Out of sync.

Hey folks.

I know my blog has become... sporadic. I have lots of posts to finish and lots of stories to share.

I need to finish:

Greece (no WAY was that 2 months ago...)

Rachel! (and our adventures)

Amsterdam

and just a regular life update as well.

I'm sorry I'm so behind, really, I am! I'll catch up soon.

I'm leaving for Prague tomorrow though, so these updates will take a while.

Mikayla

P.S. 24 days left!

Rachel is here!

Coucou les amis !

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

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

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

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

Bisous,

Mikayla

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

SPAIN!

Hello all.

Last Friday, I jetted off to Barcelona, Spain with my second host mom (Malou), my host sister (Valérie) and her boyfriend (Lionel), my host mom's nieces (Marie and Guillaumine) and two of Valérie's friends (Oliver and Laura). We arrived late Friday night (after a bus scare -- my bus was 10 minutes late and we weren't sure I'd have a way to get all the way to the house... but it was fine. :) ) and, after dropping our suitcases off at the apartment we rented, we headed out for a glass of sangria and something to eat. It was a lot of fun just sitting around with everyone, talking and relaxing. When we arrived, we saw a large protest going on at the Plaça Catalunya (this will come back into the story, promise).

The next morning, we got up at about 10, and after everyone got ready, we walked to a boardwalk-like area a few streets away and began meandering around, taking pictures and embracing the Spanish sunshine. After a little while, we came across one of those tourist buses, and decided to tour Barcelona that way. I've always laughed at those tourists in the buses, snapping pictures everywhere, etc. But the bus ride was very informative, and I saw a lot of parts of Barcelona that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. After driving around that first day, we went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant. As I'm not really one for seafood, I had pasta instead. After that, we walked around the boardwalk a bit, before heading back to the apartment. On the way there, we decided that Olivier, Lionel, Marie, Guillaumine and I were going to go out and celebrate Lionel's birthday (June 7). We went out boire un verre (have a drink) for that, and partied it up with some natives. We didn't get home until about 3, so we were wiped out the next day.

Sunday, we took the bus again and went to La Sagrada Familia, the most beautiful church I've ever seen. Pope Benedict XVI visited a few years ago (2008?) and named it a basilica. It was started by the artist Gaudi in the early 1900s, and construction has been going on ever since (over 100 years!) and it's still not finished. The interior was completed a while ago, but the towers and the exterior are still being worked on. At the end, the church will have 18 towers:

1 for every apostle (12)

1 for each Evangelist (4)

1 for the Virgin Mary

1 (the largest) for Jesus. The work that has already been done is just extraordinary. The attention to detail is staggering. There are details in places I didn't know details could be! Visiting La Sagrada Familia was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip, because I knew I was standing in a part of history. It wasn't just some old church, it was a piece of art that has been worked on by countless men and women throughout the last century. Isn't that amazing?

After that, we continued our bus tour, but this time on a different route, and headed over to the Gaudi Park. While the word "park" usually invokes images of grass, trees, and greenery, this park was architecturally-based. It was full of colors and swirls and designs and shapes. Being in there kind of felt like being inside a kaleidoscope. We stopped and had lunch there, before going back to the apartment. That night, Lionel cooked pasta and a tomato/ham sauce, which was DEE-licious!

Monday, we all split up to do different things for the day. Lionel, Olivier and Guillaumine went to the beach and got some lovely sunburns; Malou, Laura and Valérie went shopping; and Marie and I were supposed to go to the Picasso museum, so we could at least say we did something cultural on our trip. ;P The museum was super close to our apartment, and we marched off in that direction after breakfast. We arrived a whopping 8 minutes later, only to discover that the Picasso Museum is closed on Mondays. Well then. We took some pictures of the signs that said it was closed (so we could give proof to Malou, haha) and then we jetted off to the Plaça Catalunya to pick up some gifts and to see what we could see. When we arrived, the afore-mentioned protest was still going on. We stopped and looked through some cardboard signs that had been left on the ground, and Marie took one home for a souvenir. It has a hand painted on it doing the rock symbol:

\m/

You know? With your pinky and your index finger sticking up, but your middle and ring fingers folded down? When I upload pictures to my computer, I'll put one up, okay?

After that, we hopped over to the Hard Rock Café so I could pick up a gift for Jordan. Marie bought one for her boyfriend, Hugo, as well. And we both bought bracelets for 2 euro to aid people in India. The woman working at the Hard Rock was super nice, and very interesting. She's originally from Columbia, and she had one of the most AWESOME tattoos I've come across. It's on her forearm, and it's an elephant from a Dalí painting. I don't know if you know much about Dalí, but he experimented with surrealism and such. His work is very interesting, I suggest you Google him.

After the Hard Rock, we went back to the protest and walked around some of the booths, talking to the people there, and learning about the protest. We found a guy who spoke French, so he explained it to us. That man speaks 5 languages: Spanish, Catalan (the local dialect in Barcelona), English, French, and Arabic. He was with the environmental group at the protest, who were making little ashtrays out of old soda/beer cans and giving them away for free. They made them the same way we made Christmas ornaments in RiverWatch last year. Just goes to show, the function of an item depends on how you look at it. He told us we were allowed to take one, as they were being given away for free, so we did, as a souvenir. After that we continued to walk around, and walked through an area where people were selling books as part of the protest. Next to that, there was a booth where you could get your shirt spray-painted with a message about the protest. Well, not being ones to miss out on the opportunity to get a protest shirt, Marie and I ran to H&M to get cheap tank tops to spray paint. We came back, and we found someone to explain the phrases to us in English (I then translated for Marie), as they were originally in Catalan, a language neither Marie nor I can speak. :P

Our shirts say:

HEM PERDUT LA POR

which translates to

We have lost the fear.

I like it a lot.

