Italy

Hi!
So since the last time I’ve written a blog I have done quite a few things that I should fill everyone in on. A couple weeks ago I had school holidays for two weeks and during that time I went on a trip to Italy with Rotary and then to the sea with my host parents. I went to Italy with Rotary from April 10-20 and it was really great! We were 75 exchange students from all over the world and I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun over those 10 days. It took us about 22 hours to drive there in a bus, so we were all very tired the first day in the Vatican City. The day was very tiring and long but it was still very interesting. We got to go inside the Vatican and see the Sixteenth Chapel and everything. We had a tour guide who was really nice but who was very difficult to understand because he had a very strong Italian accent when he spoke French. After our day at the Vatican we just went back to our hotel right on the Mediterranean Sea, but we weren’t allowed to go down to the beach because in Italy it is illegal to go to a beach at night. The next day we went to Rome. We saw so many great things that day like the Coliseum, the pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain. A lot of times I just felt like it couldn’t be real that I was actually seeing all the things we saw because they are so ancient and also so famous. The Coliseum was probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my life. It was so big and so well preserved! It was pretty hard to imagine how old it actually is, but after watching the movie The Gladiator I could imagine the gladiators and the crowd and everything. The Trevi Fountain was very beautiful as well, but there were just so many people there it was a bit distracting. I made a wish there and also ate a gelato at what is said to be the best gelato place in Rome. It was sooo good! I already miss the ice cream in Italy!


The next day we left Rome and went first to an ancient Roman city to see the ruins. I don’t remember the name of the city but it was really cool! Some things like the amphitheatre were really well preserved and the city was huge! I’m sure it would be really easy to get lost there. After we visited the ruins we drove almost all day and then stopped at a monastery up on a mountain. The drive was very beautiful because we were just looking down at a huge valley the whole time. The monastery was very peaceful and the view from all the way up the mountain was great. After our visit there, we drove to Naples and got installed in our hotel. When we got to Naples the Rotary told the girls that we had to be careful here because it’s not safe for girls to be walking on the streets alone so we had to have at least one boy with us if we were leaving the hotel. He also told us that we wouldn’t be able to take our tour bus the next day because the mafia has a rule that says tourist buses are not allowed to drive in that area. I found all of that a little weird but oh well!
The next day was probably one of my favourite days spent in Italy. We had a tour along the Amalfi Coast and stopped in 3 little cities. The Amalfi Coast is really beautiful because it has huge cliffs and some beaches, and really clear turquoise water. We first stopped in a town called Sorrento, which is known for growing lemons. It was a very nice town with really beautiful views of the ocean. After that we drove along the coast for a while and then stopped in the town of Amalfi for lunch. It was a really sunny day and I had a lot of fun!

The next day we went to the island of Capri. I was really looking forward to going there because my host parents had told me a lot of good things about it. We had a boat tour around the whole island and then just walked around and explored. There were some really nice view points and I really like the island. It was one of the only cloudy days we had on the trip though, which kind of sucked for being at one of the most beautiful places in Italy.
The next day of the trip was spent at the ancient ruins of Pompeii, the town that was destroyed by a volcano, and also driving. The tour of Pompeii was pretty interesting and I was surprised at how many things weren’t destroyed completely and how many things they were able to discover about the ancient town. The town was actually a Greek city, not Roman so it was cool to see some of the differences between the Roman cities we had already seen. When we went to Florence the next day we had really nice weather and everything was really beautiful. We had a lot of free time so my friends and I spent our time just exploring around the city. We saw Michelangelo’s tomb in a church there, the statue of David, and the special bridge that I forget the name of. We also ran into a group of rotary exchange students from Germany on their eurotour, so we spent a bit of the afternoon with them as well. Its funny how fast exchange students become friends. After our visit in Florence we went to Pisa. We spent about half an hour there, just enough time to take a few pictures. I thought it was pretty funny that everyone goes there to take a picture and that there isn’t really anything else to do there.
Our last couple of days in Italy were spent in Venice and the islands around it called Murano and Burano. The first island we saw was Murano. We had the chance to go into a glass factory there and watch an 80-year-old man make glass figures. Murano is known for its glass so it was cool to see that. I bought some glass earrings there. After we visited Murano we took a boat to the island of Burano. It was a really cool little island and every house was painted in a bright colour. On both of those islands no cars were allowed, and that was really nice. Everyone just has boats to get around. The last day of our trip was spent in Venice. It was a really great day with amazing weather, so we were pretty lucky. After we had a little walking tour with the Rotarians we had about 6 hours of free time. I spent my free time exploring the city and walking around the canals with a group of friends. I didn’t go on a gondola ride because it was really expensive, but it was still cool to see all of the gondola boats around all of the canals. Venice was really beautiful and I really hope I can go back there sometime. I had such a great time in Italy with all of my friends from Rotary and it was a really great experience that I will never forget!

THANKS MOM AND DAD FOR THE TRIP! ☺

Amsterdam + Carnavale

In March there is a week of holidays for "carnavale". In Belgium Carnanvale takes place in a few citiees all around the county. Every city has a different celebration, but most of them involve people dressed up with a parade where the people throw oranges at you. I had the chance to go to two different carnavales in Belgium. The first one I went to was in a town called Malmedy, and I went there with my host family. THe carnavale started out with a bunch of peple dressed in colourful costumes and hats with large feather plumes. There was music and they did a little dance in the middle of the square. After that was finished there was a parade that lasted for probably at least two hours. In the parade there were all different characters dressed in different costumes. There were probably around 100 of this one character called "long nez." They were called that because the people wore masks with long noses. These characters would run around in groups of 6-8 and choose a person in the crowd to imitate. Once they chose someone they would copy everything that person did until he or she bought all of them in the group a beer. There were also many charaters who had very long arms, who would walk by in the parade and mess up your hair. There were many other characters as well but those two were the main ones I think. For the main day of the carnavale, mardi-gras, I went to the most well-known carnavale in Belgium with my friends. At this carnavale the main characters are all these men called the "gilles de binche." These men are dressed up in costumes stuffed in hay and they also ear very large hats with feather plumes. These "gilles" walk around all day long and throw oranges at people. At the end of the day there is a big parade with a couple other characters but every character throws oranges into the crowd. My friends and I watched the parade for a while but then we decided to hop over the fences and join in the parade as well. There were other people who weren't dressed up who were in the parade as well but hose people were the people with the media badges or other types of special passes. We didn't have any pass but we didn't get caught and it was a lot of fn! I was really glad that I got to experience a couple different carnavalesin Belgium because that is something I would not see back home.

During the Carnavale break I also went on a Rotary trip to Amsterdam. THh trip was only for 3 days but it was so much fun! We left early in the morning from Bruxelles on the bus, and we had our first stop in a city called Delft. While we were in Delft we just ate lunch and then we saw the Vermeer museum. If you don't know who Vermeer is, he was a very famous Dutch painter who is called "the master of light". One of his most famous paintings in probably "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." After we finished our tour of the museum we got back on the bus and made our way to Amsterdam. When we got there we first got settled in to our Hostel and then we went out for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. After we finished eating we had a tour of Amsterdam by night which included the Red Light District and all. Seeing everything in Amsterdam was both shocking and interesting. It is just shocking because in Canada I could never imagine seeing anything like that. The next day in Amsterdam we had a tour of the Jewish History Museum, as well as a Synagogue. We also got to go to the Flower Market and have a tour of Anne Franks House that day. I really liked the Anne Frank museum, and it was a lot different than I expected. It was very cool to be able to walk through the secret passageway and see exactly where Anne and her family were hiding. The same night we got to visit the Van Gough museum. While we were in Amsterdam we also had a boat tour of the canals and the Royal Museum. It was a really cool city and I'm already looking forward to going back some day!

