La Fête de Wallonie.

The group.

Arnaud and I.

I've been sick for the past week and a half.

And I'm soooo sick of it! My host family doesn't use tissues, they use hankies, which, quite honestly, have always kind of grossed me out. Don't you want the germs to get away from you? Alas, I have been craving tissues for the past week. I go to school every day and take a bunch of paper towel from the dispenser in the bathroom and use that. It's worked quite well so far.

Tonight, Anne-Michèle asked me if I wanted to make "pâte avec le fromage," commonly known as mac n cheese in America. Of course I said yes, and ran up to my room to retrieve the boxes of Kraft goodness. While cooking, I talked with Anne-Michèle and Amaury, which was fun. I was almost moved to tears of joy when I opened the package of powdered cheese. I do think Anne-Michèle was a little surprised when I didn't bake the final product in the oven for a few minutes. When we finally sat down to eat it, Anne-Michèle and Arnaud both wanted salt and pepper on theirs, which was fine by me. The only thing that freaked me out was when Arnaud added ketchup. You just don't do that to mac and cheese. You just don't.

While we were eating, Arnaud asked me if it's a common American dish. I laughed a little and told him yes, yes it is. I eat it at least... 5 or 6 times per month, right mom?

Anyway, as we were eating, Anne-Michèle was saying that it's made with cheddar cheese. I responded, "Well... I'm not sure I'd call it "cheese" exactly...." (come on people, the stuff comes in powdered form...). I don't think I was very clear though, because Anne-Michèle started explaining cheddar cheese to me. Of course, being a Wisconsinite, I could live off of cheddar cheese (and often eat little else for days at a time...), so I found it kind of amusing that she didn't think I knew what it was. On a related note, I've been missing cheddar cheese. If Anne-Michèle knows what it is, it must be in the country somewhere, right? I have a new mission. :D

I'm going to post pictures of the mac n cheese in a different post; the photo uploader is acting funny, unfortunately.

Here's a recap of the things that have happened lately:

Friday I was in a stupendously happy mood, and I have no idea why. I was jumping around with happiness. My adrenaline was insane. It hasn't completely worn off yet, either. I'm still walking on air!

Friday night Etienne and I went to a concert in a nearby town. It was the Belgian band October. They do U2 covers, and they were pretty good. Unfortunately, they totally butchered "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", which is my favorite U2 song. That put a bit of a damper on it for me (that and the fact that I was so cold I couldn't feel my feet), but otherwise it was a lot of fun. I met some of Etienne's friends (I'm not kidding when I say my host family knows EVERYONE) and two little guys who were 13 and 14, the sons of one of Etienne's friends. The friend kept trying to force them to speak English with me, which was a little funny. They did try a little bit though, which was nice. And they didn't laugh at my mediocre French, which was a relief.

The concert ended at midnight with some fireworks (I enjoyed those, of course) and Etienne and I left right away. It was SO cold! But I'm really glad I went. It's nice to get out and see things once in a while.

Saturday I slept in for a bit, and then Anne-Michèle and I went shopping after lunch. I didn't bring nearly enough warm clothes along, and my school doesn't allow shirts that expose our shoulders (that includes tanktops, unfortunately), so I needed to get a few things. I managed to find a warmer jacket that I really like as well as a sweater and two pair of tights, one black, one gray. At the next shop, Anne-Michèle and I found a pair of black heels and a necklace for the soirée I'm going to with Arnaud at the beginning of October. Funny story: when we got home, I realized that the shoes were both for the right foot. Anne-Michèle exchanged them today. :)

Anyway, Saturday night, I went to Namur with Arnaud for the Fête de Wallonie. We went in a big group with his friends, which was a lot of fun. There was the usual exclamation of "You're only 16?!" and one guy thought it would be funny to ask Arnaud if he was babysitting, but aside from that it was a pleasant evening. I met up with Talia and Emma (other exchange students who go to my school) for a little while, which was great. We had a good time laughing and joking about school and exchanges and life back home and all of the rather drunk people we were surrounded by. Talia and Emma left at about 11:30, and Arnaud and I went with his friends to a tent with a DJ and we all danced until about 3 am. Arnaud taught me a swing dance move either called "The Rock" or "The Work" (his English wasn't too good at that point), which I enjoyed. The DJ stopped playing at about 3, and we were home at 4. I only slept about 3 hours, but I really wasn't too tired the rest of the day.

Sunday at noon, we had lunch at Mami's house again, and I got to meet one of Etienne's sisters, which was nice. Her name's Sophie.

