Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
So, it's official. Never going to Liege again, because I ALWAYS have the worst luck when trying to get there, even though, other than Verviers I guess, it's the best city near me!
Started out the day normally, getting ready, going to school and such. had four hours in a row of French, then an etude at the end of the day. But even with the etude and half day, I think that Wednesdays are officially my least favorite day of the week... Four hours of French all in a row is too much for me, and what's worse is that I have my hardest class last. Lucikly the teachers don't really expect me to do anything, but I still like to try and follow along most of the time. But on Wednesdays, my brain is shot after my first three classes and I usually just end up trying to fo my workbook, but not really succeeding.
I rode the bus to the center of the town, feeling lazy and not exactly wanting to do the 20 minute walk in the cold. I got lunch, looked in some shops (I know the entire stock of H&M, and when they get new clothes in... Thank goodness I am frugal and don't actually buy anything ever!), and then I decided that I really just felt like going home. But then, as I was waiting for the bus, Katie walked past me and convinced me to come with her to Liege. So we went to the train station, met up with Eliza and Riley, and got on the train using our go passes (a paper that you can write any destination in Belgium and only have to pay 5 euros for it, one way...). I was about to get off at the Liege, Guillemens stop when Riley stopped me and told me that the train with a final destination as Brussels, which was what we were on, stops at all of the Liege stops just like the train with its final destination as Liege. Although I had riden the trai nto Brussels before and thought this was not the case, I decided to listen to her because she can speak practically fluent French and always seems to know the right things to do with public transportation and such. But I defnitely shouldn't have gone against my gut instinct... We were just chatting away in our seats when I saw the little sign at the end of the... umm the little individual parts of the train? The car? I cannot remember for the life of me... Learning French is taking away my English! Anyhow, I looked to the end of whats-its-name and saw the sign change and say "Next stop: Louvan." Now, I had no idea where Louvan even was, but I knew it wasn't Liege and I brought it up. All four of us practically ran to the door, franctically pressing the open door button, but by that time the doors had shut for good and a minute later the train was pulling away. With us on it....
The first problem was that we had no idea where we were going. And the second problem was that on our go passes we had written the destination as Liege.... When the conductor came around, we gave hime our tickets as if nothing was wrong, and he was very confused as to why we hadn't just written Louvan or Brussels as our final destination. But then riley tried explaining everything to him, he realized that we spoke English, and he thankfully starting speaking to us in perfect English. He was VERY nice about everything, explaing to us that a Brussels train NEVER stopped at Liege Palais (that's what I thought, Riley...). He then printed out this nice little ticket thingy for us so we wouldn't have to buy anymore tickets to get back to Liege. And then, he looked up the train schedule for us and told us the platform and the time the next train would be leaving for Liege. This whole process took like 15 minutes, but he was super nice and helpful and had fun talking to us the whole time, asking us why we were in Belgium and how we came to make such a mistake and such. It's people like him that just warm your heart, them being so nice to you and everything. Just in general Belgians are pretty nice to foreigners, but he was really helpful and saved me from having a mini panic attack right there on the train.
We got to the next stop, Louvan (at least, I know it was something like that...) and got off. We knew what to do thanks to the nice conductor, but we still had like 30 minutes to wait until the next train that was going to Liege was going to come. Turns out that this city is also in the Dutch speaking area, so not only can we not understand the instructions on the sign, Liege also has a different name in Dutch and we ralized how lucky we were to have that specific conductor, because without him none of us would have know that, so we wouldn't have even been able to look at the sign to reconfirm the platform and time the train arrived.
We had wasted about an hour thanks to our own stupidness when the train finally arrived. And then we got to ride another 30 minutes to get back to Liege Guillmens. And of course it was still not at the Palais stop...
-___- Since we had had our fill of trains, we decided to walk to the palais main shopping area. Thankfully, unlike me, at least Riley knew her way there so we weren't wandering aimlessly throughout the town... But by the time we finally got there, we had time to say hi to everyone and that was about it. No window shopping, no anything. Good thing I had eaten lunch beforehand!!!
Still not wanting to chance the trains, we walked backed to Liege Guillmens as it was the main train station in Liege and we had checked the times for the trains to Verviers before we had left. We also got a late start on leaving, so we got to run half of the way to the train station with our purses and school stuff as well. And it was defnitely over a mile. Not fun, not fun at all. At least, even in my horrible physical shape, I was still better than others who don't really play sports, so I don't think I was as tired as other people. And when we got up to the train station, we got to watch our train pull away... Luckily, our bad luck had ended there (at least for a moment) and there was another train in like 10 minutes.
We were soooo happy once we finally were on the train, knowing exactly where we were going. And, the nice conductor hadn't even stamped our go passes so we were very happy because that meant we could use the same line, thus not having to pay any extra money, to get back! But it turns out that conductors actually do that kind of thing a lot, and that it actually does matter what city is first and wht one is listed second. I thought it was interchangeable, because I had seen someone do it before, and that it wouldn't be a big deal. But then the conductor came up, starting speaking to us in mad sounding French, and I realized that what I figured was ok clearly was not... He realized after a bit that we spoke English, but unfortunately his was not the best and he was not understanding me at all. Then all of a sudden, Katie whips out the little ticket that the other conductor gave us and said "We're American, we're lost.", thus confusing him even more because that ticket had no relevance at all to the trip we were currently taking... He seemed very frustrated with us, and went somewhere, I think to consult with another worker? He came back like a minute later, obviously not very happy, and he just started giving us a lecture all over again. And then he just randomly got up and left, still not stamping our tickets saying that we had used it. I was very confused at this point, and felt bad for having caused another mess, and very glad that the angry little conductor who was very confusing just went away. And of course, this is the point that Riley, the only fluent French speaking person with us, decided to finally return from the bathroom.
So needless to say, it was a very tough day for me. At least I got a ride home from someone in Riley's host family, so I didn't have to worry about taking the bus home. But it was still an epic failure of a day regarding public transportation, and although I learned some valuable lessons about train rides to Liege, I don't think I will be making this trip again anytime soon. And I have also realized that I'm living proof that the (cute, confused, innocent teenaged girl who doesn't speak very good French) American card really does help to get you out of some sticky situations.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
17!
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
So, not much significance to this post other than it was my birthday! And I turned 17! But, since I had my birtthday party on Sunday and had already receieved a gift from my host parents, I knew nothing that special was going to happen. I did, however, get to start my day of wonderfully by Skyping with my parents for like 15 minutes. It worked out just right that if I got up at 7, it was 10 their time. Not too early for me, but not too late for them either. Of course, since I had just woken up, I was completely dead. But they still sang Happy Birthday to me and talked for a bit, wishing me a good birthday at school and telling me that my package should arrive anytime now. But then again, they relied on Erin to send it to me from Strasbourg, France, (where she is currently living and teaching, for those of you who aren't too familiar with my fam), and well, you just never know with Erin!
The school day, at least, was ok because it was a Tuesday and Tuesdays back then were probably my easiest day of the week. Actually, it still kinda is the easiest. But anyhow, so at least it wasn't on a Thursday or something where I had all long, hard, boring classes and 2 of them back to back. I swear a little part of me dies everytime I have to suffer through a Thursday at school. I hadn't really told anyone it was my birthday except for Tedde, so I had no expectations. But then, during art, I was sitting at this table working on my boat project while the majority of my friends were just a little ways away, not doing anything like normally and messing around with their phones. Someone must have been on Facebook, because all of a sudden I heard them talking about me and saying my name and then they all turned around and said Happy Birthday. So, I mean, at least someone knew it was my birthday. Not that it changed all that much... But a few happy birthdays here and there are really nice.
When I got home, still no package... :( But I did get to go onto Facebook and read all of my friends from back home's posts on my wall. It made my day being able to read everything. The best part though was defnitely when I saw my mom's post on my wall. I knew for a fact that she had never posted, written on someone's wall, shared a link, or done anything but accept a couple of friend requests and look at people's status updates from time to time. Like, she didn't even know how to update her status or anything like that. But, on my birthday, she came and posted Happy Birthday on my wall. And I will let you know mum, that and daddy's email made it actually feel like my birthday. So thanks!
Now that i have experienced a birthday away from home though, I can safely tell you that I do not want to spend another one away from home, from my family, and the majority of my friends for quite some time. Well, I guess just until I go off to college but still... It's just too sad not having the people that you REALLY REALLY want to be with you, with you on your birthday.
So, not much significance to this post other than it was my birthday! And I turned 17! But, since I had my birtthday party on Sunday and had already receieved a gift from my host parents, I knew nothing that special was going to happen. I did, however, get to start my day of wonderfully by Skyping with my parents for like 15 minutes. It worked out just right that if I got up at 7, it was 10 their time. Not too early for me, but not too late for them either. Of course, since I had just woken up, I was completely dead. But they still sang Happy Birthday to me and talked for a bit, wishing me a good birthday at school and telling me that my package should arrive anytime now. But then again, they relied on Erin to send it to me from Strasbourg, France, (where she is currently living and teaching, for those of you who aren't too familiar with my fam), and well, you just never know with Erin!
The school day, at least, was ok because it was a Tuesday and Tuesdays back then were probably my easiest day of the week. Actually, it still kinda is the easiest. But anyhow, so at least it wasn't on a Thursday or something where I had all long, hard, boring classes and 2 of them back to back. I swear a little part of me dies everytime I have to suffer through a Thursday at school. I hadn't really told anyone it was my birthday except for Tedde, so I had no expectations. But then, during art, I was sitting at this table working on my boat project while the majority of my friends were just a little ways away, not doing anything like normally and messing around with their phones. Someone must have been on Facebook, because all of a sudden I heard them talking about me and saying my name and then they all turned around and said Happy Birthday. So, I mean, at least someone knew it was my birthday. Not that it changed all that much... But a few happy birthdays here and there are really nice.