Note: Does anyone know the history of the Catalan language? I think it's a combination of French and Spanish, but I could be wrong. I've come to that conclusion for 3 reasons:

1. Barcelona is pretty close to the French border, so it's normal that the cultures would have inter-mixed

2. There is a ç in the word plaça, and probably other words as well. As far as I'm aware that little tail (called a cedille) is only present in the French language, and does not exist in Spanish.

3. The words "la por" mean "the fear." In French, the word fear is "la peur." Kinda similar, no?

After making our shirts, Marie and I went to one of the large fountains in the park to cool our feet off and to relax and enjoy the Spanish sunshine. While over there, we took some pictures, rocked our new shirts, had a random woman take a picture of us in the fountain, and met a group of Catalan teenagers. One of the girls in the group spoke English, and she and I talked about the protest (she told us we weren't allowed to wear protest shirts if we didn't know what they were protesting), the government, and corruption. Marie and I then explained to her that Belgium hasn't had a government in over a year (that's a record, folks). She didn't understand how that was possible, so we did our best to explain. But, in all honesty, I'm not even sure how that's possible. It's a bit of a pickle we're in, no?

After a bit, Marie and I headed back to the apartment and we met up with everyone there. Laura and Olivier were leaving that night, so we all said goodbye. That night we stayed in the apartment and ate the leftovers of Lionel's pasta, which was just as good as the first day. The next morning we were up bright and early (8 am or so...) and we packed up our things before heading out for just a little more shopping. A day or two earlier, Marie and I had found a super cool store called Happy Pills. I laughed when I saw the sign, and explained to Marie why we call anti-depressants "happy pills." We decided to go inside anyway, and it turned out to be a candy store! You choose your bottle size, and then fill it with any type of gummy candy you want. There were chili peppers that were super spicy (Marie and I found that out the hard way), giant strawberries, eyes and teeth, eggs sunny-side up (all candy, I promise!), and gummy worms!!!! We decided that these would be perfect gifts for some friends of ours, so we each made a bottle. After you fill it with candy, you can choose your "prescription." Most of these prescriptions were in Spanish or Catalan, but a few were in English. There were things like:

So the Force is with you

For days and nights without me

For all thoughts (positive or negative) about your ex

Against all stress

etc. etc. We took some extra prescription stickers just because they were so funny!

Anyway, on Tuesday we went back with Guillaumine, and she made a bottle for her boyfriend. While we were there, Marie decided to try one of the candies shaped like an eyeball. I am really freaked out by most body-shaped candy, and this was no exception. This was a BIG eyeball. Marie bit into it and there was goo inside of it!!!!! Ew. She said it was yummy, but I'll take her word for it.

We all met up at the apartment one last time, grabbed our suitcases, and off we went! We arrived back in Belgium at 5:45 or something, and I got home at about 7:30.

I must say, Spain was probably one of the (if not the) best trip I've been on so far. I really loved the atmosphere in Barcelona. The weather was beautiful (HOT!) and the sun was always shining. I would have liked to go to the beach, but unfortunately I didn't make it. I did see it, though, and it was gorgeous. Barcelona, while being a city of 3 million people, didn't feel like a big, dangerous place. Everyone was welcoming, the food was good (especially the ham. I LOVE Serrano ham), and it's a very liberal-feeling place. There were a lot of people with tatoos and piercings, a lot of different clothing styles.... It just seemed to me that even if you weren't what one considered "normal," you were still accepted and you were allowed to be yourself. I love that kind of place. Honestly, when I arrived, one of the first things I said to myself was, "Wait... Why didn't I exchange to Spain?" I really hope I'll be able to go back some day.

Greece II.

Day 4.

April 13, 2011.

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

What are the Météors?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 5

April 14, 2011

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

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

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

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

Emily and I at the Météors

The Météors.

The stadium at Delphi.

The ruins of Apollo's Temple at Delphi.

I'm back!

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

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

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

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

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

Mikayla

I'll be gone for a while.

Tomorrow night, I leave for Greece! I'm super duper excited. I can't wait to see the beautiful beaches and embrace all of the history that it has to offer. Not to mention delicious food! I promise I'll post pictures when I get back. :)

I come back on the 20th, and then I leave less than 24 hours later to go to Paris with Amandine and Florian. :D <--- that shows about 1/23rd of my excitement. I can't WAIT. I'll finally get to see everything we learned about in French class... L'Arc de Triomphe, LA TOUR EIFFEL, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Le Louvre.... I get chills just thinking about it! IAM SO EXCITED!

So yes, I shall be gone for a while. But I promise to share all of my stories and such when I get back. Until then, enjoy the wonders this world has to offer, my friends!

xo,

Mika

When in Belgium...

Do as the Belgians do!

I've done many things here that I've never done before. I was thinking about that today as I perused other exchange student blogs, so I decided to make a list of new things I've done here. I do love lists, don't I? So. Let us begin.

1. ridden a train

2. taken public transportation by myself

3. used public transportation consistently

4. ordered an alcoholic drink at a bar (this is Belgian custom, NOT me breaking the rules!)

5. applied and been accepted to college

6. gone biking in gym

7. done rock climbing in gym class

8. eaten caviar

9. eaten potatoes. every. single. day.

10. learned to make a kiwi/mozzarella dish that is TO DIE for.

11. had a big brother (and a little one)

12. gone to a non-pro hockey game

13. seen a live comedy show (thanks Madame Gallo!)

14. touched the sea!

15. seen the films A Clockwork Orange, The Sixth Sense, and Mar Adentro (if you haven't seen it, WATCH IT. In the original Spanish, with your native language subtitles)

16. met someone who has never seen (and doesn't like) the Lion King

17. seen the location of the battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon failed

18. eaten rabbit/hare

19. eaten mussels

20. danced the rock

21. been to the following countries:

1. Belgium

2. England

3. The Netherlands

4. Germany

5. Luxembourg (which is technically a duchy, but it still counts)

6. France (I've only driven through it, but I'm going back in a few weeks, so it counts)

Coming soon!

