Updates!!

Ok I'm back!!! Hopefully I will be able to use my host brother's wifi semi-regularly now to keep this blog updated! Afterall, it will end up being a really nice souvenir at the end of my trip. A sort of journal if you will. Here are all the exciting things that have happened since I last posted:

I went to the Transardentes festival in Liège! This was last Saturday, January 29th. Basically, it was a big techno rave, similar to I Love Techno, but smaller. Saturday morning, I went to dance as usual, and I walked there actually, because there is no convenient bus to get me to the Academy on a Saturday mid-morning. So I walked. It was a nice brisk walk. I went through my two hours of dance, but then realized that I left my wallet and bus pass at home so I couldn't take the bus back... So I asked one of my fellow dancers if she could give me a ride home. She was so kind, she did even more than that! Alice brought me back to her house and I ate lunch with her and her family before she drove me back to Bertrée. Now, Benjamin's girlfriend had been at the house all weekend last weekend and my host parents went away to France for Jacques's birthday. So I didn't spend much time at the house. Instead, once I got home from dance, I quickly got myself ready and then headed over to my friend Romane's house. We hung out for a bit before her parents drove us to Liège and we got some dinner at McDonald's (très classe) and then met up with a couple of Romane's friends at their house. Then we all went together to the Transardentes. We had lucked out finding me a ticket earlier in the evening, so getting there was no problem. Eventually we met up with some other kids from Hannut and had a great time dancing! I was involved in my first ever mosh pit :) But then something put a damper on the evening. Romane was shaken by a guy in a mask, of which she has a serious phobia, and ended up pretty sick. So we called her dad and we went home around 2 30am. She felt much better once we got home, where the air wasn't smoky and there wasn't constant booming in her ears. Once we got back to her house, I found that my glasses had gotten broken while they were in my bag (I had put in my contacts for the night). So that was a bit of a bummer and kind of a "well what do I do now?" moment. We went to sleep, and the next morning I went back to my house. Later that night, my host parents came home and we all spent the evening together.

The week at school was pretty normal. Nothing much happened. I went to a store to get my glasses fixed, but all the woman could do was glue them and I'm not so sure how long they'll last, but we'll see. We also spoke with the director at school and together decided that this week is going to be our last week with our normal first hour with the Père Boly. We're going to start going to our normal classes next week.

Friday was the Cent Jours. This means that it's been 100 days since we've been at school! (I think) So the rhéto had the option to skip classes on Friday and go to a party in a village close to school. We had to pay five euros to go, and each class had a theme for the students to dress up. For our class, it was space. Nobody told me when I was packing to come to Belgium that I would have to bring a costume like this. So my options were pretty limited. Finally, I decided to just dress all in black and put a design on my face and do my hair to be kind of alien-ish. It worked out I suppose. The Belgians really went all out and everyone looked great! We all met up around 8 30 in the morning and got a bus that took us to the hall. First off, we got to eat chocolate croissants and orange juice. Then for the morning, we took lots of pictures and played games that were organized by a different group of students. Then we ate lunch and had a dance party in the afternoon. That was the real highlight of the day! Talia and I did the Soulja Boy dance right as soon as the song came on, and it was one of the first ones. All the Belgians formed a circle around us as we danced and they thought it was the coolest thing ever!! From that moment on, I was a dancing machine! I went nuts all afternoon, dancing with everyone and had a really fabulous time with all the Belgians.

