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
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