Theater, Family, And A Communion

Yesterday was Saturday, and not a very exciting one. That is, during the day. I got up around 11am to go to dance, which I went to. We kept working on the show. Which I can't say I'm the biggest fan of, but hey. At least I'm dancing... Right? Right?! Right. *sigh*

The rest of the afternoon I spent vegging out in front of the computer, which I'm falling into a terrible habit of doing. I really need to get outside and do things instead. I'll make a mental note, promise. Anyways, I later got a phone call from Ben inviting me to go with him and his parents to see Amandine's latest show. Of course, I took the opportunity to see the family and accepted the invitation. He came and picked me up around 5 and we met back up with his parents at the house where we set off with the AB to go to the theater. We got there just in time for the first part of the show. Part One was with all younger kids, up until age 14. The started it off with a sort of "contemporary" dance number, but to be honest, I'm not even sure what it was. I will say no more, because if I continue it's only going to get mean. After two dance numbers, there was a sort of series of short theater scenes. Again, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what was going on. There was a lot of miming and people pretending to be objects. And a boy who played the clarinet in between the scenes. That I liked. He played well. Anyways, after the theater there was another sort of dance number with chairs. That was, again, kind of a fail. But I digress...

There was then a nice long break for everyone to go eat dinner. You had the option to buy a ticket to eat there or go out to find a restaurant. We went out into the town and found a cute little Italian place where we ate outside. I got a pizza that had shrimp and mushrooms on it. You know, I never liked mushrooms in the States. Actually, I very much hated them. I eat them all the time now. Mushrooms and tomatoes... Strange. Anyways, it was delicious, and yes, I ate the whole thing. I remember when I first got here and I saw a girl eat a whole pizza and I was amazed and disgusted at the same time... I may have written about that actually (it was in Bruges). Regardless, I am now one of those girls and it's taking a toll on my waistline, that's for sure. Anyway, after a very nice dinner of good food and great conversation with my amazing host family, we got back in the car and went back to the theater for the second part of the show.

The second part was adults. This time it started off with one lone man on the stage and a woman playing the piano. A very simple song, but I liked it. I thought it held a lot of emotion. And the man danced. A sort of contemporary interpretive dance. It was interesting. I can't say I loved it, but I didn't hate it. It was interesting. And I wonder if it was choreographed or he improved it. I have no idea. Anyways, afterwards, there was a little theater scene with a whole bunch of ladies and one male bartender. The premise was basically that it was a bar that was having a special soirée, "Groovy Sexy Flashy Lady". And all the different types of women that came. It was long. And odd. And I did zone out a couple times. But it was obviously a good group and there was a nice energy about them. And you could tell that they were proud of what they did, so I say good for them.

We had drink tickets for after the show and we went to get an orange juice, but after one sip we realized that it was not regular orange juice (amaretto apparently?) and I opted out. We left soon after to go back to the house. When it was all said and done I ended up staying the night at my second house, which involved the newest episode of "The Big Bang Theory" which was actually the season finale which left SO much hanging! I can't wait for the next season. Yes, I'm a geek, and yes, I'm proud of it. It also involved me wanting to reach into my own ears and rip out all the innards because my allergies are driving me NUTS.

Anyways, I had to get up nice and early this morning to get back to my regular house to go to the communion mass for Philippine. Remember, we had her party last weekend? We all got ready and I put a bow in Philippine's hair and she put on her white robe and we were off. Communions here are different from in the States. Here, you don't have a beautiful white mini-bridal gown for your communion. All the girls wear the same type of robe over their clothing tied with a white cord and a sort of scarf draped around their neck. It almost resembles what the priest wears. The boys had something very similar, but without pleats and with a hood. They all processed in carrying candles and sat in the middle of the church. The mass lasted about two hours and involved every kid going up to the alter and giving a profession of faith which they wrote themselves. Some of them were truly beautiful, and Philippine's made her mommy cry! It really did me a lot of good to go to another mass. Eventually I will write a nice long description witness blog about my spirituality. For now, all you guys need to know is that I love God and Jesus and I truly believe that He is getting me through this exchange, through the good and bad.

Right after the communion, I got to play photographer and take pictures of Philippine with all the different family members that were there, including Karine. I caught up a little with her and then we went home. And then it was lunch time. Which I normally look forward to. But this was something else...

