Sunday 12-13-09

After a long day in Bastogne, and an incredibly late dinner with some friends, I was exhausted. I was sleeping soundly until about 9:30 A.M. when I was jostled awake by Pauline, who came into my room to tell me that Mazie was on Skype asking for me. I quickly calculated the time difference and realized it was only 3:30 A.M. in South Carolina. "Did she seem upset?" I asked. She said yeah, she thinks so. I rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes. As I walked into the living room, I saw in the corner of my eye that the family was all standing next to me and I swore I saw someone I recognized, but I shook it off and glanced at the couch (where the computer would normally be if Skype was running), but there was no computer. I began to ask were the computer was while turning around, and there was everybody; Laurence and Philippe, Pauline recording the scene with her cell phone, little Olivier and Caroline with the widest smiles on their faces, and the most amazing thing I have ever seen: my twin sister, Mazie.
Everyone said I did a double take. I just remember seeing her smiling from ear to ear and wearing her (RED) outfit and looking adorable and much thinner than I remember her being and just thinking thank you thank you thank you.
It goes without saying that I was a bit in awe. I couldn't fathom the idea that my twin sister, really my other half, was in my world. My little Belgium world. In my house. With my family. It was surreal. It was really a moment that I look back on now and think just how bizarre the whole scene was. I see now that I had completely separated my two selves. My USA self and my Belgium self. We are different people with different siblings, parents, interests, friends, homes...It was strange to see my two worlds together in the same room.
We took a walk into the town centre and talked and just benefited from being together. I remember being really disappointed when she insisted that she had to take a nap after not sleeping on the red eye. I watched a movie with the family to pass the time, then woke her up to have lunch. I can hardly remember the rest of the day, besides being awe-struck and that we had the dinner I had picked out with Laurence two days before on the way home from IKEA.

Monday 12-14-2009
Mazie and I took a small tour of my town, La Louvière, then we started our baking frenzy. In the states, Mazie and I would bake together all the time. While I've been here in Belgium, I like to make a weekly bread or pie or cookies, or just something delicious for my host family. So when Mazie came, she happily jumped into the routine, only this time, we were making something almost every day. On Monday we made banana bread. We decided not to tell my little brother, Olivier (who "hates bananas"), what was in it until AFTER he tried it. Of course, as soon as he tried it, he fell in love with it and ate more and more and became without a doubt the biggest fan...then we told him what was in it. The facial expression he made is nothing I could ever explain in words, but it's something I will always remember with the most profound hilarity.

Tuesday 12-15-2009
Tuesday we took a day to go shopping in Mons, a town close to La Louvière. We met up with another exchange student and each had a Real Belgian Waffle (Mazie was a newie to this experience and I believe that she was thoroughly impressed).

Wednesday 12-16-2009
We took it easy on Wednesday and just hung out and made some cookie-brownies. It was really hard to find all of the ingredients because a lot of things we find pretty simple in America don't exist in a simple grocery store in Belgium. Sometimes not even in the biggest grocery store in town. But we were determined. However, determination hardly mattered because we cooked the brownies too long anyways, so they turned out way too tough to enjoy. OH WELL. It was fun anyways.
That night we hung out with some friends from my school. It was neat to see everyone interact with my sisiter. They were all trying and failing to speak English, but that only made it more fun.

Thursday 12-17-2009
My host uncle, René, and my cousin, Germain, drove Mazie and I to Namur to discover the city (this was my first time, too) and the Christmas Market. We ended up finding almost all of our holiday gifts here. She ended up bringing all the gifts for our family in the States back home with her in her suitcase. We found the perfect gifts for everyone; I'm so glad she was there to help me-I would have never been able to do all that alone.
When we got back from Namur, we made two incredibly delicious apple pies (our grandmother's recipe). Big hit.

Friday 12-17-2009
We took a trip to Liège to visit my mother's host parents. It was really great to see them again. We had dinner and talked for a while, planning my mother's visit. It will be good to be all together at the same time.

Saturday 12-18-2009
We all took a trip to Brussels together; the Gossarts, Mazie, and I. Mazie told me later that this was her favorite trip while she was here, and I have to say that I'd agree. We had dinner, watched a light and building spectacle, ran through a scary maze with all the kids, watched the younger kids go ice-scating, drank a lot of coffee and ate a lot of doughy foods. We had to show Mazie the Belgian art of Fries in a Paper Cone; they were delicious, of course, and we made them even better by eating them with the most scrumtious fries sauce in the world; Brazilian Sauce.