After the party was over, we all went back to Hannut and hung out for a while at the café. Yes, all dressed up. It was interesting. Then I grabbed the bus home, trying not to be self conscious of the fact that I looked like a total idiot. I then managed to make myself look normal for another party that was going to be that evening in Hannut, but this one was more along the lines of KickAss. I also received a package from my family which contained two cans of Spaghettios and four packets of Ramen noodles. So happy!! Then, Romane and my other friend Lorraine came over and we all left for the party together, and it was actually kind of lame at the beginning. There were way too many people there and we were always getting shoved. We were also stuck in front of one of the doors, so it was freezing. But eventually, around midnight, we managed to make our way up to the front of the room and dance. I ended up staying til about 3am, and that's when my host brother came to pick me up. But he was not alone. He came with one of his friends, and on the way home, we ended up picking up another! We went back to the house and they invited me to chill with them for a while. Though I was skeptical and didn't want to be a tagalong, I figured why not and stayed downstairs with them until about 5 30am. We spent the night playing cards and joking around and talking and listening to music. We quoted "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Big Bang Theory" and had a great time! But it really screwed me over for the next morning when I had to go to dance on 4 hours of sleep... But I slept the rest of the day away so it was no big deal. Sunday, I spent with the host family and some other people that came over for Jacques's birthday. We had a sort of lamb stew with fries and it was absolutely delicious! Of course, I've also been going to the gym regularly and going to dance and eating delicious food and all that.

But I think this is the most important thing that happened since I last blogged: I came to many realizations.

I realized that I really need to be myself here and throw away any crutches or security blankets.

I realized that I have a lot of Belgian friends and the connections will only get stronger if I want them to, and if I make them happen.

I realized that I need to spend more time building my relationships here.

I realized that I am no longer homesick.

I realized that I am completely adjusted.

I realized that my home with always be in Parma, Ohio, and my parents and family will always be just that, and they can never be replaced.

BUT

I also realized that my life does not rest with my home and my family. My life rests with me and travels with me wherever I go. I do not have control over every aspect of it, but I do have control over myself.

Because of all of these realizations, I have made a few changes to turn my exchange in a bit of a different direction. I am putting more effort into my relationships here. I spend more time with my Belgian friends, treating them not as replacements for my friends at home, but instead creating new friendships and truly bonding with them. My host parents and I have a mutual trust that is only growing because I am really letting them see the real me. I am myself again, not just another shy exchange student. I am so happy. I really am finally to the point of feeling like me and like I belong here. I'm outgoing and bubbly and in a good mood and I'm getting to the point where I want to be. All in all, things are wonderful. I am not on vacation anymore, and this is just my life here. I'm bored sometimes, I'm sad sometimes, and I'm stressed sometimes. No, Belgium is not always keeping me occupied and no I don't always have something exciting going on. But here is what matters: I be me. And I am back to that. And I'm happy. La vie est BELLE.

Oh and I got accepted to Point Park University :P

Anyways, I'm happy. Things are looking up and going great. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this blog more updated!!!

Lady FREAKING Gaga

It's Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning). Last night, Tuesday night, I went with Talia and Mikayla to see LADY GAGA in Antwerp. And holy cow, it was spectacular.

Here's the thing. When Lady Gaga first came out, I really didn't like her. She was too bizarre and I thought she was just going to be around for a while and then people would forget about her, or remember her as just being a disgusting artist with no real talent. And then she came out with hit after hit. And let's face it, you can't help but dance to her music.

And then, one day, I took a master class and met her college roommate.

Not a joke.

And I found out that Miss Stephanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta went to the New York University's Tisch School for the Arts, majoring in musical theatre. Wow. That changed my entire view of her. She was picked out of THOUSANDS of applicants to go to what is arguably the best arts school in the country. She has real talent, and a lot of it. She also plays piano like a mad beast. You can find videos of her on YouTube performing at showcases at NYU and they're incredible. I also found out that she really is pretty nutty in real life, so just in case you were wondering, it's not all an act.

Then, last night, I went to see her in concert. After school, Talia and I went over to Mikayla's house with all of our crazy clothes and makeup and went to work for about an hour getting ready to see Lady Gaga. It was quite a process. It involved hair, makeup, clothes, the whole nine yards. I even attempted to the famous hair bow of Lady Gaga, and I have to say, I pretty much succeeded. Talia and I wore false eyelashes, and we all did really heavy eye makeup. The red lipstick was also a definite. Of course, we had to eat dinner too, which was Kraft mac and cheese that Talia and Mikayla had from home. Yummmmm

Around 5:50pm we left the house, the FAHB driving. Antwerp, or Anvers, as it's called in the French part, was where we were going, and it was about an hour and fifteen minutes away. But we got lost once and had to turn around, and once we got close, the traffic was horrendous. We spent the car ride eating cold ish mac and cheese and Snickers bars, finishing makeup, and painting our nails red. I would tease my hair back up every so often too. For pictures of course. My comb kept disappearing though, and that really started to get on my nerves.