When I got home, still no package... :( But I did get to go onto Facebook and read all of my friends from back home's posts on my wall. It made my day being able to read everything. The best part though was defnitely when I saw my mom's post on my wall. I knew for a fact that she had never posted, written on someone's wall, shared a link, or done anything but accept a couple of friend requests and look at people's status updates from time to time. Like, she didn't even know how to update her status or anything like that. But, on my birthday, she came and posted Happy Birthday on my wall. And I will let you know mum, that and daddy's email made it actually feel like my birthday. So thanks!
Now that i have experienced a birthday away from home though, I can safely tell you that I do not want to spend another one away from home, from my family, and the majority of my friends for quite some time. Well, I guess just until I go off to college but still... It's just too sad not having the people that you REALLY REALLY want to be with you, with you on your birthday.
Un autre cour, un autre jour.
Monday, October 10th, 2011
One day before my birthday! :) Oh ya. The sad thing is, here I have been 17 for a whole 2 weeks (I know, soooo old ;) ) and I still feel like my 16 year old self. I mean, at 16, you get to drive. 18 you get your independence. 17 you get.... to buy tickets to Rated R movies? And I am not even in the U.S. to enjoy this lovely convience! But seriiously, I don't feel like I even had a birthday, or that I am any older at all. Age is just a small matter, I guess, compared to everything else I have experienced.
So of course, I don't actually remember what happened detail for detail on this day. At all... All of the school days just blend together, and become one jumbled up mess with a WHOLE bunch of French and confusion and boredom and a million things all at once. Seriously, I seem to have more mood swings than a hormonal pregnant women. And it's not that they really effect anybody but me, but it's still weird. Someday I am going to write a book on just the feelings experienced by an exchange student. Because seriously, they are insane and unpredictable and if I could receive a little heads-up for what is down the road, I would be very appreciative.
Oh wait, that's a lie. I do know one thing... I recieved my brand new schedule today. Normally how it works in Belgium is that you have one schedule until mid-October, then you change after that and that is your permanent and final schedule. I knew this ahead of time, and gave my regualr class schedule to the school counselor so she could work her magic and put me in the classes I needed to be in. Boy was I suprised when I came today to pick it up and realized that I had a completely individualized schedule. Now, I mostly just have a LOT of French, like something crazy like 15 hours a week of French, 3 English classes, 6 art classes, 2 morale classes, 3 hours of PE, an hour of Physics, an hour of history, and a couple of etudes thrown in here and there. Oh, and when I say classes, I mean hours with usually the same teacher. And this is just a guesstimate, but unfortunately I still have a very full schedule. The reason I have so many French classes is because the counselor once again put me in a bunch of classes with the younger kids. I can safely say that by now, after having the schedule for 2 weeks, they are over the shock of seeing me in their classes. But really, I have one or two hours with each of these classes a week, so not only is it weird for them but it is weird for me as well. Sometimes I am with my class 6B, sometimes I am not. I miss random periods of art, or other classes. I have etudes when no one else does. I think my schedule is more confusing than the teachers themselves, who are always having to move rooms and have random classes of kids on random days only. Luckily, the counselor did mine and Tedde's schedules together, so we have like half of our classes during the day together. Almost every random little kid class I am in, she has too. And that's nice, because generally we just sit there quietly, working out of workbooks, and if I don't understand something or have a question about French, then she can generally help me. It's like having your own personal teacher follow you around everywhere... ;)
The one other thing that I do remember for this day though is that I started my second French course today! As understood by Pascale and I, I was supposed to finish out my amazing Thursday all talking classes, which goes until the end of November, and then I was supposed to start up the other class with the majority of the exchange students in the area. But, alas, some random lady called Pascale asking why I hadn't been at the classes. She explained the situation, and apparently I was still supposed to go on Mondays. Whoops. Pascale picked me up from school, we went to the house for like 30 minutes, then we headed out again so we could get the paperwork filed. Turns out not only did I NEED to get my carte identitie pour Belgique, I also needed to get a paper from my school, Athenee Royal Verdi, saying that I actually went there.
By the time the secretary was finished with the paperwork, I was like 10 minutes late to my very first class. The building was more like a community college, so I knew it would be a class with more learning than actual speaking and maybe, just maybe, *GASP* homework. But whatever French I can get, I am ok with it. I just want to be fluent now! When I walked into the class, luckily I wasn't really interupting anything because they had JUST started, I was suprised to see strangers I didn't know in the class. Like, full grown adults. Some I am guessing over 35... I thought that this class as well would just be Rotary kids, like my other one.
The actual class is much like a commuinty college class too... The teacher speaks in all French, the other students actually know what they are doing, and it's a pretty fast paced class with lots of note taking. So I definitely didn't come to Belgium to be in a college class... And although I know that any kind of exposure to French for me is good, it's a very difficult class. Today we were working on verbs and verb conjugations. Umm, I definitely had no idea had to do them in French before this class, and the teacher had a us fill out a complete paper full of verbs that I didn't even know the meaning to. It was a bit frustrating, feeling so lost and confused while the girls who can already speak French were messing around, texting under the table, and not even paying that much attention but still getting everything right. Remind me why I didn't really want to go to a Spanish speaking country again???
I left a bit early from the course, because I read my bus schedule wrong and thought that if I didn't leave right then, I would have to wait another hour after the class for the next one. The teacher was cool with it, because the class is 3 hours long and at least half the other people have to leave to catch their buses too. But when I got to the bus stop, I realized that I had read the completely wrong schedule and definitely could have stayed for the whole class. I didn't want to look stupid and walk back in when there was only 10 minutes left anyhow, so I stopped at this pita place for dinner (Pascale had some sort of meeting or something...) because everybody says that pitas with the actual pita bread are to die for. And oh boy, it was. The pitas here are made with some kind of weird bread and a weird meat and weird sauce. Well, at least the sauce I like on it is weird... But the are soooo delicious. Turkish pitas, something I will miss when I go home.
And so after getting a quick dinner I caught the bus, walked a mile up my road all by myself in the dark, scary, I know (but don't worry Dad it is very very safe!), and went to bed. So I guess, once I get to thinking about it, I can actually remember quite a bit of my day! But notice how none of it is school???
One day before my birthday! :) Oh ya. The sad thing is, here I have been 17 for a whole 2 weeks (I know, soooo old ;) ) and I still feel like my 16 year old self. I mean, at 16, you get to drive. 18 you get your independence. 17 you get.... to buy tickets to Rated R movies? And I am not even in the U.S. to enjoy this lovely convience! But seriiously, I don't feel like I even had a birthday, or that I am any older at all. Age is just a small matter, I guess, compared to everything else I have experienced.
So of course, I don't actually remember what happened detail for detail on this day. At all... All of the school days just blend together, and become one jumbled up mess with a WHOLE bunch of French and confusion and boredom and a million things all at once. Seriously, I seem to have more mood swings than a hormonal pregnant women. And it's not that they really effect anybody but me, but it's still weird. Someday I am going to write a book on just the feelings experienced by an exchange student. Because seriously, they are insane and unpredictable and if I could receive a little heads-up for what is down the road, I would be very appreciative.
Oh wait, that's a lie. I do know one thing... I recieved my brand new schedule today. Normally how it works in Belgium is that you have one schedule until mid-October, then you change after that and that is your permanent and final schedule. I knew this ahead of time, and gave my regualr class schedule to the school counselor so she could work her magic and put me in the classes I needed to be in. Boy was I suprised when I came today to pick it up and realized that I had a completely individualized schedule. Now, I mostly just have a LOT of French, like something crazy like 15 hours a week of French, 3 English classes, 6 art classes, 2 morale classes, 3 hours of PE, an hour of Physics, an hour of history, and a couple of etudes thrown in here and there. Oh, and when I say classes, I mean hours with usually the same teacher. And this is just a guesstimate, but unfortunately I still have a very full schedule. The reason I have so many French classes is because the counselor once again put me in a bunch of classes with the younger kids. I can safely say that by now, after having the schedule for 2 weeks, they are over the shock of seeing me in their classes. But really, I have one or two hours with each of these classes a week, so not only is it weird for them but it is weird for me as well. Sometimes I am with my class 6B, sometimes I am not. I miss random periods of art, or other classes. I have etudes when no one else does. I think my schedule is more confusing than the teachers themselves, who are always having to move rooms and have random classes of kids on random days only. Luckily, the counselor did mine and Tedde's schedules together, so we have like half of our classes during the day together. Almost every random little kid class I am in, she has too. And that's nice, because generally we just sit there quietly, working out of workbooks, and if I don't understand something or have a question about French, then she can generally help me. It's like having your own personal teacher follow you around everywhere... ;)
The one other thing that I do remember for this day though is that I started my second French course today! As understood by Pascale and I, I was supposed to finish out my amazing Thursday all talking classes, which goes until the end of November, and then I was supposed to start up the other class with the majority of the exchange students in the area. But, alas, some random lady called Pascale asking why I hadn't been at the classes. She explained the situation, and apparently I was still supposed to go on Mondays. Whoops. Pascale picked me up from school, we went to the house for like 30 minutes, then we headed out again so we could get the paperwork filed. Turns out not only did I NEED to get my carte identitie pour Belgique, I also needed to get a paper from my school, Athenee Royal Verdi, saying that I actually went there.