SPRING

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

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

Switzerland/Christmas

Salut!
So right now I am on the train travelling back to Belgium from Switzerland. I’m currently stopped in the middle of nowhere and I have no idea why. When I was going to Switzerland the train was really really slow going through Belgium so I hope that won’t be the case again now. I should be getting into Brussels at 10:45 tonight (Jan.7) so hopefully its not too late! I had a really good stay in Switzerland with Cecile but it was very hard to say goodbye to her! A lot of me wishes I could’ve just stayed there with her but I know that wouldn’t be possible. I know it wouldn’t be the same if I was going to school and actually living in Switzerland but its just really nice to go around and do whatever we want and its just really nice to be back with a real friend again. We saw so many cool things while we were there and we spend A LOT of our time on trains! I think everyday expect maybe two or three we took a train somewhere. I got to go skiing in Switzerland with Cecile and that was really cool! The mountain was very nice and the scenery around was beautiful! I missed the mountains so much! There was basically a hill you could see outside of Ceciles house and I know if I were back in Canada I wouldn’t have though that was a mountain but it seemed pretty big to me now that I’ve been living in flat Belgium for the past 5 months! And yeah that’s pretty crazy that I’ve been here already for 5 months! Everyone that I’ve talked to says that the last few months fly by so that’s what I’m expecting. My return date to Canada is confirmed for the 7th of July so that is pretty exciting. Between now and that time I have a lot of things to look forward too as well so I’m happy about that. In March I’m going to Amsterdam on a Rotary trip and in April I go on the Italy trip which is 11 days long. I also might have a few people be coming to visit me from back home and that is VERY exciting! After my Italy trip I have another trip to Prague in June and then school is over! I have to admit I will be very happy about not having anymore Belgian school! I’m not too sure if I will be looking forward to be going back yet but I don’t think it will be too bad! At the end of June until July 4 I will also be going to a big music festival in Belgium called Rock Werchter with a few of my friends! I already bought my tickets and it goes on for four days. Really good bands go to the festival and this year there has only been four bands confirmed at the moment but already the bands confirmed are Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Iron Maiden, and The Chemical Brothers! Coldplay and Kings of Leon are a couple of my favourite bands and I never thought I would get to see either of them live! I am so excited and I can’t wait too see which other bands will be playing. There’s usually about 10 bands that play each day and you camp there with your friends.
But I should write more about what I did in Switzerland! I already said that we went skiing one day and that was a lot of fun! The snow wasn’t super great but it was a beautiful blue bird day and it wasn’t too cold so it was nice! I also saw a really nice Church my first day in Switzerland with Cecile’s family. I can’t remember the exact date that the Church was built in but I just know it was really nice and really old! It was kind of funny because outside of the church there was a sign that said Beware: Roof Avalanches and we had Cecile’s dog, Onya, with us so Cecile’s parents tied the dog to the sign while we went inside the church as a joke. Cecile and I also went to the French speaking part of Switzerland to a city called Lausanne and also another city called Geneva. Cecile hadn’t even been to those cities before so it was new for both of us. We saw a really nice Cathedral built in the 1200’s I think and also a castle built around the same time period. We also went to a big museum while we were in Lausanne. In the museum they had artifacts that dated back later than 800 B.C. It as crazy! They had found a lot of artifacts from burial grounds from around Switzerland and they even had a few coffins with skeletons in them and a lot of jewellery. We thought that museum was really cool and it was free so that was a bonus! Cecile and I also went to apparently Europe’s largest waterfall in the north of Switzerland . I was kind of expecting it to be a lot larger but it was still really nice! It was really wide but just not very tall. In order to see the waterfall you actually take this bus for about 25 minutes to an old castle and then there are trails that lead down to the viewing point. It was really cool except for the fact that Cecile forgot her wallet on a bench while we were waiting for the bus to go back down to the city. She only realised about an hour later that she left it up there so then we had to take the bus for another 50 minutes. In the city there was another castle that was built in the 1500’s. We got to go inside of it into this huge brick room with pillars in the center and we also got to climb this spiral staircase to get to the top and see the view of the city ! It was so cool being in something so old! Yesterday we also took the train to the capital of Switzerland, Bern, and had a tour of the Swiss parliament buildings. I couldn’t understand the tour because it was in German but Cecile explained the main point of it I think. We did a lot more stuff as well but I think this is getting a bit too long so I will stop writing now. I will just have to post this tomorrow or something as well as the one I wrote on the train when I was going to Zurich!
À Bientot!

Switzerland/Christmas

Hi!
So as I’m writing this I’m sitting on a train going through France right now! I’m bored so I will just write this and then upload it on my blog when I get a chance. So I’ve been on the train since 7:37 in the morning and right now its 3:15 in the afternoon. The train was very very slow going through Belgium and I overheard people saying it was more than an hour and a half late now. My friend Janelle slept over at my house last night because she was also going to Germany this morning from Brussels. We went to the train station together at 7:00 AM and then just went and bought a sandwich and stuff for the trip. When we looked at the board with all the times of the trains on it, it said that my train would be 45 minutes late. I wasn’t very happy about that because I didn’t want to be late for meeting Cecile in Zurich but Janelle was pretty happy because now she didn’t have to wait by herself for such a long time. Then I randomly looked up at the board when it was probably around 7:36 AM and the board changed and now it said the train was on time!! Me and Janelle freaked out and started running through the train station trying to make it on time. Right when we got to where my train was supposed to come it pulled in so I was soooo lucky. If I had missed that train I don’t think there would have been anything I could have done! So I was very relieved when I got on the train! I slept for the first couple hours I think and after that I’ve just been watching some tv shows in French with English subtitles and reading. It seems like I’ve been on the train for such a long time and I have a really bad headache right now. Before I wasn’t sure if we were going to be going through Germany or France but we ended up going through France. But then when we got into Strasbourg I really thought that was in Germany but I guess not? I was a bit stressed out because the people sitting across from me told me that this train doesn’t go straight to Zurich anymore and that I have to change trains in Basil Switzerland. I was pretty stressed out because I bought my ticket for Zurich and I don’t want to have to pay more money just to get to Zurich from Basil. Also because Cecile was going to be meeting me in Zurich at 3:57 when my train was SUPPOSED to get in. I felt really bad for Cecile because she would be waiting for me for a really long time. I remembered that I had her cellphone number on an email so I tried to call it but I didn’t have the right area code so it didn’t work. I asked the lady across from me though and she gave me the right numbers. So I just got a hold of Cecile and I told her that I would be really late. I don’t know how long it will take me to get from Basil to Zurich but I hope it won’t take very long! I’m really looking forward to going to see Cecile and being in Switzerland though!
As for Christmas, it went pretty well. It was really really hard being here without my family and friends and it was a very different vibe than in Canada, which I already explained in my last post. I was supposed to go to my host sister’s dad’s house for Christmas eve but that didn’t end up happening for some reason so I went with Ines to her parents house in the south of Belgium for dinner. The roads weren’t very good on the highways or the roads and everyone was driving very slow but I don’t think Ines really had a problem with the snow. Ines’ parents house was very old but it was actually pretty nice! Usually I don’t like old things but the house was very cool. It was built in 1850 and I felt like while we were eating it was like I was in a movie. There was also a church and a cemetery behind the house and the first part of the church was built in the 1300’s! I thought that was pretty crazy. For Christmas Eve Dinner we ate soup, fois gras, smoked salmon, and cake. The dinner was very different than any other Christmas dinner I’ve ever had in Canada and I think I prefer the one back home better than the one we had here. After dinner we opened presents and I got a T shirt that says Brussels Belgium 2010 from my host mom and a cd from Ines’ parents. The next day we just hung around the house, ate lunch, and then went home. I was really happy when I got home because I got to skype my family while they were opening presents and that was really nice! I also got to talk to Alex so that was really cool as well! But anyways hope everyone back home is having a good holiday and that Canada

Christmas Eve

Hi Everyone!

