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!

In SPAIN

Yes, the title lies not. I am in SPAIN dudes!!! This morning, Talia and Mikayla and I had to take our Social Sciences oral exam, which we studied for at Point Chaud this morning for like 3 hours. We did really well on it, with a whopping 46/60 score! After our exam, Talia and I got a sammich and then Karine picked us up in Hannut to take us to the airport to catch a cheapo RyanAir flight to Madrid, SPAIN. We got there with plenty of time to spare, checked in, got all our bags together and life was good. Because we did not pay for any extra baggage, we each could only have one small bag, so we had a backpack and a tiny suitcase that we both shared. We had to move things around and rearrange a couple times, but in the end we succeeded in making each bag the right size and weight so that we could get on the plane. We had no problems going through security, and we even made a new friend! We met a girl who lives in Oregon who was also doing an exchange, but in college and with a different program. Her exchange was spent mostly in Spain, but she had been doing some traveling, so she spent a night in Belgium. We talked throughout all the time we had to wait for our flight and even sat together on our flight.

The flight went well. I had completely forgotten about a motion sickness pill until it was too late. And you all know me, I'm a complete worry wart and nervous Nelly. The flight only lasted about two and half hours, but I still managed to get nervous and everything. And of course, we were on a tiny little low cost plane, so that didn't help. In the end, I was fine. I didn't get sick and I didn't freak out too bad. We watched a few snippets of both "The Proposal" and "Julie and Julia" on my computer as well, and I did sleep a little tiny bit. After the flight was over, I really didn't feel good, but that went away after a few hours. Once we got off the plane and said goodbye to our new friend, we met up with one of Talia's friends who lives in Spain. Her name is Irene. She was an exchange student with Talia for two summers and they are really close. She is super nice and she was there with her family who very kindly offered to drive us to the house we are staying at. We're staying with some friends of my family who live here near Madrid. We got to the house around 8 30pm and settled in. The woman, Susan, is American and the sister of my dad's best friend. She married a Spanish man and now they live here with two kids at 10 and 12 who are adorable. We ate a traditional Spanish dinner with them, which was a sort of omelette with potatoes and onions, and bread drizzled in olive oil with a slice of tomato and a sort of ham meat on top of it. There were also a couple kinds of cheeses out that were very good. It was a delicious light meal that I really enjoyed, especially since I still wasn't feeling great from the plane.

After dinner, my mom called me and I talked to her for a little bit, and then I went out with Susan and Talia and we took a walk around the town of Alcala de Henares. Susan showed us the different points of interest. It's a really pretty city with plenty of sculptures and piazzas. It's very clean and we were walking around at night and it was safe and everything. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and took a few pictures, even if I was exhausted. We got back after 11 30pm and now it's bed time because tomorrow we are actually going into Madrid and it's going to be a long day! Bonne nuit tout le monde !!

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 !

Updates Coming... Tomorrow!

Ok so. I know I haven't posted in a week. I also know that I have so much to update you guys on! For one thing, I had a whole Rotary weekend Talent Show. Today was also the last day of school and we all dressed "old school". Plus tonight I presented my year to my Rotary club! So obviously there is plenty to tell. But it is already 11 30pm and I'm SO tired. And my feet are killing me. So I will write all about it tomorrow. Promise!

Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Un Peu De Lady Gaga Pour Ma Vie

Alors... Ça fait super longtemps depuis j'ai fait un post en français, et franchement, je vois ça et je vois toutes mes fautes et ça ne va pas. Alors, il faut que je fasse au moins encore un avant de partir la Belgique.

Comme toujours, il n'y avait pas de grandes choses qui se passaient hier ou aujourd'hui. Hier, je me suis réveillée super tard (11h30!! Oh mon Dieu!), j'ai mangé avec ma famille, et puis je suis partie en vélo pendant deux heures et demi. Il faisait beau, mais j'avais l'impression que j'allais contre le vent, malgré le direction. Je suis allée de Cras Avernas jusqu'à Hannut, j'ai fait un tour d'Hannut, puis j'ai fait tout le trajet jusqu'à Landen. Je ne sais même pas comment j'ai fait, comme c'est loin et pas super plat, mais je n'ai rien fait à pied. Je suis hyper fière de moi! En plus, j'ai tout fait accompagnée par Lady Gaga. Son nouvel album, "Born This Way", est génial! C'est un peu un mélange de Madonna, les années 80s, et du pop moderne. Je l'adore!!! Finalement, mon aventure a pris assez de temps pour écouter deux fois et demi l'album. Ça a mesuré 31 km (19.5 miles). Maintenant, j'hésite pas à dire que j'ai mal partout et je peux surement tout sentir dans mes cuisses et mes fesses. Mais c'est bien! Ça veut dire que je deviens plus forte!

