Goodbye

Today is the last time I'll see my group of exchange student friends.

I keep waiting for it to "hit me," but it still hasn't. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for. That sucker-punch feeling in the pit of my stomach? Uncontrollable tears? Anger? Sadness? An even stronger desire to return to Colorado?

I was writing goodbye letters to my friends, and I was thinking about this. I thought about when I left Colorado. I hadn't really cried or made much of a fuss about leaving for Belgium, until the night before my flight. I bawled like a baby, and curled up in my mom's bed. I ended up crying hysterically until 3:30 am (keep in mind I had to be up at around 5), and finally fell asleep for a little while.

I cried waiting for my plane to come in Denver, and I cried for a good portion of the flight to DC. But when I got there, I told myself that that was enough; the adventure was beginning NOW, and I wanted it to begin on a good note. After that, there were no more tears. I didn't really feel a huge slap from culture shock. Life here just became my routine.

Now I'm wondering if that will happen when I return in just under two weeks (I still can't believe it's that soon!). Will I fall back into life the way it used to be? Am I different? Are my friends? What about my friends from Belgium (exchangers and Belgians alike)? Will we be able to keep in contact other than the occasional "Hey, what's up?" and a Facebook "Happy Birthday!" ?

I don't think it'll ever really "hit" me that I'm going home. I think it'll just happen, and things will continue. I've come to the conclusion that that's just how life works. Things don't come in great waves and uncontrollable bouts like in movies or books. Life just keeps trucking on, like little waves hitting the shores of a lake.

Out of sync.

Hey folks.

I know my blog has become... sporadic. I have lots of posts to finish and lots of stories to share.

I need to finish:

Greece (no WAY was that 2 months ago...)

Rachel! (and our adventures)

Amsterdam

and just a regular life update as well.

I'm sorry I'm so behind, really, I am! I'll catch up soon.

I'm leaving for Prague tomorrow though, so these updates will take a while.

Mikayla

P.S. 24 days left!

It's exam time.

And it's a wonderful time to be in Belgium.

Why?

See, normally, people here get dressed up. Every day. They wear sweaters and cute skirts and boots and scarves. What girls wear to school here would be considered high-class formal wear in Colorado.

They NEVER wear sweatpants. Sweatpants are for the barraquis (the equivalent of trailer trash) and other street urchins. A respectable person would not be caught DEAD in a pair of sweatpants.

Even when people come home from school/work, they stay in the same clothes until 10:30 at night when they go to bed. People do not wear t-shirts, except for sleeping. Everything is kept presentable and classy, all day long.

Except during exams.

During exams, Belgians try to make their heads explode with as much knowledge as possible from the school year. They study 10-12 hours per day, every day, only stopping for 5 or 10 minutes to eat/go to the bathroom/have a breakdown about failing all exams and doubling (failing and retaking the year) once every 5 or 6 hours. They are so focused on studying that they don't bother to get dressed in the morning, since they'll be staying home all day. They stay in pajamas all day long, and simply fall onto their beds at night. They get up the next morning and they do the same thing.

And it's wonderful.

See, I LOVE sweatpants. They are my best friends in the world. There were many days when I went to school in sweatpants (in the US. I wouldn't DARE do it in Belgium). I will happily go just about anywhere in sweatpants (there have been weeks at a time where I wear nothing but sweatpants. It's lovely), and I think nothing of it. But here in Belgium, coming down to breakfast still in sweats is considered... not very classy. It's been killing me all year to have to be presentable all the time. A few months ago, I came up with a system to get my sweatpants fix. Here's how it works:

1. Wear sweatpants to sleep, and sleep as much as possible.

2. Wake up in the morning, complete total morning routine (shower, brush teeth, pack school bag, do makeup, etc) while still wearing sweats. Put "real" clothes on at the last possible second.

3. Eat breakfast, leave house, go to school.

4. Daydream about glorious sweatpants laying across the bed, just waiting to be worn again.

5. Come home from school, walk home as quickly as possible.

(This one serves two purposes: 1. it gets me to my sweatpants faster, and 2. it prevents my host siblings from seeing if I fall down the hill again on the way back to the house. Another story for another post)

6. Grab quick snack

7. Go upstairs, release self from evil, inhibiting jeans

8. Put on glorious, loving, soft sweatpants

9. Sit up in room for about 2 hours, doing homework, etc while basking in warm glow from sweatpants

10. Take off sweatpants

11. Change back into evil monster jeans

12. Go to dinner/hang out with host family, etc

13. Hear plaintive calls from sweatpants, begging not to be left alone

14. Finish dinner/hang out with family a little more

15. Bedtime! Run upstairs and hug sweatpants before putting them back on and falling asleep enveloped by their warm embrace

It's a great plan, I know.

