Healthy Emma

So I'm on this total health kick. I've put myself on a diet, I'm still going to the gym regularly, I'm working my butt off dancing trying to get together my audition DVDs for college and I've taken up yoga. Which I find myself strangely addicted to after just 3 days. Isn't it wonderful? The only problem right now is that my back is absolutely killing me and I haven't slept all the way through the night in the past week... But other than that, life is fabulous!

I'm not sick, but everyone else seems to be. My host dad is just getting over something, as is Talia, and at least half of the people I come in contact to every day can't barely say hello without their voice giving up on them. Not gonna lie, I'm moving into super hygiene mode where I refuse to do almost anything without washing my hands.

It's been a calm week so far. But my glasses are totally 100% percent broken. The glue that the woman put on there a couple weeks ago did not hold and I have to get new glasses. However, when I talked to someone today, they told me that it often takes a month to get new glasses. So I'm stressing about that a little too, wondering how I am going to see for the next month. My host parents are gone for the night, but it will be the first thing that I bring up tomorrow morning.

See, I have these problems, but they're not bothering me and life is still good :)

Yesterday my host mom made ratatouille. I just thought I'd throw that out there. It was delicious. I'm hyped up on veggies. And haven't eaten any chocolate or candy or dessert type food in three days. WOO health!

I also began my audition tapes today for college. It's proving to be much more difficult and time consuming that I originally predicted.

I am just making a bunch of little random points today that don't necessarily flow... I'm sorry for my odd rambling today. I'm just exhausted and in a weird mood. I did a dance in my jazz class that I choreographed for college auds and it just killed me. Ok bed time.

Bonne nuit !

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.

Back At School Again...

I want to be in bed in ten minutes, so here we go with the super fast blogging sensation, EMMA!!! Rahhhh rahhhh.

Ok that's enough silliness, let's get down to business. (to defeat... the HUNS)

Ok really I'm ready to begin now.

Obviously, today turned out to be a pretty good day, though it was average. In the States, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, and the majority of my family and friends did not have school today. However, this holiday is not recognized in Belgium, so I had to go to school like any other Monday.

I went through my day as usual, until I found out that I have a legit chance to go to Paris!!! It would be a few days, organized by the wonderful Madame Gallo and the school in April. I'm still not sure if I'm going, but I would really like to, considering I've never been.

And then my math teacher wasn't there so I got out two hours early today and went to the gym. But on the way there, I spotted my host dad, and he was able to drive me so I didn't have to walk the half hour. Of course, this meant I couldn't stop at the store for the essential things that I needed, but that wasn't a big deal.

Today at the gym, I did forty minutes of elliptical, twenty minutes of abs, a good twenty-five minutes of weights, some stair climber, twenty minutes on the bike, and then Talia joined me. Then I did arms and some more abs and then I left to go to the Champion to do the shopping that I didn't get to do before and catch my bus.

I then returned to an empty dark house, which was eerie because I could not find a light switch. But within the hour, my host dad came home and I was down in the kitchen talking with him and having a good conversation all about America and food and how not all Americans are fat, but explaining the fast food system and all that. I think I did us justice and showed how there are a lot of Americans who do care about health and eat well, like me, who enjoys veggies.

For dinner, we had a sort of stir fry with chicken and beans and vegetables and a bit of sausage. We also had chicon, which really is growing on me, and rice. For dessert, I had a caramel crème thing. Which was basically pudding. Yummy. But I'm still having a serious weakness for chocolate and I need to kick that in the butt cause it's taking a toll on my what-should-be-toned abs.

ONE MINUTE LEFT.

Then I just Facebooked and made plans to go to Brussels this Saturday, which I'm psyched about. Now I shall sleep.

I successfully did this blog post in under 10 minutes. Goooooooooo ME!

Ok I'm obviously hyper today. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep. À demain !

Sick And Tired

Quite literally. Oh the joys of being female... But we won't get into that, because as I've said before, this is a family friendly blog, and the guys don't wanna hear about it.