The past two days I've been doing school stuff, and tomorrow is a half-day, so I'm very excited.

Oh, I've also had some new problems with the shower. It seems that it wants to be one of two temperatures: freezing or third degree burns. This should be interesting.

I hope everyone is doing well!

This bloody chipmunk won't shut up.

I am so tired of listening to it run around its cage. Blaargh.

On a happier note, I've been here in Belgium for a little over a week now, and I still love it. It's just an amazing place. The weather is, in my opinion, to die for. There's sunshine, there's rain, and the temperature is just right.

Yesterday, after dinner, Etienne, Amaury, and I went in the Citroën and drove to the homes of my other host families. Les Golard were not at home, but I did get to meet their dog. Mme. Cuyckens was home, however, so I got to visit with her for a while. Les Cuyckens live right behind their store, a John Deere business. It's pretty cool, in my opinion, coming from a place like Wisconsin. They even had tractors on the roof of their garage!

I must say, I love the Citroën. It's kind of the Belgian equivalent of an old VW bug. It's 25 years old, and it's a convertible. I love her. :)

I miss wearing sweatpants. Ugggh.

Sunday night, I went with Adrien and Arnaud to a festival in a nearby town. I'm not entirely sure what the festival was for (there were people biking around in decorated bikes... there was a converse shoe, a fire truck, and army truck, etc), but it was massive amounts of fun. It was a lot like a school dance, except outdoors and with a LOT of beer. I don't think that I can really explain how much beer was there. Well, maybe. If you took all of the water in Lake Loveland and turned it into beer, there you go. And I'm pretty sure that the people there drank all of it too. It was quite humorous to watch them go from sober to smashed. At the beginning when most of them were (relatively) sober, they'd try to speak English with me and they would explain what was going on as best they could. By the end of the night, only the people with really good English managed to talk to me. One fellow told me that he is God and that I must believe in him. Another said that he wanted to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest ears. Another tried to kiss my host brother. All in all, it was rather enjoyable. I gained an appreciation for techno as well.

Adrien and I left at about 1:15 am. He had to study for his English exam coming up and he said that I shouldn't stay because there would be a lot of fights soon. I was exhausted anyway, so we went home. Oh, and I think Adrien is the best driver in the family, so far.

Earlier on Friday, I went with Anne-Michèle and Amaury to some sort of bicycle race thing that Etienne was catering (they're really into bikes here). The food was delicious, of course. I helped Anne-Michèle sell drink tickets, which wasn't as boring as it sounds. People would start talking to me in French, but I had no clue what they were talking about (I didn't really understand the race thing anyway), so I would say "Je suis americaine. Je ne comprends pas." Most people seemed excited by that fact, and they would start speaking Enlgish to me, which was very nice.

After that, but before the festival, the entire family (minus Etienne) went to the house where Anne-Michèle grew up. The house is for sale, and I gathered that this was the last time that all of the family would be able to get together there, which was kind of sad. I met a very nice cousin, Olivier, who practised his English with me. He said that he exchanged for a year in Paraguay, and he could totally relate to what I was struggling with with the language. He seemed very surprised that I'd already dreamed in French though (Friday night. Woo!). He said it was a good thing; it means that I'm absorbing the language. Sounds good to me.

Anyway, the rest of the party was pretty fun; there were a lot of things to eat, most of them involving candy or sugar in some way. I also got to sneak into a few family pictures, which I think is kinda funny. Anne-Michèle said that they'll just tell people that I'm Alix with glasses. I'm amused. :)

Saturday night, Anne-Michèle and Etienne went to some sort of party at their friend's house, and we kids were left alone. We made croque-monsieurs (ham and cheese sandwiches, pretty much), and it was weird to use brie as the cheese. I'm used to Kraft singles for any type of cheese-melting activity, as my throat kind of freaks out at the texture of most melted cheese. I didn't like it much, but again, I'm not one for melted cheese.

After dinner, Amaury and I rode bikes to a small ice cream shop in town, and we had the most delicious ice cream I've ever tasted. Holy cow was it good! I just had a scoop of vanilla, but it was AMAZING. The guy working there dropped my scoop into the strawberry, so I had a taste of that too, and it was SO delicious. The owner seemed very familiar with Amaury, and asked who I was. When Amaury told him that I'm the exchange student living with his family and that I'm American, the guy started to use all of the English he knows, which pretty much all related to ice cream, which I thought was so cute. Anyway, two things about that little trip stuck out to me:

1. The ice cream. You seriously do not know ice cream until you've had it here.

2. There's something so great about being able to see a city by bicycle. It's way more personal. If you visit somewhere and you drive around in a car, you'll never get to understand it or be able to feel the atmosphere. Take a bike or walk. You won't be sorry.