So Merry Christmas to everyone back home! I will basically be getting Christmas one day earlier than you and that will be kind of weird! I would really like to talk to my family and maybe some of my friends on Christmas so I hope it works out with the time change and everything! These past few weeks have been a bit weird but just because I really don't feel like it's Christmas at all here! When I go downtown I do feel like it's Christmas a bit because of all the Christmas markets and decorations, but other than the last couple days there has been no snow at all and there are no decorations whatsoever at my house. Its really weird becaus

e no one has Christmas lights on their houses and I don't know about other families around where I live but we don't have a Christmas tree. I know a lot of my other friends' host families do have Christmas trees though so i'm sure its not a Belgian thing to not have one. Its not a huge deal or anything it just feels a bit weird. Today is Christmas Eve day for me and I feel like its just another day. Usually back home there is a lot of Christmas baking and music and the tree and I don't know there's just a vibe but not here. A lot of schools actually still have classes today which I think is really really dumb. I had to go into school just a little while ago to get my report car

d which wasn't very good. I got a TB in english and in gym though which is the best mark you could get so I'm happy about that. It was really frustrating though because I had to have a little meeting with my Titulaire which i guess is kinda like a homeroom teacher type thing. And he was just saying that he knows that i'm really shy and that its hard but he thinks I shouldn't be spending so much time with other exchange students who speak english and that I should try to spend more time with Belgian people. It really frustrates me when people tell me things like this because it seems like they think I don't want to be friends with Belgian people from my school or that I don't try. But I really do want to be friends with people from school and I do try really hard! Everyone including my host mom thinks i'm the shyest person in the world and that i'm scared to talk to anyone but I have no idea why. At school I have no problem talking to people. I ask questions about what they did last weekend and ask them sometimes if they would like to do something with me but they are always busy. Maybe my host mom thinks i'm shy because the few times that we have dinner together with her boyfriend and his kid they are always talking about things or people that I have no idea about. Its kind of hard for me to join into conversation when I don't know who the people they're talking about are. The teacher was saying maybe he will try to do something to help me but I don't want him to help me make friends! I'm seventeen and I know he's just trying to be nice but I told him that its okay he didn't need to help me and I would continue trying. It just gets really frustrating and a bit sad when you try so hard and no one notices it. But yeah sorry that was my little rant I guess. Its just pretty hard today because i'm away from my family and all my friends on Christmas

and everything is so different. Its not like I want to come home or anything and I know this is a really really good experience for me but it is hard sometimes and today is just one of those days where its a bit harder than others. I think its probably normal to feel kind of homesick on Christmas but yeah I just wish I would be less homesick less often.

But anyways, I will fill you in on what i've been doing for the past week or two. So yesterday my friend and I went to Brugges. While we were there we did a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping for our host families. I thought I was going to go to My host sisters dads house for Christmas eve because thats what my host mom told me so I bought him a bottle of wine but now I'm not going there anymore so I guess I will just give the wine to my host grandparents when I go to their house for dinner tonight. In Brugges we also went to an art gallery which was really cool. I really liked the art and a couple of the paintings at first I thought were really boring because I thought it was just a photo someone took of limes or roses but it turned out it wasn't a picture it was actually a painting. I couldn't believe how good it was! After we saw the art gallery we went to this Ice Sculpture exhibit near the train station. The exhibit was huge! There were ice sculptures from 30 different countries around the world and they were all very good. They had 3 ice sculptures from Canada which were an Aboriginal person, A cowboy, and a totem pole.. maybe the igloo was also supposed to be part of Canada but that would be pretty dumb I think. It has been getting kind of cold here these past couple days as well! It has been -5 and -6 which is pretty cold for Belgium. There has also been quite a lot of snow. I think there

has maybe been 20 or 30 cm. Just with that amount of snow the entire city and basically all of Belgium is shut down. Today there are now buses running and no trams and no cars here have 4 wheel drive. They also don't have winter tires. When I was driving to school this morning with my host mom I really thought we were gonna get in an accident Every single corner we turned we just slid and trying to get up the little hill to get to the school was basically impossible. I think its pretty ridiculous how unprepared everyone is for winter here. Everyone is freaking out and a lot of people refuse to even leave their houses because of the 30 cm of snow. They don't even have snowplows and barely any salt trucks. The highways are closed down after 7:00 PM and my host mom was telling me they wouldn't even let the salt truck go on the highway a couple nights ago after 7 even though it was only trying to do its job and make the roads safer! I don't know I just think a lot of things they do or not do for winter is really stupid. Its not that hard to be prepared for a little snow. But yeah I think I will stop writing now and start wrapping Christmas presents for my host family. I hope everyone has a really rea

lly good Christmas back at home and you should eat pie and cookies and whatever else for me!!

I miss everyone!!

<3>

Christmas!

Hi Everyone!

So these past few weeks have been pretty good! I've been going around to a few Christmas markets and I really like them! In Bruxelles there's a really big one with all these little huts selling all sorts of little things. There is even a Canadian booth at the Bruxelles christmas market! I was really excited when I saw that. They were selling things like maple syrup and smoked salmon. In the middle of the Bruxelles christmas market there is a huge outdoor skating rink which I haven't skated on yet but I did skate on the one in the middle of the Mons Christmas market, which is a different city in Belgium. There's is also a really big ferris wheel at the market in Brussels. Its very festive at the markets and actually makes something feel like christmas around here! Not much does...there's no snow, no tree, no decorations well at least not at my house. Its kind of sad but oh well thats okay. I got my Christmas shopping done last weekend so thats kind of a relief. I got my host mom a tea set that I think is really nice and i got my host sister pijama pants and hair elastics and lip chap. Last week there was a holiday called Saint Nicolas here in Belgium. It was the first time I celebrated that holiday and it was pretty cool i guess. Saint Nicolas for me is basically like Santa Clause but he comes on Dec.6 and gives kids a little gift or candy. There were some signs that were addressed to Saint Nicolas telling him they've been nice and that he should come at this hour. It was pretty cute I thought. Saint Nicolas apparently did not come to my house but thats okay I saw a fake one at school which was just one of the guys in my grade dressed up. It was a little bit embarrassing because everyone in my class was chanting my name telling me i had to go sit on his lap. So I did in front of everyone but it was funny as well. On Sunday one of my good friends in Belgium went home to Australia and it was pretty sad! Me and a few of our friends went to the airport to say goodbye to her in Bruxelles. It was also funny though because her bag was 9 kg overweight and she couldn't fit anything else in it so she was wearing 3 scarves, 3 hoodies, and 2 jackets! She looked like she was very hot but she didn't even get charged for overweight bags!! She was really lucky. She also gave me and my friend bags of her clothes she didn't want anymore. I think i'll probably have to do that when i go home too. This week is exam week for all the high school students in Belgium but I don't have school until wednesday because i only have to take 3 of the nine exams. I'm taking history, religion, and science. I studied all day today for history so hopefully i'll do okay! The teaching style here is just so different though here. Its all about theory and why someone would have done something and not just about the facts and practical stuff. They never get worksheets its always just like the teachers lecturing and then they have to write a debate or essay or something. For me, I DEFINITELY like canadian high school better. Being here makes me miss school in Canada. But yeah i think thats most of what i've been up to lately! I have a formal rotary dinner with all the wives of the rotarians so hopefully that will go well on friday. And hopefully i can get a few questions right on my exams..

