This is it. The big one. The one we've all been waiting for. Not really, but it sounded good, and I can never resist a good Harry Potter quote. There is a lot to relay however, so get cozy.
So, to start out, about three weeks ago now, I went on my voyage rhéto, which is the Belgian equivalent of a senior class trip. About 55 of my classmates and I got in a large charter bus on the afternoon of Friday, March 27th, and drove 20 or so hours down to Croatia. We arrived at one in the afternoon the next day at the national park of Plitvice. The whole park is full of large, turquoise lakes and pounding waterfalls. Unfortunately, seeing as it was early spring, it wasn't quite as green and beautiful, nor as warm, as it becomes in the summer, but it was still quite an impressive sight to see. The next day we set out for the seaside village of Porec. There we explored the city in small groups. We were given a handful of drawings, and we ran around to see who could find more of the locations shown in them. They weren't that hard, and I'm pretty sure we all found all of them. The hotel we stayed at near Porec was AHmazing. There was a nice pool, a smallish hot tub, a sauna, a bar, a huge buffet set up for dinner, and best of all, 12 or so tennis courts. Two of my friends and I spent about an hour playing tennis with two of our teachers. It was the first time I had played since practically the end of the season last year, so about 9 months. I only had Converse, and a crummy rental racket, but it was a great time nonetheless. The next few days in Croatia went a little like this, in the morning, we would drive (or take a boat) to a different city, and the group of students in charge of creating the visit would present the city, and then the afternoon was spent as free time, where we could explore the city, eat, get our ears pierced, whatever. Every night at the hotel, we ate a huge dinner from the awesome buffet, and then we would have a soirée either at the hotel bar, or in the teen hang out room type thing. It was definitely a strange environment for me, coming from America, to have parties where people were drinking beer and mojitos and all sorts of other alcohols with our teachers right there drinking along with us. That has to be one of the most prominent examples of culture shock that I've experienced since arriving here. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was still a little strange. To end our lovely voyage, we headed to Venice. One day we spent touring the two islands of Murano and Burano. On Murano, they're famous for glassblowing, and we got to watch one of the workers make a vase, and then a horse, out of glass. They each took him at most 10 minutes to do. It was crazy. On Burano, they make lace, but we didn't get to watch that happen. We just had a few hours of free time. The next, and last, day was spent in the city of Venice itself. In the morning we had a guided tour, which unfortunately, was not very interesting. The afternoon, between 1 and 7 o'clock, was, again, free time. We explored the city, went shopping, found the MacDonald's (Belgians are obsessed), and got really expensive coffee. After Venice, we got back into the bus, and drove the 17-18 hours back to Belgium.
All in all, it was an amazing trip. Not only did I get to see some beautiful places, but I got to spend it with some great people. In those six days, I got so much closer with my school friends. It's kind of unfortunate that it happened so late into my exchange. I mean, I always had friends at school, but now we have inside jokes, and little traditions, and nicknames, and all of the things that close friends have. I've come to really like them, and I know that when I leave in (gulp) less than 10 weeks, I'm going to miss them terribly. In other news, spending a whole week hearing and speaking nothing but French, my speech became a lot more fluid, and my knowledge of the high school vernacular expanded.
Whew, brief respite. I had two days at home to do all my laundry, sleep a little, repack, and then I was off to Italy, this time with Rotary.
We had again, close to 20 hours of bus until we arrived in Rome. That day we walked around, seeing some fountains and piazzas, and such, and then it was off to the Vatican. We toured the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, and may I just say wow. I have never seen such impressive buildings, and I've visited the Palace of Versailles. It was amazing. Our second day was also spent in Rome. We saw some more monuments, including the location of Caesar's assassination, we toured through the ruins of the ancient city, and last but not least, the Colosseum. It's a little overwhelming, visiting a place like that: somewhere you've heard about, and seen pictures of, and dreamed about one day visiting, and suddenly there it is. Old and huge and just breathtaking. The next day was spent in the bus, with a short stop at the Palace of Caserte, in Naples, the largest royal palace in the world. Our hotel, the nicest of the four we stayed in, was located near the coast of the Bay of Naples, with a fantastic view of Mount Vesuvius. Early the next morning we set out on a tour of the Amalfi coast. this was a day of free time. We stopped in Sorrento, Amalfi, and Ravello. Each of these had an outstanding view of the Mediterranean, and Sorrento and Amalfi were located right on the beach. That was Friday. Saturday was Capri. We took a tour around the island in boats, then visited the cities of Capri and Anacapri. We took a chairlift up to the top of the island, and were rewarded with a magnificent view. En route to our next hotel, we stopped in Pompeii. It was awesome. We were able to walk through the entire city, seeing what was left of all the buildings, from the bath houses, to the fast food counters, to the brothels. We also saw, of course, the castes of the bodies, and they are just as impressive as you think. The next day, we visited the city of Florence, and then Pisa. You don't see very often in photos, but the other buildings in the same square as the Tower are actually pretty cool too. Big old temples and monuments and such. Cool stuff. Our last two days we actually spent the exact same way as I did on my voyage rhéto. Murano, Burano, then Venice, but with some slight changes. We stayed in a hotel that was a 30 second walk from the Adriatic Sea, and after the two islands, we all went swimming/splashing around. It was pretty chilly, but how often do you get that chance? In Venice, on our last day, I was able to meet up with one of my good friends from my high school, and Rotary district back home. He's on exchange in Italy, and his school was in Venice that day showing around some Spaniards. It was a pretty coincidental meeting, and it was great that it worked out. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was sort of a let down as a final meal in Italy, but it was still good. I had a very good American style veggie burger, the sort of which I haven't had since coming to Belgium. We then got in the bus and drove overnight back to Belgium. Basically as soon as we all sat down, we were asleep, even though it was only nine o'clock. We were all exhausted, and I think a little sad that it was coming to an end. We arrived in Brussels around 1:30, and from there I took the train home with all my luggage, and did the whole laundry, sleeping, repacking deal over again.