7. Greece

8. Italy (driving through)

9. Czech Republic

I'm stoked. :)

I'm sure there are many more, but for the moment, that's my list.

Joyeux anniversaire Amandine !

Today is Amandine's 18th birthday. Last night, a group of us all met up in Hannut to celebrate the last few hours of her minority, and to celebrate the fact that as of 12:01 am this morning, she can now do the following:

buy a house

go to prison

get a tattoo

vote

and technically buy alcohol in this country

Pretty awesome, no?

On Thursday, I spent the day with Amandine. We took the train from our local station all the way up to Oostende, in the very northernmost tip of Belgium. Why? So I could see the sea (I usually say ocean, but my Belgian friends frequently correct me and tell me it's the sea not the ocean, gawwwwwsh). It may surprise many of you to know that I didn't see an ocean until I was almost 17 years old; The English Channel is the first body of salt water I ever set eyes on, and I saw it 2 weeks before my 17th birthday.

Anyway, we headed up to Oostende so that I could see (and touch!) the sea. We arrived in Oostende and immediately started taking pictures. We walked around a little bit, and headed toward the beach, which was all blocked off because of construction. We eventually found a portion of the beach that people were allowed to walk down on, so we marched on toward the water. Here's something awesome about the beach: IT'S WINDY. VERY windy. But SO beautiful! It was clean and pretty and there weren't nasty seagulls everywhere, like the public beaches back home. Amandine and I walked to the water's edge and I touched salt water for the first time in my life! It was awesome, albeit FREEZING.

After that, we walked around a bit more, bought waffles, visited souvenir shops, and saw a beautiful cathedral. Amandine told me it looks like Notre Dame in Paris, which is pretty cool. I can't wait to see the actual Notre Dame!

Not long after buying waffles, we hopped back on a train to go to Bruges, which is another city in the north of Belgium. I've been there once before with Rotary, remember? Amandine had never been there before, and I didn't take nearly enough pictures the first time I went, so we decided to add that to our adventure.

Bruges is a very, very beautiful city. It's known as the Venice of the North, as it has loads of canals and waterways, just like Venice. You can take horse-drawn carriage rides around the whole city, and there are loads of chocolate shops and lace stores as well. Belgian lace is truly extraordinary.

Amandine and I walked to the Grand Place and took pictures, per the usual, and just poked around a bit before deciding to go to the Chocolate Museum. Yes, that's right, a museum based on chocolate. We were both pretty excited to go, but since we're the two most directionally-challenged people on this planet, we ended up getting lost and wandering around in circles before finding the chocolate museum about an hour later. And it was about... 100 yards from where we started. But of course, we didn't know that until later.

Anywhooo, the Chocolate Museum. SO awesome. They have a whole section on the history of chocolate: how it was discovered by the Aztecs and Mayas, then Cortez brought it back to Spain when he conquered Mexico, how Belgian chocolate companies have developed and changed how chocolate is made. There was also a demonstration about how to make pralines, given in Dutch, French, and English. At the end, we all got to sample a praline. Goodness they are DELICIOUS.

After that, Amandine and I decided to head home, as it was cold and rainy looking, and the train ride is 2 hours. Of course, we got lost again and ended up walking around in another circle before finding our way back to the train station. We got home at about 8 pm, and her parents dropped me off at my house. I had a quick dinner and hopped off to bed, thus concluding my day of Belgian Adventures.

I hope you're all having a fabulous day!

Mikayla

PS

Pictures WILL be coming, I'm just having trouble uploading them right now because the internet is spazzing out.

Sad news.

I hopped over the English Channel on Monday morning at a rather unfortunate hour (something gross like 6 am...), arrived at 7 am local time in Dover, and headed off toward Cambridge and Newmarket. The weather was AMAZING in England. Really. It was warm and SUNNY, and the air smelled like springtime, which was WONDERFUL. It's really a beautiful country, with rolling hills and tiny villages. Driving on the left side of the road is pretty fun too. :)

I know I promised pictures, but here's the thing....

I only got about 20 pictures the entire day, because we were in the car the WHOLE day. I'm not kidding. I got out three times: once to go into each of the John Deere stores we visited, and once to eat lunch and go to the bathroom. Seriously. No exploring, no visiting towns or interesting sights. So, all of my pictures were from inside the car, so they weren't that great.

Here's the other thing:

They all disappeared.

No, I'm not kidding. I uploaded all of my pictures just now, and they're mysteriously... not here. I checked my memory card, and they're not there, either. I must have accidentally deleted them. It's unfortunate, to be sure, but that's the way these things go, I guess. I wish I still had them, but at least I didn't lose a BUNCH of pictures, like the 150+ I took today in Bastogne. Ah well, life goes on. :)

So. I finally got home yesterday at about 5:30 pm. My host dad had a dinner of some sorts to go to, so he left, and my host mom and I had dinner, then I came up to my room and went to sleep. I'm lame, I know. I go to bed at about 8pm every night, but I'm TIRED people. It's exhausting to be an exchange student.

Today, I woke up at 8 am to catch a train at 9:22 so I could be in Liège to meet up with everyone else from Rotary and go to Bastogne, a city in southern Belgium. Christian, my Canadian buddy, and I sat together on the bus, which was quite pleasant. When we got to Bastogne, my favorite New Yorker, the fabulous Emily Snell was waiting for me, so I was STOKED about that. We started off having lunch (it was like 11:30 or something by that time) at some sort of petting zoo/farm thing in Bastogne. It was a pretty cool place: it's a petting zoo/farm as well as a home for people who are mentally handicapped. The residents take care of the animals and help out with general farm work, which I think is really cool. The land was very beautiful. While we were there, we saw goats, rabbits, llamas, chickens and sheep, including a lamb that was born this morning! One of the workers caught a lamb and we could pet and hold it as well, which was so cute!

Christian and a llama.