Except right now, I can wear sweats ALL day long, because my host sisters are doing it.

Dear Exams:

I love you.

Fondly,

Mikayla

Yesterday was my last day of Belgian school.

Talia, Emma and I presented an oral exam together in Social Sciences, which we passed with flying colors (45/60, a GREAT score by Belgian terms). It was a pretty simple exam, but it was nice to finish on a good note like that. It's weird to think that I'll never have a class there again; that it's all over.

After we finished our exam, our super awesome teacher, Madame Gallo, drove me to my second host family's house so I could pick up a package from my mom. I ate lunch with my family and caught up with them, and then my host mom drove me home.

I spent the rest of the day bumming around, talking to my host sisters and to friends back in the States. It's nice to finally be on summer vacation!

Countdown: 29 days left in Belgium!

Rachel is here!

Coucou les amis !

Hier, mon amie, Rachel, est venue des USA me rendre visite ! Je suis hyper heureuse qu'elle soit ici. Heir, on est allée partout à Bruxelles avec une autre amie, Netta, qui habite en Allemagne. On a visité le Royal Musée des Beaux Arts, l'Automium, la Grande Place, le Mannekin Pis et pleins d'autres choses aussi. Elles ont essayé les gaufres belges, nous avons mangé des frites (avec la sauce Brésil !) et on a acheté du vrai chocolat belge ! YUM !

Hier soir, Rachel et moi, nous sommes revenues à la maison, et elle a rencontré ma soeur Camille et ma maman d'accueil, Fabienne. Aujourd'hui, elle à rencontré ma soeur Pauline et mon frère Quentin. Maintenant, toute ma famille est en blocus (ils étudient pour leurs examens), donc Rachel et moi allons voyager en Belgique ! On ira à Anvers, à Oostende (et la mer !), à Bruges, et à Maastricht (aux Pays-Bas) et à Aix-la-Chapelle en Allemagne ! Je suis contente. :)

Pour le moment, Rachel est super fatiguée, et elle dort beaucoup. Mais ça va. On va regarder les films en français (oui, elle parle français !) et on va marcher dans mon village aussi.

Je sais que je n'ai pas encore fini mes posts sur la Grèce et Paris, et j'ai pas encore mis les photos de l'Espagne. Bientôt, je vous promets !

Bisous,

Mikayla

P.S. Il me reste que 42 jours en Belgique ! Le temps passe vite, n'est-ce pas ?!

PRIDE.

Christian and I.

Saturday I went to Brussels with Aditi, Jordan, Christian and Pius. We met up in Central Station, and walked a few blocks to the Grand Place, before settling down to faire la fête (party). Why? GAY PRIDE. The parade was on Saturday in the streets of Brussels, and it was one of the most magical atmospheres I've ever experienced. It was not just a celebration of sexuality, it was a living, physical representation of love. There were couples of every orientation there, people of all ages, Dutch, French, German and English speakers. There was even a gay-rights group from Africa. We were all celebrating LOVE.

I stayed with my friends for most of the day, but I did run into my old host sister's boyfriend, Lionel. He's a police officer in Brussels, and it was nice to catch up. He offered to drive me home, which was super nice, and saved me the cost of a train ticket! There were all sorts of booths and stands all along the parade route selling drinks, souvenirs, rainbow bracelets, necklaces, rings, flags, banners, leis, and all sorts of other things. We took pictures, we danced, we laughed, and we celebrated. I looked at the stats online, and over 45,000 people were there. Isn't that amazing?! 45,000 people all supporting the one right we all share: to love and be loved.

It was magical, plain and simple.

The Parade.

The Main Stage.

I said I wanted a piggy-back ride, and this is what I got.

Me, Jordan, Aditi and Pius.

Euro.

My host brother just knocked on my door and asked me if I'd be willing to trade 10 euro in coins for a 10 euro bill. After digging through my wallet and subsequently sorting my lovely new coinage (yes, I have to sort the pieces... there isn't enough room in the change compartment of my wallet for all of them), I realized that it might be somewhat interesting to post about the euro on my blog.

