It is Fun to be the Expert Sometimes

Well I have to say, I was skeptical of this Opera business, but it turned out to be really great! I was so thankful that I took the Rotary men's advice and Wikipediaed (that's a verb now right?) the storyline before- it was actually the Opera that Rent was based off of, although this time they were dying of TB not AIDS. Anyway- it turned out to be a lovely, although tiring evening.
Thursday in cuisine class we made pizzas from scratch which was fun- we even practiced twirling them like real Italian pizzerias (I wasn't so skilled). I have now become the "honorary onion cutter" in the class- kids just marvel over my knife skills :) Thanks dad! That night we had a wild track practice in the famous Belgian fog! I couldn't see 50 meters in front of me and my watch fogged up- of course as runners we prevailed but it was wild!
Friday it was St. Nicholas' Day at school which is basically Senior day. We all dress up in white doctors lab coats and have our friends sign them, then we get to school early in the morning and party, then when all the other kids arrive around 8 we make them pay us to get off the bus, we throw flour in their hair, hair color, lipstick on their faces, and the mean boys go as far as to crack eggs on others (I did not do that!). We have two very productive hours of class...... or not. Then there is a big skit and dancing and we get to leave at noon. Most people go to a tavern together, but I had planned on taking a bus to Liege to see Harry Potter! Long story short- I am horrible at this public transportation thing, and I ended up going way out past Liege to no-man's land and then coming home... 3 hours of travel and no Potter. Oh well- live and learn. That night was band- we have a concert coming up so I am really excited!
Saturday morning I woke up early (8am- say what you will) and took a bus and train successfully into Liege to meet Mollie and Mallory. We did some grocery shopping for dinner, went to Mollie's house, went on a long run in the surprisingly nice weather, and then hung out until it was time to start cooking. We made a WONDERFUL Mexican feast for her family with the help of ingredients that my mom had sent me (thanks mom!) and for dessert, chocolate cake! It was really fun to finally be the know-it-alls and show these Belgians something totally new! That night we watched "Le Chorist" in French (really good) and went to bed early...not. We get along great! It is really fun because we go in and out of French and English together- they are by far my best friends here and I think this year wouldn't be nearly as fun without them.
Sunday I took the train home at 10:30 and went straight to the Oxfam breakfast. I was not there to eat; I was volunteering to wash dishes- it was a fair trade fundraiser and I love love love community service so it felt great! After that I planned my entire Thanksgiving meal and guest list... it keeps growing- now about 24... YIKES!
Monday I rushed home after school because Fernand Biname (the Rotary Chairman of my district) came over at 4:30. I had organized this interview with him because for my year-long project at school that every senior does on a subject of his/her choice I have picked the Rotary. Right now we have to conduct interviews with someone involved with our subject. I was really nervous, but he was very informative and stayed for two hours helping me!
Yesterday I was homesick a little bit for the very first time. I think I was just thinking about everyone going home for Thanksgiving :( I talked to my friends here and Nicole and they were all so nice and comforting that I really felt better fast. I know there will be tough times, but this is an experience of a lifetime and I can't let it pass me by- it's already going too fast!
Tomorrow Jordan Berger comes to Belgium for our Thanksgiving weekend!!!! :-) Can't wait!!!

Maybe I Should Start Learning a Little German....

