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.

Who am I?

When I came to Belgium ten months ago, I was Mikayla, a 16 year old American girl.

That has changed. I am no longer just that Mikayla.

I am not just American. I am Korean/Australian, Canadian, Mexican, Indian, and Belgian.

I am a rhéto.

I am an adult.

I am a world traveler, and I have become a global citizen.

I am bilingual.

I am part of a bigger picture.

I am a New Yorker (thanks Em-Bem).

I am free.

I am a revolutionary.

I am a teacher.

I am a giver.

I am a dreamer.

I am a learner.

I am a laugher and a crier.

I am full of hope.

But most importantly, I am Mikayla, and I have become who I am meant to be.

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!

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.

Greece II.

Day 4.

April 13, 2011.

On the 13th, we all hauled ourselves out of bed at a rather early hour (I believe it was somewhere around 7 am). Emily, Gabby, Aditi and I all packed up the rest of our stuff and headed down to breakfast, which, if I remember correctly, consisted of bread with various toppings. After we finished eating, we loaded the suitcases into the bus, and returned to the lobby for a rather stern lecture. You see, the night before, most (if not all) of the students on the trip had decided to celebrate our first night in Greece in a rather... less than sober fashion. Rotary took about 15 minutes that morning and explained that we were, from then on, forbidden to have alcohol in our rooms, could not have any empty bottles, and would have very restricted free time from then on out. After that bit, we piled back in the bus and began the picturesque drive up the mountains to see the Météors.

What are the Météors?

They're a group of old monasteries built into the mountains near Kalambaka. During various wars and revolutions in Greece, people would come and hide out in the monasteries to avoid danger. At one point, there were 24 buildings, but now there are only 6. Monks and nuns still live there, and can be seen walking around the pathways. There are some that have not left their home for years and years, and do not even see the visitors that come by; they are always behind high, locked doors. It's a very holy place, and the churches are beautiful. The paintings are truly mind-blowing. You can see the features that most of the churches have in common: Jesus in the center of the ceiling, at the highest point, different scenes from the Bible, etc. It's quite extraordinary.

After our lovely visit with a very awesome tour guide named Georgia (she speaks 5 languages: Greek, her native language, Spanish, English, French, and German) who gave all of the tours in French (we had 2 tour groups, one French, one English. Emily, Christian and I were with the Frenchies), we hopped back in the bus to drive to Delphi! We did squeeze in a teensy bit of souvenir shopping before we got on the bus, and Em and I found some super cute pins to put on our blazers to represent GREECE. I still can't believe I was actually there!

The rest of the day consisted of driving, for the most part. Google Maps says that from Kalambaka to Delphi, it takes almost 4 and a half hours if you drive. I feel like it took longer, but hey, I could be wrong. Most of my memories of the bus blend together at this point.

Fast forward to the end of the bus ride. At this point, we arrived in Delphi, which was very cute and had those lovely little European streets that a greyhound dog can barely fit through, much less a greyhound bus. We received more than one disgruntled look from local Greeks when we had to park in the middle of the road to unload our suitcases.

After everything was out of the bus, Emilio (the bus driver, who became a sort of celebrity in the eyes of the exchange students) parked it, and the exchangers were assigned our rooms. I roomed with Emily, Gabby and Aditi again. We got our key and climbed a few flights of stairs and arrived at our door. After having stayed in a GORGEOUS hotel with a beautiful balcony, 2 queen beds and a large, functioning bathroom, we were quite excited to see what new extravagances waited for us on the other side of the door. Needless to say, we were extremely disappointed when we opened the door to find a queen bed and 2 tiny, flimsy cots that took up 86.3% of the room, a non-working tv, a balcony that had a sign on the door saying we weren't allowed to go outside (though there were some pizza boxes and soda bottles strewn around out there) and a chunk missing from the bathroom door. Why, you ask? Well, it seems that the sink was installed before the door in this bathroom, because the door wouldn't have been able to shut if the missing bit was still there. It had been modified so that the sink didn't prevent it from closing. Classy.

