October has always been my favorite month of the year. To me, fall is the best month of the year because the weather is comfortably between warm and cold, and it is sweater weather. In Belgium, September was a lot chillier than I was used to in Ohio, but the weather this October has been about the same as Ohio. To me, fall means marching band, chilly nights, bonfires, pumpkins, changing leaves, apple picking, hay rides, apple cider, and Halloween. Here in Belgium, most of those things don't exist. The worst is that pumpkin flavored things are nonexistent. A Pumpkin Spice Latte sounds so good right now...Pumpkin pie too..It should be a crime because Belgians really don't know what they are missing out on (especially pumpkin pie).
This weekend, I went to Namur and met up with 4 other Americans with AFS. It was really awesome to finally get together, and we went to the Citadelle (the battle site of some war that happened in Belgium). Here are some pictures:
Shameless selfie
I also went to church today with my friend Laura from Costa Rica, which was good because I have only went to church once before that since I've been here. We're planning on going to the Jeremy Camp concert together in Brussels in November, which should be pretty cool. One more week of school and then we have a week off :) Yay for the Belgians having more breaks than in the US!
Happy October to all! In the mean time, I'll be trying to find something pumpkin flavored in Belgium...
YAY! I'm doing a happy dance because I got invited to hang out with Belgians! REAL LIVE BELGIANS! At school, it's slowly but sure becoming easier to talk with people, especially when I remind myself that they are just people. I am a person, they are people...they just happen to be french-speaking people. I by no means would classify myself as having close friends yet, but I have started eating lunch with this guy from my class and his friends (who are in the same grade, but not the same class). They have been really nice, and one of the girls invited me to sleepover her house this weekend with the other people we eat with :)
I'm so excited! It sounds so silly, but it really is difficult to make friends. Don't get me wrong--people haven't been mean or anything--it's just that most of them wait for you to make the first effort. This week I started to initiate conversation more, and it has made a big difference. People aren't scared to talk to me, but they are a bit reluctant (mostly because of my knowledge of French not being spectacular). I'm not an extremely outgoing person, but I've had lots of opportunities to make new friends at summer camps and stuff, and I always find a good group of people I get along well with. But the language barrier makes it harder, and plus, I haven't known this group of people for that long, so it's hard to gauge exactly who is more similar to me, etc. Nonetheless, the group of people I eat with was so nice to invite me to the sleepover, and I'm happy.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to Liege to meet about with all the other exchange students. A ton of exchange students living in Belgian meet up at this one bar in Liege every Wednesday, so it's nice to go every once in a while to meet new people who speak English, and are going through the same things as you are. Unfortunately, I lost my coat there...People kinda pile all their bags and coats in a pile in the back of the bar, and it is usually only the exchange students who are there, but yesterday there were a few Belgians, and I'm pretty sure they stole it..A few other exchange students said that they had things stolen as well..it's unfortunate, but luckily I didn't have anything in the pockets of my coat.
I am seriously starting to hate myself for making the songs I post so extremely obvious and trite, but I can't stop myself. When I think about the main idea of the post, I think about friends...Therefore, the song in Toy Story automatically comes to mind. Too bad. I do what I want...no one is forcing you to listen to it :)
So, my life here in Belgium has pretty much become "normal" for me, so I haven't been posting recently. After thinking about what to make this post about, I realized I haven't yet made a post about the differences between Belgium and the US. I haven't had any major culture shock but there are definitely things that are stereotypically Belgian.
Here is a list of everything I've noticed so far:
FOOD:
At school, everyone brings a snack to bring for our first break (around 10am) which is either a fruit or cookies (usually cookies).
Instead of having a small sandwich, a yogurt, a veggie, and a fruit (or a few things to eat for lunch) the Belgians just bring a big sandwich ("une tartine") or two...or they go across the street to buy a sandwich...which is HUGE. Like almost a whole baguette for one person!
There is no form of "nutrition bars" here in Belgium. Instead of eating a granola bar for a snack, they eat cookies.
There are like 2 aisles just for cookies in the grocery store.
Our stash of cookies and chocolate--it is a whole cabinet worth!
