Weddings And Parties And Packing, Oh My!

So I have over a week to catch everyone up on... This is nuts. The fact is that I'm lazyyyyyyyyy and now that it's getting to be the end, the motivation to spend my precious time in Belgium on my blog is fading... And fast. Instead of going day by day, let me just let you all know how it's been going.

Last week was the week of parties. I had barbecues, surprise parties, and nights out every day. It's because people are planning things to celebrate the end of the year. The eventful parts? Well, Thursday was a party that I left early because I had to go to Liège to pick up my friend Jeff that was coming from the States to go to a wedding in Switzerland and asked me to go with him. He was coming in from Germany, and I was supposed to meet him at Guillemins around 8 30pm. First of all, his train wasn't scheduled to come in until 8 44pm, which I realized once I got there, and second, it was going to be a half hour late. So I waited and his train came and passed and he didn't get off of it. On top of it all, my host mom got mad at me cause we were going to be coming back later than expected since the train was late. So I had to call Ben who was out of town and gave me his friends' numbers to call to see if they could pick me up. And I'm super stressed out at this point because Jeff is nowhere to be found and doesn't have a cell phone number in Europe. So I ended up paying 10 euros to get the wifi in the train station to check Facebook and everything and found out that there were problems with the trains (of course) and he missed his connection. So he couldn't get to Liège before 11 30 at night. Well the problem there is that after that time there are no more trains that go back to Landen! He gave me his cell phone number from the States, which I called, draining my phone credit, and it ended up that he was going to stay in Germany that night and take the first train the next morning, which he did. I went back home with one of Ben's friends and woke up early the next morning and went with my host dad into Liège, since he works there. I finally found him and we went back to my house to settle in a little.

But not for long because I had my dance rehearsal and show that day. So we went back into Hannut for that, and I spent the entire day dancing while he amused himself on my computer. That night was the show, which went very well and Ben met up with us afterward (he couldn't get to the show to see it :() to drive us to the airport since we had to be there around 4am for our 6 30am flight to Switzerland. We got a drink and then he drove us to Brussels. We were the only ones there so we got through security and everything really quickly and then found a couch to try to sleep. That was unsuccessful and when we woke up, we found out they had changed our gate so we ran down the length of the terminal at 6am. But we got on our plane and successfully took off towards Geneva. We got to Geneva in about an hour, grabbed some very expensive breakfast, and then got on a train to get to Neuchâtel, which is where the wedding would be. I slept. We were met there by some of Jeff's family, his aunt Sharon and cousin Cerena, who was the one getting married. They were super nice and we walked around the city a little bit to run some errands before going back to their place.

Switzerland. Is. Gorgeous. Everything about it is beautiful. The mountains, the water, the nature, the scenery, it's all one giant postcard. The house that we stayed in had two balconies and overlooked the lake. It was incredible. We got there, took our showers, and then I napped for a while. But soon we were back up because we were going to go out on the boat with Yann-Amael, Cerena's fiancé, and we went tubing! It was a lot of fun and I didn't get sick and I was very happy I did it. Afterwards, I napped and then it was off to Yann-Amael's parents' house for a sort of rehearsal dinner with the whole family. It was beautiful out and we shared a wonderful meal together and spent the evening talking and getting to know one another. I met some awesome people including the man who would perform the ceremony, who is in fact, Belgian! After the dinner, we all went to the church to see the decorating that they had been spending endless hours on over the course of a few days. And it was beautiful! It was like they had completely reconstructed a forest in the church. Just amazing! But we quickly headed back to the apartment for a much needed sleep.

The next morning we got up fairly early to go with Jeff's Auntie Sharon and her husband to Neuchâtel and see the city a bit. We drove there, found parking, and spent the morning looking around and exploring. There was a market going on too, which was cool. We bought some fresh bread and some raspberries that were delicious, and Jeff bought some real Swiss dark chocolate with hazelnuts in it. I took plenty of pictures, no worries! We also stopped by a local grocery shop to pick up some cheese and meat and then headed back to the their place for lunch, which consisted simply of baguette, cheese, meats, and jams. But it was probably one of the best meals I've ever had. They're not kidding when they say that Swiss cheese is the best... And remember the cheese with ashes in it that I used to eat in my first family? Yah, I chowed down on that too :D

After dinner it was time to go get ready for the actual wedding. When we got back to the house, we found that there were two new people there, Kelsey and Miguel. Kelsey is one of Cerena's friends from college and Miguel is her Spanish boyfriend. Kelsey and I bonded as we did our hair together and we all managed to get ourselves ready in less than two hours. I wore my dress from senior year homecoming, and it was a pretty snug fit since I've gained weight here... But we all looked nice and classy and piled in the car to head to the church. We were some of the first people to get there and spent a little while just standing outside, chatting with people, and enjoying the sun. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Eventually, though, it was time to head inside for the ceremony. It was done in French, of course, so I played translator for Jeff, and I have to say, I did a pretty good job. This was, actually, their third wedding (the first was just with the papers, so it was fast and small, and the second was a religious ceremony, but in Virginia, where Cerena's family lives) so it wasn't exactly completely traditional. It started off with a woman playing a violin and singing and Cerena and Yann-Amael came down the aisle together. They wrote their own vows, and Yann-Amael's were actually not words, but a song that he played for her on the piano. There were also times when groups of people would come to the front of the church and do a sort of singing performance. The whole wedding was absolutely beautiful and I'm so glad I got to be there to see it.

Ok so this is Part I. I'll post part II after I get home cause I'M LEAVING TOMORROW

CARNAVAL

Alrighty, I'm finally doing this post for the week!! It was such a crazy, jam packed week, and I do apologize for the lack of blogging during it. And fear not, it will be very detailed (since my wonderful host brother has so very kindly commented on the fact that I talk about everything in my blogs, I can't let him down!).

So, we shall start with Sunday. It was pretty average as far as Sundays go. The day consisted of eating, family coming over, celebrating a birthday with three different cakes, and good conversation and company. And one of those cakes was a yellow one. Like a legit American yellow cake out of a Betty Crocker box. And they were all drenched in melted chocolate. Let's just say I found myself in heaven for about ten minutes.

Monday, we started the insanity of the week. As planned, I went to Liège with Jordann. I caught my bus at the last second and then caught my train, and surprisingly made it there with no problems. BUT, we shall not doubt the Belgian train system. Without fail, there was a complication. Jordann's train came over an hour and a half late. Talk about a long wait... I spent the time watching Ocean's 11 on my iPod :) Once she got there, we walked over to the MédiaCité to that wonderful sushi place. Remember? The one that Talia and I went to with the magical conveyor belt of all-you-can-eat Chinese food and sushi? Yah. We probably spent two hours there stuffing ourselves full of the delicious food. Afterwards, we did some shopping there and around Liège, managing to avoid paying for a bus. I bought a nice new pair of boots for only 10 euros! I was excited. After our day, my host parents met up with us in Liège and we all drove over to a cinema not to far away to catch a movie. We saw "Le Discours D'un Roi", or "The King's Speech" as you probably know it, after grabbing some food. It was a very VERY good movie. We saw it in French, obviously, but I really do think it would be even better in English. Afterwards, Jordann came back home with us and slept over.

