Joyeux Noël !

I've spent the last 4 days celebrating Christmas here in Belgium, and I must say, it's been quite the holiday.

Thursday:

Anne-Michèle, Amaury, Etienne and I went to dinner at my second host family's house. I met my second host dad for the first time, which was cool. My next host sister, Valérie and I talked quite a bit, and she said she knew of really cheap train tickets to Paris, and that she was already planning on taking me. I'm very excited! :) I also talked to Valérie's boyfriend, Lionel quite a bit. He's a very interesting fellow. He likes both Star Trek and Star Wars, so I think we'll get along swimmingly.

Friday:

Adrien came home from England. We were all a little worried that he wouldn't be able to make it because trains were being cancelled left and right because of all of the snow. However, he made it home, safe and sound. It's nice having another brother in the house. He and I chatted quite a bit in English, which was pretty fun. When I first arrived, I didn't understand a word of what he said in French, but I can understand almost everything he says now, which, to me, is a sign of progress.

Friday night was the Christmas party with my host dad's family. Everyone who goes to the Sunday lunches at Mami's house was there, and we all had a good time laughing and talking. The food was delicious, too. At the end of the meal, Anne-Michèle came up to me and handed me two presents, which were from the whole family. There were two lottery tickets in an envelope (I won 6 euro!), and a little book Anne-Michèle had wrapped. It's a Tintin story. Tintin is a comic in the French speaking world. As excited as I am about the book, I'm even more excited by what's inside of it: after I opened it, Anne-Michèle pulled out a pen, and the entire family signed the book for me. Some wrote their name, some wrote little messages. Either way, it's one of the most heart-warming, loving things I've ever received. I almost started to cry watching everyone sign it. I haven't had a chance to read what everyone wrote yet, as Arnaud took the book and hasn't signed it yet. He says he needs to think before he writes in it, which I can understand. I know when I finally read everything, I'm going to cry my eyes out. I just felt so loved by these people who have welcomed me into their homes, lives, and family. It's a one in a million experience, I think.

Saturday:

I went to my second host family's house again, for Christmas lunch. I finally met my host brother, Cèdric, as well as a few other family members. It was a very small, intimate group of people, which was a change from the big family I'm used to here. The food was, of course, excellent. We had these delicious seafood scoop things in a really thick sauce... SO GOOD. I also got to ride in a tractor for the first time. Lemme tell ya, that John Deere guy sure knows what he's doing when it comes to tractors. It was like riding thunder. That tractor blazed through snow like nobody's business. SO AWESOME.

Sunday:

Sunday I slept in, which was nice and relaxing. :) We had lunch as a family, like usual, and we exchanged gifts as a family. I gave Adrien his Colorado tshirt, which all of his friends said was cool, apparently. Anne-Michèle gave me a bottle of perfume which smells delicious. I'm spoiled. I haven't given gifts to the rest of the family yet because their gifts aren't here. They're in Switzerland with my friend Evan, who came to visit a friend of his who lives in Belgium. Tiny world, I know. But I'm getting the gifts from him when he comes back, and then I'll be able to exchange with the rest of the family.

We left at 5:30 to go to the Christmas with Anne-Michèle's family. It was a lot of fun talking to new people. It turns out, one of the cousins, Rodolphe, spent a year at Oklahoma State University. We spent a good portion of the evening talking about America: fast food, skiing, life in college, things that surprised him, etc. It was quite enjoyable. As it turned out, he had also pulled my name for the White Elephant gift exchange. He gave me a lovely pair of earrings and a little spa kit, two things I adore. The food was excellent, again, and I had a great time, although by the end of the night I was simply exhausted. All of the parties catch up to you, you know? We got home at about 2 am, and then I tried to fall asleep, which just didn't happen. So I stayed up until 4:45 this morning trying to fall asleep. I finally passed out from sheer exhaustion, I think.

That's the story of Christmas here in Belgium, folks!

Update.

Rotary was a fabulous affair, as usual. Bella (Australia) did her final presentation (she's leaving January 14th [insert sad face here]), and despite the sadness that accompanies that sort of thing, it was truly a beautiful presentation. I'm glad I got such a rockin' oldie.

Wednesday I did some more nothing, I believe, which was a lot of fun. I watched the West Wing (sooo close to finishing season 6!) and just enjoyed my break from life. Vacations are wonderful. People should take them more often.

Yesterday I hung out at home and enjoyed my vacation some more, and watched more West Wing. I actually had an "Aha!" moment while I was watching, and I'll share it with you:

For those who don't know, I'm going to CSU next year, and I'm going to major in Political Science and minor in French. I love love LOVE politics, government, and everything else that goes along with it. Watching campaigns for office is really exciting, in my opinion. I'm one of those rare people that doesn't get sick of the campaign adds on tv. I like hearing what both sides have to say, and I like having opinions and fighting for them. I got to shake President Obama's hand when he gave a speech at CSU during his campaign. That was one of the coldest (and most AWESOME) days of my life.

Anyway, back to my story. I was watching an episode of the West Wing (Season 6, Episode 17: A Good Day). In it, the Speaker of the House cancels a vote on stem-cell research. He wants to wait until the Democrats are out of town so that he can get the outcome he wants on the vote. The episode revolves around the attempt to foil the Speaker's plans. It turns out that some of the main characters manage to help hide a group of about 15 Congresspeople in the Vice President's office over night, so when the Speaker calls the vote the next morning (thinking most Dems are out of town), they can vote and defeat the Speaker's evil plot.

Yes, I know that it's illogical. Yes, I know that 15 Congresspeople probably wouldn't hide out in an office all night long. Yes, I know it's a tv show. But that doesn't change my reaction to it.

I got tingles in my toes.

I was so interested in how the politics of the situation were set up and how the members of Congress were going to vote that I didn't even stop to care if it was illogical or not. It really reinforced for me how much I LOVE politics. I just love how people can come together (or separate) on issues. I love listening to both sides make their point. I love campaigns, elections, voting, and political efficacy (that one's for you, Mr. Felton). I love politics.

Wednesday night (okay, I did do something on Wednesday...), I was chatting with Aymeric, a Belgian friend of Talia's, on Facebook. He asked me how I feel about America and being American, and we discussed some issues that are very important to me, like the environment and education. Education is number one on my priorities list, yes, even higher than environment. We can't possibly think we can help the environment if we can't even spell the word. But I digress. Aymeric and I also talked about Belgium and the lack of government here. Yes, that's right folks. Belgium does not have a government at this point in time. Its been about 6 months without one. If I'm not mistaken, it's the second time in the past few years that Belgium has not had a government. Yes, there is a king, but he doesn't have the power that belonged to kings of years past. Donc (therefore), Belgium is kind of in a rough place right now. It was really enlightening to be able to talk to someone who's my age and who can explain how this came about here in Belgium. I've heard rumblings about it my whole time here, but any time I asked someone about it, they'd just say "Les politiques... trop compliqués." (Politics... very complicated). I'm glad I now have a little bit of a grasp of what's going on here.