Here's some pictures of what the euro looks like:

Aren't they colorful?!

When in Belgium...

Do as the Belgians do!

I've done many things here that I've never done before. I was thinking about that today as I perused other exchange student blogs, so I decided to make a list of new things I've done here. I do love lists, don't I? So. Let us begin.

1. ridden a train

2. taken public transportation by myself

3. used public transportation consistently

4. ordered an alcoholic drink at a bar (this is Belgian custom, NOT me breaking the rules!)

5. applied and been accepted to college

6. gone biking in gym

7. done rock climbing in gym class

8. eaten caviar

9. eaten potatoes. every. single. day.

10. learned to make a kiwi/mozzarella dish that is TO DIE for.

11. had a big brother (and a little one)

12. gone to a non-pro hockey game

13. seen a live comedy show (thanks Madame Gallo!)

14. touched the sea!

15. seen the films A Clockwork Orange, The Sixth Sense, and Mar Adentro (if you haven't seen it, WATCH IT. In the original Spanish, with your native language subtitles)

16. met someone who has never seen (and doesn't like) the Lion King

17. seen the location of the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon failed

18. eaten rabbit/hare

19. eaten mussels

20. danced the rock

21. been to the following countries:

1. Belgium

2. England

3. The Netherlands

4. Germany

5. Luxembourg (which is technically a duchy, but it still counts)

6. France (I've only driven through it, but I'm going back in a few weeks, so it counts)

Coming soon!

7. Greece

8. Italy (driving through)

9. Czech Republic

I'm stoked. :)

I'm sure there are many more, but for the moment, that's my list.

Bulletin !

J'ai reçu mon troisième bulletin aujourd'hui, et je suis contente. :) J'ai réussi dans tous mes courses !

I received my third report card today, and I'm content. :) I passed all of my classes!

Mes résultats:

My results:

Religion: 16/20

Education Physique: 14/20

Histoire: 10.5/20

Anglais: 18/20

Sciences Sociales: 16/20

Sciences: 12.5/20

Géographie: x/20

Français: x/20

Mathematique: x/20

Overall: 69%

I would like to stress that my overall score is good. There are Belgians whose scores aren't as high as mine. I'm immensely proud of the points I've earned here.

Two things to note here:

1. Any grade above 50% is passing, so yes, I am passing History, despite my 10.5.

2. I didn't get a grade in French, Géo, or Math because I don't do the tests in those classes. I'm not really sure what's going on in math (we've had 2 teachers, and now all the students are "en stage" which means an internship of sorts, until the end of April), I take notes but canNOT seem to follow along in Géographie (besides, my teacher doesn't even know my name. He's called me Clara once and Emma twice. The most recent time? Today. I wrote my name in giant purple letters on a piece of paper and held it up for him to see. We'll get to being invisible in another post, okay?), and I tried doing some work in French, but my teacher didn't bother to give me any points. If you will grade my work and write "Useless" and "sense? sense? sense?" all over it, but you won't bother to give me any credit for it, then sorry, I'm not going to work for you anymore. Fair?

I did receive a rather lovely note at the bottom in the comments section:

Le conseil de classe te rappelle que tu es ici pour t'investir dans TOUS les cours. Nous comptons sur toi.

English: The (equivalent of) homeroom teacher would like to remind you that you are here to invest in ALL of the classes. We are counting on you.

See point number 2 above.

My point? You're not counting on me if you don't know my name, and you're not counting on me when you don't give me points.

I showed my host parents my bulletin today, and they were very pleased. My host mom kept saying "Tu as des bons points !" (You have good points !). She told me to keep my bulletin downstairs to show my host dad after dinner, but be ready, he was going to tease me and tell me they were bad points. Sure enough, when I pulled it out, he told me to kneel down on the floor while he went over it. (It was funny, I promise). The first thing he said was "Religion. Only 16? What is this?!" He was giving me a hard time when my host mom ran into the dining room, waving a dish cloth and a plate in the air crying': "And how many points did YOU get in Religion, huh?!?!?! Let's go pull out YOUR old bulletins and show those off!" My host dad's response: "Chuuuut. Go back in the kitchen."

***I would like to point out that this was a joke and that he was *not* being serious.***

Then he told me that he completely and totally flopped Religion and was going to have to retake his rhéto (flunking senior year) but he passed some test and was allowed to finish school.

