Rain on My Parade....DO IT!

Halllo mes amis. I'll give you a quick overview of the week, and then my day, ca va?
Wednesday I met Laurie, my host sister. She, my host mother and I went to Waterloo to tour le butte de lion, or the Lion of Waterloo as it's incorrectly called--it's actually in Braine l'Alleud! I hiked all the way to the top--I think like 260 steps? We took a bus tour, went through a wax museum...on a fait tout, we did everything! I tried my first Belgian B**R. For Rotary, that says bear =). It was raspberry flavored. Who knew?
Thursday I went to Brussels with Rotary. It was a lot of confused hustling around and them reading lists of names, but it was cool to meet all the exchange students. 80 Americans! 300 exchange students! There was a lot to talk about. At lunch, we took up a whole four story cafe(Here, buildings are tall rather than wide.)They served us meatballs and french fries, which I guess is a very common dish. I sat across from some very funny mexican girls.
Friday I went with my host father to the local hardware store, and then with my host brother to buy a card for my second hand phone. There was an issue when the old owner of the phone forgot the password they put on it...so they gave me a new old phone. Very kind of them. Later that night, I hung out with some friends of Jerome, my host brother (even though he wasn't their...) at Pierre's house, a guy who went to California on exchange two years ago. Everyone was really nice and loud and funny. They taught me a new card game, and Pierre had to show me how the cards are different in Europe--for example, the king isn't marked with a K, but an R, for Roi. And the aces are just 1s, but have the same value.
Today! I went to the grocery story with my host parents. They have a very interesting method of buying groceries. You bring your own bags (or AWESOME MAGICAL FOLDING BOXES) and go to the cash register. Which is just a person with a computer and a scanner. No table. He scans all your stuff as he puts it into an EMPTY cart with your boxes/bags. Your then empty cart is used for the next person. Voila, no table, no waste. We went to brussels and spent a long time there; it was great. I had a Waffle liege dipped in belgian chocolate. Perfect. My host family showed me all the awesome sights, including an odd parade of buses filled with dancing people and loud techno music. It was some grand street party.
And then it suddenly started to downpour. As it does in Belgium.


We then visited my host father's parents and had dinner at their apartment. It was very nice. We finished the night with doctor who!
Well, I leave you with some pictures of odd things in Brussels.


Some guy decided to throw up a peace sign while I was trying to take a picture because he thought it'd be funny. It was.