The next morning, we woke up and got ourselves ready for MARDI GRAS!!! We didn't have set costumes, so we improvised. I just threw on every piece of colorful clothing that I own, including multiple scarves and crazy tights and my new boots, along with some nice fake eyelashes. Originially, the idea was that I would be color and Jordann would be darkness. But once the makeup was on, she turned into more of a cat and I don't know what the heck I was hehe We left the house with my host dad, who drove us to the train station in Namur since he was working there that day, and we caught the train from there to go to Binche. We did our makeup on the train and ended up talking to some really nice people who were American. The trains were packed with people who were all going to same place as we were. Eventually, we got there and ended up finding another exchange student who I hadn't known before, Raquel. She was there with her host parents. We walked around, following the huge crowd of people that were all going into the center of town. There were a bunch of guys dressed up in costumes as "gilles". I don't know how to describe the costume, so just look at the pictures. But I can tell you that they wore wooden shoes and marched to the beat of drums behind them through the crowds. It was very interesting and really really awesome! We spent the morning walking around and taking pictures and trying to find an ATM. But almost everything was closed, except for a few places to get food. For lunch, we ended up meeting up with Raquel's host parents and going to a Rotary stand to get some sandwiches. We spent time talking with them and then ended up finding another few exchange students and a rogue Canadian who was there for work (modeling, ha). His name was Ian and he spent some time with us since he was alone and we spoke English. Finally, around 4 30, it was time for the big event: the parade. We met another Australian exchange student, Shaun, and met up with another American girl named Stephanie, and somehow lost Jordann. We planted ourselves in one spot to get ready for the parade. Here, all the gilles and some other groups of people who were dressed up walked down the street throwing oranges into the crowd. For this reason, all the windows and doors on the building were covered in wooden frames and fencing to protect them, because let me tell you, they whipped those things. The gilles wore giant hats piled with feathers as they walked to the beat of drums. Between us four exchange students, we caught 33 oranges. We would have caught more, but there was a guy in front of us who had crazy reflexes and caught almost every one that came our way. We took turns getting on each others shoulders and catching the oranges and at the end, we split them up and went back to the train station to go home, which was also packed tight full of people. But I successfully got home without train trouble!

The next day was Wednesday. It was Ash Wednesday, and I failed to go to church. Which I feel terrible about. But I did spend the day much more calmly than the rest, though I did have to go up to the school for about five hours for a big rehearsal for the dance for the theater. I continued to teach Bad Romance, and we still have yet to finish. I really hope that by the end of things it turns out well. I spent the rest of the day just resting up for the rest of my week.

Thursday was our day in Lille, France. Although there weren't really any problems with the trains or bus, I did realize a little too late that I had forgotten my wallet at home. Well, by this time I was already on the train and couldn't very well go back. Jordann did owe me some money though, so we were able to get our tickets taken care of and I just didn't buy anything all day ha. Monday and Tuesday had been lovely days and Wednesday wasn't bad either. But just our luck, Thursday was pretty ugly. It didn't rain, but it was cold and windy and gray. Still, we managed to enjoy ourselves walking around the city, led by a map, and taking plenty of pictures. We even did a little shopping in the cute shops that were tucked away in some of the back streets. We managed to find a couple second hand stores as well, one of which was called "The Hippie Market". It was awesome! We even splurged and split a speculoos macaroon from a ridiculously overpriced high class bakery. We were very tired though, and after seeing quite a few churches and monuments, we decided that we needed some relaxation and made our way to a cemetery that was on the edge of the city to calm down a little. Then we walked around the giant mall before making our way home. And I was exhausted.

Friday was our day in Maastricht, which is a city in Holland. I remembered my wallet, caught my train met up with Jordann on the train from Liège after being harassed by some creepy kids who sat next to me on the train. But Jordann saved me and we go to Maastricht without problem. That day was more chill. We had no map, but instead just walked around and explored, coming across some churches and big buildings, but mostly doing window shopping. We also indulged and got some fish fry from the market, which was nice for me since at home we go to a fish fry every Friday during Lent. We took some nice pictures there also and caught our train back home. Ben picked me up from the train station and asked me if I wanted to go out with them that night, but it was absolutely impossible because I was DEAD TIRED. So I went home and went to sleep!

Yesterday, I didn't do much of anything until the evening when I went to Brussels with Ben for the birthday of my host sister, Marie, who I had not met until last night. Ben pretty much begged me to go with him, so finally I caved and decided that I had nothing better to do. But then of course, both of us being brilliant people, we got lost for about 2 hours in Brussels and eventually were rescued by some family who led us back to where we were supposed to be. But it wasn't bad because we talked and laughed and joked for those 2 hours. I met a bunch of new people there who all wanted to speak English with me, including my host sister. We ate dinner with everyone and then left around 11 30, managing to find the highway this time easily. We got home and spent some time in front of the television until about 2am, which probably wasn't the smartest decision I ever made, as I was exhausted.

Today, I have literally done nothing but sleep, eat, and sit in front of my computer. But, I figure I'm allowed since I had such a busy week. And no school tomorrow!!

There you have it. My week of vacation for Carnaval.

Yet Another Train Adventure

Today is Sunday. I am officially on break! One week for Carnaval. Yesterday was a fun day, because I went to Germany with my friend Jordann, just like I told you all I would. We caught our respective trains to meet up in Liège around 9am to catch a 9 33am train to Aachen. Of course, there are always issues with me and the train between Landen and Liège and it was late and going extremely slowly. So I didn't get to the station until about 9 30. We were cutting it close. Plus, I almost took the wrong train. But I asked and ended up on the right train. We got on the train to Aachen, and I ended up buying some weird pass that was cheaper than a regular ticket.

Anyways, we got to Aachen around 10 30am and instantly set out into the cold with our map, walking around speaking English and looking so very much like tourists. We spent the day going from one big important building to the next, stopping at random cute shops along the way, although, sadly, I have nothing to recount as far as cool food. I had falafel for lunch in a pita. Which was delicious! But not important to Germany... Regardless, we saw some awesome stuff. Like a huge church that is in the middle of the city called the "Dom". The idea when they built it was to build "The New Rome". It's probably the most magnificent church I've ever seen. The moasic walls and ceiling along with the stained glass windows... Words cannot describe the beauty. And then you walked through and you think about it and realize that it has been there longer than anything you ever saw in the United States. Even with our technology today, we cannot create such stable, beautiful things such as that. The hand made churches like that are so much more precious and incredible than anything that has been built within the last 300 years. It's just incredible to think about...

Anyways, yah we did some sight-seeing and shopping and taking TONS of photos. That is really the purpose of this week: to have a photography week and take incredible pictures. Also, we met a very nice old man that explained some history to us and set in the right direction when we were a little lost. I was good and only bought one thing the whole day: A bag for school and the gym that will hold all my stuff so I don't have to carry six bags around all the time... Ok that's an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

We caught our train home around 4 30pm (and found out that we could have used my weird pass for both of us and Jordann hadn't needed to buy another ticket... But nobody told us that...) and were back in the Liège by 5 30. My train back to Landen was at 5 53pm, and I successfully caught it. I thought for once, there would be no problems getting home. And then we were almost at Landen when we just stopped dead in the middle of the tracks. Then half the lights went out. The few people that were on the train with me and myself, we just sat there for almost a half hour before an announcement came on over the loud speaker. But it was in Flemish. Well we were all francophones/anglophones, so that wasn't very helpful. It was about ten minutes after that that we actually found out what was going on. Turned out that there was an accident a little ways up the tracks and we had lost electricity and couldn't get to Landen. So they told us we were going to backtrack to Waremme. Well we sat there until a good hour and fifteen minutes after we first stopped. Plus, there were two people on the train who didn't speak any French at all, so I had to translate for them both. So I felt useful. One of the girls was an exchange student who was staying in Germany and we talked the whole way back to Waremme. She was very nice. And my host dad picked me up there, I went home, ate dinner with the host fam (I had legit MEATLOAF), and slept very very well.

