First of all, just after I finished my last blog, a bunch of people started showing up at the house; my second host family, my host uncle, my host cousin, my third host parents, etc. But I hardly thought anything of it, because they drop by all the time.
I was in the middle of making Challah for the family when my host sister, Pauline, told me to come into the living room. I asked her why and she said,
oh you know, just to be with people...
That was strange, because I just WAS with everyone. At least, I was with both my sisters and my cousin.
So, I walked into the living room and everyone started singing.
There were birthday streamers on the wall that said "18" and gifts in my families' hands.
It was a great surprise. However, I don't think I could have been any more surprised after what happened next.
My host father told me that my gift was waiting for me on my bed upstairs. So I took my litte sister, Caroline, and my brother, Olivier, upstairs with me to see what there was. There was a sweet card signed by the family, a bag of sweet bread called Madalines (I knew automatically that these were from my host dad. : )He remembers everything that we ever talk about.), and a music book for guitar. This last gift really made me happy. I had told my family off-handedly that I had wanted to learn the guitar, that I had started a few months before I left the states, but I just became too busy to keep it up. And here was a book that would help me get started again.
I came downstairs to give everyone bisous to thank them, but they were all giggling. I couldn't really figure out why, but I gave them all bisous anyways. I started looking through the music when my third host mother asked me,
Well, how are you going to learn the guitar with just the music?
I didn't really hear the context, so I just mumbled something about how it's no big deal, I'll find a guitar...
then everyone stood up off the couch and was holding a guitar case that they'd been hiding behind them while they were sitting down-that's why they were all giggling when I got close to them earlier-I didn't see a thing.
My family bought be a guitar. I have my own guitar. I've been going to lessons and practicing on my own since then, having a wonderful time with an instrument of my own.
I get more and more amazed with my family every day.
That weekend, I took a trip with the Rotary club of La Louvière to Marseilles. I was in Marseilles that Sunday for my birthday. It was lovely.
To get there, a memeber of the Rotary was nice enough to take me along with him in his private plane (!).
This was the plane, and though it's difficult to tell, it is extremely small. If I stood up next to it, you'd see that the propeller actually reaches to about my chest. I was extremely excited to go, but I have to admit that I was afraid.
The plane belongs to the man on the left. I sat behind him with the only other passanger, the co-captain's (the man on the right) wife.
We took off at about six-thirty in the morning, so I was able to watch the sun rise from the sky.
This was at the hotel. It is well known that Marseilles always has beautiful weather, and this just reminded me so much of home in South Carolina.
The Mediteranean is nicknamed "the great blue" for a beautiful reason.
Marseilles is also known for it's homes all having the same red roofs. This is a great view from very high about a third of the great city.
Old Marseille has awesome character and gorgeous homes.
The next weekend I went back to Liege and had a great time with Mamie, Papie, and Benj. Unfortunately, I was doing so much running around that I didn't take any pictures. At all. It's all in memory, but it makes an empty blog.
The next Friday, I took a trip to Gent, a city in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, with my English class. I really had a great time with everyone; it was so much fun!
During free time, we came across an extremely long, narrow street with walls literally full of grafiti. This is a guy we watched spray paint his creation.
This hardly captures the enormity of the street.
We walked for about three minutes before leaving the grafiti. It went on forever. Really cool.
Here's a really pretty McDonalds. Almost everyone ate there. Except for, ironically, me, the American (and a few of my friends). Everyone laughed when I said I didn't want to eat there. 8D
There was construction around the whole city which really made it a lot less photogenic, but I did my best. The archetecture was still gorgeous, despite all the renovation.
This is a man playing the harp in one of the churches.
I had a great time with my class in Gent. I hope I'll be able to take another trip sometime.
As soon as I got back from trip to Gent, I zipped up my suitcase that I'd packed the night before, loaded it in the car, and we set off to the Vogges (a mountain range in France) where we spent the weekend in a fantastic cabin (complete with a work-out room and a sauna!) with another family. This was a little vacation for everyone to relax and just hang out.
We did a lot of hiking, and this was one of the views. Beautiful.
This was in one of the towns where we took a tour in a tiny wooden boat. It is one of the most expensive places to live in that region, and, accordingly, it is one of the prettiest.
We found a random door with the Rotary International emblem on it, so we snapped a picture. We aren't exactly sure what goes on inside, but we're sure it's something good!
A lovely little street with typical shops of the Vogges.
On one of our hikes, we reached a lake where Olivier spotted a lone champagne bottle near the water. He pulled it out and it happened to be full and unopened. So we all had a nice drink of champagne at a near-by picknick table.
Haha
A great view from the lake near our cabin.
I had a great, busy and relaxing, few weeks and am looking forward to the next one!
belgium smiles
