Turn of Events

I had fully intended on writing yesterday. I had some of it written out already....

"This past week was pretty boring, but the end of the week was full of events.

On Friday, I had gym and we had to run for 30 minutes straight. Of course, my gym teacher wanted us to run outside, and it was 50 degrees and raining. Maybe Belgians are used to the weather, but I thought it was crazy for us to be running outside!!! Saturday was my host sister Louise's 20th birthday, so we all went out to dinner and had tapas and pasta.

Sunday, we had a big family party for Louise. It was a lot of fun, and I really felt like part of the family. It was a great way to exercise my French, and I totally felt accepted by everyone. I even invited my host aunt and her family over for Thanksgiving dinner... I think they're making the turkey which is great, because turkeys are very hard to make...."


So I had that written out, and I was going to write more and then post it. Then I started feeling weird. I woke up with a bit of back pain on my left side, so I figured I just slept a little weirdly. My school had Conseils de Classe, so I didn't have to go to school. After an hour or so, the pain got worse. It was excruciating, and I finally decided to call my host mom. I waited earlier because I didn't want to get my dictionary out and I didn't know what the word for "pain" was (it's douleur). She called a doctor, and the doctor gave me a shot, but it didn't do anything really. I was writhing in pain, and then I threw up because it hurt so much. Then we decided to go to the emergency room....

I was hooked up to an IV and given fluids and pain medication. I waited for a few hours and had an ultrasound. The doctor said one of my kidneys was definitely "under pressure" from something. Of course, I started asking him all kinds of questions until I realized that he actually hadn't found anything yet.... So I waited. He finally found a 3mm stone already out of my kidney on its way to my bladder. Which really sucks........

I got more pain medication and ended up staying the night. I slept pretty well, was really comfortable, and the hospital did a great job making sure I wasn't in any pain. I'm at home now, drinking 2L of water and waiting for it to pass. One moment I'm writing about how boring the past week was, and the next I'm in the ER! It was my first time ever having to be admitted into a hospital, and I had to stay overnight! Oh well, c'est la chance!

My host mom took a picture of me in the full getup: the patient robe, laying in bed, the fluids next to me, but I don't have her camera so I'll upload it when I can!

AFS Adventures in Antwerp

So much has happened since I've last written, and that's partly the reason why it's taken a week to get some free time to write.

Last Friday, I went to the FIFF with Skyler. She had an extra pass and it was the last day, so after walking all over Namur in the rain, we found a movie we could watch. It was really confusing. It's called Dans la Maison, and from what I understood, it was about a student who wrote about his friend with a perfect family. It started off as a writing prompt assigned by the teacher, and the student wrote it exceptionally well. As the student continued the story, the teacher reads about his attempts to seduce his friend's mother (he succeeds) and the teacher gets more enthralled with the story. It has a lot of different sequences that are imaginary, so it was probably confusing even for a born francophone. It was a good movie though.

Saturday the committee of Namur had their welcome party. I made cookies.... out of a box. I went to the store but I couldn't find any unsalted butter - I looked for about fifteen minutes, it was very awkward - added some nutella to make them taste sweeter. (Speaking of grocery stores, I've noticed some really weird flavors of chips here. For example: Paprika, bolognese, pickles, ketchup, etc.) I didn't try the cookies, but everyone said they were good and they were all gone. Someone from Mexico made guacamole and it was amazing. There were also spring rolls made by a girl from Thailand that were great too.

Skyler spent that night at my house, which was convenient because we were invited on a whim to go to Antwerp the next day. We left for the train station at 8:30 but ended up leaving at 9:20 because Cameron couldn't get to the bus stop on time. Long story short, he had to go through a forest, cross a creek, a manure filled cow field, two barbed wire fences, and a busy highway all while it was foggy. But he ended up missing his bus anyway, so we waited for him to show up. We met up with Caleb in Brussels when we switched trains (and got Starbucks.... what can I say, we're American) and then we were on our way!