How is every Belgian not obese??? Like really, they really eat cookies/chocolate/waffles/fries all the time!
Belgian chocolates
Belgium is know for their beer, fries, and waffles. I don't drink, but I got to say the waffles are just so delicious. YUM.
One of the best things I've ever eaten in my life. SO GOOD.
Bread. Bread in the morning, bread with lunch, and bread (frequently) with dinner. Carbs. All the time.
This is just my host family, but we eat pasta a lot and we never really eat vegetables. I miss my healthy ways :(
Everything is measured in ml instead of oz., the whole measuring this is pretty confusing..
Milk is in a box, and it is often not refridgerated
A picture of me with Belgian Nutella--which is classier because it is in a glass jar instead of plastic.
OTHER THINGS:
Americans are just messed up because they use pounds, feet, miles, Fahrenheit, and it is just too much to do all these conversions.
Everything in Belgium is pretty much smaller--the cars, the houses, the TV(s), the streets, the stores..you get my point.
My cute and very little room in Belgium.
My house in Belgium.
Belgians are pretty conscious about saving energy/being eco-friendly..Everyone recycles and has a compost, but I still don't understand why they use plastic water bottles to bring to places. You'd think they'd catch on to refillable waterbottles...Also, they always turn off the lights when they leave a room, and they don't use a lot of water when brushing teeth/showering/washing dishes, etc.
They have virtually no red lights, and instead have roundabouts EVERYWHERE. Talk about getting carsick
It is very normal to take the bus all the time. I take it to and from school, and unlike the US, it is commonly used and very useful. Alos, taking trains is common.
Most families only have one car.
In Belgium, 30 minutes in the car is considered to be far away...It is only about an hour by train to go to Brussels, but a lot of people in my class haven't ever been there (and most of them don't ever go to the other side of Belgium).
T.V. has french version of American shows that just aren't as good...So far I've seen something similar to "What Not to Wear", "Four Weddings", and there is "Belgium's Got Talent."
They dub a lot of American movies and shows, but I can't stand that the lips are not the same as the words.
There are a lot of American music on the radio, but there are also a decent amount of Belgian/french songs too.
You can drive 5 minutes away from a city and find cows and horses. I find this pretty hilarious.
Belgians don't really work out. I go to Zumba, but it has been hard to find a place nearby where I can exercise. Americans are definitely more athletic.
SCHOOL
Everyone dresses SO NICELY. No joke--the girls always dress nicer than the teachers. They wear high heels, and always are re-applying makeup, etc.The teachers can wear jeans and stuff though.. I unfortunately do not have enough clothes/money to dress like the Belgians..Oh, how I miss my sweats and thrift store clothes...I really wonder how much time it takes people to get ready in the morning.
My school starts at 8:20am and goes until 4:15pm most days...Wednesday school ends at 12:45pm, and Tuesday, I have to stay until 5:05pm :(
In the morning and after breaks/lunch, your class has to line up to wait for your teacher to "pick you up" to lead you to class. It seems very elementary to me, but I guess it's just different.
At most schools, you have to go outside between classes because the classes are all in different buildings.
Everyone either has one 2-3" binder to put their stuff in for all their classes, or 2 or three smaller ones..Also, there are no textbooks or any other required materials for classes.
There are no lockers. You carry your binder with you wherever you go.
Girls carry around huge designer purses to hold their binder/thinks. No girls wear backpacks. Guys wear backpacks, but they are really small. Nothing like the heavy duty American backpacks.
Even if it's really hot outside (which doesn't happen in Belgium), you DO NOT wear shorts to school. You always wear pants.
There is virtually no homework. Sometimes, there will be a few easy math problems, or a vocab sheet, but it is easy. Their "tests" are what would be considered a pop quiz in the US. Everyone studies all the time, but it is really, really easy compared to the US.
There aren't school related activites (sports, band, choir, musicals, etc). If you want to do any activities, you have to find a time to do them after school, usually on Wednesday afternoon. I definitely like the way America does it better.
There are a million things that I left out I'm sure, but for now this gives you a little bit of an idea into how life is different for me here in Belgium.