But I will tell you how the last couple days have gone down. Yesterday, I actually had a fairly decently good day! It was Wednesday, which meant half day at school. First hour with the Père Boly, second hour in Social Sciences, and the last two in French. Right after school, Talia and I went to the gym, but since it was rainy and cold and gross outside, like Belgium has been lately, we decided to grab the bus, thinking it would be faster. Well, it wasn't. We stopped at one of the bus stops, and these guys in uniforms got on. Turns out they were the "conductors" for the buses. They go around the bus and make sure that everyone on it either has a bus pass that is valid or they paid for the ride. That is the first time it's ever happened to me. They do it sporadically and nobody ever knows when they'll be coming on the bus. I think somebody got fined because they had the wrong kind of bus pass, but I'm not sure.

Anyways, we got to the gym and Talia and I worked out for about an hour. I ran on the treadmill for the first time in a long time, and it was sadly tiring. I only did about ten minutes. But I also think I might be developing shin splints, which would be terrible, so I also have to take that easy. But all in all, it was fine, as usual. After we finished at the gym, we went back into Hannut and met up with Aymeric. Well, Talia met up with him. I tagged along for food (yes I know) at Point Chaud, where I had a mozzarella and tomato panini, and then I was outta there. I had texted a couple people to figure out when my bus passed through and they told me every hour at 5 after. So I planned on that and walked to the stop. But then it got to be 20 after and there was no bus. And it was rainy and the wind was blowing. So I was frustrated. And I walked back to the Grand Place and down one of the main roads, looking for a bus schedule, but of course every schedule is posted except for the 127. So eventually I just stopped at one of them and waited, figuring that a bus would have to come by eventually. About an hour after the original time I planned on, the bus pulled up. So it did come ever hour at 5 after, just not to the stop that I had thought. So really, I ended up standing in the rain for over an hour, waiting for a bus, because I didn't know that they don't always stop at all the stops. So Which is confusing. What is also confusing is that when I take that bus after school, it goes through a few villages before mine, but yesterday it went straight to Bertrée. Weird. But my conclusion is that the Belgian bus system has conspired with the Belgian weather to make me miserable. They both suck.

Once I got home, I didn't really do anything... It was already like 5 30pm, and I watched a whole bunch of "How I Met Your Mother" and finished season 2 while eating chocolate and peanut butter because I was craving it. Don't judge me. Then my host mom called me, asking where I was, and when I told her I was in the house, she laughed and said she didn't hear me upstairs so she wasn't sure if I was there. I laughed too and went down to dinner and ate with her. We had pork that had ham and cheese inside it and was breaded. And along side that was a carrot and potato mixture that was very good. It was already late and we had missed the news, so I went up to bed after that.

This morning I woke up and went to school as usual, but in a really bad mood. Lately, I've been feeling like a Coke bottle that a little kid has been shaking to see how long it will take before the lid just bursts off. I've just been feeling all kinds of stress and anxiety and everything building up inside of me. I want to go somewhere and scream, but I can't because I really think that it would freak out my host parents... Anyways, I have been predicting for a while when the big meltdown was going to happen, because I knew it was coming. Originally I had predicted it for today, but then I had such a good day yesterday (aside from the whole bus situation) that I thought I would make it til the weekend. But then during my Science class today, my little friend decided to pay me a visit. And tear my body apart in the process. Long story short, I ate my lunch but was in so much pain that I ended up alone in Père Boly's office for the rest of the lunch hour and the next hour (I had study hall). Talia had a few Advil that I was able to take, but they didn't seem to do much. The last time I had pain that bad was in the States and I had almost gone to the hospital because of it. One of my biggest fears lately has been that it was going to happen again while I was here and the fact that it happened in school made it so much worse. So needless to say, that did a great deal in bringing on the predicted anxiety attack.

