It was finally a bit warmer this weekend, and not rainy (!), so I seized the opportunity to explore and walk around. As I've already mentioned in my past posts, I enjoy walking because not only is it good exercise, but it a perfect way for me to clear my mind. I finally found a path that is much more relaxing with much more to see.
Instead of writing about the things I see, here is a wide array of photos for you guys.
The view of my street from my house
This house had music notes on the outside...pretty impressive
A fat Belgian cat I encountered...because I swear, the cats are everywhere!
My attempt at taking an artsy photo...
The beginning of the pathway I walk on
It was warm enough for me to wear shorts?!?
I love the juxtaposition of the cows with the graffiti in the background
Mr.cow was staring into my soul
Yes, I really was that close...I could've touched him if I wanted to
Boncelles--the small town next to mine
More Belgian graffiti
It is normal for dogs to poop in the middle of the sidewalk..I had to take a picture for proof
A butterfly landed on the flower just as I was taking the picture :)
The path in the woods I found
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
My new favorite place to go..a box in the middle of the woods
More attempted artsy photos...
Me just chilling casually in the box
I mistakenly took this picture, and it ended up so cool and creepy..I love it
Am I Thoreau yet? I sat in the woods and wrote for about 40 minutes in my journal. I think yes.
It's a goat..pretty legit.
A donkey?!
As you can see from these pictures, I get to see a lot on the walks I take. Here is the song for today, entitled "Take a Walk" by Passion Pit. Enjoy.
Une Annee Sans Lumiere. A year without light. Pretty much describes this year perfectly. The weather here is getting pretty old. Almost every morning when I leave for school it is raining, and the weather is gloomy. Coming from Cleveland, I wasn't too worried about the weather here because it is overall pretty mild, and it rains a lot in Cleveland as well. The thing is, back in Ohio, we have four distinct seasons. Summer is hot--80 degrees Fahrenheit average-- and winter is cold and snowy. Here though, summers average to be 73 degrees, and then by September, it is already cold. Like, the high has been 55 this whole week, and it is normal. In Ohio, it is still pretty warm during the days, and it is transitioning from summer to fall. The worst thing is that I am wearing my warmest clothes right now to school, and these are the clothes I would wear in the dead winter back home. So, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do when winter comes. But they say it doesn't snow that much here...In fact, today when I got home from school, I gathered all my belongings and made my study area right next to the heater because I was so cold.
On another note, Monday I only have half days because all afternoon it is only Spanish class (which I don't have to take because it is too advanced). Lammiya (exchange student from India) also doesn't have classes in the afternoon, so we decided to catch a bus to go to Liege for shopping. We both wanted to buy some essentials here--basically warm clothes--and bags for school as well. Here, the girls all carry around big purses that are oftentimes designer, and put their school stuff inside. My old, ugly purse wasn't sufficiently able to hold my lunch, binder, and everything else, so that was a must have. We both found mostly everything we were looking for, and then we got waffles afterword. SO GOOD. In my opinion, the waffles here are 100 times better than the fries. Belgians generally like to pride themselves on the fact that they invented French Fries (it wasn't the French), but I admittedly still like salty fast food fries back home better. I'm such an American...But, I think Belgians should really make a bigger deal about their waffles because they are so delicious. Enough said.
After shopping, I had to catch a bus home, and I accidently took the wrong one. I knew full well that I needed bus 25, but when I showed up at the station, bus 27 came, and in my mind, that was my bus. The bus was literally so jammed packed, and I saw a lady next to me with her bus 27 map, and then I realized I had made a mistake. So, I asked the driver where to stop to get on bus 25, but he didn't really help at all. But these two nice ladies helped me out, and told me where to stop. I ended up getting off the bus and then taking bus 25 instead. Luckily people helped me out, otherwise I would have been stranded somewhere in Belgium, haha.
School is school. For some reason, I feel like I can't understand as much as before. I don't know if it is because I am tired, or I am just more aware. Nonetheless, in most classes--besides English and math--I end up listening really hard to get the gist of what the teacher is saying or spend the time trying not to fall asleep. Like, my french teacher has one of those voices that makes you want to fall asleep and I always try so hard to stay awake. It's challenging. The thing is I'm pretty sure if I could understand what was going on, I would really enjoy the class. My teacher is a pretty cool dude. It's not even like I stay up late here either. I've been going to bed around 9 every night, and for me, that's super early, but I still manage to be tired.
