Twilight.

I'm having a movie night with Pauline and Quentin, my host brother and sister. We're going to watch Twilight 3. I like to think of it as family bonding time. Who would have thought that a crappy series like that could bring us all together? :)

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.

I'm going to try something new.

In lieu of massive update posts, I'm going to try to start posting either every day or every other day, just a short summary of what I've done. I'm hoping it'll help keep me on top of this blogging thing and make sure I don't forget anything!

Today, I bummed around some more (I'm on vacation!) and watched The West Wing. At about 2, I decided to go out and make my snowman. I had a blast! I was a bit disappointed in myself though; you know your inner child is dead when you feel the need to Google how to make a snowman before you do it. My snowman turned into a snowwoman, and she's very cute, I think, despite Amaury saying she's not round enough. I'm going to help him make a snowman later so the little lady can have a friend.

Other than that, I have a Rotary meeting tonight, and that's all.

:)

Bisous,

Mikayla

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...

Talia and I were "In an Open Relationship" on Facebook, and then she broke up with me.

Yeah, it's the start of a great weekend. :)

I have 4 days off until I have to go back to school for exams, and it's starting off with a sleepover with Talia. We made sloppy joes, corn and deviled eggs for my host family, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Arnaud didn't add any extra ketchup to anything.

Later tonight, we're going to dye my hair, then who knows what kind of shenanigans we'll get into.


Toodles,

Mikayla

FOOTBALL!

We just got satellite tv installed today. Normally, this wouldn't matter to me, as I don't watch tv here anyway. But tonight, I was up here in my room watching The West Wing on my computer, and Amaury came running up the stairs yelling, "Mikayla, football americain!" They found football. On tv. Here. In Belgium.



I think I almost knocked the poor kid over in my mad rush to get downstairs as fast as possible.





I smashed into the living room to discover Arnaud holding the remote watching the Giants v. Eagles game. Granted, neither one of them comes close to the awesomeness of the Pack, but still. Better than nothing. I watched with the two of them, and explained the rules when they got confused. I was rooting for the Giants (blasphemy, I know. But better than cheering for Michael Vick, right? How is he allowed to play football again?! He's a disgrace to humanity. But that's another blog for another time). Sadly, the Eagles managed to win. Ah well, c'est la vie. The Pack is 7 - 3 because we're freaking beasts, and we absolutely slaughtered the Vikings yesterday. Life is good.



One thing I noticed while we were watching the game:

I totally felt like I was part of the family. Like I was just watching a football game with my brothers. It was a really neat feeling, even though it's hard to describe. It was like I wasn't just the exchange student living there... I was actually their sister, they were my brothers, and we were just hanging out, like families do. It's definitely a memory I'll cherish.

There's a mouse in my house!

Or rather, in my suitcase. I've heard it in there before, and I always hoped it would just... disappear or something. No such luck. I woke up yesterday morning, and I heard it digging around in there again. I'd only been asleep for about three hours, so in my half-awake state, I grabbed the water bottle sitting next to my bed and repeatedly whacked the top of the suitcase in hopes of scaring the little critter into submission. It worked, apparently, because I managed to fall back to sleep...

When I was totally awake later on in the day, I decided that enough was enough. Mr. Squeaky needs to find a new home. So, I opened my suitcase and started removing things, one by one. Two t-shirts, a chewed hemp necklace, my packets of Ranch dressing, two (thankfully) untouched boxes of Mac n Cheese, a sportsbra sporting (pun intended) a nice new hole in the strap, and some random papers made it out, but my Reese's Cups Minis, were, unfortunately, lost to the dreaded Monster Mouse. I was afraid to pull those out in fear of what I would find, so I just zipped the suitcase shut and set it down in the hallway outside my room. There it shall stay until tomorrow, when Talia and Emma come over to get ready for Lady Gaga. Talia loves mice, apparently, and she will brave the uncharted waters of the rest of Mikayla's Suitcase-land in hopes of finding Mr. Squeaky (who is, in fact, Monster Mouse by night, much the way Superman is Clark Kent during the day) and rehoming him to the great outdoors.