When the pain gets that bad, I get to a point where I can neither sit nor stand nor walk nor lay down. Nothing feels comfortable. I'm just in pain. So there I was, laying on the bed in his office, alone, crying and twitching, trying to make it go away. Eventually I ended up kneeling on the floor with my torso laying across the bed and I fell asleep. That is how it happened last time too, except I fell asleep with my head in my mother's lap. I woke up when Talia and Mikayla and Eduardo came back from their adventures in Hannut. And I woke up with lines on my face from the blanket. The pain was way less, but it was still kind of there and I was worried so I called Colette and caught a bus home. This time, I waited at the right stop, and caught a decently timed bus.

I got home and ate a sandwich and then went upstairs where I ate more peanut butter and chocolate and watched "Frasier". I wasn't feeling too bad, and I ended up falling into a really restless sleep. The nap lasted a few hours, but I woke up quite a few times because the pain and cramps started to come back in waves. The thing about my cramps is that they radiate to my back and all the way down my tailbone instead of normal people who just get them in the lower stomach region, so there is no such thing as a comfortable position when they get that bad. Eventually I could not sleep anymore. This is when the big part of the meltdown happened and I sat in my bed and cried for a good hour. Just cried and cried. It was quite sad. Eventually, my host dad came up and asked me if I wanted to eat something. So I dried my eyes and tried to pull myself together because I knew that I should eat something good. By this time it was 8 30pm. I clearly wasn't going to my dance class tonight.

I get downstairs and both my host parents are smiling at me and trying to make me feel better. My host mom gave me a hug! A legitimate hug! I cried again, but I wasn't embarrassed, and they didn't laugh at me or make me feel uncomfortable. She just hugged me again and I dried my eyes and everything was ok. And I don't know what it was about it, but everything was just so warm and comforting and even though I was in a lot of pain, I felt better because they were just so sweet. Not even in an outwardly obvious sort of way. I don't know what it was. But I just feel so much more at home here. It's like they have really taken me in as their daughter. They gave me some meds, which I normally would refuse, but the pain was getting to be unbearable again. Colette had already made me a plate of food, so they just threw it in the microwave for me and both of my host parents sat down with me while I ate. It was a vegetable medley with some spices and a couple of meatballs. Which were really delicious. And then I had a sort of yogurt thing for dessert, but it didn't have much of a flavor so I added some jelly to some of it and honey to another part. I really love it here.

After I finished eating, I went back up to my room and talked with people, including my mom. And now I'm going to try to sleep again. I'm not sure that I will go to school tomorrow. We will see how I feel when I wake up. Right now, I'm ok. But as far as how it goes in the morning, we'll find out. But for now, sleepy time. Bonne nuit tout le monde.

As Promised...

Ok so here's my blog with pictures for the last couple days. Where did we leave off? Oh yes, Sunday. It seems that this house can get a little crazy. I tried not to get up too late on Sunday. I think I woke up around 10 00 or 10 30, and was down at the table at 11am. Sundays here mean pastry. So I had a really delicious pain au chocolat, which is really a fancy chocolate filled croissant. Which was a wonderful leap of faith that someone took somewhere long long ago. After breakfast, I donned my coat and gloves, and my host mom and I went on a walk through my new village, Bertrée. She showed me all the houses of the people she knows, the church, the roads, and a little monument that is on a corner that marks the borders. It was cold, but it was nice because there was some sun and the village looked kind of happy, which I haven't seen in a while.