Last Friday, I change host families for the third and final time. So far so good. They're are four kids, three boys, 20, 17, and 12, and one girl, who is also the youngest, at 10. It's pretty rowdy, and with younger kids I'm constantly under an onslaught of questions, but it's improving my French, and increasing my comfort with simply joining in on conversations. It's only been a few days, but I'm already confident that my time here will pass wonderfully, if not too fast.
School started again on Monday, and let me tell you, after three weeks of vacation, it was rough. Luckily, all but one week of May is shorter than usual, and then it will be June and exams time (which I don't care about whatsoever) and then one week after school ends, and then time for Ariana to go home.** In the upcoming long weekends, I hope to visit more of Belgium, as I have yet to see Antwerp or Ghent, and hang out with my new family and all of my lovely friends from around the globe.
Whew. Sorry for the length of this post, I usually try to keep them trimmed down, but there was a lot to say...
**Days off - May 1st, 6th, 14th, 15th, 24th
Exams - June 9th - 18th
Date of departure - June 27th (6:15 AM.)
P.S. All of the pictures from my trips are on Facebook. Check 'em out.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Carnaval, Cabaret, and counting the days
For those of you who have been wondering just how long I have been in Belgium, here's your answer: 200 days. 200. Jeez. That is a biiiig number. (P.S. I have an app that counts this for me, it's not like I'm keeping track or anything). It doesn't feel like that long ago that my time here seemed to be moving so slowly, and I felt as if I had all the time in the world, but things have taken a complete 180. Recently, I have become more involved at school and have really added a lot to my day to day routine, and the days are flying by. Anyway, here are a few things that I've been up to in the past few weeks.
CARNAVAL
So cool thing about Belgium, we have a lot of holidays. three weeks ago it was Carnaval, and we had a week off from school. In my last post, I mentioned how I went to Binche with my host family. I went back late that week for Mardi Gras with a group of exchange students. It's not as big as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but there was a cool parade with a bunch of guys wearing big, feathery hats. The second half of the week, my hosts and I went on a road trip, and visited Luxembourg and Strasbourg. My favorite part was probably the day we spent in Strasbourg. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the city itself is just really cool. Nearly all of the buildings are Tudor style houses, or as they say in French, maisons à colombage, and there's a river that goes around the center of the city, creating a mini island. In Luxembourg, we spent a day visiting the city of Luxembourg, where we went ice skating, saw a lot of really old buildings, and visited this random natural history museum that we found, just to get out of the cold. We also spent a day in Beaufort (also in Luxembourg), where we went on a really nice walk in the woods, ate some really good pizza, and stayed in a pretty awesome hostel. On the way back home, we stopped at the highest point in Belgium, which measures at 694 m, or 2,277 feet. Wow, so high. However, it actually snows and sticks all the way up there, so we had a snowball fight, and of course some hot chocolate, before heading home. All in all, in was a spectacular vacation, and it was over too soon.
CABARET (and school and stuff)
This past week at school was Cabaret week, Belgium's equivalent to a school talent show. My friends had asked me to play the piano or sing, but I've been kind of busy, and before I knew it, it was two days before and I had forgotten to prepare anything. Instead, I helped out with preparations, and my friend and I were on stage crew, setting up mics and moving furniture around and such. Now, while my school here doesn't really have the facilities, technology, or funding to put on a Janice Franz caliber talent show, it was still a really great time. There was one comedy sketch done by a few teachers and it was hilarious. The theme of the Cabaret was Safari, and their sketch was a spin off of Cinderella. In this version, Prince Charming was Indiana Jones, and even better, was played by my math prof, who is one of my favorite teachers. Ever time he said his line (singular on purpose, he really only had the one) the Indiana Jones theme music would play, he would flex his muscles and say, "Je suis Indiana Jones. Je suis si fort, et tellement beau" (I am Indiana Jones. I am so strong, and very handsome). the crowd died every time. For me, it was great for two reasons, 1) my favorite teacher was being ridiculous, and 2) I actually understood all of the humor. It was definitely my favorite act. Besides the fun of the show itself, it was really great to get involved with something at school. Here in Europe they don't have school sports, or clubs, or really any extracurricular activities, so the opportunities to involve oneself are extremely limited. Being a part of a group effort like this was really cool. It helped me to get even closer with my classmates. At first, most people at school were distant, not unfriendly, but just separated, and I was pretty shy, and not confident in my language abilities, so school was kind of blah all the time. After Christmas vacation though, things have been getting steadily better. I have the ability to join in on conversations, I'm more involved in class, and people I don't know that well have started coming up to me and inviting me to sit with them, or play cards, or ask me for help on homework (once a nerd, always a nerd, even in French). Honestly, this couldn't have come at a better, or a worse, time, to be honest. In just three weeks (!!!) I'm going to Croatia on my senior class trip, and before this, I was a little nervous to spend a whole week with these people who I didn't know very well, and wasn't that close to. Now, I'm still a little nervous, but mostly excited to have an opportunity to become even better friends with an awesome group of people. On the negative side, it kinda sucks that it's happening so late as I only have months left in Belgium. At first, school was just something I had to do. It was boring, and difficult (for the first few months at least), and I only had a few people that I actually looked forward to seeing. But as I am all too quickly approaching the end of my time here, it's become something else. Yeah, it's still boring, and studying sucks, but I get to spend time, share experiences, and make memories with people whom I have really grown to love, and whom I know I'm really going to miss when the time comes for me to leave.