After that, we piled back in the bus and went to a museum about World War II. The guide is a member of Rotary, and he had Harry Potter glasses. SO awesome. The museum was WONDERFULLY done, and very interactive. There was a lot of information and a lot to see. There were little video screens everywhere, playing videos of people who had lived in the region during the war. They shared their memories, which were heartbreaking, more often than not. One woman told how her father had told them to go on ahead as the family was fleeing from the Germans; he would catch up with them later on his bike. He never came.

A letter written during the war. It was giving information about people selling on the black market, which was a booming business at the time.

After the museum, we went to the Mardasson Memorial, which is in honor of the Americans who fought and died in Belgium during the war. Over 70,000 American soldiers died there. Isn't that number mind-blowing? The monument is in the shape of the star, and it has every state engraved on it. You can climb up a spiral staircase to the top, and look down over the city of Bastogne, which was really cool.

Yours truly in front of the crypt. There's a memorial in there for Catholics, one for Protestants, and one for Jews. They're absolutely BEAUTIFUL mosaics.

Christian and I on top of the Mardasson Memorial.

After that, we climbed back into the bus and drove to a random building (that's not an exaggeration... none of us knew where we were) and where we were served pie, waffles, coffee, and soda by Rotary. They have a thing for giving us pie, seriously. There's almost always pie at Rotary events. I sat with Emily and Kryston (New York and Missouri), Christian (Canada), and Siddhant and Aditi (both from India). We had a very interesting conversation about geography. I learned that India has 28 states and that Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. Also, Aditi and Siddhant tried to name all 50 states. They got quite a few of them too, which was very impressive, I think. The first three they named? Washington, New York, and Ohio. Emily and I thought it was hilarious that Ohio was the third, out of all the states they had left to choose from...

Side note:

Some of you may know that one of my passions is education. I believe that the American education system is broken and needs to be completely reformatted. Schools should be palaces. Teachers should be paid like kings. Kids should wake up every day excited beyond all imagination because they get to go to school. Courses should be challenging. Graduation rates should be 99% across the country. All of these things are POSSIBLE. But as of right now, are any of them true? No, unfortunately. But I digress. The point of this was to explain a few differences between American schools and schools in other nations.

Did you know that in Canada, kids can (and DO) choose to take a 5th year of high school to bring up their grade average and thus give them a better chance to be accepted to college.

Siddhant and Aditi could name about 35 of the 50 American states. I couldn't name 5 cities in India. Nor did I know that India has states. I took World Geography sophomore year. I passed with an A. I took a full year of World History Sophomore year as well (1st semester Pre-AP, second semester regular). I earned an A in both of those.

Siddhant and Aditi are fluent in English, German and Marathi, as well as 2 or 3 other native tongues from India. They are here in Belgium, learning French. They are both 18 years old, and they speak 5 languages each, FLUENTLY.

At the end of this year, Siddhant is returning to India for 2 months, then moving to Germany, where he will study to be an engineer for FIVE years. He won't return home during that time. He will be going to university in GERMAN.

And to think, kids in America whine about having to take 2 credits of foreign language.

Just some food for thought.

Tomorrow, Amandine and I are going to Oostende, so I can touch the ocean. I've never touched an ocean before. Heck, I didn't even SEE the ocean until 2 weeks before my 17th birthday! I'm super excited. After that, we're going to take the train back down to Bruges and spend the day there. I'm excited! :)

Friday night, we're all meeting up in Hannut to celebrate Amandine's 18th birthday (WOO!). Then, Saturday, I'm hoping to go to Maastricht (in the Netherlands) with Christian. I love having a week off of school. :)

Biosus,

Mika

(that's what all my Belgian friends call me. I LOVE it.)

Surprise Vacation.

Hey all,

I just found out this morning, but it looks like I'll be spending tomorrow and part of Tuesday in the lovely land of England! My host parents have to head over there for work, and they decided to bring me along. I'm SO excited to head back! We won't be in London, but I'm still excited to see something new. We're leaving at 2 am tomorrow morning (yaaaaaaay) and we'll be coming back sometime on Tuesday. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get back!

Bisous,

Mika

Switzerland.

Switzerland

My host sister Valérie took me to Geneva at the beginning of this month, and I must say, Switzerland is a GORGEOUS country. We arrived on Thursday night at about 9 pm, and went straight to her friend Laura's house and to sleep, as we were both exhausted. Friday, Valérie and I walked around Geneva, poking in stores and taking pictures. The entire city is surrounded by mountains, which made me a bit homesick. Although the Alps are beautiful, from what I could see, they didn't have nearly the majesty of the Rockies. I miss my mountains. Friday night, we went out to dinner with Valérie's friends, which was delicious. We had Chinese food, and it was wonderful. Note about America: America has AMAZING variety of food available. For those of you lucky enough to live there, PROFIT FROM THIS. You never realize how much you really love cashew chicken until you're sitting in a foreign country eating nothing but potatoes.

Saturday, we all piled in Laura's car and drove to Gruyère, a city in the mountains that is famous for its cheese. Let me tell you, this is DELICIOUS cheese. We toured a sort of cheese museum/factory and saw how Gruyère cheese is made and how long it takes to mature. We also walked around the village (yes, village. It was TINY, and I don't think many people live there) a bit, and it was breath-taking; the way the sunshine fell across the cobblestones and fountains was very picturesque. (Side note: The weather was AMAZING the whole weekend. The SUN was shining and there was a cool breeze hopping from here to there. SO wonderful). After our little walking tour, we decided that we were all hungry, so we went to a restaurant for lunch. Everyone was trying to get me to order the fondue because apparently it's mind-blowingly delicious there. All I really wanted was a salad, so that's what I went with. It's not that I didn't want to try the fondue... Well yeah, it is. I REALLY don't like fondue. I think it's disgusting. I always feel like I gained 438 pounds after I eat it, and all greasy and gross. To put it simply: I DO NOT LIKE FONDUE.

But that's the thing about being an exchange student: NO ONE BELIEVES YOU WHEN YOU SAY YOU DON'T LIKE SOMETHING.

