Saturday, May 11, 2013

I'm a pretty terrible person...

It's been almost a month since I've written in here, and I'm really really sorry!!! Writing in a blog is kind of like writing an essay - you always procrastinate, but as soon as you're done, you're glad you did it.

I'll stop stalling and just tell you guys about what's been going on! A few days after I published this blog, Madeleine came to Namur and we hung out. There was some super weird festival going on in Namur, and parades were everywhere. We ate "Mexican" food at ChiChi's, and then we climbed the citadel and it was wonderful!








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This is part of a really weird tradition in Namur where men get on stilts and try to knock each other over



The next weekend, a few of us got together in Namur. We were supposed to have a picnic at the citadel, but we ended up going to cafés and Pain Quotidien (a restaurant in Namur) because the weather wasn't very great. 

After, I got some great news from our principal that we're going to have our 100 jours de rhéto! In this case, it's going to be 10 jours, but we will be keeping to tradition nonetheless. 100 jours is a really popular tradition for 6ème classes here in Belgium. All of the rhétos dress up in costume and terrorize the younger students by putting gel in their hair, throwing eggs, etc. I'm really glad we'll be able to do it, but I haven't figured out a costume yet. If you have any ideas, let me know!


On the first of May, I had an AFS activity to go to. It was the fête du travail (Labor Day) so everyone had the day off. It was a BBQ/game day, and while the games were okay, it was nicer just hanging out with the other exchange students, like always.

On May 4th, I went to Marche-en-Famenne. My friend Keaton had a bal des rhétos, and a really famous DJ/singer was performing there. I got to meet Ashley, who goes to Keaton's school, which was great because we've been trying to meet each other since we got here! Caleb, Will, and Evan also went, as well as this girl named Emily from Rotary. We had a great time, and Ashley's family was so accommodating! We got back around 4am, and I took the train home at around 10, so I was really tired!



That next Wednesday, I went to Liège to the carré to meet up with Madeleine. I had the worst travel day of my life, and I ended up being three hours late, but you live and learn. I'm not really a fan of the carré, but seeing people was nice. Then, Madeleine and I went back to Louvain-la-Neuve to get ready for a party. It took us three hours to get home (see what I mean by the worst travel day ever??) when it usually takes 1 1/2 hours! We ate dinner at her house and then went to her friend's birthday party, which was a costume party as well. Madeleine was Dora the Explorer (sort of) and I was Cleopatra (sort of). Our costumes weren't done very well, but that's okay because no one else really dressed up very well either. We were so exhausted, by the end of the soirée we walked home and went right to sleep! 




Liège Guillemins is one of the most beautiful stations in Belgium 
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We got up at around 10 and I made my way over to Brussels at 11:30. I met up with Keaton in Ottignies, and we got to BXL Central at 12:30, just in time for lunch. I was sort of an idiot, because I organized a trip to go to BXL to get some shopping for my 100 jours done, but I forgot that the only reason why I was able to go on a Thursday was because it was a holiday (duh)! We met up with Caleb and then went to the Grand Place, my favorite place in all of Brussels. Every time I walk into it, I can't help but thinking of how I would look on the internet from back in California, one, two, three years ago. It really lives up to my expectations. We were really hungry, so we decided to just have a tourist day and at the Hard Rock Café. Then, we decided to go to the Atomium, because I had never seen it before. It was really pretty, and because it was such a nice day out, it made it even better. There was a soccer game that was going on in the nearby stadium, so there were tons of people out! 















After, Keaton said he wanted to watch Jurassic Park in 3D, so we went to the nearby movie theater! Movie theaters are way different here than in the US. There's assigned seating, and the concession stand is more like a buffet because you choose what you want and grab it yourself (except you have to pay for everything you get, it's not one set price). The chairs are way more comfortable, but there was a ten minute intermission in the most random part in the movie, which I didn't like. I was really glad that we just had a nice tourist day together, it was really nice to just step out of the exchange student life and live as a tourist for a day, doing whatever you want.





We wanted to go get beers after, but the movie ran a little long, so we didn't have enough time. I ended up getting home at around 10, and I was exhausted! I had to wake up really early the next day, so I took a shower and then went to bed! The next day I went on a field trip with my grade, but I'll talk about that in another post because this one is really long!


À bientôt!

Nicole

1 comment:

  1. I really liked this post for some reason. Thanks for being the only american exchange student who actually keeps an updated blog, haha.

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