But that's enough of that sad stuff, so here's an update on what's coming up for me in the next month or so.
T-13 days: First day of spring! (this isn't really about me, but I'm still excited)
T-20 days: Voyage rhéto (senior trip) to Croatia
T-30 days: Rotary trip to Italy
T-approx. 45 days - Switching families, cities, and train routes
T-3 months - exams...
T-3 months, 19 days, 15 hours, 30 minutes (as of 14:45 GMT, 7/3/15) - Returning to the U.S.
There you have it! Life continues to be awesome here in Belgium, though sadly colder here than back in Wenatchee, and more awesome adventures are coming up. Thanks as always for reading, and hope to see you back here in a few weeks!
CARNAVAL
So cool thing about Belgium, we have a lot of holidays. three weeks ago it was Carnaval, and we had a week off from school. In my last post, I mentioned how I went to Binche with my host family. I went back late that week for Mardi Gras with a group of exchange students. It's not as big as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but there was a cool parade with a bunch of guys wearing big, feathery hats. The second half of the week, my hosts and I went on a road trip, and visited Luxembourg and Strasbourg. My favorite part was probably the day we spent in Strasbourg. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the city itself is just really cool. Nearly all of the buildings are Tudor style houses, or as they say in French, maisons à colombage, and there's a river that goes around the center of the city, creating a mini island. In Luxembourg, we spent a day visiting the city of Luxembourg, where we went ice skating, saw a lot of really old buildings, and visited this random natural history museum that we found, just to get out of the cold. We also spent a day in Beaufort (also in Luxembourg), where we went on a really nice walk in the woods, ate some really good pizza, and stayed in a pretty awesome hostel. On the way back home, we stopped at the highest point in Belgium, which measures at 694 m, or 2,277 feet. Wow, so high. However, it actually snows and sticks all the way up there, so we had a snowball fight, and of course some hot chocolate, before heading home. All in all, in was a spectacular vacation, and it was over too soon.
CABARET (and school and stuff)
This past week at school was Cabaret week, Belgium's equivalent to a school talent show. My friends had asked me to play the piano or sing, but I've been kind of busy, and before I knew it, it was two days before and I had forgotten to prepare anything. Instead, I helped out with preparations, and my friend and I were on stage crew, setting up mics and moving furniture around and such. Now, while my school here doesn't really have the facilities, technology, or funding to put on a Janice Franz caliber talent show, it was still a really great time. There was one comedy sketch done by a few teachers and it was hilarious. The theme of the Cabaret was Safari, and their sketch was a spin off of Cinderella. In this version, Prince Charming was Indiana Jones, and even better, was played by my math prof, who is one of my favorite teachers. Ever time he said his line (singular on purpose, he really only had the one) the Indiana Jones theme music would play, he would flex his muscles and say, "Je suis Indiana Jones. Je suis si fort, et tellement beau" (I am Indiana Jones. I am so strong, and very handsome). the crowd died every time. For me, it was great for two reasons, 1) my favorite teacher was being ridiculous, and 2) I actually understood all of the humor. It was definitely my favorite act. Besides the fun of the show itself, it was really great to get involved with something at school. Here in Europe they don't have school sports, or clubs, or really any extracurricular activities, so the opportunities to involve oneself are extremely limited. Being a part of a group effort like this was really cool. It helped me to get even closer with my classmates. At first, most people at school were distant, not unfriendly, but just separated, and I was pretty shy, and not confident in my language abilities, so school was kind of blah all the time. After Christmas vacation though, things have been getting steadily better. I have the ability to join in on conversations, I'm more involved in class, and people I don't know that well have started coming up to me and inviting me to sit with them, or play cards, or ask me for help on homework (once a nerd, always a nerd, even in French). Honestly, this couldn't have come at a better, or a worse, time, to be honest. In just three weeks (!!!) I'm going to Croatia on my senior class trip, and before this, I was a little nervous to spend a whole week with these people who I didn't know very well, and wasn't that close to. Now, I'm still a little nervous, but mostly excited to have an opportunity to become even better friends with an awesome group of people. On the negative side, it kinda sucks that it's happening so late as I only have months left in Belgium. At first, school was just something I had to do. It was boring, and difficult (for the first few months at least), and I only had a few people that I actually looked forward to seeing. But as I am all too quickly approaching the end of my time here, it's become something else. Yeah, it's still boring, and studying sucks, but I get to spend time, share experiences, and make memories with people whom I have really grown to love, and whom I know I'm really going to miss when the time comes for me to leave.
