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.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Keeping a Promise...
Wowzers. I'm really bad at updating this thing... But I promised a friend that I would write today, so here I am. Seeing as it's been nearly a month since my last post, quite a lot has happened. During the fall holiday (at the end of October), Marijke came to visit me. She is living in Lyon right now, so it seemed a waste for us not to see each other during our time here. She was only here for a few days, but they were pretty great. She arrived on Friday, and I got out of school early to meet her. We then went to Louvain-la-Neuve, where we ate some great food, walked around, I bought a coat, she bought some Oreos (some as in three boxes), and I got a hairctu (my hair is now the shortest it's been since the eighth grade). Saturday was spent in Bruxelles. I showed her the sites that I know, like the Grand Place, Mannekin Pis, etc. and we explored some that I didn't, mainly huge, old churches. Our last adventure took us to Bruges, also known as the Venice of the North. It really is a beautiful city, full
of canals and Dutch architecture. We visited some cool old buildings, museums, shops, and of course, a friterie. This weekend was really great in a few ways. Not only did I get to see my sister again, which is always great, but I got to visit a new city, and my comfort level in French grew exponentially. It turns out, I knew a lot more than I thought I did, it just helped to have Marijke there. Firstly, I kind of wanted to show off for my big sister, you know. And secondly, it was actually kind of fun, instead of scary like it can be around people at school. So my French is coming along quite well, I was able to ask my French teacher if instead of "learning" (if you can call it that) about absurd theater or what, I could read Harry Potter (in French). She said yes, and needless to say, it's become one of my favorite classes. Speaking of classes, since my last post, I also received my first report card. I passed! Hahahahaha. I didn't do too well in Chemistry, but I almost got an A- in that in English three years ago, so I forgive myself. I also wasn't graded in French, Geography, or History, but I either, 1) go less than 1 hour a week, or 2) read Harry Potter. It's all good.
With the holidays approaching, I have had to do some explaining of certain things to the citizens of Belgium. Namely: Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't know, in my [American] family, we have a tradition we like to call "The Thankful Turkey".
Basically, my mom made this turkey out of felt, styrofoam, and googly eyes, and every night in November, every member of the family writes something they are thankful for on a posterboard feather and pins it to the turkey. My mom, awesome lady that she is, sent me a package a few weeks back that included a photo of the turykey, a block of styrofoam, about 60 feathers, and a bunch of pins. Also my favorite British tea, but back to Thanksiving. I have my make shift turkey up in my room, which has caused some inquiry. FYI, there is no word for thankful, grateful, etc. in French. Fun. I have also been sharing my extra feathers with any friends that want to join in. It's also fun to explain how the pilgrims and the Native Americans had a feast. Especially when I actually can't remember the explanation that doesn't come from Magic Treehouse... Yeah.
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| TADA!!!! |
Soooooo. That does it for me for the past almost month. See you soon I hope!! Byeeeeeeeee.
In other news, my best friend at school and I have decided to buy an old cafe and start a bar. So if I
don't come back to America next year, you can find me in Court-Saint-Etienne. That is all.
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| Isn't it lovely? We're so proud. |
Monday, October 20, 2014
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:
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:
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.
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!
The time I graffitied:
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| Cuz sushi |
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| I'm a pro... jk I suck at grafitti. |
The time I drank beer that came out of a statue:
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| Manneken Pis has got a costume on... and he's peeing beer... |
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| Grand Place at night |
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!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Happy One Monthiversary To Me...
That's right, you guessed it: as of today, I have been in Belgique for one month. Looking back on it, it simultaneously feels much shorter, and much longer than that. In honor of this momentous occasion, I have taken it upon myself to make some lists. They are as follows.
Things I have done
eat new things: Belgian chocolate, gaufres (waffles), and frites (fries)
drink beer (shhhh)
visit cool cities: Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve, Liege, Namur
visit some museums: Hérgé, 14-18 exhibit, this one about a mine whose name I don't remember
go to school
go to Rotary functions: district orientation, tourist visits, and my first meeting with my club last night
pass a test (Spanish)
almost definitely fail a test (chemistry)
rollerblade
ride my bike (a lot)
fall off my bike (only once)
ride the train (a lot)
eat bread (with cheese)
milk a goat
join a choir
play the djembe
watch movies (in French and English)
get asked by a stranger (in French) if the train stops in Ottignies, and be able to answer (in French)
go to a cool Renaissance Fair
make some foods: crêpes, gaufres, brownies, apple tart
ask if I can get change for a 20 in French
order things in French
make Belgian friends
make a lot of exchange student friends
and probably lots more that I've forgotten...