Antwerp is really beautiful. Even the train station is gorgeous.

After we arrived, we met up with some of the Latin American exchange students and went to a few museums. First was a chocolate museum.

Then we went to Rubenshuis ("Ruben's house" in Dutch), which is the museum of famous painter Peter Paul Rubens. 

After, we went to Grote Markt for some sightseeing.

After, we went to the river and then went for some drinks. 

It was a long day of walking, so Caleb, Cameron, and I left a little earlier than others. After a nap on the way to Brussels, Cameron and I were finally on our way home. 

It was a great weekend. I was really tired on Monday but it was so worth it! I'm starting to understand more in school and during conversations, which is great. Now when I pause during a conversation, it's mostly not because I don't understand, but because I don't know how to respond. I'm also forgetting some English words (I forgot how to say assertive) and sometimes I'll read something or type something using different pronunciation. For example, the other day I was typing and while trying to write "look", I wrote "luck" instead. I don't know where that came from...... 

Anyway, that's a "quick" recap of my week. Today marks one month until I turn eighteen. I can't wait. 

This Week: Beer, Children, and Acrobats!

Time for an update!

Tuesday I had my first English class with 2eme and it was very... interesting. The kids were probably 12 or 13 and had a lot of questions for me to answer, like "Do you play any sports?" "Do you have a favorite pop star?" "Do you like hamburgers and hot dogs?" and they were very disappointed with my answers because I said no to all of them. They also asked if I had a boyfriend and a Facebook. They seemed very enthusiastic though, and I'm hoping I can help them throughout the year.

On Wednesday after French lessons I met up with Prince Cameron (from New Zealand) in Namur for a beer and a couple of waffles (2 1/2 for me! Let's hope I don't gain any weight from that...) and some conversation. We ran into Emma from NY who was a late arrival.

On Thursday I caught up on some much needed sleep. Friday I went to a surprise party for my host sisters' friend, Simon. It was great, Belgians know how to party! There were 25 cases of Jupiler, with 24 bottles in each... that's 600 bottles of beer! There was also a DJ. I've noticed that Belgians all like happy music, and they'll dance to it no matter how old they are. They love to dance and have a good time. 

On Saturday I went to the theatre and watched an acrobatic show, Le Cirque Eloize. It was amazing!!!! I was very impressed with all of the different stunts, but I was also stressing out because I was afraid one of the performers was going to get hurt because they were just throwing people around. Thankfully, that didn't happen and I was able to relax after a while. The theatre is gorgeous, and I'm looking forward to the next shows I get to go to with my host family.

On Sunday, my host mom and host sister Louise went to Champion for scouts. I was with a few other "counselors"/leaders who were around my age and we watched over 4-6 year olds and entertained them with a few activities. They're so sweet, but they have so much energy! It was also freezing (not really, but cold enough) and the grass was wet so I was a little miffed. I'm definitely planning ahead next time. I can't wait until my warm clothes get here!!!!!! 

Today I went to FIFF - Festival International du Film Francophone - in Namur with my school. A lot of other schools went too, and even other classes of my school. It was great, because I got to sleep in for 30 minutes more than usual! I was with my Sociology class, so we watched two short films on immigrants. The first one had English subtitles (which is great, because I wouldn't have understood it otherwise) and the second didn't, but I still understood it. One ended in a suicide and another in children being taken away by police, so they were a tad depressing. 

After, I grabbed a waffle with Kaari (the Finnish student who goes to my school) and then went for some fries with some friends from school. I have no idea what the place was called, but I've been there before and my host sister said they make the best fries in Namur. I also (probably) failed a geography quiz on the countries of Europe. In English it's perfectly easy, but French spelling is weird still! Oh well, gotta love being graduated already. 

Before I go, I wanted to share the weirdest thing with you. Everyone wears American or British flags here.... there's a girl in my class who wears an American flag scarf every day, and I see people with british flag phone cases. I don't understand why...

À la prochaine! 

