I had school that Friday. I woke up 40 minutes late in a panic (I carpool with a neighbor) but my host mom offered to drive me. When I walked into my English class with 2ème, all of the students started singing me Happy Birthday in English. They made a card for me and they all signed that and the blackboard. The teacher also gave me a present. She knitted an ear warmer headband for me the night before which was super sweet of her!
I can hear my sister saying "teacher's pet" as I'm typing this so I'll move on...
That afternoon, I met up with some exchange students in Namur and went and got fries. After, another exchange student came. I dropped off my school stuff at home and then we went out for pasta. After that, I went to a party my local Scouts club held in Champion. I invited Keaton and Cameron to come along with me. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of people from my school there. I got free drinks because it was my birthday, which is always a plus!
On Saturday there was a Scouts dinner for the Baladins (ages 3-6 I think?) and their parents. I'm in Staff Baladins, which means I am part of the group in charge of them. We had a dinner/fundraiser for the Baladins for our camping trip in February (which means snow......) amongst other things. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work! Preparing and serving food and drinks for 75+ people is a lot of work! I started at around 5pm and didn't get home until around 1am. After the dinner I got a chance to eat and then when everyone left, the staff played beer pong. Well, sort of. It was a longer table and you were allowed to bounce it. My team won (of course). Then I went home and went to sleep.
Today I went out to lunch with my host family and their two close friends who basically act as grandparents. We went out to an Italian place in my town. I ordered a pepperoni pizza, but it didn't even have pepperoni on it. There was ham and yellow bell peppers... it was still good, but it was enormous. I even got a few birthday gifts! My "grandparents" got me a card with an American flag on it saying "En route pour la liberté!" and inside was some money! They also got me some candy. I got flowers and two books (easy enough for me to read) from my host aunts and uncles. My host sisters got me a card, a Birdy CD, and slippers. My feet are cold no matter which country I'm in. My host mom got me a beautiful necklace. It's engraved and says "Nicole" on the front and "Belgique 11-09-2012 18 ans" on the back.
After that we had cake (I blew out all of the candles. I'm so talented, I know...) and coffee. Overall, I think it was a great birthday weekend. Next weekend there's a soirée de rhétos that I think I'll go to, and I might go to Brussels to celebrate my birthday again.
Also, I was in the newspaper! Here's a picture of what it looked like. It was about the elections and how I think of them as a student living abroad. I was interviewed the night before the elections. It's a good thing I know how the electoral college works (and I researched using Nate Silver's 538 prediction, turns out he was exactly right) or else this would've been a very embarrassing headline.
Well I'm off to go thank my host aunt and uncle for the books and the flowers. I'll write soon!
Nicole
Hey Nicole =)
ReplyDeleteI am a fellow CS'er and I just wanted to thank you for this amazing blog!!! I am leaving for Belgium in January, and this blog has made me so stoked for the experience.
Oh, and as an interesting coincidence, we have the same birthday, so I hope it was as good for you, as it was for me =P