Since we have last talked, this song has become my wake-up song-- I listen to "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson every morning on my 45 minute bus ride to school and this is by far my favorite quote. I think that it speaks to me so profoundly because I have really learned to go with the flow this year and just take in life as it comes. For those who know me well, I am a self-diagnosed perfectionist and someone who likes everything just so, but in these last almost 7 months, I have learned that in life, perfection matters little. I have more fun when baking cookies with friends and getting half way through before realizing that we have no baking soda nor enough sugar nor vanilla extract and going through with baking them anyway, than if I had had all the ingredients and not burnt anything. I have just as much fun spending an unexpected rainy day in a café drinking tea and eating a pastry as I do when it is sunny enough to walk around town. There is a time and a moment for all of these "imperfections". I wonder why it took coming to Beligium to teach me how to go with the flow and not stop... I am not certain, but what I can say is that I have taken the year as a reflexion year of how I am and how I would like to be and along the way I have found things here that have helped my profoundly... I want to be as passionate and fun-loving as Benoit is about farming and his cows. I want to be as genuine and caring as Nicole is towards her family. I want to laugh about difficult situations like I laugh when I miss a train or a bus with Mollie and Mallory. I just want to always see the world as I do today: beautiful including it's imperfections. I have never felt this happy in life; as cliché as it may be, I feel re-born with a whol new appreciation for everything and everyone that I have.
Now that I have explained my personal developpment, I will tell you about life over the pond since last I updated.
Since last time, I have added two new destinations to my list of adventures! The 26th of February I spent the day in Luxembourg which is about a 2 hour drive from Liege Belgium. We went to a famous brewery there, which the Belgians all just scoff at because that is not real good "Belgian beer" and smelled gross :) After that we went to a meat smoking and packaging factory which was actually quite disgusting and once again funny smelling (I was glad that we had lunch before). At that point we loaded the bus and went to the center area of Luxembourg which might have been gorgeous but we were hit with a gian rain storm and thus, all I really know is that the café in Luxembourg is nice and warm and serves great tea! Mollie and I came back to Mallory's to spend the night-- we made the most interesting chocolate cookies ever because of an extreme lack of ingrediants, but we had fun like we always do! The next morning Mal and I went on a run together; it's always nice to have a running buddy!
The following Wednesday I was looking for something in my wallet in the morning and I realized that I had neither my Belgian ID card nor my Visa card... I sent an urgent message to my dear mother and with the power of fast communication and incredible FedEx, both were returned safely to me by that same FRIDAY! Hard to imagine! But I was so very thankful :)
That same afternoon I went to a work out for the "Rheto Trophée" which is a big adventure race for all the Seniors in Belgium. Every school selected makes a team of two girls and four boys and competes in a big race filled with orientation, kayaking, rock climbing, archery and more! We had an orientation workout which was hard and gave me many splinters, but it was fun to be running on a team!
Friday was great because all of Belgium had a giant grève or strike, so no buses=no school! YAY! The vacation has started! That evening I made a quiche (my speciality) and Saturday after swimming I made an eggplant parmesan (another speciality)-- you guys should be looking forward to when I come home and get back in the kitchen!
Saturday night was the kick off to CARNAVAL! Which is the reason we have break, and basically Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, but here, we have Samedi Gras, Dimanche Gras and Lundi Gras as well (Fat Saturday, Sunday and Monday). There are tons of "cortèges" which are huge parades in cities all over Belgium! The carnavals are originally German so there are lots of German songs heard at parties and throughout the parades, but all the dances have movements to the words so that you kind of know the story that is being told :)
Saturday I went to a "soirée déguisée" which means that you have to have a costume to get in! I went as a hippie which was easy enough- and we danced the night away! I had so much fun with all my Belgian friends, learning all the German songs and dances! I didn't come home until almost 3 am, but that didn't mean I had time to rest! The next early afternoon, Mallory and her host parents picked me up from the house and took us to the parade in Malmedy which was my favorite of all! They do things there that would never happen in the states! There are the normal bands, floats, and clowns, but there is so much more too! There is an abundance of confetti thrown, there are oranges that they throw at the crowds (yes, dangerous), there are people dressed as bakers that come into the crowd and hit your hiney with a paddle, there are people with long clown arms that steal people's hats and put them on other's head's and mess up your hair, and there is this big pincher, wooden claw that catches people's ankle's and you have to kneel and say you have never and will never drink! It is hilarious! At one point, and man came and told me to help him carry a ladder, so I did, and he took me onto their float which was Marry Poppins themed, they pushed me into the "chimney" and poured a bucket of confetti on me! As if that wasn't enough, they decorated me with fake soot before letting me go to find my way back to Mallory and her parents on the side of the street! It was a hoot!
Monday, I went to a parade just on the border of Germany, with some friends from school. It was my friend Céline's birthday. We spent the whole day there, enjoying the parade which was a more typical American one, and then we went back to her house where we had dinner of a raclette and cake :) We did some karoke too! I was horrible because it was all old French songs which naturally I have never heard!
The next day, Mardi Gras, after a typical bus complication of it randomly being cancelled, I met up with Mallory and Mollie and some other friends to go to Binche which is a city about 2 hours away by train, but has a very famous Carnaval Parade. We dressed up with fun hats, tights, boas and whatnot, and we joined the massive crowd along the street! This world is small because amongst the thousands of people there, we ended up standing next to a family from Oklahoma, stationed for the moment in Belgium! The parade was very funny and not what we expected! There would be a group of 30 marching band, dressed in street clothes, nothing being taken too seriously, as they would just stop playing when they needed a cigarette or a beer, and then a group of 30 orange throwers which were dressed in funny white feather hats, and were chucking these oranges with no mercy at the crowd, then a group of 30 with backpacks who were the orange carriers... that sequence repeated many, many times! It was incredible how many people come out to get pelted with citrus! Oh well, the girls and I had a blast, and we ended up getting home around 11 that night, sleeping once again at Mallory's house.
The next morning we all got ready and went to the train station where we met up with Rotary and went to Bastogne. This is the WWII site and a very cool little city. We first stopped at a handicap employed farm animal shelter and got to see lots of sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas- it was so cute! Then we went to the WWII museum which told a lot about civilian life during the war and was extremely well done; I liked it a lot. Finally we went to a big star monument that had every state of America inscribed- thanking us for the work we did for Belgium. Then I came home and packed up for my trip with the Rotary to AMSTERDAM.......
to be continued...
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