Schedule Change, an Update on Last Weekend, and Pictures!

I've finally gotten a new schedule, and hopefully it sticks because I really like it! A couple of posts back, I talked about my schedule and I had a whole bunch of different courses.

Now I have:

LUNDI/MONDAY
Geography
History
French
French
Lunch
English 2eme (13 year olds)
English 6eme (my grade, primary language)
English (as a secondary language- normal students are required to take two languages. Some choose English as their first language, so they are in a more advanced class. Some choose to learn Flemish, which means they are in this class, which is easier for them because they focus more on learning Flemish)
English (secondary language)

MARDI/TUESDAY
History
French
Study
Study
Lunch
English (primary language)
Geography
Study
Study (Study at the end of the day means I get to go HOME, in this case, two hours early!!!!!)

MERCREDI/WEDNESDAY
Study
English 2eme
English 2eme
English 6eme (secondary)
Lunch
French Lessons for exchange students
French Lessons for exchange students

JEUDI
Study
Study (I get to come two hours later)
Art
Art
Lunch
English (secondary language)
English (primary language)
Socio
Socio

VENDREDI
English 2eme
French
Gym
Gym
English (primary language)
Socio
Socio

So that's it!!! The only subjects I'm taking are History, Geography, Socio, English, Art, and Gym! No math, religion, or science!

Speaking of school, I finally got more pictures! They aren't very good, but I feel creepy taking pictures of it.

Here's my view on the way to Namur or to my school. 

I took this on the way to Namur to meet up with some the English speaking French Belgium AFS exchange students. That's a mouthful, but it was really just 5 Americans, one New Zealander, and two Canadians. On the bus, there was a really creepy poster of a man and every time I looked over I thought it was a real person staring at me! 

The highlight of this outing (one of them at least) was that I got a free beer! I ordered a pêcheresse, my favorite, and the guy came back with Kriek so I got that one for free! 

A very proud moment.

We celebrated two birthdays: Skyler (Pennsylvania) and Evan (Canada). It was a great time! I went home around 9 after three beers, a waffle, and a massive amount of fries. That's a very cliché Belgian day, which is a good thing! We also stopped by McDonalds (here's the American coming out in me) and I got a McFlurry. I'm kind of disappointed because not only is McDonalds ridiculously expensive, they don't have my favorite McFlurry flavor (oreo). Probably because Oreos aren't popular in Belgium.... anyway. They had speculoos but I got toblerone because I didn't know... I'm definitely going back and getting speculoos soon though. 

Anyway, here's the view from outside my window tonight. I'm getting very good at this blogging thing, this is from TONIGHT! 

Gotta go! I don't have school on Thursday or Friday so I'm going to try to do something this week. I'll update you soon!

ONE MONTH

I wanted to talk about this, even though there are no pictures, no crazy/embarrassing stories, or really anything very exciting. It has now been one month since I've left home and also four weeks since I started living in this country. Somehow, that number doesn't seem right. It seems like I left just two weeks ago, because I still remember that day very clearly. And yet, the orientations, the first few days, even my first day of school seem like they happened months ago. I've learned so much already, but I also still feel like I haven't learned much at all. I have definitely matured quite a bit, but I still feel like a little kid because of how much I don't know. I've already established a routine, and that feels wonderful, but I make mistakes all the time. I learn something new every day, whether I like it or not. I see all of my friends packing away for college, getting ready for the last day with their families, and I'm a little envious. Not because they're going to college, because I'll get their eventually, but because if they ever have a bad class or get locked out or just want to talk to their parents, they're always just a call away... Then I realize that I'm in the heart of Europe and have done more and seen more beautiful things in one month (or just the route to and from school or Namur) than I have in my entire life and I stop being jealous and I start getting excited for everything to come. As difficult as this experience has been, it's been the most rewarding and most exciting, and I can never stay sad because I'm in BELGIUM, where I've wanted to be for three years, and sometimes I'll be floored by how lucky I am and that this is actually happening. It's hard for me to believe that I've been here for a month, but even harder to believe that it passed by so easily. That I only have 9 more of these left, just like the one that passed, and then I'll be on my way home. Wish me luck!!!


