Il y a deux mois...

Guess what day it is? Guess. What. Day. It. Is. Spoiler alert: it's not Hump Day, but it is my two month Belgian anniversary!!!! Let's have a party! Not really. Anyway, in honor of this momentous occasion, I am going to write a blog post to tell you some inside stories of some of my more memorable adventures. Funnily enough, several of these stories come from events in the past few days, so I'll just get started then.

The time I graffitied:

Cuz sushi

I'm a pro... jk I suck at grafitti.

One Wednesday afternoon, my friends and I went to Louvain-la-Neuve, which is a really cool college town (and also the home of my third host family) for sushi. Not only was the sushi a welcome change from my patterns of bread and cheese, but there was some sort of street art festival thingy majig going on. This included some really bad break dancers and some also not very good singers. However, the graffiti artists were quite good, and even better, there were some "canvases" (sheets on poles) set up for passers-by to use, which my friends and I did. I am not very good at graffiti, but I left my mark nonetheless.

The time I drank beer that came out of a statue:

Manneken Pis has got a
costume on... and he's
peeing beer...

Grand Place at night

On my friend's birthday, we went to Brussels. At one point, my other friend and I decided to wander around to find the Manneken Pis, the famous statue of a little boy peeing. So fascinating. Anyway, we found it eventually, and on the way there I made eye contact this guy in a tux across the street. He rushed over to me, gesturing at me and speaking Dutch. He had a crumpled piece of paper and he grabbed my hand and put it there. Speaking more Dutch, he had me make a fist, and then he made magician-esque motions, opened my hand, saw the paper was still there, groaned in disappointment, and left. Once we got to the statue, we found a plethora of guys in tuxes. A couple of them took selfies with us, and then another came around with a tray of beer and offered us some. At first we were very confused, and tried to refuse, but he insisted, saying, "No gratuit, free!" Later, it was explained to us that on one day of every year, the Manneken Pis pees beer for half an hour, and we just happened to be there for it. That was pretty cool, I have to say. I also got to see the Grand Place at night, which is absolutely beautiful.

The time I took a selfie with a giraffe:
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.

This apple crate was at the zoo. It
says Wenatchee! Woohoo!

Besides all that, nothing has changed much since my last blog post, seeing as it's only been a few days. The mark of two months is kind of surprising. One month ago, I was thinking, that one-tenth of my exchange was already over, but at least there were still nine more to go. Now, using my exceptional math skills, I can reduce the two-tenths that have passed, into one-fifth. That is a much more significant, and simultaneously daunting fraction of my time here that has gone by. Luckily, I'm still making the most of it, and I plan to continue doing so! I'm a little fearful of the approaching holiday season, because I'm worried that they will bring with them a fresh bout of homesickness, but I am also excited to experience the differences and similarities between the way people celebrate throughout the world. I hope to continue updating you all as much as possible. As always, I love and miss all of you back home, and I am so thankful for all of my new friends here. A bientôt!

It's been awhile...

Hello again everybody! I know I haven't been updating y'all in awhile (I just said y'all what is happening), so here I am! The best excuse I have is that the time just seems to be passing so quickly, just like it seems to do at the start of every new school year. Life is full of school, homework, and squeezing in time to spend with friends and host families. I am, surprisingly, not failing school... yet. It's still difficult to understand my teachers, but I'm starting to have a good deal of success with writing. I am able to text my friends and family pretty easily, and I was able to write a paragraph for my French teacher, on a test I didn't understand, about my comprehension levels of French, and my efforts to learn as quickly as possible. Speaking is still coming slowly, but I'm starting to try a little more, and I think it's starting to come more easily. The other day as I was walking home through the potato field (that happens regularly), I saw some potatoes laying on the ground and said out loud, without thinking, pommes de terre! The most exciting part of this story is that I didn't even think potato at all, just the French. That's the most exciting thing, when the French words or phrases I'm looking for just come, without hardly any effort on my part. It makes me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with this language, instead of just roaming around lost and confused. I still find it hard to speak though, and I'm not completely sure why. Partly I feel like it's my valedictorian-esque tendency to fear making mistakes. I know, as many people have told me, that there is no other way to learn, but it's not as easy to change that part of myself as I'd like.
Other than school and language, life has been pretty exciting. I've visited the cities around the country some more, including a visit to the Parliament of Wallonie in Namur this past weekend, as well as multiple visits to Bruxelles and Louvain-la-Neuve (one of my favorite cities). Last Wednesday, I went out for sushi, and it was soooo good. I didnt realize how much I would miss Asian food. On the subject of food, I eat meat now. Sort of. When it is served, I eat it, but I don't go out of my way. It's not all that important, but it has been five and half years... so it's a bit of a change. Moving on. It's been getting pretty cold here. Well, relatively, nothing like Wenatchee winters, but still chilly. Just like in Wenatchee, the wind sure does like to blow. I hate it. However, the heat has been turned on, so now I can use the radiator in my room, which is a plus. I also had a day off from school on Monday, and I spent Sunday night at a friend's house (shout out to Florence!). It was pretty much exactly what a night with a friend in America would have been like: loud music, good food, Mamma Mia, crêpes in the morning, and a walk through the woods. Well, maybe not the crêpes and forest part, but the idea is the same. In a couple weeks, starting on the 24th, we have a week off, and Marijke is coming up (I think it's up) from Lyon for a few days. Needless to say, I am stoked. I'm always excited for a chance to see my sister, and this time it'll be spent traveling around this new country I now call home. I'm also hoping that having a familiar face around, especially one that knows French well, will help me to try speaking more myself. I'm definitely comfortable making mistakes around my sister, so I think her presence will make me less unsure of myself.
Anywho, sorry for not being as attentive to my blog as I should, I will do my best to be better at that in the future. As always, thanks for sharing my experiences, I'll keep you posted!

P.S. I plan to make a photo album on Facebook, as uploading photos here is always a hassle, if you would like to see what I've been up to.