By the time the secretary was finished with the paperwork, I was like 10 minutes late to my very first class. The building was more like a community college, so I knew it would be a class with more learning than actual speaking and maybe, just maybe, *GASP* homework. But whatever French I can get, I am ok with it. I just want to be fluent now! When I walked into the class, luckily I wasn't really interupting anything because they had JUST started, I was suprised to see strangers I didn't know in the class. Like, full grown adults. Some I am guessing over 35... I thought that this class as well would just be Rotary kids, like my other one.
The actual class is much like a commuinty college class too... The teacher speaks in all French, the other students actually know what they are doing, and it's a pretty fast paced class with lots of note taking. So I definitely didn't come to Belgium to be in a college class... And although I know that any kind of exposure to French for me is good, it's a very difficult class. Today we were working on verbs and verb conjugations. Umm, I definitely had no idea had to do them in French before this class, and the teacher had a us fill out a complete paper full of verbs that I didn't even know the meaning to. It was a bit frustrating, feeling so lost and confused while the girls who can already speak French were messing around, texting under the table, and not even paying that much attention but still getting everything right. Remind me why I didn't really want to go to a Spanish speaking country again???
I left a bit early from the course, because I read my bus schedule wrong and thought that if I didn't leave right then, I would have to wait another hour after the class for the next one. The teacher was cool with it, because the class is 3 hours long and at least half the other people have to leave to catch their buses too. But when I got to the bus stop, I realized that I had read the completely wrong schedule and definitely could have stayed for the whole class. I didn't want to look stupid and walk back in when there was only 10 minutes left anyhow, so I stopped at this pita place for dinner (Pascale had some sort of meeting or something...) because everybody says that pitas with the actual pita bread are to die for. And oh boy, it was. The pitas here are made with some kind of weird bread and a weird meat and weird sauce. Well, at least the sauce I like on it is weird... But the are soooo delicious. Turkish pitas, something I will miss when I go home.
And so after getting a quick dinner I caught the bus, walked a mile up my road all by myself in the dark, scary, I know (but don't worry Dad it is very very safe!), and went to bed. So I guess, once I get to thinking about it, I can actually remember quite a bit of my day! But notice how none of it is school???
Sunday, October 23, 2011
SUPRISE!
Sunday, October 9th, 2011
So in the morning I was still at Katie's house. I knew beforehand that Pascale was picking me up at 11 because some of their friends were coming over for a lunch to meet me. I wasn't exactly looking forward to a lunch where everyone was trying to speak to me in French and once they realized that I was far from fluent, they would just give up and talk to me in English and make me feel stupid. I mean, that's at least what generally happens. So anyhow, I was all ready to go at 11 and Katie was standing in the doorway in her pajamas, just to say goodbye. But then Pascale says "Katie, what are you doing? You come with us. I think it more fun for you, Morgan, no?" Of course I didn't want to be the only non-French speaker there, so I was happy that Katie would be coming over as well. She raced upstairs and got ready in like 2 minutes flat. It was quite an amazing feat, if I do say so myself. Apparently Pascale had called Katie's host mum and told her she was invited over, but it must have slipped her mind and she definitely didn't tell us...
We had to drive kind of fast to get back to the house, because Pascale was like 30 minutes late in picking me up and after the whole Katie suprise, we wouldn't have much time until their friends arrived at 12. Once we got back to the house, Katie washed her hair because she still felt gross not really having enough time to get ready. Once she finished that, we were just chilling in my room when the first of their friends pulled into the driveway. Katie started freaking out because they were driving a Porsche, and apparently it is her dream car. That exact model and everything. I started to say "Oh, you should see Emmaline's dad's cars, he has..." When all of a sudden, Emmaline stepped out of the car. I was like, what the heck? I had no idea that our host parents were friends... And then it hit me. This wasn't a lunch with their friends, it was a suprise birthday lunch for me. I immediately got really excited and just thought it was the absolute cutest thing ever, I mean just think about the trouble they went through. They had to have saved all of the numbers I gave them when I went to spend the night at people's houses, and then called everybody up and had them keep it a secret from me. It was the nicest thing ever.
In the end, Eddy and Pascale had invited Emmaline, Katie, Eliza, Becky, and her family. They gave me a really nice smelling, and I am sure expensive, bottle of perfume for a present. I will definitely have to use it up by the time I go home though, because my mom is like a perfume/smell wimp and gets sick at the smell of most perfumes. I mean, this is my first real perfume jsut because I have never found one that she likes. For the party, we basically just ate and hung out. First, Pascale whipped out some delicious appies and everyone just devoured them, because it was like 1 at this point and we were a group of teenaged exchange students, definitely the most lethal combination. :) For the main course, Pascale had prepared a million different types of meat. We picked out what kind of meats we wanted to eat, and then got to cook them ourselves on this mini grill thing. There was lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, meats wrapped in bacon, meats with cheese inside, so much variety. Everything that I had was AMAZING! As usual in the De Decker household... Of course, my favorite was the two with bacon wrapped around them... It will forever be my fav kind of meat! For the cake, Pascale had bought this delicious tarte (pie) that was with peaches or apricots or something along those lines with powder sugar covering the top. I was so stuffed after that meal, it was ridiculous. But it was the best kind of stuffed. Like food coma, I am feeling amazing stuffed.
After lunch, we just went to my room and hung out. It was really nice, just having fun, speaking English. It felt like I was at home again, just chilling in my room with some friends. And the really cool thing, is that if it weren't for Belgium, none of us would have ever met. And really, if one were to analyze all of us and our personalities, they would never think that we could be such good friends. We are all completely different people, raised in completely different lifestyles, with not that many common interests or anything. But we do have one thing is common: being exchange students. And I am convinced that that is the strongest bound between people, ever. I feel like I will always be in touch with these girls, hearing about all of their journeys around the world and all of their wonderful lives. Without other exchange students, I don't think that exchange would be all that much fun! Well, not nearly as much fun anyways.
The party finally wrapped up around 8ish, when everyone got picked up and we left and dropped off Katie and Emmaline at their houses. I was exhausted when we got back home, and still too full to even eat dinner, but I still had a Skype date with my parents. And boy, was it the perfect end to my night, because rather than just Skype with my parents, we also got Erin and Bolton in on the call as well, so we had the whole family together and talking. It was so much fun, like we were all sitting in the same room hanging out together. I honestly don't know what I would do with technology!!!! It makes this whole homesickeness process easier, because at least I can be in contact with my parents and know what it happening at home. For whatever reason, that really helps me. Because at least I am not totally out of their lives... Or at least I can feel like I am their doing those things with my family. I don't know, it just helps me to communicate with them. Which is actually quite weird, because Rotary predicted that less communication would make the whole thing better. but for me, no communication is unbearable. So although they are right about most things with culture shock, this one part of it they were wrong, at least as far as I go.
Oh, and one last thing. I forgot to post these group pics yesterday from Namur! Enjoy!
So in the morning I was still at Katie's house. I knew beforehand that Pascale was picking me up at 11 because some of their friends were coming over for a lunch to meet me. I wasn't exactly looking forward to a lunch where everyone was trying to speak to me in French and once they realized that I was far from fluent, they would just give up and talk to me in English and make me feel stupid. I mean, that's at least what generally happens. So anyhow, I was all ready to go at 11 and Katie was standing in the doorway in her pajamas, just to say goodbye. But then Pascale says "Katie, what are you doing? You come with us. I think it more fun for you, Morgan, no?" Of course I didn't want to be the only non-French speaker there, so I was happy that Katie would be coming over as well. She raced upstairs and got ready in like 2 minutes flat. It was quite an amazing feat, if I do say so myself. Apparently Pascale had called Katie's host mum and told her she was invited over, but it must have slipped her mind and she definitely didn't tell us...
We had to drive kind of fast to get back to the house, because Pascale was like 30 minutes late in picking me up and after the whole Katie suprise, we wouldn't have much time until their friends arrived at 12. Once we got back to the house, Katie washed her hair because she still felt gross not really having enough time to get ready. Once she finished that, we were just chilling in my room when the first of their friends pulled into the driveway. Katie started freaking out because they were driving a Porsche, and apparently it is her dream car. That exact model and everything. I started to say "Oh, you should see Emmaline's dad's cars, he has..." When all of a sudden, Emmaline stepped out of the car. I was like, what the heck? I had no idea that our host parents were friends... And then it hit me. This wasn't a lunch with their friends, it was a suprise birthday lunch for me. I immediately got really excited and just thought it was the absolute cutest thing ever, I mean just think about the trouble they went through. They had to have saved all of the numbers I gave them when I went to spend the night at people's houses, and then called everybody up and had them keep it a secret from me. It was the nicest thing ever.
In the end, Eddy and Pascale had invited Emmaline, Katie, Eliza, Becky, and her family. They gave me a really nice smelling, and I am sure expensive, bottle of perfume for a present. I will definitely have to use it up by the time I go home though, because my mom is like a perfume/smell wimp and gets sick at the smell of most perfumes. I mean, this is my first real perfume jsut because I have never found one that she likes. For the party, we basically just ate and hung out. First, Pascale whipped out some delicious appies and everyone just devoured them, because it was like 1 at this point and we were a group of teenaged exchange students, definitely the most lethal combination. :) For the main course, Pascale had prepared a million different types of meat. We picked out what kind of meats we wanted to eat, and then got to cook them ourselves on this mini grill thing. There was lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, meats wrapped in bacon, meats with cheese inside, so much variety. Everything that I had was AMAZING! As usual in the De Decker household... Of course, my favorite was the two with bacon wrapped around them... It will forever be my fav kind of meat! For the cake, Pascale had bought this delicious tarte (pie) that was with peaches or apricots or something along those lines with powder sugar covering the top. I was so stuffed after that meal, it was ridiculous. But it was the best kind of stuffed. Like food coma, I am feeling amazing stuffed.