You start out the polite way: No, thank you, I don't really care for fondue. I'd rather have a salad.

That is ALWAYS countered by: Well, you just haven't had it made like this before. It's not the same as what they make in America.

(That "America" is usually said in either a rather snide way, as though everything we come into contact with is of lower quality than the stuff you find in a foreign country, or with pity, as though you can't possibly know the quality of whatever it is you're being forced to try, because, after all, you've eaten only McDonald's your entire life.)

Your response: Yes, I've had fondue before, and I really just don't enjoy the texture. I don't find it to be delicious.

The other party: Well, you have to try it, at least a bite. You'll love it. I know you'll regret ordering that salad, the fondue is just SO delicious.

I have had this experience with the following:

fondue

raclettes (basically the same concept as fondue.... except you put a slice of cheese on a little tray and then melt it)

chicon (the most evil vegetable ever created. I imagine it tastes a bit like death)

beer

wine

raw lunch meat

various unidentifiable animal parts that are served for dinner (my rule for meat: if I don't recognize what it is or what body part it is, I won't eat it until I do)

yogurt

pulp in juice

The list continues, but you get my point.

Anyway. I had a salad, which was delicious, and I did try a bite of the fondue. I will admit, it was a bit better than the fondues I've had before, but regardless, I still felt greasy and sick to my stomach afterwards. For desert, we had something called "double crème" which is a really really really thick cream. Like whipping cream, but denser (not too far from being solid) and a million times fattier. Oh my goodness it was delicious. There were raspberries along with it, which was incredible. SO delicious. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

Saturday night I was exhausted, and ended up going to sleep at about 7:30. I slept until 9:30 the next morning. Yes, 14 hours. I talked to Valérie about it, and she said she did the same thing when she was on exchange. She said it's also because I've never been SO surrounded by French like that before. Yes, I speak French every day, I think in French, I read in French, etc., but I'm also surrounded by English. Lots of Belgians speak English with me for practice, I have to read English books for English class, and I talk to friends from home in English. It's difficult to balance the two worlds.

Sunday morning, Valérie and I took a walk and just chatted about all sorts of things. We also saw a garage for a boat. Yes, a garage built specifically into a house just for a boat. It was insane.

Sunday afternoon, I took a nap because I was still exhausted (crazy, I know). Later on, I went on another walk with Valérie, Laura, and Laura's boyfriend, Olivier. I had a good time, except they kept telling me to "look at the mountains, aren't they beautiful?!" or to "look, look over there, the mountains are so pretty this time of day" or "have you seen the mountains, look, they're all around us!" Needless to say, I saw the mountains. Every time they told me to look at the mountains, I'd say, "Yeah, they're just like the ones at my house." That was met with an "OH! You live near the mountains?!" Yes. I've seen them every day for three years. I think I know what they look like by now.

I'm not trying to be crabby about it, but after three hours of not really being included in the conversation, and the only acknowledgement you're given is being told to look at the mountains, it's hard not to be a little bitter.

That evening we went over to Laura's cousin's house. Laura's cousin makes wine, and I sampled the most DELICIOUS red wine I've ever tasted while I was there. I LOVED it, and I usually am not a fan of red wine at ALL.

Sunday night, Valérie and I packed up our stuff and went to sleep early, as we had to rush to catch our plane Monday morning. We nearly missed it, what with the huge check-in lines and the long line for security. We had another hang up when I forgot my passport in our big luggage bag. However, all worked out in the end and we made our flight. Oddly enough, the flight was 25 minutes to get to Switzerland, but an hour to come back. Crazy, no?

Overall, I had a great time. I really enjoyed seeing somewhere new and taking a little vacation. Switzerland was gorgeous, yes. I wish I had seen more cultural things, like museums and such, but hey, what can ya do? I'm glad I had the chance to go.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, PHOTOS!

The street in Laura's town. She lives right outside of Geneva, in Rolle.

Gruyère

Gruyère

Cheese makin' in Gruyère.

Valérie and I passed this on our walk Sunday morning.

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

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

London.

London London London.

That trip was seriously crazy fun. I LOVED it. While in London, I saw King Henry VIII's tomb, the interior of Windsor Castle, Queen Mary's Doll House, Buckingham Palace, countless telephone booths, drank Starbucks, and rode the London Eye.

The London Eye was probably my favorite part. We went up at night, and the entire city was lit up, everything was glowing. There were fireworks going off everywhere as well because of Guy Fawkes' Day, which made it even more magical. I wasn't originally going to ride because it was ridiculously expensive, but Jordan looked at me and said, "Mikayla... When will you have the chance to go again?" He was right. I'm SO glad I went. I have the souvenir picture of the group of us on my dresser, and every time I look at it, I smile.

Here's a recap:

I got to Namur at a disgustingly early hour on Thursday, and we all piled into the bus for the drive to Calais, France. I saw France for the first time on that trip, which was pretty cool. We got to Calais and had to go through customs, which involved filling out a little paper thing with details about how long we'd be staying in the UK and our addresses here in Belgium. It was pretty cool, and I'm happy that my passport has a new stamp. After that, we boarded the ferry for the trip across the English Channel. This was another first for me: I'd never seen the ocean before. Jordan, Emily and I went outside on the deck, and it was FREEZING, but we managed to get some good pictures.

My favorite:





After the boat ride, we drove to Canterbury Cathedral and took a tour, which was actually immensely interesting. I took loads of photos there as well. There's so much history in these places that it's almost hard to comprehend. Just imagining that popes, archbishops, and kings have done important business and altered the course of history on the exact spot you're standing on now is just... mind blowing.

After Canterbury, we drove to Picadilly Circus and were given free rein to run around and explore, as long as we were back on the bus by 10. I took off with Emily, Jordan, Sam and Caitlin, and we had a very interesting experience searching for a bathroom. Apparently the Brits don't have to pee, EVER. There were NO public bathrooms to be found. It was a major crisis, honestly. I don't know where I found the bathroom, but I know I found one eventually. Then, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant we found on a side street. The food was very good, but VERY expensive. The bill total was about 80 pounds, which translates to $130. For 5 people. Crazy, I know.

