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.
