You know you're Belgian when...

your diet for the day consists of the following:

3 waffles
fries
2 Cokes
1 beer
1 chocolate cookie thing



And people wonder why exchange students gain weight...

Exams

Last week, exams started here in Belgium. They're not too different from the ones in the states, but they're not exactly the same, either.

Monday we had two exams: History and Geography. I opted out of taking Geography, as I have yet to take a test or do much of anything in that class. The history exam commenced at 8:25, which is when classes normally start, so I missed my daily dose of Père Boly. The desks were all separated in the classrooms, so kids couldn't copy each other. A teacher I've never seen before came in with an envelope that contained our exams. All of the Belgians had this special paper out, which I guess is the school's paper for when kids take their exams. I, of course, didn't have the special paper, but I didn't really care. I just used regular notebook paper, which is probably SO not Kosher...

The exam went until about 10:00, and I think I did fairly well. Not perfect, of course, but I don't think I blew it. The actual teacher came in at one point and went over all of the questions and asked if we needed clarification on anything. Overall, it was a lot like an AP exam... We had to analyze some documents, there was a bit of multiple choice, and then some essay writing. My essays weren't fabulous, but I'm all right with that.

Thursday, I had an exam in Religion, which was pretty similar. The questions were different, obviously. And there wasn't a multiple choice section. This one was only short answer, essay, and then something involving a cartoon on the back. I think we had to write what we thought would be the next appropriate thing to say in the cartoon. But I wasn't sure what the first part was saying, so I don't think I got that one right...

Again, I didn't have the special paper. Amandine offered me some of hers, but I declined. Honestly, I don't really care if I have the special paper a) because no one told me about it beforehand and b) I'd hate for Amandine (or someone else) to run out of her special paper because she gave some to me. It's not like my exams count anyway, and theirs actually do.

I got lucky and don't have exams today or tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday). I have to take English on Wednesday, Science on Thursday and Social Sciences on Friday. After that, I'm free until 2011! Belgians still have to go to school next Monday and Tuesday for exams in Greek and Latin or something like that. Yes, schools here are awesome enough to offer Greek and Latin. Anyway, I get out at noon every day after exams as well, so I'm pretty excited.

For English, Talia, Emma, Eduardo and I are supposed to go over everything the kids have done so far this year in English, kind of like a summary of sorts before the actual students take their exams. We're putting on a skit that will run through everything. Talia is the teacher, and Emma, Eduardo and I are the students. We talk about songs, greeting people, why we should learn English, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and the exchange students that came to talk at the beginning of the year, as well as a few other things. It should be fun and not too difficult, so I'm excited.

Tomorrow, Jordan and I are going to Brussels for the day to do a little Christmas shopping as well as hit up the Royal Museum of Fine Arts so I can see the painting "La Mort de Marat" by Jacques-Louis David. I've wanted to see it ever since I wrote a paper about the French Revolution sophomore year. I can't WAIT to see the real thing.



Then, we're headed to do a little Christmas shopping and to Waterloo so we can go to the British store there. I'm hoping to pick up some taco shells so I can make tacos with Arnaud in the coming weeks. I need to make Jell-O too...


Bisous,
Mikayla

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

Maastricht

This post is way way way overdue. I went to Maastricht, Netherlands on Friday, October 8, with Anne-Michèle and Mami (host grandmother). It was a Friday, and I had off of school, so we piled in the car at about 8 am and drove off. It was about an hour away by car, and the drive went by quickly.

We got to Maastricht and one of the first things I noticed was the bikes. There were bicycles EVERYWHERE. It was a noticeable difference when we crossed the border. The bikes had special lanes and traffic signals. It was amazing! There were probably more bicycles than there were cars. I love "green" countries!

We parked the car and commenced the shopping. Every Friday, there is a huge outdoor market in Maastricht. People sell fabric, batteries, lamps, dresses, purses, watches, cheese, shoulder pads, bracelets, shoes, lightbulbs, buttons, makeup, scarves, you name it. It was truly an incredible sight, with all of the booths and vendors. As the day went on, more and more people came to the market, so eventually it was a massive throng of bodies pushing and pulling to get to where they needed to go.

