia and I headed back to the Madrid city center to do some souvenir shopping. We also made a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and I got half a dozen donuts for Ben, since I remembered that he loved them so much when he was in Chile and there are no Dunkin Donuts in Belgium. We did a little more shopping and then took the subway back to Irene's, getting a little lost once we got out of the underground. But we found it alright and waited at her door until she got home, since we did not have a key.
That evening, I met Pablo, Irene's very cool boyfriend. We got ready to go out for the evening and took the subway back into the city. Pablo left us, but Irene guided Talia and I to a nice little restaurant where we would have my birthday dinner. The menus were, of course, in Spanish, so Irene just ordered a bunch of stuff and they brought them out, one plate after another. We had croquettes, calamari, and then a dish that was potatoes with three sunnyside-up eggs over them and pieces of bacon-type meat sprinkled over it. Man was that good stuff. After we had finished eating, we got back on the metro and headed over to Irene's university to meet up with a couple of her friends. We hung out there, just talking and having a good time, and around 1am made our way to a nearby club called "Nuit". The girls got in free (ha!) and we spent a few hours there, dancing and having a good time. We left around 3 30am and started making our way home. But the subways in Madrid don't run at that time, so we walked. And eventually got too tired and decided to take a taxi the rest of the way. It was my first time ever in a taxi. We got back to Irene's and crashed for the night.
We woke up around 9 30 the next morning and Talia and I packed up all of our things to go to the airport. We were each also wearing about 6 layers of clothing, since we had to compensate for the things we had bought in Spain. Irene went with us to the subway and we met up with Pablo there, and then we all went to the airport together. There we said our thank yous and goodbyes once again and Talia and I were off through security. We got through it all no problems and then we went to find some breakfast and hung out until it was time for our flight. Once again, I slept through most of the flight until we were landing. And we had a rough landing... We were 20 minutes early, so Talia and I ended up waiting a while at Charleroi for our ride home. But around 4pm, Ben showed up to take us home. I gave him the Dunkin Donuts, which he was thrilled about, and we shared a couple before the leaving the airport.
And then it was home sweet home. There ya go, folks. Our Spanish Adventure in four parts. Hope you enjoyed it and tune in next time for more stories from The Belgium Blogger.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Barcelona!!!
Here we go for Spain Part Three: Our Weekend In Barcelona. Here's how it went down: Saturday morning I got up and ate breakfast, quickly packed up all my last minute things, and Susan and her husband drove me to the airport in Madrid for 8am. It was a little early, but I was excited so it was all ok. Once I got there, I found my terminal and met up with Talia and Irene, who were with Irene's parents. They are so sweet! I only wish I understood the things that they were saying... But it was all in Spanish so I suppose it's understandable... Anyways, we got through security and everything with no problems and waited for our flight. This time, I was ready with motion sickness meds that I bought the day before in Madrid. Although most of you know me as the girl who never takes anything for anything EVER, motion sickness pills are something I swear by. So I took my pill and I have to say, it was the smoothest flight ever. Of course, it was only an hour long. But I don't care, I'm happy.
We arrived in Barcelona and had to figure out the way to get to the city center. Not the easiest thing to figure out. It involved a bus and a train (where there was a random guy playing an accordion. ON the train) and we did eventually get it and everything was fine. We did plenty of sight seeing during the day, including the buildings designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. The first thing we saw when we got to the center was a giant cathedral, very detailed and absolutely gorgeous, but unfinished, because he died before it was done. It had baskets of fruit on the points of the towers and huge carvings of Jesus on the cross and the saints on the walls. We considered going inside until we found out that it cost 12 euros a person and the line wrapped all the way around the building. We settled for a few pictures outside it and then set off to see his other buildings. Of course, none of us were familiar with the city, so we ended up lost more than once and walked around for a while, turned around a couple times before we found the correct street. On this street were a few more buildings designed by the same man, and they were also beautiful. I'm a big fan of Spanish architecture. By this time of day, I was feeling like my stomach was going to cave in on itself. But we couldn't seem to find a restaurant anywhere. Finally, we found a little Italian place, classy, but not too expensive and we ended up there. The first thing that they do is put bread and olives on the table. In the States, things like this are included in your meals and it's just something that you get when you go out to eat. But of course, not in Europe. And I knew this. So I asked Irene that if we didn't eat them, would we have to pay for them? She said we would have to pay regardless. So Talia and I each ate one by the end of the meal, thinking well if we're going to pay for them anyways... I got a cheese pizza and Talia got risotto and we split them. Once we got the check, we realized that we were in fact charged for the bread that we ate and not for the one roll that had been left. Fail. One euro for each one. Oh well.
