Rachel is here!

Coucou les amis !

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

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

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

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

Bisous,

Mikayla

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

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.)

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.

Recap.

Tuesday:
I had off of school again, so Jordan and I went to Brussels. We took a little walking tour of the city and I saw the Mannequin Pis for the first time. What is the Mannequin Pis, you ask? Voilà:



He was dressed up when we saw him. Apparently, whenever foreign dignitaries are visiting Belgium, he is dressed up in the clothes of that dignitary/nation. Pretty cool, huh? Unfortunately, when I saw him, he wasn't "pis-ing", so I'll have to go back another time to get another picture with him.

Just a heads up: My camera is out of batteries. Again. Because it sucks through them like nobody's business. So I didn't get any pictures of Brussels. Jordan took a few though, so I'll steal them from him. :)

After the Mannequin Pis, we stopped in a tourist office and got a map of the city to help us find the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. It took quite a while to make it to where we needed to go, as Jordan and I don't have the best map skills in the world. I will say though, that whenever I say "It'll be fine!" it always turns out that way. :) I used that phrase a LOT on Tuesday...

We finally made it to the museum, and got our tickets. I'm free to go in because I'm under 18, so you can bet that I'll be going back a LOT. We both got the little audio guide thingies, and started wandering around to see what we could see. It was a lot of fun just poking through old pictures and learning random facts about history. We finally saw "La Mort de Marat" and I was stunned, to put it mildly. It's a rather large painting, and just as cool in real life as it is in textbooks. The history behind it is amazing as well. I still can't believe I got to see it. It's a piece of revolutionary history, sitting right there at the end of a hallway. Mind blowing.

After Jordan and I finished the Ancient Art section of the museum, we headed to the gift shop and to find some food. We both got post cards and promised we'd come back to see the modern art collection. Gosh I LOVE art museums!

We found a fry shop not far from the Brussels Central station, so we munched on fries before our train came. We jumped on the train, and about 20 minutes later we were in the charming village of Waterloo, Belgium. Yes, like Napoleon. We started walking away from the train station just as it started to get dark, thinking that the town was rather small, as I remember it being. Well, I was wrong, the town was not small. We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. Finally, we stopped in a butcher shop and asked the lady working for directions. She told us we were on the right track (there's my phrase again: It'll be fine!) and not too far away. We kept walking. And walking. And walking. Jordan started complaining. And we kept walking. And walking. And walking. Jordan told me I'm crazy and he'll never go on any adventures with me again. And we were walking. And walking. And walking. Finally, we found a tourist information place, and we stopped inside to ask how close the British Store was. It was, quite seriously, right down the street. RIGHT down the street. Maybe 100 yards beyond where we were. Jordan stopped complaining as soon as we found out how close we were, and began to worship me for my excellent directional skills. As we walked up the street to the British store, we saw (drumroll please)...

A sports bar.


A real, true-blue, American sports bar. Complete with Miami Dolphins helmet on their awning.

Jordan was nearly ready to cry with happiness at the sight, and we agreed to stop back there after we went to the British store.

At the British store, I bought bagels, taco shells, and baking soda. Yes, a couple of must-have items there, lemme tell ya. The bagels and taco shells were for Arnaud. I'm continuing his education in the realm of American food, and so far, I don't think he's overly impressed. Hopefully the tacos will change his mind.

Anyway, we poked around the British store for a while, me in the food sections and Jordan looking at books and movies. I must say, the British store was an AMAZING discovery. Seriously.

After the British store, we stopped in the sports bar and just talked for about an hour. We watched football a little bit (Atlanta v. Someone, neither one of us really cared) and just talked about life and whatever came to mind. It was my favorite part of the day, even better than seeing "La Mort de Marat." It was great to just hang out with a friend.

After our drinks, we headed back to the train station. It was only about 6 pm, but it was very, very dark outside. We finally made it to the train station with about 20 minutes to spare, but unfortunately, our train was late. The schedule crossed over with another train, and we ended up on the wrong train. Oh yay. Luckily, the train stopped in a few small stations in Brussels where we could catch a connecting train to the big stations, but it was still pretty freaky. I hate not knowing where I'm going.

