110.

110, and probably my toughest day yet. watch out, because whatever i have to say tonight is not going to be very positive and inspiring like i try to normally write..i'm sorry for that. recently we have decided to speak almost always dutch in the house, which is fine i guess. i really didn't think it would stress me out this much but it might be just a combination of things. we went to a play tonight (a christmas carol..the one with scrooge. speaking of which, i feel like scrooge myself right now. bah humbug.) and since i knew the basic outline of the play i decided to actually pay attention and just ended up translating the entire thing in my head for over an hour and thinking way too hard. afterwards we sat with my third host parents and its just weird the amount of stress i felt having to not speak english. my host brother kept saying "nederlands nederlands" and i just wanted to cry because i'm trying as hard as i can, i really am..and sometimes i just can't say what i want to say and its absolutely frustrating. please believe me when i say that i'm trying as hard as i can to learn the language, i really am. it really sucks when trying your hardest isn't good enough for people. nobody here understands because they all speak dutch, french, english, german, hell..my family even says random words in italian and greek all the time. as americans its beyond normal for someone to only speak english..in fact its probably weirder if you speak more than just english. its useful, yes of course, but its not common. which culture is right? where do you draw the line and point blank tell someone "hey, unlike you i didn't learn three languages in school..this is really challenging for me and i'm trying my best"..when are you supposed to say that? and even if i say that, nobody can feel the stress that i feel because they've seen other languages all their lives. while calling my dad for some consolation he of course made a joke about asking them next time what a paradiddle or a flamacue was...something totally FOREIGN to most people! anyways, im home now and i took a really long shower thinking that would help but here i am still crying and frustrated. its really stupid actually..and probably quite selfish as well. if you really do give what you get then i must not have gave very much today..stupid eh? well thats about all i have to complain about for now. sorry about that. goodnight.

109!

hi blog readers! one hundred and nine days in belgium today. nice sleeping in saturday..followed by some early afternoon cereal and tv watching! eventually i wrapped my host brothers birthday present, washed my bed sheets, attempted to clean my room, and most importantly..made banana muffins!! the muffins are really good, the room improved a little, sheets are fresh, and i think the host brother liked his new stick bag and brushes for drumming..at least i hope he did anyways! tonight we went to a restaurant since it was his birthday..it was really fun! it started out only normal but all the sudden SINTERKLAAS and two of his black slaves show up..awesome!

i can't explain it very well but if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas it will tell you all about him. basically, he's the dutch equivalent of santa (although they have santa too?) that comes the night of the 5th of december and gives you candy and chocolate or something!! since i'm american and have never seen this guy before, i wanted to take a picture with him..which of course he was happy to do. but then someone said something about me having to sit on his lap so all the sudden here i am, in some restaurant in belgium, sitting on sinterklass' lap..life is definitely more exciting here, no?maybe life is just what you make it, i haven't quite figured out which way it works. but i think he's pretty cool..especially when he shows up randomly at restaurants and gives you crackers (not sure what thats about..) then i think he probably had a beer with his black slaves then moved on to the next place. as if that wasn't cool enough..we had lots of good food too! champagne (it was a birthday after all..), cheeseball things (i don't know how to say it correctly in english without making it sound like carnival food), a big steak that i couldn't finish..with fries of course, and ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. woah lucky us! after dinner it was still funny because my host brother kept throwing snow balls at the car. apparently for there to be like 3-4 inches of snow right now is just ridiculously uncommon..go figure right? the girl from south dakota comes and gets a really harsh winter..hah! i don't think its that bad, in fact, i kind of like it. but it is cold, thats not so nice. anyways, after we got home we made a snow man!!! it was so awesome, making a snowman in the dark! its probably the biggest snowman i've ever helped make..i can only take credit for the head, half of the middle, and the goggles on his face..the giant bottom, buttons, and nose were all from vincent. we even had to lift the middle part up on a ladder to set it on the bottom..it was so heavy!! he's also wearing a bucket as a hat but i'm not sure if you can see that. anyways, it was just really nice to make a snowman. i think i probably got really annoying because i kept laughing! so that was today, i hope your day was good as well! because we all know that it's always nice to have a good day...that being said, its time for bed (oh man i'm rhyming), so..goodnight!

108!

