Two Months!

This week was a very special week for me for several reasons.
1. Today (10-15-2009) makes two months since I arrived in Belgium! Not yet fluent, but comeing along quite nicely...
2. I spent the weekend in Liege.

For those who don't know, my mother also spent her senior year of high school in Belgium. Unlike me, however, she went with AFS and, accordingly, there are some differences between our exchange experiences. For example, she had only one family that she spent her year with. She ended up growing extremely close with her host parents and when they heard that I was in Belgium, we set up a date to get together. As it turns out, they now have a grandson, Benj, a few years older than me, living with them temporarily. Because "Mami" and "Papi" are in their eighties now, Benj and I spent the weekend together, going to the great spots in Liege.






This is the outside of the house that my mother spent her exchange year in and where I spent my weekend.

















This is me with Mami and Papi. This was taken in the kitchen where there is a chair in each corner. Sunday afternoon, we were all sitting in one of the chairs (Mami, Papi, Benj, and me) and talking. I was absent-mindedly looking around the kitchen and happened to look over at Papi. He had been looking at me, smiling. He said (in French, of course, but for the sake of the blog, I'll write in in English), "It's been twenty-five years since your mother sat in that same chair."

This is Benj, on the right, and his cousin (in a way, he's my cousin, too), Axel. I'm in the back of Axel's TINY car. He actually has a different one, and he was really excited to find out that I share the same one with my mom in the States-a Volkswagon Bug.

We took many buses this weekend going from place to place. This is Benj on one of them, sitting across from me.

This is at the top of "the stairs" in Liege. Benj and I counted as we climbed them and found that there are exactly 333.

Even further up "the stairs" there is another set of only about 15 where one can find a great view of Liege.

Benj in front of the view.

This is the view of the stairs from the ground.

In this picture it looks so nice out and you can even see the sun shining through parted clouds; it's funny, because just after we got down, off the stairs, I felt a few raindrops. Benj swore under his breath, and I said, surprised, "what's wrong? It's only rain..." But before he finished saying "oh no, this isn't good..." it downpoured. Still now, thinking back, I don't understand how it happend. How it could have possiby gone from a light sprinkle to a straight downpour in less than ten seconds. We ended up running to a near-by art museum. We didn't go in, but it was a nice cover from the rain before Axel came to pick us up.

I have spent many truely incredible weekends (all thanks to my spectacular host parents) since I have been here in Belgium. I have been to Brussels, to Bruges, to Paris, Holand, to both the seas, and so much more; but this weekend in Liege I finally found something special, a sense of extended family. I can't wait to visit again.

But my week wasn't over yet! The following Tuesday night, the family went out the Brussels to see District 9 in it's original version with French subtitles. This was incredibly nice of my family and I was so happy to see it! We all agreed that it was a fantastic movie, extremely well made, and satisfyingly unique. I advise everyone to see it who hasn't.

Looking forward to the rest of my stay in Belgium!

Seventh Week

This Friday, we left home as soon as all the kids got home from school to spend the weekend in Paris!
Caroline and Olivier stayed home, but Pauline and my second host sister, Mathilde came along with us.
This is not a great picture of my host mom, Laurence, but we couldn't get a picture where we all looked good. Haha, I love this picture anyways, Laurence is so funny.






Mathilde and Pauline were SO excited to see this limo, we HAD to get a picture in front of it.














The first night we got there, we had a delicious dinner in a nice little resteraunt in town. Mathilde and I got the same dessert; a chocolate cup of ice cream. The cup was edible and super delicious.













This is me in front of the Eiffle Tower! The picture really doesn't portray the excitment, but this was really an incredible night.









Mathile, me, and Pauline




















This was my the view of the street from the balcony right outside our hotel room.











The Eiffle Tower in the morning.












As I was climbing the stairs to the second floor of the Eiffle Tower (I'm not sure if one is alowed to climb all the way to the top; but my family thought I was crazy for wanting to climb to the second floor anyways. They took the elevator), I noticed a group of men working on the structure, held up by harnesses.







I've already forgotten who was pictured on the stairs, but I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Eiffle, himself.




















A great view from the first floor, but I still had another floor to go....











This was taken after we rode in the elevator "all the way to the tippy top!" of tower. This is only a fraction of the 360° view we had.





















My sisters and me on the top.














...























After the Eiffle Tower, we took a short walk over to the Notre Dame. After just being on the Eiffle Tower, I couldn't imagine ever getting more excited. But I was wrong; believe it or not, the beauty of Notre Dame in person was actually more of a shock to me than the Eiffle Tower.









