113!

hey world. you'd think since the unlucky number 13 is in "day 113" that it was a bad day, but no, in fact it was very nice! in fact, im still in awe about how quickly i can become homesick and unhomesick..its incredible actually. so language class keeps getting more and more unbelievably boring..you can't even imagine! its a pity really, because i loved my other teacher and was so encouraged but now i find myself in a sort of holiday-ish language slump of sorts. i tell myself that after christmas vacation i will kick myself in gear and finish level 2 successfully but right now thats just not happening. i don't think i'm doing poorly, in fact on my first level two test (remember..each dutch level=3 small tests and 1 exam) i got a 20/20! after the boring dutch class manuella (from brazil..you should be familiar with common names in the blog b ynow!!) and i walked to a place near the station and ate lunch. after eating our sandwiches and courtney (from south africa!) coming eventually as well we went with our district youth exchange chair-lady to St. Truiden which is like a 2 hour car ride! thankfully i took adramamine and slept a lot of the way there..it was nice. oh! and our extremely nice district lady gave me a late birthday present that was really really nice..burberry sport perfume and lotion, just had to share a picture with you so you can see her generosity through the computer, haha.

she also bought us three turnhout inbounds fries and chicken fingers at the frituur on the way home tonight too! heres just a reminder picture of what the frituur looks like, in case you forgot!

but she picked us up and we drove a wile then finally went bowling! bowling was fun, got to see all the other district 1630 dutch speaking exchange students! bowling and real english speaking is always nice. turns out i'm not too bad at bowling (compared to everyone else, and everyone else was really bad too)..i think i got second place both games. hooray! heres a picture from bowling..canada, usa, usa, south africa. they're great people, seriously!

but if you think that's impressive, you should have seen my first SKIING LESSON tonight!! i got home around 7:30 from bowling, talked to my host mom a bit then got ready to go attempt to not fall during my first skiing lesson. i was extremely scared but it all turned out alright. if you know me at all you know that i have a problem with not being perfect at everything..so thus skiing was a big threat (as are most new things, sometimes). i'm not really a sport-loving person at all..i mean i'm not lazy but i can honestly say i am involved in zero sports! is skiing even a sport? whatever. it was all fine. i can't say it was FUN but it was nice to meet a challenge that i could face. so i got on some gear and skied on the wet carpet thing..learned the basic pie shape, and a little swerve turning movement things. the instructor was really nice, kept saying i'm a natural but i think thats just because i was with another guy and he was really struggling..i mean really, really struggling..kept holding the bar and at one point he rammed into the back of me.. i felt bad but whatever. so now i go back six more times before we leave on the 1st of january. i'm really happy it wasn't super hard and i didn't fall..but i'm sure i'll regret that comment later when its really hard. i actually think my few years of figure skating as an elementary student helped me out today, so big shout to my mom for putting me through that ice skating stupid costume wearing crap as a little kid ;) but now its time for bed..only three hours of language class then its the weekend for me! thank goodness for the school having exams! goodnight and thanks for reading!! :)