We ended up parking kind of far away and had to walk about ten minutes to actually get to the arena. We passed it on the way, and the crowd outside was ridiculous! I'm not sure when the doors opened, but our tickets said something about eight o'clock and we were late, so we were a bit nervous. But I think doors just opened at eight. Whatever. It doesn't matter. The point is that I was wearing heels and tights and I was cold walking there. But it wasn't too bad, because I had my new coat.

OH YAH side note: The coat that I ordered forever ago finally came. I'm not super freezing in Belgium anymore!! It's super cute and I love it and there's nothing like it anywhere I've been. The only thing about it was that I had to pay again when it got here because of stupid European taxes. There are some things about Europe... It just makes me angry. We already paid for shipping! But that doesn't matter cause there was a tax. Aghhhh.

Anyways, getting back to Gaga... We got in and I hid my camera in my pocket and we went inside. It was pretty much just like the Gund Arena back home (for those of you from Cleveland reading this) and there were posters on the walls for Disney On Ice that was coming soon. Which I smiled at. We then proceeded to climb a million flights of stairs. Talk about my workout for the day. We found our seats, which were all the way to the side at the top most row of seating. But, then we found that we were able to see backstage, and everything was good and happy :)

Mikayla and I jetted to the bathroom, we all took some pictures, and then we settled in for the start of the show at 9pm. The room went dark and everyone went nuts. And then we saw her, Lady Gaga, before anyone else! Basically, there was a huge curtain and screen covering the stage for everyone, but we were sitting at the side, so we could see between the curtain and the back wall, and we saw her!!! There was also a screen hanging from the ceiling that was showing closeups throughout the entire concert. She started off the show with "Dance in the Dark" and a crazy outfit, of course. Basically, the whole concept of the show was that we were all on a journey to go to the Monster Ball, sort of like the Wizard of Oz. After the first set of songs, she stopped to talk to her audience. She is completely insane. She just looked out over the sea of people and talked to us about being the way we were and not changing for anyone because "you were born this way". Quote of the night: "I don't want you to leave here loving me more. I want you to leave here loving yourselves more." So clearly, even though she's nuts and she spends a lot of the concerts in heels and leotards, she was giving a good message. Throughout the entire concert, she talked about how you can't let people get you down when you're different, because everyone has a superstar inside them and you should never change who you are for other people. It was inspiring, really. As much as it may have been rehearsed, she made it sound so sincere. She even tied an American flag bandana around her head that someone "had thrown on the stage".

At one point, she played a flaming piano. Seriously. That woman ROCKS the piano. She played "Speechless" and a new song, "You and I" on the flaming piano. It. Was. AWESOME. She continued the concert with the rest of her upbeat dance music and we all stood up and danced to Poker Face, except the FAHB, who just sat and watched, astounded at some points. He definitely enjoyed it though. His face when she said certain things, so priceless. She did the entire concert in English, which makes me wonder how many people truly understood what she was saying, but the FAHB at least understood things for the most part. She talked about Thanksgiving at one point, and Talia and I and Mikayla went wild, but nobody else really did. I don't think they understood.

She rocked out to "Teeth" and "Monster", and how he ate her heart. And, typical Lady Gaga, there was fake blood involved. Though she did not hang herself at this concert like at the MVAs. But that's a different story. Eventually, we followed the "glitter path" and we all made it to the Monster Ball. Of course, she closed the show with "Bad Romance". At which point I went over and pulled the FAHB by the wrist and made him stand up, though he didn't dance. He just kinda laughed at me as I danced. I did the dance with her and everything. It was such a fantastic closing. Couldn't have asked for anything more. By the end, my throat was hoarse from screaming and singing at the top of my lungs. It was soooooo so much fun. I had never seen anything like that show before in my life. First concert of my life. It was a super win. Regardless of what you think of her music, you cannot say she is not a magnificent performer. Her show is spectacular. It's high energy and fun and interesting and it may be over the top and just bizarre at times, but that's what keeps you guessing. I wouldn't have had it any other way. And I am not sure how I feel about this, but I can now honestly say that I am a Lady Gaga fan. For sure.