P.S. The contacts are working out well :D

Today was a calm ish Sunday. Some people came over, as usual, and we celebrated my host mom's birthday from a couple weeks ago. We had a yummy meal, starting with soup and tomatoes stuffed with little shrimps and salmon. Then we had roast beef and fries with a sauce with mushrooms. And I ate applesauce too :) For dessert, we had a couple different cakes. One was very much like an American yellow cake with chocolate on top. Another was like a pie with almond and pears. And the third was a sugar tart. All of them were topped with hot melted chocolate. YUM. And all of them were delicious. We then spent time talking and laughing and playing with little baby Léo. We even had a little party with balloons where we all played a game hitting them back and forth. It was truly a family effort.

Tomorrow, Liège with Jordann to get ready for Mardi Gras on Tuesday. Sleep time now!

Bonne nuit tout le monde !

My Adventures, Long Overdo

It's been wayyy too long since I last posted. I mean, the fact that I don't have internet in my room makes things a little difficult. And I haven't really been home since Wednesday. Let me catch all of you up on my week.

Wednesday, we were supposed to have a practice for the dancing for the theater at school. But Madame Jadot's children were sick, so it ended up being canceled. This was actually good news for me because it meant that I could go through with my original plans, being going to Brussels to see some of the other exchange students from other districts that I don't get to see often. Of course, trains seem to be causing me a lot of drama lately, and there was a problem with me getting my new GoPass. I asked the guy at the window, and he told me he couldn't issue me one because there was something wrong with his computer, so he told me to the use the automated machine. But that machine does not take Visa, which I then told him. So he wrote me up some paper and told me to give it to the conductor on the train. But the paper was in Dutch, which I don't speak a word of, so I had no idea what it meant or what was going to happen on the train. But I had no choice, I had to take that train. So I got on and when the conductor came around, I asked him if he spoke English, because it was complicated, and he explained that I would buy a ticket on the train at normal price and then once I got to Brussels, I would take them both to the window and the guy there would issue me a reduced price GoPass. So this is what I did. But I had to stand in line for like a half hour. Finally, that was all smoothed over and I met up with Liza and another girl named Jordann and we went to a bar pretty close to the station where the exchange students go. It's called Celtica. I met some new people and had a lot of fun. Except when one of the guys who worked there freaked out about our things being on the floor and threatened to throw our stuff away. And then me and Jordann and another new friend named Janelle made plans to go to Waterloo the next night since none of us had school on Friday for a teacher's day.

So Thursday, I went to school as usual and then afterwards, caught a ride home with Romane, ran into Amandine and Marie and Léo, and then ran to catch my bus which was fortunately a few minutes late. I ended up meeting up with my friend Fabiola on the bus since she was going to Brussels too. So I met her friends and we rode the train together and caught up on everything. It was really nice to talk to her. I then got to Waterloo, but Janelle wasn't there yet and Jordann was busy until 8 30 ish. So I walked around the center of Waterloo in deep pursuit of food, but of course, it's Belgium, so nothing was open. But I was starving so I finally settled for a pita with falafel and vegetables. Normally, I try to stay away from places like that because it's all fried food that isn't very good for you. But it was cheap so whatever. Finally, I met up with Janelle and we walked around looking for a bathroom. And then we came across a 24 hour store where we bought rice cakes and boursin cheese. We then proceeded to sit on a ledge in front of a church in the middle of the city and eat our rice cakes and cheese and recount to each other the stories of our lives. Good times. Eventually, Jordann met up with us and we went to a little bar on the corner where we just chilled out and had a drink. I tried raspberry beer, which I'm a huge fan of. Of course, I'm on this diet still, and there was probably way more sugar in there than I should've allowed myself... But it was tasty. And again, we had great conversation that got really very deep and philosophic at points.

Around midnight, Jordann's host dad picked us up and took us back to the mansion that she is living at right now. Seriously, it is probably the most beautiful house I've ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. But their upstairs was under construction, so I wasn't able to appreciate it's full beauty. But it had an indoor pool and everything. After some more conversation and a lot of looking at photos, we fell asleep. We had to get up pretty early, around 8 30am because of the guys working in the house. We went downstairs for breakfast and made banana chocolate pancakes in a gorgeous kitchen, and then ate them with syrup and peanut butter. Don't worry, I only had two. And they were delicious. We then got ready for our day and saw Janelle to the bus, since she had to leave. Then Jordann and I had an adventure. There was a big run down, deteriorating house on the corner, and we decided to take pictures of it. There was a path that ran behind it and we followed it and were eventually able to go inside. It was awesome and covered in amazing graffiti. The colors were extraordinary, and along with the cobwebs, broken brick, and piles of wood, it made some gorgeous photos. They are on my photo blog. Check it out dudes! (photography tab) But then we thought we heard someone coming so we ran... Well, as fast as we could without dying in the broken down building. We then went back to her house so she could grab some stuff, and headed out to the center of Waterloo. We checked out a second hand store, and some other shops, but didn't buy anything. Then I caught my train back, which was late, causing me to miss my bus. However, it turned out that I was on the same train as my host brother and his girlfriend, so I went home with them. Once we got back, we ate a pizza dinner and then I went out with them and some other friends to get a drink in Hannut. Of course, when Ben asked me if I wanted to go get a drink with them, I thought we would be home by 1 30, maybe 2am. Well, these hours past. And then 3am passed. Finally, we left around 4am. I had had a great time, but the fact was that I had to be awake in an hour and a half to go to Luxembourg with the Rotary. I had to be in Liège by 8am, and the 7 34 train got there too late.

So I got up at 5 45am to catch my 6 34am train. I successfully got to the train station on time.

But.

There was only one train in the 6 hour. It was at 6 34, but it didn't stop in Liège. In fact, it went in the other direction! So me, having had only an hour of sleep, started to freak out. I asked at the window to make sure, and that 7 34 train? Yah, it was the first one that stopped in Liège. So I had no choice but to wait by myself in the station for an hour. About ten minutes after the 6 34 train left, I realized that I did actually need to take that train, and when I was told to take it, it wasn't a direct train and I was supposed to get off at one stop and take another train to Liège. But by this time it was too late. So I laid down on one of the heaters by the window of the station, put my camera bag under my head, and closed by eyes to rest for the next hour. I wasn't feeling well because of my lack of sleep, I was freezing, and I had no appetite, though I made myself eat something.

Finally, I got to Liège and ran to meet up with Rotary, who I caught at the last minute. All the exchange students piled on a double decker bus and rode for two and a half hours to Luxembourg. I slept a good hour of it. Once we got there, we first went to visit a brasserie, where they make beer. It was quite interesting. It ended with us getting to taste the beer, which the exchange students were big fans of. I actually liked it, though I didn't drink much of it as I'm on a diet. We got some time to just sit with our friends and talk before heading out. We walked to a restaurant from there where we ate our lunch. We got a few slices of some sort of meat, lima beans in a gravy, and potatoes. Which when I say like that, sounds kinda gross. But it was actually pretty good! The meat was fatty, and at the end I had a nice little pile of the trimmings, but it was still good food. They offered us more beer, but I declined. After lunch, we went to a meat packing place/butcher, which the majority of us thought was a poor decision on the Rotary's part, since we had just eaten. And I took a bunch of pictures, but they were somehow deleted multiple times, though I have no idea why. I think my memory card may be corrupted... Dommage, eh? After that, we got back on the bus and drove again until we got to the city of Luxembourg, where we were given about an hour and a half to do what we wanted. Me and some friends walked around and did a little window shopping, had a dance party with an employee in a Levi's store, and had a coffee. Then we met up with everyone else and drove another two and a half hours to go back to Liège. This time I slept the whole way. Once we got to Liège, Talia and Mikayla and I caught a train back to Landen, and Talia came to sleep over my house. We ate dinner here (some sort of garlic steak, stuffed baked potato, and salad) and talked with my host parents for a while, watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother, and then went right to bed since both of us were exhausted.