Grâce à mon vélo, j'étais totalement crevée hier soir et j'ai presque rien fait. J'ai mangé avec la famille et j'ai fait un peu du Skype. Mais c'est tout.

Aujourd'hui n'était rien de spécial, comme d'habitude. L'école, et c'est presque tout. On avait les dernières deux heures de gym de l'année et on a fait du "baseball". Pas exactement comme le baseball aux States, mais bon. On s'est bien amusé! Et Lady Gaga restait dans ma tête toute la journée. J'ai chanté et dansé dans les couloirs en plein de bonne humeur! En plus il faisait méga beau aujourd'hui! Je crois bien que tout le monde pense que je suis un peu folle... Mais c'est vrai, je suis un peu folle. Pensez ça si vous voulez. C'est plus amusant comme ça.

Ce soir j'ai mangé avec ma famille et puis après, j'ai gouté une "boule de Berlin". Ça veut dire simplement un donut avec de la crème dedans. Et c'est super super bon. Avec plein plein plein de calories. Comme Manon dit, "La vie est rempli de calories". J'essaie vraiment de faire régime mais c'est plus en plus évident que c'est impossible en Belgique, surtout dans ma famille pour l'instant... Mais je profite, hein? C'est ça que je me dis tout le temps comme excuse pour mes habitudes de manger ici...

Vous savez quoi? J'ai super mal au dos... C'est pas du tout bien.

Ce soir je dors chez Talia parce que demain c'est notre aventure à Anvers! Je sais pas attendre, même s'il va pleuvoir. J'ai trop envie de voir la ville! J'ai congé pour la reste de la semaine en plus, alors pour ça, je suis contente.

Je pense que j'ai oublié une grande quelque chose, mais je sais pas quoi dire... Bref, c'est pas grave. Si je me souviens, vous allez vite savoir :) Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Average Average

I really have nothing to tell you all today, as it was just a normal day. School is really starting to get on my nerves. After doing your senior year twice, you really start to get annoyed. I just find that I have 0 motivation to go to school. And I'm sick of doing the same thing every day. I want to see things that I haven't seen yet! For goodness sakes I'm in Europe! Alright, I'm not going to get into any big long rant now, because I'm sure you've already gotten the picture.

The countdown continues. I have some 44 days left in Belgium. And that number gets smaller every time the sun rises and sets. And I can't believe how fast it's slipping through my fingers. But again, it's too early to be thinking about such things.

I really have nothing else to say. I went to dance tonight? Cool. Ha. Alrighty goodnight everybody. À demain !

Yet Another Blog Post

I'm so bad at blogging lately. But even though nobody let me know they were out there, I will continue writing for my faithful readers because I know you are there, you're just shy. Let's catch up on the last few days, shall we?

Monday was just like any other Monday. I went to school and came home. But then I decided that I'm spending too much time staring at a computer screen and I'm getting fat. So I took one of the family bikes and took a ride into Hannut. Once I was there, I decided it would be a good idea to go visit Marie. Remember? Léo's mom! So a hop, skip and a jump and I was at her store and we chatted it up while she closed. It was so nice catching up with her. We talked til about 30 and then I realized that I had to get home to eat dinner. So I took my bike back and felt accomplished and happy once I got back. I had dinner with the family as usual and then went up to bed, as usual.

Tuesday was not very out of the ordinary either. Because I've had teachers absent lately, I had the afternoon off. So Talia and I went back to her house after deciding that we didn't have the time really to leave Hannut. And I ate something very unusual. Can you guess what it is? I bet you never will. We made sandwiches that she used to make in the States. Basically what they are is two pieces of bread with a sunny side up egg and cheese. Normal, right? But there is one more ingredient. PEANUT BUTTER!!! Not a joke, people. And it was so good! I was surprised at how delicious it was, but really, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We spent the rest of the afternoon watching Mamma Mia! I love Meryl Streep. So very very much. She rocks every role she plays. Anyways, I went back into Hannut around 6pm and my host mom picked me up and we went back home to eat dinner with the family. We had breaded fish stuffed with spinach. It was so nice to have some light, vegetable-y food. Of course, this was paired with cheesy potatoes. Not so light. I then went to dance that night. Apparently we are going to take my Lady Gaga choreography from the theater at school and put it to Aretha Franklin music for the recital... It'll be interesting...

Today was, well, Wednesday. And pretty much all Wednesdays go the same at school, since it's only a half day. Went to school, went home from school, ate lunch, did some computer shtuff, and then went out for the afternoon with a friend. We went and got ice cream from that same little place from before. I got the Kriek flavor, which was really good! And this evening, I went back to Bertrée for a barbecue with Ben, Olivier, Marie, and two other people who I didn't know, but met. We had a really great time! And I got to see Léo again too. He is so freaking adorable, I can't stand it. We ate, talked, cut Marie's hair, ya know, normal stuff. I had a nice night.