À Bientot!!

Remembrance Day

Hi!

So yeah i'll just fill everyone in on what i've been doing with my life for the past few weeks since I haven't updated in a little while. So two weeks ago I had a four day weekend which was nice because after coming back froma week off of school I only had to go to school for two and a half days. On Wednesday my friend slept over at my house and in the morning we went to a town called Ypres for Remembrance Day. Ypres is the site where there was a big battle in the war and its the place where the Germans first used gas on Canadian soldiers. It was very very cool to be there for the Remembrance Day ceremony. The weather was very bad and it was raining so hard but I couldn't even use my umbrella because it was way too windy. That day we had plans to meet up with 3 other Canadian exchange students but on the train we also met 4 other Canadians who were also going to Ypres, so that was pretty cool. They were all on exchange as well but they were with University Programs. When we got to Ypres we were able to see the ceremony and a bunch of army marching bands and then we went to see the Arc with all the names of the soldiers who had been killed. There were so many Canadians on the wall it was actually surtprising to see how many there were. There is a war museum there called In Flanders Fields museum but I will have to go back there another day to see it because we didn't get the chance that day. When I got back to Brussels from Ypres I had been invited to two girls birthday parties from my school so I packed my stuff and went to that. It was fun and it was also very nice of them to invite me. I have also been going to Rotary Meetings twice a month. Last week I went to a meeting and there was a presentation given by a really young doctor about Polio and research he has done about incurable diseases and the importance of still vaccinating people who have polio. I was very interesting even if I didn't understand everything he said.

Also last week I met up with Brodie Lamarche from Terrace who had been touring around Europe with a home base out of Munich in Germany so that was really nice to see someone from home! We went to a couple different cities and hung out with some of my other friends here. It was a lot of fun! Tonight I have another Rotary meeting but I think its the meeting where its just a dinner. Hopefully the food will be good tonight..haha.

Trips

Hi!

So these last couple weeks have been pretty good! First of all I had holidays from school from Oct.30-Nov.8 and now I have Thursday and Friday off as well because of Remembrance day! I really really enjoy not having school! I know thats part of the exchange though going to school and I know it really does help with my

french, I just don't like the schools or at least my school really in Belgium. My school is incredibly strict and yeah there are other reasons but some of the rules I actually don't understand at all. For the holidays I had signed up in the summer for two Rotary trips organized by BRESA. I signed up for Paris and London. Paris was the first trip and it was for the weekend for 3 days. We left on a Friday and took a bus to Paris. There were 40 exchange students on that trip and I think that was one of the smaller trips. There was so much traffic on the way to Paris so the

bus was basically just crawling along the highway the whole way. For Friday in Paris we were supposed to go to Versailles but we weren't actually able to because of all the traffic and we missed our time. I was very very dissapointed because Versailles was the thing I was looking forward to the most before I left for Paris. I really hope I will be able to go back and see Versailles another time while i'm here. Paris is only about 4 hours away by car and i'm not sure about train...but not very long. So instead of going to Versailles when we arrived in Paris we went to Champs Elysees, the most famous shopping street in Paris and saw the Arc de Triumph. It was really cool to actually see the Arc de Triumph in person and I was very excited to see it. After we looked at that for a while we had freetime to walk around the Champs Elysees and do some shopping if we wanted or just look at things. On the street there are a lot of high end designer shops like Louis Vuitton etc. but there's also shops like H&M, Quicksilver, Sephora etc. So there's shopping for everyone. I did find it a bit more expensive though and I didn't buy any clothes in Paris. I just bought some souvenirs. That night we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant and then had a tour of Paris by night in our bus. That night was the first time we saw the eiffel tower and it was all lit up and when we drove past it it started glittering and it was so pretty! Everyone was screaming and oohing and ahhing it was so cool. Throughout the bus tour one of our trip leaders was explaining what things were and would say "..and on your left you have ___" so everyone would run to the left side and the same for the right side it was really funny. That was the end of the first day! The second day we went to the Musee d'Ors

ay and the Louvre and those museums were AMAZING. The paintings were all so incredible as well as the sculptures. I saw so many masterpieces in both museums it was overwhelming. The Louvre was gigantic and was definately very overwhelming! I was glad I had a map and circled all the paintings I wanted to see beforehand because if not i'm sure I would have missed so many things. I saw the Mona Lisa and it was cool to see her in person but its a pretty small painting and I think there are better paintings in the Louvre haha! I also saw Napoleons apartments and that was amazing! I really felt like I was walking through his apartments and not just a museum. The museum itself was so beautiful. All the staircases and floors and everything were really really nice. After the Louvre we ate dinner at a French restaurant and then had a tour of the Seine river at night which was really cool! And after the tour of the Seine we went to the Eiffel tower at night and we went all the way to the very top. It was very exciting to be able to see the Eiffel tower and to go up and look over all of Paris at night! It was an experience that I really will never forget! And that was the end of the second night! The third day we went to Notre Dame which was soo cool. When we were there, there was actually a mass going on so we got to hear the choir singing and the priest talk and everything. I stayed with the trip leader in the church and I learned a lot of cool information from him. That church took 700 years to build! It was very very beautiful inside the church. After the Notre Dame we went to Momart and the Sacred Coeur church. And after that we had lunch at the Hard Rock cafe and then headed back to Belgium. It was a very tiring trip but it was so much fun!

London was a really good trip as well. This trip was organized by the ROTEX so it was younger people around in there 20s. There was 72 other exchange students on the trip so it was bigger than Paris. We took the ferry across the channel to Dover and then drove to Canterbury to see the cathedral. The cathedral was very nice but I think I prefered the Notre Dame in Paris. We had audio guides for the cathedral so I was glad to learn more information about it. After that we drove into London to Picadilly Circus and ate dinner, and then went back to our hotel. The next day we went to Windsor Castle, which was my favourite thing that we saw while we were in London. The castle was huge,and there were so many artifacts and old weaponary and things Britain had taken from the countries they conquered. It was amazing! They also had a room for Princess Mary's dollhouse and that was really cool. It was a really really big dollhouse with everything miniature and everything looked real. There was even a miniature electric vacuum in the dollhouse! After our visit to the Windsor Castle we went to Madame Toussauds wax museum and then had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe in London. That night we saw a musical called "Blood Brothers." It was amazing! It was the best musical or play I have ever seen and I was so happy we went to see it. At the end some people were crying and everyone gave them a standing ovation. The third day in London we had a walking tour which took a few hours and we saw a lot of the typical London attractions like the Big Ben, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, etc. I was very tired at the end of that but then we went to the Br

itish museum and that was really cool as well. They had all these artifacts from the Native villages around Terrace! They had totem poles from The Nisga'a nation and also Haida. I thought that was really cool. It was like their opening exhibit in the museum and I was very surprised to see those totem poles. After the museum we had freetime until 10:30 when we would have to go back to the bus and make our way back to Belgium for the night. I didn't like travelling through the night and I was sooo tired the next day but it was all worth it because I got to go to London!

