...Whoops

Dear my dear dear friends,

Err…I guess I’ll start out with I’m sorry.
It’s been a month! I’ve reached a half-way point of my exchange. This makes me sad.

Here—I’ll skip a long, heart warming introduction for a LIFE-CATCH-UP.

December 30th marked the last day with my first host family. We went out for a HUGE Italian meal the night before—I got a pizza the size of a plate. There were also these odd little un-salty pretzel sticks in packages we ate as appetizers, and tried to dip them in olive oil and herbs. The olive oil was so spicey I swear to god it made my host father’s eyes water. We went home and watched a classically depressing Belgian movie about a boy who’s life was stolen by his neighbor. Belgian movies are strange and gloomy, but good.

I spent the day lazing around. Jerome and I went for a drive to a music store, and then returned to a quiet house, where we joked around. He helped me carry my huuuuge suitcase down the stairs—it was a lot like coming full circle, since he was the one who carried it up the stairs in the first place.

After we went to my third host family’s house to drink an aperitif and eat little snacks. All the girls and families were there. It was like a yankee swap of exchange students. I brought my whole life in one car, chatted, and put it in another car. I left one home to go to a house I’d never been to before.

I was nervous, to say the least. My host mom is intimidating- she was wearing high heeled boots, very well dressed and make-up’ed with stylish hair. I WAS SCARED. Even more, she had driven a really nice audi sports car, which had trouble holding my stuff. But dinner that night was steak and fries, and breakfast the next morning was pastries…so it couldn’t all be bad.

I have a host brother named Pierre, who’s 14, that I get along with really well. Lots of jokes and laughter. A host sister, Virginie, who’s 18 and is extremely nice. We go out a lot together, which has been a lot of fun. My host mother is very outgoing and has a lot of strong opinions, and my host father is stern but in an ironic kind sort of way.

Changing to this family has made me realize WHY we change family in Rotary. Nothing could be more different from my first family of almost zen-like attitude and vegetarian meals, to a very loud house with a hectic schedule, which seems to be in constant movement. I fit in here, though. We get along quiet well, and I feel like I’ve already started to be adopted into the family.

Today, for example, was the biggest train failure of my life. I RAN to catch my train to school (I have to take one now, because I live further away) and still missed it. It being one of the coldest days we’ve had in Belgium, I sent a woeful text to my host dad. My host mom picked me up right after her night shift to get me to school on time. There was no tension, we just joked and talked. I felt like I wasn’t asking for a favor to be indebted by—I felt more like I was asking for a family member to pick me up. No worries.
And then, after I got out of school, what do you know, every train going to my town has been canceled for the rest of the day. I have to call AGAIN, and my host father picks me up this time. They really didn’t seem to mind.

SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS

There’s a Belgian holiday called The Day of the King, where you buy a sweet bread and a crown and everyone eats it together. Just cute and little. Anyway, in the bread there’s a figurine hidden, and whoever picks the piece with the figurine is the Roi or Reine (king or queen). Anyway, after my host brother talking about how he was going to win all day, I won! I get to be the queen of the New Year!



I became a real adult on January 23rd when I went to Antwerp and saw the Black Keys.
Most amazing concert! I navigated the craziness of the public transportation system in Antwerp, and the next morning had the best breakfast from McDonalds ever. I ordered Pancakes AND an English Muffin. Just like home!

I visited my old host family for a big family get together in honor of my host sister's 25th birthday. It was so awesome to see everyone again--I still felt like part of the family!

I served drinks over the weekend for rotary at a Dinner of Boudin. Which is an icky sausage.

I also went to Namur for a district meeting! It was fun to see everyone--but I still haven't met my newie! (someone who just got to Belgium)

SOME LIFE EVENTS COMING UP
-I joined a Frisbee club
-My host brother is helping me GET INTO SHAPE
-For Carnival, I’ll be going to the festival de Binge. Biggest in Belgium!
-I might be going to Dublin, if all works out….

I’ll try to write more frequently!
With much much love, can’t wait to see you!
-Audrey

Christmas

Christmas.