So leaving the concert... Well, it took a while. We walked back to the car and got in and it was about 11 30. Not too bad. But then it took a good hour to finally get going and we didn't get home til 1 30. We then spent the next 45 minutes taking pictures and deconstructing ourselves. I'm not sure if I got all the teasing out of my hair yet... We went to sleep around 2 30, and got up at 7 to get ready for school. We went through a normal day at school, and thank God it was a half day Wednesday. I got home, ate lunch, and then went up to my room to upload all the pictures to Facebook. Then I decided to nap, and somehow ended up sleeping for 8 hours. I woke up at 11 45pm and was amazed. I had slept through dinner and everything. So now it's past 1am, I'm awake, and I'm hungry. And blogging. Sweet. I'm going to go write more of my novel now. 5 days and 17 000 words. fjsdka;hgaklsfdj;sgha

Bonne nuit!

I LOVE TECHNO!!

Friday, I spent my day just laying around, because I have been sick, and I was recuperating. But that night, I ate pasta with those shrimp again... You know, the ones I talked about before where I have to deconstruct it myself? Yah I have a real problem with those, even though they're delicious...

Then yesterday, Saturday, I went to dance in the morning, where I discovered that I will be performing at two special performances. One here in Hannut and one in Brussels!! I'm very excited about this :) Then I went home, showered, ate some really delicious cheese, and then got ready for the event of the evening: I LOVE TECHNO!!

Around 6:30, my host mom drove me into Hannut, where I met up with a bunch of other kids from school, plus a whole bunch more that I didn't know, and we all piled on a big bus (Greyhound style) and traveled the hour and half to Gent, where I LOVE TECHNO was going to be. The bus ride was a lot of fun! We spent it talking and laughing and taking pictures. I met some people that I didn't know before and had a lot of really good conversation. I even met someone who had gone to the States the year before for a few months. The guy who had organized it went around the bus, too, and passed out these bags that had flyers and such in them. They conveniently had chips in them, which was good because Talia and I hadn't eaten any dinner. They also contained condoms, which I found very interesting and I just pretended they weren't there...

About halfway there, we stopped at a gas station. Gas stations here are not shady like in the States. So everyone got off and people were buying beer and such. Talia and I then realized that all we had had to eat was chips, so we bought food. And what did we buy? A loaf of bread. That's all. So we munched on the bread for the rest of the drive, and the person who had organized the whole thing passed out our tickets. We left our bags and our coats on the bus and went out into the cold. It wasn't that bad, and it was only about a ten minute walk to the building, but there were puddles and I ended up with wet feet :(

We got into the building, and it was HUGE! There was a sort of hallway with a red carpet and tons of chairs and really cool lighting and atmosphere. That led into an even BIGGER hall where there were the bathrooms and a couple performance spaces, food, and places to buy tickets for drinks and food. It was obviously the most well-organized event that I have been to yet. And it should have been; there were 40,000 people there!

Off the giant hall, there were five other rooms, each labeled with a color, and there were different DJs and bands in each one, and they changed every so often. Also, everything was in English. Interesting. And water was free. PLUS! We spent the night going into the different rooms, listening to the bands, dancing and just having a lot of fun! Talia and I even met up with our friend from Rotary, Matheus. He is also and exchange student from Ohio, and we spent a few hours with him, catching up, dancing, and me screaming O-H! And him responding with I-O!! It was just endless hours of techno music and dancing. Pretty sweet, huh?

Around 2am, I started to get really tired and my feet were hurting, but by 3am, it was all ok and I was back to dancing. By the time 5am came around, we were getting food and we sat down and just chilled. I started to doze off.