And now here I am, back home, trying to de-stress from everything that is going on for the moment. Basically, I don't know exactly what I'm doing next year, but I don't think that I am going to go to Point Park, in the end. And I was planning an Amsterdam trip this weekend, but I don't think that is happening either. Hopefully Spain is still a-go. We will find out. But I just need to sleep now. So goodnight everyone.

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.

Let's Play Charades

Today was a very average day. I don't have much to say. I know, shocker. But I feel the need to post because I have less than 2 months left and I really need to be recording these last stages of my exchange. It seems that a lot of the exchange students are falling into a sort of homesickness now and everyone is looking forward to going home. I'm kind of in a state of oblivion. It is not sinking in that I am leaving this country so soon. And everyone someone says it, it makes me sad because the truth is that I do not want to leave. I have made so many friends and I have my second family here. Of course, it goes both ways. I wake up some morning wishing that I was waking up in my bed or that I could go into the kitchen (without having to go downstairs) and get a hug from my daddy while I pop a bagel in the toaster because bagels exist. And of course, I still want to just jump in my car and go somewhere when I feel like it. I am sick of school... I'm ready to be done with that nonsense. I'm in Europe! I want to travel and see things that I can't see in the States. And even though, yes, I do have a few trips planned for the next couple weeks, I feel like I have so much to see and not enough time to see it in. I guess I just have to plan out my time wisely and make good decisions with how I spend the days that I'm not in school. *sigh* Don't worry everyone, I'll figure it out. But for now, I'm just in a stage of boredom, since I'm in such a daily routine with nothing exciting going on and really not much to look forward to. Yes, I have trips, but none of them are set in stone and I still have to drag myself out of bed and to school in the mornings. Oh well, I'm done complaining. I'm still happy with my life for the moment and Belgium is treating me well! There is your emotional update on Emma Clark.

Anyways, today was a normal, average, nothing special day. I went to school, attempted to pay attention, doodled a lot, and played charades in Religion class. Yes, it's true, we do not do many productive things in that class. In fact, next Thursday we are all bringing in food and we will just eat for the hour. But we played charades today with movies and television series and it was fun. The nice thing about charades is that there is no talking involved. Just miming. And I'm good at that. Our team was the Princesses. Yes, we're princesses in real life. Be jealous. Talia came over after school and we hung out for a bit and I'm in the process of making my Rotary blazer cool, which is failing miserably. Anyways, I then ate dinner with the fam and went to dance. We're working on our dances for the show in June, and although they are quite easy, they're coming along nicely. It's definitely going to be... Different... From all the other shows I've ever done. We'll see how it goes. Now, it's bed time. Bonne nuit :)

Spider In The Shower

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

The Best Weekend Of My Life

Well, one of the best weekends of my life. Let's start with Thursday.

Thursday, during the day, was pretty average. I went to school as usual and afterwards, Talia and Eduardo and I all went back to my house on the bus for the couple hours that we had in between school and our call for the theatre, as Thursday was opening night. We spent the time making and eating french toast and watching Lady Gaga videos. Then we packed up all our costumes and everything and were headed off to the bus to go back to school. We got there around 6pm to see almost the entire cast already made up for the show and everyone super pumped to show the audience what we've been working for! And I have to say, once again the Belgians have impressed and surprised me. All the makeup was awesome and intense and the costumes were great. A lot of people were sporting colored hair, white faces, bloody noses, and all kinds of other really cool hair and makeup. Talia and I got ourselves ready, avoiding having our makeup and hair done by the people that were there doing everyone else's. We succeeded. I then got to do what I've been waiting to do since the beginning of the year. I got to put mascara on Eduardo. You see, Eduardo has these RIDICULOUS long eyelashes. Like, twice the length of mine. And as I did his makeup, I got to put mascara on him. WIN. By this point, we still had a good 45 minutes before the show started and I spent it going around and taking pictures with everyone and just being silly and energetic. Here are a few examples:

The curtain went up at 7 30 and it was on. I had a good amount of time before my first dance, a mix of "Money Money Money" by ABBA and "Money" by Pink Floyd. So I spent it, again, being silly and dancing in random classrooms with my friends. After that first dance, things started to get a little more pressing. I had the entire half hour intermission to be ready for the next dance, "Ça M'enerve", and actually, for intermission here, we were allowed to go downstairs and socialize with the audience. Which at home, we considered "breaking curtain" and wasn't allowed. Almost directly after intermission I had my dance, and then I had to run to get ready for my next one, "Libertine". That is the one that I danced a ballet number with another girl, Julie, and we started the dance behind white panels that were lit from behind so the audience saw silhouettes for the first part of the dance. It was very unique and a lot of fun to do, but it was a bit stressful as we didn't have much time to change and get our "Chinese" faces on. We needed all white faces with red lips and black eyes. But we didn't miss a beat and had plenty of time to warm up. And the dance went splendidly! After that one, I had to run again because I had to dance my next one very soon after, "La Luxure". In that, it is just me dancing with a bunch of girls (and one male teacher) singing. The main girl, Sarah, was singing about a night of temptation and I danced the role of "the spirit of love". We play it as though she doesn't see me until the end but I'm affecting her and eventually she follows me off stage. The thing about this dance was that I didn't have any choreography. We added it in very last minute and I did the whole thing improv all three nights. But each time it went very well. After that, it's time for me to get ready for the big finale, "Bad Romance". Picture time!!