While Anne-Michèle and Mami were looking at some fabric, I was approached by a young man about my age. There were two other guys with him. I'd seen groups like this all day long. They were carrying clipboards and doing some sort of survey. The guy walked up to me and started speaking what I'm pretty sure was some very broken Dutch (it sounded a lot like me speaking French, so I only assumed that it was not his native language). I, of course, had no clue at all what he was saying, so I interrupted with "Desolée, mais je ne comprends pas. Je suis americaine." (Sorry, but I don't understand. I'm American.) I figured he might come from Belgium or another place that taught at least rudimentary French, but based on the blank, defeated look in his eyes, I was wrong. He gave me a pained look and asked, "Do you speak English?" My response: "Yeah."

That sure turned his frown upside down!

He said, "Oh, well this will be easy then!" He proceeded to ask me a survey of about 10 questions, along the lines of "Where do you come from?" (You're American?! Wonderful!) "Where do you live?" (You must be going to the university in Maastricht! No? You live in Belgium? Well that's exciting!) "Age of shopper." (You're not over 20? Are you sure?) It was quite fun. It turns out that the group of guys were from the international school in Maastricht. Based on the guy's accent, he was British, but I never asked.

After we finished at the market, Anne-Michèle, Mami and I went to a little tourist shop and I bought a keychain and a few post cards to remember my trip by. After that, we went to a little café for lunch. I had an iced cappuccino that was absolutely delicious. Gosh I miss Starbucks. And Dazbog. And Loveland Coffee. Sigh.

Anyway, we did a little shopping at a mall in Maastricht as well. Anne-Michèle bought me a very cute plaid shirt. Granted, it was from the guy's section, but I don't care. I like it a lot.

This is Eduardo, the AFS exchange student at my school. This is the shirt Anne-Michèle bought for me. As it turns out, we have the same one. We ended up wearing them on the same day, a complete coincidence. :)

We stopped in Zara and a few other stores before calling it a day and heading back to the land of les belges. All in all, it was a great day. I really enjoyed the market and the fresh air. It was amazing to see so many cool things for sale all in one place. I also snacked on some delicious cheese, which was super wonderful. Nothing beats Wisconsin cheddar though! :)





One thing I noticed is that I'm not posting as much about what I've been doing lately. I'll try to rectify that in the coming weeks.

Coming up:
exams and why food in Belgium doesn't make sense


Also:
Aachen, Germany, the Marche de Noel, and the Bal de la Saint Nicolas


Toodles,

Mikayla

The Big Americans.

It's a type of pizza. We eat it all the time, and I finally remembered to grab the box so I could take some pictures of it. Voilà.

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

Thanksgiving, Belgian Style.

Tomorrow, Emma, Talia and I are cooking a Thanksgiving meal for our host families. Kind of. See, there are a few... unforeseen challenges we've been presented with. Like the fact that you can't get a turkey in Belgium at this time of year. So we're making chicken. Okay, fine. But we're not making one chicken, we're making two. Why? Because my host dad couldn't find a 6 kilo chicken, he bought two 3 kilo chickens. Okay, that works. But do you make a chicken the same way you do a turkey? Will there be enough space in the oven for said chickens? What's the appropriate amount of time for baking a chicken? I called my grandmother and asked her for her turkey recipe. So I need to go out and buy 8 pounds of butter (oh wait, they don't use pounds here...) and a few spices and some mushrooms, an onion, raisins and some celery. Except I forgot the word for celery. So I didn't write it on the list. I came home and looked it up later, and what is it? Céleri. Of course.

We also want to make pumpkin pie. Dandy. Except Anne-Michèle couldn't find pumpkin purée. So I have a legit pumpkin waiting for me downstairs. It requires cutting, gutting, baking, peeling, mashing, purée-ing, and then it will finally be ready to be made into pie. But do we have all of the spices? I put ginger on the list as well. Anne-Michèle bought a ginger root. That's great, I can use it, but what's the appropriate substitution for real ginger and ground ginger? Oh, and I need apples for apple pie too. Okay, we can handle this.

I need bread for stuffing. I have these cute little baguettes that I need to bake, let cool, slice, then bake again to dry them out. They won't make enough bread crumbs I'm sure, so we need to go out and buy more.

Did you know that in Belgium (and, I'm assuming, most of Europe) they don't use cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, or any other measurement like that? They use grams for EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING. This includes liquids. So I need to find 10 grams of vanilla extract. Okay. I don't even want to think about how many grams of butter I need. Or grams of sugar. By the way, do we have enough butter, sugar, and flour for all of this? I sure hope so.

I forgot peas. Crap. It's okay, we'll just live without.