Yesterday, I went with my host dad and brother to visit my host mom at the hospital. The verdict is that she has to get surgery on Friday, and will be home on Saturday or Sunday. For about three weeks she will virtually be bed ridden, but after that she will have crutches. Apparently she should be back to normal by the end of December. It's really unfortunate that this happened, and it definitely makes things harder. She can't drive for the next few months, so it will be an adjustment because my host dad has to do all the driving now.
I've officially had my first week of school, so I'll just give an update of how's it's going and also how my Belgian school is different than American school.
Monday I had to go to school at 10am to get my schedule made, and I discovered that there are actually 6 other exchange students from Rotary at my school. We all had to go in one by one to choose our schedules, which took a while. We actually didn't get them until like 2:30pm, so I only went to one class on my first day (which happened to be a spanish class).
For choosing a schedule, you basically choose a track that you want to do. For example, people can choose a language track where they have 3 or 4 foreign languages they take and less math, science, and history, etc. Other tracks are the opposite with lots of math and science and less languages. I chose the social science track because it is rather generic, and I think social science is supposed to be kind of like psychology? I have 4 hours of social science, 5 hours of french, 4 hours of English, 2 hours of history, 4 hours of math, 3 hours of science (biology, physics, and chemistry), 2 hours morale, 3 hours of gym, 2 hours of computer class, and 1 hour geography per week. Instead of having the same classes every day like I did in the US, here I have different classes every day, and the classes are in different rooms each day too. For example, I could have English in room C204 on Monday, and then on Wednesday have English in room A101. (just a random example). I don't think I'll ever be able to memorize my schedule though because of all the room numbers and we have about 8 classes per day except Wednesday. In Belgium, school ends around noon or one for everyone--which is absolutely wonderful! It breaks up the week nicely, and then you can go to the city and hang out with friends in the afternoon.
Actually, it's really nice for me because I also have a half day on Mondays too because all afternoon the other kids in my class have spanish. The spanish class is way too advanced for me (because I know ZERO spanish) so I essentially have a study hall or on Mondays, I get to go home :) It's really nice though because during "etude" (study hall) you can really do whatever you want, and there is no teacher who monitors what the students are doing. A Rotary exchange student at my school--her name is Lammiya--and I conveniently have a lot of the breaks together, so we usually talk or do whatever. She's really cool, and from India (!!) and it's comforting to have another exchange student to talk to.
Socially at school, I haven't really made friends yet, but I've only had four days so far so I'm trying not to worry. A lot of the people in my class introduced themselves to me on my first day during a break we had because our chemistry teacher didn't show up. It's actually so nice because if teachers are sick, they don't have substitutes--there just isn't class! It's difficult to really start making friends because everyone has been in the same class together for quite a few years. They already have their own cliques and groups, and I feel a bit like an outsider at the moment. Even if I try to talk to people, it's too hard for me to really follow what people are saying when they are in a group. Though, there are a few girls in my class who I think I'll ask to eat lunch with on Monday because I really want to start becoming a part of a group and making friends other than the other exchange students. It's particularly difficult because I don't want people to view me as a burden by having to explain stuff to me, or what not, but oh well. Unlike a lot of the exchange students who have previously gone to my school here, I know some french which the other students were surprised by. They actually always tell me how good I am at french, but I know they are just being nice, haha. Overall though, school is school. It's not more fun here at school or anything, but I definitely have to try very hard just to get the gist of what the teacher is saying. Alas, I am always pretty tired when I get home.
