So Much To Blog About...

I have so many things that I have to blog about right now... See, it's the end of the year, I am down to 23 days left in this country, and I am BUSY. I just got back from a week in Spain, and it was my birthday. So yes, there is much to tell. The thing is that blogging can be tiring and I just spent about 2 hours responding to all the Happy Birthdays that I received on Facebook. I'm a little typed out. But I promise there will be a Spain post up on this site before the end of the night. In the meantime, I am going to attempt to post those pictures from Antwerp that never worked and edit my Spain pictures so they can go up on Facebook. See, I have to update that as well. SO much to do! But all on the computer... How lame is that? I'm rambling now, which doesn't make sense since I'm sick of typing. Oh well, à tantôt :)

Pour Mes Amis Aux États-Unis

Ok, on y va... Je connais quelqu'un aux États-Unis qui a dit à moi que je dois écrire quelques fois en français. Alors, c'est pour vous. Pour rester avec le thème du français, je vais écrire aujourd'hui de mon progrès avec le français.

Je suis pas contente avec mon français maintenant. Je ne sais pas si c'est possible, mais je me sens que mon français et pire maintenant qu'avant. Et ça c'est triste. Il faut penser trop quand je parle avec mes amis belge ou ma famille d'accueil. Et c'est vrai, je veux parler correctement, mais ces dernier jours étaient horrible avec le français. Je comprends tout, ça c'est pas un problème. Mais mon accent est moche et les conjugaisons sont pas tout à fait correctes. Je pense, et c'est logique, je parle anglais trop. Et je suis ici pour apprendre le français, donc, pourquoi parle anglais? Parce que c'est plus facile. Mais si j'ai voulu facile, pourquoi j'ai fait cet échange ? À cause de ça, Talia et moi avons décidé de ne parler que le français. Ce sera très difficile, mais c'est vraiment nécessaire. Si je ne suis pas fluent à la fin d'année... Je ne veux pas penser à ça maintenant.

Aujourd'hui, je n'ai rien fait spécial. Je suis allée à l'école, et car il est le mercredi, c'était une demi-journée. Mais j'ai réalisé aujourd'hui que je suis très fragile, et je vais me casser à tout moment. Comme aujourd'hui, je ne sais pas pourquoi, parce que normalement je suis la plus calme pendant le première heure avec le Père Boly, mais aujourd'hui, je m'ai cassé. Je me suis senti vraiment stupide et je ne peut pas faire ça. Et j'ai crié un peu. Pas de tout les choses impoli ou mauvais, juste frustré et fâché. Mais ça va. Je vais essayer rester calme et contente. Mais c'est vraiment difficile, parce que tout m'énerve à ce moment. Hier, j'ai trouver que je dois porter les lunettes pour la reste de l'année parce que j'ai développé un allergie de mes lentilles. Donc, je ne peux pas les mettre. Si j'en veux, j'ai besoin d'aller chez médecin pour les nouveaux. C'est chiante, ça. Et c'est cher. J'ai payé pour mes lentilles aux États-Unis et maintenant, j'ai tout les lentilles pour un an, et je ne peux pas les utiliser. Rawr. En plus, je déteste mes lunettes.

On va inscrit à la salle du sport à Hannut. Talia et moi. On allait y aller demain, mais Talia est malade, donc c'est pas possible sauf si j'y vais toute seule. Ah bien. Je pense ça c'est tout. Oh j'ai fait des cookies aujourd'hui. Vous connaissez, avec les "Hershey's Kisses". Oui. Mais sans le beurre de cacahouète. C'était juste les cookies du sucre avec le Kiss. Ils ont un bon goute. Mais c'est pas vraiment le goute je veux pour les cookies du sucre traditionnel. Alors, je vais essayer encore une fois. Mais maintenant, je vais coucher parce que je suis crevée. Bonne nuit.

Another Thanksgiving, An Exotic Dinner, And Snow

It's Monday night. I haven't posted for a few days, because I've been very busy and very tired lately. There has been a lot going on this weekend.

