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.

The Entrance

Just had to walk up a million stairs... no big.

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....

Katie and I!

Eliza and I

A Refinished Cannon that was Used Way Back When

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...

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...

Just some WWII Belgian Wear

Some Artillery

Just some of us...

Creepy Statue and A Remake of a Plane

Gabby, Rachel, Claire, Me, Eliza

Everything here is in a million different languages... I love it!

Bascially the whole little Verviers group, except for Rachel! Only missing Riley, Tedde, and Becky.
Rachel, Katie, Eliza, Me, Gabby, and Claire

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!

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.

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!

Just taking some pictures before we were surrponded by concerned Rotarians... I love Eliza!

Pretty, pretty, pretty

I liked the heart.

More beautiful! Oh and that yellow sign is what all the bus stops look like...

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...

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.

The Main Candle Display... No one was really sure what it was, but I think a flower is a safe bet.

J'aime les vieux batiments en Belgique!

Artistic vision... :)

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!

Gotta Love Being American

Friday, September 30th, 2011

The final day of September. The final day of the second month that I have been in Belgium. Time just flies by when you are having fun! So anyhow... This Friday made me realize how appericiative I am of being American and having Tedde (girl from Iowa) in my school. The only classes that Tedde and I have together are gym and math. And Friday, we have a double PE period and math so we actually get to see quite a bit of each other! It's nice. As usual, the ridiculous-ness of how bad Belgian girls are at sports continued. We played basketball again today, and since Tedde was sick last Friday, she had yet to experience how bad they were. She was funny because she was tired (PE first class of the day is never fun...) and for some reason she was really letting how badly everyone played get to her. She gave like a step by step commentary of this one girl, who first off wears booty shorts and a tank top in an all girls' PE class (so that's already a bit annoying because all she wants is to look nice... Or not so nice, if you know what I mean.), secondly "runs" like, well, a true girl, and thirdly as we do lay-ups she stops right next to the hoop and using both hands chucks the ball at the hoop. Now, i know some people just aren't sporty and I am fine with that, but Tedde pointing out all of the things she was doing completely wrong was definitely funny. And no one can understand English, so at least they weren't getting mad at Tedde... But don't worry Mum, even though they can't understand me I still don't say bad things about people! :) And for the second half of the day, we ran as usual. And Tedde and I were leading the pack when all of a sudden during one of our breaks she just disappears... A coupe minutes later she walks out of the building, said "I just puked", and continued running. (She ate too much for breakfast...). And that, my friends, is why Americans are champs.

After PE, we both went to the couselor to talk to her about switching our classes around. Well, Tedde, who took 4 years of French in high school and is practically fluent, talked to her for me. And we both got switched out of our science classes. Yay! I think instead we will taking more French, but even if it ends up being an etude it will be ok because then it will be a random hour to have etude and none of my friends will be there to distract me. So that means that I instead dedicate that extra free time to learning French! Or, if it's around lunch time, I could meet up with the other exchangees (half of whom already speak French) and they always bring along their Belgian friends and talk to them in French, so I could learn that way! Because for me, I understand things way easier when it's an American speaking. Probably because they don't have the accent...

For lunch I had a regular double period, so I met up with my friends again and that's always fun. And then, after I got back, I realized that I also got out of school an hour early because the art teacher wasn't here again, and apparently there was no teacher to supervise us all three hours. Again, not that I am complaining, but these kids here are 17 years old. There are 3 art classrooms all connected together. Just leave the doors open, and it really shouldn't be a big deal! We have the projects we are supposed to be doing, just let us do our work! I mean, Belgian kids have so much freedom, but we can't draw for a bit in an empty classroom? Seems kinda silly to me...

And now I am done, it's late, I am tired, soooooo BONNE NUIT!