That night, we had chicken and fries for dinner, LIKE EVERY OTHER NIGHT ON THIS TRIP. We had some sort of Greek desert, which was oily and tasteless, and I didn't really enjoy. After that, we hung out downstairs. Jordan, Emily and I played Pitch, a card game that involves two teams of 2 people and some mind-reading. I love it. It was our go-to game the whole time we were stuck in the bus. While we played cards, Aditi wrote sentences about each of us in Hindi and we marked where we live on a US map. It was a lovely night. During the conversation, it came up that our room was not, in fact, the most ghetto fabulous room in the hotel. In Christian's, apparently, there was blood on a towel. At first, we all thought it was his blood (he had cut himself when the guys in his room decided to move the rusty cot to a different location, don't ask me why), but then he realized that he had used a different towel. Needless to say, after that, we were no longer fans of this hotel. No siree, not at all.

Day 5

April 14, 2011

The next morning, we were awake at another very early hour. We repacked the bus, etc. and got inside, waiting for the day's adventures to commence. We started driving down the mountain we'd spent the night on, and at the bottom of one of the scary switchback turns, we felt a very odd, jarring motion. We were asked to quietly and calmly leave the bus and go take some pictures of the mountainside and the views, which were beautiful, by the way. Why were we asked to get out? Well, it seems we had popped a tire on the way down the hairpin turn. Of course. I'm not kidding when I say that this bus was a monster. So, instead of rolling down down down the mountain with a flat tire, we were informed that we would have the good fortune to walk the rest of the way to the ruins in Delphi. Cool! So we all started trekkin' and actually made it there in good time, despite stopping to take pictures of the scenery.

I cannot express the way I felt when I saw the ruins at Delphi for the first time. I'm a Greek mythology buff, and after reading about the Oracle at Delphi, I couldn't wait to see it. Granted, the temples are in ruins now, and it's not exactly easy to imagine them as they once were, it's still magnificent. The precision and style are evident in every pillar, statue, stairway and wall. I don't know that I can do justice to the wonders that I saw. The Temple of Apollo is there, and is still quite inspiring. It's amazing how LARGE the temples are! We also saw a theater that was used for plays and such during the time of the Ancient Greeks. The acoustics of the theaters are stupendous. If you stand down on the stage and only raise your voice a little bit, you can be heard EVERYWHERE in the theater, even at the very top. That's saying something, believe me. We also had the time to climb up many, many stairs to see an a stadium, which was used for the Pythian Games, precursors to our modern-day Olympic Games.

One interesting thing about Delphi: It was believed (by the Greeks) to be the center of the world. There is a funny little cone-shaped stone near one of the temples, and it is called the "omphalos," which means navel, of the earth.

I have many pictures of Delphi and the awesomeness I saw there, and a few of them can be seen below. :)

Emily and I at the Météors

The Météors.

The stadium at Delphi.

The ruins of Apollo's Temple at Delphi.

Chez Golard.

Je suis bien arrivée chez ma troisième famille, les Golard. J'ai fini mes valises aujourd'hui, et j'ai jeté beaucoup d'affaires. Je suis fière de moi. :)

Vers 19h35, Malou et moi sont parties venir ici. Nous sommes arrivées, et nous avons bu un verre avec ma nouvelle maman d'accueil, Fabienne, et ma nouvelle soeur, Pauline. Puis, Malou est partie, et voilà ! Le dernier stade de mon échange commence. Il me reste un peu plus que deux mois ici, et je vais profiter !

Les blogs sur la Grèce et Paris viennent bientôt, je vous promets. :)

Bisous,

Mikayla

I'm back!

I have loads of pictures to upload and stories to tell, but I just don't have the time at the moment. I have off of school tomorrow, so I'll try to do it then, okay? But for now, a super quick update:

I'm switching to my last host family next week, the Golards. I'll have three sisters and a brother: Kaki (who went on exchange to Wisconsin), Camille (went to Mexico), Pauline (she's a junior at school with me), and Quentin. I'll be there until the beginning of July when I come back to the Cuyckens' house for the last two weeks of my exchange.