This is just one inside view. It was really incredible; the height of the ceilings, the details in the walls, even the doors were complex iron designs.
















Le musée du Louvre


















I literally could not get a picture of the whole thing.













Incredible



















The entrance to the Louvre.
Inside, I took a few picutres of the artwork such as the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and other famous works that everyone has seen pictures of but that I wanted for evidence for myself. However, after taking so many pictures of things that impressed me on the spot, I realized that pictures don't even come close to what it's like to see them in person.
The weekend was wonderful and I can say with confidence that I will always remember my first trip to Paris.

Looking forward to my next week in Belgium!

Sixth Week

My sixth week consisted of five days at school and one of the longest Saturdays of my life.

(unfortunately, a lot of these pictures failed to turn when I told them to, so they will stay horizontal. I apologize for any neck-aches I may have caused)

This Saturday I woke up at six in the morning to jump in the car and ride for two hours to Dinaint. Dinaint is a town with a wide canal that leads into the river, La Lesse. I kayaked all day (about six hours) on this canal with friends from the Rotary in Belgium.

There were gorgeous views almost every corner we paddled around.

I know it seems as if it was perfect weather and sunny and warm. These pictures or misleading. It was FREEZING. And WET.

I swear I've never been so cold for so long in my life.

Nevertheless, despite the cold, I had an awesome time.

My day didn't end there, though.

I still had "Décrocher la Lune" (which literally means "to unhook the moon"). This is a major spectacular in La Louvière that is based on dreams and reality and inspiration and imagination. There is a church in the center of La Louvière with a crescent moon on the top where this festival takes place.

This is a picture of a woman literally walking up the side of the church. It was an incredible thing to see.

This is a man who danced in the air, held up only by balloons. Those ropes you see are actually holding him DOWN. Incredible.

Here is a great shot of six percussionists who were raised in the air as they were playing. This was very exciting to watch. you can see how high they are when you compare them to the stage that they are just in front of.

This is another picture of the performers.

This was the climax of the show. The man who reached the moon.

(He's an extremely well-made giant puppet)

Here you can see the man held up by balloons and two other performers who are dancing around a moon in mid-air.

These are two more giant puppets. You can see all the details included in their design. Magnifique.

After the show, my family met up with some friends. My host brother was so excited to show me something new that I hardly had the heart to tell him we have cotten candy in America too. In Belgium, it's called a "Barbe à Papa" ( Dad's beard). Super delish.

This is me eating my dad's beard, my host brother's friend François, my host brother Olivier, and my good friend François.

And again : )

This is the church where the spectacular took place.

This is me with François (right) and his best friend Gaëton.

The folowing Tuesday, I made Challah (a Jewish braided bread) for my family. This was an adventure because 1) this was the first time I attempted using my mom's recipe all alone 2) I had to convert everything to grams. This is harder than it sounds.

Olivier helped me out with kneading the dough.

: )



It ended up turning out great!








The next day, I took the train into Charleroi to spend some time with some Americans from the Rotary at an Irish Pub. It felt great to speak English with some friends my age.










You can see my school in this picture. It's the darker brown one. This was taken during our luch period. We are allowed to leave school during the hour-long break.










No one was ever ready at the same time for this picture, so I chose the best one. Poor Sophie is hiding behind her hair, my good friend Hélène, and me.

I've had a great week and can't wait for the next!

Fifth Week

My fifth week was spent mostly at school. School consists of lots of listening and even more translating. Fortunately, I have already graduated, so if I become too tired of listening, I can pick up my version of Le Petit Prince, which I've been plowing through; reading and translating. Sometimes this is less tiring than listening and translating. If I'm not listening and not reading, then I am studying vocabulary from my two English classes. These classes have proved to be the most beneficial for my vocabulary.

This week I also took the train alone for the first time to Brussels for a Roshashana service. Being alone, I couldn't get any pictures of myself, but I was able to snap a quick picture of the sanctuary (I was a little nervous because it seemed pretty conservative).

The service was, naturally, in French and Hebrew. However, it was certainly extremely refreshing to hear "SHANAH TOVAH" when I walked in. It might not have been English, but hearing another language that I am familiar with was a huge relief. I'm certainly glad I got the chance to go.

The night after Roshoshana was a major concert called Les Fêtes de Wallonie. Most of the concerts were in a town not far from mine, but my sister and I decided to stick around in La Louvière where we could meet up with some friends.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get pictures of anything close up (like my friends and me with the lead singer of "Peps") because my camera broke and everything turned out blurry if I didn't zoom way in. So I was only able to snap some pictures of the concert itself. But these are still some great souvenirs.

Looking forward to my sixth week!

smiles from belgium