But that's enough of that sad stuff, so here's an update on what's coming up for me in the next month or so.
T-13 days: First day of spring! (this isn't really about me, but I'm still excited)
T-20 days: Voyage rhéto (senior trip) to Croatia
T-30 days: Rotary trip to Italy
T-approx. 45 days - Switching families, cities, and train routes
T-3 months - exams...
T-3 months, 19 days, 15 hours, 30 minutes (as of 14:45 GMT, 7/3/15) - Returning to the U.S.
There you have it! Life continues to be awesome here in Belgium, though sadly colder here than back in Wenatchee, and more awesome adventures are coming up. Thanks as always for reading, and hope to see you back here in a few weeks!
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| Mardi Gras in Binche |
| Luxembourg is actually Hogwarts. |
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| Barrel of wine made in 1472 - Strasbourg |
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| Belgium making up for its lack of mountains with awesome sunsets |
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| Me and the host sisters in Strasbourg |
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| Snow at Signal de Botrange - highest point in Belgium |
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| Glass saxophone in Dinant, Belgium birthplace of Adolphe Sax |
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Early six month celebratory post
Well it's been almost a month since I posted anything, right around my five month mark. I'm bringing my six month post out early because on the day of, I will be out of the country with my host family. We're on our Carnaval break right now, and during the second half of the week my host family and I are heading to Germany, France, and Luxembourg to do some exploring.
So, in the past month nothing too huge has been happening for me. I did celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago, and I had a pretty good time. The day before it was a Wednesday, meaning a half day for me, so a few of my exchange student friends and I went out together. It wasn't anything super elaborate, just a good day with friends. The day of my birthday itself was very relaxing, the teacher of my French course was sick, so my morning was completely free. Then I went off to school for the remaining three hours or so. When I got there, it was lunch time, so I walked into the senior class hang out spot room type thing (called the salle rhéto) to find my friends, and everyone I knew came up to give me a bisous (traditional Belgian cheek kiss thing) and tell me happy birthday (bonne/joyeux anniversaire). My closest Belgian friend had also bought a little cake, so we split that up and shared it (fun fact, she neglected to bring a knife, so we cut it with her ruler...). After school I had a little time where I got to skype with Mom and Dad, and Willem a little, as Hendrik was already at school and Marijke's in Seattle. We caught up a bit, and it was really nice to see them all. That night with my host family, we had a delicious chocolate cake and some champagne, and they gave me a really cool watch, of the trés belge company Ice. All and all I had a pretty great birthday.
I haven't had any huge adventures lately, but the last month has been extremely satisfying in a lot of small ways. First of all, I haven't spoken any English at school since we returned from winter break. Whoooo. New level of French achieved. Boom. I also got 91% on my exam in my French class. No big deal. I have also been able to ask my teachers questions when I have them, and, even better, I've been able answer theirs in front of the class. New level of French achieved, again. It was also my best Belgian friend's birthday a few weeks ago, and I had a really great night out with her and my other school friends. That was a time when I felt like I really belong here, like I'm a Belgian too, it was cool. Another recent addition to my life is my new gym membership. I had no idea how much I would miss working out, it's been really nice to have that back. Plus it will definitely help me stay healthier in this chocolate and waffle filled land. Pretty exciting stuff. On Saturday I went to scouts with my host sister, Mathilde, who's about my age, and it was really fun. She's what's called a "chef", meaning leader basically, so I helped out with her group of seven to eight year old boys. It was great because we're kinda on the same level of French, so we had pretty great conversations. I heard a great joke, that really only makes sense in French, so that's how I'll tell it, but I'll translate as well:
Him: Est-ce que tu as un cerf (pronounced like ser)? (Do you have a deer?)
Me: Non...
Him: Et est-ce que tu as un veau (pronounced like vo)? (And do you have a calf, like a baby cow?)
Me: Non...
Him: Donc tu n'as pas de cervaux (pronounced like ser-vo)! (So you don't have a brain!)
I thought it was pretty funny, personally.
They also liked to show off their English prowess, one of them could count to 12, another could say yes, no, and I love you, and in typical little boy fashion, they had tons of questions. Here are some examples:
"You're American? What language do you speak?"
"You have an accent, is it because you come from America?"
"Is it true you write the date backwards in the U.S.?" (that one took me by surprise actually, really smart)
And finally, my personal favorite, "In the U.S., um, are there cars?"
It was a really satisfying day.
Today (Sunday for those of you in a different time zone and whatnot), my family and I went to a town called Binche for Carnaval. It wasn't the biggest day of celebration, but there were some pretty cool costumes and an enormous amount of confetti. There's still some in my hair I'm pretty sure.
It's been really nice out lately, and the sun has come out at long last. That made this weekend that I spent outdoors really awesome.
I apparently have not been taking very many pictures lately... whoops. Here are some from Binche today.