We finally made it back to Brussels Central, and we found a train to take us back to Liège that stopped in Waremme. You've all seen what I ate that day, and lemme tell ya, I was not feeling too great by that point. Regardless, it was a pleasant train ride, an excellent ending to an excellent day.


Wednesday:
English exam. Eduardo, Talia, Emma and I had to find a way to present everything the kids have worked on in English this year. We decided on a skit, and, in all honesty, only got it done in the 2 hours right before the exam. However, we did really, REALLY well. The teacher absolutely LOVED it. She just kept saying "Extraordinary. It was extraordinary!" over and over. She also told Madame Vanesse, the directrice of our school and the person in charge of the exchange students, how much she loved it. We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Thursday:
Science exam. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I think I did really well. The genetics part was good, and I think I did a decent job on the nuclear physics. The teacher was very impressed when he saw that I was already on the parts about the articles. That was definitely a challenge, as I don't read very quickly in French yet. So, I read the questions and tried to scan the articles for keywords. I know I didn't get all of the information I needed, and I'm pretty sure a good portion of my answers aren't 100% correct, but I don't care. I'm just glad I got it done, and I think I did a fair job of it.

Thursday night, Madame Gallo, a teacher at my school, brought all of us exchange students along to Brussels to see her one woman show, Mes Nuits Sans Robert (My Nights Without Robert). What Robert is she speaking of? Redford, of course! The whole show is based upon a woman, Louise, who works for a film company. She's normally just an office worker, but the woman who is supposed to be giving this film presentation is giving birth, so the job falls to Louise. Of course, all sorts of things go wrong (she doesn't have the right pictures, she doesn't follow the script, etc) and unfortunately, the lights guy she practiced with is replaced by a man name Pierre, who she apparently has a HUGE crush on. The whole thing is HILARIOUS. Madame Gallo is an incredible entertainer. We laughed the whole time. She danced with a giant pillow thing, put on giant underwear (over her clothes) like Bridget Jones, and dumped a jug of water over her head. It was hysterical. Her number one celebrity love is Robert Redford, so she talks about him the whole time. She even chooses a man from the audience to have the "arms of Robert!" and makes him hold them up for the entire crowd. She spends a decent portion of the show talking about those arms, and asks the mans wife "Do you just... touch those arms every single night? ... NO?! WHY NOT?! They're the ARMS of ROBERT!" It was hilarious.

We didn't get home until about midnight, but the car ride back was great. We talked to Madame Gallo about everything and anything: being exchange students, missing home, school, learning French, her stories from being an exchange student (she was in Oregon for a year when she was 18), and whatever else. It was really great.

Eduardo, Talia and Emma spent the night here, and Etienne drove Eduardo, Emma and I to school the next morning, as we all had exams. Talia didn't so she stayed at my house until her host mom picked her up.

Friday:
Emma and I had our exam for Sciences Sociales, which is taught by Madame Gallo. We did the exam together, and I'm pretty sure we did a pretty good job on it. I was pleased, at any rate. I managed to write an entire essay in French, and I think it was pretty grammatically correct. I was proud. :)

After the exam, I was free! I'm now on Winter Break, and I don't have to go back to school until 2011! How awesome is that?

Anne-Michèle picked me up and we did a little shopping before returning home. I chilled out and watched The West Wing and read "Orgueil et Préjugés". It was a glorious day.

Saturday:
I just hung out and relaxed, enjoying my new freedom. Saturday night, I talked to a bunch of my family members, which was really cool. I miss you all! After that, I went with Etienne to a nearby town to a small Christmas party for the CPAS (like a Social Services Center... Etienne's the president in our town). I met a woman from Bosnia-Herzegovina there, and her two kids, Yasmina and Mustafa. They were the CUTEST little kids ever, and SO polite. The family ended up coming with Etienne and I to the next phase of the night, a Ventriloquist/Magician show for younger kids (Amaury's age and below) here in Les Waleffes. The show was really cute, and everyone laughed the whole time. At one point, the magician, Etienne (no, not my host dad) demonstrated how to do one of his magic tricks. After he was done, he called out into the crowd "Did everyone understand?!" Everyone yelled "Oui!" But of course, he said, "Oh no, she didn't understand, did you, Madame?" Who was he looking at? You guessed it. Me. I tried to say that yes, yes I understood, but as part of the show, Etienne had to say no, no I didn't. He finally caught on that I'm foreign, and said, "Oh, are you English?" I said "No, I'm American." His response? "I LOVE Americans!" (in English). Then, he moved on and asked another woman if she had understood his magic trick. I don't know why, I must have a really open, inviting face or something, but everyone here LOVES to call on me for things like that. People in train stations always ask me for directions, on the streets they ask me how to get to the train stations, etc. It's frustrating. But good that people think I'm native, right?