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| Mes parents d'accueil! |
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| The million different types of meat... and the side dishes! |
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| The group! |
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| A happy birthday girl! :) |
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| Took me like 5 minutes to finally get them all blown out... Pascale bought those trick candles that keep relighting themselves! |
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| Both Emmaline and I took our turns at trying to cut slices... We failed, and they looked horrible. But when Pascale stepped in, OF COURSE she cut 4 picture perfect slices... |
The party finally wrapped up around 8ish, when everyone got picked up and we left and dropped off Katie and Emmaline at their houses. I was exhausted when we got back home, and still too full to even eat dinner, but I still had a Skype date with my parents. And boy, was it the perfect end to my night, because rather than just Skype with my parents, we also got Erin and Bolton in on the call as well, so we had the whole family together and talking. It was so much fun, like we were all sitting in the same room hanging out together. I honestly don't know what I would do with technology!!!! It makes this whole homesickeness process easier, because at least I can be in contact with my parents and know what it happening at home. For whatever reason, that really helps me. Because at least I am not totally out of their lives... Or at least I can feel like I am their doing those things with my family. I don't know, it just helps me to communicate with them. Which is actually quite weird, because Rotary predicted that less communication would make the whole thing better. but for me, no communication is unbearable. So although they are right about most things with culture shock, this one part of it they were wrong, at least as far as I go.
Oh, and one last thing. I forgot to post these group pics yesterday from Namur! Enjoy!
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| A bit blurry because I got it off the internet... But majority of the Belgian exchange students! |
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| Can you find me? :) |
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Namur
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
So I officially fail at having a blog... Just can never build up enough motivation to take the time out of my mostly very busy days and write the very long post I know that I am going to write... Especially now, as I have hit and passed the 2 month mark, entering the worst part of my exchange as homesickness takes over and the doubts settle in. Seriously, it's not a fun experience. And if I make it out ok, well at least then I will be able to help out other exchangers with coping. I guess Rotary really knows what they are talking about after all, with the whole stages of culture shock. They said the first bit feels like vacation, the next bit is the tough part with language AND homesickness, and then you get to the best part of your exchange and everything is just perfect. Luckily, I am actually finding the whole language barrier thing getting better and better each day, and at least for me it's hasn't been too frustrating. But I am still definitely looking forward to the whole perfect part of exchange...
Anyhow, now back to Saturday. I had the pleasure of waking up super early, like 6 or something, throwing on some clothes and then being driven to the train station while it was still dark out. Pascale had wanted me to take the earlier train into Liege so I didn't miss my connection to Namur, which meant that I was on the train all by myself, dead from exhaustion and still not fully awake. Once I got to Liege, I decided to just wait for the next train and buy some breakfast from a little bakery type place (like the bakeries back home, not the legit ones here) because I had forgotten to even think about breakfast. I was very glad to have made the decision to wait for the second train, because then I ran into the other Rotary students and had the chance to just hang on the train and talk to them. We finally arrived in Namur around 9ish and there we met up with even MORE rotary kids and were taken to some auditorium place for more rules. -___-
Seriously, the rules were completely pointless. It was mostly just stuff about the trips sponsored by Bresa, and we had heard it all before. They, of course, had their own little presentation of rules to give to us, with the presentation in hilarious, not very good English translations, as well as people who spoke in French, English, and Spanish. I got the chance to sit by some people from the other districts, so that was nice to be able to talk to them. And, well, at least the presenters were young adults who had gone on exchange as well so they knew where we were coming from and tried to make it interesting for us and didn't shush us as we talked quietly among oursleves as they presented it in a different language that we didn't need to listen to.... But really, there is only so much fun and interesting things that you can put into a presentation all about rules you have heard a million times before...
After the presentation FINALLY ended, it was like 11 and we chilled in a little reception area as just the kids who were going on the Paris trip got information specific to that trip. During this time, exchange students being exchange students, went crazy trading pins and trying to find the select few who brought bracelets from their home country. Don't know why, but the bracelets are a huge hit. I got quite a few pins, at least like 30, and I had absolutely no idea how i was going to fit them all onto my already full blazer. I mean, I guess I do still have to back and the sleeves, but for whatever reason I don't want to put any on there. I had also brought along the woven USA bracelets and friendship bracelets that my mum had bought for me to give to people as gifts before I left, seeing how I knew the bracelets were a big deal. But unfortunately, I have only a very small number of them and I promised them to quite a bit of people, so I was only giving them to my really close friends and trying to hide to fact that I had them. Because I knew once random people figured out that I did, they would be gone in 2 seconds flat. And I really wanted to give them to my friends before random people that I didn't even know... Next time though, I will give the extras to whomever wants them!
After the craziness, we walked a short ways to the boat that we were going to be spendign time on, crusing down the river Muese. When I came up to the boat, I was a bit suprised that it was going to hold all 200 or so exchangers. But it did... There was a lower part inside with tables to sit at and chill, but you still got the amzing views. I was very lucky to have been one of the first people on the boat and got a good seat at a table near a window with all of my friends. We had a lot of fun, just talking, eating lunch, and looking at the sights. I felt bad for the people that were stuck up above, because maybe they would have gotten a bit better view of the beautiful riverbanks and houses along the water, but it was also a drizzly very cold day and being outside the whole time must have not been fun at all... But, I was inside and I ended up having tons of fun! Hard to describe the beauty of it all that well, so I guess now I will just post a whole bunch of pictures.
The boat ride was actually quite a long one, we probably finished around 4:30ish, where they gave us waffles and a juice. We hung around outside and talked for a bit, but then everyone headed off together to go and catch whatever train they had to catch to get home. My friends and I did stay with the group at first, but then we got seperated from them because we walked past this cowboy shop, and since I was with Katie, a dedicated Texan, we just HAD to stop... It was funny, everyone was freaking out so much over the legit cowboy boots and hats, as well as the very pretty jewelry they had in there. It was made out to be some kind of Native American art jewelry, and it was very pretty. If it hadn't been so expensive, I think I definitely would have bought something.
By the time we finished in the shop, we had lost the group and thought What the heck! We already lost everyone, so let's just explore a little. We walked around the city a bit looking at the shop windows and such. Then, we all decided we were really hungry, so we stopped somewhere and got fries. There were 5 of us, and of course I was the odd one out who wanted Andalouse sauce, so I got ot feel like a fatty while everyone else shared... By the time we got our fries, it had started to rain and only one of us had an umbrella so we decided to try and find the train station. We had to ask like 4 different groups of random standerbys, but we made it. Well, actually, it was mostly just a straight path and we had been heading the right way anyhow, but the first group of some Scouts we asked said there were like 2 different right turns involved, so we got consuded from that and felt like it was a hard place to find. Guess you can never trust a scout... When we got to the train station, we realized that even after all of our exploring we hadn't even missed to train to Liege so we were still on a train with all of the other exchange students. Unfortunately, it was a pretty packed train that was coming from Maastricht, so we all ended up getting seperated. I was kinda near other people, but still had to sit by a random guy. Luckily, as the stops went on people got off and I didn't have to wait all that long to get a seat next to a different Katie (the California Katie) who I am friends with. Seriously, there was so many Katies that are around my age. I mean, I know of like 7 different exchange students named Katie, and it just makes everything very confusing.
At Liege, I switched trains to Verviers with some other students. Once we got back into Verviers, texan Katie and I had to find a bus to catch to Eliza's house. We had made plans some time ago to all go to this Halloween party that someone from Eliza's school invited her to. I know it's a bit early, but halloween is a new celebration here and they just don't know how to do it. We had planned to go to Eliza's after Namur to get ready, and then spend the night at Kaite's house. But, Eliza ended up oversleeping and therefore missed her bus to take her to the train station... So she wasn't there to help us catch the bus and neither Katie or I knew how to get there. Of course, her regular bus that leads you right to her house doesn't run on the weekends and she didn't know how to explain where to get off at and how to get to her house from the revised line, she just knew. So after walking back and forth between several bus stops and numerous calls to Eliza, we finally ended up going on a bus next to the train station. Of course, we had just missed it and the next oen didn't come for another hour... Oh the woes of public transportation. You seriously don't understand how precious having a car and being able to drive anywhere, anytime you want without too much hassle is until you have to plan everything around a bus or train schedule. It is a complete drag. When we finally got to Eliza's, we got ready, and went to the party. But that ended up being pretty darn lame, cause like I said Halloween is new here in Belgium and everyone's costumes were really lame. At least there was some music and we had fun dancing with each other. But seriously, all of the hassle with the buses and things was not worth it. At all. But oh well, you win some you lose some. At least I will have many fun getting lost stories to tell whomever wants to hear. And it gives me something to write on my blog, and generally it ends up being because of our own stupidity, so they are generally pretty humorous too!
All in all, a very good day with my fellow exchange students!
So I officially fail at having a blog... Just can never build up enough motivation to take the time out of my mostly very busy days and write the very long post I know that I am going to write... Especially now, as I have hit and passed the 2 month mark, entering the worst part of my exchange as homesickness takes over and the doubts settle in. Seriously, it's not a fun experience. And if I make it out ok, well at least then I will be able to help out other exchangers with coping. I guess Rotary really knows what they are talking about after all, with the whole stages of culture shock. They said the first bit feels like vacation, the next bit is the tough part with language AND homesickness, and then you get to the best part of your exchange and everything is just perfect. Luckily, I am actually finding the whole language barrier thing getting better and better each day, and at least for me it's hasn't been too frustrating. But I am still definitely looking forward to the whole perfect part of exchange...