That afternoon, we took the subway and went to the Park Guell. Basically, it is a huge park with a ton of really cool sculptures, buildings, and architectural beauties. The iconic thing there is this huge lizard that made out of different colors of glass pieces. I can't even explain the place because it was so different and unique. I've never seen anything quite like it. There were also street performers everywhere there. But these were very entertaining. One group in particular was a group of five guys, one reminding way too much of Steve Seritti (if you're from my neck of the woods, you know who that is) who played the trombone, and another with dreads that went almost to his knees. They played a sort of Spanish ska. They called themselves "Microguagua" and they were ridiculously entertaining. We stayed and watched them for at least 15 or 20 minutes before walking the rest of the park and watching some other guys blow huge giant bubbles. After we finished up in the park, we went back towards the city center to try to find our hostel. This was the fun part...
We spent the next three hours walking around the city, asking tons of different people, looking for this place. Finally, we called the hostel and they gave us directions. Turns out that their website didn't have the correct information on it so our Google maps weren't right. But in the end we did find the place and it was a very very nice hostel. Even bigger and nicer than many hotels that I've stayed in. We had our own shower, though we had to share a bathroom with a few other rooms. But it was clean and comfortable and we were all happy with it. We took a nice nap, only to wake up around 10pm to go grab dinner. Yes, people eat dinner that late in Spain. We decided for dinner that we would just go to a little grocery store a few numbers down the road and grab something to take back to the room. We got cream cheese and crackers, yogurt, I got a salad, and a couple of donuts plus drinks and headed back to the room to eat. We talked and ate and got ready to go out for the rest of the night.
We wanted mostly to go dancing. So we took a subway and a bus to where we knew there was a club to go to. However, once we got there we were told by the people around it not to bother and to try this chain of free ones first. We figured, why not, and spent the next hour or so in this sort of strip mall of bars that played music. The only problem was that we couldn't seem to get away from the creepy guys... But we did get pulled into one bar just to get free drinks! They all played music and had people dancing and many of them even had an... "exotic dancer" of sorts... After trying out each one, we decided that the first one was best, and went back there. This time around, we met a group of British guys that were there for a bachelor party and ended up hanging out and dancing with them for the rest of the night. We had a great time, and by the end of it, we had become pretty good friends with one of them who was named Max. I had a wonderful time! We didn't leave until about 6 30am and we didn't get back to the hostel until 7. We slept til about 10 45 because we had to be out by 11 and then we went to the beach for the day.
Sunday was calm and we didn't do anything except veg out on the beach all day and tan. The water was freezing, but absolutely beautiful. It was wonderful to be on the beach! One thing about the beaches in Spain... There are many women who walk around without tops on. Not all of them, but many. I'm not gonna lie, it did shock me a little. There were also people walking around trying to sell drinks, food, henna tattoos and massages. We fell asleep in intervals, and at the end of it all, each of us was somewhat burned, even me. Talia was the worst, and it turns out that she found herself with a bit of sun poisoning :( Around 4 30pm, we left, grabbed some food from another little grocery store, and headed to the airport to catch our plane home. P.S. They have Oreos AND Chips Ahoy in Spain. I'm so jealous.
We got to the airport with plenty of time and I took my motion sickness pill and everyone was good to go. I fell asleep before we even took off and stayed sleeping for the whole flight, only waking up slightly when we left the ground. We ended up being late landing and Irene's parents were there to get us. They very kindly drove Talia and I back to Susan's, where I took a quick shower and we crashed for the night, both exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I think it is a beautiful city and I'm very glad that we decided to go, even if it did turn out to be a little pricey. But I would definitely go back in a heartbeat!
Tomorrow I am headed off to the sea (here in Belgium, no worries), but I will try to post Spain Part 4 before I leave! For now, I want to get some sleep. Bonne nuit !