hi world! friday day 108 today..and i'm almost exactly 1/3 done with belgium. i feel like i've said that before, but this time i used a calculator..so its probably correct! anyways, this morning i was very thankful that my host dad dropped me off at school on his way to work, that was really nice of him! then after lots of boring classes we went to the tea house for lunch. it seems like we haven't been there in a while..but the hotchocolate was as good as ever of course! today we had a test in gym class over dancing and volleyball. we also got another report card today and i went from a 74% to a 62% thanks to a really bad score in gym class!! the teacher doesn't like me since i had language class when we were supposed to run 5 kilometers or something..thus i think i didn't do so well with the dancing and volleyball today either. whatever teacher, whatever. i've served my time in gym class at brookings high school..torturous memories ofSWIMMING class at home!! which leads me to my my next point, kind of. i had geography today and i am always scared to go there since the teacher is a little..intimidating, might be the word. today she gave me the notes of the class and i translated as much as i could with my penciljust to stay awake. but there are so many difficult words like "globalization" which i can barely explain to you in english! but at the end of class as i was helping clean up (yeah, we have to clean our own class rooms..odd. so i was the dust-pan person) the teacher asked me the basic questions like where i live and what the differences in school are..so when i told her that we have an hour of geography every day (i left out the "only for one year..maybe half a year" part) she got really excited and patted me on the back. keep in mind this is the same teacher that was mad at me and told me "you are bad" a couple weeks ago. win some you lose some i guess? life is life. after school i spent some time in the irish pub with the music people..nothing too exciting i guess. then i got the bus home..love the bus much more than the bike. i honestly refuse to get back on a bicycle till at least may, is that ridiculous? so i watched some tv with the host brother then made him go alone to the frituur so i could get ready to go to a movie. i didn't really have time to eat at home so i threw the food in my purse and walked to the bus stop to meet courtney. we got the bus and went to the movie "due date"..it was a little weird. i'm starting to understand why everyone has such a tainted view of america after watching movies in a more observational way. after that we went to the irish pub and had some hot chocolate (yeah, hot chocolate twice in one day!), stopped by another place and had a coke, then froze waiting for the bus but finally got home. it was a nice night, not too late or anything. now im pretty tired, because i always stay on facebook or some other random websites before i write my blog. i dont know why, but i do the same thing every weekend. sit on the computer for an hour and save my blog till the very end when i'm super tired. sometimes its even easier to write it then though. but then i make stupid sentences like the one before this one. well that was my day..i hope yours was good too!! goodnight and thanks for reading!! ahhh..and just a couple random photos, one from the night before i left america..and one from tonight. am i the only one that feels like theres a big difference? can you feel the difference just by looking? i sure can. all for the better, though. maybe i got a little greener? no no, just a weird webcam setting :)

107!

day 107, hello bloggers! today is thursday and it started out a little weird! first of all, i fell asleep around 9 last night with a headache and woke up a little disoriented around 4:30 am, so that was interesting. it happens sometimes, a few seconds of "where am i" sort of things, usually all starting with me going to sleep with a headache. heck, that happens at home too though sometimes. then i fell back asleep and woke up to, NOT my alarm, but...a text message sometime after 8. yep, thats right..i forgot to set my alarm! what was wrong with me last night? that has not happened since i've been here!! but it wasn't a problem since i've been skipping my 10 minutes on facebook in the morning (blame thetime change, everyone is just going to bed when i am waking up)..and i've also pretty much stopped wearing anything but mascara and eyeshadow, for this week anyways. saves so much time! so here are a couple pictures from my walk to the bus stop.

i find it extremely difficult to walk in the slush..its like a slip and slide out there! i don't even want to imagine what its like to bike on..scary. but as i was sitting waiting for my really late bus i started literally laughing out loud at how slow the cars were going..its like it was the first time they'd seen snow or something. there is MAYBE three inches at the most out here..and apparently its really rare for this time of the year. they said theres not this much snow until christmas usually? and yesterday it was record breaking cold! it hadn't been that cold (umm..25 Fahrenheit?) since sometime in the 1800s i guess. all seems pretty normal to me! anyways. i saw my 2nd host mom on the way to language school after i got off the bus..she is so nice!! although i admit i was a little scared speaking dutch to her, but it will get easier i'm sure. anyways..language class was extremely boring. but not half as boring as school. jazz teacher was gone, so that meant i should have spent two hours in the library..plus another hour in the library..yeah, i went home. i watched a lot of tv..it was WAY better than being stuck in the boring library. especially considering i have about 3 more hours there tomorrow. you would laugh at what i did on the way home..turns out rice for lunch is actually really gross. so when in doubt..buy a baguette from the baker down the street...and then proceed to eat it on your walk home. viva la belgium. goodnight!

106!

hello world. today was day 106 in belgium and right now i have a super bad headache!! thank goodness it was wednesday otherwise i think i would have left school and came home..stupid head! ahh wow, i cannot believe its already december! actually i can believe it, snow on the ground and whatnot..but pretty soon it will be christmas then time will just fly by! so anyways, language class was unbelievably boring today..go figure. i took the bus again today and i'm starting to regret it, but theres no way i would ever start biking again probably! i think its just a wednesday thing, extremely crowded bus with not so friendly loud students, because everyone gets out at noon on wednesday remember. its really annoying! so anyways. i got home a lot later than i would have if i were to be biking, and i guess i'm just not sure what the best mode of transportation is around here. all i know for sure is that i miss my car!!! i had some leftover turkey on my bread for lunch...speaking of that, it really bothers me how theres not a word for what we call a sandwich in america. ask someone what they eat for lunch and its "bread" but its really not bread..its bread with like..cheese or ham or something, but they still call it bread! a sandwich is something completely different (hot dog buns!)..it really confuses me. so i pretty much just watched tv all day..really eventful i know. tonight we had some worst..sausage in english..that makes me wonder why we call a bratwurst a bratwurst in america..must be german? so after that i chopped up a red bell pepper and made some rice to take to lunch tomorrow..i absolutely cannot eat anymore bread..yuck!!! but now i must take a shower and get to bed if i ever want my head to stop throbbing..lets hope i feel better! goodnight!