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.
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