After the show, Amaury and I walked home and chatted about whatever. He teased me because the magician had called on me, and said "Well, you have an accent." I asked if my accent is really strong, and he said, "You know a lot of words." Oh Amaury, so polite. I'll take that as a yes. :) But I'm okay with it. Just something to practice.

Sunday:
We went to lunch at Mami's and I had a lot of fun. I talked more than I ever have before, and I really enjoyed it. During lunch, Anne-Michèle said something that I thought was interesting. We had just told the story of the magician calling on me at the show on Saturday night, and how I told him I'm American. She said to me, "No, not really. You're not American. You're not like the stereotypical American." I asked what I am then, if I'm not American. She said, "I don't know." And I said, "Okay, I'll be Belgian." I like that idea.

Monday:
(Today)
I'm watching copious amounts of "The West Wing" (I'm just starting season 6. Only 2 more to go!) and enjoying my vacation. I'm thinking of making a snowman later. Why not? I haven't made one in YEARS, and I'm not sure I remember how, but it'll be fun, I think. Maybe I'll convince Arnaud to take a break from studying and come help. We shall see.



Love,

Mikayla






The rest of this post will be a quick catch-up of things I've forgotten to post about.

1. Saturday, the 11th, I spent the night at my second host family's house. I got to see my room and hang out with my next host mom, which was loads of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know her better and I can't wait to live there.
2. I will post about Aachen as soon as I can, hopefully tomorrow. All of my posts are going to be a bit out of whack, because I don't always post the big ones right as they happen. I'll put the dates of when I did these things at the top so we can try to keep them in order.

That's all, I do believe...

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.

Harry Potter.

Tonight, I went to Liège to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, with Amandine and Florian. And it was in ENGLISH. SO awesome. :)

Before the movie started, we walked around Liège, doing some shopping and searching for books for their TFAs (Travail Fin de l'Année -- basically a huge report on a subject of your choice). We then went to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. I had some sort of pasta with ham and a yummy cheese sauce. It was delicious.

After dinner was the moment of truth. Harry Potter. I won't give anything away, except to say that I LOVED it. It was extremely well done, in my opinion. It followed the book very well and had an excellent amount of suspense.

Sitting in the movie theater tonight, I thought about how lucky I am to have found my friends here in Belgium. I'm so fortunate that I was lost and confused my first day, and that Fabiola found Amandine and asked her to show me around. It was the start of a great friendship. And Florian pretty much rocks my socks. I can have Harry Potter discussions in French, which I definitely enjoy.

At lunch on Friday, Manon handed me a card. My Belgian friends had all written birthday messages to me on the inside. It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever received, and I will keep it forever. Words cannot describe how much that card means to me. It's hard to describe, but I hope I've been able to convey some sense of how I feel about it. This is really just a thank you to my friends here. Thank you for accepting me, for showing me around the school, for correcting my French and helping me learn, and letting me copy your notes. I'd be lost without you.

Gros bisous,

Mikayla

The latest.

I know, I'm getting really bad at regular updates. I'm sorry, I'm just super busy! I'll try to post more often, okay? :)

Here's what's been happening:

Friday, 24 Septembre

Friday was a regular day at school, culminating in a fabulous geography lesson. Okay, not really, but the teacher did let us pack up five minutes early, which was nice. Friday night, my host parents hosted a dinner party kind of thing for Talia and I. All three of our host families came, in addition to some Rotarians. I had a lot of fun talking with people and gossiping with Talia and Camille, my very awesome host sister from my third family. Most of the people I talked to told me that my French has already improved, which makes me very happy. I don't want to get into a huge spiel about language right now, so I'll put it in a paragraph at the end.

Saturday, 25 Septembre

In all honesty, I don't remember what I did on Saturday. I don't think it was much of anything. I probably read a little bit of Lord of the Flies and watched "The West Wing" (I do love that show). It was a pretty calm day.