You all know, that was my pride and joy of this show. It's all my choreography and the whole cast joins in at the end. For this dance, all the dancers teased all their hair up crazy and had super heavy makeup in red and black. It was really awesome. We got out there and danced our hearts out. And then for the last refrain, everyone came out into the aisles and in front of the stage and the lights flashed on to show the entire cast dancing MY choreography, exactly how I had it in my head. It was incredible, and potentially one of the most fulfilling moments of my life. It is amazing to experience that. It's unreal. I was so happy. After the show was over, the teachers all went up on stage and gave us a little surprise! They had also choreographed a little diddy to "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas and it was so cool! We all screamed and shouted for them and it was great. Then afterwards we all ran back up the aisles and out the door to line the stairway as the teachers and audience came out. That was very interesting. We clapped and yelled and chanted until the auditorium was empty and then went to go talk to everyone who had come to see us. Finally, we didn't get out of there til about 12:30am. And Thursday night, as my host mom had come to see the show, I went home with her. Talia came with me that night and stayed the night at my house.

We got home and had a little snack and then went upstairs to tackle the task of combing out our hair and getting all that makeup off. Finally we succeeded and went to bed. Thankfully, we didn't have to go in Friday until later, so we caught the bus the next morning and went to school as usual. Everyone was all hyped up on the energy of the night before, though we were tired. One really cool thing happened at school. Talia and Mikayla and I witnessed a spider killing. On the other side of the window, a huge spider had captured some sort of poor little creature and we watched it spin it's web around the victim. I thought it was really awesome. After school, Talia went back home with me and we lathered, rinsed, and repeated almost exactly how we had done the night before. Again, the show went great and we went home late. Friday, I didn't get to sleep until about 2am. And the next morning I had my dance class. There were three of us there that are also doing the theatre and we were so dead. But we went through the class, and difficult as it was. I then walked home since it was absolutely gorgeous out, and napped. I then got up and did it all over again. Except Saturday night had a little bit of a different atmosphere since it was the last show. Everyone was a little sad, even though we were all still super psyched at the same time. The show went wonderfully as usual, and afterwards we gave our thank yous to the teachers and Madame Vanesse made a little speech as well. I couldn't believe how fast it went and afterwards everyone was a little down that it was over. But that didn't last long because after the audience had emptied out, we all headed over to a bar in Hannut to have the Belgian version of a cast party! And that, my friends, was a blast.

Here's the thing. The teachers smoke with the students here. Which I found super bizarre, because obviously in the States, 1, it's illegal before you're 18, and 2, you never want your teachers to see you doing "bad" things. But that wasn't even half as weird as it was when the teachers showed up to the bar to drink and party with us. Obviously, I'm in Belgium, so all the exchange students drink at least a little bit. So there I am, with a beer in my hand, and the director of the school passes by me, smiles and winks and me, and I just felt like I needed to turn around and hide from her because I didn't want her to see me drinking. But it's accepted here. So much that the teachers do it too! So there we all are, dancing and having a grand old time. With our teachers. I can't even describe how odd it was. But it was awesome too. I was dancing and socializing, and being that girl that everyone is friends with. I was having so much fun. And it was only getting better and better. It was a wonderful night. And then Madame Gallo, oh how I love her, pulled me aside and said to me, in English,

"I just want to tell you how great you are. It is great to have exchange students like you."

And that just made my life. It was incredible to hear that, especially from her. This weekend was so magnificent. I love Hannut and I love my friends and I love theatre and I love BELGIUM!!

I didn't leave the bar til about 5 15am. My friend dropped me off at home and I still had to comb out my hair and take off my makeup. So it was almost six before I got to bed. But I was asleep before I hit the pillow. And didn't wake up Sunday until about 2 30pm. Sunday was great. It was my host brother, Olivier's, birthday. So we had two awesome cakes. One that had layers of yellow cake and chocolate mousse covered in a chocolate gnash with dried fruit on top. Ohhhhhh amazing. And the other was a cream pie with strawberries and whipped cream on top. I love Belgian bakery. I spent the day with the host fam, including little Léo who now knows exactly who I am and said my name over and over again yesterday. He is so cute. As tired as I was last night, I still didn't get to bed very early...