1 Month, 2 weeks, and 6 Days

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Before I start on my account of the day, I just want to talk a bit about exchange. In a few short days, I will have been in Belgium for 2 months. 2 months of my 11 month stay. 11 months to become fluent in French, be bored in a school I don't understand, travel the world, miss my family, experience new things. 11 months that I think will change my life. I don't really know why, but it honestly still all feels unreal to me. Like tommorrow I am going to wake up in my own bed to my puppies barking and go downstairs to find my mom on the computer eating her daily everything bagle and coffee and Maddie watching TV or practicing lacrosse or chatting Mum's head off. I don't really know how to describe it, but it's like I am just floating around in the sky watching someone else experience Belgium. It's a dream come true, don't get me wrong. Just sometimes it feels like that this dream is going to end tommorrow, and I will find out that it was someone else I was watching. And yet I am quite obviously here, going through classes, learning French, adjusting to the way other people live their lives. Exchange is a crazy thing. Never before have I had a million conflicting feelings all at once. Never before has there been a test that I didn't even know where to begin. Never before has so many people in the school known who I actually am and stare at me weirdly every time I pass by, as I worry whether I am wearing a weird or ugly outfit that looks completely American or if it's just the fact that I am the foreigner. People ask me how my exchange is and all I can think of to say is "Good!" over enthusiasticly. Honestly most of the time, I just don't even know where to start. And I think it is for that reason that I feel like some of the other exchange students are already like my extended family. Because they are truly the only ones that get what I am going through and know what I can't seem to describe in words. I think I partially understand what exchange students mean when going home almost feels weird. I mean, I think every single day about going home and finally being able ot see my family (I miss them soooooo much!), but once I get home will Belgium just feel like even more of a dream? And will I miss it as much as I miss home now that I am here? Seriously, this whole exchange thing just messes with your head. Someone should seriously write a book on the whole situation (although I think my Rotary District 5020 back home is pretty close with their ultra long slideshows that take up an entire weekend...).

And now for Thursday! Defnitely the worst day of the week. Lots of French, some art, some science, some math. Just not the most fun day. But today, as I went down into the basement where all of the art classes are (it's weird, I have to take a whole seperate staircase to get there! Like, I walk up to the 2nd floor, go to a different staircase, and walk to the basement or as the Belgians call it, the -1 etage!), and there was none of my friends there. Luckily, there was a girl in 6th year that explained that the teacher was gone today, so we had no class. I wasn't going to complain because that meant a double lunch period for me, but seriously, the teacher doesn't show up and they just cancel the class? Ever heard of a subsitute teacher? Apparently that doesn't exist here... Sometimes I feel like their school system is based more like college, except for the fact that you have to go [suffer] through classes all day long.

Since I had two hours for lunch, I decided to go and meet up with Eliza (the Texan girl in my club) and some of the other exchangees in the middle of the town for lunch. It's about a 20 minute walk away, but there is also a bus that comes by at like the perfecct time so I just took that so I could get there sooner! Kids have so much freedom here. They can just walk off campus whenever, grab a bite to eat at their favorite store, and wander around town and do whatever they want. I mean, if I had more than two hours break in the middle of the day (some people do...), I could just go and shop or something rather than spend probably about 30 minutes at home before I would have to leave again! Good thing I never have more than a 2 hour lunch, or I would be broke! (European shopping is just soooo nice.)

And after school, I went to my French lessons. Once again, it was educational and fun and I feel like I learned some even though we are only there for about an hour (any longer after 8 classes a day and my brain would explode...). This time, Eliza went to the right class (last week she went to the wrong one with another exchange student that goes to her school...) and she said that our classes were better so I am really glad that my Rotary club stuck their leg out and decided that we would take a different class. And it's extremely nice that they pay for us to be able to take the class. Seriously, I don't think that their is any other program that could ever compare to Rotary exchange. Ever. I wouldn't have gone on exchange any other way!

Saw this shop and thought of my Mum... Piggy!

Belgian's beauty never cease to amaze me...

On the way to my French course! :)

Full frontal view

Where I take my French lessons! But what I found more amazing was the very first four door, full sized truck that I have seen in Europe! I freaked out and sneakily took a picture... :)

So I guess I didn't remember...

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Another half day. Well, for this day just another day where I only have 2 classes.. Yep, I am just lucky like that. The first period I had etude, and since Pascale has been staying home the whole week to avoid getting migraines (or something like that... I know it has something to do with her sinuses being messed up..), she could drive me in an hour late today! So that means I got to sleep in an hour late, and that made me very happy. Then I had chemistry, which I actually tried REALLY hard to understand and take super good notes today... And it was still pretty darn confusing. So I guess here, the schedules all change around after a month anyhow (don't know why they would do that to me when I am just barely used to my classes now...), so I may see about changing out of chemistry and going into a French class with the younger kids because I have already taken and passed chemistry at home, so I really feel that taking a French class would be more useful in the end!

So after trying very hard in Chemistry and still not exactly getting it, I was happy to have another etude. And then after the etude, I had English. For me, another pointless and pretty boring class considering I can already speak fluently and the students here already speak such good English that hardly any French is used to explain things... But sometimes, there will be those random days where there is a really useful lesson for me and I get to learn French. But today was not one of those days...

