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!