Moving on to the rest of my Thursday...

Last night, Etienne, Anne-Michèle, Amaury and I went to my second host family's house for dinner. I met my second host dad for the first time and I think we'll get along swimmingly. He speaks 7 languages. SEVEN. That's crazy. And my host sister in that family speaks 6. I'm insanely jealous. I don't know how they do it... I can barely handle 1 1/2!

Tonight is a Christmas dinner, which should be fun. Adrien, my host brother who's currently studying in England, is supposed to be coming back, but we don't know if his train was cancelled because of all of the snow. I won't lie, at this point, there is a LOT of snow out there. My snowwoman is kind of... misshapen right now because of all of the snow that has landed on her in the past 2 days. I'd love to take pictures, but my camera is still dead. Insane, I know. I'll get batteries asap.

Merry Winter Solstice to you all!

Bisou,

Mikayla

I'm going to try something new.

In lieu of massive update posts, I'm going to try to start posting either every day or every other day, just a short summary of what I've done. I'm hoping it'll help keep me on top of this blogging thing and make sure I don't forget anything!

Today, I bummed around some more (I'm on vacation!) and watched The West Wing. At about 2, I decided to go out and make my snowman. I had a blast! I was a bit disappointed in myself though; you know your inner child is dead when you feel the need to Google how to make a snowman before you do it. My snowman turned into a snowwoman, and she's very cute, I think, despite Amaury saying she's not round enough. I'm going to help him make a snowman later so the little lady can have a friend.

Other than that, I have a Rotary meeting tonight, and that's all.

:)

Bisous,

Mikayla

It's 1:39 am.

... and I hear music coming from Arnaud's room again. It's "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. I knew he was a fan. :)

I hate giving bisous.

But I love writing the word.

At the end of letters, Facebook IM conversations, phone conversations, whatever. I LOVE to say/write bisou.

Now, if only I could get out of giving them....

Amandine.

Je voudrais écrire un petit mot pour Amandine, une fille formidable. Elle est fidèle, forte, intelligente et elle m'écoute toujours. Elle m'aide avec mes notes à l'école, elle explique les choses que je ne comprenne pas, et elle corrige mon français (c'est un travail difficile...). J'ai eu de la chance lorsque j'étais mis dans la classe 6H.

Merci Amandine. Merci pour tout.

Recap.

Tuesday:
I had off of school again, so Jordan and I went to Brussels. We took a little walking tour of the city and I saw the Mannequin Pis for the first time. What is the Mannequin Pis, you ask? Voilà:



He was dressed up when we saw him. Apparently, whenever foreign dignitaries are visiting Belgium, he is dressed up in the clothes of that dignitary/nation. Pretty cool, huh? Unfortunately, when I saw him, he wasn't "pis-ing", so I'll have to go back another time to get another picture with him.

Just a heads up: My camera is out of batteries. Again. Because it sucks through them like nobody's business. So I didn't get any pictures of Brussels. Jordan took a few though, so I'll steal them from him. :)

After the Mannequin Pis, we stopped in a tourist office and got a map of the city to help us find the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. It took quite a while to make it to where we needed to go, as Jordan and I don't have the best map skills in the world. I will say though, that whenever I say "It'll be fine!" it always turns out that way. :) I used that phrase a LOT on Tuesday...

We finally made it to the museum, and got our tickets. I'm free to go in because I'm under 18, so you can bet that I'll be going back a LOT. We both got the little audio guide thingies, and started wandering around to see what we could see. It was a lot of fun just poking through old pictures and learning random facts about history. We finally saw "La Mort de Marat" and I was stunned, to put it mildly. It's a rather large painting, and just as cool in real life as it is in textbooks. The history behind it is amazing as well. I still can't believe I got to see it. It's a piece of revolutionary history, sitting right there at the end of a hallway. Mind blowing.

After Jordan and I finished the Ancient Art section of the museum, we headed to the gift shop and to find some food. We both got post cards and promised we'd come back to see the modern art collection. Gosh I LOVE art museums!

We found a fry shop not far from the Brussels Central station, so we munched on fries before our train came. We jumped on the train, and about 20 minutes later we were in the charming village of Waterloo, Belgium. Yes, like Napoleon. We started walking away from the train station just as it started to get dark, thinking that the town was rather small, as I remember it being. Well, I was wrong, the town was not small. We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. Finally, we stopped in a butcher shop and asked the lady working for directions. She told us we were on the right track (there's my phrase again: It'll be fine!) and not too far away. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. Jordan started complaining. And we kept walking. And walking. And walking. Jordan told me I'm crazy and he'll never go on any adventures with me again. And we were walking. And walking. And walking. Finally, we found a tourist information place, and we stopped inside to ask how close the British Store was. It was, quite seriously, right down the street. RIGHT down the street. Maybe 100 yards beyond where we were. Jordan stopped complaining as soon as we found out how close we were, and began to worship me for my excellent directional skills. As we walked up the street to the British store, we saw (drumroll please)...

A sports bar.


A real, true-blue, American sports bar. Complete with Miami Dolphins helmet on their awning.

Jordan was nearly ready to cry with happiness at the sight, and we agreed to stop back there after we went to the British store.

At the British store, I bought bagels, taco shells, and baking soda. Yes, a couple of must-have items there, lemme tell ya. The bagels and taco shells were for Arnaud. I'm continuing his education in the realm of American food, and so far, I don't think he's overly impressed. Hopefully the tacos will change his mind.

Anyway, we poked around the British store for a while, me in the food sections and Jordan looking at books and movies. I must say, the British store was an AMAZING discovery. Seriously.

After the British store, we stopped in the sports bar and just talked for about an hour. We watched football a little bit (Atlanta v. Someone, neither one of us really cared) and just talked about life and whatever came to mind. It was my favorite part of the day, even better than seeing "La Mort de Marat." It was great to just hang out with a friend.

After our drinks, we headed back to the train station. It was only about 6 pm, but it was very, very dark outside. We finally made it to the train station with about 20 minutes to spare, but unfortunately, our train was late. The schedule crossed over with another train, and we ended up on the wrong train. Oh yay. Luckily, the train stopped in a few small stations in Brussels where we could catch a connecting train to the big stations, but it was still pretty freaky. I hate not knowing where I'm going.

We finally made it back to Brussels Central, and we found a train to take us back to Liège that stopped in Waremme. You've all seen what I ate that day, and lemme tell ya, I was not feeling too great by that point. Regardless, it was a pleasant train ride, an excellent ending to an excellent day.


Wednesday:
English exam. Eduardo, Talia, Emma and I had to find a way to present everything the kids have worked on in English this year. We decided on a skit, and, in all honesty, only got it done in the 2 hours right before the exam. However, we did really, REALLY well. The teacher absolutely LOVED it. She just kept saying "Extraordinary. It was extraordinary!" over and over. She also told Madame Vanesse, the directrice of our school and the person in charge of the exchange students, how much she loved it. We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Thursday:
Science exam. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I think I did really well. The genetics part was good, and I think I did a decent job on the nuclear physics. The teacher was very impressed when he saw that I was already on the parts about the articles. That was definitely a challenge, as I don't read very quickly in French yet. So, I read the questions and tried to scan the articles for keywords. I know I didn't get all of the information I needed, and I'm pretty sure a good portion of my answers aren't 100% correct, but I don't care. I'm just glad I got it done, and I think I did a fair job of it.