We arrived in Barcelona and had to figure out the way to get to the city center. Not the easiest thing to figure out. It involved a bus and a train (where there was a random guy playing an accordion. ON the train) and we did eventually get it and everything was fine. We did plenty of sight seeing during the day, including the buildings designed by the famous architect, Gaudi. The first thing we saw when we got to the center was a giant cathedral, very detailed and absolutely gorgeous, but unfinished, because he died before it was done. It had baskets of fruit on the points of the towers and huge carvings of Jesus on the cross and the saints on the walls. We considered going inside until we found out that it cost 12 euros a person and the line wrapped all the way around the building. We settled for a few pictures outside it and then set off to see his other buildings. Of course, none of us were familiar with the city, so we ended up lost more than once and walked around for a while, turned around a couple times before we found the correct street. On this street were a few more buildings designed by the same man, and they were also beautiful. I'm a big fan of Spanish architecture. By this time of day, I was feeling like my stomach was going to cave in on itself. But we couldn't seem to find a restaurant anywhere. Finally, we found a little Italian place, classy, but not too expensive and we ended up there. The first thing that they do is put bread and olives on the table. In the States, things like this are included in your meals and it's just something that you get when you go out to eat. But of course, not in Europe. And I knew this. So I asked Irene that if we didn't eat them, would we have to pay for them? She said we would have to pay regardless. So Talia and I each ate one by the end of the meal, thinking well if we're going to pay for them anyways... I got a cheese pizza and Talia got risotto and we split them. Once we got the check, we realized that we were in fact charged for the bread that we ate and not for the one roll that had been left. Fail. One euro for each one. Oh well.
That afternoon, we took the subway and went to the Park Guell. Basically, it is a huge park with a ton of really cool sculptures, buildings, and architectural beauties. The iconic thing there is this huge lizard that made out of different colors of glass pieces. I can't even explain the place because it was so different and unique. I've never seen anything quite like it. There were also street performers everywhere there. But these were very entertaining. One group in particular was a group of five guys, one reminding way too much of Steve Seritti (if you're from my neck of the woods, you know who that is) who played the trombone, and another with dreads that went almost to his knees. They played a sort of Spanish ska. They called themselves "Microguagua" and they were ridiculously entertaining. We stayed and watched them for at least 15 or 20 minutes before walking the rest of the park and watching some other guys blow huge giant bubbles. After we finished up in the park, we went back towards the city center to try to find our hostel. This was the fun part...
We spent the next three hours walking around the city, asking tons of different people, looking for this place. Finally, we called the hostel and they gave us directions. Turns out that their website didn't have the correct information on it so our Google maps weren't right. But in the end we did find the place and it was a very very nice hostel. Even bigger and nicer than many hotels that I've stayed in. We had our own shower, though we had to share a bathroom with a few other rooms. But it was clean and comfortable and we were all happy with it. We took a nice nap, only to wake up around 10pm to go grab dinner. Yes, people eat dinner that late in Spain. We decided for dinner that we would just go to a little grocery store a few numbers down the road and grab something to take back to the room. We got cream cheese and crackers, yogurt, I got a salad, and a couple of donuts plus drinks and headed back to the room to eat. We talked and ate and got ready to go out for the rest of the night.
We wanted mostly to go dancing. So we took a subway and a bus to where we knew there was a club to go to. However, once we got there we were told by the people around it not to bother and to try this chain of free ones first. We figured, why not, and spent the next hour or so in this sort of strip mall of bars that played music. The only problem was that we couldn't seem to get away from the creepy guys... But we did get pulled into one bar just to get free drinks! They all played music and had people dancing and many of them even had an... "exotic dancer" of sorts... After trying out each one, we decided that the first one was best, and went back there. This time around, we met a group of British guys that were there for a bachelor party and ended up hanging out and dancing with them for the rest of the night. We had a great time, and by the end of it, we had become pretty good friends with one of them who was named Max. I had a wonderful time! We didn't leave until about 6 30am and we didn't get back to the hostel until 7. We slept til about 10 45 because we had to be out by 11 and then we went to the beach for the day.
Sunday was calm and we didn't do anything except veg out on the beach all day and tan. The water was freezing, but absolutely beautiful. It was wonderful to be on the beach! One thing about the beaches in Spain... There are many women who walk around without tops on. Not all of them, but many. I'm not gonna lie, it did shock me a little. There were also people walking around trying to sell drinks, food, henna tattoos and massages. We fell asleep in intervals, and at the end of it all, each of us was somewhat burned, even me. Talia was the worst, and it turns out that she found herself with a bit of sun poisoning :( Around 4 30pm, we left, grabbed some food from another little grocery store, and headed to the airport to catch our plane home. P.S. They have Oreos AND Chips Ahoy in Spain. I'm so jealous.
