Hello to all the people who might be following my very inconsistent blog! I guess I should just stop apologizing or not writing more often because it seems it has become inevitable! whoops... I actually haven't been very bored lately at all and maybe that's a reason why I haven't really written...but that's a good thing isn't it? I'm just going to try and start where I left off. Okay! So, since the last time blog things have been going really well with my host family! They are really nice and always wanting to do things together! We usually do at least one thing, like go to a museum, or go see cool things around Brussels every weekend. They are really excited about showing me all the things about the Belgian culture and things to see around Belgium. I am also very happy to be learning a bit more about the culture and history of Belgium. When I first arrived here, and throughout my first few months with my first host family I was pretty confused about what the Belgian culture actually was. We ate pretty much all the same foods as I did back home and I hadn't heard anything about the culture or history. In a way I felt like the Belgian culture had just dissapeared. I thought the country had just kind of turned into a tourist attraction. I realize now that the culture has not dissapeared at all! Sometimes living in a bug city makes it hard to realize what the culture is really about as well! There are so many different ethnicities mixed into one city that sometimes is is really hard to tell. Anyways, being with my new host family has made me realize that there is much more to Belgium than I thought. Many nights we eat something for dinner that I have never tried or never heard of, and afterwards I feel like I just kind of learned or experienced something. We have gone to so many different museums together such as The Comic Book Museum, The Central Africa Museum, The Museum of Natural Sciences, History of the War, and some others. All the museums we have visited shows things that have a real effect on why Belgium is the way it is, or has a big part in the culture.
The situation at school hasn't really improved a whole lot since September or since the last time I wrote. A couple of weeks ago I was having a really tough time because I was just so fed up with school and trying to be friendly and make friends but people always just kind of snubbing me off. I just felt really sad and I didn't know what else I could do to make things better for me. One day at school a couple girls had made some rude remarks to me and I was pretty upset about it so I ended up just trying to explain to some girls how I had been feeling. A couple of them were really nice to me about it and said they understand. They told me that the school I go to is not n easy school to fit into an that I should just keep trying. I'm glad that I talked to a couple people about it but the situation still hasn't changed too much. That's alright though, I just want to get through school and keep looking forward to the good things coming up, like Italy in April, Prague in June, Rock Werchter in July. A few other good things that have been going on as well is that i'm still playing soccer which i'm having a lot of fun doing, and i've still been doing a lot of fun things with my rotary friends. Another GREAT thing is that my mom and my grandma arrived in Brussels on Monday morning. It was so great to see them and I was really happy. Before they got here I felt like I hadn't seen them in such a long time,( which is true, I hadn't) but then when I was with them it felt so normal and like we hadn't been apart very long at all! When they first got here we just ate some breakfast and then they went to sleep for about 4.5 hours. When they woke up we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the biggest flower in the world. The flower actually hadn't bloomed yet but it was already 2.5 meters tall. It ended up blooming the next day but they had already gone to Paris by then. They are coming back to Brussels today (Friday) and i'm excited to hear about all of thei stories! Tonight is also my host mom's birthday, so we're having a big dinner at my house tonight. It should be a lot of fun!
I'm going to try and write about Carnavale and my trip to Amsterdam soon but for now i 'm going to go!
<3 Brianne