Thursday night, Madame Gallo, a teacher at my school, brought all of us exchange students along to Brussels to see her one woman show, Mes Nuits Sans Robert (My Nights Without Robert). What Robert is she speaking of? Redford, of course! The whole show is based upon a woman, Louise, who works for a film company. She's normally just an office worker, but the woman who is supposed to be giving this film presentation is giving birth, so the job falls to Louise. Of course, all sorts of things go wrong (she doesn't have the right pictures, she doesn't follow the script, etc) and unfortunately, the lights guy she practiced with is replaced by a man name Pierre, who she apparently has a HUGE crush on. The whole thing is HILARIOUS. Madame Gallo is an incredible entertainer. We laughed the whole time. She danced with a giant pillow thing, put on giant underwear (over her clothes) like Bridget Jones, and dumped a jug of water over her head. It was hysterical. Her number one celebrity love is Robert Redford, so she talks about him the whole time. She even chooses a man from the audience to have the "arms of Robert!" and makes him hold them up for the entire crowd. She spends a decent portion of the show talking about those arms, and asks the mans wife "Do you just... touch those arms every single night? ... NO?! WHY NOT?! They're the ARMS of ROBERT!" It was hilarious.

We didn't get home until about midnight, but the car ride back was great. We talked to Madame Gallo about everything and anything: being exchange students, missing home, school, learning French, her stories from being an exchange student (she was in Oregon for a year when she was 18), and whatever else. It was really great.

Eduardo, Talia and Emma spent the night here, and Etienne drove Eduardo, Emma and I to school the next morning, as we all had exams. Talia didn't so she stayed at my house until her host mom picked her up.

Friday:
Emma and I had our exam for Sciences Sociales, which is taught by Madame Gallo. We did the exam together, and I'm pretty sure we did a pretty good job on it. I was pleased, at any rate. I managed to write an entire essay in French, and I think it was pretty grammatically correct. I was proud. :)

After the exam, I was free! I'm now on Winter Break, and I don't have to go back to school until 2011! How awesome is that?

Anne-Michèle picked me up and we did a little shopping before returning home. I chilled out and watched The West Wing and read "Orgueil et Préjugés". It was a glorious day.

Saturday:
I just hung out and relaxed, enjoying my new freedom. Saturday night, I talked to a bunch of my family members, which was really cool. I miss you all! After that, I went with Etienne to a nearby town to a small Christmas party for the CPAS (like a Social Services Center... Etienne's the president in our town). I met a woman from Bosnia-Herzegovina there, and her two kids, Yasmina and Mustafa. They were the CUTEST little kids ever, and SO polite. The family ended up coming with Etienne and I to the next phase of the night, a Ventriloquist/Magician show for younger kids (Amaury's age and below) here in Les Waleffes. The show was really cute, and everyone laughed the whole time. At one point, the magician, Etienne (no, not my host dad) demonstrated how to do one of his magic tricks. After he was done, he called out into the crowd "Did everyone understand?!" Everyone yelled "Oui!" But of course, he said, "Oh no, she didn't understand, did you, Madame?" Who was he looking at? You guessed it. Me. I tried to say that yes, yes I understood, but as part of the show, Etienne had to say no, no I didn't. He finally caught on that I'm foreign, and said, "Oh, are you English?" I said "No, I'm American." His response? "I LOVE Americans!" (in English). Then, he moved on and asked another woman if she had understood his magic trick. I don't know why, I must have a really open, inviting face or something, but everyone here LOVES to call on me for things like that. People in train stations always ask me for directions, on the streets they ask me how to get to the train stations, etc. It's frustrating. But good that people think I'm native, right?

After the show, Amaury and I walked home and chatted about whatever. He teased me because the magician had called on me, and said "Well, you have an accent." I asked if my accent is really strong, and he said, "You know a lot of words." Oh Amaury, so polite. I'll take that as a yes. :) But I'm okay with it. Just something to practice.

Sunday:
We went to lunch at Mami's and I had a lot of fun. I talked more than I ever have before, and I really enjoyed it. During lunch, Anne-Michèle said something that I thought was interesting. We had just told the story of the magician calling on me at the show on Saturday night, and how I told him I'm American. She said to me, "No, not really. You're not American. You're not like the stereotypical American." I asked what I am then, if I'm not American. She said, "I don't know." And I said, "Okay, I'll be Belgian." I like that idea.

Monday:
(Today)
I'm watching copious amounts of "The West Wing" (I'm just starting season 6. Only 2 more to go!) and enjoying my vacation. I'm thinking of making a snowman later. Why not? I haven't made one in YEARS, and I'm not sure I remember how, but it'll be fun, I think. Maybe I'll convince Arnaud to take a break from studying and come help. We shall see.



Love,

Mikayla






The rest of this post will be a quick catch-up of things I've forgotten to post about.

1. Saturday, the 11th, I spent the night at my second host family's house. I got to see my room and hang out with my next host mom, which was loads of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and I can't wait to live there.
2. I will post about Aachen as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow. All of my posts are going to be a bit out of whack, because I don't always post the big ones right as they happen. I'll put the dates of when I did these things at the top so we can try to keep them in order.

That's all, I do believe...

You know you're Belgian when...

your diet for the day consists of the following:

3 waffles
fries
2 Cokes
1 beer
1 chocolate cookie thing



And people wonder why exchange students gain weight...

Exams

Last week, exams started here in Belgium. They're not too different from the ones in the states, but they're not exactly the same, either.

Monday we had two exams: History and Geography. I opted out of taking Geography, as I have yet to take a test or do much of anything in that class. The history exam commenced at 8:25, which is when classes normally start, so I missed my daily dose of Père Boly. The desks were all separated in the classrooms, so kids couldn't copy each other. A teacher I've never seen before came in with an envelope that contained our exams. All of the Belgians had this special paper out, which I guess is the school's paper for when kids take their exams. I, of course, didn't have the special paper, but I didn't really care. I just used regular notebook paper, which is probably SO not Kosher...

The exam went until about 10:00, and I think I did fairly well. Not perfect, of course, but I don't think I blew it. The actual teacher came in at one point and went over all of the questions and asked if we needed clarification on anything. Overall, it was a lot like an AP exam... We had to analyze some documents, there was a bit of multiple choice, and then some essay writing. My essays weren't fabulous, but I'm all right with that.

Thursday, I had an exam in Religion, which was pretty similar. The questions were different, obviously. And there wasn't a multiple choice section. This one was only short answer, essay, and then something involving a cartoon on the back. I think we had to write what we thought would be the next appropriate thing to say in the cartoon. But I wasn't sure what the first part was saying, so I don't think I got that one right...

