Massive Update.

28 December 2010

Emma and I went to Talia's host family's house to meet Talia's real family, who came to Europe for a week to see Talia and to go skiing. It was a lot of fun speaking English and translating. During the meal, I ended up at the end of the table with all of the adults while Talia and Emma were with the people our age. My brain got quite the workout translating between French and English.

I would like to throw out a huge THANK YOU to Talia's family for bringing me Chex Mix and Goldfish.

I went home with Emma and spent the night at her house, and we watched How I Met Your Mother, a truly awesome TV show. It's similar to Friends, but they're not quite exactly the same.

29 December 2010

Emma and I went to my house and hung out for the day, before heading to Hannut to meet up with Talia and her family. We went to Mr. Patate, a restaurant in Hannut, then went with Talia and her sister, Abbey, to the café and hung out with the Belgians there. It wasn't the most enjoyable thing I've ever experienced, but it was nice getting to know Abbey.

30 December 2010

Emma, Bella (my oldie, an Australian), Gaby (from Mexico) and I all went to Maastricht. There was all sorts of confusion and craziness with trains though, so we didn't get there until late afternoon, and Emma and I could only stay for about 2 hours. It was nice just getting out and seeing something different, and listening to Dutch. It's SO beautiful, I just don't understand why Belgians don't like it. The huge sales were going on in the Netherlands, so we went to H&M and a few other stores, and I ended up finding a really great pair of jeans that, of course, decided not to be on sale. *sigh* Oh well, I really like them.

31 December 2010

Arnaud and I went to his friend's house to celebrate the new year with a dinner and small party. There were only seven of us, but it was still a lot of fun. We had raclettes for dinner (AGAIN), and I had the pleasure of watching JB eat a plate of melted cheese. That's it, nothing else. Just melted cheese. Truly disgusting, in all honesty.

The group I was with are all very good friends, and so they had their Christmas gift exchange that night as well. I was pleasantly surprised when Arnaud gave me two packages. One of them was a black tote bag that has 5 slots on the front to put pictures in. Arnaud printed out some pictures and put them in as well. On the top row, there's a picture of Jordan and I on the ferry to London as well as a picture of me and the wax figure of Daniel Radcliffe (I posted both of them in my blog about London), a photo of me, Talia and Emma at Lady Gaga, and two photos of him and I: the one from the Fête de Wallonie (the first picture we ever took) and one from Christmas.

The second gift was two half-dome snow globes with magnets on the back. Inside of those are pictures as well: Arnaud and I at karaoké, and one of us and the entire group of his friends from that night.

They're two of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received. Merci mon frère.

Snow globe.

Arnaud, me, Sedef

Sedef and the bag Arnaud gave me.

Jb and I.

The group.

Me, Arnaud, Sedef, Romain, Rodolphe, Jb.

Photo taken by Charlotte.

3 January 2011

I went shopping with Anne-Michèle and Amaury in Liège for the sales, and we spent the day there. Anne-Michèle had to run back to a certain store, so Amaury and I hung out at the Fnac, which is like a Barnes and Noble, and we played with the cameras there. It was quite fun.

I was supposed to change host families that day, but we pushed it back a day so my new host mom could get some things finished before I came. Arnaud, Amaury, Etienne and I went bowling, and Arnaud won.

4 January 2011

I switched host families. It was, quite honestly, a normal day. I woke up, ate breakfast, etc. I went into Liège again to meet up with Evan, a friend from the states. He was kind enough to bring some gifts over from the states for me, which was AWESOME. We went out to lunch with a Belgian friend of his, Raphael, who was actually an exchange student to Loveland a few years back. Craziness.

I came home, packed up my final things, said goodbye to Arnaud, and we were off. Etienne, Amaury, and Anne-Michèle drove me to my new home. We were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to fit all of my stuff into the car (scary, I know). I ended up having 2 suitcases, a duffel bag thing, a laptop bag, 2 other bags, and 4 or 5 boxes. I don't know HOW I accumulated all of that crap in such a short time.

After being dropped off, I had dinner with my new host mom, her daughter, Valérie, and Valérie's boyfriend, Lionel. It was a lovely evening.

5 January 2011

I went to Bruges with Rotary. It's a beautiful city, truly, and everyone there speaks Dutch, which was wonderful. I do love that language. I wish I had seen more of the city though. I'm thinking I'll go back in the near future.

Most unfortunately I don't have any pictures, because I had accidentally left my purse in the back seat of Etienne's car when I was dropped off the night before. My camera was dead, too, so I was up a creek without a paddle regardless.

The rest of the week I spent just relaxing and not doing too much. I slept a lot, talked with friends and family in Colorado, and just enjoyed the last few days of break

10 January 2011

I went back to school. Yay. It was the start of a truly horrible week. Everyone's bound to have one of those sometime, right?

I don't want to focus on all of the icky things that happened, as I've already written about them, and honestly, that's not what my exchange is about. Bad things happen, yes, but they're not the main focus of my life.

13 January 2011

I spent the night at Talia's new host house, and it was great to have someone to talk to about everything and just be American for an evening.

14 January 2011

Talia's host mom drove us to Collège St. Quirin in Huy, where we spent the day speaking English to a group of 5th years. It's amazing how good their English is, and some of them have only been studying it for 3 years! At the end of the day, we sang karaoké, including Lady Gaga (wooo!), Queen, and John Lennon. It was a great day. :)

15 January 2011

I went with Valérie and my host mom to Liège, and I met up with Jordan, Caitlin and Sam. We hung out for the afternoon, and Jordan and I saw a movie, "Another Year." It's a British film, and while I usually enjoy most things British, this movie was not one of them. It sucked, plain and simple. There was NO plot. NONE. A total waste of over 2 hours, but I was with a friend, so it was all good.

Oh, and the Packers won that night. :)

Song of the Day:

On the Radio

by Regina Spektor