New Family!

It has been a really long time since I have been able to write a blog,but I have been a bit busier lately...which is probably a good thing. Since I have posted last quite a few things have changed. After I got back from my trip to Switzerland I had one day left with my first host family and the next day I changed families. It took me a while to pack all my stuff but after a few hours I was finally finished. I already have way too much stuff and that was kind of stressing me out, but I think at the end of the year everything will work out fine. I won't have some of the stuff that I have now because I still have quite a few gifts for host families and other people to give away. I know I will also be sending a lot of stuff home with my mom when she comes. The day I changed families we had planned to have a brunch with my two first families and my counsellor at my first house. After we ate I carted all my bags to the car and we drove to my new house. My new room is really big and I like it a lot! It took me a couple hours to get settled inand then afterwards I went for a walk with my new host mom, Nathalie. We had a nice dinner with my new family, which consists of two host brothers and one host sister and a host mom and dad. The family is really nice and they made me feel welcome right away. None of my host siblings live at the house but there are some weekends that they stay there.

Since then I have done quite a few things with my host family. Every Sunday evening we go and play badminton with some of their friends and then come back to the house and eat dinner all together. One weekend we went to one of the only concentration camps in Belgium which is now somewhat of a museum. It is called Breendonck and it is in the flemish speaking part of Belgium. It was a museum that really made an impression on me. Breendonck is one of the best conserved concentration camps because it is made out of all concrete and before the Nazis took it over it was used as a fort for the army. We walked through the whole museum. Through all the old bedrooms, solitary confinement cells, torture chamber, washing area, and many other rooms. We had audio guides and there were so many horrible stories that were told and information. It was very sad and heavy but i'm glad we got to go there because it was also very interesting. I have gone to about three other museums as well with my host parents. We went to the Musée des Beaux Arts, The Aviation Museum, and a museum which is pretty much a huge excavation site. In 2001 I think a team of archaeologists found a huge site right under the Palais Royale in the centre of Bruxelles. It turned out that there was actually the remains of a castle from the 12th century that was buried there when they decided to reconstruct that area at Bruxelles hundreds of years ago. They had to do some reconstruction but it is preserved really well. It is not very far underground at all and you can even hear the trams going by overheard. When you are walking around down there you feel like you are really walking in a city under the city. There are different streets and everything. The museum was really cool and if you ever get the chance to come to Bruxelles I would recommend going there.

The same day that I saw that museum. I had been invited to a girls birthday part in my class. Her birthday party was a masked ball so I had to go buy a little mask and wear a dress and everything. My friend, Janelle, came with me and it was pretty fun! I have also started playing soccer here! I'm really happy that I was finally able to find a team. My team is really nice and the coach is good but it is pretty different from playing back home in Canada because it is a team made up at all first year players. They have never won a game but I think they are pretty good for it being their first year. The only thing that is disappointing is that the season ends in a month and I just started playing. I have been trying to find a club since September, but I guess thats just the way it goes.
Everything has been going pretty good lately and I'm really excited for these next couple months because there is a lot of good things that will be happening.


À Bientot