Again, I didn't have the special paper. Amandine offered me some of hers, but I declined. Honestly, I don't really care if I have the special paper a) because no one told me about it beforehand and b) I'd hate for Amandine (or someone else) to run out of her special paper because she gave some to me. It's not like my exams count anyway, and theirs actually do.

I got lucky and don't have exams today or tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday). I have to take English on Wednesday, Science on Thursday and Social Sciences on Friday. After that, I'm free until 2011! Belgians still have to go to school next Monday and Tuesday for exams in Greek and Latin or something like that. Yes, schools here are awesome enough to offer Greek and Latin. Anyway, I get out at noon every day after exams as well, so I'm pretty excited.

For English, Talia, Emma, Eduardo and I are supposed to go over everything the kids have done so far this year in English, kind of like a summary of sorts before the actual students take their exams. We're putting on a skit that will run through everything. Talia is the teacher, and Emma, Eduardo and I are the students. We talk about songs, greeting people, why we should learn English, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and the exchange students that came to talk at the beginning of the year, as well as a few other things. It should be fun and not too difficult, so I'm excited.

Tomorrow, Jordan and I are going to Brussels for the day to do a little Christmas shopping as well as hit up the Royal Museum of Fine Arts so I can see the painting "La Mort de Marat" by Jacques-Louis David. I've wanted to see it ever since I wrote a paper about the French Revolution sophomore year. I can't WAIT to see the real thing.



Then, we're headed to do a little Christmas shopping and to Waterloo so we can go to the British store there. I'm hoping to pick up some taco shells so I can make tacos with Arnaud in the coming weeks. I need to make Jell-O too...


Bisous,
Mikayla

Talia and I were "In an Open Relationship" on Facebook, and then she broke up with me.

Yeah, it's the start of a great weekend. :)

I have 4 days off until I have to go back to school for exams, and it's starting off with a sleepover with Talia. We made sloppy joes, corn and deviled eggs for my host family, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Arnaud didn't add any extra ketchup to anything.

Later tonight, we're going to dye my hair, then who knows what kind of shenanigans we'll get into.


Toodles,

Mikayla

Maastricht

This post is way way way overdue. I went to Maastricht, Netherlands on Friday, October 8, with Anne-Michèle and Mami (host grandmother). It was a Friday, and I had off of school, so we piled in the car at about 8 am and drove off. It was about an hour away by car, and the drive went by quickly.

We got to Maastricht and one of the first things I noticed was the bikes. There were bicycles EVERYWHERE. It was a noticeable difference when we crossed the border. The bikes had special lanes and traffic signals. It was amazing! There were probably more bicycles than there were cars. I love "green" countries!

We parked the car and commenced the shopping. Every Friday, there is a huge outdoor market in Maastricht. People sell fabric, batteries, lamps, dresses, purses, watches, cheese, shoulder pads, bracelets, shoes, lightbulbs, buttons, makeup, scarves, you name it. It was truly an incredible sight, with all of the booths and vendors. As the day went on, more and more people came to the market, so eventually it was a massive throng of bodies pushing and pulling to get to where they needed to go.

While Anne-Michèle and Mami were looking at some fabric, I was approached by a young man about my age. There were two other guys with him. I'd seen groups like this all day long. They were carrying clipboards and doing some sort of survey. The guy walked up to me and started speaking what I'm pretty sure was some very broken Dutch (it sounded a lot like me speaking French, so I only assumed that it was not his native language). I, of course, had no clue at all what he was saying, so I interrupted with "Desolée, mais je ne comprends pas. Je suis americaine." (Sorry, but I don't understand. I'm American.) I figured he might come from Belgium or another place that taught at least rudimentary French, but based on the blank, defeated look in his eyes, I was wrong. He gave me a pained look and asked, "Do you speak English?" My response: "Yeah."

That sure turned his frown upside down!

He said, "Oh, well this will be easy then!" He proceeded to ask me a survey of about 10 questions, along the lines of "Where do you come from?" (You're American?! Wonderful!) "Where do you live?" (You must be going to the university in Maastricht! No? You live in Belgium? Well that's exciting!) "Age of shopper." (You're not over 20? Are you sure?) It was quite fun. It turns out that the group of guys were from the international school in Maastricht. Based on the guy's accent, he was British, but I never asked.

After we finished at the market, Anne-Michèle, Mami and I went to a little tourist shop and I bought a keychain and a few post cards to remember my trip by. After that, we went to a little café for lunch. I had an iced cappuccino that was absolutely delicious. Gosh I miss Starbucks. And Dazbog. And Loveland Coffee. Sigh.

Anyway, we did a little shopping at a mall in Maastricht as well. Anne-Michèle bought me a very cute plaid shirt. Granted, it was from the guy's section, but I don't care. I like it a lot.

This is Eduardo, the AFS exchange student at my school. This is the shirt Anne-Michèle bought for me. As it turns out, we have the same one. We ended up wearing them on the same day, a complete coincidence. :)

We stopped in Zara and a few other stores before calling it a day and heading back to the land of les belges. All in all, it was a great day. I really enjoyed the market and the fresh air. It was amazing to see so many cool things for sale all in one place. I also snacked on some delicious cheese, which was super wonderful. Nothing beats Wisconsin cheddar though! :)





One thing I noticed is that I'm not posting as much about what I've been doing lately. I'll try to rectify that in the coming weeks.

Coming up:
exams and why food in Belgium doesn't make sense


Also:
Aachen, Germany, the Marche de Noel, and the Bal de la Saint Nicolas


Toodles,

Mikayla

Massive kudos to Arnaud.

For removing the latest mouse from my room.


You rock, big brother.

Being an only child.

Sometimes, it really sucks. I know, it's one of those vicious circle things. If your hair is straight, you try everything imaginable to make it curly. Those gifted in science and math wish they were better at language and social studies. For me, the big think is wanting siblings. I don't like being an only child. Sure, it has a LOT of perks, but really, it's boring. What brought this on? Right now, I'm listening to my host family in the room underneath me. They're all in there, talking to Alix (she's in Florida on exchange) via Skype. Yes, I Skype with my mom ALL the time. But it's always just her. I sometimes wish a group of people was waiting for me on the other end, the way Alix has her brothers and her parents. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm jealous of her. I'm jealous of a lot of exchange students. Heck, I'm a jealous person by nature (gotta love that Scorpio sign...).

Sigh.


Now I have the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want" running through my head. My mom would always break out that line when I was little and throwing a fit about not getting my way. Yeah, I come from a special family. As insightful as that line is, I think the more important part is the second half:

You can't always get what you want/
You can't always get what you want/
But if you try sometimes/
You just might find/
You get what you need.

And I think that's applicable here. I don't have a group of siblings/aunts and uncles/grandparents/cousins waiting for me like other kids do, but I do have my mom. And she's really all I need.

Last week I made a list of subjects I want to tackle in my blog. This will be my first post from that list.