 


 My view on the way to school. This is what I mean by being astounded (literally every day) that I'm actually here and living in Belgium. It's unreal.

Les Fêtes de Wallonie and an Update on School

Sorry everyone. It's been a while since my last post (okay not really, it's been a week) and I figured now would be the perfect time to update you! Last weekend was Fêtes de Wallonie. I'm so lucky to be living so close to Namur. It was one big party. It kind of reminded me of the California State Fair because there were so many people and all different types of vendors selling their merchandise at ridiculously hiked up prices. I met up with Madeleine (from Kansas) and Nadia (from New Zealand) at the train station. They live in Louvain-La-Neuve. We walked around for a bit with Madeleine's host sister and her friends and tried looking for a bargain on pekets. Pekets are like shots of alcohol but they come in many different flavors and are a big part of the culture of les wallos and of Namur. I had a fruity blackberry or blackcurrant flavored one and it was okay. Madeleine and Nadia got Krieks and then we headed toward one of the stages for a free concert. After, we split up with Madeleine's host sister and went to get some food. We got des frites avec mayo (of course) and all shared that. I also had two waffles and some pasta that day. Madeleine got speculoos flavored ice cream and it's the best flavor I've ever had (she let me try some). It's so good and I might or might not cry just from the thought of never being able to have that once I return home. Skyler from Pennsylvania (here's her blog) joined us after a while and we headed to another free concert. The band was pretty decent. Here's some pictures from Les Wallos! I've taken some off of Facebook from Madeleine's page too because I was so busy enjoying the festival (and trying to maneuver between so many people) that I forgot to take a lot of pictures!

I love how beautiful this city is.






This is part of the tradition at Fêtes de Wallonie.
 



I tried to show how many people were here in this tiny city, but this picture doesn't really do it justice... It also smelled very heavily of cigarettes, spilled beer and pee. As much fun as I had at les wallos, I decided to go home earlier because I like my city the way it normally is with just the locals!!!! It's much prettier and it just feels like... mine.





Une Gaufre de Liège!!! I could eat these everyday

Madeleine, Nadia, and I with the River Meuse behind us (either that or it's the Sambre but I wasn't paying too much attention to which river we were using as a backdrop!)





Another very cool part of les fêtes was this talented marching band of musicians! The video doesn't do it justice but the other videos I took were from far away so just enjoy this one!

 One of the bands at les wallos. They were pretty decent.








We also met up with Cameron (from New Zealand) but I was heading home. Nadia, Madeleine, and Cameron all stayed with me while I tried to get on my bus. We waited for a really long time (they change where the schedules and pick up zones are for les wallos) and my bus still hadn't shown up. There's bus #24 (Daussoulx) which I'm supposed to take, and then there's bus #27 (Vedrin) which I'm not supposed to take because it actually goes to Champion.... but Cameron nicely asked one of the guys working for the bus system whether or not #27 would go to Daussoulx's route because 24 hadn't shown up, and the guy said yes... but it totally didn't. My heart dropped when I realized I wasn't headed in the right direction. Thankfully, I recognized two other girls who had gotten on the same bus as me to go to the festival 5 hours earlier. They also got on the bus because the guy said it was going to Daussoulx. So I just let them do all the talking, and the bus driver was nice enough to make an extra stop for us. I am so lucky they were there because I don't have the skills yet to give directions to where my stop is....!