One of the troupes of drummers, this one dressed as multiple Marios, and sporting American flags.
So, in the past month nothing too huge has been happening for me. I did celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago, and I had a pretty good time. The day before it was a Wednesday, meaning a half day for me, so a few of my exchange student friends and I went out together. It wasn't anything super elaborate, just a good day with friends. The day of my birthday itself was very relaxing, the teacher of my French course was sick, so my morning was completely free. Then I went off to school for the remaining three hours or so. When I got there, it was lunch time, so I walked into the senior class hang out spot room type thing (called the salle rhéto) to find my friends, and everyone I knew came up to give me a bisous (traditional Belgian cheek kiss thing) and tell me happy birthday (bonne/joyeux anniversaire). My closest Belgian friend had also bought a little cake, so we split that up and shared it (fun fact, she neglected to bring a knife, so we cut it with her ruler...). After school I had a little time where I got to skype with Mom and Dad, and Willem a little, as Hendrik was already at school and Marijke's in Seattle. We caught up a bit, and it was really nice to see them all. That night with my host family, we had a delicious chocolate cake and some champagne, and they gave me a really cool watch, of the trés belge company Ice. All and all I had a pretty great birthday.
I haven't had any huge adventures lately, but the last month has been extremely satisfying in a lot of small ways. First of all, I haven't spoken any English at school since we returned from winter break. Whoooo. New level of French achieved. Boom. I also got 91% on my exam in my French class. No big deal. I have also been able to ask my teachers questions when I have them, and, even better, I've been able answer theirs in front of the class. New level of French achieved, again. It was also my best Belgian friend's birthday a few weeks ago, and I had a really great night out with her and my other school friends. That was a time when I felt like I really belong here, like I'm a Belgian too, it was cool. Another recent addition to my life is my new gym membership. I had no idea how much I would miss working out, it's been really nice to have that back. Plus it will definitely help me stay healthier in this chocolate and waffle filled land. Pretty exciting stuff. On Saturday I went to scouts with my host sister, Mathilde, who's about my age, and it was really fun. She's what's called a "chef", meaning leader basically, so I helped out with her group of seven to eight year old boys. It was great because we're kinda on the same level of French, so we had pretty great conversations. I heard a great joke, that really only makes sense in French, so that's how I'll tell it, but I'll translate as well:
Him: Est-ce que tu as un cerf (pronounced like ser)? (Do you have a deer?)
Me: Non...
Him: Et est-ce que tu as un veau (pronounced like vo)? (And do you have a calf, like a baby cow?)
Me: Non...
Him: Donc tu n'as pas de cervaux (pronounced like ser-vo)! (So you don't have a brain!)
I thought it was pretty funny, personally.
They also liked to show off their English prowess, one of them could count to 12, another could say yes, no, and I love you, and in typical little boy fashion, they had tons of questions. Here are some examples:
"You're American? What language do you speak?"
"You have an accent, is it because you come from America?"
"Is it true you write the date backwards in the U.S.?" (that one took me by surprise actually, really smart)
And finally, my personal favorite, "In the U.S., um, are there cars?"
It was a really satisfying day.
Today (Sunday for those of you in a different time zone and whatnot), my family and I went to a town called Binche for Carnaval. It wasn't the biggest day of celebration, but there were some pretty cool costumes and an enormous amount of confetti. There's still some in my hair I'm pretty sure.
It's been really nice out lately, and the sun has come out at long last. That made this weekend that I spent outdoors really awesome.
I apparently have not been taking very many pictures lately... whoops. Here are some from Binche today.
One of the troupes of drummers, this one dressed as multiple Marios, and sporting American flags.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
ERMAHGERD.
Well the day has arrived. January 20th. Do y'all know what that means? It means that I am five months into my exchange, and that it is, roughly, halfway complete. Already. Wowzers. I know I haven't checked in with you guys since I shared the events of my Christmas vacation, so I've got a lot to fill you in on. Get ready.
First of all, I switched host families. This has been a pretty big change for me, as I have gone from being the sole daughter living at home for the past two plus years, to now being one of three, plus another who's off at university. Of the other two, one is in my year at school, and does gymnastics, though she hurt her shoulder and recently went through surgery, and the other is 13 and plays basketball. I'm starting to get used to the life of a female dominant family, but there is a truck load of hormones up in here, that's for sure. Some other changes include the presence of a television (I promise I don't waste too much time in front of it mom), walking and/or being driven to and from the train station as opposed to riding my bike, and, maybe best of all, a piano. It's keyboard really, but it has all seven octaves, and a pedal attachment, not exactly the baby grand I've got waiting for me back home, but good enough to get my fingers moving again. The family itself is pretty great. They yell at each other a lot, but what else can you expect when there are three teenage girls all under the same roof?