Things I've done that my mom would get mad about
ridden my bike without a helmet
eat (drink?) maple syrup with a spoon
eat chocolate at breakfast time
not do my homework
Things I've learned
cobblestones may look romantic, but they're the worst
don't bike in the mud
you can bike in a skirt/dress, but people will look at you funny
Things I miss about America
driving
hills
football
Fahrenheit
English
gum
teachers that don't just talk at you all day
pancakes
Target
Things I don't miss about America
swag.
There you have it, so far, so good. Thank you all for continuing to follow along, and thanks to everybody who has helped me in any way, shape, or form this past month, you guys are the best!
Things I have done
eat new things: Belgian chocolate, gaufres (waffles), and frites (fries)
drink beer (shhhh)
visit cool cities: Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve, Liege, Namur
visit some museums: Hérgé, 14-18 exhibit, this one about a mine whose name I don't remember
go to school
go to Rotary functions: district orientation, tourist visits, and my first meeting with my club last night
pass a test (Spanish)
almost definitely fail a test (chemistry)
rollerblade
ride my bike (a lot)
fall off my bike (only once)
ride the train (a lot)
eat bread (with cheese)
milk a goat
join a choir
play the djembe
watch movies (in French and English)
get asked by a stranger (in French) if the train stops in Ottignies, and be able to answer (in French)
go to a cool Renaissance Fair
make some foods: crêpes, gaufres, brownies, apple tart
ask if I can get change for a 20 in French
order things in French
make Belgian friends
make a lot of exchange student friends
and probably lots more that I've forgotten...
Things I've done that my mom would get mad about
ridden my bike without a helmet
eat (drink?) maple syrup with a spoon
eat chocolate at breakfast time
not do my homework
Things I've learned
cobblestones may look romantic, but they're the worst
don't bike in the mud
you can bike in a skirt/dress, but people will look at you funny
Things I miss about America
driving
hills
football
Fahrenheit
English
gum
teachers that don't just talk at you all day
pancakes
Target
Things I don't miss about America
swag.
There you have it, so far, so good. Thank you all for continuing to follow along, and thanks to everybody who has helped me in any way, shape, or form this past month, you guys are the best!
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| Rooftop view in Bruxelles |
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
First Week of School...
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!
Monday, September 1, 2014
Bonjour, je m'appelle Ariana, et je suis américaine...
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| A picture of a picture of my exchange friends from French class |
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| What Belgian cartoonists think of America... |
This weekend I went to the Exposition 14-18, all about the first World War. From the few signs and explanations in English, I was able to learn a lot more about Belgium's participation in the war. It was really interesting. One exhibit was a "traditional American store" during the wartime. In it there was a crate labeled "Chinook Salmon, Columbia River!" That was cool. There was also a guy mentioned in a
part of the museum with the last name Keyser. Even though my name was changed to Keyser when my Oma and Opa moved to America, it was still fun to see it there. The parts I think I found the most interesting were the sculptures, like this here. Since WWI was known at the time as, "the war to end all wars", empty canon shells and bullet casings were converted into art and often displayed in people's homes. On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Pizza Hut. It's ridiculous here. Pizza Hut is like a sit down, family outing type deal. I had ice cream and everything!
Along with all those crazy adventures, I have also come close to mastering solo train rides, and I can now get to and from the train station in Fleurus by bike or on foot. This is useful because school starts this week, and I will have to take the train every day. Speaking of which, I should get some rest before my big first day of school tomorrow!
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| All of the Rotary Exchange students in Belgium |
Monday, August 25, 2014
New Things Galore
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| Just casual waffles in the vending machine |
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| Gaufre de Bruxelles avec Nutella |
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| Julien finishing mes frites... |
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| goat cheese anyone? |
Well, all in all, things are going pretty well. I understand a lot more of what my family says, still not a whole lot, I've met some really cool people, seen some cool things, eaten delicious foods, and managed not to die of exhaustion. I do have an abnormal amount of bug bites on my face and neck, about seven I think, and if they're from your gosh darn almighty bed bugs Marijke, I swear...
Anywho, I've got to go eat some homemade, garden fresh tomato soup, it's almost like I'm back home! See ya later alligators!
This link will take you to a video about Bernard Tirtiaux, the owner of la Ferme de Martinrou. It shows where in Belgium Fleurus is, and also has some good shots of the farm, at least the courtyard. If you pause right at 0:39, and look over his left shoulder, you will see the building that is my house, only for a second or so though, so don't blink!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJM-lcZqbQ
La Abbaye de Villers la Ville
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