The trips were soo amazing and I can't wait for my next trip organized by Rotary!

Hiiii

I keep procrastinating writing my next blog, its terrible I know. So what have I been up to since I last posted? Well i've been speaking french a lot and i'm really happy with how its coming along! I think I had my first french dream the other night, not fully in french but I'm pretty sure certain parts were. That was pretty cool. I really enjoy speaking french and speaking to other people but sometimes its hard to start up a conversation, especially when other people are already talking and having conversations because I don't just want to say something totally random. But yeah i'm really starting to understand people better and I feel like I can speak it better as well. School is still pretty hard but I've been trying to copy peoples notes and try to do some homework I guess. Math is ridiculous here and I really don't like it, or understand it at all. I'm not sure if its just terrible teaching or I just really don't understand it. For me I really really prefer the teachers in Canada and the material we learn. But oh well, I will just stick it out! After this week we have holidays for one week and then we go back to school for 3 days and then another 6 days of holiday after that. So this weekend I will be going to Paris which I am sooo excited about! We are going to the eiffel tower, the arc de triumph, the louvre, Versailles, The Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, Paris by Car at night, and a few other museums. I have to decide which paintings I would like to see in the louvre and the other museums because of course we won 't be able to spend all day in them. I think there are around 50 other exchange students going on the trip.

But yeah, I haven't been doing too too much lately! Just going to school and hanging out with friends on the weekend. Two weekends ago my friend, Janelle, slept over at my house on Friday night and then on Saturday night we took a train to a different town in Belgium and slept over at our other friends house. It was a pretty fun weekend! Last weekend I had plans with my Rotary councellor and his family to go to there house in the Ardennes, which is a farming area with more forests than in Northern Belgium and nice rolling hills. It was really pretty there and I took quite a few pictures. The house was actually my councellors wife's parents house and she had grown up there. The house was an old house but it was big and refurnished so it was very nice! On Saturday we went to the tiny country of Luxembourg. It was my first time being there and it was really pretty! It was a cold day but I had a scarf and gloves so it wasn't that bad. It took only about an hour to drive there. When we got there we just walked around for a little while and did a little bit of shopping. We also saw a rotary booth fundraising for "End Polio Now" so we stopped and had a glass of wine there. Afterwards we ate lunch and it was really delicious. I had pasta and so did everyone else. I also found out at lunch that I won't be going to my second host family anymore and instead will be changing in January to go to my third host family and then after Easter holidays I will be coming back to the family i'm at right now. That was a bit of a surprise for me but I don't mind it. Anyways, after lunch we went to a modern arts museum in Luxembourg. It was very interesting and I liked most of the art. There was one piece of art that I thought was really shocking because I didn't know any information about it before. It was a neon sign that said Arbeit Macht Frei and it had Mickey Mouse beside it so it looked like he was saying it. My councellor told me that the Arbeit Macht Frei was what was above the doors at the concentration camps for the jews and it means something about working for freedom or something I don't know exactly so the jewish people thought that they would work throughout the war and then afterwards they would have freedom but it was a lie as we all know because most of those people in the concentration camps were killed. The artist has Mickey Mouse saying the phrase because Walt Disney was a Nazi as well and Disney stories aren't true either, they are stories. So yeah, the saying on the doors of the concentration camp wasn't true and either are Disney stories. I thought that was really intriguing when I learned the information. The museum was really cool and we stayed there for about 2 hours. The next day I decided that I would make pancakes for the family and they really really liked them! I was scared they wouldn't turn out very good but they did so I was pretty happy. I had maple syrup as well and made fresh whipped cream. It was fun to see the families reaction to my pancakes because they really liked them!

2 Months

Hi!

I've been here for two months already! That is so crazy! Time is going by really fast and I think its only gonna start going by faster and faster. I have approximately nine months left here before I come back to Canada. In two months my french has really improved I think! I can have real conversations now and I feel really good about it! I can understand so much better than before. When I first got here I felt like I could speak better than I could understand, but now if I concentrate I can understand pretty much everything people say to me! It makes me really happy, but i've had a couple instances where people have lowered my confidence about it but thats okay, i'm just happy with how much its come along. I hope by next month I will be able to communicate very well and hopefully understand school a l

ot better. School is very weird for me right now because I don 't really understand the teachers and I don't know whether they expect me to do all the homework or not. The problem is I never know what the homework is! No one really tells me what it is so I don't know until the day of that we actually had something for homework usually. I haven't gotten in trouble but it's weird because I kind of do want to learn stuff and maybe I could attempt the homework. Last week for school the sixiemes which are the 12th graders had a week off of school to go on a retreat. There was probably 10 different options you could have done with the school or you could've done a personal project. Some of the choices were things like helping handicapped people, helping out at a school with young children, helping old people, helping homeless people around brussels, etc. My option wasn't really like that though. I didn't have to work with the public, and I was chosen for the option "Marcher" which means to walk in french. It was my first choice because a lot of people told me it would be fun for me and help me meet friends and improve my french so I took their advice and chose that option. On our first day about 15 of us and two teachers took a train to a place called Eupen, whic

h is in Belgium but is right by the German and Netherlands border. On our first day we walked 18 km through a MARSH. I thought it was going to be a nice walk through a forest but it wasn't! Pretty much the whole way was marsh will tall grass. Sometimes there was a boardwalk to walk on but when there wasn't you had to walk through the water. I only had running shoes on so my feet were soaked and my white shoes are now black. One of the teachers actually sunk up to her thigh in mud too on the first day. The second day wasn't exactly the same terrain but it was still quite muddy and wet. On the second day we walked 25 km. It was kind of tiring but it was just really difficult for me because I was very sick. On wednesday we were supposed to walk 27 km but I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it because I was really sick and on tuesday night I just slept the whole time and couldn't participate in the activities. So on Wednesday I took the train back to Brussels and slept the whole day. I slept a lot on Thursday as well and I felt much better so I could go to school on Friday. On Friday we only had courses in the afternoon because all morning we just talked about the retreat. It was a pretty interesting experience but i'm not sure that I would want to do the exact same thing again!

Last weekend I had a day planned with rotary on Saturday and plans with a friend on Friday after school. The weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday I met up

with Pooja, a belgian girl who was in Vancouver last year with rotary. I met her at the orientation weekend in Prince George with all the other exchange students. She is living in Brussels now going to fashion designing school and she has a little apartment with another girl. I was actually supposed to meet her and her friend so I could model one of her friends clothes that she made but when I got there her friend said I wasn't tall enough. Oh well. Afterwards we just talked and then went and ate something. It was nice to see her again and talk to her about Belgium and also Canada.