They both seemed pretty proud of me, and I'm proud of myself. I've gone from being completely lost and confused to understanding everything around me and doing well on tests.

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!

Mrs. Linville was right.

There's nothing new under the sun.

I'm sitting at my desk, reflechiring (that's some Franglish for ya... reflechir + thinking = reflechiring) about how much I've changed since I've been here in Belgium. It's already been 7 months (where did all that time go?!). I know for a fact that I'm more confident than when I first arrived. I'm no longer uncomfortable asking for help when I need it. I can speak, understand, and write in a different language. I can navigate myself through buses and trains, and usually be on time. All of these things have helped me grow as a person and realize the beauty in myself and in others around me. During this year, I've also seen other exchange students change and grow. I've watched my Belgian friends mature and discover new things about the world (a few of them have even decided to embark on exchange themselves, including Amandine and Florian). Of course, there are still times when I feel down or unhappy here, and there are definitely days when I wish I could go back to my simple life in Colorado. But that's not what living is about.

I've learned that confidence can be shaky, and there are times when I think that it's all overrated -- exchange, being a teenager (if these are the "best years" of my life, I'd like a refund, thank you), eating vegetables... you know.

I've also learned something that I consider to be very important. It's okay to not want to be friends with someone. I know that in kindergarten, we learned that you have to share with everyone, and everyone is your friend. That's not true, plain and simple. And that's okay. I've met people here I don't need to be friends with in order to be happy. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Life is about being happy, yes? So why do we weigh ourselves down with relationships that will never take us anywhere? I don't necessarily have anything against any of the people I'm not friends with, and I'm not intending to bash them in any way. I'm just trying to explain that for me, personally (and you do NOT have to agree with this), being friends with tout le monde (everyone) just is not possible. And I don't want to have to alter who I am to be friends with someone. In my opinion, friendship is about complete honesty. I think it's important to say what you feel at all times, and friendship is a manifestation of that ability. I'm not saying that people should get away with being mean, I'm just saying that honesty really is the best policy.

Shout outs:

Talia Saville: Today is your birthday, ma belle. Enjoy it. I love you.

Toni Theisen: Thank you for teaching me subjunctive.

Emily Snell: For sharing skirts and random host family stories.

Hannah Mueller: For everything.

Ms. Cherek: For writing a letter of rec on super short notice -- you are the BEST!

Mr. Cain: For sending me scholarship apps so I don't forget, and for actually reading my blog.

Mrs. Linville: For teaching me that there's nothing new under the sun and for being the best English teacher I've ever had.

My mom: For filling out a billion and one forms, countless trips to school, and agonizing hours of trying to get Skype to work.

Ericson Morales: For the love of Goldfish, get your phone working again. Thank you.

Song of the Day:

Joyeux anniversaire Amandine !

Today is Amandine's 18th birthday. Last night, a group of us all met up in Hannut to celebrate the last few hours of her minority, and to celebrate the fact that as of 12:01 am this morning, she can now do the following:

buy a house

go to prison

get a tattoo

vote

and technically buy alcohol in this country

Pretty awesome, no?

On Thursday, I spent the day with Amandine. We took the train from our local station all the way up to Oostende, in the very northernmost tip of Belgium. Why? So I could see the sea (I usually say ocean, but my Belgian friends frequently correct me and tell me it's the sea not the ocean, gawwwwwsh). It may surprise many of you to know that I didn't see an ocean until I was almost 17 years old; The English Channel is the first body of salt water I ever set eyes on, and I saw it 2 weeks before my 17th birthday.

Anyway, we headed up to Oostende so that I could see (and touch!) the sea. We arrived in Oostende and immediately started taking pictures. We walked around a little bit, and headed toward the beach, which was all blocked off because of construction. We eventually found a portion of the beach that people were allowed to walk down on, so we marched on toward the water. Here's something awesome about the beach: IT'S WINDY. VERY windy. But SO beautiful! It was clean and pretty and there weren't nasty seagulls everywhere, like the public beaches back home. Amandine and I walked to the water's edge and I touched salt water for the first time in my life! It was awesome, albeit FREEZING.

After that, we walked around a bit more, bought waffles, visited souvenir shops, and saw a beautiful cathedral. Amandine told me it looks like Notre Dame in Paris, which is pretty cool. I can't wait to see the actual Notre Dame!