Sunday 12-19-2009
After a great night with the family, we slept soundly and were ready for a long day in Bruges. It was snowy and gorgeous and was the perfect winter day for visiting the city. We found a few more gifts, ate a delicious lunch, and visited the Salvador Dali expo. Unfortunately, because of the snow, the canal ride was closed. But we were a little short for time anyways, so we caught the train and headed back to Brussels where we met the family to see Avatar in theatres (in it's original version). We were blown away. What a beautiful movie. I was so glad I had Mazie to discuss it with afterwards.

Monday 12-20-2009
The time had gone by so fast! This was our last day together and we decided to just hang around the house and be with eachother. Laurence and Philippe threw together a great going away dinner with the family. We had a GREAT time together. All that really sticks in my mind from that night is a bunch of laughing and the dessert. Mazie and I made our family's traditional winter dessert "Sugar on Snow". It's made by boiling "Real Maple Syrup" (that's only made in northern NY and Canada-and maybe a few other northern states in the US) and then pouring it onto a bowl of pure snow. The syrup hardens and forms a wonderful sticky, candy-like deliciousness that's impossible to resist.

Tuesday 12-21-2009
After an incredibly late night staying up with Mazie, we woke up incredibly early to drive her to the airport. She said goodbye to the family and we fumbled lazily into the car with Philippe. Mazie fell asleep on the way there, but I couldn't no matter how hard I tried. I was still amazed that she was even in the car with us. We waited with her until the last minute when she had to walk through security to her gate.
It was difficult to say goodbye, but I was so happy that she had been able to come. I couldn't thank Philippe and Laurence enough. How they had gotten the idea, made it a reality, then kept it a secret for so long was beyond me; but I am thankful out of my mind.
I swear I have the best host parents in the world.

Thank you Philippe and Laurence who planned the trip, paid for the trip and made the whole thing happen. Thank you.

belgium smiles

DECEMBER 5/09-12/09

12-4-09--12-5-09 St. Nicolas Celebration

With the holidays in gear, things were starting to get busy. It goes without saying that Belgian Holiday Tradition is a little different than what I am used to in the U.S. December 1st is the celebration of St. Nicolas, who is the equivilant of our Santa Clause; he is simply celebrated on a different day and in a different way. The day before St. Nicolas was a Friday; the school's celebration took place then. The seniors all had two hours of gym in the morning, afterwhich we all changed into our St. Nicolas gear (the craziest and most colorful outfit you can put together). We all filed to administration to gather the five giant baskets of candy that we would pass out to the entire school. We bombarded into every classroom and sang a song. If the class sang with us, we would pass out a handful of candy to everyone (there really were some classrooms with no St. Nicolas cheer who didn't receive any candy)!

The next day (Saturday), my little host sister knocked on my door at 6:30 in the morning. All the kids ran downstairs to see what St. Nicolas had brought us during the night. I received two books, one of which was Audrey Niffenger's Her Fearful Symmytry, from my host parents, who had just gotten back from London the night before.

12-6-09 Rotary's Exotic Dinner

This was a really neat event. Almost all of the exchange students from districs 1620 and 1630 got together to put on a feast. Each student (or small group of students from the same country) had to bring in a typical or special dish from their country (double challenge: no deserts). Because we had about twenty Americans, we had to all sort of communicate and share ideas because we couldn't all take hot dogs and hamburgers. We had to get creative. A few girls brought chili, another brought penut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the rest of us brought a specialty from our state or family. I ended up bringing Challah, a Jewish bread that is a Friday night and Saturday morning tradition. The guests moved around the tables, taking their pick from Asian, Bermudain, American, Mexican, Australian, and New Zealander cuisine!

12-9-09 Body Balance

After almost five months of being in Belgium, I decided it was time to hit the gym. My third host mom had been telling me that she goes every Wednesday to a place within walking distance from my house, and I decided it would be a great thing to try out. She picked me up and introduced me to the class instructor, Florence, who, upon learning that I am an exchange student for a year, suggested that I come three times a week free of charge! She is wonderful and I took her advise to heart. : )

12-10-09 EXAM DAY
The next day at school, after studying for three days straight, I walked into my four hour English exam. It was the first time I'd been stressed out since I left the U.S. A lot of you might think, "oh, well no sweat, it's just English!" To those of you who have ever taken a foreign language class are familiar with the fact that a lot of your test is done in your mother language. That means translations, vocabulary, listening and translating, essays, etc. This was not easy shmeasy. I had the vocabulary down pat, but there's no cut-and-dry way to study for listening to a text in English and translating it into French. Or translating a text into French. Or writing an essay in French in less than fourty minutes. I took every second of the four hours to finish that exam. I was one of the first ones in and I was the last one out. The studying and my five month experience ended up paying off. I passed. Woot!