Friday, I went to school like any other day. And I spent the night at home, trying to pound out a few thousand words for my novel, which I did successfully. That is due tomorrow, by the way, and I think I will actually finish! I have about 2600 words left, and I will do that in the morning, and then I will be good to upload tomorrow afternoon and everything will be wonderful :) Anyways, I spent Friday night doing nothing else, and that was pretty boring. I might have had some good food, I don't even remember hehe Sorry world.

Saturday, I went to dance, as usual, and we continued preparing for the show that I will be participating in this weekend, on Saturday. It's pretty interesting. Basically, the idea is that there are these four musicians, and they are playing these little one minute pieces, a bunch of them, and there are four dancers that are dancing with them, and I'm one of them. We have these weird blue fabric tube like things that we dance in. But all the weirdness works because it goes with the music.

After dance, I rushed to the Huy train station to catch a train to Liège to catch a train to Welkenraedt to catch a bus to walk to Hadley's house. I know, it sounds complicated. And it would have been a lot more complicated, had I missed my train out of Huy, which I almost did. Thank goodness it was five minutes late! I spent about forty five minutes at the Liège station waiting for my connecting train, but I spent it eating my lunch and writing more of my novel. I also continued writing on my train, but stopped about halfway through to have a conversation with the guy sitting across from me, who told me I speak French very well. I still really enjoy getting that comment.

Anyways, I successfully caught my bus and managed to get off at the correct stop and walk the fifteen minutes to Hadley's house, where Hadley, Brittany, Alexanne, and Oakley all were, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. I had brought the things for green bean casserole and I had a couple of cans of cranberry sauce that had not made it to me in time for Mikayla and Talia and my Thanksgiving with our host families. I immediately began helping. This time we had an actual turkey, and we stuffed it and everything. We made a bunch of food, including some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had, and eventually Brittany's host family came, plus Hadley's host family, and we all ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together, complete with turkey. The menu was turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, corn bread, cranberry, stuffing, gravy and I think that's all. We had had another corn dish, but it ended up being wayyyyyy too salty and we could not serve it. We had bruschetta for an appetizer, which Hadley made and it was absolutely delicious. The problem was that we had done so much tasting of things during the cooking that by the time dinner came around, none of us were hungry! But we piled our plates high anyways, and I somehow managed to eat the majority of my food. It was absolutely wonderful and sooo delicious. And the host families really enjoyed it too. The turkey was moist and flavorful, the stuffing was perfect, and I was very happy to have my cranberry. For dessert, we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Duncan Hines brownies. Yummm. Again, not sure how I managed to eat it all, but I did, and I did not explode.

That night, Oakley stayed at Hadley's house, and I went back to Brittany's with her and Alexanne and the host family. We went to bed pretty much immediately, and Britt woke me up around 9 30am the next morning because we had to hurry up and make food for the "Diner Exotique" with Rotary that we were doing that day. We had to make a typical American dish that would feed 40-45 people. So we made stuffing. I went downstairs and got to work tearing bread and chopping celery and onions. We managed to get the stuffing done, eat a big beautiful breakfast, and get everything packed in the car ready to go. I still don't know how I can fit so much food in my stomach. I really stuffed myself at that breakfast. But it's cause it's just all so good.

The Rotary gathering was in Visé, which was about 20 minutes from Brittany's house. Her host mother drove us and we got there around 11am, which was actually a little late. We put our stuff on the American table, next to a ridiculously tall stack of PB&J sandwiches, and wandered around looking at the other stuff. All the countries had brought wonderfully delicious looking food, and I started getting really depressed because I was already so full and wouldn't be able to eat much. But I met a bunch of other exchange students that I hadn't known before and we had great conversation. Eventually, the host families began to show up and try our food. Then we got to go around and get food. I took some food and shared a lot of it with one of my new friends, Sarah. I took a bite of everything I had, but I have to say, I couldn't finish it all. I was just too full of food.