We got to the airport with plenty of time and I took my motion sickness pill and everyone was good to go. I fell asleep before we even took off and stayed sleeping for the whole flight, only waking up slightly when we left the ground. We ended up being late landing and Irene's parents were there to get us. They very kindly drove Talia and I back to Susan's, where I took a quick shower and we crashed for the night, both exhausted and looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Barcelona. I think it is a beautiful city and I'm very glad that we decided to go, even if it did turn out to be a little pricey. But I would definitely go back in a heartbeat!
Tomorrow I am headed off to the sea (here in Belgium, no worries), but I will try to post Spain Part 4 before I leave! For now, I want to get some sleep. Bonne nuit !
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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 !
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 !
Friday, May 20, 2011
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.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
And This Is Why Blogger Sucks...
Ok so I was all ready to get back on track with a blog a day, and then Blogger freaks out and doesn't work on Thursday. Then Friday, it freaks out again on me and deletes half of one of my blog entries... This was yesterday. My host brother so very kindly asked me where my blog post went and I went on my blog and realized it was just gone. Not on my page at all. So I go into my drafts and it's there, but half deleted. And then I go on this morning and the whole thing is back like nothing ever happened. So I don't know what's going on but here I am, ready to blog again.
I realize that I posted on Wednesday, but I did not actually post about Wednesday and something actually happened that day! Wednesday we had the "Marche de Solidarité" at school. Which is pretty much a support walk that they do every year for some cause. This year it was for Haiti. The couple weeks beforehand, we collected money and recorded it on a blue sheet of paper that I conveniently lost, and then we did the walk on Wednesday after our first hour class. We walked by class around Hannut for about two and a half hours, talking, singing, just having fun. It was really nice out and the sun was shining, so it ended up being a pretty nice couple of hours, even if I hadn't really been looking forward to it. After we got back to school, we each got an apple and a water bottle and just chilled all together in that weird cement courtyard. Then I was supposed to go to Namur, but things got messed up and I ate lunch at Eduardo's house with his host family and went back home where I took yet another walk. It was nice with the sun. Thank you, Belgium, for not having the typical crappy weather lately!
Thursday was an average day. Nothing of importance. We went to school, ate cookies with Madame Vanesse, left school, and I had dance. Fun fun fun.
Yesterday was Friday the 13th. And it was a horrible day. Typically, I don't believe in all that Friday the 13th crap. But yesterday was just bad. Thursday and Friday I found myself in a nice little bout of homesickness and just plain loneliness. But Friday was definitely worse. I was in a bad mood all day, just sick of everything. Sick of school and french and people and being away from my family and adjusting to a new host family and getting fat and losing my ability to dance... Just all of it was piling up and on top of it all, I've been thinking about Nick sooooo much lately. I don't really know why, but he's on my mind all the time. So yah. All that together, you have a very sad and depressed Emma. Yes, I cried. Yes, I locked myself in a bathroom stall for the last 20 minutes of lunch because I couldn't handle being around people. Yes, I cried to people over Skype. And yes, I managed to calm down and pull myself back together. In the end, Manon and I had a great talk and I felt much better after talking to her. We spent the evening together watching "Mulan" in French. It was great bonding time, not gonna lie.
Today I woke up at 6 30am. I don't know why. I was upset with myself. So yes, I was tired today. I went to dance this morning as usual. We're working on our numbers for the recital in June. Remember those weird fabric tubes that I used for that one performance that I did a few months ago? Yah we're using those again to be clouds in one of the dances... I don't really understand, but I'm getting the impression that the classes are combining to do a sort of play/story line something... Anyways, afterwards I went home and chilled with the fam for a while. That afternoon, I got ice cream from this adorable little place in one of the adorable little villages around Hannut. Apparently there is this guy who makes all these different flavors of ice cream by hand. He is really really friendly. For example, Kriek ice cream. Not a joke. I didn't try that one though. I had speculoos and praliné. They were de-lic-ious. Again, there was sun this afternoon, which was lovely. And there's a nice little garden with trees and benches that looks out over the country side right next to the ivy covered building that houses the ice cream shop. It was perfect, sitting on one of the benches, the breeze blowing through the branches above our heads, looking at a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds. *sigh*
Anyways, I spent my evening with Philippine, making cookies for her big communion party tomorrow and chatting about tons of different stuff. The cookies came out pretty good, although I still can't figure out why I can't get them to taste exactly like they do when I make them at home... Who knows. But for now, my bigger concern is sleeping. So goodnight world!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
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!! :)
Monday, May 2, 2011
ITALY!!! Part III
Ok here we go again. Picking up at Day 6.
