Well, it's official. I am actually semi getting used to school! I am actually happy by this fact, but I worry that if I start to run out of new and exciting things to do, then I might start to get a bit homesick. I really don't want to be too homesick, so I guess my solution will just to always be planning something new and exciting to do!!!
School today was about as exciting as yesterday, except that I actually went to all of my classes. I had art for 5 out of the 9 hours I am in school today. It was actually pretty nice this time around. We continued drawing our visages (faces...) and I just became more confident in my ability as an artist. Now, granted, I am defnitely not as good as over half the class, nor will I ever be. Some people, they are just born with this talent that no one can surpass, no matter how much technical training one gets or how hard they work at it. One of the 2 boys that has art as his option is my friend, Ali (pronounced Uh-lee). And seriously, even his sketches that he whips out in a total of like 2 minutes are far better than almost anything I could draw. Guess that's why he is in the art track, because I don't think that guys really like art unless they are really good at it!
Other than art, I had gym, English, and French. In gym, we played stupid handball again and once again I got to experience how girls here just aren't very athletic at all. Like some of them had troubles throwing a ball over their head with one hand... I also realized that although I never thought I would as I was dying on the floor after working out so much, but I REALLY miss having Goethals weight training class. I miss being pushed ot my limit and actually feeling like I got a workout and that I was strengthing my body, rather than losing muscle as we all wait and watch a group demostrate a simple passing drill for 5 minutes. Belgium is amazing, but women's sports is not a strength for them...
In English, I once again was really happy by the class and by the fact that I felt like I was learning French through their learning of intermidiate level English. I also had a lot of fun in that class too, because everyone was making fun of the way we say "for sure". a couple of my friends kept saying "fer sher" in their funny little French accents and a couple of times the teacher was trying to clarify something with me and it was very hard not to just crack up laughing. I honestly think I could be entertained by just listening to my friends try and speak English all day...
And finally French. For the whole period, I just continued writing down important words and the translation for the word in French. Today, my friend Constance asked me what exactly it was that I was doing (yesterday I didn't look weird because everyone else was taking notes...), and after I told her she offered to bring in some sort of binder that I am assuming she got in English class quite sometime ago with translations for commonly used words and phrases. I am pretty excited, because that will definitely be better than copying words out of a dictionary (at least I got through the A's today...) and I think it will be easier to learn too. It is kinda cool, because I have the majority of my classes with Constance and we kinda have this agreement that she will help me out when needed for French, but then I can help her out with her English. Even though she is one of my better friends so far, she probably speaks some of the worst English... She's just very good at speaking slowly and motioning :)
Wow, I guess school still is exciting if I have that much to write about it... Anyhow, now to explain the title a bit more. After school, I went and ran some errands with Pascale. She showed me where I would be taking French classes on Thursdays for a while starting this week (and majority of it is speaking... Kill me now!), then we went to a new part of Verviers that I haven't been before. First, we went into this little Turkish bakery. I had no idea what it was that we were buying and I thought it was our dinner, but come to find out they were actually this delicious sweet that we had for dessert. I liked them (well, at least the two that I tried) but when I tasted them I actually thought how my mum would actually probably hate them because they were SUPER rich and sugary. Like a complete sugar overdose... And that's why you can only have two small little treats. If I remember, I will take a picture and post it up tommorrow for you to see why I was confused as to what it was we were actually buying...
The area around the Turkish bakery was actually pretty sad. Compared to the rest of beautiful Verviers, it seemed pretty impoverished. Pascale told me about how that area is where all of the non-Belgian Belgians live. She says there are a lot of Africans (Moracco was country she mentioned...) as well as Turks. And to be honest, I didn't even see one white person walking along the streets. It made me sad, because this area was the first that I have experienced in Belgium. Before, I thought that the beautiful country of Belgium had escaped the differences between ethnicitys and the social class and wealth of others. But when we drove through the area, I got the feeling that this would not be the best place to be at night. And getting this feeling made me sad, because I really thought I had escaped places like this. And, it also reminded me of when I went on vacation to Miami to visit Bolton and there was this one section where we ALWAYS locked the doors... More of a family inside joke, but it made me smile thinking about it and my crazy but wonderful family whom I miss very much!
For dinner, we also had something new. Pascale made a dish traditional to the region of Liege. There was this sauce, which you cooked the meat in, that was made up of lardon (mini bacon bits... YUM!), chopped onion, some water (to make it into a sauce...), raisins, and Sirop de Liege (which is this spread not unlike jelly made of pears, apples, and dates. Sounds kinda gross-ish, but it is actually delicious!). Ok, even the combination of things sounds weird. But it wasn't, it was a sweet sauce but with salty meat and it was just the perfect combination. And now, for the real new thing of the day... The meat I ate was..... RABBIT! I know, I feel so bad. I mean, I call myself and animal lover but I find myself eating rabbit and I am in love with bacon. Even though the idea of eating rabbit almost grossed me out so much that I didn't even try it, I forced myself to because I am on exchange and exchange is all about discovering and trying new and different things, evne if you dont like them. So yes, I tried the rabbit. And yes, I admit to kinda liking it. I mean, it's not like I am gonna go around craving me some rabbit now like I would for a good cut of steak, but I would eat it again, especially served with this num sauce. And just in case you wanted to know, rabbit just tastes like chicken.
So yes, a many a new experience today. Some sad, some delicious, and some fun. All in all, a good day. But now, it is almost 10:30 and I am exhausted, even after having slept all weekend long, as well as going to bed early yesterday AND sleeping in late today (as in I had like 15 minutes to get ready... But don't worry Mom, I got ready in time and wasn't late! In fact, I was waiting on Pascale. Seriously, Belgium has turned me into a new person!!! :) ) Soo... bon nuit!
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