Once we got back to the house, I finished up arranging my room, though I still need to hang my pictures and such. And my jewelry is still in a bag. So it's almost done. I then went down to eat lunch with my host parents, Amandine and AB. We had soup to start off with. Colette explained that she always makes soup on Sundays, because she has the time, and then we have soup for the week. Cool system. This week, it was a broth made from all kinds of different vegetables, and it was wonderful and kinda cleansing in a way. We started off with that. Next, we had a sort of salmon torte thing... I don't really know how to describe it. There was a crust, but it wasn't like a pie crust. Thinner and crunchier. And it was filled with salmon and a sort of cheese filling. But not very thick. And each slice had a nice big hunk of broccoli on it. I know I didn't do a very good job of describing it, but it was very good. I just really like salmon. The actual meal was chicken in a mustard sauce, rice pilaf, and the rest of the broccoli that didn't go on the torte. The mustard sauce was a little spicy, but had great flavors in it and everything was just really good. I didn't think it was possible to beat the cooking at the Crismer house, but Colette is really giving them a run for their money! As we finished up eating, we had visitors at the house. I'm not really sure how they are related to the family, but they were there and Colette heated up some food for them and we had a conversation. It was a young couple and the man had been to the States for a few months. He actually lived in Ohio. And liked it. No, loved it. Weird... But he was in Columbus so I guess that's legit... Then Olivier and Marie and Léo popped in for a visit. Amandine and AB had left already, because Amandine had to get things ready for a show she was stage managing. And we were going to go see it. So Olivier left little Léo with us to see the show, and Colette and Léo and I got in the car and drove not too far to get there.

The show was held in a barn behind a house. That sounds way worse than it actually was. It was a very nice room where they had it, though it was small. The show was for children, and was all about dreaming and imagination. There were a lot of cool lights and effects used and overall, it was very very well done. And Léo stayed nice and quiet through it all :) After the show, we went out and my Colette got herself a coffee, a piece of chocolate cake for Léo, and a piece of apple crumble and orange juice for me, even though I didn't really ask for anything. But it was very nice of her and the crumble was excellent. And Léo ate almost all of the cake! It was too cute. He is just a little bundle of cuteness! I love him, I do. We met back up with Amandine and then we all went back to the house, where we sat down with the couple who was there earlier, Amandine, Marie, Olivier, and my host parents, and we ate... More cake. Another king's cake. This time, Jacques was the king. The cake was very good, but it gave me a stomach ache cause I hadn't eaten any real food since lunch. I watched the news with my host parents, and then we ate dinner late around 9pm and I did not feel well. But I managed to have some soup and half a sandwich after calming myself down and convincing myself I was not going to be sick. After dinner, I went upstairs and finished my English presentation. Which kept me up til 3am.

I woke up the next morning at 7am. And I went to school for the first time in three weeks. And remembered that I don't have English on Mondays because of the session with Père Boly. So I had stayed up for nothing. But at least it was done. I also got my report card. I did alright. Not fabulously. I failed three classes: religion, math and science. I was really close in religion... One point. The other two, I knew I wouldn't do well, because in math I miss quite a bit because of the class with Père Boly, and in science, I only failed the exam, not the class, because I wasn't able to finish in time. So I'm not stressed about it.

After school, Talia and I went to the gym and there were a million people there. We figured it's cause of New Year's resolutions. Which they do here as well. My host dad picked me up around 6 30 and I went home and ate dinner with my host parents. We had soup and then this turkey that was breaded and stuffed with boursin cheese, which is a garlic cheese. We also had potatoes and cooked lettuce, which is actually really good because the sauce she made was creamy, but it was from the vegetables. Again, win. I did not have any dessert though, because I need to stop eating bad things. Though there is a ton of chocolate in my room from Christmas, and I can't stop eating that... After dinner I watched the news with my host mom, but was dozing off during it and went upstairs and fell asleep by 10 00 after tweaking my presentation a bit.

Today was nothing special. I got up and went to school. I did my presentation today and Talia got through most of hers. I had a mistake in mine and felt like an American idiot (ha...) but whatevs. The teacher thought it was great. I went through the school day without many problems, although I snagged two holes in my new tights and I'm pretty upset... After school, I took the bus home. I wasn't sure when to push the button to get off, but luckily somebody else took care of it and everything was good and I got off at the right stop. Nobody was home, but I just went upstairs and though I was going to take a nap, I watched about 4 episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" before my dance class. Then I ate dinner. My host dad made me some pasta and some pork, though I didn't finish it all. We talked about the marching band, which I enjoy talking about because they don't have that here and people are interested in it. I then went to my jazz class.