Not long after buying waffles, we hopped back on a train to go to Bruges, which is another city in the north of Belgium. I've been there once before with Rotary, remember? Amandine had never been there before, and I didn't take nearly enough pictures the first time I went, so we decided to add that to our adventure.

Bruges is a very, very beautiful city. It's known as the Venice of the North, as it has loads of canals and waterways, just like Venice. You can take horse-drawn carriage rides around the whole city, and there are loads of chocolate shops and lace stores as well. Belgian lace is truly extraordinary.

Amandine and I walked to the Grand Place and took pictures, per the usual, and just poked around a bit before deciding to go to the Chocolate Museum. Yes, that's right, a museum based on chocolate. We were both pretty excited to go, but since we're the two most directionally-challenged people on this planet, we ended up getting lost and wandering around in circles before finding the chocolate museum about an hour later. And it was about... 100 yards from where we started. But of course, we didn't know that until later.

Anywhooo, the Chocolate Museum. SO awesome. They have a whole section on the history of chocolate: how it was discovered by the Aztecs and Mayas, then Cortez brought it back to Spain when he conquered Mexico, how Belgian chocolate companies have developed and changed how chocolate is made. There was also a demonstration about how to make pralines, given in Dutch, French, and English. At the end, we all got to sample a praline. Goodness they are DELICIOUS.

After that, Amandine and I decided to head home, as it was cold and rainy looking, and the train ride is 2 hours. Of course, we got lost again and ended up walking around in another circle before finding our way back to the train station. We got home at about 8 pm, and her parents dropped me off at my house. I had a quick dinner and hopped off to bed, thus concluding my day of Belgian Adventures.

I hope you're all having a fabulous day!

Mikayla

PS

Pictures WILL be coming, I'm just having trouble uploading them right now because the internet is spazzing out.

Sad news.

I hopped over the English Channel on Monday morning at a rather unfortunate hour (something gross like 6 am...), arrived at 7 am local time in Dover, and headed off toward Cambridge and Newmarket. The weather was AMAZING in England. Really. It was warm and SUNNY, and the air smelled like springtime, which was WONDERFUL. It's really a beautiful country, with rolling hills and tiny villages. Driving on the left side of the road is pretty fun too. :)

I know I promised pictures, but here's the thing....

I only got about 20 pictures the entire day, because we were in the car the WHOLE day. I'm not kidding. I got out three times: once to go into each of the John Deere stores we visited, and once to eat lunch and go to the bathroom. Seriously. No exploring, no visiting towns or interesting sights. So, all of my pictures were from inside the car, so they weren't that great.

Here's the other thing:

They all disappeared.

No, I'm not kidding. I uploaded all of my pictures just now, and they're mysteriously... not here. I checked my memory card, and they're not there, either. I must have accidentally deleted them. It's unfortunate, to be sure, but that's the way these things go, I guess. I wish I still had them, but at least I didn't lose a BUNCH of pictures, like the 150+ I took today in Bastogne. Ah well, life goes on. :)

So. I finally got home yesterday at about 5:30 pm. My host dad had a dinner of some sorts to go to, so he left, and my host mom and I had dinner, then I came up to my room and went to sleep. I'm lame, I know. I go to bed at about 8pm every night, but I'm TIRED people. It's exhausting to be an exchange student.

Today, I woke up at 8 am to catch a train at 9:22 so I could be in Liège to meet up with everyone else from Rotary and go to Bastogne, a city in southern Belgium. Christian, my Canadian buddy, and I sat together on the bus, which was quite pleasant. When we got to Bastogne, my favorite New Yorker, the fabulous Emily Snell was waiting for me, so I was STOKED about that. We started off having lunch (it was like 11:30 or something by that time) at some sort of petting zoo/farm thing in Bastogne. It was a pretty cool place: it's a petting zoo/farm as well as a home for people who are mentally handicapped. The residents take care of the animals and help out with general farm work, which I think is really cool. The land was very beautiful. While we were there, we saw goats, rabbits, llamas, chickens and sheep, including a lamb that was born this morning! One of the workers caught a lamb and we could pet and hold it as well, which was so cute!

Christian and a llama.