Greece was amazing, especially the island of Hydra. Words cannot describe the beauty that exists there. The whole trip made me miss home, though. There were mountains everywhere, like in Colorado, and we were constantly surrounded by water, like in Wisconsin. I'm ready to come home now.

Paris is beautiful, truly. I can't believe I was there. It's just mind-blowing. I actually screamed the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower (tourist much?).

My host family and I are going... somewhere... this afternoon, so I have to go get ready for that. I'll be back soon, though.

Mikayla

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:

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.)

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. :)

New Project

I'm going to try something. I want to take a picture every day. Just a random picture. I'm h0ping that this will help me to remember to take my camera with me wherever I go, and to provide a new perspective on my exchange. I find myself letting the days slip by in a blur of schoolwork, bus rides, Skype, and sleep. I have only 169 days left in this amazing place, and I don't want to miss a minute of it.

On another note, I have passed a lovely weekend with Miss Talia Saville, who is the star of the above photo. Saturday we went shopping in Liège and then we spent the night at my house, sewing a dress and eating copious amounts of ice cream.

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

I fell down the stairs today.

Its been that kind of week.

I know I haven't posted in FOREVER, but I'll get around to it, I promise. I'll probably do it Friday, okay?

In French, the word for bruise is "bleu." As in blue. As in, when you hurt yourself and you want to show someone your really awesome bruise (like the one blooming across my bum right now, thank you, stairs), you say something like, "Regardes mon bleu ! Il est enorme !" (Look at my blue! He's huge!). Not the same effect.

I change host families tomorrow

I thought I was prepared for this, but I'm really not. There isn't a way to practice, to get ready. There isn't a do-over. I lived with five incredible people for 4.5 months, and tomorrow I have to leave them.

I know it's part of the exchange process, and I knew it wouldn't be easy. But I wasn't prepared for the feeling. I thought it was hard to leave my mom at DIA; I was crying then. That's nothing compared to what I feel right now. It's like a stake was driven through my heart.

I know that sounds over dramatic. It was only 4.5 months, right? Wrong. This family took me in and shared their lives. They helped me try new things, they taught me the French language, they were there for me when Mike and then Eyesick passed away. They are my family now.

I can only hope that this was as positive an experience for them as it was for me. Words will never be able to convey my gratitude.

Je vous aime, Etienne, Anne-Michèle, Nouche, Adrien, Alix et Amaury. Merci pour tout. Vous me manquez déjà. Je ne vous oublierai jamais.

Song of the Day:

Never Say Never

by The Fray

Ne pleure pas parce que c'est fini, souris parce que c'est arrive.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

Last week I made a list of subjects I want to tackle in my blog. This will be my first post from that list.

I know Rotary always said to us that one of the hardest things to handle while on exchange is the idea that time continues to pass back home. When you go back, things have changed. This wasn't really a problem for me at first; I accept that things change and I can't control them. That's the definition of life. There's no way to be prepared 100% of the time, which I learned the hard way.
On October 7th, my friend Mike Paul died from complications due to a stroke he suffered during surgery to remove cancerous tumors from his chest. On November 15th, my cat, Eyesick, was put down because of an unpreventable case of liver failure. Mike was 17. Eyesick was 2.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I bawled my eyes out when I found out about both. I still have not come to grips with the fact that both of them were snatched away, and both so young. It's hard to know that I wasn't there for them, even though I promised both that I would never leave and would always be by their sides 100%. Yes, I make promises to my pets. If you want to judge, go somewhere else. It's painful to think about the fact that all of Mike's friends were at his funeral and they all were able to grieve together at school while I'm stuck here in Belgium, unable to participate. I don't think I've come to terms with his death because I wasn't there to experience it. When I think about going home, I think about going to see Mike. But now, that's reduced to seeing a tombstone. I feel sick just thinking about it.

I miss Eyesick like crazy, too. He wasn't just a cat, he was my friend. I loved him very, very much. I first saw him when he was only a few hours old, and played with him from the time he could walk until the day we brought him home. He was gorgeous, gentle, and a big lazy-butt. But I don't care, because he loved everyone he met. There wasn't a mean bone in his body. He was even nice to my fish!