Our menu:

Chicken

Green Bean Casserole

Cranberry Sauce

Salad

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie

Mashed Potatoes (oh no no no.... did we remember to buy potatoes!?)

Crescent Rolls

Well, time to get crackin' on that pumpkin. Wish me luck.

Mikayla

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 Best Monday in a While.

So, I didn't have to bike 20 km today. I learned how to tie knots for rock climbing and played volleyball instead. I didn't even break a sweat. :)

Anne-Michèle bought waffles. YES.

I got accepted to college. It's hard to describe that feeling, honestly. It's a mixture of relief, happiness, surprise, and I don't know what else. I'm very pleased right now. :)

I hope your Monday was just as fabulous as mine.

Mikayla

The Mac n Cheese.

Boiling water. It's a skill.

I was so happy when I saw the powdered cheese.

The lovely table.

The finished project. :)

They liked it. :)

Anne-Michèle and Amaury, my youngest brother.

Anne-Michèle cooking.

Things I'm craving from the U.S.

• Creamy Chicken Ramen noodles
• liver sausage
• corn dogs
• pizza rolls
• sour cream and onion Pringles
• cold milk
• cheddar cheese
• Chex Mix
• tacos
• Goldfish
• guacamole
• popcorn (from the microwave. the stuff here comes in a bucket)
• blackberry jam
• black currant jam

(what's the difference between jelly and jam?)

• Pringles (they have paprika flavored chips here)
• Domino's or Pizza Hut pizza (there are Pizza Huts here, but they make European pizza, which involves copious amounts of meat, usually ham, and doesn't really look or taste much like the pizza in the U.S.)
• LETTUCE
• anything that does not involve a tomato
• Arizona Iced Tea
• Taquitos

*UPDATE*

There is a Domino's in Maastricht!

*UPDATE NUMBER TWO*

There are Sour Cream and Onion Pringles here, in addition to the equivalent of Ramen noodles. YES!

As for right now, that sums up my list.

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.

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

In Belgium

you can buy loaves of bread from a vending machine.

Rotary trip to Bruxelles

Yesterday I went to Bruxelles with all of the other exchange students in all of Belgium. I had a lot of fun and made some new friends. First, a big group of us took a double-decker bus from Liège to Bruxelles. Jordan, Jaclyn and I sat in the very front on the top level, so we got to see EVERYTHING through the windshield. There were even windshield wipers for us so we could see better! On the bus, everyone exchanged pins and cards and got to know one another a little better. The girls from 1630 were given navy blue scarves and the boys dark blue ties so we could identify each other as members of specific districts. I looked like a flight attendant with my scarf, and Jordan was having some difficulties accepting his tie. It was too short (he's 6'5", so he wears extra long ties) and didn't match his pants, as he put it.

You know what's amazing? The number of boys who don't know how to tie a tie. I had to tie Jordan's and Aaron's, and other guys were complaining that they couldn't make it work either. If I ever have sons (shudder), they are going to know how to tie a tie. Period, end of story.

Once we got to Bruxelles, we all sort of milled around in a park until everyone else arrived. Camille, my third host sister, was there, so I had a chance to talk with her for a while, which was great. Anyway, once we got moving, we toured the Royal Palace (the flag was flying, so the king was in residence! How cool is that?!), which was BEAUTIFUL, if a little extravagant for my taste. :P There was also a section with taxidermies -- a polar bear and a boar. I didn't like that part as much...

There was a room in the palace that was decorated with 1.4 million beetle wings. They were the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Honestly, the room looks like it's part of the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz. The entire room sparkled and was a dark, iridescent green. Words can't really describe it.

Most of the exchange students were hungry at this point, and I think I would have liked the palace more had I not been starving. Next we went to the city hall in Bruxelles and had the flag ceremony. Basically, kids from each country gave their Sponsor Rotary District's flag to the Chairman of their Host District. The U.S. was by far the largest group there. That ceremony took quite a while, but afterward, we went to lunch, which was at a beautiful restaurant looking down on the Grand Place, a beautiful square in Bruxelles. The architecture was phenomenal. Anyway, we had a meal of meatballs and frites. It was yummy, but I really wanted chocolate afterward. :)

After lunch, we had a tour of the House of Parliament, which was extraordinary. We had a chance to sit in the meeting rooms of the Senate and various reading rooms and places for the press. The tour guide explained (in English, which was nice) the portraits and the marble busts that were all over the place. Most of the artwork was of long-dead politicians, but there were photos of the current king and queen, which I enjoyed.