This morning I got up late and went to school as usual. And everyone was DEAD. We were all so tired. And we had gym. And we rode bikes. And it was cold and there was wind. And I have realized how out of shape I am. We rode 12 kilometers. Which is about 7 miles. Ok, yes it's kind of a lot. But I was in PAIN afterwards. I felt like I couldn't really fill my lungs all the way. But in about a half hour I was back to normal and I just realized that I really need to start running again or something because that should not have been that hard. And granted, I'm exhausted. But still... Also, we have started our classes with Père Boly again. One hour a week. *sigh*

So that was my AMAZING weekend. Thank you, Belgium, for this wonderful experience. I hope you enjoyed reading about it because I LOVED living it!!

Birthday And Theatre

Yesterday, we had yet another birthday in our little family of exchange students. It was the birthday of our best Mexican friend, Eduardo! He turned 19. He's old. So even though we already had his surprise party, we decided to celebrate a bit yesterday as well :) Since the exchange students have two hours of study hall after lunch on Tuesdays, and our teachers were absent yesterday, we were able to leave at noon and went to get some food for our friend's birthday. We went to the bar and got a free drink for him, followed by more free ness at a different bar. Also, Mikayla and I went to get a piece of bakery for him. We chose a nice yellow cake with chocolate cream inside and covered in more chocolate. I have to admit, it was difficult to hand it over. But we sang to him and everything and it was a good time.

Also, last night I had my second dance exam. This time, it was for jazz. It was really just like a normal class, except that the director was there and like at the ballet one, another woman who was "grading" us. Except that this time, the woman grading us was a woman who is normally in the class. So she knows us all and she knows all the combinations and such by heart. Overall, I did very well, although I'm consistently discouraged when I realize how much I'm losing this year in my dancing skills...

Today, however, was excellent. Today, everyone who is involved in the school theater was excused from classes for a full day of rehearsal. That means that when we got there, at 8 30am, we were right away getting ready to run our show. I got there with my huge bag full of costumes and make up, ready to work. The first thing we did was have me teach the finale to the whole cast. The finale is to "Bad Romance", as you know if you keep up with the blog. And I did the choreography for it, with the intentions of having the entire cast join us 13 dancers at the end to do the last chorus together to end the show. So this morning I taught the choreography and despite all the doubt that I was getting from the teachers, everyone learned it in less than twenty minutes!! We went over it a few times, and it. Looks. FANTASTIC. I couldn't be happier!

After that, we went through the show once really quickly for technical reasons, so they could figure out the sound and lights and such. Then we had our lunch break, and afterwards went through a real run of the show. It was rocky, it's true, but I had a lot of fun. I had almost forgotten how much I missed doing shows and theater and spending hours upon hours in a theater with a cast, bonding over the common goal of putting on a wonderful show. And I have to say, after today, I do feel like I really did a lot more bonding with the cast. Remember after the Cent Jours party when I felt like I really opened up and was better recognized by everyone? I had another one of those days. Every time something like this happens, I feel so much more energized to be here and to be at school and make friends. I get closer to people all the time, and you have no idea how fulfilling it is to see people practicing MY choreography in the halls with each other and be so excited about it, sometimes even stopping me to say "Look! I know what I'm doing!" or "Can you help me? I forgot what comes next." It just makes me feel so good about everything. I find it really difficult to put what I want to say into words, but I think you all understand what I'm getting at.

Anyways, we finished up the run through around 5 30pm, and the finale was INCREDIBLE. Dear Belgians, if you're reading this, I'm so proud of you. Thank you so much for everything. You made the image in my head become a reality.

Afterwards, I went home on the bus, got some weird looks from people, because of the fact that I was all made up with red lips outlined in black and my hair teased up to the heavens (the Belgians thought that was AWESOME). I ate dinner with my host family, and I have every intention of making it a pretty early night, considering tomorrow is opening night!!!!! I'm so excited.

So, goodnight everyone!!

A Lovely Day

I had such a wonderful today. Even though I wasn't so sure t would be as fun as it was. Today was the first day since we stopped our first hour classes with the Père Boly that we had to go back to see him. And it was because today was the day that has been scheduled since the beginning of our exchange. Today was the day that we presented ourselves at the meeting of Probus, a sort of Rotary type club for very old people that he is involved in.

We got to school this morning, all four of us exchange students, and we had our first two hours of class with the Père Boly to practice our little speeches for when we would present ourselves in front of anyone, in French, at the meeting. For the rest of the morning, we stayed and practiced for the rest of the morning until we had to get ready to go to the meeting for noon. Because it was still going to be in Hannut, close to school, the exchange students went on foot. So we left school and walked the fifteen ish minutes that it took to get to the room that Mikayla's and Talia's Rotary club uses for their meetings. When we got there, Père Boly was already there, but we were still almost the first people to show up. Talia and I changed into our heels, and we went into the room (which was vey nice) and got ready to say hi to everyone that came through the door. We spent the next hour sipping champagne and munching some really delicious little hors devours (with caviar!) while we shook hands and gave bisous to everyone. Another Rotary exchange student that we know, Haffa, actually came too, which we weren't expecting. She is Brazilian.