Well... I think that's all. I'm going back downstairs to get away from the chipmunk.

Mikayla

Je suis arrivee!

Hey! I made it to Belgium alive and well. I met my first host family, my second host mom and sister, and my third host dad at the airport. They had a sign with my name on it, welcoming me to Belgium, which was so great! After we left the airport, we went to the train station so that my host sister, Alix, could get her train ticket to Paris, which is where she flew from the US. It was kinda sad to say goodbye, because she was my translator for those three hours. She's just so nice and I'm glad I got to meet her. I hope she has a great time in the US!

After we dropped off Alix, we came to my host family's house, and it is SO beautiful. It belonged to my host dad's grandmother. Everything is wood: the floors, the doors, most of the furniture, and I LOVE it! My host mom, Anne-Michele, and Alix decorated my room, and it's so me it's CRAZY. My bed is HUGE (I think it's two twins pushed together) and REALLY comfortable. My bed frame is gorgeous dark wood that matches my armoire (there isn't a closet) and desk. My sheets and blankets are red, with another yellow blanket on top. The curtains are red and orange, and the towels are red and gray. The walls are pale yellow and white stripes. Anne-Michele put up lots of pictures with huge amounts of color. The pictures are of African scenes, and so pretty! They also gave me a HUGE, HUGE poster of Harry Potter. HUGE. It's amazing. Full color, and probably at least 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide. It's BEAUTIFUL. Oh, and I also met my third host brother, Arnaud.

After we came home yesterday, I called my mom to let her know I made it safely, then we had lunch. My host family eats lunch every day at noon. Sundays, they go to Etienne's (my host dad) mother's house for lunch with the ENTIRE family. It's HUGE. Anne-Michele was explaining the family to me yesterday, and it seems that everyone has four kids. I can't keep their names straight at all. I'm sure I'll learn with time though.

Anyway, before lunch, Anne-Michele told me that Amaury wanted to show me the gardens. He took me outside and we walked through the gardens, and he showed me the chickens and the pool as well. We walked up the driveway and across the street to his cousin's house, where I met three cute little ponies and his cousin (Marie?) before heading back to the house for lunch.

After lunch, I napped for about four hours. I was completely wiped out from the plane ride. After I got up, I talked to my host mom a little, and she invited me to meet some of the family. We rode around in the Belgian version of an old VW bug. A Citroen. Il est si mignon! Anne-Michele, Amaury, and I went to Etienne's mom's house and to Etienne's sister's (I think) where we got to meet a cute new puppy.

After we came home, Anne-Michele, Amaury, and I went to the living room, and I went through the first night questionnaire. She laughed when I asked if I was supposed to call her Mme Cartuyvels. She said "Oh no no no. Anne-Michele, Miche-miche, mais pas Mme Cartuyvels." I asked what I should call M Cartuyvels, and she said Etienne. So there we go. :) Anne-Michele showed me how to work their washer and dryer and said that school starts at 8:10 in the morning. Ahhh, relaxation time!

After the questionnaire, Anne-Michele told me I could go to a 50th birthday party for one of her friends. Amaury asked if I would like to take a shower before, which I thought was so sweet. Or maybe I just really smelled like airplane. I attempted to take a shower, and just about froze to death in the process. In this shower, there hot water knob is on the right with the cold water on the left. I tried to turn the hot water knob, but nothing came out of the shower. So I figured that the cold had to be turned on for the hot to work. Pas vrai. I turned the hot water knob every way I could imagine, and still, I got nothing but cold water. So, I took a cold shower. I don't mean lukewarm, I mean cold. I'm going to try again today, and if I still get nothing but cold water, I'll ask Anne-Michele for help. Honestly, I think the house is out to get me, because when I used the sink in my room to brush my teeth later, hot water came out of the cold tap. Craziness, no?