I think it's a great plan.

Tonight after a yummy dinner of pork, potato chunks and green beans, courtesy of Arnaud, I was doing dishes, and mentioned the mouse in my suitcase. He said yes, he had read it on Facebook. Is it still in there? My response: ...That's really a great question... See, I may have knocked it out when I woke up yesterday morning and beat the snot out of my suitcase with a water bottle, but I think it's still alive because I'm pretty sure I heard it scratching around again this morning...

Arnaud's suggestion? Set a trap. Um... except that means it will die. As I'm sure you know, I'm not okay with the idea of anything dying, ever. I said as much, and Arnaud looked at me and said, "C'est juste une souris. C'est rien." (It's just a mouse. It's nothing). But that's the thing. It is something. It's a life. It doesn't deserve to die. His response: It's either the mouse or your Reese's Cups.

I almost thought about it.

Except the Reese's cups are already gone. So no dice. I told him the Reese's Cups are already lost, and he agreed we could set a trap with cheese. No death involved, thank goodness.

I hope Talia finds it tomorrow and we can just let it go outside, no sneak attacks with cheese involved. But we shall see....

Until next time....

RIP Reese's Cups.

Pizza

We just ate dinner, and as we were cleaning up, Anne-Michèle told Arnaud that at my house, we eat pizza for breakfast. He looked at me like I grew another head. Seriously.

Arnaud: Pizza?

Me: Yes...

Arnaud: In the morning?

Me: Yes. COLD, too. We don't heat it.

I think he's still standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out how us barbarians can walk and talk at the same time.

But I miss cold pizza.

Thanksgiving Pictures

All right world, here are the photos of the Thanksgiving Talia, Emma and I made for our host families. It was a LONG day -- we started cooking at about 1 and the party didn't finish until about midnight. Despite the enormous amount of work, everyone seemed to enjoy the food (the sweet potatoes were a big hit as well as the stuffing) and the pie was an interesting new experience for them as well. I'll post the story of the day later, as well as my stories from London. But for now, enjoy it visually. :)

Mikayla

Talia and I working on the sweet potatoes.

Of course, the vegetarian gets stuck making the chickens...

Melted butter, salt and pepper to rub on the chickens.

I don't remember what was going on at this point...

Emma's apples for her pie.

Emma, me and the bowl of stuffing.

Apple pie ready to go in the oven.

Our work space. It got a LOT messier than that.

We had leftover pumpkin pie filling, so we made little pumpkin pie cake things.

Rubbing the inside of the chickens with salt and pepper. The one I'm holding now became my chicken, the other was Talia's.

The chickens, in all of their chicken-y glory.

Pumpkin pie ready to be baked.

Stuffing the chickens. Amaury walked in while I was doing this, stared at me for about thirty seconds with eyes the size of saucers, and then ran out. He later told everyone that the stuffing was chicken excrement. Gotta love 11 year old brothers.

The chickens doing their thaaaang in the oven.

Apple pie.

Finished chickens. Mine was so beast it broke the string that was holding it together.

The finished table, right before we sat down to eat.

The dinner party.

Clockwise around the table:

Arnaud, M. Crismer (Emma's host dad), Anne-Michèle, M. De Wulf (Talia's host dad), Mme. Crismer (Emma's host mom), Etienne, Mme. De Wulf (Talia's host mom), Talia, Charles-Antoine (Talia's host brother), me

Not pictured: Amaury, Charlotte (Talia's host sister) and Emma (she was taking the picture)

Charles-Antoine, Talia, Emma, me, Arnaud

Etienne, Talia, Emma, Me, Anne-Michèle

Back row (l-r): M. De Wulf, Anne-Michèle, Mme. Crismer, Etienne, Mme. De Wulf, M. Crismer

Front row (l-r): Charlotte, Talia, Emma, me, Amaury

Ode to Arnaud, the Cookie King.