Remember raquelettes (sp?)? Ok well it was kind of like that. Except instead of a plate of cheese and lunch meat type meat being passed around, it was a platter of raw meat. Literally, completely raw disgusting meat. Ok, not disgusting. The meat was perfectly fine. But raw! Like, entirely 100% just butchered the animal raw! And we didn't put it right on the hot plates on the table. Oh no, we piled that raw meat right onto our dishes, up next to our salad and fries. And some of that raw meat, yes, was chicken. Which means there was a nice pool of salmonella just hanging around on my plate. Of course, me being me, I paid A LOT of attention to this and put my meat on the edge of my plate and kept my other food nice and far from it and was very careful not to let my cooked from touch any of the juices from the raw. Nobody else took these precautions. They just let their fries get covered in raw chicken juice. Blech. And then you know, you use the same fork that you eat with to stab your raw chicken and put it on the hot plate. And then you use that fork to turn your raw chicken and then finally you eat your cooked chicken with the fork that has the raw chicken juices on it. Again, I was overly cautious and wiped the fork off with my napkin before using it. Call me what you will, but I do not suffer from salmonella. I was also paranoid about knowing whether or not my meat was actually cooked or not, and I tended to let it overcook a lot. But again, I would rather eat overcooked than undercooked and have salmonella. For dessert we had ice cream with chocolate sauce. i.e. The reason I'm getting fat.

I spent the afternoon, again, vegging out. And sleeping a little since I didn't sleep enough last night. We didn't eat dinner today, but I went downstairs and made a PB&J. I do love PB&J. But it's shower time and then bed time for me. À demain !

After

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!!

Excuses... Again...

So this weekend was the theatre. Which is why I haven't posted. And I really need to sleep tonight so I'm not going to post yet. All you need to know right now is that I had one of the best, most memorable weekends of my life.

That is all.

For now.

:)

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!!

Dress Rehearsal Day Two

Today we had our second day of general repetition at school for the theater show. The dancers got to go in late, and after waking up sick with a sore throat and a cough, I was very grateful. I ate breakfast here and then sludged off to school, where I stayed from around 12 30 to 6 30. We rehearsed through the whole show and I'm fairly convinced that all the dances are going to end being really good and go very well for the actual show, especially "Bad Romance". We finally started adding all the actors in at the end and they all seem to be as excited about it as I am!

After rehearsal, I went home and ate dinner with my host family. We had turkey, and I explained to them that turkey makes you tired, though I couldn't remember the reason why. They had never heard that before. But I wish I could remember why that happens...

I am sick and exhausted and going to bed. Goodnight all.

Dress Rehearsal

Today was our first day of the weekend of theater. I woke up bright and early around 8am to be at school at 9am for our full day of dress rehearsal for the show at school. Except almost none of the dancers brought their costumes today. And of course, we started late as always. The dancers were banished to a classroom (not really, but they needed to run scenes on the stage), and we spent the morning rehearsing and finishing the dances. We also discovered that Bad Romance will now be sung by three very talented singers who actually sound really really great. And it was sprung on me today that I am still going to do a number to a song called "Libertine" with another girl named Julie. We are going to do a little Chinese number with lights and screens and silhouettes in a more classical ballet style. But we only have a week and a half to get it ready. Plus, I have the rhéto dance, another short number, and a duet thing with a girl who is singing a song called "Luxure". It's a lot to do!

After our lunch break, we ran through the entire show. Which took over 5 hours. The show is estimated to be about three hours long in the end. And all my stuff is in the second act. But after today, I do feel better about most of the dances. A lot of people told me that the dances look really great and especially Bad Romance. I really think things are starting to fall into place. We have another rehearsal all day tomorrow and then about a week and a half until "opening night". The show is based around the 7 capital sins. The few scenes that I saw today were really well done and a lot of them were hysterical! The Belgians are really surprising me with their skills. Hopefully after tomorrow, we'll be even farther along the path to success!!

Oh and after a nice dinner of racqulettes (remember, the melted cheese with potatoes and meat and stuff? That makes you fat fast?) my host brother and father had fun trying to crack hazelnuts with their hands and elbows and smashing them with the nut cracker instead of actually using it. It was really very entertaining. Then I had chocolate chip cookies that resembled EXACTLY Chips Ahoy. With a glass of milk. It was a good day.

Now I must sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Lots to do, little time and all that. Bonne nuit tout le monde !