Well well well... the winter days have come and are here to stay. I wake up in the dark and get home in the dark, most days barely get above freezing, and Belgium is famous for their fog and I have to say that it is astounding! Yesterday I was at track practice and while running on the track you couldn't see anyone 50 meters in front of you, and I couldn't even see my watch! Although we are having an early winter, that hasn't stopped me from living a very fun and busy life!
Last week I tried to catch up on a little sleep Monday and Tuesday but then Wednesday I was off and running again! In the afternoon I took the train to Liege with Pauline; she met up with her friends and I met up with mine and after a few hours of shopping we all met up to catch the bus home. My really good friend Mollie came home with us and just as we arrived we left again to go see the musical "La Melodie de Bonheur" or "The Sound of Music".  It was really fun to hear all the songs in French and notice that the translations are far from exact. It was late so Mollie spent the night and in the morning we had pastries and took her to the train station and then our neighbor picked me up to take me to Germany to Jordan Berger's house!!!
Our neighbor grew up bilingual with French and German so he was so helpful! I was really proud of myself though that I could sit in a car with someone and talk non-stop for two hours from everything to politics to weather.
I arrived in Germany Thursday afternoon and after a tour of the house Jordan and I started prepping our Thanksgiving dinner! That night we did aerobics and watched a movie. Friday was the big cooking day and in the midst we went on a run, to school for an hour and taught a little English lesson to neighborhood girls. In the evening, we served mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, stuffing, turkey, and apple pie for seven people and we were a HIT! Despite not following any real recipes, our food turned out delicious! The turkey was juicy and the stuffing wasn't dry-- success : ) However, now we know why no one ever wants to host Thanksgiving because we were exhausted afterwards!!
Saturday we woke up and took the train with Carey and Flavia, exchangers from Nebraska and Brazil respectively, to Dusseldorf. It took about 2.5 hours on the train so we didn't have much time there, but it was a pretty city and fun to walk around in the rain! That night we were tired and we just hung out. Sunday afternoon I took a train to the Belgium-Germany border where Nicole picked me up. I was so happy to be back in Belgium with my family and speaking French again! It was an awesome weekend, but I really missed the farm : )
Tonight I am going to the Opera with the Rotary. We are going to see "La Bohême Puccini" which apparently is the most commonly performed opera in America... It's apparently a love story, ending with the woman dying- cool. Kidding- it should be fun! 
Send dry and warm thoughts my way!! : )

LONDON Baby :-)

It's not everyday that you leave your "home" in Belgium to go LONDON- I must have done something really good in my past life to deserve such a wonderful gift.

From the top- Wednesday night I spent the night again at my friend Mollie's house because she lives much closer to the train station and we had to catch our train Thursday morning at 6:30 am. In the morning, we sleepily took a 45 min train from Liege to Namur where we boarded a double-decker tour bus with about 60-70 exchange students and took the bus to Calais, France where we boarded the ferry. It was a beautiful day outside and we all wanted to stretch our legs so we roamed the boat and enjoyed the very windy but worthwhile views from the deck. After about 90 mins we were greeted by the White Cliffs of Dover in England! We got back on the bus and drove a few hours to Canterbury where we had guided tours of the Canterbury Cathedral- it was stunning. We had some free time to see the lovely city after that and then we all hopped on the bus again and drove to London! We arrived in the dark which was cool because we saw Big Ben and the Eye of London all lite up and glimmering. The Rotex (ex-exchange students between 20-22 years old who organized the trip) gave us each 10 pound for dinner so a group of 10 Americans/Australians found a little mom and pop restaurant and we ate an "English Breakfast" :) We finally took the bus to our hotel where I shared a room with a girl from New York, and my new best friends, Mollie from Manhattan Kansas and Mallory from Kansas City Missouri. Maybe it's because we're all mid-western or maybe because we all have "M" names, but we have become best friends in just two months! I love being with them- you really miss having close friends when you're so far away so they are a blessing!

The next morning we woke up at 7am and took the bus to Windsor Castle-- unfortunately I didn't get to meet the queen, but we took a long tour with individual head-sets and then took pictures with the guards which is so touristy but a must-do :) We got money again for lunch so we found a darling panini shop and then did a little shopping! The next stop was Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum which was SO creepy and fun at the same time! I felt so silly because I was really getting an adrennaline rush, as if I was actually meeting these famous people because they are incredibly life-like; it was the coolest museum I have ever been in. Next we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe of London (fun fact: it was the very first Hard Rock Cafe) and then we went to the theater to see "Blood Brothers" which was absolutely wonderful-- I laughed, I cried, it was a great evening. 

Saturday we regretted not going to sleep until 4 in the morning when our 7am wake-up call came, but we managed to grab a cup of tea and get going. From about 11-2 we took a walking tour around everywhere you would ever want to see in London- Big Ben, Thames River, Parliament, Buckingham Palace etc- and then we had lunch and could pick a museum to see, my friends and I chose the Tate Modern. After some art culture we utilized our free metro passes to explore London on our own from 4-10:30. Mollie, Mallory, our Canadian friend Christian, and I walked around, shopped, went to a pub, ate fish and chips, and had our final cup of London tea before we loaded on the bus that night and headed home. 