The party was pretty fabulous. Another different thing about Belgium -- the party was in a barn. Not an old, refurbished barn, but in a fully functioning barn. There was a pen full of calves right next to the tables where people were talking and sharing beer. It was a little weird, but still enjoyable. I followed Anne-Michele for a while and was introduced to a bunch of people, but I struggle to recall their names. I ended up hanging out with one of my host sibling's cousins (I know he told me his name...) for quite a while. He asked me if I wanted a beer, and when I said no, thanks, I think I pretty much rocked his world. He's pretty nice, and fluent in English, so we got along swimmingly. :) We talked about drinking ages, and he had me try his beer. I can't say I fell in love with it, but it wasn't horrible (sorry, Mom). Adrien (one of my older host brothers) came over and chatted with us for a while too, and he had me try his beer as well. I liked it more than the other, and the cousin told me that most people didn't like it as their first. Well, what can I say, I'm a crazy American. :) After the beer tasting, they told me that there are over one THOUSAND types of Belgian beer. One THOUSAND. We walked around for a while, and I petted the cows. The cousin thought I was crazy because I said that I love cows, they're so cute. The cow I was petting started to lick me, and I couldn't help but laugh. The cousin yelped and backed up a number of steps when the cow went for him. I think it's funny that everyone who knows English also knows English swear words. But anyway, we continued chatting for a while, then I was taken over by two men who spoke English. One of them wanted to practice, because he's going to Iowa on Wednesday to judge a cow show. Yep. I was a little surprised too, but hey, it's pretty cool. That man also has seven horses. If I'm not very much mistaken, he has a young horse that's fairly jumpy that he wants me to train two or three times a week. I'll have to look into that a little more. I wish I'd brought my boots. :(

Anyway, Anne-Michele, Amaury, and I (we're like the Three Musketeers, I guess) came home at about 10:30. Anne-Michele kept saying how early it was, but she was tired and so was I. I went to bed around 11:20 last night, and slept until 8 am this morning, so I feel pretty refreshed. I might attempt another shower later.

As for the language, I'm really surprised by how much I understand. If I don't know a word, I ask the person to repeat it, and they usually do, as well as explain it in French, which is helpful. I'm not yet at the point where I respond well, for the most part I say "oui," "tres bien," "ca va," "okay," or "Je comprends." I also forgot my dictionary at home, which SUCKS since I can't look up things I want to say, like "I can't figure out your shower," or "Sorry I have so much stuff, my mom made me bring an extra suitcase." But it will all come with time, right? :) The easiest person for me to understand is Anne-Michele, because she speaks slower for me and usually asks me "Tu as compris?" (You understand?) after about two sentences. I'm getting better at picking up what Etienne is saying as well, and Amaury is a perfect gentleman, speaking in mostly small words and talking at a snail's pace. The person I'm really struggling to understand is Adrien. I don't think it's his fault at all, but every time he speaks I get lost after the first two or three words. I think it's because he speaks so fast. I now understand why so many people get confused when other people speak French; it honestly does sound like bubbles if you don't know what's going on. But it's really such a beautiful language. I'm glad I have the chance to learn it.

Some interesting stuff about Belgium:

• There was litter EVERYWHERE in Bruxelles.
• If you don't drink beer, something is medically wrong with you.
• Most, if not every single one of the houses I've seen are made of stone.
• There are flies. EVERYWHERE.
• It seems that families (or maybe just les Cartuyvels) live SUPER close together. Right down the street from my house is Etienne's mom, sister, another sister, I think, and probably two or three dozen other relatives.
• People weren't lying when they said that the weather is really cloudy. I woke up this morning, and the sky was a lovely shade of gray. It could have been 4 am or 3 pm, I had no idea till I turned on my computer.
• Clocks. I don't have a clock in my room, and I have yet to see one around the house (I haven't really looked though). I need to get one before school starts though, or at least a watch, because not knowing the time is making me batty. I now understand why the guy in IQ (Walter Matthau plays Enstein) is running around his cell like crazy because he doesn't know the time. It's really quite frustrating.
• Again, the shower. That thing is really getting to me.
• Lights. There are no lights past the third set of stairs on the way to my room. I walk the last 10 or 20 steps to my room in complete darkness. It's not horrible, but just a little odd. I'll have to start leaving a small lamp on in my room.
• They really do eat fruit for desert. Yesterday, I was offered a nectarine or a peach. I think I made an idiot out of myself because I just bit into it. It was delicious, yes, but everyone else who had one used a knife to cut it up. I'll have to try that next time I'm offered. I know it's the American in me coming out, but it just seems so time-consuming to sit there and cut the fruit up before eating it. Oh well, this isn't about being American, it's about being part of the family.
• I realized that I didn't bring enough warm clothes. I have five pairs of pants, but mostly tank tops and t-shirts for tops. I'll have to get my mom to send a sweatshirt/jacket along with my dictionary.
• It's kinda weird being up so high in the house. The view is PHENOMENAL, but I can't really hear what's going on downstairs. Just something to get used to.
• There's a formal living room and a kid living room.

Well, I'm fairly hungry, so I'm going to get dressed and go get some breakfast.

A bientot,

Mikayla