At the end of that, André Flahaut, the President of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives gave a speech, and then two exchange students from each country went forward and gave him all of the flags from their country. After a speech by M. Binamé, the District 1630 Chairman and a speech in French, Spanish, and English by 2 exchange students, each country got to take a picture with M. Flahaut. I thought that that was pretty awesome. :) I'll try to get a copy of it.

Our time in Bruxelles had finally come to an end, so we all piled back onto the bus and headed home. I sat with Jordan again, and we chatted and played 20 questions with some other exchange students. The bus ride back went pretty quickly, and I was happy to get home, eat dinner, and go to bed.

Today, I woke up and went riding at a GORGEOUS stable 5 minutes' walk from my house. The horses there are all eventers and jumpers, which was a little weird for me, coming from a western barn. I had fun though, once I figured out the saddle and bridle and what not. I'm riding a horse named Eros, he's 17 years old and huuuuuuge, at least in comparison with the horses at home. He's stable mates with another horse, and they didn't seem to content on parting with each other. A woman who works there, Sophie, came and helped me get Eros to pay attention, which was nice. FYI, horses in Belgium like to buck. She rode with me and we chatted and I hope we get to hang out some more. I liked her a lot.

I also got my first package from home today! It was so nice to have a little box of America.

Hmmm... well, I'm feeling hungry, so I'm gonna go eat.

Toodles,

Mikayla

Amaury

I just wanted to let everyone know that my host brother, Amaury, is the coolest 11 year old ever. EVER. He's super nice about the fact that I often have no clue what's going on. He'll speak slower and slower and slower and slower and act out whatever it is that he's saying so I can understand. He always says bonjour! to me and is just a great kid. Yesterday, Amaury, Anne-Michele and I were in the kitchen, and there was a pie (tarte, en francais) and he asked if I wanted a piece. I said no, thanks, I'm not hungry, and he said, "Oh, I will save one for you," and he cut a piece of the tarte and put it on a plate. Anne-Michele had to explain what was going on, and said that he would leave it on the counter for me. Amaury was like, "NO! In the fridge!" and put it in the extra fridge so my other brothers, Arnaud and Adrien, wouldn't eat it. Amaury rocks. The end. :)

Jour 2.

It's 2 am here, so it's really Day 3 for me en Belgique, but I'm writing about my second day, so ca va. :)

Every Sunday, my host family has lunch with their extended family at my host dad's step mother's house. Today was my first experience, and it was a lot of fun, but after an hour, I thought my head would explode. There were a lot of children and lots of noise, and SO MUCH FRENCH. Obviously, that's to be expected, but after a while, my mind just couldn't take it. I didn't say much at the meal because I was so overwhelmed, but I managed to catch a lot of what they were saying. As of right now, I can understand quite a bit. If I just sit and listen to what people are saying, I can usually get the gist of the conversation very quickly. But when I'm in a conversation with more than... 2 people, it becomes difficult for me to communicate. I think it's just because I become shy, but also because I'm afraid of making mistakes. I told myself I wouldn't have that fear, but I've realized that it's natural. It's okay if I'm afraid of making mistakes, but I shouldn't let it deter me from speaking. Kind of like when there's a spider in the shower. I might be afraid of the spider, but that doesn't meant that I'll never shower again.

My host mom and I left the lunch before the rest of the family so I could nap (the jet lag finally kicked in). I took a shower after she taught me how to get hot water (WOO!) and then went to sleep for about four hours. I have yet to get a clock, but hopefully I will soon.

Rewind for a bit. Before lunch, Anne-Michele, Amaury and I went to a supermarket in Waremme, a village close to where we live. There were definitely some differences between the Belgian supermarket and the ones in the US. For one, this store was smaller than the ones in the US. It was smaller than Albertsons and King Soopers. The alcohol is just boom, right there in an aisle, you don't have to go to a liquor store to buy it. You can also buy clothes, school supplies, and other things like that at this store. It was like a Walgreens, kinda, but without the medicine and with more food.

There are European cars, but also Fords and Toyotas here, which I think is kind of interesting. I love seeing Citroens and Peugeots driving along the streets. It just makes me happy. My host family laughed at me when I saw my first Citroen. I smiled really big and said "Oh, j'adore les Citroens!" (Oh, I adore Citroens!). The police officers here drive VWs.

Something about driving: while my host dad seems to stick to the speed limit for the most part, it always feels like we're thiiiiiis close to careening off the road. The streets here are very curvy, and it rains a lot, so the roads are slippery.