Finally, we all sat down to begin the meal. The president, who was a woman, made a few announcements and then we started the meal with a salad that had cream cheese and salmon in it with a sort of creamy pink dressing. The main course was rabbit in a beer sauce, which was actually delicious, with a spinach broccoli mix and some sort of creamy hash brown thing that was super yummy.

After we finished eating, it was time for all of us to speak. Haffa started, followed by Talia, Mikayla, Eduardo, and I finished. We all introduced ourselves and talked about our homes and our experience here a little bit. Afterwards, they asked us a few questions, but it went pretty quickly. All in all, it was a definite success and we all spoke well!

Then it was dessert time: mango and raspberry sherbets with a crisp waffle triangle. Delicious. And then Eduardo said the quote of the day. Here is how it went:

Mikayla: Eduardo looks more Mexican than usual.

Me: It's because he's more tan.

Eduardo: MAYBE, it's because of the sun!!!!

It was so cute and so funny. Then the waiter took his sherbet before he was done and Eduardo kinda freaked out. But the waiter brought him more after so it was ok. And then an old man asked who the chief exchange student was. We said Mikayla and he then proceeded to take out his wallet and hand her two 50 euro bills and tell her to split it between us. So we each got 20 euros today!

We left soon afterwards, I caught my bus home and changed my clothes and went for a picture walk, since it was gorgeous out today. I took over 100 pictures in just over an hour of my little village here. The good ones will be up on the photo blog soon. I then went back to the house to drop off the camera and then went right back out for a run. I did a good 2 kilometers in 12 minutes, which isn't great, but it's been a while. I got home, did some abs and yoga, and grabbed a book and went back out into the sun to read in the grass. Which was LOVELY. Oh how I love the sun. Can't wait for summer weather. Anyway, it's dinner time now and then I'm going to bed early tonight!! À demain !

Fire Drill! And A Birthday :)

For the first time since I've been here, we had a fire drill at school. I was starting to worry that the Belgians were unaware of the very important practice of fire awareness and safety. But alas, they did not. So at some point this morning I found myself outside on a fire escape, you know the grid kind, wearing high heels and fearing for my life, but not for the reason of the possibility of fire.

ALSO much more importantly, today is the birthday of the one and only Talia Saville!!! I made her a cake and posted a video on YouTube with a nice little note about how much I love the girl! Talia, you rock, you're awesome, and you know how much I love you. I truly hope that this day was wonderful for you and that you enjoy the first part of your nineteenth year on Earth with me in Belgium :)

On another note, we had a nice four hour rehearsal after school today for the dance part of theater, as I have been talking about. We finally finished Bad Romance. Hopefully, it will turn out to be as good as I see it in my head!

If any members of NDW are reading this, I just want to take a moment to let you guys know how much I appreciate you and your hard work on the senior show last year.

Also, with dinner tonight we had mushrooms. I am surprised to say that I find that I actually like mushrooms now. If you know me, you know that I detested them before. Oh Belgium, how you change me (ha).

Bonne nuit tout le monde !

On A Fait La Grève

Today, we had a strike at school. The first time in my life that I participated in a strike, and it was completely involuntary. We started school two hours late today after having Monday off (which I spent watching How I Met Your Mother at Talia's house) and when I got there, I found out that in fact, we did have class the third hour either cause we were on strike. And actually, it's the teachers who decide when we strike and they just basically say no, were not giving our courses today. Thankfully, it was super sunny and warm out today, so we were able to go outside and talk to our friends and catch up with everyone since we'd all been apart for the last week on vacation. Also, during our strike, a couple of the teachers set up a barbecue in the courtyard. Interesting, right? After strike time was over, we went to class as usual and then went home and ate, made a cake for Talia, who's birthday is tomorrow, and went to dance. Which may very well have been the most frustrating class of my life. Sometimes the language barrier really gets to me. Not to mention that I'm aggravated that I've been progressively losing my dancing skills since I got here. But enough complaining. Life is good, right? Right. *sigh* ok, it's bed time for Emma. Goodnight all.

Wednesday Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. Obviously. I went to school as I normally do, only to find that Madame Gallo was going to be late. Well she didn't get to school until the beginning of the third out of four hours of class because she had to take her little son to the doctor's this morning. But it was no big deal. After class we had a rehearsal for the dance portion of the theater, like usual, and I continued to choreograph and teach the dance to "Bad Romance". But we ended up cutting out another dance from the show and adding three girls into Bad Romance. Which was a little stressful, considering we had to figure out the new lines and counts, and the fact that six people were shouting in French in my ear wasn't helping. But finally we got it all straightened out and everything was good. Apparently I'm going to do a duet number with another girl in the place of the dance that we took out. Koolio.