This morning, we got up and ate breakfast, talked some more with my host parents, and then went to school around 10am for a repetition for the dance at school. I am choreographing a number to "Bad Romance", which is the finale in the show. So far, it's going very well! And everyone seems to be pretty impressed with the choreography and the girls (and Eduardo) are picking it up well. I think it's going to be a good number, especially cause we have an awesome surprise planned for the end.

I then went home, ate lunch (roast beef in a really delicious sauce with raisins, fries, and salad) with my host family, and spent the afternoon editing photos. Then we had a visit from Jacques's sister and her husband. They were very friendly, and we talked about a lot of different things. They even helped me figure out some stuff for when my parents come. They left, we ate a dinner of sandwiches, and I introduced Benjamin to PB&J sandwiches, which he found very good! One point to the Americans!

I'm really going to get back into the habit of posting every day. I'm still on my diet, I'm still doing yoga, though I only went to the gym once this week. But things are good! And just in case you are just starting to read, you should know that I always always always post what I eat. It's just kind of what this blog has become.

Goodnight everyone!!

Dinner And A Movie

As you may recall, yesterday I went to go see a movie with my good friend Romane. She and her mom came to pick me up around 5pm yesterday and we went to the train station at Landen, only to find out that we had a good forty minutes to kill before our train. So we took that time to get Romane a sandwich in Landen. Thankfully, she knows Landen like the back of her hand since she used to go to school there. So we were able to get some food for her and catch the train in time to go to Liège. We spent the train ride listening to all kinds of different music and swapping songs. Once we got to Liège, I got myself a sandwich and we caught a bus to get to the theater. We got there during the previews, but it was no big deal. We went to see a French/Belgian film called "Rien à Déclarer". And I'm super proud of myself cause I understood just about everything! It was funny and I understood the jokes and I laughed. It was about the two customs officers at the border between France and Belgium and their antics, because the Belgian is totally against anything French. It was a really great movie and I'm glad I got to see it.

But after it was over, that's when the real adventure begins. We were looking frantically for ice cream because we had a crazy craving, but we live in Belgium, so everything closes early. But we did find some Hagen Daas, which was lovely :) We got on our train and found a really awesome leopard print umbrella that someone had left and took some fun pictures. And then we started going and I got the feeling we were going in the wrong direction... I said this to Romane who then asked the conductor and it turned out that the train did not in fact stop at Landen. So we ended up getting off the train at another stop and my host mom came to get us there... At 10 30 at night... Cause she's the most awesome host mom ever!!

And now my host brother is reading what I'm writing as he marvels (again) at my mad typing skills.

Anyways, we got back to the house and then spent the rest of the night watching another French movie called "LOL" and just talking. And eating our speculoos ice cream. Normal girls night. But I was falling asleep so we stopped the movie halfway through. This morning, we woke up and ate breakfast with my host family and got a nice surprise visit from Olivier and Léo :) We then finished watching the movie, which I also understood and really enjoyed, and then I walked Romane home. When I got back, there were a million people at the house because we were, again, celebrating birthdays. We ate together and then I played some soccer with Benjamin and two of the younger ones. We also played other games that really didn't have any rules, and at one point, one of the kids asked me if I was sure I was a girl because I was so madly skilled. Hahahahahahahahahaha I have to say I was pretty impressed with my kicking skills also. Then we went back inside and ate cake and sang and then watched "House" with the fam. Now I'm vegging out on the couch with my host brother, flipping through the channels. We're currently watching "Kendra" on MTV... Lame. But that's ok.

Until tomorrow! (or maybe later...) Bonne nuit.

I'm A Little Behind...

So obviously my blog has been a bit vacant for a while... I suppose I shall catch you up with the important stuff.

Saturday, I spent the day in Brussels with my friend, Liza, who is another exchange student. We met at the exotic dinner (remember that?) and we hit it off right away because let's face it, theater kids just get along. So we met up in Brussels at the station Centrale, which is gorgeous by the way, and then spent a good amount of time wandering around, seeing the Mannekin Pis, which is a statue of a little boy peeing, getting lost, making note of where we wanted to eat Chinese food, and eventually finding the road with all the stores. I did some hard core shopping and by the end of the day, I had two new scarves (the true Belgian ones with all the different colors that I've been looking for forever!), a dress, a pair of shoes, a tube of face mask stuff, another scarf, a sweater, and a lint roller. We did eat our Chinese food too, and way too much of it, and had no room for waffles... But it was ok because when I got home, I found out that my host mom had made homemade ones! There were the two little cousins over too. So I sat down to dinner with my host parents, Benjamin, and the two little ones. We had a typical German dish of sauerkraut with different kinds of meat and mashed potatoes, and then the waffles for dessert. I have to say, I didn't care for dinner much. I'm not a sausage/meat/sauerkraut person. I spent the evening hanging out with my host brother after playing a game with the little ones.

Sunday, I felt sick, so I pretty much stayed calm all day. Though I took a couple hours to watch some Big Bang Theory with Benjamin. We bond over television.

Monday was a normal day at school, followed by some normal time at the gym, followed by a normal dinner and a normal evening. There is a lot of crap going on in Belgium right now. We watched the news and it talked all about how there were 35,000 people in Brussels on Sunday for a big rally because there hasn't been a government in Belgium for over seven months now. I can't really explain further than that, because I don't really understand, but from what I get, Wallonie and Flandre don't like each other and there is talk about them breaking apart... Which is quite terrifying actually...

Yesterday was a normal school day, followed by a Rotary meeting that I had to go to. In fact, Karine came to get me to take me there, which was nice because we got to catch up and everything. I got in the car and it was just like the past four months. The meeting was held at a reception center because there were going to be four different mayors from different villages that were going to be there. There was also another guest who was kind of like the dean from the university in Liège. Once everyone was there, including Christian (the Canadian exchange student, you know him), we sat down to dinner. It started off with a salad, then the main course was rabbit with potatoes, and cinnamon pineapple and ice cream for dessert. It was the first time of my life that I ate rabbit, and I have to say it wasn't bad. The man from the university spoke for probably two hours, and I'm going to admit, it was very hard to sit through. Not to mention that...

I was kind of aggravated also because I had been told that night that someone told Rotary that I spend too much time with other exchange students, I don't have any Belgian friends, I'm not integrated at school, and I don't speak French well at all. And apparently, someone was thinking about emailing one of the head honchos of Rotary and scheduling a test for me to see if it was true or not. But it's a load of crap because everyone I talk to says that I speak well. I know that I'm improving and I know that my French is better than decent. I would never say that it's perfect, and I still have a lot of learning to do, but I try so hard to speak correctly and my accent is not bad and I know that I do well most of the time. And yes, I do spend time with other exchange students, but we are all kind of in the same group of friends. Of course it's convenient to go to a soirée with another exchange student or carpool or whatever. God forbid... Point being, JE PARLE FRANÇAIS.