School continues mostly comme d'habitude, but as of late, it's been a little wonky. As a think I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts, there are no substitute teachers over here, so when teachers are sick or have trainings, we simply don't have class. The past couple weeks have been chock full of free time for me. I think the last full day of school I had was the first Thursday back from break, and even then, we got out 20 minutes early because our teacher had a dentist appointment... yeah. I haven't had Religion class since before Christmas, and I've only had French about one and half times (a dentist appointment, really?) since our return. The frustrating thing is, you don't always know ahead of time, in fact, usually you don't. That makes it so that when your first few teachers are sick, you show up at the same time as usual, and then sit around for hours while you could still be sleeping. Grrr. Yesterday, I had exactly one class. Fifty minutes of math, in which we took a test that I finished in about twenty. Out of a total six hours that I was there, I did twenty minutes of work. Way to go Belgian school system, you should get an award.
Alright, obligatory summary part of the post is done. Now it's time for a little real talk. Being in the position that I am, over here on an adventure, it makes it easy to forget sometimes that big choices in my future are right around the corner. Easy to forget, that is, until some lovely European adult asks me what I'm planning to study at university, as over here, everyone has to decide that before they go. Put simply, I have even less of an idea about that than I did before I came to Belgium. Luckily, I don't have to know yet, but having all my friends at school deciding, in fact, they're all mostly decided, I feel a little lost. The fact that my exchange is half over makes me feel more pressured to decide, like this year has kind of been my break from real life, and I'm heading back into it completely unprepared. Adding on to that, I keep having mini heart attacks when I wake up from dreams where for some reason, Berkeley didn't make any note of my deferment and they decide to reject me and I don't go to college or do anything with my life ever. Lovely, I know.
So I've been hearing a lot of questions and concerns from people back in the States about the current state of affairs over here in Europe, in reference to the recent terrorist activities. To be completely honest, I have not been terribly affected by it. I have not been able to tune in to the news for the past week or so, so I don't know much more about what's happening here than most of you. There have been a few "terrorist-linked protests" here in Belgium, the closest to me being about 14 miles away, but in a completely different city. They have started checking I.D. more frequently on the train, and I'm sure there are other safety precautions in place, but regardless, I feel totally safe, and I don't think there is anything to worry about.
Thank you guys for continuing to tune in for the first half of my adventure, and I promise there are many more exciting things to come, if you keep coming back! i.e. Croatia, Italy, and potentially London.
P.S. I don't really have any relevant photos for this post, but I have recently added a bunch to my album on Facebook, so if you're interested, check 'em out.
First of all, I switched host families. This has been a pretty big change for me, as I have gone from being the sole daughter living at home for the past two plus years, to now being one of three, plus another who's off at university. Of the other two, one is in my year at school, and does gymnastics, though she hurt her shoulder and recently went through surgery, and the other is 13 and plays basketball. I'm starting to get used to the life of a female dominant family, but there is a truck load of hormones up in here, that's for sure. Some other changes include the presence of a television (I promise I don't waste too much time in front of it mom), walking and/or being driven to and from the train station as opposed to riding my bike, and, maybe best of all, a piano. It's keyboard really, but it has all seven octaves, and a pedal attachment, not exactly the baby grand I've got waiting for me back home, but good enough to get my fingers moving again. The family itself is pretty great. They yell at each other a lot, but what else can you expect when there are three teenage girls all under the same roof?
School continues mostly comme d'habitude, but as of late, it's been a little wonky. As a think I may have mentioned in one of my previous posts, there are no substitute teachers over here, so when teachers are sick or have trainings, we simply don't have class. The past couple weeks have been chock full of free time for me. I think the last full day of school I had was the first Thursday back from break, and even then, we got out 20 minutes early because our teacher had a dentist appointment... yeah. I haven't had Religion class since before Christmas, and I've only had French about one and half times (a dentist appointment, really?) since our return. The frustrating thing is, you don't always know ahead of time, in fact, usually you don't. That makes it so that when your first few teachers are sick, you show up at the same time as usual, and then sit around for hours while you could still be sleeping. Grrr. Yesterday, I had exactly one class. Fifty minutes of math, in which we took a test that I finished in about twenty. Out of a total six hours that I was there, I did twenty minutes of work. Way to go Belgian school system, you should get an award.
Alright, obligatory summary part of the post is done. Now it's time for a little real talk. Being in the position that I am, over here on an adventure, it makes it easy to forget sometimes that big choices in my future are right around the corner. Easy to forget, that is, until some lovely European adult asks me what I'm planning to study at university, as over here, everyone has to decide that before they go. Put simply, I have even less of an idea about that than I did before I came to Belgium. Luckily, I don't have to know yet, but having all my friends at school deciding, in fact, they're all mostly decided, I feel a little lost. The fact that my exchange is half over makes me feel more pressured to decide, like this year has kind of been my break from real life, and I'm heading back into it completely unprepared. Adding on to that, I keep having mini heart attacks when I wake up from dreams where for some reason, Berkeley didn't make any note of my deferment and they decide to reject me and I don't go to college or do anything with my life ever. Lovely, I know.
So I've been hearing a lot of questions and concerns from people back in the States about the current state of affairs over here in Europe, in reference to the recent terrorist activities. To be completely honest, I have not been terribly affected by it. I have not been able to tune in to the news for the past week or so, so I don't know much more about what's happening here than most of you. There have been a few "terrorist-linked protests" here in Belgium, the closest to me being about 14 miles away, but in a completely different city. They have started checking I.D. more frequently on the train, and I'm sure there are other safety precautions in place, but regardless, I feel totally safe, and I don't think there is anything to worry about.