After the bus, ferry, and two trains, I got home at 10am Sunday morning and went straight to church with Benoit because there was a French Horn concert that happens just once a year and he wanted me to see it- he is so kind :) Right after there was a horse parade because it was the "blessing of the animals" but after an hour of watching horses I told him that I needed to go home and take a nap...

While the trip was exhausting, I enjoyed it a million times more than I thought I would! London is a picture perfect city and I was among lovely company; what more could you possibly ask for?? 

Thursday I am packing up the suitcase again and heading off to Germany to visit Jordan Berger! Life is good :)

TRADITION! Tradition!

Happy November everyone! Can't believe that it came so quickly!
I left you when I was going off to a race and the results were splendid :) I ran with a friend of mine from track and her 13 year old little sister- we all stayed together and were the top three females to finish! Unfortunately the newspaper didn't show up, but that was ok because afterwards we were drenched from running in the rain and I was really not looking my best for an interview :)
About a week ago we went to visit Benoit's god-daughter in the hospital because she just had a baby boy, Diego (Belgians are puzzled at the name as well). I thought it was really interesting to talk about the differences in hospitals- two big ones: 1. They are a lot less sterile. 2. New mothers stay there between 6-10 days after giving birth! My mom here said she stayed 8 days with both of her girls! Wow.
Last Monday was my very grown-up day. After school I took the bus to the train station and took a 1.5 hour train to Brussels where I planned on meeting up with my foreign exchange student from 2 years ago from Sweden, Moa. I was almost to Brussels when I realized that my "pre-paid" phone had no more money left on it so I had no way of contacting Moa and even better- we hadn't decided on a meeting place yet so I had no where to go in the biggest city in Belgium... alone. Deep breathes. No one would lone me a phone although I asked very politely, and there aren't pay phones on every corner like in New York... so I thought to go to the place where there would be lots of tourists, the grand plaza, and find someone with a phone who speaks English and could understand my sap story. I found a mother and grandmother who were there from Pennsylvania visiting the grand-daughter- they were so kind and although they didn't have a phone, they showed me to the police station to use one. Finally-- I got ahold of Moa, and we had a lovely evening together! I came back on the train at close to midnight but it was really worth the stressful trip :)
Part of the reason for my title of this post is that in my band class here we are starting to play Fiddler on the Roof, and I just love my band. They are all so sweet and I have made some really great friends and learned a lot!
The second reason for the title is that this weekend, with the help of my wonderful aunt Kathy who sent me a giant Halloween care package, I brought the Halloween tradition to Belgium! Saturday after swimming I hopped on the train to Liege- normally a 20 minute ride, but of course with my travel luck, we had a break down and were stalled for two hours... HOWEVER I made it! I met my friend Mollie who is from Kansas and our friend Dominique who is from Australia and we went back to Mollie's host family where we immediately started cooking a Halloween feast of chili, cornbread, and apple pie :) The family thought it was a hit! And we were pretty proud of ourselves too! That night we stayed up until 4:30am watching scary movies- I don't even like scary movies- but it was fun! Thank goodness time changed the next morning so we got an extra hour of sleep! Sunday we carved pumpkins and went to a party at Mollie's host sister's friend. We all got really decked out- facepaint and costumes- and all of us, ages 16-18, went tock-tocking! We collected a lot of candy despite how unpopular the holiday is here and that night we watched the entire Sound of Music! Monday Mollie and I went on a hike in the beautiful woods with all the leaves orange and yellow! That night for dinner I was served RABBIT! I was scared, but it was actually really good- I thought it was ironic that they served cooked carrots with it... food chain united :) Tuesday morning I left Mollie's house and finally came home to the farm!
I've really enjoyed bringing some of America to Belgium; I think it brings us closer together as people and it also makes this place really feel like home. My next stop is London on Thursday! I can't wait!