The point of this was to try to explain that life doesn't freeze. It's a tough lesson to learn. I know that I'll continue on with my exchange and friends at home will keep moving through their lives. But how to I melt back in to society when I come home? I'll be totally out of sync with what's been happening. I've missed football games, homecoming, every day classes... and I'm going to miss Prom, AP test week, graduation, and who knows what else? It's just weird to think that two completely separate worlds are functioning at the same moment, and in some ways, I'm caught between them.

Diner Exotique and thinking in French.

Today all of the exchange students from the three districts here in Belgium gathered together in Visé, a city near the Dutch border to celebrate the cuisine of our host lands. Each one of us had to bring a dish that would serve 40 people. The dish was supposed to be something native to our country that is hard (or impossible) to find in Belgium. There were things like fresh sushi (SO GOOD), macaroni and cheese, scones, stuffing and turkey, mashed potatoes, and something delicious from Taiwan among countless other dishes. Jordan and I teamed up and made two things: deviled eggs and cheesy dill bread. They were both delicious, although the cheesy dill bread did require two separate attempts... As Jordan says, "The first.... 'substance' we produced was not fit for human consumption. Period." I thought it was fine....

But in all, it was a lovely day spent enjoying the company of my fellow exchangers and their host families. It's so cool to see everyone come together like this; it was like a giant Thanksgiving, but with food from around the world.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, because a) I forgot my camera and b) my camera has sucked the life out of the latest pair of batteries. Ugh. But I promise I'll get some new ones before I go to GERMANY on Wednesday. :)




On another note, I've stared to think in French. I don't think anything major; most of the time I think what I'm doing. Like this:

Je vais manger bientôt.
I am going to eat soon.

Je vais à l'école.
I am going to school.

J'ai manqué le train.
I missed the train.

Je voudrais manger les bonbons, mais je ne peux pas parce que ça n'est pas bonne pour ma santé.
I would like to eat candy, but I can't because that's not good for my health.


Etc.

It's a crazy sensation, and kind of fun. I'm starting to not realize when things are in English as well. For example, when I was watching football with Amaury and Arnaud, I didn't realize that the announcers were speaking in English. I wasn't even listening to them, honestly. I'm so used to not understanding what people are saying (like Belgian radio, etc), that I kind of tune it out.

One thing that makes thinking in French difficult is the abundance of English around me. I speak English with Talia, Emma and Eduardo at school. I read English books. Most of my Facebook is in English, with English speakers posting on my wall. I talk to my mom a lot (a little too much, probably), and we only speak English. I text my American friends in English. 80% of the music on the radio is in English.

Sometimes I wish I was from Japan or Brazil, that way I would be forced to speak in French at all times (no one here speaks Japanese or Portuguese, as far as I know...).

But despite the copious amounts of English being thrown at my ears every day, I know I've made HUGE progress in my French. I can understand most of what's being said in class by my teachers now. I can watch tv and pick up whole paragraphs of what people are saying, not just random words. I can read in French and pick up meaning as well. At first, I could only understand my host mom. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what my host brothers and host dad were saying, much less anyone outside the family. I'm beginning to understand strangers, which I'm really proud of. I know it sounds kind of silly, because French is French is French, right? Not so. There are accents, there are different ways to say words. For example: parce que. That's "because" in French. I've heard it said two ways: "pahrsss-cuh" and "parse-e-cuh." It's hard to type out. It's kind of like the whole "toe-may-toe" "toe-mah-toe" kind of thing. But anyway. I've learned that when someone's speaking, it's easier to understand them if you hear them speak a lot. Therefore, I understand Anne-Michèle, Amandine, Florian, and M. Godet, my French teacher, the best because I hear them speak the most. The hardest is with strangers because I'm not used to their voices and how they say certain words. People here also speak relatively quickly, so it's sometimes hard to separate the words and figure out what they're trying to say.

But it's getting easier. I understand jokes now. I can have a decent conversation about most topics. I can listen to the radio and follow the gist of the news report or the jokes about celebrities. I actually managed to understand the words of a song last week! I know it doesn't necessarily sound like it'd be that difficult, but you'd be surprised...