Sunday, 26 Septembre

On Sunday, Etienne and I went to a horse show near the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. It was rather chilly, but I loved it, of course. There was a competitor from the stable up the street that lets me ride, which was super cool. Etienne and I also got bracelets that gave us special access to the barns and such, but we didn't get a chance to tour them, which was unfortunate.

After the show, we tried to drive home, but the GPS we were using went a little crazy, and Etienne and I ended up in Maastricht, which is a city in the Netherlands. So, I've officially been to two countries in Europe, which I think is pretty awesome. Talia, Emma and I are hoping to go to Maastricht in the not too distant future to do some shopping and to find the Domino's (yes, the pizza place).

Sunday night, Etienne and I drove to the forest about half an hour from the house to listen for elk mating calls. Yes, I'm serious. Apparently, Etienne does this with his friends every year. It was actually really interesting. We got to see some elk in a field probably... 400 yards from where we were in the forest. It was interesting to watch the dynamics of the herd and how the males interacted. Yes, I'm a little bit of a science nerd. :) Anyway, Etienne and I left after about an hour, since it was VERY cold. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and I had my first "American" food since being here. The menus are different here though, so that made ordering a challenge (along with the fact that I didn't know what the worker was saying to me...). But it was yummy at least.

Monday, 26 Septembre

Monday I had off from school for some sort of holiday. It's only in the Walloon region (the southern, French part), and if I'm correct, it was merely so that people could have a chance to celebrate being French. I stayed home all day and relaxed, reading and catching up on things.

OH.

A great thing happened on Monday. A fantastic, amazing, wonderful thing.

We got tickets for Lady Gaga.

November 23rd at 8 pm in Antwerp.

I am SO excited! I'm going with Talia, Emma and my host brother, Arnaud. We're all dressing up (okay, maybe Arnaud isn't...) and it's going to be CRAZY. Our seats aren't very good, but that's not the point. I'm so excited just for the music and the atmosphere. It's going to be absolutely incredible. And it's right after my birthday! I canNOT wait!

Tuesday, 27 Septembre

I had to go back to school, but Amaury didn't (LUCKY), so I drudged along trying not to fall asleep in my last class of the day. Arnaud picked me up afterward and we had a lively conversation about Valentine's Day (he's very amused by the fact that I come from Loveland), spiders and Lady Gaga's meat dress. It was rather pleasant.

That night, Amaury made waffles, and oh my goodness, they were INCREDIBLE. People don't make waffles here like we do in the U.S. You don't use syrup or peanut butter or fruit or whipped cream on waffles here, and you eat them with your hands. They're absolutely delicious, too. I told Anne-Michèle that I would like waffles for my birthday; she laughed, but she agreed.

Wednesday, 28 Septembre

Went to school. Got out early. Came home. Read The Great Gatsby (I finished Lord of the Flies). Talked to mom. Ate fondue. Went to bed.

Thursday, 29 Septembre

Today, I went to school, again. I do that a lot. At lunch, Florian told me that he heard that the actors in the Harry Potter films might be here for the premiere. HOLY CATS, I hope they are! That would be AMAZING, and would totally satisfy my desire to go to a premiere in London. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

Anyway, after school, Talia, Emma and I went to GB (a kind of grocery store Wal-greens combo) and picked up a few things (an eraser for school, gum, chocolate, Q-tips, etc. All the essentials) before heading over to a makeup store. I'm not usually big on makeup, but I liked that store a lot. I managed to find a new mascara that I really like, which makes me happy.

Now, I'm home reading The Great Gatsby and talking to Talia and Emma about food (of course).

Here are a few things that didn't really fit into my description of the last week:

Language:

I'm still thinking in English most of the time, and I haven't had any dreams in French (that I remember, at least). However, I do find it easier to speak in French at school and with my friends. I'll ask them if a word is masculine or feminine, and then continue my sentence. I'm way more comfortable with object pronouns now, which makes me very happy. I'm starting to use "one" more as well. Last week, I was journaling while I was in étude (it's not like I actually have to do homework...) and I actually found it easier to write in French! Florian read it afterward, and politely told me that I didn't have any spelling mistakes. I know my grammar was horrible and most of the sentences probably weren't complete thoughts, but still. I journaled in French!