I had chorale practice again on Friday, and I really enjoy it. The director is so expressive, and we sing pretty modern English songs, so it's not too hard for me, haha. Everyone in the chorale has been so nice to me, and they were all saying that I was "amazing", lol. We are singing at a wedding next Saturday, and it is absolutely adorable because the groom is singing one of the verses of the songs we are singing. We are going to sing "Hallelujah" and "Feeling Good", and he sings one of the verses of "Feeling Good" by himself, and it's so romantic, I must say. I got to sight read a lot of the music that the chorale sang last year too, which was pretty cool. I went to my first orchestra practice afterward, which was a bit interesting..There are probably 15-20 people in the whole band, which is quite unusual for me, because the marching band at my school is over 150 people. We'll see though...I'm gonna give it a chance.
On weekends, my host parents usually go to visit their relatives in a town about 45 minutes away. Veronica---an AFSer also from the US---lives really close to their relatives, so I actually went to hang out at her house for a bit on Saturday. Making friends with other exchange students comes so easily because they all share similar experiences that people back home do not quite understand. She is the one person here so far I have been able to really share my feelings with and be totally myself around. Everytime we get a chance to hang out, it is just awesome, and makes my day so much better :)
Today, we didn't have much planned, so I was kind of relaxing and on my computer, and then I heard a loud noise. I thought that my host mom had just accidently dropped something, but then like 5 seconds later, she yelled my name, and I ran down the stairs to see what happened. She had apparently tripped while going down the stairs and hurt her ankle really badly. My host dad was outside, so I went out and grabbed him, and they got ready to go to the hospital. I stayed back with my little host brother (who was taking a nap at the time ), and my host mom called her sister to come over and just stay with us and what not. Fortunately, my host mom's ankle is not broken, but I think it is just a really bad sprain, and she is actually staying overnight at the hospital tonight. She will have crutches and a cast though, so I'm not really sure what's gonna happen though. Today was really crazy due to that, and I hope that my host mom can heal quickly from the fall.
I feel like my blog titles and songs are so cliche, but oh well. Here's some Neon Trees..
You know how Thoreau lived in the woods in solitude and wrote "Walden" to find himself? And how the monks view long periods of solitude as spiritual enlightenment? Not that my situation exactly mirrors those, but today I talked to people my age (GASP!) and I felt like I finally reached humanity again. HALLELUJAH!! This week has been pretty boring for me because I don't have school yet, and I don't have friends either...I'm not socially awkward or anything, it's just I haven't had a chance to meet anyone yet. So my life has consisted of getting happy when we go to the grocery store or picking up my brother from school because being in public=humanity=happiness...well, kinda.
I've never really though of myself as an extrovert, nor do I now, but I've realized through my self-reflection (in my house, rather than in the woods, unfortunately) that I like to be around people. At least to a certain extent...If you were to invite me to a huge party with loud music and a ton of people or a small get-together with friends, I would undoubtedly prefer the latter. Though, I have no problem spending time alone either. I enjoy reading, writing, listening to music or whatever, but there comes a certain point when you just want to talk to people.
Today, I finally met some people close to my age because I went to my first choir rehearsal today...I actually am always surprised to see how much french I actually can understand. It wasn't that difficult for me to understand what the teacher was saying, and that makes me think---or at least hope---that school will be like that. Unfortunately, I think the chorale is spoiling me a bit because they sing mostly english songs, and music is essentially a universal language. No matter where I am, I can always read the notes and create something beautiful with others even if we can't communicate verbally.
It was pretty hilarious, because the teacher said she was a bit embarrassed to speak in english in front of me because she knows that she is not that good at it, haha. She actually would say the phrase in English, and have me say it afterword, correcting anything she pronounced incorrectly. People got a lot of laughs out of it, especially the word "kitchen" for some reason. They also starting saying it the "American" way, and it was pretty humorous. Some of the people in the choir go to my high school here, so that's always nice :) Actually, my school here has 1,300 people, which is bigger than my high school in America, which is surprising. I know I'm gonna be in the 6th year here (equivalent of senior year) but instead of having each subject with different people, you are with the same class of 20 or so people all day.
Anyhow, our chorale sang "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen today...Here is a video for you guys
Also, this is a video of my chorale when they were on France's Talent Competition, hehe
I have definitely been doing better emotionally because I've been settling in a bit more here. Because I was not having a "honeymoon" phase unlike all the other AFSers who were saying that they had perfect families and all that, I felt really alone. But I had gotten the contact number of another American girl who told me that she was feeling very depressed and sad. Even though it pains me to know that she is so miserable, and the same time, it brings me comfort to know that I am never alone even if I may feel that way.