One thing I noticed while reading in French: It's much easier to just let the reading flow than to sit by and directly translate everything. I understand way way way more if I kind of skate over the words and let them soak in than if I sit by and translate word for word, like this:

"Viens Darcy, lui dit-il, il faut que tu danses avec nous. J'ai horreur de te voir rester planté tout seul. C'est stupide, et tu ferais bein mieux de prendre part au bal."

Come Darcy, he said to him, it is necessary that you dance with us. I have horror to see you to stay planted all alone. It's stupid, and you will make better to take part in the ball.

Absolute gibberish, isn't it? It's much easier for my poor brain to think something like, "Come Darcy, he said, it is necessary that you dance with us. I hate seeing you stay all alone. It's stupid and you will do better to join in the ball." I still absorb the words and the language, but in a more rational way. Sometimes I don't even have to translate the words to English, I just plow through with the French. (That was an exact quote from "Orgueil et préjugés" by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. :))



A song, my lovelies:





This is called "Toi et Moi" by Guillaume Grand. It's the song I was able to understand last week. I sing it ALL the time at school. ALL the time.

I can't believe I'm saying this.

I miss Loveland.

Shocking, I know. I lived there for a little over three years and couldn't wait to get out, and now that I'm gone, I miss it. Crazy.

Today was my first day of school here in Belgium. It really wasn't too bad. Granted, I had no idea what was going on most of the time, most of the kids ignored me, and the guy who was supposed to show me around abandoned me, but overall, it didn't suck. I kind of enjoyed myself. At least I didn't have to listen to the blasted chipmunk all day long.

The first class I had was French with Père Boly and the other exchange students, Emma, Talia and Eduardo. After French, the principal (maybe...) took us to our classrooms and introduced us, asking who would like to be our 'godmother' and 'godfather' and show us around. My "godfather" was a kid named Frèdèric. He only said about a dozen words to me, and I didn't understand most of them, but he was pretty nice. He did abandon me at lunch though. He said, "You can eat with the other Americans," and I never saw him again. A girl named Fabiola took me under her wing though, and SHE SPOKE ENGLISH! She's originally from Canada, so she and I were able to communicate very well. I liked her a lot. After lunch, Emma, Talia and I went to the principal's office to see if we are actually supposed to take an English class. The answer for Emma was yes, but then there was a major problem with the schedule, so Talia and I were told to go sit in "Étude," which is like a study hall. After that, I had a religion class and sat next to a girl named Wiff (her full name is Wiviene or something like that). The religion class was basically a "get to know you" type of thing in addition to being a "gawk at the American" festival. I'm lucky, on Thursdays, I'm finished with school at 2:40 (after the religion class). So I went outside and waited for Anne-Michèle and listened to my iPod for the first time since I've been here.

One thing that kind of got to me about school: a good portion of the kids ignored me. They would greet the group of people I was with, but then their eyes would slide right over me like I wasn't even there. It would've been nice to get a "bonjour" or even a smile. But I suppose it'll come with time. Wiff and Fabiola were very nice, as was a girl named Sophie. Hopefully I'll get to hang out with them some more.

Oh. And the students all stand up when the teacher enters the classroom.

The school I'm going to has a LOT of breaks during the day. They have periods 1 and 2, then a 10 minute break. 3 and 4, then lunch for an hour. 5 and 6, then a 10 minute break. 7 and 8, then we go home. Actually, I didn't see any classes in block 8, so I'm not sure how that works. Maybe I'll have some there on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

I asked Fabiola about gym class today, and she said that they play volleyball, soccer, baseball (I might accidentally break my leg when it comes time for that), and go biking in Hannut. Yes, biking. The school has 30 bikes it bought for the fitness classes. Craziness.

After school, Anne-Michèle, Amaury and I went shopping at Aldi's. Yes, Aldi's. I haven't been to an Aldi's in YEARS. It was kind of funny. :)

After Aldi's, we went to a store across the street so I could get gym pants. Yes, pants. Shorts aren't allowed. Your knees must be covered. Seriously.