After the rehearsal, Talia and I went to the store to grab some stuff because we made a cake tonight. I went home with her and we made our cake, talked a bunch, ate dinner, which was potatoes and I think dates and applesauce and a sort of meat that was completely and utterly raw. Although I felt very rude, I'm sad to say that I could not bring myself to take a second bite. The fact was that it was not cooked at all other than the very outside. After dinner, Talia and I went back to our cake and I made my signature frosting, and we sat and talked more as we cleaned the frosting off of the bowl and the mixer. So yes, I broke my diet a bit today. But I figure, once in a while is ok. I just have to be good for at least the next two weeks.

I'm spending the night here tonight. We will continue to exchange music and such and just have a good girls night, which we haven't done in a while. I have to say, I miss it. Talia Saville, you're my bud and I miss how things were at the beginning of our exchange. Love ya dear!

I'll sleep well tonight I think. Bonne nuit !

6 Months... And They Flew By

Today is my six month anniversary in Belgium!!! Can you believe it? I've been here for six whole months... I've been blogging for six months. You've been reading and following my journey for six months!! It's crazy in my head. I can't believe I've actually kept up with this blog for this long... I have to say, that alone I am proud of!

So Wednesday we had that big dinner for my host mom for her birthday. The Lebanese food went over great! The spinach pies turned out perfectly, and were probably the best ones I've made in a long time. They were a huge hit and were gone by the next evening. For the main course, we had a sort of lamb stew with a medley of different vegetables and a rice pilaf. The food was excellent, and my host mom was blown away. She absolutely loved it! For dessert, we had a lemon and passionfruit sorbets.

Yesterday, however, I stayed home from school. If you read my blog Wednesday, you know how shaken I was and how stressful the day was for me. And it took it's toll and when I woke up Thursday morning, I couldn't really bring myself to move. After a half hour of attempting to pull myself out of bed, I realized it was a fruitless effort and resigned to the fact that my body needed sleep. So I was awake for a total of 10 hours yesterday, in which I spent time with the host family, ate, and watched movies (Fried Green Tomatoes and Mrs. Doubtfire).

Today, I went to school as usual, to discover that Madame Gallo was absent today. Which meant that I had two hours free before lunch. So what did I do with those two hours? In the spirit of spontaneity, and with the influence of Mikayla, I bit the bullet and got my hair cut. It's short... Like a good six or seven inches than it was before. The bangs are too short and I don't much care for them, but they will grow out quickly and I'm happy with the actual cut. Plus, it wasn't too expensive, so I'm satisfied with that. And the bangs will be fine by next weekend; they grow fast. After lunch, I had a huge math test that I'm not very confident that I did well on... You see, I missed one hour a week with the class with Père Boly, and that really took it's toll on my math. So try as I might, it was very hard to keep up, especially with it being in French and all. Then I went to the gym for the first time this week, ate dinner, and discussed my parents arrival and stay with my host dad, who is being so incredibly helpful with all the planning. It's great to have someone letting me know about all the options that are out there. It's gonna be hard to fit it all in, but I'm confident that we can do it!

I don't know how it's possible, but I'm exhausted. I blame the Belgian weather, i.e. Lack of sunshine.

Bonne nuit !

A New Day

I want to apologize for my post on Valentine's Day. Obviously I was having a bad day. But the truth is that none of us are pathetic. Some of us spend the day of love without a boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, life companion, etc. But that doesn't mean we're alone. We have our friends, our family, and the people we spend every day with. If nothing else, we should remember God's love on that day, as it really is St. Valentine's Day. So again, I'm sorry to bring everyone down with my three lines of sadness.