SO CHRISTMAS.
Christmas started on Friday. I woke up to start the long process of cookie making at around 9:30, but mid-way through my host sister came home and convinced me to go get our Aunt Nicole and do some chores out and about. When we returned, she helped me finish the cookies by cutting them and the hectic cookies-out of the oven and cookies-in to the oven crazy dance. After getting flour ever, we had several batches of festive cookies. Then my host mom, Laurie and I went out into Waterloo for a bit to do some shopping. When I got back, Jerome suggested I text one of his friends and I ended up hanging out with some Belgians for the night.

So that meant the cookie decorations would be done Christmas eve, Saturday. Laurie and I worked hard on frosting and decorating the fifty or so cookies. The whole family cleaned the house and lit an outrageous amount of candles. The table was set festively. I played some Bing Crosby, and Laurie really liked my mixed rock n’ roll Christmas CDs. Christmas eve was me, my host parents, my host brother Jerome, my host sister Laurie, and her boyfriend Raphael. It was a really awesome night. We spent the night joking around, eating really good, slightly fancy food, and discussing deep things about human nature. IN FRENCH =D

We had an altogether quiet Christmas eve dinner. My host family is religious, and don’t believe in a lot of the commercial aspects of Christmas like gift-giving and Christmas trees, but my host mom gave me a pair of silver earrings. I teared up a bit—I hadn’t expected any presents, but she wanted me to have a souvenir of my time in their house.

Dinner was fish pate, steak, cooked pears with cranberries and crouquettes. For dessert, we had a traditional log-shaped ice cream cake.

After dinner, we got all bundled up and walked down to the church for midnight mass, which started at 23:30 and went to 1:00. It was cute, a very small church with a little choir and an excellent organist. Some of the songs I knew in English and some I had never heard before. I took communion. Everyone shook hands.

I’m not religious, so a lot of this stuff was very confusing to me and I just sort of followed my host siblings actions.

After, everyone gathered in the church for hot wine and waffles. I talked a lot to some Belgian friends. Some of which mentioned how my French had improved, and one of which said how well adapted and assimilated I was to my current host family. This was nice, but made me kind of sad since I have to leave soon.

Sunday we woke up early to clean the house and decorate it a little. We ate a traditional sweet bread with raisons. Apparently when the kids were younger, my host mom used to leave one loaf of bread on each bed. It was very good! My host father made me hot chocolate and we all just kind of chilled out. It felt really special.
The whole family came over. I met a lot of people and talked a lot. They even forced me to get my viola out (streessss). I skyped with my family but got distracted because my host cousins were playing ultimate ninja and I wanted to join in. It was a long tiring day with an unhealthy amount of dessert, but I survived for the better. It was honestly a great Christmas, and I didn’t die or anything.

The day after Christmas I went to Sarah’s house. I toured Tournai for the first time, exchanged gifts with her and her family (yes, I got gifts for her family. Yes. They got gifts for me as well.) And had a generally relaxing day. Sarah and I laughed so much that her parents thought we were a bit on the drunk side of sober. Her host mom also taking oversized (like three or four times the size of my head) Christmas ornaments in the car home with us didn’t help our giddiness. We also drove through a sketchy part of town with sarah’s host mom and brother and had fun pretending like the people were in a zoo and using slang terms to describe everything.

We also played some American football in the Belgian equivalent of a Dick’s Sporting Goods. Until we got told to stop.

The train ride home was long, but some guys saw me reading my kindle and it started a whole conversation. They were super surprised to find out I was from American, their first guess being that I was Flemish. Anyway, it was fun. I always feel like train rides are a missed opportunity to meet interesting people and this opportunity was not missed for once!

Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and WILL have a happy new year.

Walking in a Winter Wonder Land

Some things I’ve been up to!

I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been to Ghent, but this time I went back with Jerome. We went out with a group of friends (in an epic mix of Flemish, French and English) and saw a concert in some tightly packed little café. The music was really cool and folksy, and I’m glad I got to go see it. The people were great company too—it was always fun to see how many times a conversation would switch languages depending on who was added to it. Here are some older pictures of my first time in Ghent that I never posted.




