24!

hello! day 24! being friday, i had real school all day..no dutch classes. so that means a) waking up an hour earlier and b) double the amount of classes i wont understand. oh and fridays also mean c) GYM CLASS. so after biking my way to school along with millions of other belgian folk, i met my class and we went to science. the science teacher kind of feels like he's wasting my time because all i do in his class is read. science is the only class i have three times a week, besides music..we have quite a bit of that. every time he starts lecturing in science class i try to pay attention for about five minutes then inevitably start doing something else. most teachers don't care that i just sit there, or read a book, or do dutch homework. but i think some are starting to feel bad for me and feel like they're wasting my time. the dutch teacher decided to teach me two dutch words a day, which is a nice gesture..but words don't seem to be the problem. i can pick out some words when people are talking but the hardest part will be to make sentences with these random words i keep learning from people. its like a fun game these belgians play with me.."lets teach the american the dutch name for this random object" or something. anyways then we went to german class and the teacher made me go to the library. she says if i'm learning basic dutch in language school that learning basic german is just going to confuse me more. so that makes it simple..no more german. then i think we had math in the morning but i just tried to read my little kid dutch books. today i read spongebob and it is weird seeing the characters names be different. such as krabbypatties = krabburgers, and squidward = octo...but that really didn't make sense unless you know a bit of spongebob trivia. anyways. at lunch today all the foreign exchange students met with these two ladies who are "there to help us if we need anything". there are 8 of us total and only 3 from rotary. there is actually a girl from california but she is 15 so that doesn't help much. i think she was impressed that i was eating an american granola bar though..so thanks mom! i should mention that since receiving my package of american goodies i have only had a few goldfish, a granola bar, and a cup of apple sauce..but in fact i DID notice a difference. i took the first bite of my favorite south dakota snack, and it was amazing. then i took a second bite and realized that it tasted really, really sweet. it was weird because i LOVE the oats&honey granola bars, and i still do, but the sweetness came as a surprise to me for some reason. even when i had some apple sauce tonight i found it sweeter than i was expecting which is kind of weird. but back to school! after i told these two ladies that i didn't like some of my classes, we decided that i should be taking spanish with courtney from south africa instead of science. so we'll see how that goes. maybe i will actually understand it but i doubt it. then it was time for the dreaded gym class..dundundunnn. we have two hours of gym every friday. today we had running and tennis..it started out running 5 mins, then walking 4 mins, then running 4 mins, walking 3 mins, etc etc. overall i think we ran about 4 KM, which is like 2.5 miles..more than i've ran in the past five years probably!! but with all the biking lately (about...3 miles to school and 3 back maybe?) it wasn't as bad as i imagined..but i still hated it, mind you. after gym class was geography, where we have a larger sized teacher that apparently nobody likes. she seems fine to me but they say thats only because i cant understand her. then school was over and i went with my friend courtney to find a JACKET since this place is freezing! its not actually freezing..probably a lot like home right now, but early morning biking and walking outside in the afternoon can get a bit chilly! sooo..courtney and i first stopped at the amazing little cafe where i previously had the hot chocolate with the cookie (pictured in an earlier blog post..)..so needless to say courtney had a hot chocolate and i had a cappuccino with whipped cream that was really, really good. it even came with a little almond cookie. oh belgium, you're so chic. then we shopped around and i finally found a jacket that i think will work. now i know this is a horrid picture (its not as big as it looks, the buttons on one side go behind the other, ya know?) but i want you to get an idea of what you can buy around here for about 100 US dollars. this jacket would probably be about 50-70 dollars at home, don't you agree? i'm tellin ya..clothing wise: prices are doubled. but when you need a jacket, you need a jacket.

oh almost forgot to mention dinner tonight! after finding my coat and whatnot after school, i came home and took a shower because i was so icky from gym! then i went with my host family to an italian restaurant near the town market for dinner. i had a hawaiian pizza! it kind of reminded me of pizza king only...more gourmet? probably because i had champagne before the pizza..beat that brookings. ;) then we came home and here i am. so tomorrow i am going to a "rotary sleepover" at our district lady's house. it will probably be fun but we have to catch 3 different trains to get there and i wont be able to blog tomorrow night :( but sunday night i will catch you up on everything you missed, don't worry! goodnight and thanks for reading!!