Today, I had to do an oral presentation with two other girls in my French class. We had to read a book and then watch the movie that was made from it and do an analysis. We did "The Road", which in French is "La Route". It was really convenient for me because I read the book last year in my English class. So last Wednesday we watched the movie together (at a BELGIAN'S house) and did the work for the analysis. And today we presented it. And although I made a few pronunciation mistakes and Madame Gallo had to stop me a couple time because she didn't quite understand what I said, she was very impressed with me and said that I did well. Not to mention that we had the best analysis of the groups that went today and she said that all three of us were brilliant girls and she was happy with our presentation. And she was impressed because she asked a question about the movie and I was able to answer it completely correctly in French. So, HA. I win.

After school today I went to Liège with Talia and Mikayla and Eduardo and Aymeric. Talia and Eduardo and I took the bus to Huy, where we literally walked up to the train and pulled the handle as the train was pulling away. So we missed it and had to wait another forty five minutes. Once we got to Liège, we met up with the others, but it was too late to get the sushi that we were planning on getting. So in the end we had Pizza Hut. We just a couple pizzas and split them between us. Then we did some shopping. I walked away with another pair of shoes, but hey, it was the deal of the day. They were only six euros!! So I win. Again. HA. Then Mikayla and I got a waffle and went home after the others had left. We spent some quality talking time and her host mom kindly dropped me off at home. I then ate dinner with my host mom and now I'm contemplating a quick shower and bed... Yes that sounds like a plan. Goodnight. Bonne nuit tout le monde !

Quelle Journée !!

Well today was... interesting, to say the least. Actually, it turned out to be quite a good day. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? After all, it's a very good place to start.

I woke up this morning around 10am, because I could. See, I have this really cool shade in my room over my window that blocks out all light. Every single smidgin of light is gone. So I wake up at 10 and it feels like 6am. Which I don't mind because I could never seem to sleep late at the other house because of the light that came in the window, whether it was sunny or rainy. Anyways, I woke up and went downstairs and ate the remainder of the Special K in the box, which ended up being about half a bowl, so I also had a half of a sandwich with cheese and jelly. That is really insignificant, but in case you wanted to know my breakfast this morning, that was it. I then left for my first ballet class in three weeks, since I obviously didn't go Thursday. Dance went very very well today actually. I think I did particularly well today, and I felt much stronger. I'm sure that has a lot to do with the working out. Of course, the tights and leotard aren't exactly the best morale booster, but hey, I look at it as more motivation to keep going to the gym!

After dance, I waited about a half hour and caught a bus to the train station at Landen where I met up with Talia to go to Liège. We bought our tickets and checked the train times and were on a train ready to go by 2 35pm. The thing about Landen, though, is that it is just over the border in the Flemish part. So everything there is in Dutch. I had heard the conductor say over the loud speaker something about Aachen, which concerned me, but then looked out the window and realized she had said Alken, so I didn't worry. However, it didn't even cross my mind the fact that I had never seen this train station before in my life. But, after about 20 minutes, I looked out the window and realized that I didn't recognize a thing. Now I've been to Liège and back so many times, I could list off the stops in the correct order if I really wanted to. And I had never seen these stops before in my life. Plus, everything was in Dutch. So it was around this point that Talia and I realized that we were on the wrong train headed in the wrong direction. We even texted Aymeric, who so lovingly confirmed that. So we decided to get off the train.

But knowing us, we got off the train at this little dinky ghetto stop. With no station, no building, nobody to ask what we should do next. There were only two tracks, one for each direction. So we made our way over to the other side and looked at the schedule. Thank goodness that some words are the same in Flemish and English. We found that the next train taking us back to where we came from didn't come for another forty-five minutes. So the next thought was to try to walk back to the last station, since it was a pretty big one and was in the same city. So we started walking, and came across a bus stop, thinking maybe we could catch a bus there. But we were out of luck with that, though there was a map. But that wasn't very helpful either. So in the end, we walked back to the little ghetto stop and waited for the train. It wasn't super cold out, but the wind bit a little. Eventually, though, a train came by. We got on that one and made our way back to Landen, though we had to pay for another ticket.

At Landen, we managed to get a different train to Liège, even though by now we had discussed whether or not it was worth it, now that it was two and half hours later than the first time around. But we did manage to get on the correct train the second time, and we finally got to Liège. We half walked/half sprinted to the Mediacité, because by this time we were starving and all we wanted to do was find the sushi place. Talia had been craving sushi for a while, and I had never had it before, so I was excited to try it. Around 5 45 we got there, and we saw that the restaurant that I knew about for sushi was closed between 3 and 6pm. So for those extra 15 minutes we walked around and took a look in a few stores. We were a little disappointed because we had originally wanted to do some shopping today too, but it wasn't a big deal.

By 6pm, we were back at the restaurant, and we sat down to eat. The concept of the place is really cool. I was impressed. What happens is, you sit down at a sort of bar, and then a conveyer belt that loops around the whole restaurant passes in front of you, carrying all kids of different little plates with food on them. There are pot-stickers and wantons and fried things and little mini eggrolls and sushi and all kinds of different things. And you pay one price and you take as much as you want as it passes by you. We started off our meals with a sort of soup, which had tofu in it. I had never had tofu before, but I have to say it was pretty good. Other things of note that I tried this evening: Seaweed salad. A little spicy, but I liked it. A variety of fried and stuffed crunchy wanton type things. Very good. Typical Chinese. Orange chicken. FINALLY. Sushi. First time of my life trying it, and I have to say I'm a fan. I really do enjoy the textures and flavors and I really like the rice! :) They also had fruits and desserts going around, and Talia and I ate until we were completely stuffed. Of course, this was sometimes difficult as we would see something coming down the conveyer from the other end, anxiously awaiting the point where we could snatch it up. Unless of course, someone else had the same ideas and got it before you did, which happened often. But we still managed to taste everything we wanted to and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And I tried new foods!

After we finished our dinner, we ran back to the train station to catch our train home. Due to some technical difficulties, we ended up on the wrong platform at first, and when we got to the right platform, the train was just barely beginning to pull away. So, we missed our train home. Which totally went with the theme of the day. But again, it was no big deal. We considered going back to Huy instead of Landen, but after talking with Talia's host mom, we ended up just waiting at Guillemans for another hour until the next train to Landen came through. We sat around just talking and such. We met someone who was very eager to speak English with us, which seems to be typical of Belgians. And eventually, we did make it on a train home. We got back to Landen around 9 20pm. Then Talia's host mom came to get us and she dropped me off at my house, which was only maybe ten minutes away, if that. Then I ate lots of chocolate...

Also, tonight is the Winter Formal dance back at my high school in the States, and my sister is going. So I was lucky enough to be able to Skype a little bit with her before she left and I even got to talk to her date, who is one of my friends too. She looks amazing and she's going to have a great time! And my Christmas package made it home today too. So I got to see Olivia open her gift, which was a turquoise Ice Watch. She loves it! Then she left for her dance and I watched as my parents opened their gifts too. My mom's birthday, as you know if you read regularly, was the 6th of December, so I had a birthday and Christmas gift in there for her. For her birthday, I got her a German scarf with all kinds of browns and maroons and burgundy colors in it, which she loved. And for Christmas, I gave her a bag of little Galler chocolates with all the different flavors. For my dad, I got him a hand made Belgian ceramic house for his Christmas village. I also got them a gold ornament with a little jingle bell inside of it that says Noël on it. I also got gifts for the rest of the family and they should be getting those things tonight as well. After talking to my family, I Skyped with one of my friends for about an hour and now I'm going to get some sleep.