We went back to the bus after that, and finally went to the hotel. We ended up spending most of the night in Caitlin's room, playing cards and just talking.

Saturday:
Emily and I almost missed the bus because we went on a Starbucks run. SO delicious. We drove to Windsor Castle and took a tour, which was extraordinary. Jordan and I were the last ones done because we couldn't stop marveling at everything we were seeing. The views were incredible, as was the art. I've seen this picture a million times in books and online, but to actually see the real piece of art? Incredible.




After our tour, Jordan and I stopped in St. George's Chapel, which houses King Henry VIII's tomb as well as the St. George's Chapel Choir. It was finished during the reign of King Henry VIII, and was one of the most intricate, beautiful buildings I've ever had the privilege to enter. Henry even had a special room built for his first wife, Catharine of Aragon, to watch mass.

Our next stop after a quick lunch of McDonald's, believe it or not, was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I met Leonardo DiCaprio, Indiana Jones, John Wayne and DANIEL RADCLIFFE. So many levels of awesome. I also had wax figurines of my hands made. I tried to do that thing where you make a heart with your hands, but it didn't really work... So I have two awkward looking wax hands sitting here in my room... but it was still awesome. Maybe I'll make them into book ends.


After that, we went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. I had a veggie burger and it was delicious. We also happened to be sitting at a table surrounded by Billy Idol paraphernalia. I LOVE Billy Idol, so I was very excited about that as well.

After dinner, we went to the Phoenix Theater for a performance of the musical "Blood Brothers." I enjoy theater, but this... this was phenomenal. It's about twin brothers, separated at birth (their mother, a poor woman who already has 5 or 6 children, gives one of the boys to the rich woman whose house she cleans). The rich woman, Mrs. Lyons, states that twins separated at birth, can never know of each others' existence, or they will both immediately die. Of course, as the boys get older, they somehow find each other and become friends, much to the dismay (and terror) of their respective mothers. It's a beautiful story with amazing music to go along with it. Definitely one of my favorite experiences in London.

We returned to the hotel when the show was over, and hung out in Caitlin's room again, but that night we had a tea party. It was quite enjoyable. :)

Saturday we woke up, packed, and then commenced a walking tour of London. We saw tons of buildings including:
The Tower of London
Big Ben
London Bridge
Parliament
Buckingham Palace
The Royal Courts
Trafalgar Square
The Prime Minister's Street
St. James' Park

After our tour, we had a mad scramble to find lunch, as we had ended up in an area that contained absolutely NO restaurants whatsoever. Eventually we found a place selling fish and chips, so we munched on that outside in the park. AMAZINGLY delicious. Seriously.

While we were waiting for the rest of the kids to come back, the group I was with decided to get ice cream. We stopped at a little stand on the side of the road (it sounds sketchy, but it wasn't) and were greeted by a lovely man named Simon, who was working there. He had delicious ice cream as well. He was quite the character, and was immensely pleased when he found out we were from Belgium. He said that he only knows one phrase in Dutch: Zal je met me trouwen? which translates to: Will you marry me? Quite humorous, I will tell you.

This is Simon, the Ice Cream Man. He's holding a picture of my best friend, Hannah. I took that photo with me everywhere in London and took pictures of her with all of the landmarks and anything else I thought she'd like.

Once all of Rotary had regrouped, we divided up based on which museum we wanted to go to. Jordan, Caitlin, Sam and I chose to go to the British Museum. It was AMAZING how much history was inside that one building. I could have spent hours and hours, if not days and weeks just wandering the halls. However, we were all antsy to get out and explore the rest of London, as we had until 11 o'clock that night all to ourselves. So, needless to say, we were not in the best mindset for a museum. Some of my favorite parts:
The Rosetta Stone
The Book of the Dead
"Paula Deen. BUTTAH!"
"I really freaking HATE Rachel Ray."
"There should be way more Picasso stuff in here. Isn't this like... false advertising?"
"Dude... all of these people.... speak ENGLISH."
"Okay, so I'm thinking we're not at the maturity level we need to be at to be in here right now..."


When we were done touring the museum, we all headed across the street to Starbucks, of course, and then stopped to get "hot dogs" at the stand across the street. Why the quotation marks? Well, they tasted like funky sausage, and the box they came out of said "50% meat." I really don't want to know what the other 50% was. It was already dark outside, and the whole street was beautiful. Spending that time with my friends was definitely another one of my favorite moments on the trip. It wasn't necessarily anything extraordinary (okay... we were in London...), but a feeling of contentment just kind of washed over me during that walk. It was an indescribable experience.

We hopped on the metro after that. Next stop: King's Cross Station. Why? Platform 9 3/4. Yes, I'm serious! I had to explain my obsession to Jordan, who, as it turns out, has never read Harry Potter. >:( <---- That's my unhappy face. I do think his interest was piqued though, so hopefully he'll read them SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON. Life is not complete without Harry Potter. 'Nuff said.


We left King's Cross and hopped back on the metro to go to the London Eye, which Jordan really really wanted to ride. I ended up going as well, and it's probably number one on my Favorite Things About London list.



After the London Eye, we headed back to Picadilly Circus, and met a lovely drunk man wearing a mohawk wig on the metro. After arriving, we did a little bit of souvenir shopping, then split up for the remaining hour and a half or so. I went to a pub and hung out with Jordan and Elliot, and then we began a fruitless hunt for fish and chips. We ended up eating at a seedy little sandwich/donut shop, and watching a TV special about Susan Boyle. Actually, we almost missed the bus because we were watching the thing about her... But we made it, ça va alors. Most of the bus ride was spent sleeping, as well as the ferry. We actually missed the ferry we were supposed to take, so we parked the bus in a parking lot and just sat there for about an hour. And sleeping on the ferry was COLD. But oh well.