I know Rotary always said to us that one of the hardest things to handle while on exchange is the idea that time continues to pass back home. When you go back, things have changed. This wasn't really a problem for me at first; I accept that things change and I can't control them. That's the definition of life. There's no way to be prepared 100% of the time, which I learned the hard way.
On October 7th, my friend Mike Paul died from complications due to a stroke he suffered during surgery to remove cancerous tumors from his chest. On November 15th, my cat, Eyesick, was put down because of an unpreventable case of liver failure. Mike was 17. Eyesick was 2.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I bawled my eyes out when I found out about both. I still have not come to grips with the fact that both of them were snatched away, and both so young. It's hard to know that I wasn't there for them, even though I promised both that I would never leave and would always be by their sides 100%. Yes, I make promises to my pets. If you want to judge, go somewhere else. It's painful to think about the fact that all of Mike's friends were at his funeral and they all were able to grieve together at school while I'm stuck here in Belgium, unable to participate. I don't think I've come to terms with his death because I wasn't there to experience it. When I think about going home, I think about going to see Mike. But now, that's reduced to seeing a tombstone. I feel sick just thinking about it.

I miss Eyesick like crazy, too. He wasn't just a cat, he was my friend. I loved him very, very much. I first saw him when he was only a few hours old, and played with him from the time he could walk until the day we brought him home. He was gorgeous, gentle, and a big lazy-butt. But I don't care, because he loved everyone he met. There wasn't a mean bone in his body. He was even nice to my fish!

The point of this was to try to explain that life doesn't freeze. It's a tough lesson to learn. I know that I'll continue on with my exchange and friends at home will keep moving through their lives. But how to I melt back in to society when I come home? I'll be totally out of sync with what's been happening. I've missed football games, homecoming, every day classes... and I'm going to miss Prom, AP test week, graduation, and who knows what else? It's just weird to think that two completely separate worlds are functioning at the same moment, and in some ways, I'm caught between them.

Diner Exotique and thinking in French.

Today all of the exchange students from the three districts here in Belgium gathered together in Visé, a city near the Dutch border to celebrate the cuisine of our host lands. Each one of us had to bring a dish that would serve 40 people. The dish was supposed to be something native to our country that is hard (or impossible) to find in Belgium. There were things like fresh sushi (SO GOOD), macaroni and cheese, scones, stuffing and turkey, mashed potatoes, and something delicious from Taiwan among countless other dishes. Jordan and I teamed up and made two things: deviled eggs and cheesy dill bread. They were both delicious, although the cheesy dill bread did require two separate attempts... As Jordan says, "The first.... 'substance' we produced was not fit for human consumption. Period." I thought it was fine....

But in all, it was a lovely day spent enjoying the company of my fellow exchangers and their host families. It's so cool to see everyone come together like this; it was like a giant Thanksgiving, but with food from around the world.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, because a) I forgot my camera and b) my camera has sucked the life out of the latest pair of batteries. Ugh. But I promise I'll get some new ones before I go to GERMANY on Wednesday. :)




On another note, I've stared to think in French. I don't think anything major; most of the time I think what I'm doing. Like this:

Je vais manger bientôt.
I am going to eat soon.

Je vais à l'école.
I am going to school.

J'ai manqué le train.
I missed the train.

Je voudrais manger les bonbons, mais je ne peux pas parce que ça n'est pas bonne pour ma santé.
I would like to eat candy, but I can't because that's not good for my health.


Etc.

It's a crazy sensation, and kind of fun. I'm starting to not realize when things are in English as well. For example, when I was watching football with Amaury and Arnaud, I didn't realize that the announcers were speaking in English. I wasn't even listening to them, honestly. I'm so used to not understanding what people are saying (like Belgian radio, etc), that I kind of tune it out.

One thing that makes thinking in French difficult is the abundance of English around me. I speak English with Talia, Emma and Eduardo at school. I read English books. Most of my Facebook is in English, with English speakers posting on my wall. I talk to my mom a lot (a little too much, probably), and we only speak English. I text my American friends in English. 80% of the music on the radio is in English.

Sometimes I wish I was from Japan or Brazil, that way I would be forced to speak in French at all times (no one here speaks Japanese or Portuguese, as far as I know...).

But despite the copious amounts of English being thrown at my ears every day, I know I've made HUGE progress in my French. I can understand most of what's being said in class by my teachers now. I can watch tv and pick up whole paragraphs of what people are saying, not just random words. I can read in French and pick up meaning as well. At first, I could only understand my host mom. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what my host brothers and host dad were saying, much less anyone outside the family. I'm beginning to understand strangers, which I'm really proud of. I know it sounds kind of silly, because French is French is French, right? Not so. There are accents, there are different ways to say words. For example: parce que. That's "because" in French. I've heard it said two ways: "pahrsss-cuh" and "parse-e-cuh." It's hard to type out. It's kind of like the whole "toe-may-toe" "toe-mah-toe" kind of thing. But anyway. I've learned that when someone's speaking, it's easier to understand them if you hear them speak a lot. Therefore, I understand Anne-Michèle, Amandine, Florian, and M. Godet, my French teacher, the best because I hear them speak the most. The hardest is with strangers because I'm not used to their voices and how they say certain words. People here also speak relatively quickly, so it's sometimes hard to separate the words and figure out what they're trying to say.

But it's getting easier. I understand jokes now. I can have a decent conversation about most topics. I can listen to the radio and follow the gist of the news report or the jokes about celebrities. I actually managed to understand the words of a song last week! I know it doesn't necessarily sound like it'd be that difficult, but you'd be surprised...

One thing I noticed while reading in French: It's much easier to just let the reading flow than to sit by and directly translate everything. I understand way way way more if I kind of skate over the words and let them soak in than if I sit by and translate word for word, like this:

"Viens Darcy, lui dit-il, il faut que tu danses avec nous. J'ai horreur de te voir rester planté tout seul. C'est stupide, et tu ferais bein mieux de prendre part au bal."

Come Darcy, he said to him, it is necessary that you dance with us. I have horror to see you to stay planted all alone. It's stupid, and you will make better to take part in the ball.

Absolute gibberish, isn't it? It's much easier for my poor brain to think something like, "Come Darcy, he said, it is necessary that you dance with us. I hate seeing you stay all alone. It's stupid and you will do better to join in the ball." I still absorb the words and the language, but in a more rational way. Sometimes I don't even have to translate the words to English, I just plow through with the French. (That was an exact quote from "Orgueil et préjugés" by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. :))



A song, my lovelies:





This is called "Toi et Moi" by Guillaume Grand. It's the song I was able to understand last week. I sing it ALL the time at school. ALL the time.

Lady Gaga.

Tuesday night, the 23rd, Talia, Emma, Arnaud and I piled in the car to drive to Antwerp for part 2 of my birthday: a Lady Gaga concert.