At the dinner party, I talked to Camille for a while, and she told me my French is better, which made me feel quite proud. I also talked to my second host family's daughter, Valérie, and she told me that I'm speaking very well, too. I've decided not to stress too much about the language, and just let it come. Life is more fun stress-free.

Homesickness:

I was a little homesick today in math class. As you may have read, I'm in calculus, which is just NOT okay. I have absolutely NO clue what is going on. It's not because I'm not trying; believe me, I am. But there's a gap between where I finished math at Loveland and what they're learning here. I can kind of follow what the teacher is doing algebraically, but after a certain point (derivatives...) I get lost. Talia said she'd help me though (THANK YOU!) and Ericson offered as well. I think I'll make it. And if not, hey, it's Monopoly School.

Okay, you're probably confused now. Talia, Emma, Eduardo and I call everything here "Monopoly" because it feels so unreal; it's a play off of "Monopoly money." We have a lot of time on our hands.

Chocolate:

I'm getting sick of it. Seriously. I just want fruit. And vegetables. Right now, I'm craving Broccoli. With a capital B.

Well, I think that may be all for today. I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying life!

Oh, I would also like to throw out a huge "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" to Mr. Jordan Blevins, my exchange buddy from Florida. :)

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!

What's new?

I know I haven't written a full post in a little over a week, so here goes:

Saturday, 4 Septembre

Adrien was leaving for England the next day, so we were going to go out for dinner as a family. For some reason, dinner didn't work with everyone's schedules, so we went out for lunch instead. We drove all around Hannut searching for an open restaurant, but every single one was closed. This is not a joke. Every restaurant we drove by was closed; it was lunacy! We ended up driving to Pizza Hut in Liège, and many a joke was made about Adrien's last dinner being at a fast food restaurant. Anne-Michèle, Amaury, and I ordered off of the menu, while the men (Adrien, Etienne, and Arnaud) went the buffet route. It took upwards of half an hour for our salads to arrive, which made me wish I'd just eaten from the buffet. However, once that plate of Cesar-y goodness was set down before me, I forgot all of my qualms about waiting and simply stared at the lettuce like it was the most beautiful pile of greenery I'd ever set my eyes on.

That salad is probably on the list of most delicious foods I've ever tasted. No, I'm not kidding. I miss vegetables so much! We have them here, of course, but my host family likes to stay within the realms of potatoes and green beans. With extra tomatoes. Yes, I know that tomatoes are a fruit and potatoes are a starch, but whatever. That doesn't make me miss lettuce any less.

After that divine salad, Anne-Michèle and I went to Liège to buy a hand-held translator thingy majig for Adrien. We went past a bookstore I visited the first time we went, and there was a guy there giving out free little pots of Ben and Jerry's ice cream! Anne-Michèle and I both ate one, bought Adrien's translator thingy, and then walked by again to get ice cream for the rest of the family. :) That ice cream was seriously delicious.

Sunday 5 Septembre

Anne-Michèle, Etienne, and I went with Adrien to the train station in Bruxelles. Adrien checked in or something of that sort (I'm not sure how the train station works, to be honest) and then we lost Etienne, so we had little detour while we searched the train station for him. Once we were all reunited, we went to lunch at a little sandwich shop (I didn't eat anything, as I wasn't hungry). After that, Adrien walked through a little gate thing, and that was it! He's in England right now, and I really hope he has a fantastic time!

Monday and Tuesday, 6 and 7 Septembre

Back to the lovely life of a 6ème student. I have the schedule figured out now, which is really great, but the classes are difficult (made even more so by the fact that I don't understand most of what's going on...) and they're not always in the room that's listed on the schedule. I don't know how people figure out where the class is instead, but they all seem to know. I need to figure out how that works.

I went to English class for the first time, and it's definitely going to be a challenge. I speak, read, write, and think in English, but in the class, the students translate from French to English. I don't know a lot of the French vocabulary, so I can't translate. I failed a test (I got 0 out of 10, I'm not afraid to admit it), but I've studied the vocabulary and the verbs and all of that business, so I think I'm going to do better next time. I talked to Sofii, a girl in my class, and she said not to worry, it takes a looooooong time to learn this stuff. She knows all the verbs, but she has been in the class for four years with the same list. I know it'll come eventually, but in the meantime, it sucks feeling like a fish out of water.