Friday, 12-11-09 IKEA with Laurence (my host mom)
As the holidays were starting to creep up fast, I was beginning to think about gifts for my host family. I knew that I was going to get Laurence at least three pairs of brightly colored scissors (she was always losing them), I would get Pauline (17 years old) something to do with tinkerbell (her favorite character), I would find Olivier and Caroline (13 and 11) something to do with Michael Jackson (their favorite singer and performer), and for Philippe (my host dad), I had no idea. When Laurence told me that she was going to IKEA to pick up a few things and asked me if I would like to come, I got all excited because I love IKEA and I hadn't been since I was in the States. When Olivier (who I have a very strong relationship with) found out that I was going to IKEA with his mom, he got all excited because he could spend the day with the three of us. So the three of us hopped in the car and drove off to IKEA (easily one of all of our favorite places to go). We had a very successful day, finding everything we had come out for. At one point, I passed a basket up to my hip filled with colorful scissors bound in groups of three. I saw the basket and tried to draw Laurence's eye away from it, secretly wondering how I would buy them for her without her noticing. Luckily, she didn't see them, but when we went downstairs to the buying area, she saw the basket before I did. As she picked them up out of the basket she did a little hop and said "perfect!" and dropped them in her cart. I sulked. I waited for her to walk a safe distance away from the cart before picking them out and saying to Olivier, "don't tell her I'm putting these back. I'm buying them for her for Christmas." He nodded and sort of giggled as I put them back in their basket without Laurence noticing. At the check out line, I have to admit that I was a little nervous that she would realize that her scissors were not in her cart. Luckily, she was too occupied with the bigger objects that the tiny pairs of scissors slipped her mind.

--As we were on our way home, Laurence happened to ask me what I would like to eat on Sunday (two days from that moment). I said I didn't mind, that everything she makes is delicious (true). But why are we talking about Sunday? What's happening Sunday? She reassured me that nothing special was going on, that she just wanted to know. Even though I was still confused, I forgot about it, temporarily--

When we got home, I sat down to have a bowl of cereal and Laurence began emptying her bags. Caroline came bouncing in to see what she had bought. As Laurence got to the bottom of her last bag, she noticed something was missing; "Wait...Where are my scissors?"

I paused, "What scissors?"

"The ones I just bought today. Did they not put them in my bag?! Oh I can't stand it when that happens...."

"Are you sure you bought them? You should check your receipt..."

Later that night, after fretting about the lost scissors for a little while longer, I told everyone (except Laurence, of course) my plan to buy Laurence a few pairs of scissors for Christmas, and to no longer mention scissors around her.

12-12-09 Bastogne

I got up early that Saturday morning with Laurence's mother and two of her good friends to go to Bastogne, a city in Belgium that hosts a memorial day every year for the Battle of the Bulge, the last Germain offensive in World War II. The Belgians express their appreciation to the Americans with this weekend-long festive memorial. It was an incredible day to witness, my history lessons litteraly came to life. There were US troops and English speakers everywhere. I even helped a little American boy who had lost his mother. He was about six years old and was surrounded by Belgian Police officers who didn't speak English. He described to me the color of his mother's coat and some other minor details which I translated to the police men. Finally, after a few police men had left to go search, the mother showed up and all was well. It was the first moment when I felt really proud to speak two languages. All in all, the day in Bastogne was incredibly interesting, informative, and satisfying. I'm very thankful I was able to experience it.

12-13-09 Surprise

November

Hello again; it's been a while. : )

I should like to say that I have recently changed computers and transfered all of my pictures onto my external hard drive. Having said that, I went to update my blog and upload some pictures, but the photos have all become way too big to upload. *sigh*

So for now, my blogs will be in written form until I figure out the problem. Any suggestions?