After that, we piled back in the bus and went to a museum about World War II. The guide is a member of Rotary, and he had Harry Potter glasses. SO awesome. The museum was WONDERFULLY done, and very interactive. There was a lot of information and a lot to see. There were little video screens everywhere, playing videos of people who had lived in the region during the war. They shared their memories, which were heartbreaking, more often than not. One woman told how her father had told them to go on ahead as the family was fleeing from the Germans; he would catch up with them later on his bike. He never came.

A letter written during the war. It was giving information about people selling on the black market, which was a booming business at the time.

After the museum, we went to the Mardasson Memorial, which is in honor of the Americans who fought and died in Belgium during the war. Over 70,000 American soldiers died there. Isn't that number mind-blowing? The monument is in the shape of the star, and it has every state engraved on it. You can climb up a spiral staircase to the top, and look down over the city of Bastogne, which was really cool.

Yours truly in front of the crypt. There's a memorial in there for Catholics, one for Protestants, and one for Jews. They're absolutely BEAUTIFUL mosaics.

Christian and I on top of the Mardasson Memorial.

After that, we climbed back into the bus and drove to a random building (that's not an exaggeration... none of us knew where we were) and where we were served pie, waffles, coffee, and soda by Rotary. They have a thing for giving us pie, seriously. There's almost always pie at Rotary events. I sat with Emily and Kryston (New York and Missouri), Christian (Canada), and Siddhant and Aditi (both from India). We had a very interesting conversation about geography. I learned that India has 28 states and that Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. Also, Aditi and Siddhant tried to name all 50 states. They got quite a few of them too, which was very impressive, I think. The first three they named? Washington, New York, and Ohio. Emily and I thought it was hilarious that Ohio was the third, out of all the states they had left to choose from...

Side note:

Some of you may know that one of my passions is education. I believe that the American education system is broken and needs to be completely reformatted. Schools should be palaces. Teachers should be paid like kings. Kids should wake up every day excited beyond all imagination because they get to go to school. Courses should be challenging. Graduation rates should be 99% across the country. All of these things are POSSIBLE. But as of right now, are any of them true? No, unfortunately. But I digress. The point of this was to explain a few differences between American schools and schools in other nations.

Did you know that in Canada, kids can (and DO) choose to take a 5th year of high school to bring up their grade average and thus give them a better chance to be accepted to college.

Siddhant and Aditi could name about 35 of the 50 American states. I couldn't name 5 cities in India. Nor did I know that India has states. I took World Geography sophomore year. I passed with an A. I took a full year of World History Sophomore year as well (1st semester Pre-AP, second semester regular). I earned an A in both of those.

Siddhant and Aditi are fluent in English, German and Marathi, as well as 2 or 3 other native tongues from India. They are here in Belgium, learning French. They are both 18 years old, and they speak 5 languages each, FLUENTLY.

At the end of this year, Siddhant is returning to India for 2 months, then moving to Germany, where he will study to be an engineer for FIVE years. He won't return home during that time. He will be going to university in GERMAN.

And to think, kids in America whine about having to take 2 credits of foreign language.

Just some food for thought.

Tomorrow, Amandine and I are going to Oostende, so I can touch the ocean. I've never touched an ocean before. Heck, I didn't even SEE the ocean until 2 weeks before my 17th birthday! I'm super excited. After that, we're going to take the train back down to Bruges and spend the day there. I'm excited! :)

Friday night, we're all meeting up in Hannut to celebrate Amandine's 18th birthday (WOO!). Then, Saturday, I'm hoping to go to Maastricht (in the Netherlands) with Christian. I love having a week off of school. :)

Biosus,

Mika

(that's what all my Belgian friends call me. I LOVE it.)

The month of February.

Another month has come and gone, and I'm sorry I've been such a crummy blogger. I'm seriously busy all the time, just living life. It's definitely true when people say that after January, exchange just FLIES by.

Instead of doing a long, rather boring post about my month, I'm going to show it to you in pictures. :)

February 2

Every year on the 2nd of February, there is a sort of celebration in Belgium and in France, I believe. Basically, everyone makes crêpes. Each person holds a coin in their hand and flips a crêpe. It's supposed to bring you good luck. I found this to be a rather enjoyable experience. It was the first time in my life that I helped make real crêpes.

And yes, that is my crêpe mid-flip. Ohhh yeahhh.

February 6

The Packers won the Super Bowl.

February 3 -- 7

Switzerland!

February 11

Guitar Hero and Mac n Cheese at Amandine's house!