Also, I went to Louven last Wednesday with Sarah and accidentally ran into some exchange students. I think there are only two major cities I haven't seen in Brussels--Thulain and Anvers. I'm working on it.

IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.

Friday night I was invited by a friend of Jerome, (and I suppose a friend of mine, now) Elisa to go to a metal concert with her. In true Belgian style, it was in a small, tightly packed café. The music was very very loud, and there were a lot of cover songs that I was surprised to recognize. I meet a girl who also lives in Braine l’Alleud whose father is from New Jersey, so we bonded a bit over that. She offered to invite me the next time she leaves the country—so I might have a ticket to Germany or the Netherlands coming my way!
An odd thing happened during the concert though. Through wildly dancing crowd and irresponsibly flying hair, I caught a glimpse out the window. SNOW! Big, fluffy, end-of-Q-tip style snow! The unhappy drizzle we had walked through to get to the concert had turned into my first glimpse of the white stuff in Belgium. We went out to get some fresh air. It was an interesting mix, the small Belgian town being lightly dusted with a fresh layer of snow, the lights of simple yet elegant decorations shimmering through the air in a truly festive and peaceful manner…and the extremely loud music and screaming, and multitude of men with very long hair and many tattoos. Classic Belgium, a cacophony of randomness.
That night, ITALIAN got thrown into the mix of languages that fly way way above my head. The lead singer was Italian, which was why Elisa wanted to go, because she also spoke Italian and knew him OR SOMETHING.
The next day, my host mom and I got up early and went to the Ardennes in Malmedy. For those of you who aren’t history or geography buffs, Malmedy is a very historical “city” (it’s not that big) close to the border of Germany. The Ardennes are pretty much the only mountain range in Belgium. We went to visit some of my host mother’s family.
I got up at around 8:30 to be ready by 9, and then ended up waiting until 9:45 to leave. I spent my time putting on more and more layers of clothes. I wasn’t sure what to expect—trips like these always end up in long walks, and even though the snow in my town had sort of done the roll-over-and-die technique of an early April snow in New Hampshire, there was no telling what we would find in the mountains. I spent the two hour car ride reading “Band of Brothers” to get the full historical effect of visiting Malmedy, and also in sporadic conversation with my host mother about how they probably wouldn’t let me sled down the Butte de Lion.
We arrive in Malmedy. First stop: shoe store.
Not very interesting. But didn’t last very long.
Second stop: bakery.
We picked up some bread for the house (my host mother’s favorite bread. Apparently only available in this region. From out car conversation it sounds like she really really wants to live up in the Ardennes. She has a lot of family there and finds it very beautiful.) and two pies for the family we were going to visit. Two seconds out of the bakery I take a pretty epically graceless fall, spilling both pies. It was very slippery. There was about eight inches of snow up in the mountains, but a lot of it had melted into that dangerous slushy stuff, just enough to coat and get in between the cobblestones. Dangerous walking weather. Luckily, the pies survived, even if my dignity didn’t.
Third stop: My host mother’s sister’s house. My host aunt, if you will. I have four host cousins there I hadn’t met yet, so we spent some time talking around the kitchen table. The oldest was a boy my age and seemed to take a sick pleasure in using inappropriate words to see me repeat them questioningly. I quickly learned that if he said something I didn’t understand, it was just a new, creative way to swear. It was very, very amusing.
Forth stop: My host mother’s brother and her sister in-law. They lived about four minutes away from her sister, in a absolutely gorgeous house nestled in the mountains. The family was very welcoming, and they also had an exchange student, Sarah from Mexico. I met some host cousins there, too, who were extremely nice. It’s kind of a bummer I’m only meeting them now, because I’m just about to change families and all.
We all ate lunch together, and then my host mother, her sister-in-law, Sarah and I went on a two hour hike through the Ardennes. Through snow and rushing mountain rivers. It was really a beautiful countryside, with so many mountains and snowy trees. We went deep into the pathes of the mountains, made a snow man, and got thoroughly tired out. Towards the end the shoes I had been lent started to become a little wet, and night falls very quickly in Belgium, so we hustled home around 7. Some houses had decorated trees outside, and the whole ambiance really brought a Christmas feel.
We returned to the house and warmed up by the fire, drinking tea and eating the slightly smushed pies.