We made it back to Namur at about.... 8 am the next morning, and I took the train to Huy and Etienne picked me up. I slept most of the rest of the day, which was nice.



And voilà. That's the story of my trip to London. It was amazing, and it's definitely something I'll never forget. :)

Karaoke, Belgian Style

Most of Monday, I just hung around the house and relaxed, getting ready for LONDON (I leave tomorrow and will be back on Sunday). At around 6, Arnaud and I left for Namur. Talia and Emma were initially supposed to come along, but Talia had to be in Brussels early the next morning and Emma was sick, so it was just me and the brother. We passed the car ride discussing my French, tattoos and who knows what else.

We got to Namur and had dinner with a bunch of Arnaud's friends (delicious pasta with some sort of tomato sauce and either chicken or scampi) before heading over to the karaoke bar. On the way, Arnaud told me that I had to sing. It was not a question, it was not a request. I was obligated. Period, end of story. I tried pulling the "I-can't-sing-in-French" card, but he wasn't having it. We got to the karaoke bar, and after meeting up with some more friends, the karaoke got started.

Most people sang songs in French (which I didn't understand), but a girl I met from Spain sang the Macarena, which was tons of fun. :) Eventually, the song book came to me, and I had a chance to search through the English songs. They were real gems, like Billie Jean and I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing. I did find "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz though. Before I continue, it's important to note that Arnaud has NEVER seen The Wizard of Oz. I'm working on remedying that situation, and Arnaud and I talk about the movie quite a bit. I'm still trying to find a copy of it in French. Anyway, to continue, I pointed out the song to Arnaud. He said "Okay, that's what we'll sing," and stood up to put our names on the list. I refused to let him subject me to that humiliation, and I forced him to sit back down. He smiled and said, "Okay, then we'll sing it at midnight."

The evening continued, and people from our group continued to sing tons of songs. Apparently, you can only sing a certain number of times before the Karaoke Master (yes, I made that up) won't let you sing anymore. Arnaud reached his limit, but instead of just not singing, he tried telling the Karaoke Master that his name was Noah. It didn't work.

At about 1 am, the karaoke bar closed. I ended up not singing in front of the crowd, but the last song was "Zombie" by The Cranberries. Arnaud and I stood up in the crowd and screamed the words at the top of our lungs. It was quite fun. We all headed back to the flats (college studio apartments) and hung out, watching YouTube videos and talking. It was a great night.

Yesterday I went to the monthly Rotary meeting and got to spend some time with my third host family because Camille was there doing her presentation. It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that my chicken wasn't evenly cooked and there was a vein in it. :(

Today I did a little shopping with Anne-Michèle and Amaury, and tomorrow I'm leaving for LONDON! I'll be back on Sunday with loads of adventures to recount, I'm sure. :)

Mikayla

Sunday.

It's Sunday. I have to go to school tomorrow. Yuck. I have to bike 20 km for school. At least that's rather mindless work.

Friday was a regular day at school... We did get out an hour early though because my English teacher wasn't there. She fell at school and knocked out one of her teeth (OUCH), so she wasn't there to teach class. We all went to the café for a while, then I went to Amaury's school to wait to be picked up, comme d'habitude. Friday night I hung out at home and caught up on sleep. It was so nice. :)

Saturday I relaxed some more. Etienne and I went to pick up Anne-Michèle in the afternoon, and after we got home, I skyped with Hannah for a while and then we ate dinner. During dinner, Arnaud told me that I'm going to be seeing the chipmunk again. The chipmunk's owner has an English exam coming up, and she wants to practice speaking English, so I'm going to spend the night at her house next Friday. Okay, cool. I kind of missed the chipmunk.

I stayed up waaaaay too late again last night, so I need to catch up on sleep. Again. It's a vicious circle.

I think that's about all I need to say... I have school next week, then we're closed for Toussaint, and I'm going to London November 4th through 7th. Let me know if you want a post card or a souvenir! :)

Bisous,

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

You forget you're en Belgique when...

it's sunny ALL day. Beautiful clear sunshine, surrounded by a few puffy clouds and a big blue sky. It's a lot like the sunny days in Wisconsin -- days that make you happy just to be alive. It's not oppressive, like the sun in Colorado. :P

I went downstairs for breakfast today, and Anne-Michele said, "I'm feeling good because of the sun. Do you want to go to Liege?" Of course, I said yes, and within ten minutes we were off. We stopped at Carrefour, a grocery-type store here in Belgium that we went to on Sunday as well. I had to buy some cell phone minutes (prepaids are expensive!) and I think Anne-Michele bought something as well. After that, she went to the bank to try to work out some problem Alix was having with her debit card over in Florida. I think it's because in the U.S., we have a magnetic strip on the back of our cards so we can buy things, whereas here, there's a chip in the card and you have to insert the card into a machine instead of swiping it. Anyway, that took forever and a day, and I think Anne-Michele parked illegally (I wasn't sure there was such a thing, but she kept muttering about "la Police" as she pulled into the spot). So, naturally, I stayed in the car while she went into the bank, running through scenarios in my head if a police officer actually did approach the car.

When Anne-Michele came back from the bank (the cops had left the car alone), she had a book. She gave it to me, saying it was a gift. It's titled: BRAFA 10: BRUSSELS ANTIQUES & FINE ARTS FAIR. The beginning is in French and Flemish, but the other parts of the book are in English. I haven't quite figured that out yet. Anyway, it's full of museums and art shows and the like, with three pictures of what you can find at the various art places. Some of the art really popped out at me, like Happiness in crime by Felicien Rops, a Belgian artist, as well as Metamorphose and Woman by Joan Miro. I looked online to see if I could find pictures of them, but I couldn't. :( I'll have to show you when I get home. I seriously love Happiness in crime. Seriously.