At 5:30, it was time to go back to the bus. We left, and it was raining. With no coat. So we went quickly, but after ten minutes, we realized we were going the wrong way and had to turn around. So it took us fifteen or twenty minutes to get back to the bus, and by that point, I was soaked, exhausted, and freezing. I put my coat on and ate a little bit of bread and then my eye started acting up. So I took my contact out and was half blind the whole way home, but it didn't matter because I had my eyes closed most of the time. Which was good, because later, Talia told me that someone had puked on the bus, and if I had been awake, I wouldn't have been able to handle it.

We got back to Hannut around 8 and my host dad was there to pick me up. We drove Talia home also, and then stopped at a grocery store. I stayed in the car because by this point I really was not feeling well, and the car ride was not helping. We got back to the house, and I was starting to feel really awake. I went upstairs to take a quick shower, because my feet were disgusting, just like after KickAss, and people had been spilling beer on me all night. (It wasn't that bad, don't worry!) Then I went downstairs, had a bowl of Special K, and realized that I could probably make it through the day and be ok, even though I didn't. I went up to my room, watched an episode of Frasier, and made myself go to sleep. I was sleeping by 9:30, and I didn't wake up until 5:30. It was beautiful. Although when I woke up, I was five times sicker than before, and now I'm hacking up a lung every few minutes. But I did write a good 2500 words for my novel today and had some quality Skyping time with my sister.

Overall, I'm really really happy that I went to I LOVE TECHNO. It was so much fun, and even though it was tough at the end and I'm sick and exhausted, it was worth it!

I Got Through This Week...

So I think I finally have the energy to post again. Even though I really feel like after everything that happened this week, anything I post with just be something pointless and trivial. Death really puts things in perspective.

But I will quickly write about my week anyways.

Last weekend was fantastic. I spent it with Mikayla, baking, talking, and just overall having a great time. Monday, we went to see an exhibition in Brussels all about America's historical connections to Europe. Sounds kinda lame? Wrong. It was, by far, the best, most interesting exhibition I have ever been to. It was full of great information, really moving stories, wonderful artifacts and interactive exhibits. It was so well put together and I was very, VERY impressed with it. Not to mention everything had an English translation, so that was nice too.

The week was difficult and not much happened that is out of the ordinary. Talia and I did a little shopping on Wednesday afternoon in Liège and ate a wonderful Hawaiian pizza and spent a good chunk of time wandering around trying to seek out the best waffles in Liège. Which we did eventually find, and thoroughly enjoyed.

This weekend, I went to a David Guetta concert on Friday night with some other exchange students and had a great time. I met some new people, danced a lot and just overall really enjoyed myself. David Guetta only played from 2am til 4am, but the other DJs were great! Hadley (another American) and I left around 3am and I slept at Hadley's house. I didn't wake up the next day until 1pm, which is really uncommon for me. I met my host mom at the Liège train station around 5pm and we went to mass. Which I didn't understand. I then went home, changed, and met up with some people in Hannut for some food and then we all went over to our regular café. And I drank fire. Quite literally. It was a drink that was lit on fire and you drink it through a straw and the fire chases it down. It was actually really cool and it tasted great. But my throat was burning a little afterwards because, hey, I drank fire! I spent that night at Talia's, eating ice cream and watching "He's Just Not That Into You". I didn't get to sleep until about 5am, cause I couldn't sleep. But then we woke up today around noon. We ate and talked and spent sometime with another Belgian and now we're at my house and Talia is spending the night.

I realize that this isn't quite as well-written, thought out, or thorough as my posts usually are. But I'm sure you all understand how difficult this is and how hard this week was. My mind isn't really entirely into blogging right now. But I hope you enjoyed hearing my antics for the week. I'll try to get back into regular posting soon. Bonne nuit.

