Another month, gone.

So, my updates have been... sporadic, at best this past month. With school, a new family, and just life in general taking their respective courses, I haven't had much time to write. Add that to the fact that the internet at my new house is as moody as all get out. Anyway. Let us begin.

On Tuesday, the 25th, I had to give a speech to Rotary, which included a powerpoint about Loveland and my life in the states. I basically made a slideshow of photos of me and various things/people: horses, my friends, school, my two super awesome French teachers, my family, etc. At the end, I devoted two slides to Loveland: one to the amazing amount of art we have in our little town, and another to the massive event that is Valentine's Day. I think most of the Rotary people enjoyed it, and I was definitely proud of myself for doing it all in French. The biggest gaffe I made was when I forgot how to say "nine" in French. I couldn't remember if it is "neuf" or "nein." It's neuf.

Wednesday I went to Liège to buy a dress for a Rotary dinner (that was Saturday, we'll get there...). I ended up meeting up with Talia, Eduardo, Emma, and Aymeric (a Belgian) for a while, before breaking off to go find my dress. I don't know what it was about Wednesday, but I was incredibly homesick and miserable. The rest of the group and I ended up finding each other again, and Talia really helped me come out of my funk, which was great. We all went to Pizza Hut afterward, and had some delicious pizza, which was amazingly like pizza from back in the states. I'm ashamed to say that I have lost the ability to eat pizza with my hands. :( I'll have to practice when I get home.

I ended up buying a different dress from the one I originally planned. It's much cuter though, and it was on sale. Cue happy Mikayla. :)

Thursday was all set up to be a normal day, but I got lucky and two of my professors weren't at school. What does that mean? Well, in the states, we have substitute teachers. They don't do that here in Belgium. If a teacher is sick and not coming to school, class is simply cancelled. So, since my two teachers weren't there, I finished school at 10 am. I had finished at that time on Wednesday as well, which means I had two days of relaxation, honestly.

Friday, I went to Brussels with my host mom's neice, Marie. We went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (yes, the same one I went to with Jordan) and toured the Modern Art exhibit. It was a lot of fun just talking to someone new. Marie doesn't speak English, so I spoke in French with her all day long. It was good practice. :) We also walked around the Grand Place in Brussels a little bit, and I saw the Manneken Pis again. Did you know that there's a Jannekin Pis, too? The Manneken Pis is a boy, the Jannekin Pis is a girl.

Friday night was Marie's surprise birthday party. That's the whole reason we went to the museum -- to get her out of the house so she wouldn't be able to find out about her surprise party. Everyone did a really good job of keeping it from her, because she was SHOCKED when we got there. There were all sorts of cute decorations and pictures of Marie from throughout her life, and really great deserts. A Silly String fight was involved in there somewhere as well, which was quite entertaining. The adults really got into it.

Saturday, I had the Rotary party. It was a soirée for the president of our Rotary club, to celebrate his 6 month anniversary as president. There was all sorts of delicious food (I tried caviar and lamb for the first time), a special beer type drink, and alcohol soaked crêpes (not so yummy). After the five hour dinner (yes, it was quite the formal affair), the waiters moved the tables and there was a dance floor. I would have loved to dance, but most unfortunately, Miss Talia wasn't willing to accompany me. I left the soirée at about 1 am, and came home and crashed.

Sunday morning, Valérie woke me up and told me that I had to get out of bed and go on a walk with her, my host mom, and one of their friends. As much as I would have loved to have stayed in my bed and slept, Valérie was insistent, and so I had to get up, get dressed, and get my game face on. We ended up walking for about 2.5 miles, and it was fairly pleasant, albeit REALLY cold. Dang winter. After that, I came home and watched Sex and the City for the first time. Valérie has the first season on DVD, and she loaned it to me. In all honesty, I don't know why people get so worked up about this show. It's stupid. The West Wing was much better (I finished it, by the way).

Today, I went to school and fell back into the routine of the Monday usual. I was supposed to be going to a concert tonight (Angels and Airwaves) with Jordan, but most unfortunately, that didn't work out. :(

However, this lovely band shall be the song of the day. Enjoy. :)