Sorry for the delay in posts-- the New Year has certainly started with a bang and I have been busier than ever, if that is even possible!
To start off, I had said that my host sister living in Texas, Justine, had been in the hospital, well she has fully recovered and they think that it was some sort of disease that she had never been exposed to until she came to the states. She is doing much better and has recently gone off all of her prescribed medications, so she feels a lot stronger.
New Years Eve was a blast! I went to a "Black and Gold" themed party with my friend Mallory and all of her friends from school. It was a party of close to 300 people, and we danced the night away until about 4:30 am! Then we had a giant sleepover at her house, going to bed around 6am and only getting 4 hours of sleep! New Years Day I took the train home in the early afternoon and went directly to my host Grandma's house. We had a big family lunch of the traditional New Year meal here... sauerkraut, sausages, and mashed potatoes. I explained that our typical meal is a surf and turf dinner and Nicole told me that she thinks the meal is sauerkraut and sausages because it is good for a hangover! The Belgians think of everything!
The first week of the year I had some pretty fun activities. I am convinced that you have to get out and do something fun more and more often when it's so cold and dark all the time. One day I went to the movies with Pauline and our friend Odile- we even had dinner in the restaurant in the theater afterwards! We saw the newest movie in the "Meet the Faukers" series and it was surprisingly very easy to follow. Another day I went bowling with the family plus Benoit's godson, Etienne. I was shocked because the whole bowling system was Brunswick!!! I couldn't get over it! Turns out that while Benoit is an excellent farmer, his bowling skills are definitely lacking :) Thursday I went into Liege with three of my friends from school. We were good and studious and went to the library first to check out books for our research projects and then of course we went shopping! It was really funny because I knew my way around the city a million times better than they did-- it was clear they were country girls coming in, so they were so happy to have me to figure out bus times and suck, and I was thrilled to have a day out and about with them :)
Friday morning I woke up early to catch a train to Liege at 7am where I met up with Mollie from Kansas, and Matilda and Dominique from Australia and we hopped on a train to PARIS for the weekend!!! :) I have to say how spoiled I felt to be able to say that I went to Paris... just for the weekend! It's so fun living in Europe for that reason! After missing our first train and being set back an hour, we arrived safely at about 1pm in Paris! We took the metro to our hotel which was situated in the district of Passy and was about a 6 minute walk from the most spectacular view of the Eiffel Tour. We checked into our little bed and breakfast, freshened up, and went on a long walk around the Eiffel Tour and Napoleon's Tomb-- with our luck, the sun started coming up which was lovely! At the end of the walk we were tired and hungry so we found a super market and bought some baguettes and cheese and fruit and went back to the hotel for a picnic dinner!
The next morning we woke up early and went on a sunrise walk. It was incredible to see the sun rising behind the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River! You couldn't have imagined a more spectacular image! We went back to the hotel for our provided croissant breakfast and then we set off on our day. We first took the metro to the outskirts of Paris where we went to antique shops and souvenir markets. We hopped back on the metro to the other side of Paris where we stopped for a crepe before touring the Catacombs! It was a very creepy experience, but a very neat experience at the same time. We decided to walk all the way up to Notre Dame after that, and although we weren't there in time to climb the bell tour, we were there in time to see a service in which all the French priests were becoming ordained! Once in a lifetime opportunity! We continued our walk, following the Seine river, past the Louvre and along the Champs de Elysees until we got to L'Arc de Triomphe where we turned back to our hotel around 7:30pm. We were exhausted and our feet were hurting, so instead of going out to dinner as planned, we decided to buy cheese and bread again and stay in for foot massages and French game shows! We also calculated how far we had walked in all that day... 22km aka a half marathon! We deserved all the bread and cheese we could get :)
Sunday, we woke up, packed up, checked out, and headed off to the train station to leave our luggage in lockers for the day. We then took the metro to Moulin Rouge to take pictures before we marched up a million steps and giant hills to see the Sacre Coeur Basillica or the Sacred Heart Church. We could see over all of Paris at the very top, and we were blessed with a crystal clear sky, bright sun, and get this... WARMTH! I even took of my jacket! We toured the beautiful church and sat on the steps listening to live street music while looking over the city. I felt like I was in heaven! After we climbed back down the stairs and walked back to the train station, it was time to say au revoir to Paris and head back to Belgium... I just felt so lucky to have been able to go with my friends and spend a very memorable weekend with them :)
I got home to the farm at about 9:30pm and shared stories and presents with the family before scurrying off to bed to get some rest before the first day of school.
Today, Monday, school is back in session. I can hardly believe that it is second semester already and my stay here is halfway over!! It is good to be back in school, if only to have a steady routine again... I also asked if I would be able to do a fun internship in May after our research project is finished and they thought it would be a great idea! Many kids do internships because it is a technical school, but I just wanted to do one for fun so I think the month of May I will be an apprentice to a baker or a chocolatier! Yeah-- that will be fun :)
I hope you all had a very joyous and safe New Year! :)
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