Thank you guys for continuing to tune in for the first half of my adventure, and I promise there are many more exciting things to come, if you keep coming back! i.e. Croatia, Italy, and potentially London.
P.S. I don't really have any relevant photos for this post, but I have recently added a bunch to my album on Facebook, so if you're interested, check 'em out.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Christmas, Paris, and another month gone
I skipped out on my normal monthiversary post, so here it is a little late, four months down!!
Normally, for a post such as this, I would give a broader summary of some of the things I've been up to in the past month, but this time's a little different. In part, because I actually don't remember where this last month started and the previous one ended, so I don't know where to draw the line, and also, because I have grander stories to tell. I'll start off with a little summary, just to keep the world back home informed. A few weeks ago, 2-3 I think, I took my "first semester" final exams. As obliged by my Rotary district here in Belgium, I only took four. In fact, due to a strike of the train system, I have yet to take the written portion of my Spanish exam, but that will come in January. Along with Spanish, I took the exam for my extracurricular French course, which I attend twice a week, the math exam, and, I know it sounds lame, but English as well. I have a few motives for my taking the easy way out there: 1) because of my French course, I miss two mornings of school a week, leaving me with less than adequate, and at times zero, knowledge for the exams in the other subjects, 2) I actually am learning things in English class, such as translations and extra verb tenses, and 3) it was the easy way out, and I am, most simply put, lazy. Anyway. I passed all of my classes this period, even Chemistry which I didn't do so well at last term, and will be returning to school soon to hopefully continue in this way. Enough about school. More exciting things are left to be told.
PARIS!!!
That's right. I went to Paris.This past week I went with my host father and brother to my host
grandparents' house in France. They live in a small town just about an hour out of Paris so it was easy to take the train into the city. Our first day, we visited the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa, a ton of Greek and Roman statues, some sarcophagi, and a mummy. We also say Notre Dame, at least from the outside, and l'Arc de Triomphe. From the Arc, we walked down the Champs d'Elysee through a large Christmas Market to a huge Ferris Wheel at the end of the avenue. By the time we finished walking, it was dark, so the whole street was lit up with Christmas decorations. It was quite something. The next day, we went to Montmartre, and saw a great view of Paris from above, and the Musee Grevin, which is the Parisian version of Madame Tussauds. We took a bunch of selfies and such. Wednesday, Christmas Eve, we went to Versailles. It. Was. Huge. Nearly every ceiling had an extremely detailed mural, and carved statues in each corner. There was gold leaf on every gate, fence, and in almost every room. The beds were so high off the ground that one would either have to high jump, or climb a stepladder, just to go to sleep. It was the definition of opulence. That night, we went to Christmas mass in an old, huge cathedral. It was all in French, but it was
remarkably quite similar to the Christmas masses I've attended in the past: singing, praying, sitting, standing, even some of the lines were familiar, though in French. On Christmas Day, we stayed at home. In the morning we opened a few gifts, and we spent the rest of the day lounging around, eating treats, and all those good things. I also Skyped with my family in the evening, a great end to a great Christmas. On Friday, we went to the Musee d'Orsay, and I spent most of the time there in the impressionist exhibit seeing a bunch of Monet's, and in the Van Gogh room, where I mastered the art of sneaky picture taking. Then we headed to the Eiffel Tower, where we met my second, now current, host family. We went all the way to the very top and saw some amazing views. Plus, by the time we got all the way up, and started coming down, it was dark. The tower was all lit up, and so was the whole city. It was pretty much stunning. Saturday was our last day, so after packing up and
one last delicious French breakfast, we set off back to Belgium. We had just about crossed the border when it began to snow. This provided for several days of nice views out the window, it's starting to melt, but hopefully the nice views will continue. Upon my return from my neighboring country, I switched to my second host family. It's a very different environment than what I'm used to, as out of the five family members, four are girls. I'm quickly adjusting to the new house and family.
Anyway, I hope you have all been having a wonderful holiday season so far, and that it continues to be so. Hopefully I will be checking in soon with more fun stories to tell. As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you keep on doing so. Byeeeeee.
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| The Grand Place in Brussels at Christmas |
PARIS!!!
That's right. I went to Paris.This past week I went with my host father and brother to my host
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| Christmas Eve mass |
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| View of Paris at night, from above (from the Eiffel Tower) |
Anyway, I hope you have all been having a wonderful holiday season so far, and that it continues to be so. Hopefully I will be checking in soon with more fun stories to tell. As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you keep on doing so. Byeeeeee.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Thanksgiving, Snow, and Saint Nicolas
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| Thanksgiving Belgian style |
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| Pumpkin pie made for me by my host family |
dish, apple pie, caramel tart, and we made some spiced cider, and yeesh my mouth is watering just remembering all of it. It was perfect.
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| The only photo I managed to take before it all melted |
come backs soon.
