I feel that I never adequately gave you guys closure about my exchange year. I was going through a lot of different tough times, and ultimately, decided that being with my family and friends back home was the best decision for me. I apologize for those of you who felt that I just left you guys out of what was going on.
Between changing host families and difficulties at school, I did not feel comfortable disclosing that to the whole internet, so I decided it would be best to stop blogging when I left Belgium in February.
Now, here I am, finishing up my freshman year of college over a year later, and reflecting on how integral my time in Belgium was for me. Although I did not have the BEST YEAR EVER, I learned so much about myself and made friends that I would do anything for. Not only that, but I've still been in contact with my host family--they have continuously showered me with love even after leaving.
Belgium is a part of me. The good, the bad, the ugly---it has shaped me and given me a deep appreciation for who I am today and what I have become.
To those who are currently on exchange, I know the year is almost done for you. Enjoy every moment. Spend it in the company of the ones you love most. You will never forget the impact that your exchange year has on your life. And no matter what your experience was like, you did something most people will never do. You left the comfort of your home, and choose to be uncomfortable. Instead of staying with your high school friends, you broadened your horizons and now have friends from around the world. Cherish the blessing that this year is for you.
And for those who haven't gone on exchange, I urge you to spend some portion of your life in a new environment. Whether that be abroad or literally the town over from where you grew up, being uncomfortable is a great way to grow. You will learn so much about yourself and others when you surround yourself with new people who all have different stories.
Thank you all for avidly reading my blog. I wish you the best.
In the meantime, enjoy the last song of the installment. I am a fan of musical theater song, and this song came to mind when I think of leaving. Yes, it's referring romance, but aren't all songs these days? I'm not sure how many of you dig musical theater, but you can expand your horizons...
Last week we didn't have school, so Veronica came over on Monday to sleepover. We met in Liege, but she ended up taking the wrong train by accident, so I kinda wondered around Liege for a while in the meantime and did some grocery shopping. I bought what we needed for later because we decided to do a little bit of baking--Chocolate chip cookies and banana bread!
Here are some photos from our sleepover...
Belgian sleepovers--they use cots!
We weren't sure if we put the cot up right..
Veronica's hands after cutting all the chocolate
The chocolate after cutting it...it was more chunks than chips
The cookie dough was pretty tasty
A candid photo of me drying the dishes
Our cookies baking in the oven
For some reason, I forgot to take a photo of the final outcome. Although they didn't taste exactly the same as in the US and didn't look that great, they were actually quite good. I think with our resources, we did great :) We also made banana bread which came out perfectly despite the fact that I've never made it in my life. Wooh!
Place St. Lambert in Liege as we waited for the bus
Hey, it's us!
Lol, creeping on Belgian skateboarders..they attempted to be so punk
The best times I've had here so far in Belgium have all
been with exchange students. All exchange students share something in
common automatically before they even talk. We all are crazy enough to
leave our families and friends behind for an extended period of
time--most of us for a year--to live in a foreign country. We have to
make all new friends, build a relationship with our host family, change
our normal habits, and live a completely different life.
To be honest, sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision by coming here and defering college for a year. My friends back home already have their new college friends and lives, but here, it's hard to make friends. Everyone has a "group" and they've all been in the same class for a few years. It's also mostly frustating because I never really know what to say because of my French speaking abilities and just because I don't know people really well.
Let's just say, this last Monday was not at all my day. It was probably the hardest day I've had here so far. I honestly think that I'm depressed because I don't go out much, and I don't have close friends. Back in the US, I was always so busy with school and activities after school that I never had enough time to do what I needed to do, and stress was just a normal part of life for me. Here, it's the opposite. I never have anything to do. Long story short, I started crying at the dinner table because all of the feelings that have just been boiling inside of me. I'm doing a bit better now, but it's still not awesome.
I don't want to be a complete downer about this whole experience, and I'm really trying to stay optimistic. They always say that the first few months are really hard--and they aren't lying. I don't want to hide the moments that aren't as great because that would paint a false picture that my exchange is all fun and happy. That's not at all the case. As much as I'd love to say this has been the time of my life, I can't say that yet. But, it's only been about 2 and a half months...I still have 8 left. Everyone keeps telling me that it will get better, and I sure hope that they are right.
The thing is that now I really appreciate my friends back home so much more. There are all the little inside jokes and the things that are too hard to put into words that make us really close. Shout out to you guys! Love you all! Thanks for being there for me because I know that you really care.
I chose "After The Storm" by Mumford and Sons for a few reasons.
1. Mumford and Sons is probably my favorite band of all time.
2. I find that Mumford's songs fit for any mood I'm feeling. I can be angry, sad, reflective, ecstatic, and somehow, I find that I can still listen to all their songs and relate to them.
3. This song in particular basically says that times may be really hard now, but don't worry because soon enough there will be "no more tears"
Please indulge in some Mumford and Sons. Take it all in.
To all of you out there reading my blog, thank you so much! I'm sorry for my lack of posting, but I'm gonna try to do it a bit more regularly--more toward once a week if I can.
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.
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..
Wow...the fact that it is already August is really taking me by surprise. My flight to Belgium leaves exactly 3 weeks from today! The interesting thing is that all my friends are actually leaving for college before I leave for Belgium. But I'm sure than my last few days will be filled with me frantically packing and saying my goodbyes to my other friends.
I perform my last four shows of the musical I'm in this weekend, and then BAM! I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on August 5th. Mine are pretty much as bad as it gets..impacted and in the bone...I won't go into too much detail, but it ain't gonna be pretty. Alas, after I recover from that fun filled procedure, I'll have to start packing......
I have no clue where to start...I did put a few of the winter clothes I want to bring in a pile, but that's the extent to what I've done. The suitcase has to be under 44 pounds, which is not that much considering that 10 pounds of that is the suitcase. We shall see...Slow and steady wins the race, right?
I went to the Imagine Dragons concert on Tuesday and IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I absolutely love Imagine Dragons, and seeing them live was spectacular! I'll post pictures and a few videos below.Since I went to the Imagine Dragons concert on Tuesday, I think it'd be rather appropriate to title this post with one of their songs.
