Une Annee Sans Lumiere

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.

 "Une Annee Sans Lumiere" by Arcade Fire.

A tantot,
Catherine