Day 6: This was the day that we went to the island of Capri! This was probably the low point of the trip, which doesn't say much, cause it was still incredible. But I did have some issues... So to get to Capri you have to take a boat across part of the Mediterranean Sea. I mean, you don't really have a choice. Well, I have a fear of puking. It's my phobia. I'm scared to death of it. So anything could potentially cause me to throw up causes me great panic. So I was all prepared that day with my Dramamine that I took at breakfast and my instant relief pills also. Of course, I was still a little bit shaken up for it. And of course, the only day we have to take a boat, it's gross outside. It was cold and the sky was threatening to empty itself onto us. So needless to say, I was kinda freaking out. But I had no choice but to get on the boat with everyone else.
I tried very hard to keep calm. I had given my camera to Jordann to take pictures since my memory card was freaking out and we put hers in my nice Canon. I was sitting on the top of the boat talking to people and trying so very hard to stay calm. And to be honest, everything was fine for the first half hour. I was talking to people, laughing, having good conversation, and not feeling anything from the boat. Then all of the sudden, it started to move. All over the place. Ok it wasn't THAT bad, but still, it was rocking. So I, being the crazy that I am, jumped out of my seat and started jumping and running around the boat, thinking that the more I moved, the less I would feel the boat moving. But that only lasted so long before I started to REALLY freak out. So I went downstairs and ended up with the Rotary people who were trying to calm me down. And I was doing ok, but I could feel a nice anxiety attack coming on. It got worse with each rock of the boat, even though my stomach really was fine and it was all mental. Before I knew it, I was in the heat of a terrible anxiety attack and I was crying and hyperventilating a bit... One of the nice Rotary ladies gave me some anti-stress drops and we soon arrived on the shore of Capri.
The next thing on the schedule was for everyone to get on yet another boat, a smaller one, and do a tour around the island. But I knew I couldn't do it. You see, my parents had been there before and they had done that tour. And when they did it, there was a little Japanese woman on the boat who was oh so very ill, getting sick over the side of the boat the whole time. Well I had this story in my head, the anxiety attack going on in my body, and knowing the fact that I would be stuck on that boat for an hour and a half with no way of getting off, I could not do it. There was another girl, Justine, who was also sick, so one of the other Rotary ladies stayed with us on shore while the others went on the tour. We found a cafe, drank tea, and just tried to calm down. Once everyone else got back, I was sure I had made the right decision, even though I was so upset to let something like my own thoughts stop me from doing that. But apparently it was ridiculously rough and it was a very good thing that I didn't go.
We then got into more little buses and were driven up to the village of Anacapri on the island to visit. We were given free time to walk around, eat, shop, etc. We started off in a nice shop full of clothing where I bought a silk dress and a wrap gypsy skirt, despite my turning tummy. We ate at a lovely little place, even though I could not even imagine eating, even hours after I had gotten off the boat. I ate just some bread and a little bit of a salad, even though my tummy was growling. I couldn't bring myself to stomach anything else. We spent some more time just walking around and taking pictures and enjoying the beauty of the island, even though the weather wasn't very nice. We also had an encounter in a café where Oakley was charged 7 euros (or some outrageous price like that) for a Coke because we had sat down and they charge you for that. Well she didn't drink it, didn't pay for it, and we saved another woman from making the same mistake. Regardless, Savannah ended up drinking and paying for a hot chocolate.
Eventually, we met back up with the rest of the Rotary to get back in the buses and go down to another village on the island. We had more time to walk around and explore. This time, we couldn't even go into the stores, they were all so expensive. We're talking Gucci and Dolce & Gabana. But we did come across some Italians with "Free Hugs" signs, and of course we stopped to hug them all. Which was wonderful! The guys weren't too bad looking either ;)
By this point, it was time to get back on the boat to go back to the hotel... And of course, I had plenty of time to psych myself out. I made myself eat some more bread, take two "knock out" pills (to attempt to sleep through the ride) and tried very hard to stay calm, even though the weather was starting to kick up again and it was beginning to get windy. But we got on the boat, this one bigger and more stable, and I stood right in the back by the motor. It wasn't so bad. Obviously, I wasn't feeling so well and I was not tired enough to sleep, but I somehow made it through. And went back to the hotel and everything was ok.