Anyhow, now back to Saturday. I had the pleasure of waking up super early, like 6 or something, throwing on some clothes and then being driven to the train station while it was still dark out. Pascale had wanted me to take the earlier train into Liege so I didn't miss my connection to Namur, which meant that I was on the train all by myself, dead from exhaustion and still not fully awake. Once I got to Liege, I decided to just wait for the next train and buy some breakfast from a little bakery type place (like the bakeries back home, not the legit ones here) because I had forgotten to even think about breakfast. I was very glad to have made the decision to wait for the second train, because then I ran into the other Rotary students and had the chance to just hang on the train and talk to them. We finally arrived in Namur around 9ish and there we met up with even MORE rotary kids and were taken to some auditorium place for more rules. -___-
Seriously, the rules were completely pointless. It was mostly just stuff about the trips sponsored by Bresa, and we had heard it all before. They, of course, had their own little presentation of rules to give to us, with the presentation in hilarious, not very good English translations, as well as people who spoke in French, English, and Spanish. I got the chance to sit by some people from the other districts, so that was nice to be able to talk to them. And, well, at least the presenters were young adults who had gone on exchange as well so they knew where we were coming from and tried to make it interesting for us and didn't shush us as we talked quietly among oursleves as they presented it in a different language that we didn't need to listen to.... But really, there is only so much fun and interesting things that you can put into a presentation all about rules you have heard a million times before...
After the presentation FINALLY ended, it was like 11 and we chilled in a little reception area as just the kids who were going on the Paris trip got information specific to that trip. During this time, exchange students being exchange students, went crazy trading pins and trying to find the select few who brought bracelets from their home country. Don't know why, but the bracelets are a huge hit. I got quite a few pins, at least like 30, and I had absolutely no idea how i was going to fit them all onto my already full blazer. I mean, I guess I do still have to back and the sleeves, but for whatever reason I don't want to put any on there. I had also brought along the woven USA bracelets and friendship bracelets that my mum had bought for me to give to people as gifts before I left, seeing how I knew the bracelets were a big deal. But unfortunately, I have only a very small number of them and I promised them to quite a bit of people, so I was only giving them to my really close friends and trying to hide to fact that I had them. Because I knew once random people figured out that I did, they would be gone in 2 seconds flat. And I really wanted to give them to my friends before random people that I didn't even know... Next time though, I will give the extras to whomever wants them!
After the craziness, we walked a short ways to the boat that we were going to be spendign time on, crusing down the river Muese. When I came up to the boat, I was a bit suprised that it was going to hold all 200 or so exchangers. But it did... There was a lower part inside with tables to sit at and chill, but you still got the amzing views. I was very lucky to have been one of the first people on the boat and got a good seat at a table near a window with all of my friends. We had a lot of fun, just talking, eating lunch, and looking at the sights. I felt bad for the people that were stuck up above, because maybe they would have gotten a bit better view of the beautiful riverbanks and houses along the water, but it was also a drizzly very cold day and being outside the whole time must have not been fun at all... But, I was inside and I ended up having tons of fun! Hard to describe the beauty of it all that well, so I guess now I will just post a whole bunch of pictures.
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| Beautiful Namur <3 |
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| Typical Europe... There are homes squisheds in everywhere! |
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| Katie (Texas), Lauren (Cali), and I... Don't ask me what I was doing with my hand haha |
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| Future home? |
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| I would settle for this one too... From the full on view, you can tell how huge and amazing it is. And it looks like a castle... |
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| It's a bit blurry, but I absolutely loved this. |
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| There were swans EVERWHERE! |
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| Gotta love the pink building! |
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| Europe's Flag, Belgian Flag, Wallonie's Flag (French speaking Region), and some random one. |
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| AMERICA! :) |
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| A very ecstatic Texan! |
At Liege, I switched trains to Verviers with some other students. Once we got back into Verviers, texan Katie and I had to find a bus to catch to Eliza's house. We had made plans some time ago to all go to this Halloween party that someone from Eliza's school invited her to. I know it's a bit early, but halloween is a new celebration here and they just don't know how to do it. We had planned to go to Eliza's after Namur to get ready, and then spend the night at Kaite's house. But, Eliza ended up oversleeping and therefore missed her bus to take her to the train station... So she wasn't there to help us catch the bus and neither Katie or I knew how to get there. Of course, her regular bus that leads you right to her house doesn't run on the weekends and she didn't know how to explain where to get off at and how to get to her house from the revised line, she just knew. So after walking back and forth between several bus stops and numerous calls to Eliza, we finally ended up going on a bus next to the train station. Of course, we had just missed it and the next oen didn't come for another hour... Oh the woes of public transportation. You seriously don't understand how precious having a car and being able to drive anywhere, anytime you want without too much hassle is until you have to plan everything around a bus or train schedule. It is a complete drag. When we finally got to Eliza's, we got ready, and went to the party. But that ended up being pretty darn lame, cause like I said Halloween is new here in Belgium and everyone's costumes were really lame. At least there was some music and we had fun dancing with each other. But seriously, all of the hassle with the buses and things was not worth it. At all. But oh well, you win some you lose some. At least I will have many fun getting lost stories to tell whomever wants to hear. And it gives me something to write on my blog, and generally it ends up being because of our own stupidity, so they are generally pretty humorous too!
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| Amazing cheetah make-up by Eliza! |
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| No costume shops, so we had to get creative... |
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| Ke$ha and a Cheetah!!! |
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| A Witch and a Cheetah! |
Monday, October 17, 2011
IT'S A PANDA!
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Ok, well just gonna start off on the fact that this is about to be a super sort post, because school is boring and I can't even remember that 2 weeks back. I do, however, remember my wonderful French courses that I went to on this day. Seriously, these French courses are the absolute best thing ever. I mean, I get to be with other exchange students having fun, but learning French from a legit teacher at the same time. And, Rotary pays for me to be in these courses, it's a win-win-WIN situation.
And now to explain the title of this lovely blog post... So as I already mentioned, but I will revisit as to remind those who's memory is fading, didn't take the time to read any of my long posts, or just didn't notice the small little detail stuck in with rest of the post, my course is made up of people who speak French really well, those who understand but can't really speak, and those who have a hard time just understanding. So anyhow, today we were just doing an exercise where we picked out a French adjective and had to describe it (in French, of course!) so the others could guess what it was. I don't remember the exact word, but we were just going along with the game and someone guessed it correctly. Everyone else knew the word, but then this one girl who is more at the point of having a difficulty understanding, was all like what the heck is that? The teacher spells the word out for her, and it's the exact same as an English word, just different spelling. And she blurts out, "Oh, like panda!". So now, whenever a word is the same in English and French (Ex: bizzare, stresse, zebre, hotel, train...), someone always shouts out "It's a panda!". And this is a good thing, because there is generally at least one person who doesn't catch on to the different pronunciation in French.
Whenever one faces a panda and doesn't understand the pronunciation, well, they have the right to feel just plain stupid. And let me tell you, as an exchange student living in a different country, this opportunity presents itself many, many, MANY times during your exchange.
So I realize that this might be a bit confusing for some, or it might just be a "You had to be there" moment where it's basically only me that thinks this is funny and worth writing about, but well, I'm sorry because it all makes sense and is very funny in my head!
Ok, well just gonna start off on the fact that this is about to be a super sort post, because school is boring and I can't even remember that 2 weeks back. I do, however, remember my wonderful French courses that I went to on this day. Seriously, these French courses are the absolute best thing ever. I mean, I get to be with other exchange students having fun, but learning French from a legit teacher at the same time. And, Rotary pays for me to be in these courses, it's a win-win-WIN situation.
And now to explain the title of this lovely blog post... So as I already mentioned, but I will revisit as to remind those who's memory is fading, didn't take the time to read any of my long posts, or just didn't notice the small little detail stuck in with rest of the post, my course is made up of people who speak French really well, those who understand but can't really speak, and those who have a hard time just understanding. So anyhow, today we were just doing an exercise where we picked out a French adjective and had to describe it (in French, of course!) so the others could guess what it was. I don't remember the exact word, but we were just going along with the game and someone guessed it correctly. Everyone else knew the word, but then this one girl who is more at the point of having a difficulty understanding, was all like what the heck is that? The teacher spells the word out for her, and it's the exact same as an English word, just different spelling. And she blurts out, "Oh, like panda!". So now, whenever a word is the same in English and French (Ex: bizzare, stresse, zebre, hotel, train...), someone always shouts out "It's a panda!". And this is a good thing, because there is generally at least one person who doesn't catch on to the different pronunciation in French.
Whenever one faces a panda and doesn't understand the pronunciation, well, they have the right to feel just plain stupid. And let me tell you, as an exchange student living in a different country, this opportunity presents itself many, many, MANY times during your exchange.
So I realize that this might be a bit confusing for some, or it might just be a "You had to be there" moment where it's basically only me that thinks this is funny and worth writing about, but well, I'm sorry because it all makes sense and is very funny in my head!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Fort Eben-Emael
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
So, due to the fact that I am a whole 2 weeks behind on this thing, and that I don't really remember any of the impossibly boring things that happened to me on this Monday or Tuesday, I am going straight to Wednesday. Just like any other Wednesday, this school day was ridicously easy. But how can it not be when you have 2 study periods and 2 English classes? You have no idea how tempting it is for me just to not even come to school on Wednesday's. I mean, my conscience and my drive to master the French language and make Rotary proud of me would never let me do it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't crossed my mind.