After that was over, the majority of the exchange students caught a train back to Liège. Then Brittany and I and another exchange student from Canada went to check out the "Village de Noël" in the center of Liège. Basically what it was, was a bunch of little wooden huts that were set up and vendors were selling things from them. Some were selling food and drinks, others were selling homemade trinkets and the like. We walked around the whole thing and eventually met up with Brittany's host sister and her boyfriend and we walked around some more and eventually found somewhere to get a drink. The patios in front of the ones with drink had heating lamps, so that was nice. I tried hot wine, which I actually really liked, even though I really don't care for wine. We spent the next couple hours just talking and having a good time. Then Canada left and the rest of us went to an indoor place where we enjoyed a nice cup of tea. We then went to the train station, they caught their bus home and I caught my train. Which was fifteen minutes late. But it's not a big deal. It was just really cold. But I went home and ate lasagna, and I was happy.

Today, I got up, worked out, and continued writing my book. My host mom came home from the dentist, we ate lunch, and then we got in the car and went to visit one of the family friends who just had a baby yesterday. We went to see her and the newborn in the hospital. The baby is named Iris, and she is absolutely adorable! She is only a day old and wow is she a beautiful baby. We spent some time there, and then we went to the big IKEA store that was nearby and walked around that. I really actually enjoyed it! It was interesting to look at. And the other thing about today: the first real snow of the year! It had snowed once before, on Thursday, but it didn't stick at all and it was only a few minutes. But today it really snowed here. There had already been snow out by Brittany too, but that was there and this is here.

Tomorrow, I finish my book! Well, at least I finish 50 000 words. There's no way the book will be done. But I gotta get up early to finish, so bonne nuit!

Novels And Films

I do not have school this week. This week, the entire country of Belgium is school free :) Honestly, I could not tell you why we don't have school this week, but if I could, well, I would.

Today, I went to see my first film in a movie theater in Belgium. I met up with Brittany around 2:30 in Liège and my host mom drove us into the center of town. We then went to go find the theater that Brittany had looked up online. It was called the Souvenière. I thought I had seen a sign with the name when we were driving, so we went that direction. We found the sign with the same name, but when we looked at the building, it was dingy and dirty, slightly rundown and not very promising. Not to mention there were papers all over the door saying something about a sports center. Realizing that I had been mistaken, we asked a Belgian for directions. She was very nice and showed us the way. It wasn't very far, and on the way there we noticed that the street that we were on was called Rue de Souvenière. So then it made sense why there were would be multiple things with that name.

Once we found the theater, we went in and attempted to purchase two tickets for "Despicable Me", which is a brand new release here in Belgium. And of course, it is in French here and is called "Moi, Moche et Mechant". Which translates literally to "Me, Ugly and Wicked". That made me laugh.

Anyways, we get up to the front of the line, and the woman at the register calls out that there are only five places left for "Moi, Moche et Mechant" (it just doesn't roll off the tongue the way "Despicable Me" does, does it?). So I figured we'd be fine and I bought my ticket. Little did we realize that at the same moment, a family of four was purchasing the rest at the next register over. So when Brittany went to buy hers, there were no more left. Sad and defeated, we weighed our options and finally decided to see "Social Network". It's a movie about the history of Facebook. And it was going to be in English. Plus the ticket for that one was cheaper, so once I exchanged my ticket, I got some money back so that was a definite bonus.

We now had an hour to kill, so we went to go find some food. We went into the café that was attached to the theater, but after realizing that we had no idea how that worked, since nobody was coming to our table to ask what we wanted, we decided to leave and walk around. We got a piece of pizza somewhere and then went over to my favorite waffle place where we split the pizza and a chocolate stuffed waffle. We then headed back to the theater and went in for our movie. It actually turned out to be quite good. It was in English, with French and Dutch subtitles. Ever so often, I would read the French ones, and understand them. But the thing was, they didn't match up very well to the words that were actually being spoken. Again, this goes back to the whole issue of there being much more expression in the English language. But I'm not going to get into that rant again. I think another big part of it was that the actors spoke very fast, and it would be almost impossible to keep up with the movie if they tried to put everything into written words. But the movie was very funny in English, and there were many times where Brittany and I would find something hilarious because we understood the American jokes and such and nobody else in the theater would laugh. But that is ok. We had fun!