We had dinner at the hotel, though I didn't eat much, and some of the other girls and I were so tired, we just decided to have movie night in my room. We pushed all the beds together and put on "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and crashed for a couple hours. We then went right to bed to be ready for the next day.
Day 7: Day 7 started out with us packing everything up and getting ready to go towards our next destination. We had our breakfast, took packed lunches from the hotel, packed up the bus and were off. Today, we started off with a visit to Pompeii. We all fell asleep on the way, but we went through the guided tour as energetically as we could. Though this guide was even harder to understand than the last one... The accent was impossible. But of course, Savannah and I and Jordann ended up kinda getting split off from the group so we amused ourselves. After Pompeii, we did a little shopping, I bought a ring for 30 euros (originally 45, I bargained it down) that he told me was all real and I have since found otherwise, and we got back on the bus for an afternoon of driving. This time, we all really fell asleep on the bus, only to stop at a rest stop on the highway for a break and to eat our packed lunches. Not gonna lie, they weren't very good... But I don't like fatty lunch meat. Anyways, we then got back on the bus to go to towards Tuscany and settle down at our next hotel.
We got there fairly early, at dinner, this time with four courses. We started off with little finger food appetizers, followed by pasta, of course, and then a meat and vegetables course. I wasn't very hungry and I could barely finish the pasta. And it wasn't at the same level as the other hotels. Dessert was an ice cream cake type slice of something... But I won't go into detail because it wasn't amazing like the rest. But that night, since we had time, we all decided that we wanted to go out. We had to be back by 11 30 and Rotary told us that if we were all back on time, we would get a surprise the next day. Well this was a Saturday night. So we figured there would be a club or something that we could go to. So we all got dolled up, I wore my new Capri dress and heels, and went out on the town in search of something fun to do. Well news flash, there was NOTHING. We found one bar, but way high class, too expensive, and no dancing. So we basically ended up walking around all night, looking for something to do. We did come across a discotech, but by that time it was too late to pay the 10 euro entry fee since we had to be back at 11 30. Then we found an outdoor concert type thing with a bar, but nobody wanted to stay there because the Rotary guys were there. So finally, Savannah, Minna, Maddie, a few other people and I decided to just go back to that first bar. We had a drink, had some fun, and were back in the hotel on time, ready to go to bed. We got ready for bed, disappointed, but knowing we at least had fun ourselves.
Day 8: As usual, we started off with breakfast at the hotel, and then we got on the bus and were off to Florence (Firenze), in the region of Tuscany for the morning! We got there, and wow is it beautiful. We spent the morning with Rotary, doing a tour with Andre in our four groups. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings, including one gorgeous church where various saints are buried. Of course, this started some very philosophical conversation between exchange students, which was a very good thing to have. Bonding time :)
We saw a lot of statues, including a replica of the David statue, people pretending to be statues and then making you pay them if you interact with them, government buildings, fountains, and these really cool chain barriers that were COVERED in locks that people had put, like in Rome in the first day, with the name of them and their boyfriend/girlfriend. I just love the whole concept of that... Next, we were each given 10 euros by Rotary to go find lunch and have free time. I went with Savannah and Maddie and we walked around the whole city looking for something cheap but authentic to eat. But a word to the wise, Florence is not cheap. We finally found ourselves at a nice little place, our bellies rumbling. We started off with, of course, bruschetta. This one was just tomatoes and basil and olive oil. But still, I don't understand how they make tomatoes taste SO incredible. I don't even like tomatoes... We also got a salad and a pizza to share. The pizza had ham on it too, which I typically don't like if there is not pineapple involved, but this was really delicious. Overall, we had a fantastic meal, even though it took forever to get the check... But regardless, it was wonderful.
We spent the afternoon walking around, looking around at the street vendors and making some more gift purchases. We also got gelato, of course. But I couldn't finish mine in the end, and gave it to someone else to finish. I also found a pin for my blazer that day. However, as beautiful as it was, we did have to leave eventually to meet back up with Rotary and go to our next stop: Pisa.