When I got home, I was invited by Elisa over to Pierre’s house for “parlor games.” Just a bunch of people hanging out playing different card games and what not. Jerome was there. We played bizarre games—of which the rules were explained to me completely in French. I understood it all. I was complemented on my French numerous times, how they had known another girl and at this time in her stay she didn’t know as much and blah blah. It’s just heart warming, you know? The support doesn’t always come from a host family for French, because they’re used to you and they don’t really notice the change. My favorite is when Brayan says “You’re already good now, imagine three months from now! You’ll be better than bilingual!”
I was originally apprehensions about Christmas. My family is very catholic in that they don’t believe in the commercial aspects of Christmas as America does. That means no Christmas trees, no presents, no decorations besides a couple candles. And a Christmas branch. But the plan is that Christmas day 33 of my host mother’s family will be coming to the house. We’ll be having a huge lunch/dinner/snack, with sandwhichs and meat and desserts aplenty. The nice cousins I met yesterday will all be there. If it’s not exactly my favorite type of Christmas, it will still be a good one!

HOW I PUT MYSELF IN THE SPIRIT
1) I turn on the Bing Crosby and play it to myself in my room while reading Band of Brothers.
2) I read Band of Brothers. I don’t know why it reminds me of Christmas, but it does.
3) I WATCH band of Brothers.
4) I light my yankee candle. Mmmm. Thanks mom!
5) I wear Christmas socks.

And this is the Grande Place en Bruxelles, pour une petite goute de Noel en Bruxelles!


Also, I will be making family Christmas cookies and pumpkin pie for out Christmas celebrations! Plenty of sprinkles!

Here’s the site about Malmedy if you’re interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy

Happy Holidays!

Guilty Blog Update

OH HI
I need to be more responsible and try to keep up with this blog. Unfortunately this will be again without pictures—please don’t kill me. DO NOT. KILL. ME.

Where did I leave off? Oh right. Frisbee.

I forced Brayan to pass around a disc with me Tuesday, as well. The ground was wet and our shoes were soaked, but it was a good time! That night, I went to a rotary meeting instead of going to my music theory course. Rotary meetings in my host club are long dinners with multiple courses. They’re also in the friendly neighborhood castle. Which is a street away from me. In other words, I need to go more often. The only problem is that they don’t usually end until after 11 o’clock at night. But it was good, though, I was able to sit with Devyn and Mayuko and we talked and ate and laughed.

Friday was another rotary dinner—except this one was twenty times bigger. It was a dinner to raise money for rotary, so it was super fancy with about a hundred plus people. And the theme? Salmon and oysters. Devyn and I were able to force down one oyster each (as the guy next to me had at least ten). Renzo, my counselor, played DJ, which was surprisingly hilarious to watch. The dinner started out with “aperitifs” which is like appetizers, except servers wander around with platters of quiche and apricots wrapped in bacon. Then we sat down and had a buffet-style salmon and oyster dinner. Then desert and cheese. You’d think it be over, right? No. Then there was dancing. At least two hours of older Rotarians shakin’ their groove things. I didn’t get home until TWO AM.

Which was a dommage (pity) because I had to get up super early the next morning. 6:00 am, and I NEEDED A SHOWER BAD. Unfortunatly, the shower on my floor no longer has hot water. So I had to take a cold shower, which was quite a way to wake up. I took the train to Liege! Yay! I actually met two people I know en route, which was funny. Belgium gets smaller and smaller! I played scrabble on the train with another exchanger and then waited in the train station for an HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES. The bus schedule gets dicey, and I had to wait for my friends to pick me up. Plus, I couldn’t find the “enter” button on the atm so I had no money.

Once my friends showed up, we walked to the Christmas market in liege and tried some delicious food-stuffs, like stuffed waffles and spiced, hot wine. There was also an ice rink! YAY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT! They get really into this saint Nicolas thing, too, which as far as I can understand is crazy. It’s this big saint santa guy who wanders around looking like the pope if he wanted to be Santa, with a Moorish “helper” (slave?) dressed in blackface who kind of dances besides him. I witnessed a parade of these crazy helped in Ghent, but I only have started to understand now. Anyway, on the 6th of December children get candy in their shoes if they’ve been good, as far as I can gather.