You know what else is great about the holidays here? Saint Nicolas. Last night, December the 5th, jolly old Saint Nick came to Belgium. This tradition is a lovely part of the season here. I opened my door this morning to find a mandarin outside my door, and looked down the hallway to see a trail of chocolate coins and more mandarins that led all the way downstairs and into the kitchen. It only got better from there. As you can see, the kitchen table was full of more goodies, from chocolate to specaloos to little gifts for each person. I received a cook book full of chocolate recipes and a lovely
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| The haul. |
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| Saint Nicolas a été ici!! |
year going back as far as I can remember, each kid in my family has received a large chocolate in the shape of the first letter of their name in their stocking on Christmas. These "chocolate letters" as we've come to call them, also come from Holland, hence the tradition. Anyway, along with all of the other lovely chocolates and treats on the table thi
s morning, I found a chocolate A. There was a J for my host brother, Julien, and an S for my host step-dad, Serge, as well. Needless to say, I was extremely excited. Even though I hadn't really thought that far ahead, I know that I would have missed my chocolate letter a lot come Christmas. It was also fun to share with my host family that we do the same thing in my family, connections between my two different lives are so fun to find.
Well then. I have to go do some studying now, as here in Belgium, we have our exams before Christmas instead of in January like back in Wenatchee. Luckily, since, 1) this scholastic year doesn't actually matter for me, and 2) the rules of Rotary are very kind, I am only obliged to take four exams. I have chosen to take English (that's not as lame as it sounds, I've actually been learning things in my class, plus I don't want my English grammar to fall by the wayside while I'm here), Spanish, math, and I'm taking the exam for my introductory French class for foreigners. They shouldn't be too hard, but I feel that some work might be necessary nonetheless.
That's all folks! See you soon with hopefully some more fun stories to tell!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Obligatory third monthiversary post...
Honestly, since last Friday, not much has happened, but I felt obliged to post seeing as three months ago today, I arrived in a new country full of strange, exciting new things, and strange, exciting new experiences. Since last week this is what I have been up to.
The Green Light:
For my host brother's birthday, we went to Kamperlaand (in Holland) Saturday night. We played card games, ate delicious food and some cake, and had a rousing round of cache cache lampe de poche (basically hide and seek with flashlights). Positioned on a lake, the house we stayed at had a great view, at least I assume it did, because it was dark and I couldn't actually see anything. Except for the green light shining across the way that is (no joke, an actual green light). The next morning, I took the train from Holland back to Belgium by myself in order to attend the exotic dinner hosted by Rotary.
Le Dîner Exotique:
The dinner was pretty fun. All of us Rotary students formed small groups of about five (by country) and made a dish representative of our nation to serve to our host families and Rotary clubs. I know what you're all probably thinking, but no, we didn't make burgers, or donuts, or quoi. Actually, since I was in Holland, I didn't help my group make our dish. My friend has a family recipe they call "heavenly spaghetti". It's basically a spaghetti bake with a lot of cheese and meat and veggies and such. I didn't eat any because we ran out, but it got some raving reviews from the guests. Other than the food, there was a lot of music, dancing, and general enjoyment all around.
Carnaval:
This week, we had a "carnaval" at school. Basically, we all wore costumes and we had a huge assembly/talent show thing. While that's a fun and good and all, but the thing that I was the most
impressed by was the amount of participation. Back home in America, when we have spirit days, there are always a number of students who regularly participate, ASB types and such, but those who don't dress up always outnumber those who do. Here it was different. I hardly saw anyone sans deguisement, and the people who were got teased (benevolently) for not participating. All in all it was a fun day.
Well there you have it, it's been a pretty good week. I also went to go and see the most recent installment in the Hunger Games trilogy. It was in French, but from what I could understand of the language, and what I got from observing the images, I think it's probably a good movie. Hopefully I'll get to see it in English eventually. Anyway. If you're reading this, thanks for keeping up with me over these past three months, and here's to the next seven eh? Byeeee.
The Green Light:
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| I can almost see Daisy... |
Le Dîner Exotique:
The dinner was pretty fun. All of us Rotary students formed small groups of about five (by country) and made a dish representative of our nation to serve to our host families and Rotary clubs. I know what you're all probably thinking, but no, we didn't make burgers, or donuts, or quoi. Actually, since I was in Holland, I didn't help my group make our dish. My friend has a family recipe they call "heavenly spaghetti". It's basically a spaghetti bake with a lot of cheese and meat and veggies and such. I didn't eat any because we ran out, but it got some raving reviews from the guests. Other than the food, there was a lot of music, dancing, and general enjoyment all around.
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| Me and my friend Florence as 118, 218. The famous French telephone operator commercial mascots. Aren't we cute? |
Carnaval:
This week, we had a "carnaval" at school. Basically, we all wore costumes and we had a huge assembly/talent show thing. While that's a fun and good and all, but the thing that I was the most
impressed by was the amount of participation. Back home in America, when we have spirit days, there are always a number of students who regularly participate, ASB types and such, but those who don't dress up always outnumber those who do. Here it was different. I hardly saw anyone sans deguisement, and the people who were got teased (benevolently) for not participating. All in all it was a fun day.
Well there you have it, it's been a pretty good week. I also went to go and see the most recent installment in the Hunger Games trilogy. It was in French, but from what I could understand of the language, and what I got from observing the images, I think it's probably a good movie. Hopefully I'll get to see it in English eventually. Anyway. If you're reading this, thanks for keeping up with me over these past three months, and here's to the next seven eh? Byeeee.
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