On Saturday I had to wake up pretty early because I had to take a train at 7:40 to go to a city called Namur for my Rotary day. It was a day organize

d for all the exchange students in Belgium so there was a lot of people there! Probably close to 200! The train we took to Namur was actually going all the way to Switzerland and on the board where it says all the stops it said all the names of the little towns I went through almost everyday when I was in Switzerland like Pfaffikon, Thalwil, and Zurich. It made me really happy! I miss Switzerland and I hope i'll be able to go back there sometime! When we got to Namur we just met everyone at the train station and then walked to the Wallonie (French speaking part of Belgium) Parliament. Sitting in the parliament was a bit boring for me because I couldn't hear or see anything because I was way at the back but it was okay. After that we just had a drink and then we took a group picture. After we ate lunch we all got to go on a boat that went down the river. It was a really nice hot day so it was really nice to go on the boat. The boat ride was probably around 2 hours and we got to see a lot of really nice houses and also a really cool chateau. After all the rotary activities were done a lot of exchange students went back to Brussels to hang out. I went out for dinner with a my friends from mexico, brazil, colombia, canada, and the US to a mexican restaurant and it was really nice! I miss eating mexican food in Canada even though its not real mexican food. They were trying to teach me spanish but I wasn't for good at it. I learned one or two phrases though! But yeah it was a very fun day hanging out with all the exchange students! I always look forward to those kinds of days!

Thanks for reading!

Brugges

Bonjour!

So this will be a blog that I should've written about 2 weeks ago, but I guess i'll write it now. Better late than never! So two weeks ago I was staying with my host sisters dad with her from Friday to Tuesday. His house was outside Brussels by about 15 minutes and it was close to another city called Waterloo as well. Her dad's girlfriend was staying there too on the weekend so I got to meet her and she was very nice. I talked to them a lot about Canada and the things I do there and I enjoyed talking in French. The first night I was there we ate really good spaghetti and after we watched Survivor. The show wasn't called survivor but it was the exact same, just French edition with french people. It reminded me of back home besides the fact that I couldn't really understand much. I find it a lot harder to understand shows on tv because people aren't talking directly to me so its hard to pay attention. On Saturday we ate breakfast and then just hung around the house and then after lunch we went shopping in Waterloo. I didn't buy anything because i'm trying to wait to buy any more close until the sales start after Christmas. Its really tempting to buy things here all the time because its so easy to just go downtown and go shopping. But I really want to not spend too much money on clothes so I won't buy anymore for a while! After the day of shopping I was pretty tired and we didn't do much after dinner. Sunday we had plans to go to a different city called Brugges. I was really excited about going there because before I came to Belgium I had read about it in my book and it looked really nice. Brugges is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium and it is known as the Venice of the North. It is a really nice city with canals flowing through it and there are always boat tours going down the canals. The Flemish people don't really like the French speaking part of Belgium I guess so they told me not to speak French there. I took a lot of pictures of Brugges and I liked that city a lot! The architecture was really different there and there were so many horse and buggies going around the cobble stone streets and I just thought it was really cool! While we were walking around Brugges just looking at different things we stopped at a little cafe/bar that looked over the canal and had a beer. I tried a special beer from Brugges that came in a really cool glass. It was pretty good and we also ate some caramel that we had bought at a chocolate store. The caramel was so good! I think everything sweet is a lot better here than in Canada. I'm really getting addicted to the chocolate here! Belgian people eat it ALL the time! Everyone at school always is just eating chocolate bars for a snack but it's weird because no one is fat! I'm just hoping my body will turn Belgian here and i'll be able to eat all the chocolate I want! The drive to Brugges took probably 1.5 hours and it was a pretty nice drive I think. We passed huge windmills that were pretty amazing to see up close! They are sooo big. I remember the first thing I saw when I flew into Amsterdam were windmills and of course they looked tiny from the plane but yeah, up close they are enormous. That weekend I was also working on a presentation about Canada for two English classes. I finished the presentation on Monday and presented it two times on Thursday. The presentation ended up taking me 2 hours because they teacher asked me a lot of questions and we had a discussion at the end of it with the classes. I think the presentation went pretty well! I was glad it was in English then, but soon i'll have to make the same presentation but in French for my Rotary club. Oh, and on Wednesdays I usually meet up with my exchange student friends from around Belgium in Brussels and we just walk around and stuff, and this wednesday I ended up meeting up with another Canadian girl from Regina. We walked around and tried to find a cheap sandwich shop because we were both starving and then after we just walked around some more. It was a really funny day though because a bunch of other exchange students said they couldn't come to Brussels that Wednesday because their parents told them it was too dangerous. I was pretty confused because I hadn't heard of anything being dangerous in Brussels that day! Apparently there was supposed to be a huge riot that day though in Brussels about expanding Europe or something. The whole day Janelle and I were looking for the rioters but we didn't see anyone that could've been dangerous. We saw so many police men on horses riding around but they weren't even doing anything! It was really funny! Everytime we heard police sirens we would always yell "rioters!" and we would look around but there would always be no one. Eventually we saw a few people wearing the same blue jackets so we assumed they were the rioters but they weren't dangerous or anything and they weren't doing anything. It was a very weird day!

finally

So again I have put off writing a new blog but it is so hard cause i'm tired ALL the time! I have also been getting a lot more headaches since i've been here. I think its definately from making my brain work so hard everyday, trying to understand and talk to people. yesterday I felt pretty good about my french though! I had about four different real conversations for over 10 minutes each . I didn't understand everything they were saying all the time but i think I got what they meant. afterwards I was dead tiredand just wanted to sleep but I had to go for a run first. I think its true that exercise relieves stress because whenever I go for a run I feel so much better when I get home! It also doesn't hurt to run off some of those Belgian desserts as well! So, I will tell you about my weekend now. On Friday after school I was very very tired and was really looking forward to going to relax in my bed after school but instead I decide to go downtown and update my cell phone and search for a case for my Mac Book. It still feels a bit weird living in a huge city and just being able to jump on a tram or the subway and go to almost any store I want, or see any old building in Brussels I want whenever I want. I definately couldn'tjump on a subway in Terrace! But being here has also made me realize all the things I really miss having not being in Terrace. On Saturday I had made plans with my friend Janelle and a couple of her friends from school in a different town called Charleoi. It was a really fun day of shopping and walking around. There was some sort of festival going on though and there were all these people dressed up in crazy costumes and on stilts and some of them were actually really scary! When I was coming back to Bruxelles I was so close to missing my train and had to jump through the closing doors of the train, but I made it and was very relieved! I got home at around 8:30 pm and it is already dark here now at that time! It's been reallyreally nice for the past few days though which I think is pretty rare in Belgium. On Sunday I had plans with my rotary club all day. My councellor, Paul, came and picked me up at 8:30 am because Sunday was a special day in Bruxelles called Bruxelles without Cars so he had to pick me up before 9:00 am before Bruxelles closed down for cars. WE drove to a city called Waterloo and I got to see the actual site of the Battle of Waterloo where Napoleon was defeated. We ate breakfast in Waterloo and afterwards drove to an art museum to meet the other rotarians. The museum was for all the pieces of art done by the artist, Folon. I really liked all his work and it gave me some ideas for my art class at school. The tour of the museum took almost 3 hours. After the museum we walked up to a huge chateau and it was really nice. We ate lunch at a rotarians house and then went back to Bruxelles when it reopened at 7:00 pm. I was very very tired after that day and slept very well that night!