This was definitely one of the most enjoyable nights I've had here in Belgium. Florian, Amandine, Florence and I went out for a drink after school and then headed to Amandine's house to hang out for the evening. I made Mac n Cheese for them, which they LOVED! I'm really glad I could share that little piece of home with them. After dinner, we played Guitar Hero and another game involving singing, then we watched funny YouTube videos (like Charlie Bit My Finger and the baby that gives people "The Look"). We also danced The Macarena, The Electric Slide, and The Soulja Boy dance. I spent the night at Amandine's house, which was super fun. We had some delicious croissants the next morning.

(that's Florian with the Mac n Cheese box. :))

February 12

After Amandine dropped me off at my house on the 12th, I ran upstairs, took a shower, grabbed some lunch, then headed back to the train station to catch a train to Brussels, then a connecting train to Waterloo. I was headed up there to spend the night with Michelle, the other exchange student here from Colorado. We'd been meaning to hang out forEVER, but never got the chance. We finally made it happen, and I'm super glad we did because it was a BLAST. We went to a movie with another American friend of Michelle's, then her host sister, Valentine, picked us up and we all went to Pizza Hut, which was so many levels of delicious I don't think I can describe it. After that, we went to McDonald's and got McFlurrys (Speculoos and caramel. YUM.). After that we drove around like crazy people, singing and laughing and having a good time. Michelle, Valentine and I all hung out a bit, and Valentine played her guitar and her ukulele, which was really awesome. She and Michelle are learning how to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow, one of the most awesome songs of all time. After that, Michelle and I talked about Colorado, home, family, and everything else before going to sleep. The next morning, we made PANCAKES. Oh my tortilla they were delicious. Michelle even had maple syrup, which made it a billion and one times better. I love pancakes. Seriously. After that, we hung out a bit more, and then I had to catch a train. We had about 15 minutes to spare though, so her host parents took us to the Butte de Lion (the hill with a lion statue on it, commemorating Napoleon's fall from power at the Battle of Waterloo), and we went inside one of the buildings to see the mural of the battle. It's a HUGE, circular mural that depicts the different troops and their placement and other important factors and elements of the battle. It was super interesting, and I wish I'd had more time to take it all in. I'm definitely going back. After that, Michelle's parents dropped me off at the Braine-L'Alleud train station and I hopped on a train to Brussels, then to Landen. Home sweet home at last. My goodness I was tired.

Oh, to explain the picture:

Michelle's house had a bidet in the bathroom! Funny little things, no? I'd never seen a bidet before, so I snapped a picture. Why not?

One other random fact:

In Michelle's house, at the top of the stairs, was a frame containing a very large, very alive-looking spider. I'm not kidding when I say that this thing was the size of a dinner plate. It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my life.

February 14

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was spent at school and then at home with my host mom. You should know that I'm not normally a fan of this day, especially because I come from Loveland. I mean, come on people. I woke up and forgot what the date was, so I wore a red shirt to school. When I finally realized that it was, in fact, Valentine's Day, I defaulted to my normal mental state on this "holiday": pissed off. I just really hate the artificial baloney-ness that it has become. Yes, giving people chocolate and flowers is nice, but wouldn't it be nicer if someone got you flowers on a random day, just because they felt like it? Anyway, I managed to keep my grumpiness under control for most of the day, which was good. On the bus ride home, I was cheered up by my Bus Buddy; he decided to write

LOVE YOU

ANDREI

on my arm. It was nice to be on the receiving end of a little act of kindness.

That night for dinner, my host mom made heart-shaped potatoes. So deliciously awesome. There's truly nothing like some artery-clogging fried deliciousness to bring your spirits up, and I'm not kidding. I really love those potatoes.

My host dad was still in Chile at this point, but he sent my host mom flowers just like he did for their anniversary. I just think that's so darn cute.

February 17

I finally received the box of valentines from the always awesome Mme Theisen. Inside was a bunch of valentines made by my friends in the states for the Belgians I know here. It's a way to promote international cooperation and understanding, and a darn good one, I must say. I looked through the valentines, and they are all SUPER awesome. I'm not gonna lie, I'm sad I missed out on that this year.