Overall, the day was hectic, but it was an adventure, and it surprisingly did not stress me out at all. I actually had a lot of fun! I like crazy adventures that keep me on my toes here in Belgium. It's stuff like this that makes it fun. Now I just need to find a way to do my shopping... But for now I will focus on sleeping. Bonne nuit!

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.

Girls Night Out And A Dance Performance

So yesterday was Friday. A pretty average Friday. It was cold, as it has been here lately, and I went to school as usual. Except I ended up being late because I'm dumb and I didn't here my alarm go off. So I didn't get up until 8am when my host mom came to see why I hadn't come down to breakfast. I got myself ready super quickly, but still missed almost all of my first hour with Père Boly. Thankfully, my host mom didn't mind, and there were other people late too because of the snow. The rest of the day went pretty normally, except that Eduardo, Talia, and I all missed basically all of our two hour math courses because we went to Madame Vanesse's office to talk to her about exams, and ended up in there for the entire two hours just talking to her and letting her know how things were going. But it was good because we had good conversation, laughed a lot, and spoke a lot of French.

After school was over, my host mom picked me up and Benoit and his girlfriend were also in the car. The plan was to take me right to the train station in Huy, but because Benoit is male, he had not thought ahead and had to go back home to get some stuff for his weekend before my host mom could drop him off where he needed to be. Eventually, I got myself to the Huy station and was able to catch a train around 5pm. I actually ran into another Rotary girl and we took the train to Liège together. Once we got to the station, we came across Saint Nicholas, got some goodies and took some pictures with him.

I was going to meet up with Alexanne and Hadley for a girls night in Liège. I got a hold of them and met up with them at the station. Then we met up with Alexanne's host dad, and he led us back to the car, which was a good fifteen minute trek away, and we went back to her house. Which, by the way, is freaking awesome! We also met her host mom and sister. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda jealous.

After getting all settled in, we bundled up and took off into the city. It was already dark out, but that was ok. We caught a bus into the center of town and actually picked up another exchange girl once we got there and decided it was time to find food. Hadley and the other girl decided to go to Quick (the Belgian equivalent of Micky D's), but Alexanne and I wanted real food, so we went to a little corner café and got pasta, which was in a really cool dish. It was four cheese penne, and it was delicious. Although I think the waiter didn't really like us because the other two tried to come in with us with Quick bags, and he wasn't so friendly from then on... But it all worked out.

After our dinners, we headed over to the Village de Noël. However, to our disappointment, all the little huts that weren't selling drinks or food were closed up for the night. So what do we do? We decide to go on the big ferris wheel! It was awesome. It took us around four times and we were able to look out and see all of Liège. I was kinda freaked at first, because for some reason my paranoid brain thought that something would happen and it would end up dropping us and I would puke. Because that is always my fear. But it ended up being really great. After the ferris wheel, we walked around a little and then Alexanne decided to go to one of the Canadian stands and purchase an order of "putine". What it is, is fries, covered in gravy and a special cheddar cheese. And it is absolutely wonderful! We all shared it, since none of us were particularly hungry but wanted to try it. We ate it as we walked to our bus stop, and it was gone before we knew it. Despite our lack of hunger, it was hot and the air was cold and eating warmth was a good thing.

We caught a bus back to Alexanne's and conquered the two big hills that it took to get back to her house. We went in and basically just crashed. We were all so tired. We got our pajamas on, laid down and talked for a little, but were sleeping before midnight. We woke up the next morning and went down to breakfast to find that Alexanne's host mom had made us crèpes!! She is such a sweetheart. So we ate them with real Canadian maple syrup and brown sugar and had some excellent conversation with her host family. After that, we got ready for the day and headed back out into the city. We caught another bus and walked around the Village again, this time looking at the actual shops, since they were open. Alexanne found a Christmas gift! After finishing that, we went into an actual store, since we were freezing, to try to warm up a little. Then we caught a bus to the train station, Hadley and I bought our tickets home and we were ready to go. Then Hadley's train was cancelled. So they went and got some drinks and I caught my train home because I had to be in Hannut by 4 30. Once I got to Huy, I caught yet another bus that took me to Hannut. I walked to the Academy and was there ready to dance on time.

Today was the first of two special performances that I'm doing with the Academy. I talked about it before. It's the weird one with the fabric tubes. Well we had our practice, we got our hair done by the prof and then we did our thang. I think we did very well with it! Again, I just love performing. Afterwards, one of the girl's mother's was giving me a ride home, so I stayed for the second part where the profs all did a piece together. One man played piano, another played flute, another played cello, and then there was a woman who sang and another woman who played the clarinet. It was a very interesting piece, and I can't say that I particularly liked it, though they played it well.

I got home after a very slow, long drive. The thing is, it's snowing here. There's maybe two inches of snow on the ground, but all the Belgians are freaking out about it and saying it's too dangerous to drive. Which makes me laugh. But the drive that normally takes twenty minutes took forty. But regardless, I got home, stuffed myself full of Hawaiian pizza, took a nice hot shower, and now I'm ready for sleep. So with that, I say: Bonne nuit tout le monde !!

RE: The Most Fun Weekend Yet

So it seems to be becoming a pattern for me to not blog on the weekends for the simple fact that I just don't have the time because I don't spend much of them at home... Which I have to say is a good thing because it means I'm being social and spending time with Belgians! Yay!

This weekend was honestly the best weekend I've had in Belgium. Let's start at the beginning, shall we? (This is going to be a very long blog)

FRIDAY:

Friday, I spent the day at the preschool again, for the last day of the retreat. Friday was less fun than the other days, for the pure fact that there was nothing for us to do. The other days we had gotten to play games with the kids, do crafts, and help with the little chores around the classroom. But we were in a different class on Friday and there just weren't things for us to do. So we spent the day observing and watching the kids play. Of course, if it weren't for the language barrier, I would've gotten down on all fours and played with the kids. But they don't understand a word I say and I barely understand them, even though my French is improving immensely (I'll talk more about that later). However, they played outside a lot and there were many accidents involving little kids falling down, kids bullying other kids, and lots of tears. And I felt awful because I couldn't really help since I didn't know how to say what I would've said in English.

After school was over, my host mom picked me up and I went home for a couple hours to run, shower, and pack up my stuff to spend the night at Talia's. However, before I left, I made... Ready for this?? GRILLED CHEESE. I was so excited! We had found a Laughing Cow cheese that came just like Kraft singles and the package said "with cheddar". However, that was not cheddar cheese. That was good old fattening American cheese. And I made my wonderful grilled cheese sandwich on delicious Belgian bread. If only I had had applesauce...

So anyways, Karine then drove me over to Talia's, where I got ready for the giant techno party called KickAss. Talia and I got all dolled up, ate dinner (spaghetti), and around 9:30pm, Talia's host mom drove us into Hannut for the party. When we got there, there weren't a whole lot of people there, so we hung around outside for a bit and then went in where the DJ was set up on the stage and strobe lights were going. Nobody was dancing yet and it was kind of that socially awkward stage when everyone is just standing around. But our friends trickled in and before we knew it, the whole sixième class was there and we were dancing and having a great time. Every hour, they switched DJs, so the style was changed up a bit. Talia and I spent the time going between the dance floor and outside, talking to friends, meeting new people and taking TONS of pictures. The Belgians dance very differently than Americans and they aren't very wild about it. So Talia and I had to contain ourselves a little, but it was still so much fun. I absolutely love dancing! Of course, we're in Belgium, so just about everyone was drinking, but it was nowhere near the type of intense drinking like people were doing at the Fête de Wallonie. But because it was a dance party, beer was sloshed out of cups left and right and it basically covered the floor. Not to mention I ended up getting splashed more than once with beer and stepped on multiple times, so by the end of the night, my feet were gross and beer had dried on my legs. Which is, yes, disgusting. But I didn't let that stop me from having a fantastic time! Most of our friends left around 1:30am, but Talia and I stayed until 3am with some others that we knew, and some we had just met. At 3am we met up with our friend Gregoire, who's mother graciously gave us a ride home. We creeped into the house around 3:30 and headed up to Talia's room where we immediately crashed (after washing off my legs, of course).

