It's a boring title, I know...
Last Tuesday, I started Belgian high school. I am in the sixth grade (senior equivalent) with more or less 50 other students. School was only about an hour long on the first day, just an orientation type deal. Wednesday was short as well, because here in Belgium, every Wednesday is a half day. This makes Wednesdays a great time for getting some extra touristy things in, as well as seeing my non school friends. So far in school, my favorite class is English, quelle surprise. I was placed in the most advanced English class, with the students who chose it as their first language to learn, and they are all pretty competent, and the teacher speaks English most of the time. My least favorite, sadly, is French. This is because it's like English class in America, and full of advanced vocab and literary terms and what all else that some of my friends have told me that they don't understand either. Basically I just sit there, half-listening, but basically just trying not to fall asleep. School here is much different than in America, at least when I went to WHS. School starts at around 8:30, I think (the train is always a little late), and I usually have six or seven classes a day, for one or two hours each. There are a few breaks during the day, and lunch is 40 minutes long. Being in the sixth grade, we can leave the school and walk into town to buy a sandwich or a drink or something, though we usually just sit outside on the grass, as it has been remarkably sunny the past week. Besides Wednesday, we get out every day at around 4:15. After the train ride and biking back from the train station, I usually get home a little after 5, giving about two hours to do school work before dinner and then bed. That's my typical school day, fascinating, huh?
That first free Wednesday afternoon, I went to the city of Liege, met some of my exchange student friends, saw some sights, ate some frites, the usual. It was a great time. On top of that, I left my phone in the toilet at a train station on the way home, realizing it just after pulling out of said station. Needless to say, upon arriving home, the first thing I did was say, quite panicky, to my host mom, "I left my phone in the bathroom in Ottignies!!" We spent some time researching the station's phone number, calling people, etc. and finally decided to just drive to the station to talk to a real person. It was getting late, and chances were the station would close before we got there, so we called my third host mom, Marianne, who lives much closer, and she got there before us. Upon our arrival, the ticket counter was, in fact, closed, but Marianne informed me that my phone was there and I could collect it the next day. So Thursday after school I went back to Ottignies, payed 4 euro for my phone and went on my way, very very grateful for the kindhearted citizens of Belgium. On Friday night, we hosted a dinner party for all three of my host families. It was a great time and really crazy. My host mom asked me to make a "traditional American dessert", so I found a good looking recipe for brownies online and went to work. Truthfully, they were better than most brownies I've made in America, but probably only due to the fact that Belgian chocolate was used in the process. Everyone at dinner complimented me on the "cake" (gateau in French).
Saturday was spent at my Rotary District Orientation. Super exciting stuff. Basically I spent several hours sitting in a room listening to a bunch of rules I already knew. However, my district has a different take on some of them. For those of you who don't know, the 4 D's of Rotary are: No Drinking, No Drugs, No Dating, and No Driving. The man in my room elaborated on the No Dating policy. He called it No Dating Seriously, quoted here, "You have one boyfriend/girlfriend, maybe two? Phahh. No good. Not enough. Have a different boyfriend/girlfriend everyday, is much better". Almost his exact statement, word for word. He also gave his opinion on the frequenting of certain bars/clubs. There are a few that the exchange students in Belgium like to go to on certain days, every week. His advice on that subject was to not go to the same bar every week, that's ridiculous, obviously! Instead we need to change it up, maybe go to a different city every week, try a new beer, branch out. That way we are, and I quote, "less likely to get caught". Words of Wisdom from kind, elderly Rotarians. After the long day of lecturing, a few of us exchange students went to Namur, another cool city in Belgium, and had a pretty fun time, despite the fact that the vending machine in the train station was broken and my Brazilian friend, Luany, and I were starving.
On Sundays, a lot of museums have free admission, so this weekend we hit up one about an old coal mine. There are several such mines along this strip in the center of the country. You can tell where they are because when the miners dug out the earth, they deposited it all in these huge heaps. Overtime, this has created several hills, and probably the most variation in landscape you will see for miles. While walking around the area, we stopped to watch a local field hockey match. That is one interesting sport, that's for sure. We watched for about ten minutes and then headed home.
I know I'm a little late posting this, as it's already Wednesday, but as you've read, I've been a little busy. I'll wait to tell you what's happened the past couple days until next week's post, but so far it's been another good week, and it seems to be flying by. I've done so much in the past three weeks, that it feels like I've been here for months already. Thanks for tuning in!
This past weekend, I went to the zoo. Did you know, zoos are pretty much the same wherever you go? You've got the monkeys, with their ropes to climb on, the building of birds, with its one door open at a time rule, elephants, the reptile house, and all that jazz. This one did come with a few surprises, however. First of all, it was built in an old abbey, and so it had a crypt. Which is where the bat exhibit was located. I used to think I liked bats. I always felt so content watching them swoop and soar over Spirit Lake as I watched from the dock. That is something entirely different than walking through a pitch dark room full of them as they fly right over your head and in front of your face. My host brother got a kick out of my whispered, "Oh my god" 's and little shivers of terror. I was not so amused. Another cool difference was how close you could get to some of the animals. I was able to pet a lemur, pet and feed some giraffes, and take pictures with a giraffe that was actually right next to my shoulder. In case you ever doubted the stories, giraffe tongues are, in fact, purple, and ridiculously long.
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