11-06-2009 -- 11-08-2009 London Trip
This was the first planned Rotary Trip that I attended. I have heard that the Rotary trips are always awesome, so I was pretty excited. I came back totally satisfied. The trip included a visit to the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and the Queen's Jewels, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, The Tower Bridge, The London Bridge, They Eye, and Big Ben. These were all awesome.
My friend, Emily (an Australian) and I took a walk accross the Tower Bridge during our nine hours of free time Saturday afternoon. Of course, we didn't spend all of our time walking the bridge; we ended up taking a double decker bus (totally cool) to a metro station and getting lost in the tunnels. We walked in circles about three times before we realized everybody speaks English and we could ask where to go without a problem. We ended up finding our way thanks to a nice lady and we headed to the biggest outdoor market I have ever seen. We found many treasures.
Thank you Rotary

11-11-2009 Emily's Going Away Party
Everybody took a trip to Liège for Emily's good-bye party. Because she's from Australia, she came to belgium in January of 2009 and left in November. Sad, but true.

11-12-2009 Champagne, France
The next day, my host family and I hopped on a bus at six in the morning with the Rotary Club of La Louvière to Champagne, France for a real champagne tasting experience. It was a short day trip that was mostly spent in the bus, but the few hours that we were there were a nice break. It was sunny and the food was great, but above all, they served top-of-the line champagne.
When we got home, I was ready for my host sister's 17th birthday party. A bunch of friends from school were there and we had a great time.
A little later that night I went to a concert with my host cousin that my uncle had put on as a fund raiser for the scouts program. The bands were great. But I had to laugh because the singers were all French speakers covering American bands like Green Day and the Cranberries. That means that they hardly new the words, so they had a sheet of paper at their feet with the words written down, but they still mumbled through them. Nobody understood except for me, anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. They had great voices and I applaud them for trying.

11-20-2009 Party with the Scouts
My host family and I went to a party with the Scouts. It turned out to be a sort of end-of-the-season good-bye-to-the-leaders party. Everyone had a great time.

26-11-2009 Thanksgiving Day
I happily spent my Thanksgiving evening at a Thursday night Rotary Meeting. I go to the club meetings every other Thursday and I always have a good time. They serve great food and have interesting presentations every week. When I got home, I jumped on skype, and sure enough, my family was preparing dinner. I ended up sitting at the table with my mother, my sisters, and my grandparents. Lovely company.
When I hung up, I began making conversions from cups to grams, tablespoons to grams, teaspoons to grams, etc. I was up really late.

27-11-2009 Thanksgiving Dinner
The conversions paid off. After completing a long grocery list and a trip to the grocery store, my host uncle came over. He helped to clean the turkey (I tried, but quickly became nauseous) and gave some tips on seasoning before he left to run some errands. My host mom helped me with the rest. I had my grandmother and my mom online giving me tips on what to do first and corrections of recipes, etc. By the time dinner was ready and everyone was at the house (Réné, my host uncle; Elizabeth, my host cousin; Germain, my host cousin; Sebastien, my host uncle; Pascale, my host aunt; little Maxililien, my host cousin; and my family), I was feeling a little nervous. I had made the stuffing by scratch because bread stuffing doesn't exist here, everyone was a little surprised at the idea of mixing peas and mushrooms, I didn't have time to make gravy, I forgot to buy bread rolls, and the pies were still in the oven when we sat down to eat. Not to mention I was tired. But I stayed calm and I have to admit, even I thought it was good. People were taking seconds. And Elizabeth kept going on about how good the stuffing was (thank goodness). Even the peas and mushrooms turned out to be a hit!
Next year I'll come back with my family and make a real super huge delicious Thanksgiving dinner and show everyone how it's really done. But for now, I'm happy.
After dinner, Cathrine Wouters (who was an exchange student at Daniel Island last year and who lives about twenty minutes from my house in Belgium) came to pick me up to stay at her house for the weekend. We saw the second Twilight movie in French the next day. I had neither seen the first movie nor read the books, but I understood almost everything (except maybe a few lines, but the storyline is pretty simple to follow), but at the end, the last line that Edward said, the VERY LAST LINE of the movie, was (now, for those of you who still want to see the movie, just skip over this part)
"épouse moi".
Okay, for those of you who don't know what that means, I was just as confused as you are now. I said outloud "what?"
What's worse, the theater immediately errupted in gasps and sighs and signs of hopeless infatuation towards Edward. And me, totally deflated, leaned over to Cathrine to ask, "what does that mean? what does that mean?!"

As it turns out, it means "marry me".

Ohhh exchange experiences....

belgium smiles