I'm getting really bored of the dance classes here. It's the same thing all the time, and we never learn anything new. All the choreography is the same stuff just put into different orders. I know that I'm used to a higher level, but it's really starting to have an effect on my own personal level of dancing... Which is difficult to handle. But it was funny today because one of my friends said something about a "foque". In French, the word "foque" means "seal". But if you say it out loud, it sounds like a certain word in English that I will not spell out because this is a family-friendly blog, and I would hate for my PG rating to jump to R with one post. So use your brains, people, and catch onto my subtle innuendoes. In other news, we started a new dance to the opening song from "A Chorus Line", which is up there on my list of favorite musicals. Although we're using the movie version, which is not half as good as the stage version, but hey I'll take what I can get.

Now I'm here writing this post and getting ready to add pictures and then hit the sack. SO TIRED ALL THE TIME. Good things tomorrow's a half day... And all with Madame Gallo!! Win!!! Bonne nuit :)

The kitchen woo!

The cat that woke me up at 6 30am, is a ninja, is loud, and I want to throw out a window.

The foyer when you first walk in.

The dining room.
Yes, that table for the television is an old Singer sewing machine. Cool, right??
The living room, still decorated for Christmas.
My bed!
My room. It looks a little messy like that, but I was just trying to add some color...
My suitcase/cardboard box rig in the armoire.

My own little hallway.
MY bathroom!!
MY sitting area!
MY balcony!!

Liège And Bruges

First of all, turns out I've been spelling "Bruges" the Flemish way all this time (Brugge). "Bruges" is the French way, so I should switch over to that, though I will continue to tag it as "Brugge".

Yesterday, I started my day by going to the TEC office, which is the bus company. My host mom went with me to get my first bus pass for this month since I'll need the bus more often in my next host family. That went pretty easily and I walked out of there with it in my hand. I then went, as usual, to the gym. There are some very interesting people there. Like the guy who comes in and works out in his jeans. Or the woman who wears her scarf and nice shoes. Of course, you have your typical beef monster who's ALWAYS there and looks like he could crush your head like a walnut if you told him something he didn't want to hear. Regardless, Talia hasn't been going with my lately because her family was here, so I've been hanging out and doing my stuff by myself for the past few times. It's weirdly relaxing... Shouldn't it be the opposite?

Then, I decided last minute to meet up with Hadley and Oakley in Liège and stay over at Hadley's house last night. We did some shopping in the Médiacité, but I didn't buy anything except a scoop of lemon sorbet from the Haagen Daas. Yum. Then we walked back to the station and caught a train to Welkenraedt and a bus to Hadley's house where I was able to use my brand new shiny bus pass! We went to her house and helped her host family make dinner. I made the fries! I learned all about how to use a deep fryer and make real Belgian frites. Did you know they fry them twice? That's apparently what makes them Belgian... We had those with these really delicious meatballs and a sauce. And salad. It was a really good dinner. Then we went up to Hadley's room and just talked and such, ate way too much chocolate and homemade biscotti. I was sleeping by midnight, but apparently Hadley and Oakley stayed up a while longer. But I was glad I went to sleep because we had to get up bright and early at 6am the following day to catch a 6:40 bus to catch a 7:20 train to Guillemans because there was a Rotary trip to Bruges today.

We didn't have to meet at the station until 8:45am. We got there at 7:55am. So we took that time to get some real breakfast. I had a latte and a croissant. Slowly, the exchange students trickled into the station and we eventually took over, like we always do and it was the invasion of the exchange students. We caught a 9am train to Bruges. It took two hours to get there. So we just spent it talking and exchanging stories. We met up with Brittany and Alexanne also. Once we got there, we lost Rotary because we had decided to follow other exchange students, expecting they knew where they were going. Well, they didn't. So we went back into the station, but couldn't find anyone, so we ended up just going into Bruges just us five. I was the only one in the group who had been there before, and thankfully I kind of knew my around, ish. We got Chinese food, did some touristy things, some shopping, got a waffle, and eventually met back up with everyone at the station around 5:30pm after an unfortunate encounter with a crabby waiter.

