Ah yes. My last blog post from Belgium. I kind of regret not doing more of them, but whatever. I have the memories. I'm sitting in the Brussels airport watching my plane pull in and get itself checked and ready. The sky is gorgeous. Foggy, but the sun is shining through. Anyways, I came here to tell you about my last adventure in Belgium.
Yesterday, the other exchanger in my town and I took a train to Jemelle after he got out of school to meet up with 2 other exchangers. We decided to meet there because it's the only place our train routes intersect. Turns out Jemelle is a zombie-ridden ghost town. We left the train station and just walked around town for a bit and guess what? We found nothing. So we hopped another train to Libramont, the next town over, and stayed there for until we had to go home. We walked around there for about an hour, searching for food. We eventually walked back towards the station after finding no relatively cheap food (much to our disappointment at first), but we then found the most exciting little store. It's just great. So great. We bought ourselves some beer and a bag of chips each, and headed out to a little grassy patch and just sat around and talked. It was fantastic and so awesome to spend my last day in Belgium with them.
That's about it. I land in Seattle in 21 hours, according to the countdown on my desktop. I'll see you all soon.
13 October 2010
11 October 2010
The end of the end.
As most of you know, I'm going back to the States. I fly into Seattle at 8:41pm local time on Thursday, October 14th. I'm not going to post the details on the blog, but I will tell you if you ask. I just wanted everyone to know.
27 September 2010
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.
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.
14 August 2010
Arrival.
I made it to Belgium a little more than 24 hours ago. The flights were okay, kind of crappy, but they're flights.
My host family is simply amazing. They are what is keeping me here. If my host family sucked, I would have turned right around and gone back to the US, quite honestly.
But my host mom makes me feel so comfortable and my little host sister, Valentine, is such a sweetheart. My host dad reminds me of my own daddy, except in the french form. I'm learning new words everytime I speak with someone in the house, especially my host dad since he doesn't speak English. So far today, I've learned how to say cheese (fromage), dog (chien), cat (chat), cow (vache), book (livre), cabinet/closet (armoire), et fridge (frigo). (My host family has a sort of farm, and I love it). And I've only been awake for 2 hours! :D I seriously slept forever though. From 2pm to midnight, and 5am until 10am. Now, my host mom is giving me some time to read and such and I think I may go take a walk in the garden later on. I'll post pictures on facebook sooner or later. :)
My host family is simply amazing. They are what is keeping me here. If my host family sucked, I would have turned right around and gone back to the US, quite honestly.
But my host mom makes me feel so comfortable and my little host sister, Valentine, is such a sweetheart. My host dad reminds me of my own daddy, except in the french form. I'm learning new words everytime I speak with someone in the house, especially my host dad since he doesn't speak English. So far today, I've learned how to say cheese (fromage), dog (chien), cat (chat), cow (vache), book (livre), cabinet/closet (armoire), et fridge (frigo). (My host family has a sort of farm, and I love it). And I've only been awake for 2 hours! :D I seriously slept forever though. From 2pm to midnight, and 5am until 10am. Now, my host mom is giving me some time to read and such and I think I may go take a walk in the garden later on. I'll post pictures on facebook sooner or later. :)
24 May 2010
Official "host families"
Alrightie, SO.
May 16th, I come home from my District Conference (which was heavily amazing by the way. LOVE YOU GUYS!!) and check my email. There. Is. An. Email. From. My. Host. Sister. I was so h-ing excited, you have no idea. She's given me opportunities to better my French, and the whole family even wished me a happy birthday, FOUR DAYS after we started talking to each other. Seriously, I already feel like a part of their family and I'm not even there for a couple more months. (81 days, by the WAY.)
Ahhhh. :D
12 April 2010
Host school and families!
I realised I never posted about knowing my host school!!
Collège Saint-Roch in Ferrières, Belgium. It's absolutely stunning.
Now, as for my host families! I haven't gotten any emails or anything neat like that, but our awesome Belgian website tells us a bunch of info, such as host district, club, school and families, all before Guarantee Forms even come! So, I know that I will be living in:
Now, as for my host families! I haven't gotten any emails or anything neat like that, but our awesome Belgian website tells us a bunch of info, such as host district, club, school and families, all before Guarantee Forms even come! So, I know that I will be living in:
Comblain-La-Tour (Hamoir)
Ouffet
and Ferrières.
I'm so excited. I can't wait to start emailing!
(Happy now, Soph? ;D)
02 April 2010
Host district!!
I will be SOMEWHERE in the dark grey area next year :D
Editino: I am going to Ferrieres :D it's like just south of Liege.
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