As many of you know, I absolutely LOVE Lady Gaga, her music, and what she represents. Not only that, but I feel that she's an actual artist -- there aren't many of those left in the music industry. She learned to play piano by ear at age 4, at 14 she was playing New York night clubs, and at 17 was one of 20 people in the world offered early admission to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. That's a pretty intimidating resumé. But the way she relates to her fans is what really surprises me. She gave short speeches during her 2 hour show, and yes, I know that they're all practiced and rehearsed, but that doesn't make them any less inspiring, right? In one of her speeches, she talked about how she was picked on in high school, how she never fit in, and how people would tell her she was a worthless freak. She said she would go home, and her mom would say, "Baby, everyone is born with a superstar inside them." And that's what inspired her to release her inner superstar. She also talked about how we could be anyone or anything we wanted to be inside that stadium that night. There was nothing holding us back from letting everything out. There's nothing and no one we can't be.


But my favorite, my absolute favorite thing she said was this:

"I don't want you to leave here loving me more, I want you to leave here loving yourselves more."


Those are words to live by.

I want to go home for a weekend.

Just a weekend. I love Belgium, I love my friends, and I love my host family. But I just want to be home right now.

Homesickness has been hitting these past two weeks, and it's hitting hard.

I'm very grateful for everything I have here, really. I just want some familiarity. I want to wake up in my bed with my dog. I want to go through all of my clothes and decide what to wear. I want to get in my car and go to the barn and ride horses I know and trust, not huge Warmblood monsters that dump me on the ground. I want my food: cheesecake, cereal, salad, carrots, apples, bananas, cheese, etc. I don't want any chocolate at all for like a week. I want my house. I want to use my shower and I want to take a looooooooooooong shower without having to worry about if anyone else needs to get in to use the bathroom or take a shower of their own. I want to watch the nightly news on tv in a language I understand. I want my school and teachers who speak English and know that my name is Mikayla, not Clara. I want my friends and my life. I want to be Mikayla, not "the American." I want grocery stores that make sense, libraries full of books, movies that I like and understand. I want my music. My pillows, all 9 of them. I want cold, skim milk. I want chocolate chip cookies. I want grilled cheese. I want to eat dinner at 5, not at 7. I want to just say "hey" to my friends in the morning, and not have to bisou every single person in the room. I want familiar roads, automatic cars, Taco Bell, and my nail polish. I want familiar faces, my job walking Rudi, and hugs from all of my friends. I really just want what's comfortable. What's familiar. What I know and love. I want my life back.

I know most people will jump to the assumption that this mood funk is all due to the holiday season. I suppose that might be part of it, but I doubt it. The holidays really aren't a big deal for me. I think it's coming on because at this point, I'm kind of... disillusioned... with the whole process of being an exchange student. It's exhausting, it's often boring, and it's very, very frustrating. I've reached what feels like a stalemate in my language progression. I'm thinking in French, which is great, but I'm still making stupid mistakes with conjugations, my pronunciation is absolute trash, and I couldn't remember subjunctive if my life depended on it. It's intimidating and disheartening to be corrected all the time. I feel stupid when people don't understand what I say. I feel stupid when I mix up the words for sweater and chicken. I feel stupid speaking up in class not because I don't know if my answer's right, but because I'm not even sure I understood the question. I feel stupid because I can take great notes and understand everything on Tuesday, but in the same class on Thursday I'm completely lost.


I hate feeling stupid.


I don't want to leave Belgium, and I'm not giving up. I just want to go back home, to my familiar, easy life. Only for a weekend, to regroup, relax, and de-stress. But I can't. I can't leave and go home, because I'd have to leave permanently. And I don't want to do that. I want to stay here and live out the remainder of my exchange having fun and enjoying myself. I know it will get better, and by the time July comes around I'll be miserable with the thought of leaving. I just have to keep that in mind.

Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for:
3 wonderful host families
having brothers
Lady Gaga
horses
Penny
my mom
school and my education
CSU
pumpkin pie
warm socks
Hannah
the French language
good books
chocolate
smiles
hugs
stars

FYI

I just posted about London, but I had saved it as a draft, so it's a bit of a ways back in my post history. Here's a link to make it easier:


http://ouestmikayladanslemonde.blogspot.com/2010/11/london.html


I hope you enjoy!

Mikayla

The Big Americans.

It's a type of pizza. We eat it all the time, and I finally remembered to grab the box so I could take some pictures of it. Voilà.

FOOTBALL!

We just got satellite tv installed today. Normally, this wouldn't matter to me, as I don't watch tv here anyway. But tonight, I was up here in my room watching The West Wing on my computer, and Amaury came running up the stairs yelling, "Mikayla, football americain!" They found football. On tv. Here. In Belgium.



I think I almost knocked the poor kid over in my mad rush to get downstairs as fast as possible.





I smashed into the living room to discover Arnaud holding the remote watching the Giants v. Eagles game. Granted, neither one of them comes close to the awesomeness of the Pack, but still. Better than nothing. I watched with the two of them, and explained the rules when they got confused. I was rooting for the Giants (blasphemy, I know. But better than cheering for Michael Vick, right? How is he allowed to play football again?! He's a disgrace to humanity. But that's another blog for another time). Sadly, the Eagles managed to win. Ah well, c'est la vie. The Pack is 7 - 3 because we're freaking beasts, and we absolutely slaughtered the Vikings yesterday. Life is good.



One thing I noticed while we were watching the game:

I totally felt like I was part of the family. Like I was just watching a football game with my brothers. It was a really neat feeling, even though it's hard to describe. It was like I wasn't just the exchange student living there... I was actually their sister, they were my brothers, and we were just hanging out, like families do. It's definitely a memory I'll cherish.

Listen.

We are not what you think we are, we are golden.
WE ARE GOLDEN.

The passing of a friend.

Eyesick James
13 October 2008 --- 15 November 2010
I love you, Baby Buns.

There's a mouse in my house!

Or rather, in my suitcase. I've heard it in there before, and I always hoped it would just... disappear or something. No such luck. I woke up yesterday morning, and I heard it digging around in there again. I'd only been asleep for about three hours, so in my half-awake state, I grabbed the water bottle sitting next to my bed and repeatedly whacked the top of the suitcase in hopes of scaring the little critter into submission. It worked, apparently, because I managed to fall back to sleep...

When I was totally awake later on in the day, I decided that enough was enough. Mr. Squeaky needs to find a new home. So, I opened my suitcase and started removing things, one by one. Two t-shirts, a chewed hemp necklace, my packets of Ranch dressing, two (thankfully) untouched boxes of Mac n Cheese, a sportsbra sporting (pun intended) a nice new hole in the strap, and some random papers made it out, but my Reese's Cups Minis, were, unfortunately, lost to the dreaded Monster Mouse. I was afraid to pull those out in fear of what I would find, so I just zipped the suitcase shut and set it down in the hallway outside my room. There it shall stay until tomorrow, when Talia and Emma come over to get ready for Lady Gaga. Talia loves mice, apparently, and she will brave the uncharted waters of the rest of Mikayla's Suitcase-land in hopes of finding Mr. Squeaky (who is, in fact, Monster Mouse by night, much the way Superman is Clark Kent during the day) and rehoming him to the great outdoors.