Anyhow, this Wednesday was different than most because all of the District 1630 kids had an activity planned for the day by Rotary. Because the meeting time was so close to the end of the school day and there was no possible way I could have made it in time, Pascale, I think on her lunch break, was kind enough to pick me up and drive me out to Vise, which is were everyone else was meeting up at the train station. Of course, I was like the first one there other than Lauren and Jimena, who live and go to school in Vise. So we had to wait for a bit until the others started to arrive. Not to my suprise, although some people were like me and got rides after school to the station, a majority of the students arrived on the same train coming from Liege having skipped at least one of their classes to get there. I truly feel that exchange students could get out of anything as long it was an activity through or approved by Rotary. I am pretty sure that when I go on the Prague trip in mid-June I will be missing my exams... I was quite excited when I discovered that nice coincidence.
Once everyone arrived, our special bus was there as well and we all hopped onto the bus and went to our destination of Fort Eben-Emael. I was finding myself hoping that the fort would be like the mine, in which we had an amazing English speaking guide who made the whole experience awesome. But no such luck... Although I could understand the basics of what the tour guide was saying if I really paid attention and tried really hard, for most of the time I just entertained myself by taking pictures or whispering with my friends. And although the fort was one that was taken over by the Germans in WWII (I listened enough to know that, at least...), which is a period in history that really intrigues me, it was kinda a boring place to go to. I mean, after a while all of the gray walls and the empty rooms and hallways all looked the same, and there wasn't that many things to really even look at. But, due to the fact that I was surronded by Rotary kids, of course I had a lot of fun. I honestly think that rotary could just get all of the kids in one huge room and leave us there for a few hours with some food and we would probably be just as happy... Just being around the only people that truly understand what you are going through is good enough.
And just one quick little cultural difference before I hit the sack... I noticed today as I was sitting in the living room with my host parents writing this blog post that TV scheduling here is weird. Shows start and end at random times, and during the shows there aren't generally commercials. The only time there are commercials are between shows, which I guess may explain the random times they are starting at??? At mean, at home the are always on the half hour, and unfortunately always have heaps of commercials unless you are on a specific movie channel. I think I like the way things are here as far as the commercials go, but if I was really interested in Belgian TV shows than I think I would also get very annoyed at having to remember the random times that my shows were on. I seriously am learning something new everyday.... Other than the whole French thing!
So, due to the fact that I am a whole 2 weeks behind on this thing, and that I don't really remember any of the impossibly boring things that happened to me on this Monday or Tuesday, I am going straight to Wednesday. Just like any other Wednesday, this school day was ridicously easy. But how can it not be when you have 2 study periods and 2 English classes? You have no idea how tempting it is for me just to not even come to school on Wednesday's. I mean, my conscience and my drive to master the French language and make Rotary proud of me would never let me do it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't crossed my mind.
Anyhow, this Wednesday was different than most because all of the District 1630 kids had an activity planned for the day by Rotary. Because the meeting time was so close to the end of the school day and there was no possible way I could have made it in time, Pascale, I think on her lunch break, was kind enough to pick me up and drive me out to Vise, which is were everyone else was meeting up at the train station. Of course, I was like the first one there other than Lauren and Jimena, who live and go to school in Vise. So we had to wait for a bit until the others started to arrive. Not to my suprise, although some people were like me and got rides after school to the station, a majority of the students arrived on the same train coming from Liege having skipped at least one of their classes to get there. I truly feel that exchange students could get out of anything as long it was an activity through or approved by Rotary. I am pretty sure that when I go on the Prague trip in mid-June I will be missing my exams... I was quite excited when I discovered that nice coincidence.
Once everyone arrived, our special bus was there as well and we all hopped onto the bus and went to our destination of Fort Eben-Emael. I was finding myself hoping that the fort would be like the mine, in which we had an amazing English speaking guide who made the whole experience awesome. But no such luck... Although I could understand the basics of what the tour guide was saying if I really paid attention and tried really hard, for most of the time I just entertained myself by taking pictures or whispering with my friends. And although the fort was one that was taken over by the Germans in WWII (I listened enough to know that, at least...), which is a period in history that really intrigues me, it was kinda a boring place to go to. I mean, after a while all of the gray walls and the empty rooms and hallways all looked the same, and there wasn't that many things to really even look at. But, due to the fact that I was surronded by Rotary kids, of course I had a lot of fun. I honestly think that rotary could just get all of the kids in one huge room and leave us there for a few hours with some food and we would probably be just as happy... Just being around the only people that truly understand what you are going through is good enough.
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| The Entrance |
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| Just had to walk up a million stairs... no big. |
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| This was by the door way seperating the rest of the building from the bombing area. 60 years later and the sand is still there.... |
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| Katie and I! |
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| Eliza and I |
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| A Refinished Cannon that was Used Way Back When |
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| So this staircase collapsed after the Germans tried to bomb the place... But from my understanding, the Germans weren't too smart because the also tried to escape the fort up these stairs... |
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| So kinda a weird picture, but the bolts on the door were blasted off so hard from the bomb that it left this mark. In the stone wall... |
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| Just some WWII Belgian Wear |
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| Some Artillery |
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| Just some of us... |
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| Creepy Statue and A Remake of a Plane |
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| Gabby, Rachel, Claire, Me, Eliza |
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| Everything here is in a million different languages... I love it! |
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| Bascially the whole little Verviers group, except for Rachel! Only missing Riley, Tedde, and Becky. Rachel, Katie, Eliza, Me, Gabby, and Claire |
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Travail, travail, travail... And a mini epiphany!
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
So after a late night the day before, I was lucky enough to get up around 8 and head out for an all day Rotary acitvity! Yay.... not. I mean, don't get me wrong. I really do love my Rotary club and am fully appreciative of everything they do for me. But no one likes to get up early and work an event when it is not their own personal choice to be there... So yes, my host mother got me there right at 10 like we were supposed to be. And guess who was the only YEP (exchange student) there.... Yep, that would most definitely be me! The first bit of the day, when I was all by myself, I had the EXTRA EXCITING job of taking grapes off of the stem and counting them. In the end, there were 711 grapes. Even 2 whole weeks later, I can remember this because I literally sat there for like 45 minutes doing only that! And once I got finished taking all of the grapes off the stupid stem, I got to put three on each appetizer plate. I mean seriously, three grapes? You might as well just not included them, there really is no since because having or not having 3 grapes on a plate is going to make a difference. And to top it off, they were gross grapes AND they had seeds in them.
Finally around 11:30, the other students all showed up. Only the YEP's from the clubs of Verviers, Verviers Vesdre, and Pepinster-Theux came because those were the clubs hosting the event. So if anybody really cares about names, that means there was Claire (from Texas), Riley (from Pennsylvania), and Becky (the Aussie!) from Verviers Vesdre, Tedde (from Iowa, goes to my school...) from Pepinster-Theux and me and Eliza (from Texas) from the Verviers club! When they got there, it was kinda the break between prepping the appetizers and everyone arriving for lunch. So we just got to chill in this garage-creepy backroom thingy to the kitchen were they had been setting the plates up. And, well, I guess working the event does have its advantages because we got to chow down on all of the leftovers that weren't put on a plate. This included some weird meat ham thing that kind of reminded me of bacon, but was super thin and had a funky taste to it. There was also cantaloupe and the gross grapes. Now normally, I don't really enjoy eating cantaloupe and I found the taste of the meat just a bit gross, but when you wrapped the meat around the cantaloupw it was to die for. Well, it was to die for when I was starving from not having eaten breakfast that morning...
Around 12 people started coming into the dining hall and our real job started. First what we had to do was give people their appetizers and take their tickets to make sure they paid for the meal. Once the finished, we bused the table and then were supposed to immediately serve them their entree, which was 3 different types of pasta. And after we cleared their pasta plates, they got Tiramisu. Now, this may not sound too complicated to you, but it most definitely was. The first problem was that unlike at real restuarants, none of us had specific tables to "wait" so we kept going to the same groups of people and getting confused or bringing out too much of something or forgetting about someone. The second problem was that it wasn't like everyone came in at the same time and was on the same course. Little groups of people just trickled in whenever they wanted and sat at completely random places on the 3 super long tables. So, it was nearly impossible to remember what people had had what course. The third problem was that unlike the appetizer, the pasta plates had to be put together. I mean, everything was already cooked, but we had to wait for people to put it on plates and hand it to us. So if there was a group bigger than like 3 or 4, they all got their plates at a different time. For the big groups, it even took like 5 or so minutes. And this is definitely a problem in Belgium, where the polite thing to fo is to wait to eat until EVERYONE has their food. Like, you never eat until the entire table is served. So, I am guessing that some people had the pleasure of eating cold pasta. The fourth problem was that some people really just liked to sit there and talk after they finished their meals. For like forever... And they had new groups of people joining them and talking to them. So of course, we forgot who exactly it was we had actually served, and either tried to serve people twice or thought the new people had already eaten. The fifth problem was that when the tables had been prepped, the silverware was already laid out. But for whatever reason, only like a third of the places had the little spoons that were meant to be used to eat the tiramisu and so we had to keep going back to the kitchen and either try to wash to little spoons, which we didn't really like doing because the way Belgians wash things is very unsanitary, or give them these gigantic spoons that filled the entire little plastic bowl that the dessert was in. And the sixth and final problem was that the plates of pasta were kept on this weird heating thing to try to keep them warm if the were put together a bit in advance, but I think the only thing that they accomplished by using that was burning all of the exchange students hands off... Now, if you weren't behind the scenes like I was, I don't think any of the mistakes or problems were that apparent. Unless, of course, you were an inpatient group of 14 people that complained if we didn't come and take their plates away and serve them the next course in like 2 seconds all together... But hey, that only happened once.