Now I'm at home, waiting for dinner. Adrien is having a going away thing tonight, and I might go later with Arnaud. I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake though.

À bientôt,

Mikayla

I start school tomorrow.

Yay.

Actually, I'm usually excited for the first day of school. Summer loses it's oomph after a while, and I like the order and discipline that comes with the school year. I like getting up at the same time every day, having a set schedule, and being able to plan out homework and whatnot. I'm a nerd, holy cow.

But anyway, I start school tomorrow, and I'm a little nervous, I think. Nothing major (I'm not going to cry or anything like that...), just a few little butterflies. My new school is huge, and I don't have ANY classes with the other exchange students aside from our one French class first thing in the morning. I know that that will be good for me, that I'll be able to grow as a person, and that I'll learn quicker if I'm not tempted to speak English with the other exchangers. But still. It's a little intimidating, jumping into the deep end like this.

My classes (that I can remember):

French ---> first thing in the morning, taught by an 83 year old priest.

Religion

Math

Phys Ed.

Social Science

Geography

and other things I just can't remember. I think there's a science class thrown in there somewhere...

I went to a Rotary meeting last night and gave a small speech about me and where I come from.

It went something like this:

"Bonsoir messieurs et monsieur le président:

Je m'appelle Mikayla et j'ai seize ans. Je suis americaine. Je viens de Loveland, au Colorado. J'habite avec ma mère, deux chats, deux chiens, et six poissons. Les chevaux sont ma vraie passion. Je monte à cheval tous les jours avec mes amis.

J'étudie le français depuis trois ans. Après mon séjour en Belgique, j'irai à lúniversité pour étudier le français et science politique.

J'ai choisi de venir en Belgique parce que j'adore la pluie. Le Colorado est un dèsert, et il n'y a jamais de pluie.

J'aime lire, parler, et sourire.

Merci."

Let me know if you want a translated version. :P

All four of the inbounds to our club had to give their speeches last night, and we all did smashingly well. We gave the president our flags as well, and of course took a bunch of pictures.

Earlier yesterday, I rode Eros again. Sophie wasn't there this time, so I took Eros into the small arena near his stall and lunged him for a while, which seemed to work out some of his kinks. He still wouldn't behave on the trail though.

This past weekend was the Inbound Orientation for all of us YEPs (as we're affectionately known) in District 1630. It started with a lot of standing around and waiting in line on Saturday morning. We had to show the district people our passports (I forgot mine...) and received our insurance cards and gave the Chairman, M. Binamé, a pin.

After that, we had lunch, which was typical cafeteria food. I don't even remember what it was. I sat with Jordan again as well as some other exchange students, and it was nice to sit and talk some more. When we were finished with lunch, we saw about 584 slideshows about Rotary and the rules and what we are and are not allowed to do. Once all of that business was finished, we took a walking tour of Huy, the city we were staying in. The architecture was phenomenal. We toured an old cathedral and a monastery that was connected to a museum. It was all very interesting, and I wish my camera hadn't died halfway through. :( Dinner was uneventful (I don't remember what it was then, either), but afterward, Rotary had a dance party thing for us. There was a DJ and music and flashing lights. We also got 2 beer tokens each. With one token, we were able to get one glass of beer.

***No, we were NOT breaking any of the Rotary rules. The rules about drinking in Belgium are different, because of the culture. We, as Rotary Youth Exchange students are allowed to drink if we maintain proper behavior and do not go over the legal limit for alcohol consumption.***

I spent most of the night with Emily and Lily, from New York and Florida, respectively. We stayed at the dance for about an hour, then went up to Emily's room and just sat around and talked. The dance ended at midnight, and we all went to bed then, which was good because I was exhausted.

The next morning, we listened to more slideshows and presentations, then had breakfast. Our host families came to the breakfast as well, though we didn't eat with them, which was weird. The students ate first, then the parents (again, weird), so while the parents were eating, most people hung around talking or playing cards. I played cards with Jordan, Emily, Aditi, Christian, Lily, and a few other people as well, I believe. We played Egyptian Rat Race and B.S., and had a lot of fun.