We drove for a while, but finally got there. They warned us that the moment we got off the bus, we would be attacked by street vendors trying to sell us jewelry, sunglasses, and who knows what else. Well they weren't kidding. That was the worst it was. But we got through the crowd to the shuttle bus to get us to Pisa. We got safely there, only to quickly realize that there really is only one thing in Pisa: the leaning tower. And the whole road that leads up to it was lined with more vendors and people calling out to us, calling us to come buy things. They called us Lady Gaga too, which I thought was especially odd as we look nothing like her... Well we did get to the tower and we definitely took our share of touristy pictures, holding up the tower, hugging it, I even did one where I have my leg around it... Classy, I know. And really, it's leaning. Like, crazy leaning. But it was cool to see, especially since it was such a nice day and it was up against a blue sky. We did not have much time there though, so we had to book it back to the shuttles to catch one back down the bus.
We then drove back to our hotel for dinner. And Rotary told us what our surprise was. Or what it was supposed to be, rather. They had planned on taking us all out to a discotech together. But the problem is that it was Sunday night and the law in Italy states that minors cannot go out on Sunday nights. And at least half of the exchange students are minors. Plus we didn't have much time. They told us that if we were majors, we could go out if we wanted to, but had to be back semi early and had to wake up at 5 30am the next morning. So in the end, the majority of us decided it was not worth it and we had a second movie night. This time, the feature film was "John Tucker Must Die". However, we had to stop it for the last ten minutes because we were so exhausted.
Part IV, the final chapter, coming soon to Emma's blog.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
ITALY!!! Part II
Ok so here we go, Part II of my amazing trip to Italy. Now where were we? Oh yes, Day 5...
Day 5: This was probably my favorite day of the entire trip. We started off with our breakfast, as usual, and then we were off. We had to take different buses than the other days because of the size of the roads in that part of the country. See, we were on the coast again and in the mountains, so the roads narrow and winding. So we had two different buses, one for the anglophones and one for the francophones. I took my Dramamine, and we were off. The program for the day was to see three Italian villages along the coast of Italy. The first was Sorrento. And let me tell you, the drive there was even amazing. The whole drive we were pretty much on the edge of the mountains, almost hanging off the road. And what we below us? A gorgeous blue sea that stretched out forever. And above us? A brilliant shining sun that lit up the trees and flowers that lined the mountain side. Really, it was absolutely breathtaking. And we weren't even out of the bus yet! The ride was also a little bit scary, as the driver was, of course, Italian, and tended to be a little crazy. But we had full confidence in him, and he got us through all the winds and curves of the road safely, even if at times it looked like we were going to crash into things. As we went, our Rotary man (Bernard De Boyer) gave explanations of a few things as we passed them.
Then we got into the village. Wow. I really don't have many words for the things we saw. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. A whole city built up on the side of a mountain with colorful houses and beautiful scenery everywhere. These cities are also amazing because there is barely any car action going on. So we had a few hours to just explore on our own and walk through the backstreets and discover the village. It was still early morning, but everything was open and busy. And as much as I expected it to be, it was not that touristy of a place. The best thing about it, and most of Italy, is that even though there are obviously tourists EVERYWHERE, it's not the way it is because of the business. It's just really like that. There is ivy growing up the buildings and music in the streets, fountains in the middle of pathways and little alleys that lead to who-knows-where.
So we spent a few hours taking pictures, seeing the shops, and just having fun. And I found my Italian bathing suit :) It's purple and has all kinds of stones on it that were put there by hand, in Sorrento, by a man who makes costumes for Italian theater and film! Great find! The other thing that is typical of Sorrento is an Italian lemon liquor called limoncello. And BOY is it strong! We sampled some in one of the stores (yes, at 9 30am) and yes, I gave in and bought some to take home, along with some lemon chocolates that they had as well. It was splurging day for me, don't judge.
After our time was up, we met back up with Rotary and got back in our buses to go to the next stop, Amalfi. Again, the drive was just as lovely as the things that we had seen and were about to see. I honestly have no words to describe it all. You just have to believe when I say it's gorgeous. Plus, unfortunately, photos cannot even begin to do it justice. Anyways, we drove for a while, admiring the views and having a splendid time imagining what it would be like to live there. Finally, we got to Amalfi and got out of the buses for some more exploring. This time, they gave us each ten euros and it was time to go find lunch. And of course, Savannah and I managed to find amazing little restaurant. And what did we get? I'm glad you asked. This lunch featured a wonderful bruschetta, topped with tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese and just the right amount of salt. Oh my goodness, I love bruschetta so much I can't handle it. We also got a really wonderful pizza that actually didn't have any sauce on it, but instead just fresh tomatoes, arugula, and parmesan cheese. It was definitely the real deal when it comes to authentic Italian pizza. And so delicious. We topped it off with a glass of red wine shared between the two of us. Talk about a lovely meal.