La Fête de Wallonie

Ok so as everyone knows, it is time for me to talk about the epic weekend that I had in Namur, at the annual Fête de Wallonie. Basically what it is, is a giant party that takes place in the streets of Namur. Almost like a street fair. There are tents and stages set up all over the place and bands play in some and in others there are big speakers set up blasting music (American, of course). And Namur is great because there are little squares and open spaces everywhere between the old shops and buildings. There were little stands set up everywhere, lining all the cobblestone streets, selling beer and fries and fair food and even some with jewelry and clothing. But mostly drinks. The most popular, other than beer and krique (cherry beer), is "pecket". Which, from what I understand, is like the equivalent to flavored gin shots. Talia says they taste like cough medicine. There are a bunch of different flavors in a bunch of different colors. There is about a 35-40% alcohol content in pecket. And that, along with many many other kinds of alcohol, was being sold on the streets! Because, hey, I'm in Belgium!

The first night, Friday, I went with Talia and her host sister and a bunch of people from school. And I would like to say that I had a fantastic time, but I would be lying. It wasn't very much fun for me, but it started out bad from the beginning. We spent a lot of time chasing after the Belgians as they weaved through the crowds and very quickly ran through the streets. I wasn't even paying attention to where we were going because I was so focused on not getting lost. There was also another problem. See, I am deathly afraid of puke, puking, and anything that has to do with it. I'm serious. It's a phobia. And one of the first things that we saw when we got there was a man lying in between two of the stands, in his own vomit. I was beyond disgusted and felt sick for the next half hour. I just cannot handle that. And then one of the people we were with got sick after chugging a beer. And he was sitting next to me. Let's just saying I about died. I jumped up and even though there was a table behind us and I couldn't get out, I literally jumped over the table to get away from him. So it was just not good to begin with. The other problem is that I really don't drink. If you've been keeping up with the blog, you know that I have never had anything alcoholic to drink before I got here, and even when I did try the beer at the Rotary gathering, I didn't like it much. Soooo therefore I wasn't really having as much fun as everyone else. We didn't spend a lot of time listening to the bands either, and when we did go to one of the places with music, it was lame and freezing. And another thing... Guys were just peeing in public. They would just go up to the corner of a building and do their business. Which was disgusting. So I didn't enjoy that aspect of it either. Basically, I just was not having a good time. And then I started to get homesick and actually started crying like a little baby because everything was just bad. Then everyone started hugging me and telling me they loved me and it was a little better then. I just missed hugs so much and when I was constantly being hugged, things were ok. And then Talia and I went on a quest for another piece of pizza and things were good. We moved to another tent, with good music and dancing and such. That's when the Belgians broke out in the "rock" dance. Which is this super awesome swing-type dance that they do and I so very much want to learn! It looks like so much fun! At 1 30, we met Talia's host brother in front of the train station to take us home. I stayed at Talia's that night, along with another friend of Geraldine's (host sister). We made Mac&Cheese at 3am and ate half with the cheese sauce and half with ketchup and cheese. Which was quite interesting... Talk about Belgian delicacies :P

The next morning I woke up at 10 30am and decided that I should go to dance class. So my host mom picked me up at 11 and I went to my class. Afterwards, we picked up Talia and went back to my house to chill for the afternoon. We had lunch (pumpkin soup, rice, stuffed tomatoes, vegetable sauce, with apple cake for dessert), took a nap, and got ourselves ready to go for night two. Around 6pm, Benoit drove us to Namur since he was going anyways. While it was still light out, we took advantage of that and walked around Namur and tried to figure out where everything was and where the things were that we went to last night. We found the Pizza Hut pretty easily, where Talia got a piece of pizza. Then we went on the big adventure to find the tent with the good music. Which took us about an hour as we wound through the complicated streets of Namur. At the same time we were in hot pursuit of a sandwich for me, which was surprisingly difficult to find. After finally stumbling upon the tent, we went out and kept looking for a sandwich. Which we did eventually find and it was delicious. I was very happy. Then we spent the rest of the night chilling, talking to random Belgian people and eating Churros. Eventually we met up with Mikayla and her host brother and had a dandy time :) Until a drunk guy fell on me and I freaked out and ran away. But still, Saturday night was sooo much better than Friday. I had a lot of fun! The music was better, also. At midnight, we met my host mom in front of the train station and Talia and I went back to my house for the night. We slept until about 11am this morning, and then got ready and went down to eat lunch with my family. And guess what we had? A blast from the past, (well the beginning of my exchange anyways...) stuffed zucchini and zucchini flower!! And pumpkin soup, which I really like. And beans. With some really delicious crème brulée type cake for dessert. We then took Talia home, picked up Damien from a friend's house, and then I worked out. After a nice hot shower, I took a little nap and then went down for dinner. Zucchini soup, salad, and fancy cheese with bread and ham. I then watched "The Proposal", Skyped with my parents, and now I am about to get ready to hit the sack. It was a pretty good weekend overall :) Now another crazy week at school. Are you ready? Cause I am!