After the movie, Brittany and I made our way back to the train station, she took her bus home and I caught my train. I came home, ate dinner, and then came up to my room where I continued working on my next big project:

My book.

Yes, I am writing a novel. Why, do you ask? Because it is National Novel Writing Month. And I have signed up on nanowrimo.org where they challenge you to write a novel in a month. Yes, 30 days, 50,000 words. That is the challenge. And I have become an official participant. So far I have about 1700 words. I'm not entirely sure what my plot line is yet, but when I read the guidelines, they said that the writer shouldn't worry too much about it. The plot line will come. It's about just writing. Cranking out a novel. It doesn't have to be perfect. They encourage you to muffle your inner perfectionist and editor and just write. This is about quantity, not quality. It's a first draft. And with the way it's going so far, I actually quite like my first 4 pages :) I think if it continues like this, I could have a decent novel by the time it's done! I'm quite excited!

But I must sleep soon. Bonne nuit.

Exercise, Letters, And High School Drama

You know, I had almost forgotten that being in high school included being surrounded by petty drama all the time. I'm not going to disclose the details of said drama, but you know, I just find it completely pointless. What do you achieve by talking about someone behind their back? And what advantages are there to starting rumors? And answer me this: What do you get out of immature insults and comments?

I realize that this makes it sound like something monumental happened today. Just to clear the record, it didn't. These are just the types of things I think about. I wasn't really involved in the drama of the day, but I watched it happen and just thought, dumbfounded, how stupid is this? I thought I was done with all this when I graduated high school. I guess I'm just now realizing that I have a whole 'nother year of it to deal with.

Ok rant over. Now I have another topic to write about: The fact that I have had more fat moments in the past week than any person should ever have in their entire lives. Ok that's exaggerating a little bit, but I just feel so bad about myself physically lately. And I realize that's kind of a personal thing to be writing about on a blog, and no I'm not fishing for compliments, but I treat this blog kind of like an outlet and sometimes I just need to write. Anyways, I realize that I probably am gaining some weight, for multiple reasons, the biggest one being the amount of chocolate and bakery and I have been consuming. But seriously, if you were in my position, what would you do? Everything here is so delicious! Another big part of it is portions. It's completely normal to have two or three croissants on a Sunday morning. One with chocolate, one with cheese, and one with jam. How does one not gain weight like that? So I have decided to set a goal for myself. It's not a very specific goal, and doesn't have anything to do with numbers or inches. I just want to eat better and exercise more regularly for the next month. No more Nutella sandwiches in the mornings. No more midday runs to the vending machine for chocolate. No more going after school to get a pastry. More running, more biking, and more dancing. I think I can do it. And in a month's time, I should be able to get myself to a better state.

I'm on a letter writing craze, once again. I have a million people to write letters to. I don't mind though, because I really enjoy it. I love writing letters and folding them up and sealing the envelopes with a fresh stamp and sending them off to my loved ones. It's a good feeling. I just wish I would get some mail in return :/

This post was a little odd... But it worked for me! Tomorrow is an average day. We'll see what I come up with for blog material :) Bonne nuit!

A Poem For You. Just Because I Can

And now Emma will post a poem. She rarely every does this. She writes a lot but never shares because she is insecure about her writing ability.

Ok enough with the third person nonsense :) This is an original poem of mine. Typically I don't post so this is kind of a "big step" for me. I really hope you like it! (Whoever you are...)

Untitled.

I look into your eyes

And I see

Something other than what I seek.

I seek solace, peace, and calm.

Instead I see waves of emotion

Crashing through your mind

Like the violent swells of the sea

During a hot summer storm.

And I wonder

What I have done

To bring this upon you.