Au Revoir!

One Month!

Hi Everyone!

I know its been a pretty long time since I have last written a blog but I have been a bit stressed out with school and ALWAYS tired! I can't even believe how tired I am everyday! Yesterday I had a two hour nap after school and I think I probably could have used another 3. I think its just trying to understand everyone all day long and making your brain work really hard that makes you so tired. But yeah, so I have just basically been going to school lately! School is well...school. I actually like school in Canada

a lot more than in Belgium at the moment. We'll see if that changes in a few months but just right now I don't understand anything really that the teachers are saying and it can be very boring at times. It is also so hard without all my friends at school! I didn't think it would be as difficult as it is to make

friends here. Its just a really new experience for me I think because I have lived in Terrace my whole life and have never had to try to make new friends. Right now its especially difficult because I can't understand everything everyone says to me and I can't always say what I want to say because I don't know how to say it! I like a few of the girls in my grade and they are pretty nice so hopefully i'll be able to hang out with them more. Everyone here is so different than the people in Canada as well! Not a single girl in my entire grade plays a sport other than field hockey I think and thats only a couple. I was really hoping to be able to play soccer while I was here in Belgium and I think that would help me meet more girls who I can relate with better, but my host mom told me tonight that its not possible right now. She said I can't play because something like the club has to do a transfer with my "club" back in Canada. But its really different because I don't have a club in Canada its just with the school and used to be with TYSA. She said maybe it would be possible in January I think but i'm not entirely sure. Maybe I didn't understand everything she said. I've been running a little bi

t while i've been here though and I really like it. Getting exercise makes me f

eel a lot better! (and makes me feel better about eating all the belgian food!)

On the weekends I have been meeting up with some rotary friends and its a lot of fun hanging out with them! They are going through the same stuff I am so we always have a lot to talk about and we're all experiencing new things together so its really cool! A cool thing I did one Sunday was go to the Grand Place by myself and check out a beer festival that was going on. No, I didn't drink the beer I just looked around. Plus the line ups for the tickets were really really long! There were so many tourists there to taste the belgian beer, it was crazy! Th

e whole Grand Place was shut down in the center and had all different beer vendors giving people full glasses of beer to taste. They had some really funny banners that said things like "Beer doesn't make you fat" and " A Pint or two a day keeps the doctor away" After that I attempted to get home on the subway but that didn't turn out well and I got pretty lost! But I made it home so thats all that matters. Last weekend I had my rotary orientation date on Saturday with all the other exchange students in my district and we just had a bbq and learned all the rules and stuff. After that I met some other exchange students in the center of Brussels and then I went for a sleepover at my friends house in a different city called Mons. It was a lot of fun! But yeah, thats all for now I think! I will try to update sooner next time!

OH! and i've been here for one month already! so thats already 1/11 out of my trip

Au Revoir!

School

Hi

So this week has been my first week of school and I know I haven't been updating very often but not too much happens when your just going to school everyday! I will probably start updating like once a week or maybe twice. I had my first day of school last Friday but that was only two hours and it didn't really count as a real school day so my first "real" day was on Monday. I was kind of nervous about it but I wasn't too worried about not understanding the teachers because I don't have to get really really good marks here because none of the credits count! I went through Monday starting off with Religion, but I don't think we talked at all about religion, and then after that I had Neerlandais (Dutch). I knew right away that I wouldn't understand anything because that was basically the first time I had even heard the language! The teacher just told us to make a one page presentation introducing ourselves in dutch and I just told the other people sitting beside me that I didn't know a word of dutch so they told the teacher and he said I could do it in French instead! That was definately a relief! The next time we had class he asked us questions about ourselves and went into more detail about the things we wrote about in our presentations. I was pretty happy because I understood all the questions he asked me! My other classes went pretty much the same, with me not understanding much.. but I just try to write down all the words that I do recognize while the teacher is talking and during history I actually got like 2 and a half pages. Of course none of it made sense and when the other students read what I wrote they just laughed but oh well its something. My other courses are Gym, French, History, Art, History of Art, English, Math, Science, and Geography. School here can be pretty hard but I really like how on Wednesdays I finish at 1:00 and then on Thursdays I only start at 10:30 but on Thursdays I have to go until 5:00. Its pretty hard not having all my friends that i'm really comfortable with and not really having a set group of friends here right now but i think it will get easier as it goes on. Tomorrow will be a fun day at school though I think because in the morning we are going to a university city called Louvain la Neuve and going for a tour of the University and then in the afternoon we have sports day. It will also be good because we only have to be at the university at 10:00 and don't have to go to school before. The school is also a lot different than Canada because for one the teachers change classes mostly not the students and you are with one class all year. Also when the teachers are sick or don't come to school you don't have a substitute teacher, you just don't have to go to that class. So yeah! I am looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully i'll start understanding things at school soon!

Bye!

Birthday!

Hi!

I'm seventeeeennnn!! Finally! I'm happy i'm seventeen but I know if I were still in Canada I probably would have been more excited to turn seventeen because I could go get my N and drive by myself! I'm really hoping that I will be able to go for lessons when I come back a few times and then go get my N right away. Turning seventeen in BC at least is way better I think! I had a good birthday here in Belgium! On Friday night I went to Mons for a sleepover with 3 other exchange students, two from the States and one other from Regina. I hung out with the girl from Regina and the girl from New York whose house we were sleeping at so I had a lot of fun with them! When we got there we walked to the Grand Place in Mons and then we ate pizza. I love the pizza here and I always want it. I feel like i'm getting addicted or something even though i've only ate it twice. I'm pretty sure its healthier for you than pizza in Canada too because it is so thin. But yeah that night was really fun and during the night we met up with some more exchange students. I also used the trains here in Belgium for the first time since i've been in Belgium. I was a bit nervous because unlike Switzerland the train doesn't announce where you are so you just have to look around for a little sign saying where you are. It all went fine though and I got there and back fine. I did almost miss my train going back home though! I didn't check the train schedule online like the other girls before we left the house so I just went with them thinking there would be a lot of trains going to Brussels. We had to be at the station for 10:26 in the morning and we got there at 10:19. The girls I was with just ran off to go to their stations and I looked at the board for the list of the trains and the times. I saw there was a train for Brussels right then at 10:19 and I saw a train at the platform so I decided to run really fast and try to catch that train. Just as I got up to the platform that train started pulling away and the only other train was at 11:19 so I was really dissapointed! But then right after that train pulled away another one came and a lot of people were getting on to it so I asked a lady if it was for Brussels and she said yes. I was so happy but I think I was very lucky because the trains are usually on time and this one was 2 minutes late! So I got home safe and sound and had a long bath and nap. A little later on in the day my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to a rugby game with them and I said yeah I would and I had never been to a rugby game before! I thought we were just going to go to a game in Boitsfort where I live and watch Louis' old team or something but we ended up driving about an hour to Namur, another city in Belgium, and watching the mens boitsfort team against the Soignes team. It was really good and I really couldn't believe how much contact there was! I'm so suprised more people don't have broken legs and arms playing that. A few people got hurt but I don't even think they came off the field. Boitsfort lost but it was still a really good game. And it was so weird because I heard a girl who was speaking french but had an english accent so I turned around just to look and it ended up being another exchange student from Kamloops who was sitting right behind me! So we talked the rest of the game and she explained the rules to me because she plays rugby in Kamloops. When we got home we ate steak, fries, and vegetables for my birthday dinner and then we had cake. The cake was really really good! It had cherries in it and cream and chocolate cake and then it was covered in really good chocolate. By the end of the day I was really tired though and was glad to be going to bed. I also had my first day of school on Friday! I was pretty nervous but also excited. We just got put into our classes and then went to them and heard the teacher tell the rules ( I think) and give out notebooks and things like that. It was only for two hours so tomorrow is my first real day! I'm not really expecting to understand much but i'll try! I'm actually really looking forward to Art because I never got the chance to take in Canada because I always had too many academics. I also get to take Gym again which i'm happy about but my feet are really really hurting lately and I can't walk for 20 minutes WITH my orthodics without them really hurting. On Wednesday I don't have school past 1:00 and on Thursday I only start school at 10:30 so I'm really happy about that! My schedule is pretty good I think. I only have one day where I have to go to school until 5:00 but the last hour is just english so I don't think it will be too hard. After school I went to get sandwhiches with a few other girls that go to my school and they only spoke french to me so it was very tiring after a while but I think that will really help me learn faster. I also have my first French lesson as well tomorrow so I'm really hoping those will help!