After lunch, we went looking around the city and found ourselves in the center at this giant church that was really quite incredible. But eventually, it got to be time to go back down to meet everyone else and our exploring had to come to a close. But we managed to go back in time to have a little time on the beach! Even though it wasn't very hot, we still took off our shoes and ran across the beach (even though the sand was rocks) and put our feet in the water. And of course, me being me, I decided it was dance picture time. So we went up on the pier and took some really beautiful pictures as I jumped around and made kind of a fool out of myself. The Rotary guys probably thought I was completely insane. But that's ok. I only fell once and it was no big deal :) Oh and Jordann lost my flip flop in the sea... But we got that back, so whatever. Anyways, the next destination was Positano, yet another lovely village, so it was back into the bus for us.
This last leg of driving was kind of difficult. The fact was that we were all tired, the scenery was quite calming, and many of us found ourselves dozing off. But we quickly woke up when we saw the city ahead of us. Here, the roads got even smaller and the turns tighter. When you see the city from a distance, it looks like it has literally just sprouted out of the ground. Everything is completely vertical... It's really incredible. This time we had to pass through a sort of tunnel to get into the city, but as soon as we did, we called it gelato time and I got some tiramisu gelato. And we went over to a little ledge to look out over the sea as we ate. And this is where things get a little bit more... Interesting.
All of the sudden, someone comes up to me, a man, with another man, middle-aged, and the one says to the other, can you take a picture with my friend please? And I looked at him, and for some reason, I just said "Ok!" really enthusiastically and took a picture with him. But the other guy was like, "No you need to get closer." "Ok now laugh." Kind of weird stuff. But don't worry, it wasn't creepy. It was actually really funny. After I was done laughing my head off, the one taking the pictures was like, "Ok who's next?" And they took pictures with three or four other exchange students that were there with us. We could tell that the one who was in the pictures was embarrassed because he was laughing just as much as we were. And I kept asking who they were and what they were doing. Eventually, we found out that they were just two random guys from the States who were in the city too and they had been eating lunch and got into a conversation about how you meet people. And they both realized that they didn't really know how to go about meeting random people. So they wondered if this tactic would work. And obviously it did! Their names were Randall (the one taking the pictures, the really funny one) and Jonathan (the embarrassed one) and they were just on vacation. They were cousins actually. Randall was from St. Louis and had never left before. Jonathan was from the Big Apple. But regardless, we talked with them and laughed with them for a while and eventually took a group shot with the 10 or so exchange students that were there. And I said that they could totally be in a reality show called "Randall and Jonathan Meet People" and it would be a huge hit. So that became the running joke for the rest of the day.
We spent the rest of it just walking around, and we honestly didn't have that much more time left after our adventure with Randall and Jonathan. But that was not the end of our experiences with people. As Savannah and Jordann and I were getting ready to go back to the bus, we passed by a fountain and we wanted to fill our water bottles. Well there was an old man standing there and he immediately engaged us in conversation. He was Italian and spoke Italian to us, and I have to say, he was missing teeth, so it was kind of hard to understand him to begin with. But I also have to say, I'm so proud of myself because I was able to follow along! He told us all about when he was younger and was in the army and about where the water came from that came out of the fountain. He even had old black and white photos on his person of him when he was in the army. It was sweet in a weird kind of nostalgic way. And again, it may sound creepy, but it really wasn't. In fact, it was cool.
Well from there it was back on the bus to go back to the hotel. Again, we fell asleep on the bus. We had some time that night and were trying to figure out how to go out, but it never ended up happening. A couple of us had walked around the city looking for something to do, but all we found was this little bar where we got a drink before dinner, but that was it. So I went to bed early. But then I heard in the room next to me someone knock on the door, clearly not an exchange student and he said with an accent, "I am the gigolo that you ordered." My eyes shot open and he went on, "I am gigolo that you ordered." Then the person in the room said, "I did not order gigolo, I ordered three women, one black." By this point I was a little freaked out. The "gigolo" said again, "No you order gigolo. I am here. Will you let me in please?" After that it was over. I don't know if it was legit or a joke, but it kinda made me feel weird... Anyway, that's when I fell asleep.
Well Day 5 was obviously huge. Again, favorite part of the trip. Part III coming soon! And stay updated for pictures as well!
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