Here's what went down this weekend:

Friday night, I was supposed to spend the night with the chipmunk, but that got cancelled. So instead, I went to Talia's house, and hung out with her and Emma before we headed to the café in Hannut. Talia left to go to a party in Liège, and Emma and I stayed at the café, chatting and writing Belgium bucket lists.

I spent the night at Emma's, and came home the next morning.

When I got home, Arnaud showed me that there was something about American politics in the newspaper, and he explained what it meant in English. We talked for a while, and then I asked him if he read my blog lately. He said no, why? I told him that I had a challenge for him. HE can try making cookies, if he doesn't like mine. He laughed, and we went on our merry way. About an hour later, I came downstairs for lunch, and there was Arnaud with a plate full of butter and a giant mixing bowl full of flour and sugar. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "What you told me to do." I looked closer, and sure enough, he was making chocolate chip cookies. The family ate lunch, and afterward, I did sudoku while Arnaud tried to make his cookie dough into the little ball shapes. It was the first time I've ever seen someone use two wooden spoons to put the dough on the cookie tray. Here are the pictures of his cookie adventures:

Using spoons to put the cookie dough on the cookie sheet.

First batch.

The artist's work space.

Anyway, as he was making the cookies, I learned that Arnaud had never before eaten raw cookie dough. Naturally, I felt a need to remedy that situation, so I had him try the raw stuff. I'm pretty sure he thought it was gross.

Talia arrived not long after that (she, Emma and I went to Liège for the afternoon), and she ate some raw cookie dough as well. It was REALLY good cookie dough. REALLY good.

So, the first batch of cookies finished baking, and Talia and I did a taste test.

Arnaud wins, hands down. They were REALLY good cookies. REALLY REALLY good. Even better than the ones I made with Emma. And (no offense Talia...) about a billion times better than the ones I made with Talia. They tasted almost exactly like good old American Nestlé Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'm still amazed.

Also, Arnaud had only made cookies once before in his ENTIRE 21 years of existence on this planet (CRAZY). He has mad skills. I applaud him.

After the cookies, Talia and I met up with Emma at the train station, and we took a train to Liège to do a little shopping. I ended up finding some super cheap earrings that I like a lot, so I bought a little present for myself.

We came back to Waremme at about 6:30, and Anne-Michèle brought me home. I had a quick bite to eat, then left with Etienne to go bowling near Charleroi. It turns out that the bowling was actually a tournament, and the people we were bowling with were BEASTLY. This one guy kept correcting my form and trying to teach me how to bowl better, and it did help. Oh, and I won a Mars bar! That cheered me up. :)

Today, I slept in laaaaate and read for a while, before heading over to the stable to ride. I enjoyed myself, even when I landed butt-first in the dirt. It's a learning experience. :)

Now, I'm at home, wishing I could watch the Packer's game. Oh I miss football.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to Namur with Arnaud, Talia, Emma, and a bunch of Arnaud's friends to do karaoke. I don't think I'll be singing, but we'll see.

Tuesday, I have a Rotary meeting, and Wednesday, Etienne is taking me to Bruges.

Thursday, I'm leaving for London with Rotary. I'm so excited!

The Soirée.

I've decided to dedicate one post to the soirée, before writing about the rest of what's happening in my life. So, here goes.

Beginning of September: I was at dinner one day and Etienne asked me if I wanted to go to a soirée with Arnaud. I agreed, not entirely sure what it was. In fact, I'm still not entirely sure. Regardless, as we got closer and closer to the date, I started freaking out more and more, comme d'habitude (as usual). One night Anne-Michèle and I chose one of Alix's dresses for me to wear (it's absolutely gorgeous, by the way. Navy blue halter with a flowy skirt. Gosh I love those flowy skirts.) and she found a shrug for me to wear with it to cover my tattoo. We went shopping the day of the Fête de Wallonie and bought shoes and a necklace to go with it. I was totally set for the big night.