I think it's a great plan.

Tonight after a yummy dinner of pork, potato chunks and green beans, courtesy of Arnaud, I was doing dishes, and mentioned the mouse in my suitcase. He said yes, he had read it on Facebook. Is it still in there? My response: ...That's really a great question... See, I may have knocked it out when I woke up yesterday morning and beat the snot out of my suitcase with a water bottle, but I think it's still alive because I'm pretty sure I heard it scratching around again this morning...

Arnaud's suggestion? Set a trap. Um... except that means it will die. As I'm sure you know, I'm not okay with the idea of anything dying, ever. I said as much, and Arnaud looked at me and said, "C'est juste une souris. C'est rien." (It's just a mouse. It's nothing). But that's the thing. It is something. It's a life. It doesn't deserve to die. His response: It's either the mouse or your Reese's Cups.

I almost thought about it.

Except the Reese's cups are already gone. So no dice. I told him the Reese's Cups are already lost, and he agreed we could set a trap with cheese. No death involved, thank goodness.

I hope Talia finds it tomorrow and we can just let it go outside, no sneak attacks with cheese involved. But we shall see....

Until next time....

RIP Reese's Cups.

Harry Potter.

Tonight, I went to Liège to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, with Amandine and Florian. And it was in ENGLISH. SO awesome. :)

Before the movie started, we walked around Liège, doing some shopping and searching for books for their TFAs (Travail Fin de l'Année -- basically a huge report on a subject of your choice). We then went to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. I had some sort of pasta with ham and a yummy cheese sauce. It was delicious.

After dinner was the moment of truth. Harry Potter. I won't give anything away, except to say that I LOVED it. It was extremely well done, in my opinion. It followed the book very well and had an excellent amount of suspense.

Sitting in the movie theater tonight, I thought about how lucky I am to have found my friends here in Belgium. I'm so fortunate that I was lost and confused my first day, and that Fabiola found Amandine and asked her to show me around. It was the start of a great friendship. And Florian pretty much rocks my socks. I can have Harry Potter discussions in French, which I definitely enjoy.

At lunch on Friday, Manon handed me a card. My Belgian friends had all written birthday messages to me on the inside. It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever received, and I will keep it forever. Words cannot describe how much that card means to me. It's hard to describe, but I hope I've been able to convey some sense of how I feel about it. This is really just a thank you to my friends here. Thank you for accepting me, for showing me around the school, for correcting my French and helping me learn, and letting me copy your notes. I'd be lost without you.

Gros bisous,

Mikayla

Today is my birthday.

And it's been once of the best birthday's I've ever had.

Today I realized how much my friends here love me and how lucky I am to have met them. At lunch today, we simply sat together, eating cake, talking, and laughing about whatever we were saying. Everyone was smiling and happy, and I felt so warm and fuzzy... Words can't even describe it.

Of course I miss my family and friends back home, but I'm so lucky to be here with people who care about me. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, not just Rotary but my family and friends back home and here in Belgium. Today has truly been magical.


Love,

Mikayla

OMG

I just realized I never wrote about the day I spent in Maastricht! I'm so sorry everyone! I'm currently working on a post about London, but I'll do Maastricht right after that.

London.

London London London.

That trip was seriously crazy fun. I LOVED it. While in London, I saw King Henry VIII's tomb, the interior of Windsor Castle, Queen Mary's Doll House, Buckingham Palace, countless telephone booths, drank Starbucks, and rode the London Eye.

The London Eye was probably my favorite part. We went up at night, and the entire city was lit up, everything was glowing. There were fireworks going off everywhere as well because of Guy Fawkes' Day, which made it even more magical. I wasn't originally going to ride because it was ridiculously expensive, but Jordan looked at me and said, "Mikayla... When will you have the chance to go again?" He was right. I'm SO glad I went. I have the souvenir picture of the group of us on my dresser, and every time I look at it, I smile.

Here's a recap:

I got to Namur at a disgustingly early hour on Thursday, and we all piled into the bus for the drive to Calais, France. I saw France for the first time on that trip, which was pretty cool. We got to Calais and had to go through customs, which involved filling out a little paper thing with details about how long we'd be staying in the UK and our addresses here in Belgium. It was pretty cool, and I'm happy that my passport has a new stamp. After that, we boarded the ferry for the trip across the English Channel. This was another first for me: I'd never seen the ocean before. Jordan, Emily and I went outside on the deck, and it was FREEZING, but we managed to get some good pictures.

My favorite:





After the boat ride, we drove to Canterbury Cathedral and took a tour, which was actually immensely interesting. I took loads of photos there as well. There's so much history in these places that it's almost hard to comprehend. Just imagining that popes, archbishops, and kings have done important business and altered the course of history on the exact spot you're standing on now is just... mind blowing.

After Canterbury, we drove to Picadilly Circus and were given free rein to run around and explore, as long as we were back on the bus by 10. I took off with Emily, Jordan, Sam and Caitlin, and we had a very interesting experience searching for a bathroom. Apparently the Brits don't have to pee, EVER. There were NO public bathrooms to be found. It was a major crisis, honestly. I don't know where I found the bathroom, but I know I found one eventually. Then, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant we found on a side street. The food was very good, but VERY expensive. The bill total was about 80 pounds, which translates to $130. For 5 people. Crazy, I know.

We went back to the bus after that, and finally went to the hotel. We ended up spending most of the night in Caitlin's room, playing cards and just talking.

Saturday:
Emily and I almost missed the bus because we went on a Starbucks run. SO delicious. We drove to Windsor Castle and took a tour, which was extraordinary. Jordan and I were the last ones done because we couldn't stop marveling at everything we were seeing. The views were incredible, as was the art. I've seen this picture a million times in books and online, but to actually see the real piece of art? Incredible.




After our tour, Jordan and I stopped in St. George's Chapel, which houses King Henry VIII's tomb as well as the St. George's Chapel Choir. It was finished during the reign of King Henry VIII, and was one of the most intricate, beautiful buildings I've ever had the privilege to enter. Henry even had a special room built for his first wife, Catharine of Aragon, to watch mass.

Our next stop after a quick lunch of McDonald's, believe it or not, was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I met Leonardo DiCaprio, Indiana Jones, John Wayne and DANIEL RADCLIFFE. So many levels of awesome. I also had wax figurines of my hands made. I tried to do that thing where you make a heart with your hands, but it didn't really work... So I have two awkward looking wax hands sitting here in my room... but it was still awesome. Maybe I'll make them into book ends.


After that, we went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. I had a veggie burger and it was delicious. We also happened to be sitting at a table surrounded by Billy Idol paraphernalia. I LOVE Billy Idol, so I was very excited about that as well.