Anyway, after we parked the car in a parking garage designed to hold match box cars, Anne-Michele and I walked around Liege a little on our way to an art museum. She pointed out the Palais de Justice (which, I believe, was the home of a prince many years ago) as well as La Meuse, a grand fleuve en Belgique. When it reaches Liege, La Meuse is divided into two pieces as it gets close to Liege. On the outskirts of the city, it is redirected into one river.

The museum we went to is called "Le Grand Curtius." The main gallery (is that what you call it?) starts with Neanderthals and has artifacts and art all the way through the French Revolution and beyond. There were a lot of coins from different eras and a whole section devoted to depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. There were tea sets, clocks, robes for clergy, different types of jewelery, bones, a painting of Napoleon twice the size of my bed, and some furniture, to name a few things. The exhibit seemed to focus a lot on the region and what has happened here over the last.... 10,000 years or so. It was really cool to get a grasp of how many different cultures had influenced the area.

There was another exhibit at the museum as well, and Anne-Michele and I walked through it. It was much, much smaller than the general gallery, but still just as interesting. It was an exhibit featuring Santiago Calatrava, who is part artist, part genius, and part architect. He designed the train station here in Liege, which is brand spanking new. Calatrava also designed the Milwaukee Art Museum. there was a little area featuring his drawings of that building as well as pictures of the real thing. I don't want to say that it was odd, or weird, but how... coincidental that the first museum I went to had a blurb about Milwaukee. I feel like it's some sort of sign or symbol. It was such a strange feeling to look at the photos and think "Oh, I've been there. I stood right there with Hannah and Shannon; I have a copy of the picture in my room at home." I think it was a "world traveler" feeling, for lack of a better term. It was my first taste of being able to say, "I've seen that. I've been inside it. I know what it's like." It's a pretty cool feeling. I recommend it.

In between the exhibits, Anne-Michele and I stopped for lunch. We split a long, sub-like sandwich that contained a large slab of brie and some walnuts. I liked it, but I can only handle brie for so long. I ordered Apple-Cherry juice to go with my half, and Anne-Michele had a glass of wine. My juice came in a bottle and a glass to pour it into came alongside it. Normally (well, in the U.S.) I would have skipped the glass and just sipped straight from the bottle. I'm 100.2% certain that that is a huge faux pas here, so I used the glass. It'll take some practice for me to become good at pouring things from container to another. I'm not blessed with that skill as of right now.

Tonight, we had pizza for dinner. I'm pretty sure that Etienne ordered a pizza just for me, and it'll probably take the rest of my time here for me to finish it. For some reason, even though I'm hungry, I get full here REALLY quickly. I had the equivalent of one piece of pizza in the states and I'm stuffed. I don't really know why it is. Oh. And we eat pizza with forks and knives. I felt like I was breaking the American Code or something. Etienne and Anne-Michele were teasing me, saying that I would have to eat pizza tomorrow for breakfast, and the next day, and the next, and the next. That's fine by me. There's nothing quite as delicious as cold pizza first thing in the morning. I'm serious. :)

At dinner, Anne-Michele and Etienne were harping on Adrien to study some more. Apparently, he doesn't like to (please introduce me to a 19 year old that does). They kept telling him to practice his English with me. I'm fine by that, but I'm afraid it would take us about a million years to have a conversation. He was trying to say the word "schedule" and it took me about 10 minutes to figure it out. It wasn't his fault, I was just trying to think of what it was in French so I could ask him if that's what he was trying to say. I'm still not entirely sure what that conversation was about. Something about schedules and when Anne-Michele works, Etienne doesn't, I think. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.

Language:

My first... 2 or 3 days here, I was hellbent on learning as much French as I could as quickly as I could. I was listening to everything everyone was saying, all the time. I was talking more than I am now. I think I've fallen into the "silent period." It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't want to miss out on opportunities because I'm afraid of saying the wrong word. The huge barrier is speaking. I know I've said that before, but it's true. There's something so terrifying about uttering a sentence in a foreign language. I'm afraid that if I just try to "let it flow," I'm going to end up all backwards, saying the equivalent of "I like well these flowers. They pretty are." I know that that will happen, but I want to avoid it. I never liked feeling foolish. I've always been a know-it-all (imagine that), and being in a position where I hardly know anything is rough. But I know it'll be worth it.

The other thing I've realized is that my accent is HORRENDOUS. In French class throughout the years, I was always told by my peers that my accent was soooo good. Here, I sound like I'm chewing cement when I speak. It's just hard for my mouth to figure out what to do with the words. I feel like Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady" when Rex Harrison makes her put the marbles into her mouth and try to speak. It's horrible. And in case you were wondering, the American accent is not a pretty one.

One thing I find frustrating is the lack of "Oh rats!" words. In French class, we were told we could say "Zut!" or "Zut alors!" I've been saying 'zut' while I've been here, but Anne-Michele told me that it's something you say only with family, not with other older guests. So... what do you say? Her suggestion was "Awaaaoooh." (a combination of "ooooh" and "awwwww"). It's not cutting it for me. I guess I'll just have to say zut in my head.

Fast food is a French word. I tried explaining how many "magasins de la nourriture vitesse" (stores of speedy food) there are in the U.S., and Anne-Michele laughed, saying that they say fast food as well. So there ya go.

Well, I finished reading my English books (I highly recommend Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as well as anything remotely involving David Sedaris) and I'm moving on to Harry Potter in French. At the party on Saturday night, a guy I was talking to said that when he first started learning English, he was still writing in French and reading in French, and it was hindering his learning. He said that once he started reading in French, he learned a lot quicker. So I'm going to try that. I figured Harry Potter is safe because I've read it about a dozen times, so I know what's happening. Amaury handed me a little kids copy tonight, which I'm grateful for. It has smaller words and a simpler story (it's only 302 pages as opposed to the actual book's 422 or something like that). It's made for people at about a 10 year old reading level, and since (in French) I'm at about a 4 year old reading level, I think it's a good match. Maybe it'll help me learn French faster? J'espère.

Nighty night,

Mikayla