Yellow

Salut!
Tardy again... yikes! Some weeks it is so hard to find time to update!

Things are going good! I went to the Foire (Fair in Belgium all during the month of October) with my friends from Rotary for the first real time today... yes the real time because last time it was completely empty and was nothing like it was today. It was cool to just walk around and see all the pretty colors with the smell of cotton candy and hot dogs - which aren't hot dogs here but "saucisses" on a baguette. I like them better though! I decided to splurge and spent 2 euros on a "petite" cotton candy which was huge with my friend from Kansas! It was so yummy :) Good choice. I also got my (host) family a little present - candied nuts. They seem to like them ... and I do too!

French is coming along... nothing really to add about that. I'm kind of getting upset with myself that I am not fluent since I have been here for 2 months but that is life... I am trying to speak French every chance I get - even if it is horrible. I just need to talk even when I don't know how to say something the right way. My brain still hurts from switching back in forth from French to English - maybe if I just speak French all the time this would be better? Yes, yes it would be a lot better. I will keep you updated on how this goes... I am really making an effort now! I will be in London for 2 weeks and I am worried I will lose all my French... yes... ALL my French. Crazy things happen in London, especially to those who miss speaking their mother tongue way too much.

SO this week - and last week oops :)
I never how to organize this so I'm just going to start writing...
Last Wednesday, we finished at noon and instead of hanging out with my friends I had to go home and do college applications. It was nauseating. Not only did I have to redo my entire Common Application but also I had to write an essay. Like - honestly that was the last thing I wanted to do and I was dying! I have not written an essay since May - let alone do any sort of homework - so my body was in shock. It was awful but I think I threw up a pretty decent essay. Thought of sending it to Mrs. Wilcox but talked myself out of it... I really isn't as good as I thought it was. I think my mind would think any sort of sentence on a blank sheet of paper would be good... like that is how out of it I feel. When I do do homework it is in French (or German) so ya... I'm not overreacting on that statement. Here - University is free and everyone is accepted if they pass the high school with a certain grade. Wish I was Belgian sometimes...
Friday we had no school because we had a memorial for one of the teachers at my school who passed away. His name is Mr. Closkin and he was probably my favorite teacher at the school. He taught geography and drew a map of the United States to explain to people that Kansas City is in Missouri not Kansas (and that I don't come from Misery but Missouri). Everyone loved him and he was a great teacher. He will be missed.
So instead of school, I slept in (11:30 - gasp!) and went to Jerry's house with some other friends. It was nice to just chill and catch up with things. I left early to go take a test at the University (yes - a test on a Friday night) but it was pretty much a fail. I literally left in the middle of the test after 30 minutes because I realized it was for Erasmus students - and not me. So that was a super... not.
Saturday was fun. I went to a Teutonic order in Flanders (the dutch speaking region of Belgium in the north) that was pretty legit. It was huge! They had really nice French gardens that when we walked through them it was the only sunny part of the entire day. It was really cool... got some good pictures. Some flowers were still in bloom and they were this dark royal purple - they looked so pretty against the bricks. Might be the last flower I see until Spring. Then we went to Hasselt (pronounced A-Celt) which was such a nice city. It was so clean and the typical European city with old buildings but modern upkeeep. I love the mixture of the two. You rarely see things like this in the States. It rained all day and I was absolutely freezing... I think it was the coldest day since I have been here. Then at night, I hung out with the family. They found marshMALLOWS and we made a fire and roasted them :) Like S'mores but without the chocolate and crackers. I suggested it but they didn't understand which was fine I was content with just eating Marshmallows all night. We roasted them while listening to the top 40 French songs over the last 40 years. Which was hilarious - some of the singers had good songs but you could tell they hadn't sung the song in 30 years so it was realllly bad. But entertaining! Good bonding :) I love moments like these. Where you have a good time just by doing simple things... I have really begun to appreciate these things.
Sunday I went with Larry to a World War 2 Museum about 30 minutes away from us. On the way to museum, it was so sunny and the leaves on the trees looked so pretty. Everything is turning yellow (reason for my title) and it is so pretty with all the forests here. Larry was like you are very quiet and I was just watching the trees as we went along in awe... for some reason I couldn't stop staring. We stopped along a creek because it was so pretty but right when we got down to the water the sun went away (typical Belgian day) So we waited a good 10 minutes for the sun to come back out so we could see how pretty it was when the sun hit the wet rocks and the yellow leaves. It was worth the wait. Then we drove to the museum (with another stop in between to see another look-out point over the valley) which was so interesting. There was a "tigre" - which was pretty much the biggest and best tank from WW2 that is legit invincible. When the battle ended it stopped on the random street in the town (la Gleize) and they made a museum right where it stopped - a few years later. So when you walked the streets - that is where the actual battle was ... I couldn't help but touch the stone walls along the street after because they had seen so much. It was intense - for me. We watched a movie there that was all with original footage of the war. It was such a different perspective and really raw. I had never seen anything like it...the tour guide said it is the only video made all from original archives. After we went to this huge cascade that is called the Coo (pronounced like co in co-ed) It was so cool! I was freezing though and just looking at the booming waterfall made me chatter... but it was cool to see. I guess there is a theme park at the same spot and it is the place to be in the summer. Keep that in mind for your summer vacations!