I slept at a friend’s house in Liege, and we made grilled cheese sandwhiches and tomato soup (using “made” in the loosest sense of the word) because the next day was the EXOTIC DINNER.

This insanity organized by Rotex involved every country dividing themselves into groups of three or four and creating something…native? That’s surprisingly difficult for Americans, because all of our favorite dishes tend to actually come from other countries. There was an impressive amount of food, but not an impressive amount of room. We all squished together and tried to get everything organized for the parents to come through and try everything…leaving not a lot for the students, I might add. This seems to be a common rotary theme. I tried bread stuffed with meat from Canada, noodles from Japan, candy from Finland…all in all, a great experience.
Then Rotex brought in our “surprise” which was one of them dressed up like St. Nicholas and his black-faced helper. They violently threw candy. Sarah and I were pretty jazzed because we happened to have reindeer antlers with us at the time, and it made for a pretty good picture.
After the dinner, I went to see a movie with my host family. We saw The Adventures of TinTin. For those you who don’t know, Tintin is a Belgian comic (Belgium being really famous for their comics). It was kind of frustrating that the movie was made in English, for this reason. I watched it in French, of course, but it was obviously voiced over and all the writing was in English.
This Wednesday, I also went to a movie called Intouchables, a French, heart-warming film about a man completely paralyzed and the aid that comes to be his best friend. It even had a happy ending!
Friday night, I went into Brussels to try to get some stuff together for Christmas, and stumbled on to part of a huge Christmas “marche” with an overwhelming amount of Christmas stands selling winter food and festive things. Saturday we went back to Brussels and found the rest of it, because Friday we had only seen a little corner of it. Quinn, Sarah and I went up in a huge Ferris wheel and saw all of Brussels. Everything was decorated and Christmas-y and it was all just so NICE.
After I got home, Jerome and I made chocolate mousse (casualties: six wasted eggs, an electric beater. The later started smoking!) and then watched 21 in English with French subtitles.
Today we’re having a big family lunch, that involves people wandering in and out as they please, so that should be fun!
This week is the start of finals, so with all my free time I’ll be getting up to some fun and interesting adventures! Can’t wait to tell ya’ll ‘bout them!

Ghent

Donc.
Hi, it’s been a while.

Last weekend…no wait.
Back up.
Last Thursday night I was invited out with my Belgian friends. So I did some fast walking-home from my viola lesson to eat a meal of oven pasta (sooo, so good. I love pasta) and leave with my friend Anais to Waterloo. There we met up with several other friends and just…hung out. It was great. I was actual a part of the conversation, make jokes, being friendly. One of the girls in my class told me very seriously that she would cry when I left. We went to a sports bar, where they had American football playing on some of the tvs. MIAMI DOLPHINS! I laughed pretty hard at that. No one was paying attention to the American football, it was really just there to be…well…American.
I slept over Anais’s house. Her family is from Spain, so every conversation is an odd mix of Spanish and French, and some random dashes of English. But we ate a biiiig breakfast the next morning, of ham and eggs and bread. I love big breakfasts.
I was home for about forty five minutes before I had to leave to catch another train. (We had Friday off for Armistice day). I took the train from Braine l’Alleud to Marchienne au Point to Thulin. Because. It. Was. Sarah’s. BIRTHDAY! Her host mom had decided to throw a surprise party for her, so me and Chantal snuck on over to her house, where there was a lot of cake and joy. Next, Chantal, Sarah and I went to a party. Supposedly it was a school party, but they were selling hard liquor and beer. So Belgian schools are a little different. Plus anyone can show up to these parties, so I saw kids from 15 years old to adults pushing 40. We had a great time dancing, though.
The next morning, we got up and went to Brussels for the day. We met up with some southerners and toured the city a bit, doing some shopping and eating and whatnot. An overall great day.
THIS weekend, I met up with Sarah and we explored Ghent! I’ve sort of gotten into the habit of wandering until what I want to find finds ME. Which actually worked spectacularly well this weekend! We found the center, and were able to look at some really awesome Flemish architecture and little interesting shops. Beware, because in Europe restraints aren’t automatically open all the time. They’re open for lunch and dinner. NOT IN BETWEEN. Oh, sure, the bars stay open, but good luck getting food at two in the afternoon. We eventually found a really delicious place called Puur. I had pesto tortellini.
While waiting for the train home in Brussels, I walked around a bit. The Christmas tree is now up in Brussels.
I teared up with happiness. How sad is that? I was SO excited. They even have a huge nativity scene with a fake barn probably bigger than any barn in Jesus’s time.
Sarah spent the night and we watched Pocahontas. The next day we had lunch with my family. AND PLAYED FRISBEE. So much Frisbee. I was very content.
I have to convince Brayan to take me more often because I do love Frisbee so very much.