OH. I'm in calculus. It's nature's idea of a sick, sick joke, I think. I'm not in the beginning calculus class, I'm in the second year of it or something. I don't understand a single thing that has been reviewed so far. We don't have the real teacher right now either, we have a substitute (I have no idea why) and she's a chemistry teacher, not a math teacher, so she doesn't really know what's going on either. It makes me miss my Unit Circle back home. :(

I think my favorite class so far is Science Sociales (Social Sciences). It's taught by a woman named Mme. Gallo, who told me that she exchanged to Oregon when she was my age. She's verynice and really understands how difficult it is to be an exchange student. She's also one of the few teachers who actually expects us to work. She gives us the handouts, she expects us to take notes, etc. It's so refreshing! My French teacher (it's the equivalent of an English class in the U.S.) didn't give me the handouts last class. I don't know why, he just didn't. I don't know if it's because it's something I don't have to do or if it's because he thinks I can't handle it; either way, I wasn't thrilled. I don't want to be one of those exchange students who just floats along, not really doing any work and not participating. I like to work, I like to learn, and I like being a participating member of a classroom. *sigh* It'll all work out. I just need to take it one day at a time.

Wednesday, 8 Septembre

I went to the mine in Blègny with the other Rotary exchange students in 1630. I had a blast! It was so much fun to be down in an actual mine and to be able to see where people had actually worked (kids as young as 6 worked in mines, opening and closing doors!) and changed the earth so many years ago. Granted, I don't support the exploitation of nature, but it was still super cool to be inside Mother Earth that way.

Unfortunately, my camera has decided to suck through batteries like mad, so I only have about 8 pictures from the mine and none inside the mine itself. :( If anyone has any tips on extending battery life in a camera, or if you'd like to send me a new camera that has a rechargeable battery, lemme know.

Friday, 10 Septembre

After school, I went to a cafe and bowling with my friends from school. I had a blast laughing and telling jokes and just enjoying being a teenager. Here's a picture of my friends:

Left to right: Mathieu, Marie, Florian, Amandine

They're seriously awesome people. They show me around school and help me when I get lost (Florian was late to his French class because he was helping me find my class... once again, they had decided to have class in a room besides the one where it's normally supposed to be...) and I eat lunch with them every day.

Florian is a total Harry Potter junkie too, so we talk about Harry Potter and the new movie coming out and which book is our favorite and all manner of things like that. It's quite enjoyable. Florian is actually like my own mini-translator; he translates the French most kids speak into Mikayla French. What is Mikayla French? It's sloooooooow, uses small words, and doesn't use any type of slang. It's quite convenient.

Saturday 11 Septembre

It was a little weird not seeing the replays of 9/11 on tv. No one was talking about it, no one was wearing red, white, and blue to show their patriotism. And then I remembered that I'm in Belgium. 9/11 didn't affect Belgium the way it affected the U.S. It was very different from the mood I'm used to on this day every year.

I went over to Frèdèric (Etienne's brother)'s house to meet his wife (Caroline)'s aunt -- she's American, but she lives not far from here with her husband. It was nice to speak English again and to meet other people who have learned foreign languages. Caroline's uncle told me to watch the news in French every day. Not just have it on in the background, but actually watch it. He said that it helps one learn a foreign language very quickly. I'm going to give it a try.

After that, Anne-Michèle and I went to my third family's house for a large Thai meal. Apparently, a group of people who took some sort of cooking class get together every few months and have a themed dinner (this one being Thai, obviously). It was really nice for me because I got to hang out with all four of my future host siblings (Kaki, Camille, Pauline and Quentin). I actually met Kaki, Pauline, and Quentin for the first time last night! They're all extremely friendly and welcoming. They asked about school, how I like it here, what I miss about home, etc. Camille and I ended up watching The DaVinci Code until Anne-Michèle and I left at about 1:15. In the morning. I was so tired! But I had a really good time, and I'm glad I got to know my family better.