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning, Talia and I had to wake up around 7am for a Rotary outing in Namur. Which means that we got about 3 hours of sleep. We very quickly got dressed, grabbed our lovely Rotary blazers, ate some breakfast, made our lunches and then we were out the door, in the car, headed to meet up with Gaby to go to Namur. I didn't even have enough time to throw makeup on my face or do something to make my hair presentable, so I did my makeup in the car and just left my curls from the night before. And I have to say, I'm pretty skilled at car makeup and I found that I can do my mascara blind and not get it all over my face. I was impressed with myself.

After driving about twenty minutes, we met up with Gaby and her host dad on the side of the road, as is the Belgian way. We then got into Gaby's car and we all went the rest of the way to Namur. We met the other exchange students at the train station, and then all walked about fifteen minutes through the streets of Namur, which I know very well by now, to the city commune. We checked in there and then all went inside and waited for things to start.

During this time, I met a couple new exchange students, one who was from Argentina, and another from Finland. I can't get over the fact that all the exchange students that aren't from the States or Canada speak English so well. It makes me feel like us Americans aren't ambitious enough to learn more languages than just English... Once everyone was finally settled in, Rotarians talked to us about a number of different things, including rules and the trips that are happening throughout the year (again).

After that was all finished, we headed outside where they gave us something to drink and we just chilled for a while. I went outside to meet up with Rèmi and Talia, and proceeded to get yelled at for something. I have no idea what I did wrong, but all of the sudden one of the men there was yelling at me to get out. I was dumbstruck and just kind of said uh uh huh? And he yelled again, saying, "I asked for one thing, you go out now!" And I just said "Uh, uh, ok ça va," and went back inside. I was very upset about that for about five minutes, and then we all left that building and went to take a group picture. Group pictures always take longer than necessary.

Finally, it was lunch time. They gave us a little over an hour to either eat what we brought, or go buy food. Of course, we decided to do both. So I went with Rèmi, Talia, and another boy from Ohio named Matheus, and we all walked into town. All of us except Matheus had brought sandwiches, so we ate those on the way, and since I'm a nice person, I shared with him. We then searched for a place for other food. We came by a bakery where Rèmi got a really delicious pastry that came with a cool little wooden spoon that we were all amazed at, cause, ya know, we're all just 4 years old inside. We then went to seek out some substantial food for Matheus. We scanned just about the entire city when we finally walked back the way we came and saw that there was a sandwich shop that was right next to the bakery that we had stopped at earlier. It was definitely a "here's your sign" moment. So we stopped in there and Talia and I decided that we were still hungry so I got a sandwich too for us to split. She asked me to choose so I went with brie cheese, sirop de Liège, and pearl onions. If you don't remember, the sirop de Liège is the molasses type syrup made from apples and pears. It's very tasty, but very strong and it's best when it's with other things. It's a bit sweet also, so with the brie, it hit the spot. Of course, we're in Europe and it is typical for there to be music when you are just wandering the streets. There was a man playing the accordion outside the shop, and it was like a movie moment. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, we were standing in a little cobblestone square of town outside a cute bistro with accordion music. It was wonderful. We even danced a bit. After the accordion player finished, we went to check out the inside of an old church, and then proceeded to make our way back to meet with the rest of the exchange students.

We all met by the river and boarded a ferry for a ride along the river. It was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect, the river was calm, and the scenery was to die for. We spent the time talking and taking pictures and just really having a wonderful afternoon. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. After maybe an hour or two on the ferry, our time with Rotary was over, and I went to go search for something to occupy myself with. I met up with Brittany, Hadley, and Oakley, and ended up making plans with to join them for bowling with Brittany and Hadley's Rotary club, and then stay the night with Hadley.

We had some time before we had to catch the train, so we did a little shopping in Namur. As I promised last time, I didn't spend a single penny. But it was fun to go with them. Actually, that is a bit of a lie... I did buy makeup remover wipes, but that is only because I was out of them and that is really beside the point and you didn't need to know that... But that was the first time that I was given attitude for not speaking fluent French. The man at the register was not nice to me.

Anyway, we then made our way to the station, but stopped for a few minutes to watch some streets performers dance, which was really cool. Upon arrival at the station, the drama of the evening commenced. I had no cash on me, and there wasn't at ATM in sight. We had to get the train right then because otherwise we would miss it, so I was forced to buy a ticket on the train. Somehow, the ticket from Namur to Liège is around 8 euros, and it is another 3 added on because I am buying the ticket on the train. Normally, they don't actually charge you that extra 3, especially once they find out you don't speak French. However, this controller was in an awful mood and made me pay 11 euros for the ticket. Which is outrageous and something must've been wrong there, but I couldn't figure it out and besides, I don't speak French. Also, this was 11 euros that I didn't have. Now Brittany had lovingly given me a ten to pay with until I could find an ATM. I had thought it would for sure cover it, and there was no way that this short ride could cost more. But there I was, with 10 euros, having to pay for an 11 euro ticket. Luckily, there were a bunch of other exchange students standing right there with us and Jonathan, from Texas, was able to lend me the other euro. Crisis averted. We then found out that Oakley had been charged extra also because she had forgotten to fill out her GoPass before we got on the train. The fine is normally 60 euros, but he only made her pay about 8. So I suppose that was lucky for her too. Finally, we made it to Liège and I went to find an ATM. This is where I found out that Rotary had not given me my allowance for the month yet, and I couldn't withdraw anything from my account. So I was forced to use my Visa, and I am anxiously awaiting to find out what kind of ridiculous fees I will be charged. By this point, I am super frustrated with life. Then we find out that our host parents had talked to one another and changed our plans around, so I was staying with Brittany. This wasn't really a big deal at all, but we were extremely confused on how this had happened. We then went to catch our second train to Vervier. I decided that I didn't want what happened on the Liège train to happen again, so I quickly ran downstairs to buy a ticket. As Oakley and I were heading back up to the platform, the others were running down, saying they had changed our train. So we hurried to another platform, where we waited, and I found out that I had bought the wrong ticket, and the stop we were getting off at was actually Welkinrodt (spelling is wrong, I know). So I hadn't paid for enough zones and the controller could fine me. So we decided that when the controller came around, I was going to pretend to be sleeping, since they hardly ever wake people up. However, we lucked out and nobody ever came to check the tickets.