We road the two hour train back to Liège, talking, taking pictures,and me falling asleep because I was dead tired. I also wasn't feeling so hot, though I'm ok now, and I'm still dealing with quite a bit of stress and homesickness. I still am. I caught another train to Waremme and talked with Gaby on the way. I'm tired now, I haven't eaten much, and I'm waiting to Skype with my family. Tomorrow, I switch families. Woot! Goodnight all.

Yesterday And Today

So I had every intention of blogging yesterday, but it didn't happen for the sole reason that I forgot. I'm a terrible person, yes I know.

So yesterday was a pretty average day. I didn't really do anything special. I woke up and ate breakfast, hung out for a while, wrote some of my book ate lunch, and went to the gym. At the gym, there was a group of four guys who did their entire workout in Santa hats. They would head bang to the music and the end of the hat would be all over the place. It was really funny. After that, I went home and watched "All About Steve", which was a terrible movie and I'm very upset to know that such a wonderful and talented actress as Sandra Bullock has her name attached to that piece of dog poo. Although, Bradley Cooper made it worth suffering through the hour and a half of bad cinema.

There's my review for you.

Today, I woke up, ate breakfast, went to the gym for two hours, came home, ate lunch, took a nap, and then got ready and went to Talia's house with her family (real family) and two of her host families and Mikayla for a dinner. Mikayla and I got there before Talia and her family, and it was odd. But it was only about ten minutes later when they got there and we hit it off right away. I need to keep this short because Mikayla is here and I feel rude. But basically we had dinner and talked to her family. They are super super nice and her sister is a little sweetheart. Manon came a little ways through the dinner and we had fun talking with her and Geraldine and watching Talia's sister and host sister try to communicate with the language barrier. Anyways, now I'm laughing my butt off with Mikayla. She says hi. We're laughing really hard. Goodnight world.

Christmas Shopping

Today I went to Liège with Brittany and Hadley to do some mad Christmas shopping before the big day on Saturday. No, nobody's getting married. It's Christmas you silly gooses!!

I woke up this morning to find that the buses still are not running in my little village of Fumal. Convenient. Not. So my host mom drove me to the gym this morning around 10am. We got there just as they were opening and some other people were already waiting outside. These people are intense when they want to be. Anyway, Talia met me there and we worked out for about an hour and a half, just doing the regular circuit as is habitual. Then we took a quick run over to the grocery store so that Talia could pick up a few things, and then we caught a bus back over by the gym with only a minute to spare. Talia took it home, but I stayed on and rode all the way to the Waremme train station, where I caught a train to Liège. I met up with Hadley and Brittany around 1 15 and we caught a bus over the Médiacité, which is like a mall in the middle of Liège. I had no idea it existed! And I discovered Primark, a wonderful store with very well priced clothing and jewelry and shoes and stuff. I finally bought myself a pair of man shoes that I've been looking around forever for! And I got myself some slippers too, since I tend to be so freezing. Then I helped the other two find presents for their host families, which was successful. We all walked out of the store happy. We then did some other shopping and eventually decided to head over to where the Marché de Noël is, where I've been spending a lot of my time lately. But first we dropped Hadley back off at the train station, since she had to catch an earlier train. But then me and Brit headed over and we finished up our Christmas shopping and then caught a bus back to the station, where she got her bus and I, my train. The station was cool because all the lights were shining red for Christmas and there was a group in the middle of the station performing. Not Christmas carols, but they were singing. Songs like "What A Wonderful World" and "Oh Happy Day". Nice.

My host mom picked me up from Waremme and then I went straight to dance, which went very well today. Then I went home, ate the dinner I hadn't had before, and took my shower. Now I'm getting ready to go to sleep since there's a big party tomorrow in Hannut for the end of exams. Woo! As you can see, today wasn't too exciting. And I haven't eaten anything noteworthy the last couple days. I probably won't blog tomorrow since I have the party, but I'm sure I will have plenty to say the next day!