Luckily, there was like 2 different waves of people that came through so during the dead time all of us were able to sit down and eat together. It was around 1-ish by that time so we were all pretty hungry, even after chowing down on the leftover appetizers. The pasta was ok, but food here is just too bland for my taste. The white sauce, which at home would probably be some delicious garlic sauce thing or an alfredo, was just kinda like a thick colored water. Even with a bunch of cheese it wasn't all that great... But oh my goodness, the tiramisu was TO DIE FOR! I think over the course of the day (I was there from 10 to 7...) I probably had like 5 of them. And the justify my pigging out, it's not as if they were really that big of desserts. And it is not like I was taking them away from someone who paid, because even at the end there were extras they were trying to force us to eat when really all of the exchangees had been eating them periodically throughout the day.
,
I think people stopped showing up around like 3 or 4ish for lunch, but then we got the pleasure of cleaning the entire place up. And boy was there a mess. I mean, we probably served between 150 and 200 different people, and although we tried cleaning up really well as we went along it seemed pretty impossible. We probably finished cleaning up between 6-6:30, and everyone else got picked up and went on their merry way. But Eliza and I, who were getting picked up by Eliza's semi-spacy host family because Eddy's parents were over at my host house, had to wait at least 30 minutes for her host dad to show up. And towards the end, the few Rotarians who were left came out (we were sitting outside on this little sculpture-like thingy) and waited with us. They probably asked a million times how we were getting home and when they were showing up. I KNOW I was saying the right thing in French, but they went on asking anyways as if the didn't understand the first time. And well, maybe they couldn't understand my horrible French accent, but I think that they just really wanted to go home and thought that by asking us a million times how we were getting home would make her host dad show up faster... Even though we told them that they could go, that we would be fine waiting alone in a safe town for a little bit, the crowd of people around us just kept growing and they refused to leave because we are their responsibility and all... Eliza's host dad finally showed up like 30 minutes after he siad he was going to and I got home just as Eddy's parents were in the car getting ready to drive out the driveway. I felt really bad, because we didn't learn that I had to work this event until Monday from my counselor, Mounsier Albert Reuter, and Pascale had made plans with them quite some time ago for them to come over that night and meet me. I felt really bad, but I know I will get to truly meet them soon enough!
Obviously, working a confusing and semi organized (at least as far as the exchange students serving went...) event on your feet all day is never that much fun. But it was at least fun being with other exchange students, and I am pretty sure the whole event was fundraising to be able to host/send off more exchange students. So it was definitely something that I don't mind helping out with, considering everything that Rotary is doing for me. The sad thing is that I was inside serving people and prepping plates all day, so I honestly don't even know what the event going on outside even was. I think it had something to do with old cars and some kind of competition type thing, but I honestly have no idea... But hey, that's just the crazy life of an exchange student! Sometimes you just blindly do what others tell you just because you know it's the right thing to do, even if you barely understand the instructions and you don't really have any idea what the heck is going on.
Oh and I almost forgot the explain my lovely title. Travail in French is work, so that is self explanatory. But as for the epiphany part... Well, after the night walk and talking in French and listening to people's instructions all day and answering people's demands, I just really feel like I can understand the majority of what it being said to me know. The realization that suddenly I can just understand most of what is said to me was a truly amazing feeling. It's like all of sudden, everything just clicked and I can understand people (as long as they don't talk too fast or use too many big words... :) ). But well, as for the whole talking thing, we can just call that a work in progress...
So after a late night the day before, I was lucky enough to get up around 8 and head out for an all day Rotary acitvity! Yay.... not. I mean, don't get me wrong. I really do love my Rotary club and am fully appreciative of everything they do for me. But no one likes to get up early and work an event when it is not their own personal choice to be there... So yes, my host mother got me there right at 10 like we were supposed to be. And guess who was the only YEP (exchange student) there.... Yep, that would most definitely be me! The first bit of the day, when I was all by myself, I had the EXTRA EXCITING job of taking grapes off of the stem and counting them. In the end, there were 711 grapes. Even 2 whole weeks later, I can remember this because I literally sat there for like 45 minutes doing only that! And once I got finished taking all of the grapes off the stupid stem, I got to put three on each appetizer plate. I mean seriously, three grapes? You might as well just not included them, there really is no since because having or not having 3 grapes on a plate is going to make a difference. And to top it off, they were gross grapes AND they had seeds in them.
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| Basically my prison for the day... And I know it looks small, but it actually quite big! |
Finally around 11:30, the other students all showed up. Only the YEP's from the clubs of Verviers, Verviers Vesdre, and Pepinster-Theux came because those were the clubs hosting the event. So if anybody really cares about names, that means there was Claire (from Texas), Riley (from Pennsylvania), and Becky (the Aussie!) from Verviers Vesdre, Tedde (from Iowa, goes to my school...) from Pepinster-Theux and me and Eliza (from Texas) from the Verviers club! When they got there, it was kinda the break between prepping the appetizers and everyone arriving for lunch. So we just got to chill in this garage-creepy backroom thingy to the kitchen were they had been setting the plates up. And, well, I guess working the event does have its advantages because we got to chow down on all of the leftovers that weren't put on a plate. This included some weird meat ham thing that kind of reminded me of bacon, but was super thin and had a funky taste to it. There was also cantaloupe and the gross grapes. Now normally, I don't really enjoy eating cantaloupe and I found the taste of the meat just a bit gross, but when you wrapped the meat around the cantaloupw it was to die for. Well, it was to die for when I was starving from not having eaten breakfast that morning...
Around 12 people started coming into the dining hall and our real job started. First what we had to do was give people their appetizers and take their tickets to make sure they paid for the meal. Once the finished, we bused the table and then were supposed to immediately serve them their entree, which was 3 different types of pasta. And after we cleared their pasta plates, they got Tiramisu. Now, this may not sound too complicated to you, but it most definitely was. The first problem was that unlike at real restuarants, none of us had specific tables to "wait" so we kept going to the same groups of people and getting confused or bringing out too much of something or forgetting about someone. The second problem was that it wasn't like everyone came in at the same time and was on the same course. Little groups of people just trickled in whenever they wanted and sat at completely random places on the 3 super long tables. So, it was nearly impossible to remember what people had had what course. The third problem was that unlike the appetizer, the pasta plates had to be put together. I mean, everything was already cooked, but we had to wait for people to put it on plates and hand it to us. So if there was a group bigger than like 3 or 4, they all got their plates at a different time. For the big groups, it even took like 5 or so minutes. And this is definitely a problem in Belgium, where the polite thing to fo is to wait to eat until EVERYONE has their food. Like, you never eat until the entire table is served. So, I am guessing that some people had the pleasure of eating cold pasta. The fourth problem was that some people really just liked to sit there and talk after they finished their meals. For like forever... And they had new groups of people joining them and talking to them. So of course, we forgot who exactly it was we had actually served, and either tried to serve people twice or thought the new people had already eaten. The fifth problem was that when the tables had been prepped, the silverware was already laid out. But for whatever reason, only like a third of the places had the little spoons that were meant to be used to eat the tiramisu and so we had to keep going back to the kitchen and either try to wash to little spoons, which we didn't really like doing because the way Belgians wash things is very unsanitary, or give them these gigantic spoons that filled the entire little plastic bowl that the dessert was in. And the sixth and final problem was that the plates of pasta were kept on this weird heating thing to try to keep them warm if the were put together a bit in advance, but I think the only thing that they accomplished by using that was burning all of the exchange students hands off... Now, if you weren't behind the scenes like I was, I don't think any of the mistakes or problems were that apparent. Unless, of course, you were an inpatient group of 14 people that complained if we didn't come and take their plates away and serve them the next course in like 2 seconds all together... But hey, that only happened once.
Luckily, there was like 2 different waves of people that came through so during the dead time all of us were able to sit down and eat together. It was around 1-ish by that time so we were all pretty hungry, even after chowing down on the leftover appetizers. The pasta was ok, but food here is just too bland for my taste. The white sauce, which at home would probably be some delicious garlic sauce thing or an alfredo, was just kinda like a thick colored water. Even with a bunch of cheese it wasn't all that great... But oh my goodness, the tiramisu was TO DIE FOR! I think over the course of the day (I was there from 10 to 7...) I probably had like 5 of them. And the justify my pigging out, it's not as if they were really that big of desserts. And it is not like I was taking them away from someone who paid, because even at the end there were extras they were trying to force us to eat when really all of the exchangees had been eating them periodically throughout the day.
,
I think people stopped showing up around like 3 or 4ish for lunch, but then we got the pleasure of cleaning the entire place up. And boy was there a mess. I mean, we probably served between 150 and 200 different people, and although we tried cleaning up really well as we went along it seemed pretty impossible. We probably finished cleaning up between 6-6:30, and everyone else got picked up and went on their merry way. But Eliza and I, who were getting picked up by Eliza's semi-spacy host family because Eddy's parents were over at my host house, had to wait at least 30 minutes for her host dad to show up. And towards the end, the few Rotarians who were left came out (we were sitting outside on this little sculpture-like thingy) and waited with us. They probably asked a million times how we were getting home and when they were showing up. I KNOW I was saying the right thing in French, but they went on asking anyways as if the didn't understand the first time. And well, maybe they couldn't understand my horrible French accent, but I think that they just really wanted to go home and thought that by asking us a million times how we were getting home would make her host dad show up faster... Even though we told them that they could go, that we would be fine waiting alone in a safe town for a little bit, the crowd of people around us just kept growing and they refused to leave because we are their responsibility and all... Eliza's host dad finally showed up like 30 minutes after he siad he was going to and I got home just as Eddy's parents were in the car getting ready to drive out the driveway. I felt really bad, because we didn't learn that I had to work this event until Monday from my counselor, Mounsier Albert Reuter, and Pascale had made plans with them quite some time ago for them to come over that night and meet me. I felt really bad, but I know I will get to truly meet them soon enough!