Sorry, it’s not a lot! But I love you all!

Londre (London)

THURSDAY MORNING:

For those of you following my blog, you’ve probably realized I have a FREAKIN’ PROBLEM waking up for rotary events. I seriously blame my alarm clock. Something went wrong and I woke up an hour late—luckily I was already packed, but I did forget some important items like contact solution and glasses. AND TISSUES. Super important for sick me.
Mayuko’s host father, and my third host father, picked me up at 5:25 am. We drove frantically through Brussels looking for the bus that was going to pick us up. It was eventually found. Quinn and I got seats right up in front of the bus, right behind a HUGE window. Some dear people donated tissues to me so I wasn’t super miserable—although I was make some god awful sounds with my face. I was still capable of making new friends (Rotary kids are great that way—we make friends. It’s what we do.)
We took the ferry over to jolly ol’ England—WHICH WAS SELLING CARROT CAKE. I bought some in delved into an almost New-England state of bliss. Not quite the same…being old England and all. Some girls gathered ‘round and painted nails, making a general excited nuisance of ourselves. It was great.
Our first stop was Canterbury England (LIKE THE CANTERBURY TALES). We toured a huge Cathedral where St. Thomas (the writer of the Canterbury Tales) was killed. It was really very beautiful. After, me and another American girl named Tasha took some time to explore the town, where we ran into a nice older English gentleman who told us about how much he hated London. It was a fun experience of very opinionated old people.
Next, we hit LONDON! The first time we hit Piccadilly Circus to scrounge up some dinner. I found a place selling bagels…they weren’t quite the same but close enough, with some ham and cheese, it deserves a mention. I slept in a room with two other American girls…I hope my noisy attempts at breathing that night weren’t too annoying.
DAY 2: We woke up around seven to get the day started. The hotel had an English breakfast, which was kind of like home if home wasn’t as good as home is. For example, instead of bacon, they had whole slices of ham. And their hashbrowns were huuuuge. But it was very nice to have things like eggs for breakfast. We went to Windsor castle, the official residence of the QUEEN. I was told there NO PHOTOS inside by some pushy people in uniforms. We watched the changing of the guard, which was cool what with the fluffy hats. I had lunch with some other exchangers in an over-priced café, with a delicious éclair.
Later, we went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, which was actually really cool. There was a photographer there taking Andy Warhol inspired photographs, and another exchange student named Jennie and I got a portrait done. There was also a room of terror, where people ran around yelling things at you in the dark. And a whole room dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock!
Quinn, Jennie and I frolicked in Hyde Park for an hour while Rotex got their schedule together. Hyde park is really peaceful; if someone said they were going to university in England I would imagine them studying in Hyde park. There was a whole autumn atmosphere about the place.
We ate at the Hardrock Café, and got to see some really cool memorabilia in the “Vault”. Like a guitar from Kurt Cobain, and a guitar from RHCP. Super chouette. The guy giving the tour was incredibly English, but loved America enough to have tattoos of the American flag covering his arms. I suggested he visit Boston.
DAY THREE
We took a quick tour of the Towers Bridge. Then we traveled into London to see Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abby. We were given free time for lunch, where me and a couple other exchangers saw St. Martin’s of the Field—a church old enough that when it was named, it stood alone in a huge field. Now it’s surrounded by London. We also saw a protest/march of Occupy London—a branch off of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which was really cool. Of course I talked to some nice protesters! I climbed the huge lion statue and got a really good view of the crowd—all and all, pretty awesome. I also had some of the best pizza with Chantal, an exchanger from Florida.
That night I saw the British Museum, and got up close and personal with the Rosetta Stone! After that, around 2pm, we had free time until 11pm. I had an awesome time exploring London with Quinn and Chantal; we found a cosy, American inspired diner to eat at, with MEXICAN FOOD! (I miss real spicy food so much!). We drank milkshakes and explored the Stables, an interesting spread of random, hipstery shops that all smell like smoke and candles. It was kind of surreal, like completely Alice in Wonderland random, with statues of huge horses, people smoking hookah and then whole alleyways taken up by people selling Chinese food. Anyway, that exploration was really really amusing.
We meet back at the bus at 11, and started our journey home. I was out SO quick. We all had to wake up to get off the bus for the ferry. The sitting room in the ferry looked like a bomb had gone off—every exchange student found SOMEWHERE to pass out. We were in Brussels by 10, and I took the train and then walked home. When I got to my house, my host parents were very surprised to see me. They had thought I meant 11 at night, not 11 in the morning! I slept, ate lunch with them, and then slept until dinner. And then ate dinner and slept some more. An impressive amount of sleep, if I do say so myself!
This week has been very relaxed so far, but since we have Friday off I’ve made some plans! Can’t wait to share my awesome upcoming weekend with you all…next week!
Little note, I’m already ¼ of the way through my exchange. Isn’t that absolutely insane? French has started to pick up very nicely. Brayan and I are constantly joking around—he’s become a lot like a real brother. This afternoon we watched Tarzan together (he fell asleep).
I’m also too lazy to add photos right now. Check back…much later. I’m going to be quite busy for a while. BUT YES! I love you all dearly!
Adieu, mes amis. Je vous aime!