After dinner, we went to the Phoenix Theater for a performance of the musical "Blood Brothers." I enjoy theater, but this... this was phenomenal. It's about twin brothers, separated at birth (their mother, a poor woman who already has 5 or 6 children, gives one of the boys to the rich woman whose house she cleans). The rich woman, Mrs. Lyons, states that twins separated at birth, can never know of each others' existence, or they will both immediately die. Of course, as the boys get older, they somehow find each other and become friends, much to the dismay (and terror) of their respective mothers. It's a beautiful story with amazing music to go along with it. Definitely one of my favorite experiences in London.

We returned to the hotel when the show was over, and hung out in Caitlin's room again, but that night we had a tea party. It was quite enjoyable. :)

Saturday we woke up, packed, and then commenced a walking tour of London. We saw tons of buildings including:
The Tower of London
Big Ben
London Bridge
Parliament
Buckingham Palace
The Royal Courts
Trafalgar Square
The Prime Minister's Street
St. James' Park

After our tour, we had a mad scramble to find lunch, as we had ended up in an area that contained absolutely NO restaurants whatsoever. Eventually we found a place selling fish and chips, so we munched on that outside in the park. AMAZINGLY delicious. Seriously.

While we were waiting for the rest of the kids to come back, the group I was with decided to get ice cream. We stopped at a little stand on the side of the road (it sounds sketchy, but it wasn't) and were greeted by a lovely man named Simon, who was working there. He had delicious ice cream as well. He was quite the character, and was immensely pleased when he found out we were from Belgium. He said that he only knows one phrase in Dutch: Zal je met me trouwen? which translates to: Will you marry me? Quite humorous, I will tell you.

This is Simon, the Ice Cream Man. He's holding a picture of my best friend, Hannah. I took that photo with me everywhere in London and took pictures of her with all of the landmarks and anything else I thought she'd like.

Once all of Rotary had regrouped, we divided up based on which museum we wanted to go to. Jordan, Caitlin, Sam and I chose to go to the British Museum. It was AMAZING how much history was inside that one building. I could have spent hours and hours, if not days and weeks just wandering the halls. However, we were all antsy to get out and explore the rest of London, as we had until 11 o'clock that night all to ourselves. So, needless to say, we were not in the best mindset for a museum. Some of my favorite parts:
The Rosetta Stone
The Book of the Dead
"Paula Deen. BUTTAH!"
"I really freaking HATE Rachel Ray."
"There should be way more Picasso stuff in here. Isn't this like... false advertising?"
"Dude... all of these people.... speak ENGLISH."
"Okay, so I'm thinking we're not at the maturity level we need to be at to be in here right now..."


When we were done touring the museum, we all headed across the street to Starbucks, of course, and then stopped to get "hot dogs" at the stand across the street. Why the quotation marks? Well, they tasted like funky sausage, and the box they came out of said "50% meat." I really don't want to know what the other 50% was. It was already dark outside, and the whole street was beautiful. Spending that time with my friends was definitely another one of my favorite moments on the trip. It wasn't necessarily anything extraordinary (okay... we were in London...), but a feeling of contentment just kind of washed over me during that walk. It was an indescribable experience.

We hopped on the metro after that. Next stop: King's Cross Station. Why? Platform 9 3/4. Yes, I'm serious! I had to explain my obsession to Jordan, who, as it turns out, has never read Harry Potter. >:( <---- That's my unhappy face. I do think his interest was piqued though, so hopefully he'll read them SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON. Life is not complete without Harry Potter. 'Nuff said.


We left King's Cross and hopped back on the metro to go to the London Eye, which Jordan really really wanted to ride. I ended up going as well, and it's probably number one on my Favorite Things About London list.



After the London Eye, we headed back to Picadilly Circus, and met a lovely drunk man wearing a mohawk wig on the metro. After arriving, we did a little bit of souvenir shopping, then split up for the remaining hour and a half or so. I went to a pub and hung out with Jordan and Elliot, and then we began a fruitless hunt for fish and chips. We ended up eating at a seedy little sandwich/donut shop, and watching a TV special about Susan Boyle. Actually, we almost missed the bus because we were watching the thing about her... But we made it, ça va alors. Most of the bus ride was spent sleeping, as well as the ferry. We actually missed the ferry we were supposed to take, so we parked the bus in a parking lot and just sat there for about an hour. And sleeping on the ferry was COLD. But oh well.

We made it back to Namur at about.... 8 am the next morning, and I took the train to Huy and Etienne picked me up. I slept most of the rest of the day, which was nice.



And voilà. That's the story of my trip to London. It was amazing, and it's definitely something I'll never forget. :)

Pizza

We just ate dinner, and as we were cleaning up, Anne-Michèle told Arnaud that at my house, we eat pizza for breakfast. He looked at me like I grew another head. Seriously.

Arnaud: Pizza?

Me: Yes...

Arnaud: In the morning?

Me: Yes. COLD, too. We don't heat it.

I think he's still standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out how us barbarians can walk and talk at the same time.

But I miss cold pizza.

Thanksgiving Pictures

All right world, here are the photos of the Thanksgiving Talia, Emma and I made for our host families. It was a LONG day -- we started cooking at about 1 and the party didn't finish until about midnight. Despite the enormous amount of work, everyone seemed to enjoy the food (the sweet potatoes were a big hit as well as the stuffing) and the pie was an interesting new experience for them as well. I'll post the story of the day later, as well as my stories from London. But for now, enjoy it visually. :)

Mikayla

Talia and I working on the sweet potatoes.

Of course, the vegetarian gets stuck making the chickens...

Melted butter, salt and pepper to rub on the chickens.

I don't remember what was going on at this point...

Emma's apples for her pie.

Emma, me and the bowl of stuffing.

Apple pie ready to go in the oven.

Our work space. It got a LOT messier than that.

We had leftover pumpkin pie filling, so we made little pumpkin pie cake things.

Rubbing the inside of the chickens with salt and pepper. The one I'm holding now became my chicken, the other was Talia's.

The chickens, in all of their chicken-y glory.

Pumpkin pie ready to be baked.

Stuffing the chickens. Amaury walked in while I was doing this, stared at me for about thirty seconds with eyes the size of saucers, and then ran out. He later told everyone that the stuffing was chicken excrement. Gotta love 11 year old brothers.

The chickens doing their thaaaang in the oven.

Apple pie.

Finished chickens. Mine was so beast it broke the string that was holding it together.

The finished table, right before we sat down to eat.

The dinner party.

Clockwise around the table:

Arnaud, M. Crismer (Emma's host dad), Anne-Michèle, M. De Wulf (Talia's host dad), Mme. Crismer (Emma's host mom), Etienne, Mme. De Wulf (Talia's host mom), Talia, Charles-Antoine (Talia's host brother), me

Not pictured: Amaury, Charlotte (Talia's host sister) and Emma (she was taking the picture)

Charles-Antoine, Talia, Emma, me, Arnaud

Etienne, Talia, Emma, Me, Anne-Michèle

Back row (l-r): M. De Wulf, Anne-Michèle, Mme. Crismer, Etienne, Mme. De Wulf, M. Crismer

Front row (l-r): Charlotte, Talia, Emma, me, Amaury