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| Just taking some pictures before we were surrponded by concerned Rotarians... I love Eliza! |
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| Pretty, pretty, pretty |
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| I liked the heart. |
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| More beautiful! Oh and that yellow sign is what all the bus stops look like... |
Oh and I almost forgot the explain my lovely title. Travail in French is work, so that is self explanatory. But as for the epiphany part... Well, after the night walk and talking in French and listening to people's instructions all day and answering people's demands, I just really feel like I can understand the majority of what it being said to me know. The realization that suddenly I can just understand most of what is said to me was a truly amazing feeling. It's like all of sudden, everything just clicked and I can understand people (as long as they don't talk too fast or use too many big words... :) ). But well, as for the whole talking thing, we can just call that a work in progress...
Monday, October 10, 2011
La Nocturne des Coteaux de la Citadelle
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
Well, looky here. I am behind again by a week!!! Ugh, I promise eventually I will get good at this whole blog thing! So today, I was defnitely a bit disappointed due to the fact that I couldn't go to the kayaking activity that Rotex (returned exchangees who want to plan fun stuff for the Belgium go-ers!) had planned due to the fact that it was very far away and I just couldn't get the train times to work without having to wake up at like 5 in the morning and having Pascale drive me to the train station. But luckily, on Friday night, Pascale's friend called and invited us to go on this night walk around Liege through candle light gardens and streets. I thought it sounded like an amazing experience, and after not being able to go kayaking with my friends this was defnitely a good back-up plan! But, as the day goes on I start to notice that Pascale does NOT intend on going and that I would be going out with her friend... alone. I didn't quite know how I felt about that, but it was kinda late to back out, I am here for experiencing new things, and apparently the friend went on exchange in the U.S. somtime ago and could speak English. So I thought, what the heck, and went!
So Pascale drove me to her friend's house in Liege, introduced us, and left almost right after. I was afraid it might be a bit awkward or hard or not fun or something, but it was actually an amazing experience! When Pascale very first left, her friend, Florence, explained to me who she was and everything like that in English. She explained that she was 31 and went on exchange to the U.S. when she was 18. So she knew how it was like to be an exchange student, and when she figured out that Eddy and Pascale were getting an exchange student (her parents are more their friends and that is how she knows them...), she knew she wanted to do something with me! She just thought that a night walk through the city would be quite nice and a fun thing to do. And after her 5 minute explanation, she never spoke in English again!!!! We headed out after talking for a bit and she showed me around the city a bit and explained things to me, like the history or where the good shops were or something like that. Even though it was the area of Liege that I know quite well, I let her explain everything to me in her adult point of view. She actually knew quite a bit about the history of Liege, and for me it was pretty darn interesting. Like I figured out that a building I walk pass almost every single day is actually pretty important in Belgian history and that the weird looking columns are all that remains of a once beautiful cathedral after a raid by the French during the French Revolution. Seriously, everyday I am jsut learning so much!
After our quick little tour, which I might add was all in French with me understanding it all, we went and met up with her friends. A couple of them were quite late, and because of this as well as it being one of the busiest nights of the year because of the walk, we couldn't find a place to sit down and eat. So instead, we just got Cous Cous (something like rice with a delicious sauce, veggies, and a sausage...) from one of the booths set up outside of a restuarant just for that night. It was delicious! There has honestly been such a small amount of food here that I haven't liked, it's ridiculous how good their food is here.
After eating, we started the night walk around Liege. It was really cool, to be walking around the beautiful city at night and having everything just perfectly lit up, candles accenting all of the best parts of Liege. The first part of the walk was just through the city, and they decorated some pretty churches, the Palais de Justice, and a nunnery as well. After the main street though, the path led into some beautiful gardens. This is probably where I enjoyed the lights the most, because not only were you walking through beautiful candle lit gardens, but the gardens were also higher up than the rest of the city, so you got to look out onto the city at night. And just like any other city, there is just something magic about all of the different lights. It was quite a bit of walking that night, but it was definitely worth it. And, all of Florence's friends were really nice to me, speaking to me slowly in French, and only one of them sneaking in a few English words while the others weren't paying attention (they had said that they wouldn't speak English to me because all I want to do is improve my French!). At the end of the walk, there were fireworks a ways away that started at like 11. And boy, do the Belges know how to do fireworks. The show was absolutely spectacular, with a huge variety of high and low fireworks synchronized together. It was also extremely long, probably longer than most shows thta I have seen in the U.S. for things like 4th of July or at Disneyland. Seriously, I can not even begin to imagine how much they must have spent on the fireworks. But then again, fireworks COULD be like the one thing that is cheaper over here in Europe than in the U.S. You never know. After a great fireworks show, I asked Florence if we could leave and she drove me home. I probably didn't end up getting home until like 12:30 between the walk from the center of the city back to her house and the 30 minute drive. I was dead tired after that, but it was definitely a great night full of fun and beauty.
Well, looky here. I am behind again by a week!!! Ugh, I promise eventually I will get good at this whole blog thing! So today, I was defnitely a bit disappointed due to the fact that I couldn't go to the kayaking activity that Rotex (returned exchangees who want to plan fun stuff for the Belgium go-ers!) had planned due to the fact that it was very far away and I just couldn't get the train times to work without having to wake up at like 5 in the morning and having Pascale drive me to the train station. But luckily, on Friday night, Pascale's friend called and invited us to go on this night walk around Liege through candle light gardens and streets. I thought it sounded like an amazing experience, and after not being able to go kayaking with my friends this was defnitely a good back-up plan! But, as the day goes on I start to notice that Pascale does NOT intend on going and that I would be going out with her friend... alone. I didn't quite know how I felt about that, but it was kinda late to back out, I am here for experiencing new things, and apparently the friend went on exchange in the U.S. somtime ago and could speak English. So I thought, what the heck, and went!
So Pascale drove me to her friend's house in Liege, introduced us, and left almost right after. I was afraid it might be a bit awkward or hard or not fun or something, but it was actually an amazing experience! When Pascale very first left, her friend, Florence, explained to me who she was and everything like that in English. She explained that she was 31 and went on exchange to the U.S. when she was 18. So she knew how it was like to be an exchange student, and when she figured out that Eddy and Pascale were getting an exchange student (her parents are more their friends and that is how she knows them...), she knew she wanted to do something with me! She just thought that a night walk through the city would be quite nice and a fun thing to do. And after her 5 minute explanation, she never spoke in English again!!!! We headed out after talking for a bit and she showed me around the city a bit and explained things to me, like the history or where the good shops were or something like that. Even though it was the area of Liege that I know quite well, I let her explain everything to me in her adult point of view. She actually knew quite a bit about the history of Liege, and for me it was pretty darn interesting. Like I figured out that a building I walk pass almost every single day is actually pretty important in Belgian history and that the weird looking columns are all that remains of a once beautiful cathedral after a raid by the French during the French Revolution. Seriously, everyday I am jsut learning so much!
After our quick little tour, which I might add was all in French with me understanding it all, we went and met up with her friends. A couple of them were quite late, and because of this as well as it being one of the busiest nights of the year because of the walk, we couldn't find a place to sit down and eat. So instead, we just got Cous Cous (something like rice with a delicious sauce, veggies, and a sausage...) from one of the booths set up outside of a restuarant just for that night. It was delicious! There has honestly been such a small amount of food here that I haven't liked, it's ridiculous how good their food is here.
After eating, we started the night walk around Liege. It was really cool, to be walking around the beautiful city at night and having everything just perfectly lit up, candles accenting all of the best parts of Liege. The first part of the walk was just through the city, and they decorated some pretty churches, the Palais de Justice, and a nunnery as well. After the main street though, the path led into some beautiful gardens. This is probably where I enjoyed the lights the most, because not only were you walking through beautiful candle lit gardens, but the gardens were also higher up than the rest of the city, so you got to look out onto the city at night. And just like any other city, there is just something magic about all of the different lights. It was quite a bit of walking that night, but it was definitely worth it. And, all of Florence's friends were really nice to me, speaking to me slowly in French, and only one of them sneaking in a few English words while the others weren't paying attention (they had said that they wouldn't speak English to me because all I want to do is improve my French!). At the end of the walk, there were fireworks a ways away that started at like 11. And boy, do the Belges know how to do fireworks. The show was absolutely spectacular, with a huge variety of high and low fireworks synchronized together. It was also extremely long, probably longer than most shows thta I have seen in the U.S. for things like 4th of July or at Disneyland. Seriously, I can not even begin to imagine how much they must have spent on the fireworks. But then again, fireworks COULD be like the one thing that is cheaper over here in Europe than in the U.S. You never know. After a great fireworks show, I asked Florence if we could leave and she drove me home. I probably didn't end up getting home until like 12:30 between the walk from the center of the city back to her house and the 30 minute drive. I was dead tired after that, but it was definitely a great night full of fun and beauty.
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| The Main Candle Display... No one was really sure what it was, but I think a flower is a safe bet. |
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| J'aime les vieux batiments en Belgique! |
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| Artistic vision... :) |
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| So I tried to take a picture of the city, but then the group started walking and I didn't wanna get left behind so I moved to. And well, I think the picture turned out pretty cool anyhow! |
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