Saluttt
:)
The weather is changing so fast here! Just a few days ago, I was sweating on my walk home from the bus stop and now I am shivering as I practically run home to get inside. Crazyness my friends. But I like the changing weather. I am not a summer girl and really prefer automn and winter :)
Enjoy the new fall colors design !!
Things are still going well. School is exhausting me so much it is not even funny. I feel as though sometimes I can't even enjoy things because I am always so tired and just want to go home and sleep! Oh well. Things will not be so tiring in a few weeks... right? That is what I'm telling myself. School is still hard for me and I attempt to do a lot of things without much success. C'est la vie! I am surprisingly not stressing out about my lack of success though in school and am focusing on other things ... like making friends and learning the language better. Which is improving every day... I think. Probably not. I took another placement test today for night school at the University and it was an oral placement test. The guy was so rude to me when I was speaking in French. To me... I thought I was doing well but he just looked at me like I was speaking Chinese and said "Okayyy?" - you know in a question form as if nothing I said made any sense and asking to repeat what I said would be pointless. He was super nice. Not. But whatever... I tried my best :) This phrase has become my slogan for a lot of things here.
So the weekend now!! I had a 4 day weekend! Monday was a national holiday ...
Friday I hung out with my friends from school and then after a few hours I went and hung out with my older host brother and his friends. They are both really different so it was cool to get to hang out with both groups in one night. I was so tired by the end of the night though...
Saturday I got up and went to see a very famous Fort in Belgium. It was awesome because we pretty much had our own tour guide the whole day! His name is Philippe and he is a childhood friend of Larry (my host dad) an
d knows so much about forts...and he could talk about it all in English. Bonus. Oh! And he did a year abroad in Southern Missouri... another bonus! He is so passionate and you can really tell he enjoyed showing us around and giving us the inside story on a lot of things that most guides don't include. So now about the Fort. This was new for me to learn about also... but Forts are made with the intention of holding off the enemy so the real military can get prepared. When you have a fort you know that one day you will have to surrender but the delay is worth it in the end. So Belgium - in between the WW1 and WW2 - invested a lof of money in forts and fortification of it's borders. The fort I saw took 7 years to build and was taken over by the Germans in 6 days. I was in shock when I heard this but it is true. The fort did it's job though in delaying the Germans and now sits empy as a very well preserved piece of history.
d knows so much about forts...and he could talk about it all in English. Bonus. Oh! And he did a year abroad in Southern Missouri... another bonus! He is so passionate and you can really tell he enjoyed showing us around and giving us the inside story on a lot of things that most guides don't include. So now about the Fort. This was new for me to learn about also... but Forts are made with the intention of holding off the enemy so the real military can get prepared. When you have a fort you know that one day you will have to surrender but the delay is worth it in the end. So Belgium - in between the WW1 and WW2 - invested a lof of money in forts and fortification of it's borders. The fort I saw took 7 years to build and was taken over by the Germans in 6 days. I was in shock when I heard this but it is true. The fort did it's job though in delaying the Germans and now sits empy as a very well preserved piece of history.On the inside it was like a jail... I was so scared - with the lights on! It was just winding tunnels of cement and creepy rooms that gave me the chills. It was so scary because for maybe 2 minutes all the lights went off and I seriously almost peed my pants and almost started crying. We were so far from the entrance and so far underground... to say the least I don't think I have been that scared in a very long time! I don't know how pe
ople could live like that though... it made me appreciate the sun when I came out.
ople could live like that though... it made me appreciate the sun when I came out.There was artwork all the place (in the captain's chamber, cafeteria, and gaurd's room) that was soo cool. It made all the cement and coldness more human. You forget walking around that it was more than just a fort - it was where 1,000 men were kept just waiting for somebody to attack and missing their families and old lives. It was a whole new perspective for me ...
Then that night I went to a party my friend from school was having. It was fun to meet new people :)
Sunday was really fun! We we
nt to a festival and it was huge!! It was so much fun and all we really did was walk around - but I loved every minute of it. I can't describe it in English but in French you call it "ambiance" . Everybody was so happy even though it was rainy and cold and everything was in fall colors. I don't know - I just felt like I was part of my family (if that makes sense) and couldn't stop smiling. We bought a huge "american" pumpkin and we are going to carve it one of these days. They don't do face carvings or digging out the insides here - so a bonding moment through a cultural exchange is soon to come my friends! After this festival we went to another festival for my area I live in (Tilff). I was complete with 26 geants - the really tall people that are symbols of the area/city and the strong men carry them on their heads! The symbol of Tilff is a leek - don't ask why - and everybody eerily looks like the KKK in their costume but it was so unique and cool the way they get so into everything. I love the customs here :) They are so different and special and normal! I loved it! Oh and the symbol of my area (not for sure) is the devil so that was fun. Larry kept going up to people 
asking if I could take a picture with them and their costume with the opeing line of "she is an american" as if that is an excuse for random pictures. I thought it was hilarious... and so true! They lit up once they knew I was american!
nt to a festival and it was huge!! It was so much fun and all we really did was walk around - but I loved every minute of it. I can't describe it in English but in French you call it "ambiance" . Everybody was so happy even though it was rainy and cold and everything was in fall colors. I don't know - I just felt like I was part of my family (if that makes sense) and couldn't stop smiling. We bought a huge "american" pumpkin and we are going to carve it one of these days. They don't do face carvings or digging out the insides here - so a bonding moment through a cultural exchange is soon to come my friends! After this festival we went to another festival for my area I live in (Tilff). I was complete with 26 geants - the really tall people that are symbols of the area/city and the strong men carry them on their heads! The symbol of Tilff is a leek - don't ask why - and everybody eerily looks like the KKK in their costume but it was so unique and cool the way they get so into everything. I love the customs here :) They are so different and special and normal! I loved it! Oh and the symbol of my area (not for sure) is the devil so that was fun. Larry kept going up to people asking if I could take a picture with them and their costume with the opeing line of "she is an american" as if that is an excuse for random pictures. I thought it was hilarious... and so true! They lit up once they knew I was american!After this we decided to go see a movie since Lisa and I didn't have school tomorrow. Three movie theatres and 2 hours later we were at home without seeing any movie. It was such bad luck! Then we decided to watch one of the movies I brought with me on the dvd player but it didn't work! By this point it was beyond bad luck and we just laughed. We ended up watching "Overboard" - my favorittttee movie - on my laptop with it dying only once! It was a good bonding night :)
Then Monday I slept in until noon and then went shopping with my friend Louisa.
I'd say a pretty good weekend :)
Oh and Mallo has stuck. At my school, for your last year of school (senior -> rheto) you get to purchase a sweatshirt with all the names of the rheto class. On my sweatshirt sleeve will be my new nickname :) yay!
All for now!!
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