Last but not least, I'd like to congratulate my friend Shannon and her new husband Dustin. They were married on September 11, 2010. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you, and I hope you have a wonderful life together. Congratulations. :)

Sunday 12 Septembre

Today, I lazed around, studied my irregular English verbs some more, and went to lunch at Etienne's parents' house, like we do every Sunday (this is actually only the second time I went, we've been busy every Sunday since I've been here), came back, read, and studied my irregular verbs again. I'm about to head to bed as my eyes are getting tired and I have the beginnings of a sore throat (ugggggh!).

Ohhhh wait! Two more things:

1) The chipmunk will be departing soon. I must say, I've gotten used to him being there when I wake up, staring at me from around the massive nut he's trying to crack and making obscene amounts of noise.

2) I braved the dryer! And it totally worked out! I'm SO proud of myself!

The laundry turned out okay.

I let it all hang-dry in my room, which works just fine for me. Back in the states I let my laundry air-dry all the time. I prefer it, actually.

I have yet to discover the chipmunk's name. Right now, I'm just calling it "the chimpunk." I know, I'm just that creative.

Aujourd'hui, I figured out how to get accents on my computer. C'est magnifique!

I'm still plodding my way through Harry Potter. I'm only on page 46. If I was reading it in English, I'd be done by now. But I realized that that attitude is part of the problem. I can't expect to learn French (or any other language) overnight. It's a process. Everyone I talk to here has been speaking it for their entire life -- I've only been able to speak French every other day for 90 minutes the past three years. There's no comparison.

I've only been here for a week, but I've realized that languages are taught WAY differently than they are in the U.S. Back in Loveland, I had French class every other day for 90 minutes. Over here, my younger brother (Amaury) goes to a school that's taught in Flemish. He has been going for a few years, and I'm willing to bet that he's 30 times better with Flemish than I am with French. I can't say I'm surprised, either. When he's at school, Amaury is surrounded by Flemish all day long. Heck, he even watches cartoons in Flemish when he's home! But in the U.S., we get one little dose of French (or Spanish or German) every few days. It's simply not enough.

I wish to continue writing about this, but as of right now, I can't keep my thoughts straight. So ça va.

Anyfunk, you can see that I've got accents now! I'm very pleased. :) It took me a while to figure it out, but after some Google searches and several minutes of confusion, I have it figured out. I quite like the system -- it's not complicated at all.

I'm super stoked to start school here. I know I'm going to be incredibly nervous on the actual day, but I know it will do wonders for my French. I'll be going with Talia, another exchange student (she's from Minnesota) so I won't be completely alone. I'm also curious to see what the "special program" is for the exchange students. I'm really hoping to take some art classes while I'm here. I think that my "creative juices are flowing," as my mom always said.

If you ever travel abroad, take more socks than you think you'll need.

Thank you: Michelle Skeens, for reminding me that it will all be okay, and that I should try new things.

Marianne Deschodt, for being an exchange student before me and reminding me that tomorrow is a new day.

Toni Theisen for being the most awesome French teacher ever, and for answering all of my random, half-formed questions at all hours of the day.

Mikayla

P.S. I kind of miss being called Ségo.

There's nothing more awkward...

than family fights at dinner. Especially if you're an exchange student, and you only know half of what's going on. And especially when your awesome little host brother starts to cry. Ah well, I suppose it's part of the life of an exchange student -- seeing things you normally wouldn't see in your own family. Coming from a household of two (my mom and moi), it's really weird for me to see other families fight. I've never liked it. It totally freaks me out when I'm at a friend's house and their parents argue, or my friend gets chewed out for not doing something they were supposed to do. I've never liked it. I prefer to pretend that family problems don't exist when I'm visiting someone. I know it's a tad cowardly, but much easier for me (and far less disconcerting for the people doing the actual fighting), to stare off into space, or down at my plate, eating furiously, pretending not to notice that they're fighting. Les Cartuyvels are great people, and they do their best to make me feel comfortable and help me know what's going on, even if I'd rather be left 100% in the dark. For example, today, after they solved whatever problem was going on (I didn't catch that; the fork I used tonight was exceptionally lovely), Etienne turned to me and said, "Les garcons! Adrien est gentil mais..." and smacked his head in his hand. (The boys! Adrien is nice but...) I looked up, and he seemed to expect an answer, so I did what I usually do in this sort of situation: chose something random and inanimate and say something about it. I said, "J'aime bien les fleurs." (I like the flowers.) The whole table roared with laughter. It's a highly effective method of avoiding awkward topics, I recommend it.