Pumpkin Bread and Bicycles

I’m squeezin’ in a blog post!

This week me host mom is away on a retreat for reflection. She also isn’t allowed to speak at all…so it’s been me, my host dad, and whoever else decides to be home. Monday, I realized that I needed to buy a bathing suit for Tuesday because we were starting swimming in gym. So, with a vague idea of were I was going, I took my bike after school and rode to waterloo in search of InterSport. The first two directions I took lead me to a major highway with no shoulder (shoulders aren’t really all that big here.) So I was already tired when I ran into Brayan on his way home, and he gave me more accurate directions. I finally got to Waterloo and then started searching for Intersport. It took an hour to find. This was mostly my fault and partly the fault of the woman I asked for directions in Carrefour. Anyway, I found it (in the most obvious place possible of course) after riding around in a huge parking lot for hours. By the time I got home I was sweaty and tired but I felt successful and fulfilled and whatnot; it’s the little things. I woke Brayan up, he was asleep on the couch, because we had to fend for ourselves for dinner that night. After cooking up a storm, we had some odd rice like substance mixed with tomato sauce and breaded spinach patties. Not bad, actually, very filling. Then I made banana bread because Brayan had just broken up with his girlfriend and I was feeling sisterly and whatnot =) It was actually a really nice family night for all that it was just the two of us; some serious brother-sister bonding went on.

Wednesday, after school (I got out at 12:10) I went a little market on the same street as my school to eat before taking the bus to Louvain la Neuve. As I bought it, a girl from my class recognized me and invited me to sit with her and her friend. It’s nice being recognized and not just ignored, but invited into something. So instead of eating my sandwhich awkwardly at the bus stop, I ate it with people who actually talked to me! And the store happens to sell reeces peanut butter cups, should I ever get the craving!