There was also a lovely surprise inside the box: some valentine socks and a winter hat, as well as Christmas posters from my friends back in the states. They were all messages and little things from Loveland: a copy of the Loveland Connection, the funnies from the Reporter Herald, as well as a sudoku (thanks Chichi. :)), and just an overall felling of merriment and love. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone in French IV. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you all took the time to do that. I decorated my room with your posters. :)

February 22

I just really love Eduardo.

He's one of the happiest, most loving people I've ever met. And his eyelashes are awesome. Not a joke.

Te amo amigo.

February 25

I went to Germany with my host family and their company, for the day to visit John Deere factories. I'll be honest: TRACTORS ARE THE COOLEST VEHICLES EVER.

Seriously, if I were to be a transformer, I'd be a tractor. Those things are the cat's pajamas.

This picture came about after my host dad said, "You look like an alien!" and grabbed my camera. I think I rocked the goggles/ear plug look, don't you?

After the factory visits, we went to a wine tasting, which was nice. We tried 5 different wines, and I was really proud that I was able to taste the differences between them. I'm becoming a wine connoisseur! One of the wines smelled like paint, but was actually really delicious. Crazy how those things happen.

After the wine tasting, we went to dinner, and I had some sort of steak with potatoes au gratin (yum).

For desert, I had some tiramisu, pictured here:

Delicious.

l to r: Siddhant, Emily, Sam, Kryston, Me, Jordan

The ever-lovely Miss Emily and I.

Saturday, I went to Luxembourg with Rotary. We toured a brewery and then went to lunch, which was followed by a tour of the slaughterhouse our lunch had come from. Lovely, no? We then hopped on a bus to the lovely city of Luxembourg (yes, there really is a Luxembourg, Luxembourg). I had a lovely day with my exchange buddies, and Jordan and I decided we're going to take a trip to Venice before the end of the year. I'm excited. :)

My host dad and I at the Automium. Sunday was the first time I've ever seen it.

A street performer in Brussels. This would be a much cuter picture if he hadn't made me pay him afterward. :P

There was a car show outside one of the monuments we visited.

Sunday was Mario (he works with my host dad in Chile)'s last day with us, so we all piled in the car to go to Brussels for the afternoon. We stopped at a TON of monuments, including a cathedral, the Automium, the royal palace, and the king's house. It was the first time I'd seen a lot of those monuments, which was pretty cool. It's amazing that I've been here for over 6 months, and there are things I still haven't seen or done!

After our sight-seeing, we went to a restaurant called Léon's, and we all had mussels. Mine were covered in cheese, butter, and garlic. SO DELICIOUS. Seriously, I love mussels. They're a wonderful food. We also stopped to get some ice cream at a place in St. Trond. The ice cream cones were HUGE, and they had two little waffle cakes on the sides. I had praliné ice cream, which is kind of like chocolate. I highly recommend it.

Well folks, that's pretty much it. School is going along as usual. Next week we have off for Carnaval, which shall be exciting. There will be a lot of fêtes and such, so maybe I'll do a little partying. :)

Amusez-vous bien pendant les prochaines semaines !

Bisous,

Mikayla

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. :)

Buerre de cacahuètes.

That's how you say peanut butter in French.

Nothing exceptionally special has happened these past few days. I wake up, I go to school, I come home (on the BUS!) and then I do homework and whatever else. I'm supposed to be doing something for math that involves spreadsheets that I simply do NOT understand. I'm working on it when I finish this post.

I'm still in LOVE with Regina Spektor. Honestly, her music is great. Listen if you haven't yet.

Friday, I continue my presentation about the United States in English class. I already talked about Colorado, and everyone laughed when I said I come from Loveland, the Land of Love. They all seemed pretty excited about getting the Loveland Valentines from my French class back home though, so that's good.

I do believe that's all, folks. I'm looking forward to some Skype time with Miss Danika, and then I'll be hitting the hay. I'm SO tired lately. Thank you, dreary Belgian weather.

I rode the bus all by myself today.

I'm extremely proud.

I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal, but I've always been extremely worried about things like that. I start to panic, thinking I'm going to miss my stop, or for some reason I'm on the wrong bus, or that I'll get off too early and have to walk, and since I don't really know the roads to my new house, who KNOWS where that could lead...

But I rode the bus all by myself today, and it was fine. Nothing bad happened. I hopped on, rode home, and hopped off. Easy peasey lemon squeezy.

MASSIVE thanks to Eduardo and Talia for waiting for the bus with me, just to make sure I got on the right one. :)

I rode the bus all by myself today.

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