12/13 :)

yesterday-day 12:

nothing special, slept in, then tried to bake with my host brother. although i followed the EXACT same recipe i do at home, it turned out slightly-above hideous. SAD! you know how depressing it is to be really good at something at home, than come here and be terrible? so first we tried chocolate chip cookies

...then we tried apple crisp.

the apple crisp tasted fine, although it became more of an apple..slop, or something. needless to say, they were both edible, but not like home :(. later that night i proceeded to get sad due to my baking difficulties, language difficulties, school fear, and everything in between. hard day. differences aren't as fun the second week.

today-day 13.

another lazy day. slept in (10:30), had some cereal (yes cereal!!), then just kind of hung around the house. we decided that i could make dinner tonight, so we agreed on fried rice! i went to the grocery store with my host mother and we bought things for it. at home we make it with jimmy dean italian sausage, here it was like..spicy lamb sausage or something, so that was different! and at home we use chinese soy sauce, not japanese or indonesian. it tasted kind of different and i couldn't really stomach the funky meat..but

i think my family somewhat enjoyed it and thats all that counts. tomorrow is the last day before school starts, which i guess is good and bad. you can tell its starting to feel like fall here...rain, wind, 60 degrees. Fahrenheit. goodnight.

11!

day eleven! nothing special today though, sorry! woke up, got ready, and went to a rotary meeting with all the other inbound students of our district where they explained the rules for three hours! ha ha it wasn't that exciting actually but oh well! then we had lunch there ("sandwiches" which really means bread, butter, and cheese..or something plain like that)..then came home! it was kind of a tough day today, having some spare time here is hard because i don't have any friends yet so there isn't much to do, so that makes me think too hard and start to feel isolated i guess. there comes a point when everything stops becoming cool, new, and different..and starts to become frustrating, intimidating, and confusing. but things will be fine once school starts..then i will be busy learning and meeting friends and whatnot! so my host brother and i made spaghetti tonight..it was interesting. the cooking process of everything here is so different! the ingredients are too! we tried to make brownies with an american recipe and it was terrible! the flour is all meant for bread, the sugar is superfine instead of just granulated, and the butter is no land-o-lakes here!!! so later we went to the store and i got some baking stuff that looked like it might work out, but we will see..i will experiment with chocolate chip cookies tomorrow i think. (actually chocolate chips don't exist..so cutting up a bar i guess! or maybe banana bread..thats pretty hard to mess up!) thats all for now! since theres no picture for today..heres a quote! yippee!

You cannot fully understand your own life without knowing and thinking beyond your life, your own neighborhood, and even your own nation. ~Johnnetta Cole

10!

hit double digits today..day ten! nothing too exciting though. woke up, had a croissant, which was shortly followed by lunch because i woke up late, he he. then i biked to the bike shop with my host dad so they can fix the bikes for school..apparently there are laws in belgium about the condition of your bike or something..like you need proper lights and whatnot. then my host mom picked us up (by car!) and we actually hit some traffic, so lucky me i felt really carsick, oh well. then we picked up my new Belgian debit card! it has a mirco-chip in it..ooolala! then i tried to take a nap, watched some tv on the computer for a while then it was time for dinner! friday is junk food day at this house so we went to a place that just sells fried stuff..it was crazy! i had chicken fingers and we each got a giant thing of french fries..probably almost 4 cups of french fries each, i'd guess! then we watched The Patriot on the tv for a while and i ate this yummy eclaire looking thing hostmommy got at the bakery ;) thats all for today, thanks for reading!

9: Brussels!

hello! today started out VERY early..5:30 am, so 10:30pm at home!! woke up, showered, and got ready to head to Brussels for a Rotary Youth Exchange "welcome day". the chair-woman of our district picked me up at 6:30 and we drove over an hour to Genk where we met other exchange students and caught a TRAIN(!!) to Brussels. the train was so cool, felt like harry potter or something. you can pretty much get anywhere in this country by train and/or bus, its neat. once we arrived we met the other 250+/- exchange students from all over..all of which will be in belgium for the year! actually, a lot of them have been here since july due to the backwards school year/seasons in the southern hemisphere. first we toured the royal palace, which was very pretty and was basically a european version of the white house..but it wasn't so great because there was no tour guide, and nobody explained anything to us..just kind of plowed us around like cattle, just kidding. then we went to some random old building where each student gave their rotary chairman a banner from their home club, it took a long time! then we split up into countries and went to eat lunch. there are so many students from the US here in Belgium on exchange, its incredible. almost 100, maybe. the other majorities would be from most of the south american countries: brazil, argentina, mexico, etc. weird fact though, there are only 14 Rotary exchange students in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, what the heck!!!

almost everyone we met was on the french side, it is crazy! makes us more of a tight-knit group of students though, which is fine. anyways, after lunch we toured the Parliament and the Senate building..it was very beautiful and historic but the tour guide spoke great french, haha! his heavy accent made it nearly impossible to understand his attempts at english.

then it was finally time to catch the train and come back, so here i am, writing to you! i think my favorite part of today was at the train station..seeing BEER, in a ...VENDING MACHINE! this country is crazy. i enjoy it! (the country, not the beer) goodnight!

one week!

i have officially been in belgium a week! hooray!! today started pretty late, i had a bowl of cereal (which they think is weird) and shortly after that, we ate lunch. bread with an assortment of toppings, of course. then my host mom and i went (what i call) "downtown" and walked around and shopped for a while! i only bought a pair of like..pajama/sweat pants, haha. clothes here are SO expensive! a sweater that would normally cost around 40 dollars in america is at least 60 euro here..its crazy! prices are basically double what they are at home, and not (always) double the quality as well. belgian fashion is different though. its not that something is "in" or "out" of style, because everybody just wears what they want. old clothes or new clothes, you just dress how you feel..and it sometimes turns out a bit odd, but whatever. today i also got to tour/see my host dads law firm..it is in an old building (really really old, and beautiful) towards the center of town. he has to wear this cloak type thing (similar to a graduation gown) when he is in formal court, and i thought that was pretty interesting. then my host mom bought me a hot chocolate while we sat outside a cafe in the town square. great hot chocolate, REAL hot chocolate, no swiss miss here! it even came with a little cookie, apparently all hot drinks here do. then we came home (all by bike, remember) and after organizing my stuff for tomorrow, we had dinner and now i am typing this. tomorrow we have a rotary welcome day for the exchange students in brussels. so i have to leave the house at 630 am (1130 pm american time) and ride a train there or something. more info about that tomorrow night! i will upload the bread machine pictures on my last post, so scroll down and look at them! night!