People in the US complain when there aren't signs labeling the various streets, right? Well, here, the signs are about... 4 inches long and 3 inches tall and the print is REALLY tiny. The signs are on the sides of buildings, which would cause an uproar in the US, I'm sure. Honestly, the signs are so small that 99% of the time, I have no idea what street we're on.

All of the cars here are manual. The old Citroen that Anne-Michele calls Etienne's "toy" has a strange shift... It's in the dashboard and you pull it out, you don't move it up and down.

The roads: Some of them are cobblestone, some of them are paved, all of them are curvy and twisty and terrifying. The roads are also very narrow to begin with, but are made narrower by the fact that people park on both sides. And when you park, it's not necessary to park facing a certain direction, oh no. I've seen cars nose to nose, bumper to bumper, and one truck-like thing that backed up into a parking space with the front of it sticking out into the road. Anyway, I thought Colorado had a ton of roundabouts, but we've got nothing on Belgium. In Waremme, there seems to be at least three roundabouts no matter where in the city you're going. They're impossible to avoid. Also, whoever designed the roads here has a very sick sense of humor. Tonight, I went with Etienne, Amaury, and some cousins to Etienne's friend's house, and we had to turn 330 degrees to get to the road to Jean-Luc's house. It was crazy. And of course, no car has that turning radius, so we had to stop in the middle of the road, back up a little, then continue the turn. It was a little scary. Speaking of backing up, after my family picked me up from the airport, we were trying to find the train station. We were in the middle of Bruxelles, and Etienne missed a turn, so he just stopped the car and backed up about 10 feet so he could turn. IN THE MIDDLE OF A MAIN ROAD IN BRUXELLES. I thought my mom was a crazy driver. Oh, and whoever invented the stop sign neglected to introduce it to Belgium.

It's kind of fun to ride in the car though. :)

Language: I understand a lot more than I thought I would so soon. I can follow a conversation pretty well, and when people talk to me (albeit slowly), I can usually understand what they're saying and formulate a decent response. My problem right now lies in speaking. I can usually do fairly well with Anne-Michele and I'm getting better with Etienne, but I'm still struggling with my host brothers. Arnaud is very nice about speaking English to me and Amaury talks really slowly and quite loud using small words, which is nice, but I have NO clue what Adrien is saying. Ever. I've tried just listening to him, but I still have no idea what's going on. I just need to practice listening to people. And do more of the exercises in my French workbook.

The more I listen to people speak, the more I think in French. I think in it until I reach a point where I don't know the word I'm looking for. So, I throw in the English version and continue to think in French. It's easier if I imagine I'm talking to one of my host family members, because I'm going to have to speak to them in French.

As I said before, I went to Jean-Luc's house with Etienne, Amaury and some cousins. I had a lot of fun. August 15th is a celebration in Belgium (I haven't quite gathered why) and we watched the fireworks over La Meuse (a river) from Jean-Luc's backyard in between exclamations about my mental health because I love rain. Someone, I think Jean-Luc, said "Only in Belgium would it be pouring rain, and yet we still have fireworks." And it was completely true! It was pouring, but we all stood outside and watched. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. As I watched the fireworks, it kind of hit me. I'm in Europe. I still can't believe it. My favorite parts of the evening were:

1. Trying orange juice. There isn't pulp (WOOHOO!) and it's really a blend of fruit juices: orange, mango, pineapple, banana, and some others. The box (yes, it comes in a box) has some English on the front. If I remember correctly, it says "fruity and exotic." I thought it was hilarious. :)

2. All of a sudden, during the fireworks, the adults started to sing "We Are the Champions." Just the one line: "We are the champions. We are the champions. We are the champions." It was so cute!

3. Jean-Luc. It was raining a lot, and for some reason, he didn't go inside and get an umbrella. Instead, he tied a plastic bag onto his head in what I can only describe as a Pippi Longstocking-'do rag. I couldn't stop laughing, and I wish I had taken my camera so I could have a picture.

4. The music on the way home. When we got in the car, the Eurythmics were playing, followed by Colbie Caillat, then Bob Marley. After Bob was a French song, then The Cardigans. I thought it was kind of funny. I also heard Lady Gaga on the radio today before we left for Jean-Luc's. It was nice to have that little piece of home.

Well, it's past 3 now, and I'm getting tired. I'll say goodnight. :)

Bon nuit!

Mikayla