Beginning of week 7.

I haven't updated this thing since I got here, and I figured I should probably do that for those of you that actually wonder what I'm doing here.

The answer is: not a lot.

Belgium is this gorgeous country with some very nice human beings. But I live in such a small village that it's hard to actually get out and do anything, so a lot of the time, I'm at the house with my host mom...or at the store, with my host mom.

School sucks. I absolutely detest every moment of it, except for the study hours I have with Simon, Pierre, and Elvis, because we play this Belgian card game that I own at and that's fun. School is in session from 8:10am to 3:45pm. I usually don't get home until 4:30. It feels like a waste of a day, because once you get home and finish your homework, the day is over and there's nothing to do but watch TV for an hour with your host dad after dinner and then go to bed. But anyway, I stay with one group of people all day, and let's see...well, first I was in 5D. I loved that class! I had a few people I would call friends and people I could follow if I was lost. But apparently, 5D was over-crowded so they move me, THE EXCHANGE STUDENT, into 5B, and I died a little inside. I can't stand this class. The only thing they do is make fun of me. They don't care about their school work, or paying attention in class. It's endlessly mocking the exchange student. But whatever.

Good news is, I got to miss all of last week! Not good news, it was because I had tonsillitis, as most of you already know. I couldn't eat anything but pudding or soup or drink anything but freezing cold water or burning hot tea. I'm better now, but I still have to keep taking my amoxicillin for a few more days...which makes me sick if I don't eat something like 2 minutes prior to taking it and I can't eat anything after it for an hour or more.

My French is progressing slowly, but it's progressing. I started speaking in small, broken sentences yesterday and I have a "lesson" with a lady in town in a couple of hours. I found out that when you get teenagers drunk, they speak slower, and they're easier to understand. I went to Bucolique, which is this huge thing around here, and the majority of the people Kansas (another exchange student who lives near me) and I hung out with were drunk...and I understood the majority of what they said. On the other hand, when you get an adult male drunk at a restaurant, and he tries to speak English, I found that I can't understand him. Soo....yeah.

I'm still miserably homesick to the point where, yes, I do think it's affecting my exchange. But guess what? Everyone I've told this to only says "Oh, it'll pass. It happens to everyone. You're fine." and guess what again? That doesn't help one bit. I've been putting myself out there, trying my darndest to keep myself busy and not thinking about home, but even when I'm out doing stuff, or on a car ride somewhere, I find myself crying about home. I've been here for almost 7 weeks now. Almost a month and a half. And I'm still acting like what should have been done and over at least 2 weeks ago, if not more. I'm sick of being homesick. I want to enjoy this, because I do know what an opportunity I've been given. I know the effort my family, Rotary, and I put into this. But honestly, I'm miserable still and hoping to God that it passes because I don't want to be the miserable exchange student anymore.

I'll update sooner next time, promise. Hopefully not another month.
Love you all.