Brittany's host dad was there to pick us up at the station, and we headed over the bowling alley. It was the nicest bowling alleys that I have ever been to! There was the part for bowling, of course, but then there was also a nice bar, a place to sit down and eat, a part with some games and pool table, and then a glass wall which separated all that from another part of the building with a giant structure of tubes and slides for children to play on. Plus, there was no smoking allowed in the building, so it was really nice. We didn't even have to pay for our game because Rotary was hosting the event. When we got there, we met up with one of Brittany and Hadley's friends, Antoine, and then another girl, Laurie, met us later as well. Thais, an exchange student from Brazil, was also with us. (Poor Oakley was with all of us French speakers, and she is in the German part of the country, learning German, so she was lost all night) We donned our lovely bowling shoes and headed over to our lane to play. We didn't have much time, and we only got to frame 6, but I won with 59 points. I know, impressive. But we had a great time! After our hour of bowling, Rotary treated us to dinner. So we went over to the restaurant part of the building and sat down to a pizza dinner. I got Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple. I have recently discovered how brilliant it is to put pineapple on a pizza. After we finished eating, we spent a couple hours just telling stories, speaking French and laughing a lot! Oakley and Hadley left early, and then Brittany and I and the others left around 11pm. We swung by Hadley's quickly to pick up some of Brittany's things, and then headed to Brittany's house. Everyone had fallen asleep in the car, and Brittany and I were exhausted when we got up to her room, seeing as how we had each gotten about three hours of sleep the night before. So after quickly setting up a place for me to sleep and getting some pjs of Brittany's to wear, we crashed for the night.

SUNDAY:

Sunday morning was much more reasonable. Brittany and I awoke around 9:30am and went down to breakfast. It was the first time since I've been here that I lounged around in my pajamas. Breakfast at her house is wonderful. There was melted chocolate for baguettes (which beats Nutella), pain au chocolat, breakfast rolls, sirop de Liège, more chocolate, and the cheese de Herve (which is the city where she lives). I was a total piggy and had some baguette with chocolate, a roll with the sirop and cheese, and a pain au chocolat. With coffee and orange juice. Oh and when her host mom offered me a piece of chocolate with hazelnuts, I had that too. I mean, it would be rude to say no, right?

After breakfast, Brittany showed me around the house and then we went outside and picked up walnuts that had fallen off the tree in their front yard while telling stories and just having some girl chat. In our pajamas, by the way. Who knew picking up walnuts could be so much fun? We then went back inside, ate some of the walnuts, and watched a ton of YouTube videos. She introduced me to a new comedian, Eddie Izzard. If you don't know his work, you need to go look him up. He's a British man who dresses in drag for his act, and he's absolutely hysterical. We also took a look at the bus and train schedules and decided that I would catch a 3:08 bus to Liège and a 4:20 train to Huy. So that was all taken care of. Her host mom then called us for a light lunch outside. I met Brittany's host grandmother at this point, and sat outside and ate together. It wasn't really a meal. There were bowls of cashews, chips, cheese, mussels, mini sausages, carrots, and cauliflower, and we drank champagne. They do this every Sunday because of eating such a big, late breakfast. Brittany's host family is very very nice and they were pretty impressed with my level of speaking. So I felt pretty accomplished. After lunch, Brittany and I went back inside and continued watching videos until about 2:50 when I decided it was time for me to finally change and get to the bus stop. I went outside to say goodbye and thank you to her host parents, but they wouldn't let me leave without giving me some cake, so I sat down for a couple minutes and had a small piece of cake, which was delicious. Brittany and I left the house a couple minutes after 3, and had plenty of time to get me to the bus stop.

More drama commences. I got to the stop around 3:04 and waited. And waited. 3:15 rolls around and still no bus. So Brittany and I head back to the house to figure out what the problem was. Turns out we had been looking at the wrong schedule and the bus had come at 3:01. So her host mom helps us and we find the right schedule. Now I have to catch the 3:58 bus. Ok no worries, but I can't take the same train. So we look at that schedule and there is a 4:50 train to Huy, and then next one after that isn't until 5:50. Now it's a 45 ride on the bus, so I will have to book it to make the train. But we figure that's the only option, so I'll go with that. So Brittany and I chill for about another half hour and then go back to the bus stop. The bus shows up at 4:02, and I get a little worried that I'm not going to make it in time to catch the train. But I trust that God will get me there, so I just put in my earbuds and try to relax.

The bus gets to the train station at 4:52. I was super angry. I ran up to the platform to see if maybe the train was late, but alas, it had come and gone. And now I was stuck. So I look at the schedule and find that there is a train leaving in a few minutes for Waremme, which is also close to my house. So I call my host mom, run down to buy a ticket, then run to the platform. But I find that platform 5 is not running a train to Waremme like the schedule says. So I run back down the stairs and find that they had changed the train at the last minute, and my train is now on platform 2. Thankfully, I made it in time, though I didn't completely trust myself and was afraid that I was on the wrong train. But I did make it to Waremme in one piece, completely shaken, but alive and well.

My host mom picked me up from there, we stopped at Talia's to pick up my things from the night before, and then went home where I ate some apple pie, worked out, had dinner, and now am waiting for the shower.

So, to wrap up a ridiculously long, dramatic blog post, this was a fantastic weekend, despite the mishaps. I had a great time, I spoke a lot of French, and realized that my French is rapidly improving. Everyone I talk to says that I speak very well, my accent is good, and I can obviously get myself through tough situations. I met some great people, and I had A LOT of fun! Tomorrow, I have school, of course, and things will go back to boring. I hope you all made it through the post, and enjoyed my antics. Until tomorrow! Bonne nuit!

The Fort, Retreat, And Purple Pants

Today, I came downstairs to breakfast to see that my host dad has a pair of purple pants. And he actually wears them. I just thought I'd share that with the world.

Today was my first day on "retreat". Except it wasn't really a retreat. I went with my two friends, Manon and Flore, to a primary school and helped out with the kids at school. Since it's Wednesday, we only had a half day today. Tomorrow and Friday, we will go back and we will have full days of school to help out with. I had a good time though! I love little kids, and they tend to love me too. The only thing with young kids in Belgium is that I don't want to speak French to them because they are so young. They won't understand anything I say when I make mistakes because their little minds don't know how to fix my errors and comprehend what I say. So I kept pretty quiet today and didn't say much. But I still had a good time and still had little cuties holding my hands and giving me hugs. It was fun!

In the afternoon, I went to a fort with Rotary. I wasn't originally going to go, because I thought I would be at the retreat all day. But then yesterday we found out that it was only going to be a half day, and I ended up being able to go after all. I wasn't really that psyched to visit and old war fort, but I figured hey, it's a chance to see the other exchange students, right? It was a very long tour that included a very very long, steep set of stairs, and I can't say it was incredibly interesting, but they fed us fruit pies afterwards and it was a good chance to catch up with the other exchange students, so overall, it was a good time.

Then came the train fiasco. Which isn't much of a fiasco, but basically we all were waiting for a train to take us back to Liège and it was supposed to come at 6:22. Well 6:22 rolls around and no train. Then before you know it, it's 6:25. And then 6:30. Finally, one of the conductor guys told us that we could get on the other train that had been sitting there for a while and it would take us to Liège. So we all piled on that one and waited another ten minutes before finally taking off towards Liège. But of course, because of this delay, Mikayla and I had missed our second train to take us back home. Luckily, a couple of the Australians knew of another train that would take us to the same place, so we were still able to get back to the station around 7:30, why my host mom picked me up and took me home. I ate dinner (chicken, salad, chocolate mousse) and now I am writing this blog. Which I realize is not as detailed as I normally do things, but I'm so exhausted and I have to get up earlier than usual in the morning, since I have to be at the school at 8:00 instead of 8:30. So goodnight and see you all tomorrow!

P.S. My host family is totally obsessed with my chocolate chip cookies. Karine is buying me more chocolate to make another batch and is using them as bargaining chips to get Benoit to clean his room.