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.

Mes parents d'accueil!

The million different types of meat... and the side dishes!

The group!

A happy birthday girl! :)

Took me like 5 minutes to finally get them all blown out... Pascale bought those trick candles that keep relighting themselves!

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...

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!

A bit blurry because I got it off the internet... But majority of the Belgian exchange students!

Can you find me? :)