Navajo

Hellloooo
I don’t want to ruin a good streak by being lazy.

Anyway, I don’t have any pictures to share this week (sorry!) but I can share some stories instead!

School is getting sort of better. I’ve kind of just excepted that I’m not going to do real work and no one really expects it of me (except the French and English teachers) so I spend most of the class doodling. I haven’t gotten up the courage to start reading a book, but we’ll see.

A funny moment was when the chemistry teacher offered to read the grade of the last test to anyone who wanted to know before she could hand the back the following week. I was, of course, at the very end of the list. I knew I had done poorly, because I had only answered two out of five questions, so when she came to my name I answered “Non, merci.” And everyone started laughing like I had made a really good joke.

Another good moment was when I saw a little jack-o-latern decoration in my religion class. I drew a picture of it and an arrow pointing to it and showed my friend. She thought I had drawn a mean picture of the poor kid sitting UNDER the jack-o-latern. It was a barrel of laughs. Also, when I mentioned Halloween, some kids in my class got RIGHT ON planning a Halloween party on the 31^st (we don’t have school that week) so we’ll see how that goes!

On Friday I was invited to go ice skating with some school kids. They told me to meet them at the train station, which is like a ten minute walk from my house. So I waited and waited at the main entrance, but then I had the idea maybe they were waiting in the parking lot, on the other side of the tracks, because it would be easier to pick someone up there. So I walked over. Literally not two seconds after, a poor girl from my class came running up to me from the other side of the tracks. TRUST YOUR FIRST INSTICTS. Anyway, ice skating was fun—definitely a new experience. They had club music and strobe lights and flashing colors everywhere. Imagine my grace on skates (heh) and add a strobe light. THAT’S dangerous. Plus it had kind of turned into that movie they show on VH1 all the time where the street kids learn to roller blade and make an intense dancing gang—except on ice. Lots of really intense people cutting me off and making me almost die. BUT STILL A GOOD TIME! It also marks the first time I’ve done something with people from my school outside of school. It’s not so much that they’re not welcoming, it’s just that they have their own friends or are busy with school work and stuff.

Saturday I went with Sarah and Quinn into Brussels. FOR LITERALLY ALL DAY. It was so much fun. Days were I can hang out with friends that are going through the same things as I am really make the exchange so far. It makes me feel less lonely and less disconnected from actual life. Sarah slept over again last night. My room is kind of tent like because of the smallness and slanted ceiling, and once we had the two beds in there it was a real American sleep over—in Belgium. I dyed my hair, for those who wanted to know. With the hair dye my host mom picked out for me. I figured it was time—something in the food here has made my hair grow extremely fast.

Today I went to an open market in Braine l’Alleud. We bought olives (very popular here!) and other such goodies. I asked them how to says “Mums” in French, the flower, and they responded with “what, the cemetery flower? THE ONE YOU PUT IN CEMETARIES?” That was another good funny moment.

Then we went to a little get together at my host grandparents house where we all ate sweets. For dinner we had rabbit, which tasted good but I was seriously unnerved by the look if it. I wasn’t sure hot to react when an intact spine was put on my plate. But it was really good, with apricots and prunes cooked with it.

I know, not a lot to say, sorry =(

-I earned the name "Navajo" for various reasons--mostly because of my love of New Hampshire slightly granola styles and my inability to grow a beard.
-Sarah is 97 because she messes up a lot--like windows 97

-Every time I write this blog, it seems like only a couple days before I was writing the post before it. WEIRD.