So when the class ended and the teacher said that if I wanted to I could leave (I had another English class after, but with the 4th class..) I jumped at the chance. So I took the train to Liege where I thought I was meeting up with a bunch of the other exchange students. Turns out that most of them actually went to Brussels in order to make it easier for the students in the Dutch speaking part to get there and meet everyone too. So there were less than 10 people there and we kind of all split up and did our own thing. But that part comes later...

So anyhow, I got into Liege at the main train station there, and saw that the next train that took me to the center of Liege where I was to meet up with my friends wasn't until another 18 minutes because it had gotten delayed. Because I didn't really want to just sit there and wait and because it was such a nice day out (Belgium has been blessed with nice weather for the past week or so...) I decided that I would walk to the center because now I knew the way after walking it with Lauren yesterday. But it turns out that my memory of Liege wasn't as good as I thought it was... After walking for about 25 minutes and realizing that I was defnitely not where I was supposed to be, I just decided to turn around and walk back to the train station and the sure way of meeting up with my friends. So all in all, I just took a nice little hour long detour where I was extremely stressed out and dying of heat exhaustion. As you can imagine, I was very happy when I returned to the station, hopped onto a train, and it took off right away. I mean, at least I didn't have to wait another 18 minutes for a train... By the time I finally got to the center of Liege, I was sooo happy. And my friends that were there wanted to get some presents for people back home, so I ended up going shopping again... But it was ok, because we went into different shops and well, what normal girl doesn't love to shop (especially in Europe...) ??? Needless to say, it was a pretty good day considering I got out of school early and had fun looking at different shops with my friends. And, well, I definitely learned that I actually in fact did NOT remember how to walk to Liege Guiellmens to the center of Liege. Getting lost is just part of an exchange student's life. If you don't get lost several times, then there is no way that you are actually experiencing everything and discovering random areas that you never would have found if you hadn't gotten lost... So even though I definitely didn't like getting lost, at least I had a little adventure to write about! :)

Yay for Random Belgian Holidays!!!

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

So today, I did not have to go to school because it was a holiday celebrating the French region of Belgium. Don't really know much about it, but I do know that I was happy because I had no school. On Monday, I made plans to meet up with some of my friends in Liege (it is like the middle city for all of us...), and just hang out there because it had been quite some time since I had seen everyone. While I am on the train to Liege, I get a call from this weird number but I answered knowing it was probably one of my friends, because they all have a very hard time NOT running out of credit on their phones (Now me, I haven't ever been that big of a fan of texting, so I am very good at saving credit for when I need it...). It ended up being Lauren, who was at the train station ready to get on when some apparently official looking lady told her that it was the wrong train. And she listened. Ends up that it was the right train, the lady had no idea what she was talking about, and she was going to be an hour late therefore messing up the plans considering she was the one who knew where everybody was going to be and when to meet up with them...

Luclily, I found one of my friends just wandering around, and then we went ot H&M where we told Lauren we would wait for her. We waited outside for like forever, but then got tired of that and decided that she could just find us in the shop. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but then when we found Lauren like 15 minutes later, and she had found this semi-hidden sale rack. And in Belgium, there are NEVER sells. Everyone knows that in Belgium, the only time that clothing is NOT full and expensively priced is in the month of January, when appparently everyone is getting their new stock in. So yes, I found on and chose to buy just a little bit, because it was all a really good deal! And I basically saw it as a birthday present, because my birthday was in about 15 days, and who knows if I was going to find another sale until January. And, the things I bought where things that I had even tried on before but put back because I didn't want to spend the money, so it was like a dream come true! Really a can't miss opportunity!

The rest of the time we just walked around the city and talked, as well as eat lunch at the same delicious friterie that we always go to. Oh, and of course we had to get a delicioius Liege waffle. It's like a tradition whenever we go, because there is absolutely the best little waffle shop ever there. Around 5, Lauren and I left to walk to the train station. I was happy to know how to walk from the cathedral/shopping area to the main station because before I had to take the train just to get there and although it was such a short little trip they didn't charge you, I actually enjoy walking, when the weather is nice, at least. It was a really fun day off, just hanging with my friends, and then I got to come home and have a nice dinner with Pascale. Sometimes I just wish that I didn't have to go to school, but then this whole trip would just be one really long vacation and I would never be able to learn the language or experience the culture or anything! So really, I've got everything the best way it could be!

Me, Lauren, Jimena

Pretty Cathedral in Liege

Best Waffle Place in the World! (Please excuse the random shoulder...)