My Bike Ride Through Belgium

Today, since I was feeling a little nostalgic about home, I decided that it would be a good idea to just get away from everyone for a while. So I took the opportunity to bike the 14 kilometers Hannut, and take pictures along the way for all of you out there to enjoy.

I see this shack all the time because it is at the end of my run. I think it is interesting because I have no idea who it belongs to. It is not in a yard. It is just in the middle of the grass, with broken windows and no door.

I don't really know what it is about it... I liked this view.

Is this creepy? I don't really care. I think it's really sweet that everyone hangs their clothes out to dry :)

Cows. Everywhere. That's not an exaggeration.

This was the first thing that I came across that I thought was really picturesque. And there are nice bridges like this all over. And I had only been riding for about 10 minutes! There is a path that extends all over the place, sort of like the Metroparks Parkway at home.
Belgian graffiti. I just thought it was interesting.
My bike. Obviously. That little rack on the back is probably one of the most convenient things ever.
The interesting thing about Belgium: I'll be riding through forest that is so thick you cannot see past the first layer of foliage, and then out of nowhere comes a wide open field like this one. They are pretty in an organic, country-side sort of way.
The other interesting thing... One side can be like that, but then other can be the greenest grass you have ever seen... With the occasional animal taking an evening snack.
The sunset was gorgeous tonight. The sky was blue and the sun was shining so brightly, filling the air with warm light. But the few clouds that powdered the sky just made it perfect.
I don't know why, but it's just so calming. Granted, living in a little tiny town is difficult, and I prefer the big city, but riding through this today was exactly what I needed.
After a few more kilometers of trees and pretty green, there was more field. But this one was even more open, and something about those colors was just incredible... Almost surreal. It was like being in one of those movies where crop circles happen and aliens invade the small, unsuspecting town... For some reason that image intrigued me.
The colors... Oh my gosh incredible.
That sky with the dark clouds and the yellow field... It was the weirdest, coolest color combination...
That's me.
The sun continues to set...
Another cool thing: yes there is field and grass, but if you look just beyond what your eyes can easily see, you notice something else. More of a sign of life... A village. With a church and houses and buildings. And you know that there are people there and you are not alone in the big, vacant, open fields.

Hannut. I made it. 14 kilometers! Which is really nothing... In the States, I went 25 or 30 miles with my buddies. Again, just look at those colors...

I love how people just randomly have horses and cows and other animals in their yards...
The path extends forever. But this is where I stopped to turn around, deciding that it was time to head home, as it was about to become nightfall.
After looking at the quaint houses, I decided that it was time to go back. Next time, I will venture further into the city. The ride back was nice because it just got a little bit darker every couple minutes and I just enjoyed the wind in my face and the beautiful weather. It was warm, but not too hot and the sun was keeping everything just right.