In other news, I spent most of today with Talia, an American exchange student from Minnesota. She's super nice and we spent most of the day talking about home, being an exchange student, and French. It was nice to speak so much English, and I was surprised at how easy it was to understand the French later. I still have a LOT of work to do, but I like where I'm at. I need to be happy with it and just accept the fact that I'm not always going to pick things up right away. I'll forget stuff, I'll screw up, I'll mix up the words for "decided" and "dead." But hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Mikayla

P.S. I really need to get some books written in French. Oh, do I want Harry Potter!

By the way... I got a clock. :) And a "GSM" (cell phone). I have to buy minutes for it, which is a little weird, mais c'est la vie. I like it in Belgium. A lot. :)

Holy Cannoli!

So a bunch of new exciting things have been happening in the past few weeks!

• I got Skype! I've been video chatting with Jaclyn (another inbound, from Missouri) and my Hannah (who's back in Wisconsin) so I've pretty much figured out how Skype works. If you're interested in Skyping, add me!
  
• My visa arrived yesterday! It's so pretty, sitting there in my passport. I panicked for a second today, because it says that it's only valid until October 15th, but then I remembered that it's supposed to be valid for that long. :) I have to go to the town hall in my city within 8 days of my arrival in Belgium to verify my visa and get it extended for the rest of the year.
• My laptop arrived today! I think he's going to be named Voldemort. I'm actually posting this from him. He's taking some getting used to, but overall I like him a lot.
• I discovered that the host counselor I was given on my Rotary paperwork is, in fact, not my host counselor. The man who is actually my host counselor is named Philippe, and he and I have corresponded a little. He will be there with my first host family to welcome me at the airport.
• I received my itinerary for my flights! I fly out of DIA on Friday, August 13th (just 15 days from now!) and arrive at Washington Dulles that afternoon. After a three hour layover, I board a flight for Bruxelles, Belgique! I arrive early in the morning (Belgian time) on August 14th. I can't believe it's so soon!
• I met a gentleman named Raphael, who exchanged to my hometown about two years ago. As it turns out, he knows my host families! In a country of 10 million people, who would've thought that it's such a small world?

Au revoir,

Mikayla

Update...

I sent in my visa paperwork (finally), and the travel agent tells me it takes about 5 weeks to get a visa, while the consulate's website says one week. I'm hoping it goes through quickly and without any glitches. I can't buy my plane ticket until my visa arrives, and if it takes all of 5 weeks, I'll have a week and a half left before I'm supposed to arrive. Pas bien. So keep your fingers crossed for a quick visa and open seats on the plane!

I heard back from Host Family Number Two, the Cuyckens. They sent me pictures of their family, which is awesome! All three of my families keep telling me how excited they are for me to come, which gives me warm fuzzies inside (yes, I'm serious). My first host mom, Mme. Cartuyvels, told me that she's starting to work on my room, and she hopes I like it. I wiggle with happiness whenever I think of it!

I've been talking to my host sister, Camille, who is in Mexico with Rotary right now. She returns en Belgique on the 16th of July, so we'll get to hang out when I'm there, which is exciting! She's so sweet, and offered to help me with my French (I'll need it) as long as I help her get a better accent with English (she speaks 3 languages: French, English, and Spanish. Her English is better than mine!). I can already tell we're going to be friends. :)

I can't wait to meet all of the other kids going to Belgium. I've gotten to know a few of them already via Facebook (what would we do without it?!) and I love them. I can't wait to see what kind of shenanigans we get into en Belgique!

Bisous,

Mikayla

Belgique!

Well mes amis, I finally know my host club (Hannut-Waremme) and my school (Sainte-Croix et Notre-Dame). At the outbound orientation next weekend, I'll meet with the travel agent to discuss plane tickets and departure dates and what not. I'm still waiting to hear from my host family/ies, and hopefully I'll start emailing and getting to know them soon.

Through Facebook, I've already had the chance to talk to some other people that are either going to or already in Belgium, which has been a great experience. It's good to know that other people are having the same concerns and thoughts that I am. Talking to these people has helped me relax and really start to look forward to going to Belgium.

Au revoir, mes amis!