Some of the Americans are going to get together tomorrow in Bastogne (where the Battle of the Bulge took place), but unfortunately there is no easy way for me to get there. Oh well. I'm sure I'll be able to get together with them another time soon. Last week I had a lot to do because my host parents took off of work, and my host brother hadn't started school yet. We went to the zoo, ran errands, and visited relatives. But now, my host parents have gone back to work, and my host brother had his first day of school today. There's definitely not a lot for me to do this week, but I don't want to be cooped up in the house on the computer. (Alas, it's not like I have that much to do on the computer anyway). I brought some string with me, so I may try to make some bracelets, and find a hobby to do for the next week, haha.
For me, a huge stress reliever has always been for me to go outside, listen to music, and just walk. I have been able to take a few walks here, and although the view is nothing special, it gives me time to clear my mind and think. When I used to walk back home, I'd often remember taking in the smells of freshly cut grass, trees, and the flowers. Unfortunately, it smells more like a mix of garbage and dog pee where I take my walks here, but I'm going to try to find a park nearby that will provide more of an appealing setting. Tomorrow, I will go to a zumba class though, which I'm excited for. I have a feeling that it will not be at all like I'm used to back in the states, but that's okay. Belgians aren't exactly people that work out a lot, so I'm thinking it may be easy, but even so, a little exercise is better than none. And plus, even if everyone in the class is a middle aged woman, at least I can either attempt to eavesdrop or talk to people. Humanity at last!
It's funny because little things like going to the grocery store or picking up my host brother from school have become more enjoyable than sitting at home. Usually, I'd rather relax and watch TV or whatever, but here it's different. I like being out, and because school hasn't started yet (and won't start for another week!) I don't have much to do. As someone who thrives on being busy, this is a bit difficult for me to adjust to. I literally have no chores here and I don't have my American TV (Oh, how I miss Project Runway and ANTM), so I'm thinking...now what?
I will continue to take things "slow and steady" because that's really all I can do right now. I just have to wait it out until school starts. I'm pretty sure every Belgian high school starts on September 5th. Last week, we talked to the principal of the school (after waiting 2 hours!), and he said that I didn't need to come in until the Monday the 9th because it would be too chaotic for me to register for my classes with all the other students. For the first time in my life, I'm actually looking forward to school, and I don't want to miss out on those first two days. Oh well, it's life. Plus, once school starts, I'm sure I'll be exhausted and even if I'm not hanging out with people after school at the beginning, I'll still be in a somewhat social setting during the day.
Oh, even though I had initally told my parents that I only wanted to skype around once a month (give or take), I actually skyped them on Saturday. CRAZY RIGHT? If you know me well, you know that I am generally not an emotional person at all. I didn't cry after my last high school musical, I didn't cry when I graduated, I didn't cry when my friends left for college, and I didn't cry when I left. Even when people mean a lot to me, I tend to think of the happy times we spent together rather than dwelling on the fact that we will be separated. So the idea of me missing my parents after a week and a half? Yeah right. C'mon! I've gone to camp for longer than that and my parents barely crossed my mind. You get the point. So, when they texted me on Saturday asking what time would work for the next weekend, they were probably shocked to see me suggest that we skype this weekend.
The point of that whole tangent is: Exchange really changes you. I've been gone for less than two weeks, so it's not like I'm a pro, but I seriously value my family so much more already. I guess it takes being put into a family completely different than yours to appreciate what you have back home. (And mom and dad, if you read this, don't get too sappy on me, please). But even though I do miss them, I know that they are supporting me back at home and will be there when I return.
Alright, just gotta say, I got pretty deep today. Must've been that long walk I took :) The song I leave you with today is called "Slow and Steady" by Of Monsters and Men. They are a rad band that everyone should hear because they are that awesome. And they're also from Iceland, so that makes it even better!
"The lights go out, I am all alone
All the trees outside are buried in the snow
I spend my night dancing with my own shadow
And it holds me and it never lets me go"
