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.

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

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