Anyway, I took the bus to Louvain la Neuve, a college city where my host sister lives. I was stressin’ mega on the bus because it was first time, and I wasn’t sure what my stop looked like. I almost convinced myself to get off at the LLN train station, but then I overheard a stressed girl (just like me!) ask her boyfriend if this was it, and he responded, “Nooo, the next stop.” In french. Glad my language skills have progressed to overhearing conversations! Laurie was there to great me when I got off at the right stop (GO ME). We explored the town a little. There’s a big festival called then 24 Hour Velo, which is a huge college party. There was plenty to do and plenty to see and plenty to taste. I saw Laurie’s dorm apartment and met her friend, Sarah, who had spent a year in Canada, so we had a lot of the same ideas (IN FRENCH!). It was a great night with a lot of dancing and a lot of new experiences. It’s great when I get to do stuff like that with Belgians—speak the language, learn a piece of the youth culture, and have a really awesome time!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I went to bed very late (or very early). I took the bus to school the next morning, missing my first class (English. WHAT A PITY) It was the most tired day of my life, but SO WORTH IT. Thursday is also unfortunately my longest day of the week, so it was kind of a bad combo.

Friday was out last day of school before the holidays. The teacher for my first class was late so we all took a group photo with the camera set on timer. He walked in just as it started and RAN to get into the photo as well. It was pretty funny.

Friday after school I went directly to SARAH FROM NY’s house. She lives in the middle of no where (J) in a pretty town. Her parents are AWESOME, though, I feel like I might have been adopted into another family. We ate a bitter vegetable wrapped in ham cheese and egg which was really good; Collete has made it for me already, so it’s a VRAI PLATE BELGE. A real Belgian dish! With Sarah’s host grandparents. It was a super French meal, since her mom is from france. There was a Apparatifs, the before dinner snacks, a main course, cheese dish, and desert dish, and a different wine for everything! Sarah’s parents complimented me enormously on my French, saying I was really good at explaining things and expressing myself. It was funny, because when Sarah came over a couple weeks before, my host mom complimented her on her accent and grammar! I think host parents don’t see enough day-by-day progress to really realize how far we come along!

Saturday Sarah and I went to Brugge, which is a beautiful little Flemish city. We took lots of pretty pictures and ate a traditional Flemish meal at a little restraint across from a gorgeous old building and river. There were lots of tourists, but we found some less populated areas which is always fun.
We were completely wiped by the time we had to find our way back to the trainstation—and also completely lost (that’s what a day of wandering will do to you). So we did the European thing and found a bus stop and took it back to the trainstation—SO SMART! We had a little bit of a “lay over” in Brussels, because there was a lot of time between our train to Sarah’s town (not many trains go there) so we wandered around a bit to enjoy a huge Brazilian festival going on. It was about this time I started getting sick—kind of feverish with a killer sore throat. Lack of sleep catching up to me. We got to Sarah’s house had some delicious penne pasta with meat sauce and then went to bed. Sunday we spent watching The Sound of Music, Inglorious Bastards and Cabaret, and taking a walk through Sarah’s town, which was very pretty with the fall colors and farms. There was also a spooky abandoned cable factory with broken windows that was very Halloween appropriate.

Today is Halloween! I went with Sarah and her family to the airport to drop her off. Her family had to pick up something in Brussels before driving me home (on the way back to their house) so I hung out with them. They took the opportunity to show me a huge monument in commemoration of Belgium’s 50^th anniversary as a country, and then to a huge ancient cathedral. Like I said, adopted =)
I got home to discover that the pumpkin I had carved was sporting various growths of mold. It’s actually terribly disgusting, but I’m going to go with it for Halloween. I guess it’s because it’s been super warm out recently—NOT NORMAL WEATHER.

I bought some candy for any brave children willing to get near enough to ring the doorbell.

(Written later)
So children don’t come one by one in Belgium. Oh no. They come in heard of thirty or forty and all ask at once. Scariest moment of my life.

I made pumpkin bread and some of Jerome’s friends came over and we had dinner and played black jack. After, we went to a jazz club which was pretty awesome. Jerome played some.

My sickness has progressed to my nose. Jerome keeps making fun of my mouth breathing issues. I’ll get better I promise! Plus I’ve progressed to hacking up a lung, so that must mean something. I’m going to post this now and add pictures later, because my camera is SO FAR AWAY and I want to eat breakfast. So far away being two flights of stairs up to my room.

With all the love in the world,

Audrey