A week or two before: Anne-Michèle told me after dinner that all we needed now was to go to the hairdresser. There may or may not have been a mild exclamation of disbelief/terror/panic when I heard this. Mais ça va.

3 days before: Minor flip outs during English class with Emma and Talia.

1 day before: Anne-Michèle told me that I needed to use some self-tanning lotion.

The day of: I went to Namur with Rotary. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Then I reapplied the tanning lotion, per Anne-Michèle's request. We found a small purse for me to take.

1 hour before: Anne-Michèle did my hair. She did a blow-out, then curled it. I love love loved my hair. She did an AMAZING job. Seriously, my hair looked great. After the hair came the dress. Then the makeup. Then the sweater. Then the merciless stuffing of my cell phone, gum, a pen, some bobby pins, and my little perfume thing into the clutch. After that, I toyed with the idea of putting on the heels, but decided that I'd rather make it down the stairs in one piece, so I just went barefoot. I got downstairs, and Anne-Michèle handed me a pair of pantyhose. Back up the stairs I went to add those to the ensemble. I came back downstairs after that, and I was all ready to go. Arnaud was doing something with the GPS, and then Anne-Michèle and Amaury wanted to take pictures. I basically just stood there while they snapped oodles of photos with various picture-taking devices. Arnaud was laughing. He, however, did not get his picture taken.

After the photos, we left. I had made it 20 minutes without a mishap, so one was bound to come soon. I was wearing the heels when we left the house. I forgot that there aren't any lights outside, and my brain, in its laziness, had decided to forget that there are steps coming down from the door. No, I didn't fall, I merely made a loud, stumbly, scraping noise as I descended. So... I pretty much fell, but landed on my feet.

We got in the car and headed on our merry way after that. It was a pleasant car ride until Arnaud told me that there was the possibility that we would be sitting at different tables. Cue panic. But since the people throwing the party knew that I'm American and don't speak French, they probably put us at the same table. End panic.

We arrived at the soirée at about 9pm and I immediately sunk into the grass when I stepped out of the car. Thank you, heels. There's a reason so many women hate you. I managed to get out of the grass just fine, and when we walked up to the house, the first person I saw was my third host sister, Camille. I talked with her for a second before Arnaud and I went inside to greet the parents of the party. When Arnaud introduced himself, they immediately looked at me and said, "The American!" (In all honesty, that's a fairly common reaction. It's as though I'm expected to look different or have a flag painted across my face. I really look just like all the other people out there in the world, promise). After greeting the parents, we found a board with little pieces of paper listing people's names on them. These tell you which table you're sitting at. We flipped them over, and what do you know, we're at different tables. I was totally ready to flip out, but then I decided it wasn't really a big deal. I mean, it's one night. I can manage to eat a meal with a bunch of people I've never met before and who speak a language I don't understand, right? No sweat.

I found Camille not long after that, and she introduced me to her friends, all of whom were very nice. They spoke French with me, which was a nice change from the English I usually get. During this time, Camille told me not to talk or dance with any guys who were wearing only pinky rings. The pinky ring is a tell-tale sign, apparently, that the guy is a money-obsessed, snotty jerk. Well, what the hell do I know, I'll believe it. Not long after that, it was time for dinner, so we all filed inside. Camille helped me find my table. We waited for a few people to sit down, and then she walked up to a guy and this conversation followed, in French, of course:

Camille: Hi, what's your name?

Random Guy at My Table: Olivier.

Camille: Hi Olivier. This is Mikayla, she's my host sister. She's American. She's going to sit by you at dinner, and you're going to talk to her, okay? Have fun.

And that was all. Olivier was actually very nice, and he and I talked quite a bit during the course of the meal, which was quite delicious (the meal, I mean, not Olivier...).