Bye!

France

Bonjour!

So I haven't updated as often as I usually do but I have been a little bit busy these past few days. So last week my host mom told me that she had to go to a city in France called Lille for work and that me and Claire could probably go with her. I said I would really like to do that and I was really excited to go all week! We went there on Wednesday with me, Claire, my host mom, and my host mom's friend. I think it was probably just over an hour drive to get there from Bruxelles. That just goes to show how different Europe is from Canada and especially where I live. If you drove for just over an hour you would probably be in the middle of nowhere. Here I am actually suprised at the amount of forest but whenever you are driving on the highway there is usually farms and civilization all around. It was a really nice day but it actually wasn't that warm. It got warmer as the day went on and that was probably one of the nicest days I had seen since i've been here in Belgium! Today is also really nice though so maybe today will top that day. When we got to France my host mom dropped Claire and I off downtown and we just started walking around. We went to the Grand Place of Lille, which was really nice and looked a lot different from the Grand Place here in Bruxelles. It reminded me more of Spain in some ways, and less gold. After we walked around the Grand Place we decided to go shopping. We went to a department store type thing first and the clothes were all very very expensive and I didn't even really like them very much so I just looked around knowing that I would not be buying anything there. After we went to a couple other stores like H&M and Gap and I bought things there. My host mom and her friend came and met us after they were done work and then we went to a restaurant and ate some lunch. After that we just walked around some more and my host mom did some shopping. We went home at around 4:45 pm and I was pretty tired and slept on the way home. I can't believe how fast people drive here on the highways. My host mom was going over 160 km pretty much the whole way. For some reason it doesn't seem that fast though. When we got home my host mom told me that we were going to go to French lessons. I thought she meant that I was going to have my first lesson that night and I was a bit scared because I was really tired and hungry and knew I wouldn't be able to focus. But afterwards she told me we were just going to sign up for lessons that night. First we went to a school that was pretty far away from my house and would be difficult for me to get to and Ines didn't really want me to go there but it was cheaper and the rotary club was paying so yeah I don't know, but we signed up there. Afterwards she said we were just going to go check out lessons at a school closer to our house and at a nicer school where the lessons were more expensive but she thought would be better. We decided it was a better idea to go to the school closer to our house so I could take the tram when I have lessons. I had to take an aptitude like test to see which level they would put me in. I think I could've done better but like I said I was really hungry and tired and just wanted to go home and eat something. I didn't do very well on the comprehension part but did really good on the writing part I think. After I wrote the test the teacher interviewed me (all in french) and it was kind of difficult for me. I was surprised to find out that the teacher didn't even speak english so I had to always figure out a way to say something in french even if I thought I really didn't know how. But anyways I got put in the class "Beginners but not real Beginners" so hopefully the lessons will help. I have them twice a week on monday and wednesday for two and a half hours. So that was my eventful French day!

Au Revoir!

End of Summer

Hi

So it is getting close to the end of summer and I think here and also in Terrace you can really tell by the weather. Its getting colder and well in Terrace its raining more but here it rains everyday so there hasn't really been a change there. School starts for me on Friday and I have already met some people that will be in my grade and a few that will be in my class. I'm glad i'll know at least a couple people on my first day! These last few days have been kind of eventful. On Saturday I went for a very long walk by myself and listened to my ipod. There are a lot of really nice little parks around where I live so I decided to walk to one that was pretty far away. It had a really nice little lake with swans and ducks in it and a nice trail to walk around. After I walked there and around the lake I had already been walking for a really long time and i've been having major problems with my feet here. They've been hurting really bad lately so I decided to take the tram back home. When I got home my most mom, Claire, and I went downtown and went shopping. They dropped me off at an english bookstore and I bought 3 books. I bought "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Series. I'm really looking forward to having a few good books here to read. While I was there they were at one of my host mom's shops and then came back and picked me up. We went shopping for a little while and I bought one shirt. I plan on going shopping tomorrow in Lille, France and maybe Thursday downtown. I know how to get downtown on my own now and I really like it! On Sunday we went to a little town called Dinant to go Kayaking. It looked like it was gonna be a nice day but after Claire and I had been kayaking for a while it started to pour. The kayak trip was a lot longer than I thought it would've been and it took probably 4.5 hours. Also, our kayak sunk because we had to go down this little waterfall type thing and it got so much water in it. We got soaked and had to jump in the river and try to get the water out. We couldn't lift it by ourselves and finally some guys came and helped us. We were very very cold, hungry, tired, and not very happy and the end of it. But we had a hot shower and hot chocolate afterwards and that made us feel a bit better. That night I had a dinner with my other two host families and the other two girls who were staying with them. They are very different than my host family now but we'll see what happens. When we got home around 10:30 everyone was very tired and I went straight to bed. On Monday I had plans to meet up with 4 other exchange students. 3 Canadians and 1 girl from New York. We had plans to meet at the Brussels train station at 9:30 AM but I was a bit late because there was construction so my host mom was about 10 minutes late dropping me off. When I got there I couldn't find them anywhere and decided to wait at the entrance for a while but when they still weren't coming ten minutes later I decided to walk around to the other entrances. I couldn't find them anywhere so I decided I might as well walk around by myself for a while so I did that for about an hour and a half. I kept coming back to the Grand Place whenever I thought I didn't know where I was and one time I came back I recognized another exchange student I remembered seeing on Thursday at the parliament. I went up to him and these two other belgian guys and talked to them and then I hung out with them around the city for a while. He is from Argentina and he was with his host brother and his host brother's cousin. Later on I ended up meeting the rest of the people I was supposed to meet and we had a really good day. We went to a greek place for lunch and then had a waffle and just walked around the city for a long time. Walking really didn't help my feet though. Especially since I couldn't even wear my shoes with my orthodics because even though I tried drying them the night before they were still soaked from Kayaking. So today I plan on not going out and resting my feet because I know i'm gonna have to walk around a lot tomorrow in France. Hopefully my feet won't hurt forever!