Bonne nuit :)

TGIF. Although Thursday Was Pretty Great

It's Friday. Which means I'm officially done with exams and I'm on vacation! Yay for no more school! Kinda... Call me crazy but I'm not too psyched for break. I guess it's cause Christmas is in a week and it doesn't feel like it at all. There are no Christmas songs on the radio, no lights on the houses, no TV specials, no movies, no Nutcracker, no Christmas cookies, no big crazy decorations... Not to mention it's hard to be away from home on the holidays. But I really do think it would be a lot worse if I was still on Facebook. So I'm actually really glad I deactivated. Today I had Social Sciences as far as exams. Mikayla and I were able to take it together, and I think we did a really good job on it.

But the really interesting part of this post is yesterday. I had my Science exam, and I just did not haven enough time to finish it. I really only got through about half. The genetics part, because that's what I knew well. But I'm not too concerned about it. But after that, me and Talia went to the gym, as usual, and we biked, worked out our legs, and then did some elliptical. But then for some reason, my arm is really killing me today... Anyways, we also did some ab stuff and took a nice long stretch at the end, which hurt really bad, but also did a lot of good. Then afterwards, we took the bus to Talia's, where we chowed down, talked to her host family, and just chilled for a couple hours. Then we got in the car and her host brother drove us back to the school to meet up with Madame Gallo.

She had decided that she wanted to sort of be in charge of us as exchange students, and kind of act as our counselor and mentor, since she had been an exchange student when she was in high school. She spent the year in Oregon. And she's awesome. So she asked us if we would like to organize some activities with her. And last night, she took us to she her show. She's a comedian. And she wrote a one woman show that she is performing in Brussels. So she took us with her! I was super excited. The entire ride there, we talked, in French of course and just had a really good conversation. And it was snowing. OH MY GOD. But Mme Gallo is so cool, she has snow tires so she doesn't drive like a 86 year old woman.

We got to the cultural center, and she showed us into the theater, and even showed us backstage and her dressing room. But then, obviously, she had to get ready for the show, so we went into the town to find some chow for Eduardo. After taking a few pictures on the stage, of course. We went out into the snow and found a fries and pita place, and Eduardo ordered a taco! He said it was kinda similar to what he had in Mexico. But it had fries on it. It was interesting. I didn't taste it though. After that, we took a few minutes and went into a café and sat down for a drink. Then we went back to the theater, got our free tickets, and waited for the doors to open. And then it was show time. It was a little studio theater so it was pretty intimate and we sat only three rows back. And it was a WONDERFUL show! I laughed so hard. And a big part of it too was the pure fact that she's my teacher doing ridiculous things on stage. The best part of it was that I understood almost every single word that she said. The show she wrote was about American cinema and she talked about classic films like Casablanca and Bridgette Jones. And showed a bunch of different props that were "from the movies". And it was really hysterical. She had this giant pillow beanbag thing that she would use for different things, and at one point she danced the tango with it to "Roxanne" from The Moulin Rouge.

After the show, she took us back to Mikayla's house, and on the way back she told us stories about her exchange and we just had a really great time talking and laughing and everything was splendid. Then we got to Mikayla's house, all of us, and crashed. After having a midnight snack. By the way, peanut butter and Nutella and jelly is a wonderful sandwich combination.

This morning, we woke up and went to school. I went to the gym by myself afterwards, since there were no buses running because of the snow, so Talia could not come up to meet me. But when my host mom picked me up, we went to pick up Damien from school and brought his friends home too. But before, we did a little shopping at the mall there (yes a MALL) and I bought some presents for my family.

When I got home, I went to work on Christmas cards. I got about halfway through. Now I'm getting ready for bed. So bonne nuit tout le monde !

Sore Day And The Cookie Mountain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh and my host dad wore his red pants today.

Bonne nuit!

Remember That Day That I Called Exercise Day?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Les Personnes, Ils Changent

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

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

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

Bonne nuit tout le monde.