~

After recuperating from Fêtes de Wallonie, it was time to go back to school. I had a really hard day on Monday, but the next two days were very nice! Actually, the rest of the week was pretty good. Monday was a really long day and I missed everyone and I felt stupid because I couldn't speak French (as Jack pointed out to me later on, any idiot can be fluent in a language in four weeks! Or at least, that's what I was expecting of myself. What can I say, it's the AP/mock trial student in me) and didn't understand a simple writing prompt. I got over it with the help of some very nice Belgians and some venting (sorry Jack and Leann). I also had language class that night, so it ended up being a very long day. Language class in Namur is okay, but mostly everyone there is an immigrant who has lived in Belgium for a couple of years, and just needs help on grammar. While it's nice to refresh my memory on conjugations, it's something I've already learned and I don't need three hours to do it.

On Wednesday, I had a two hour lesson with other exchange students at my school and a really nice teacher volunteering her time to help us out. It was so helpful! Wednesday was a really good day for me. I only have three classes and then a really helpful language class, so I feel very productive!

I got one of my tests back and got a 20/20, which apparently is really hard to get in Belgian schools. Go me!!! Okay so it was English class. Still. I had to write some of the responses in French, that should count...... No? Okay fine.

I also bombed a physics test, which is really frustrating because if I understood what the questions were I'd be able to ace it thanks to Mr. Wehner from two years ago. Oh well. This Saturday we're going to celebrate Skyler's birthday and next week I have Thursday and Friday off. I have no idea why.


That's about it for this update.


I'll update you soon(er than last time)



Nicole

Pictures!!!

Now that I've caught up a little bit on sleep, here's some pictures of Namur from last Sunday!


Our first stop of the Grandes Figures de Wallonie was "Le Palais Provincial", where all the governors meet and make decisions. It was beautiful.





The inside was even more beautiful than the outside. I wish our state capital looked like this on the inside!





Next, we stopped at a beautiful church, Eglise Saint-Loup.





Again, the outside was very beautiful, but it was the inside that shocked me the most! So much detail, so much beauty... I'm guessing I'm going to be saying that a lot in this country!





After, we made our way towards the next stop on our list. On the way, I couldn't help noticing how beautiful Namur is. Les Fêtes de Wallonie is starting (TOMORROW!!!) so there's a lot of banners up for it to decorate the city.




I can't tell you enough how much I love this beautiful city. It has its setbacks and fair share of annoying things, but I still love it. It reminds me of Sacramento so much, because Namur also has two rivers. And for any of you who are wondering (it's probably just me) there are SWANS in these rivers!!!!!! I haven't gotten a picture of one yet because I'm kind of waiting to go to Bruges to get a picture of them, but it makes me love Europe even more. I've never seen swans before in person.... they're huge but so graceful. Speaking of swans, I might go see Swan Lake in Brussels if I can find someone else to go with me. But I digress, here's some more pictures!








Our next stop was Le Parlement Wallon. This is where they make the big decisions, because Namur is the capital of Wallonia, and where they welcome politicians from other countries. It used to be an old hospital, but they renovated it and added glass to protect people from the rain and give it a "modern" look... at least, that's what the employee talking about the building said.





We got to go inside, and I got to see the place where they have conferences and meetings. The rooster on the wall is the symbol of Wallonia.




After touring the parliament building, we went back home. On the way back to our car, I saw another beautiful church.





Monday night, I had dinner at Le Royal in Namur after French lessons. I had Spaghetti Bolognese (which is regular Spaghetti for you Americans reading this). I also spotted a 5 liter bottle of whiskey and an even larger beer glass, and it made me think of the DeWees family and my dad, because I knew they would DEFINITELY notice that too, and probably go up and take a picture of it! So I did it for them :)





Anyway, that's all I've got. As I said earlier, fêtes de wallonie starts up tomorrow, but I'm not going because I have school the next day. However, I AM going on Friday with some friends I made at school, and I will probably go Saturday too because a Rotary Exchange Student from the US said it was her birthday, and we've never met in person before! I'm hoping other AFS exchange students will be there Saturday too. I know the AFS Namur chapter is planning to meet up, but it's not an official event so I don't know how many people will be there or when!

I'll update you with more pictures and tell you all about this grand festival that is leaving Namur abuzz!



Nicole