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.