After the parents finished eating, we all piled into our cars to go to another meeting thingy, at a nearby school. We listened to two or three speeches, took a huge group photo (I think I'm looking away... I wasn't sure what was going on) and then went home.

All in all, it was a pleasant weekend. :)

Today, I went riding with Marion, the daughter of Etienne's brother, who lives across the street. She has a pony, Fleche, who came home today. I had a chance to ride Fleche at the stable before we brought her back. She's a cute little pony. And I did NOT get bucked off. :)

The other day (maybe it was Monday?), I went to Namur with Etienne. He teaches at a cooking school there, and showed me around. He also drove up a large hill and we drove around the castle there. It's absolutely stunning, and the views are incredible. As we were driving through Namur on the way to the cooking school, I saw a CHINESE RESTAURANT! I don't know if words can express my excitement upon seeing that building. I told Etienne how much I love Chinese food, and he brought some home today. It was delicious. I think I'm going to have what's left of it for dinner.

There's a little problem though. My craving for Chinese food has been satisfied, but now I've moved on to cheesecake. Oh my gosh, I WANT CHEESECAKE. Oh well, I guess I'll survive.

I'm also out of chocolate, so I'll have to go buy some soon. Belgian chocolate is SOOOO good.

The other day, Anne-Michèle loaned me Season 1 of The West Wing in French. She has all 6 seasons and she knows how much I like politics, so she figured I'd want to watch it. She was right. I watched three episodes yesterday alone! It's definitely really hard to understand, but I like it nonetheless. I've tried watching it in French with English subtitles, just in French, and French with French subtitles. I think the French with French subtitles is my favorite. The English subtitles distract me from the French speaking, and the plain French is too complicated for me. My only complaint is that the French subtitles don't match the speaking, so that kind of sucks. But hey, it's better than nothing.

The chipmunk is still here, and it's still making tons of noise. I think it waits until I'm relaxed and about ready to sleep before attacking. And yes, it plans these things ahead of time. There's also a bird outside my window that caws every morning to wake me up. I love nature, but that bird is evil. Maybe it's friends with the chipmunk.

Tonight at dinner, I found out that Adrien can understand basically everything I say when I speak English. He just refuses to speak English back. I think it's a good and bad thing. It's good because I'm forced to speak French, but bad because he needs to practice speaking English. I did make him speak English to me today at lunch. I had understood what he said in French, but I wanted to see if he would say it in English. It came out as: "My father was to cherche my brother." That right there is an excellent example of Franglais. In case you're interested, he mean to say that his father had gone to pick up his brother (Amaury).

They're very into fountain pens here.

Amaury and I went for ice cream after dinner today. I had strawberry this time, and it was delicious. I have a feeling I'm going to be going to the ice cream place a lot. :)

One thing I've noticed since I've been here: my dreams are very strange. They're not bad, exactly, just strange. For example: Last night, I dreamed that I skipped school and took a train to Australia and spent the day there without telling my host mom. I missed the train back or something, and got in huge trouble.

Why is this strange? Well, number one, you can't take a train from Belgium to Australia.

Number two, I've ditched a grand total of 2 days of school my entire high school career; I don't think I'm going to start now. Other exchange students have been having strange dreams as well. I suppose it's part of our brains and bodies adjusting to a new lifestyle.

I'm craving American news. My friend Corbett just told me that Obama has officially ended the war in Iraq and that there's a hostage situation at the Discovery Channel building. I had no idea either of these things were happening. I'll have to start going to cnn.com or something so I can stay updated.

I'm doing laundry again. I don't know if I've said it already, but the first time I did my laundry, I used fabric softener instead of detergent. Go me, right? Well, I've got the buttons on this machine down-pat so I'm not worried about it never stopping. I'm just waiting for it to finish the eternal spin cycle so I can grab my laundry and go to sleep. I'm exhausted, and I think I'm getting sick (why does this always happen to me the first week of school?). My host brothers are passing some sort of cough/runny nose business back and forth, and I will be thoroughly displeased if it hits me next.

Well, that laundry is almost done, so I have to run. Have a smashing rest of the week everyone. :)

Mikayla