What really made the ride special, though, was my music. I had my iPod going and you know how people always say that life would better with a soundtrack? It's so true. I decided to listen to all of the new music that I have added since I have gotten here. Which wasn't much and the majority of it is in English. But the mix was great because some songs were nice and slow and contemplative, letting me really soak in what was around me, while others were upbeat and gave me a burst of freedom and energy. Here is my playlist:

1. We No Speak Americano - Yolanda Be Cool

2. Here It Goes Again - Ok Go

3. Stop For A Minute - Keane

4. Mad World - Gary Jules

5. Alors On Danse - Stromae

6. The Day I Died - Just Jack

7. Me & My Guitar - Tom Dice

8. Allez! Ola! Olé! - Jesse Matador

9. Sky And Sand - Paul Kalkbrenner

10. Human - The Killers

11. Waka Waka - Shakira

I have to say, this ride was so freeing. To be able to just go and go and not worry about anything... Just the path ahead. I felt so alive today. That may sound corny, and weird. I mean, it's just a bike ride, right? But it was exactly what I needed. I let go of all inhibitions. At one point (and this is kind of embarrassing now that I think about it...) "Waka Waka" came on, and I don't know what it was... Maybe the combination of the sun and the empty field around me and those colors all just flooding my brain... But when that song came on, I listened to the lyrics and I was just so empowered by it for some reason, I just let loose. I pedaled as fast as I could and threw my head back, singing and dancing on my bicycle as I sped through the deserted landscape. I felt, like I said, so free.

How lame does that sound? But it was great. Today seems to be all about freedom...

(P.S. That feeling kind of died when I wiped out about 30 seconds from my house... I skinned up my knee pretty bad. Whoops!)

Day 3 Is Exercise Day?

Today I woke up to the sound of a rooster "cockadoodledoo-ing" for the second day in a row, no joke. And I decided today that I would be good and go for a run. So I ran on this nice little path outside the house. I have no idea how far I went, but my host brother says it was about 5 kilometers which is roughly 3 miles. I say that's not bad considering I swear I could hear my body saying "Why are you trying to make me run at 4:30 in the morning??" You see, it was that time in the States, and my body is not completely adjusted yet. Then I took a shower, changed, and made myself some breakfast: Nutella sandwich. Yummm.

But then I had nothing to do... And when I have nothing to do I think. And when I think, bad things happen. Ha not really. But it definitely started to get rough and I began thinking about how much I miss my parents and family and friends, and I got a little upset, but I didn't cry! Kudos to me! That's when I decided it was time to do something productive. So I pulled open my lovely SLR camera (Canon T1i, fabulous) and did some picture taking. I took pictures of the house, the garden, the garage, the kitchen, all kinds of things (some really awesome edited ones are on my photography blog, check it out!) And perfect timing, that is when my host mom came home and we all had lunch together. That was followed by some quiet reading in the garden (cute, right?) and then the main event of the day: bicycle riding. My host mom went with me down the same path that I ran this morning, but we went much farther, into different cities and took the roads back home. Everyone is Belgium is so kind and friendly! Everyone that we passed greeted us with "Bonjour!" and a smile :) Belgium really is beautiful. Where I am staying, Fumal, is much more rural than what I am used to, but all the greenery is just lovely. There was a point where we were on top of a hill looking over the small town, with the trees and the hills... Oh how I wish I had a camera at that point... It was wonderful.

When we returned, we drank milk. The reason I bring this up is because it's very different here... Milk is not refrigerated until you open it. Which I find weird and I'm not sure I like it... Because when you first open a new bottle, obviously the milk is room temperature... Yuck. And it's not like in the States where there is skim, 1%, 2%, and whole. Here the milk we drink is "half-creme". Which means that there is less fat in it... But I don't think it's comparable to 1 or 2% because it's still quite thick and creamy... But it tastes ok when it's cold :)

I attempted to drink wine at dinner with the family today... It didn't go well. I don't know, I just don't drink! I don't like it and I am sorry, but I can't help it... Oye :/ By the way, we had zucchini soup for dinner. They really are completely taken with this whole zucchini thing...

This evening, my host brother and I spent a lot of time comparing music. It was a lot of fun because I learned about a lot of new bands. But it's very interesting, because the majority of Belgian bands sing in English. And A LOT of the music that he had was American. Actually, almost all the music I have heard here has been American music. Like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and such... C'est interessant!

I know I've been posting a lot these last few days, but everything is so new!! There's much to tell :)