What did we eat?

Well, the first course/appetizer-y thing was raw salmon rolled around little shrimp. It was actually pretty good, despite my aversion to raw meat and seafood.

Second, we had a form of potato (I'm thinking it was potatoes au gratin, but I really have no idea), something involving ham and a sauce (really great sauce), something I'm hoping was chicken, and something else I can't remember. It was all super delicious though. I loved it.

Desert was an AMAZING raspberry/sugar creation. The raspberry was like a serbet kind of thing and was SO yummy. I wasn't a huge fan of the sugar part, but the raspberry. Yes. Incredible.

This whole meal was accompanied by a roll (one of the best parts of any meal, in my opinion) and two wines, one white, one red. Both were quite good.

After the meal, we all went outside as the waiters cleared out the tables so people could dance. Camille found me and we went outside with her friends for a while, then we went in to dance. Yes, I did dance. I actually had a lot of fun! There were little platform thingies for people to dance on, so I joined Camille and her friends on one of those. It was great fun. We would go outside for some fresh air for a while, then go back in and dance some more. During one of our trips outside, someone walked up behind me and said, "What is your name?" in ENGLISH. I told him, and he and I started chatting about English, me being in Belgium, and his time studying English in England. Camille came back over, and we went inside to dance some more. As we were walking, she told me to be careful; that guy had a pinky ring. I didn't really give the guy another thought, and just started dancing again. All of a sudden, the guy appeared right next to me, dancing. Camille and I moved across the dance floor, and he followed. No matter where we went, he was no more than a minute behind us. It was a little creepy after a while. At around 12:45 (yes, am) I went outside and the guy followed me. He commenced what I'm sure was a lovely soliloquy about how much he knows about America (he's been to Washington DC and Chicago, after all), every reason he could think of that demonstrates why Belgium is better than America, and the brewery his uncle is buying. What did I gain from listening to this? there are approximately 164.7 things I would have rather been doing than standing there, including, but not limited to:

watching grass grow

attending a Justin Bieber concert

learning Korean

singing karaoke in Polish

attempting a back flip, heels and all

Luckily, Arnaud came to my rescue. He came over and said, "Shall we go? I have to be up early tomorrow." I think he was my favorite human on the planet at that moment. I turned to Mr. Pinky Ring and said, "Bonne soirée!" and bolted. As Arnaud and I were walking to the car, I thanked him profusely for saving me from the pinky ring guy. He said, "Yes, I saw your face... and I heard him talking about Belgians not having to use ID cards..."

The drive back was passed discussing the fact that Arnaud has never seen the Wizard of Oz, the possibility of an afternoon of watching Disney movies (ahem... :P), and blasting Ke$ha songs. Then, we got back to the house, and I passed out in my room, exhausted.

That, my good people, is the story of an American girl, a pair of heels, and an evening in Europe.

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!

I definitely hear the sultry sounds of NSync.

Coming from Arnaud's room. That was just followed by "Dancing Queen." I do appreciate his taste in music.

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!

I've been craving cheesecake lately.

So Arnaud went to a supermarket and found some for me. I like having an older brother. :)

Except now, I really want pickles and liver sausage. I know, I'm weird.

More random crap about today.

I realized just now that I'm a hypocrite. Adrien is leaving for England on Sunday, and after he says something in French, I ask him to say it in English if he's speaking to me. He usually tries and does fairly well. I, on the other hand, speak mostly English. When Arnaud asked me something today, I didn't even think of answering in French, I just responded in English immediately. When Anne-Michèle came to pick me up from school, I asked her where she would be, in English. I spoke mostly English today at school. Pas bien. I need to start speaking French. I can't keep telling Adrien that the only way to learn is to try if I don't follow that advice myself. Tomorrow, all French. Let the games begin.

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

This bloody chipmunk won't shut up.

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

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

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

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

I miss wearing sweatpants. Ugggh.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mikayla

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.