However, I have to say that today didn't go much better... I started off my day with Social Sciences, where we finished watching a truly beautiful Spanish film about a man who is paralyzed from the neck down and is fighting for his "right" to kill himself by means of euthanasia. This film left me with a few tears rolling down my face as I watched the Roman take his poison and die. Afterwards, we discussed the film and our own personal standings on the issue of euthanasia. And that is something that I am very passionate about. The life issues have always had a special place in my heart since I lost my aunt to suicide when I was a young girl. After her death, and then the death of Nick this year, I have been fragile to the issues. And when we talked about it today, for some reason I just could not contain myself. After I expressed my standing on the issue, in very broken French, since I found it difficult to find the words I wanted to use, I couldn't help but break down into silent tears. Talia was sitting next to me and she was the only one who noticed. I rushed the bathroom as soon as the bell rang and cleaned myself up, and I thought I was ok, but then as soon as I had to face people again, the waterworks began again. For some reason I just could not pull myself together for more than a few seconds. And to make matters worse, everyone was asking me if I was ok, but I couldn't even open my mouth to answer because I didn't want to make a scene. Then I had French class, where I had to take part in another oral presentation. I really didn't think it was going to happen, as my eyes were starting to well up again. At the beginning of my French class, Madame Gallo noticed that I was crying (again) and asked if I wanted to talk to her for a minute in the hall. I said yes and got up and followed her outside. I got out there and just let go and sobbed, thoughts of Nick and Aunt Sharon rushing through my head. You know sometimes things don't completely hit you all the way the first time. Or maybe they do, but you're so much more fragile than you think you are. Regardless, my entire composure was cracked, and Madame Gallo saw that. I asked her if I could speak English, and she yes and I poured the whole story out to her. And I have to say, I love Madame Véronique Gallo with all of my heart because she helped me so much. She comforted me and then told me that if I wanted to, I could go home early instead of staying for class. I decided that was best, since there was no way I would be able to get through the class, let alone the presentation, without making a total fool of myself. So I got my things together and went outside to the bus stop. The fresh air was cold today, but the sun was shining and it did me a load of good. I went home and very briefly explained to my host mom why I was home and hour early because I started crying again. She was with Léo and she understood entirely. So I went up to my room and calmed myself down once again.

I spent the rest of the morning finishing my book, "Memoirs of a Geisha". That is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. I then went downstairs and spent some time with my host parents and Léo, ate a Belgian version of a Hot Pocket, and then went upstairs for a quick cat nap before joining my host dad and Olivier for the real event of the day: cooking a birthday dinner for my host mom! We had decided to make a Lebanese meal since she really likes Lebanese food and I was given the task of making spinach pies, which I gladly accepted. We did the grocery shopping and then I went right to it! It took me four hours to make a half batch, but I did it! And thoroughly enjoyed it too. We had no rolling pin, so I had to improvise and used the olive oil bottle, but it worked and I ended up making a decent amount. We also couldn't find allspice, but I improvised on that too... Hopefully, there will leftovers tomorrow! We haven't eaten the dinner yet, so I'll have to give details tomorrow on the rest of the food.

Usually I make cake. This time I made a real Lebanese dish from my heritage. And it made me very happy to do so.

Obviously I've had a rough couple of days. But I got through it with my family back home and my family here supporting me. Not to mention my amazing friends, both American and Belgian. Special thanks goes out to Miss Kaitlyn Dessoffy, Mademoiselle Romane Robert, Mademoiselle Lucie Gérard, Madame Gallo, my wonderful parents and sister, Miss Sandy Veres, and Miss Kaitlyn Conners, among many many others who have done great things for me over these past couple days. Also thank you to my readers. Just the very fact that you read my blog and support me means a lot to me. I love you all and you rock my world, no matter which part of it I'm in!

Until tomorrow, everyone. Love you!!!!

Oh Say Can You See?

Nothing of particular interest happened today, as seems to be the norm lately. I got up this morning, ON TIME! I went to school, sat through my classes, wrote a letter, and then at lunch, Talia and I went to the gym. Eduardo walked with us too because he had nothing else to do. We decided to do it this way today because she has three hours of étude after lunch and I have two. So we went up there, eating our lunch on the way, and did a little abbreviated version of our workout. I did forty minutes on the elliptical and twenty minutes of abs when it was all said and done. We then made our way back to school, stopping briefly at the pharmacy so Eduardo could pick up some Vitamin C pills, since he seems to be getting sick more often than back in Mexico.

We then went back to school and I went to my science class, and that was about the most interesting part of my day. We were there, and we somehow got on the subject of patriotism. And for some reason, we got into the differences between patriotism in America and in Belgium. My science teacher spent some time in Texas, I don't know if it was an exchange or what, but he was saying how just about everyone in the States knows the Star Spangled Banner, and then he asked how many people in the room knew all of the Belgian national anthem by heart, and only two people raised their hands. Then he asked me if I knew the whole Star Spangled Banner, and of course I said yes, because I do. But of course, that brought on every single person in the room asking me to sing. I said no repeatedly, but eventually I just said fine and I sang about half of it. And I sounded awful and my voice was way out of commission, but then everyone told me I sounded great and I have a beautiful voice... Which I don't understand but whatever. They should hear me on a good day, then they'd be impressed! Then we talked about school and university and driving and all the typical stuff that Belgians ask about the States.

I then finished my day and went home on the bus, where I met someone new who goes to the other school in Hannut. He was sad that Mikayla and I didn't go to that school. Anyway, I went home and ate way too much food and watched some Frasier before my host dad got home. Then I ate again with him, spaghetti, though I didn't eat much, and then I went to dance, where we are doing a dance to the opening number of one of my favorite musicals, "A Chorus Line". Of course, it's the movie version, which is lame, but hey I'll take it.

Now I'm exhausted and I have to shower... But then I shall be in bed and sleeping, hopefully by eleven. I better get on it! Goodnight all.