3 weeks, 2 days.

Ah, where to begin.
Tomorrow I start school, and I'm actually pretty excited. I'm a little nervous just because now it's really crunch time. No more slackin', gotz to learn mah french.

Shall I recap my great adventures thus far? Ok, here goes.


The first week I arrived it was pretty rainy and cold. The majority of my days involved me settling into my life here, meeting family/family friends, making sure I have everything I need.
Before my host parents started work again we took a 2 day vacation to visit Brugges and the North Sea. It was really fun to travel around and see places. Even being here for almost I month I can't fully grasp that I am living in Europe. It is so odd.

There was a festival in a nearby village, Plaineveaux, one weekend. "Petits Bars". It was neat, a lot of beer, good food, and live music.


I'm not doing a great job of relating all my experiences so far for the sake of being a quick read, so I apologize. Minor things like me asking "Does someone live in that really huge house?", "Haha, castle actually. And they rent it out for parties now." or instead of saying goodnight, unintentionally saying goodevening, forgetting English words (like porcupine. that took forever), and other little funny blunders will probably be skipped over.



Last week we had an orientation in Brussels with all 190 exchange students in Belgium where we visited Parliament, met King Albert, and mingled. I have a lot of pins! (photo credit to Shannon O'Reilly)
Then that weekend we had a Rotary orientation weekend with just my district. It was fairly boring for the most part- lots of rules, eating, and waiting for the next meeting.
However, they had a dance room set up and when I walked by no one was in there besides the 2 old Rotarian dj's. SO funny. They even had a smoke machine and lights. I took it as my duty to start the party, and I did. First one on the dance floor, yaya! It took a little while for people to get over being awkward teenagers and embarrassed, but it finally got hoppin' and was swell. Good bonding time, plus we were allowed two beers. Yum.


This weekend my host club had their annual farm festival event. Saturday was pretty boring because they didn't really have anything for us to do. There are three of us in my host club- Dominique, Abaki, and I. We presented flowers to some senators or something in the morning but then the rest of the day we just kind of wandered around the farm. We took a nap in a field and it was great. The sun was out and it was nice and warm. I even drooled.

After the presentation for the government folks, the farm had a dance pad set up and this little crew started a break dance performance. And I mean little in terms of age. They were so cute! (and impressive). It was just really random for a farm, though. Oh well..Belgians.

Sunday had 4x the people. Us exchange kids were stuck washing piles of dishes in a barn for 4 hours straight. Ay yi yi. But on a plus side, we went on a helicopter ride! It was only for a few minutes, but it was neat seeing Belgium from the sky.


Fun facts:
-Belgium has 8,000 different beers and each is served in its own unique glass. I've only tried 4 so far, I have quite a ways to go. (peach beer is really really good)
-The chocolate is DELICIOUS. I'm going to get so fat.
-Belgium created fries and they are very annoyed if you call them French Fries. (my family has their own fryer in the kitchen...fresh fries are soooo good)
-I have realized that the cereal I have been eating every morning is the cause of what I thought was too much chocolate. I know remember my host mother telling me it was fiber and jokingly not to eat it too frequently....whoops, awkward.
-Belgians iron everything. Tshirts, towels, sheets, underwear. Very different.
- I am now addicted to "Friends" and "Desperate Housewives". I'm ok with it.
-Drinking age is 16 (but they don't drive so there really isn't a problem)
-Belgium is really beautiful.

I hope this is enough to satisfy everyone for a while. :)
Belgium is really great and I'm having a wonderful time. My schedule is increasingly getting busier and my french is improving every day. This year is going to be incredible!

My host families are all lovely, too. Can't find a dang thing wrong with this trip so far!
I think I've posted as much as I can handle, tonto!