This coming weekend/week should be very fun! I will tell you about my plans because I have a feeling my next post won't be for awhile... fair warning my faithful followers.
This Friday, I am going to a party at a friends house and then Sunday is Halloweeen! Oh gosh. This month has really flown by. It is somewhat ridiculous! Here Halloween is not as big of a deal at home - which is depressing. I love Halloween. Ever since I was little, I loved dressing up and pretending to be something/someone different for a day! Nobody dresses up here! It is just for the kids - but I think I might dress up a little :) I can't help myself!
We have the next week off for Fall Break.... which I really need! I will be leaving though on Thursday for a Rotary Trip ... yay!

All for now!
Mallo

en automne

Bonsoir!

This week was one of my favorite weeks so far :) I have officially been here for 2 months! Time is really flying by... Time goes by so fast and when you come up to breath it is half over. Life is funny like that. I'm doing my best to live in the moment - every moment. But it takes practice - as my daddy says. I'm doing my best and I'm tyring to live each moment to the fullest - even the crappy moments or the boring because that is what life is about. Enjoying the crappy and the amazing. Sorry - that was a bit deep but just some things I have been thinking about :)

I don't know the best way to organize my week so I guess I will start with Monday and go from there...

Monday was really fun! I had school until 5:10 but I got out of my last hour of school -which was gym- to go to a zumba class with Marta (somebody asked me what a zumba class was so to clarify a zumba class is like a dance class with fast pace, latin music where you do silly dance routines to break a sweat). It was so much fun! It was a class for family members of kids with handicaps or people with handicaps. I made a friend! She gave me a bracelet and told me I was going to be her best friend :) It was really cute. Yes - the bracelet is pinned on my blazer. While Marta and I were doing this Lisa (my sister) had basketball practice and after she had badmitton practice. Which she is amazingggg at. Like seriously - this is not a joke. So I decided to play with the other kids ... and quickly realized that I am beyond awful at badmitton. I lost each match ... but it was funny. I was laughing the entire time. It was nice to see Lisa doing something she enjoys and being active myself! I hope I will be able to go again tomorrow - but we will see if works out.

Tuesday was a normal day complete with a 2 hour french course at 6. My class is really easy for me so I'm thinking of talking to the teacher to switch to a higher level... hm. That is a good sign!

Wednesday was special. My entire grade got to go to a movie (on Wednesdays all the schools are done at noon) at 9 in the city. The movie was called "Illegal" and was about illegal immigrants in Europe. It was really intense and sad. I actually teared up a bit because it was so depressing and emotional. It was all in French so I guess that is a good sign that I could follow along... right? After this we all had some time to chill before we went back to school and I went with some friends to the fair. Liège has this huge fair all for the month of October - it is legit. Nobody was in it since it was like 11 but it was just fun to walk around and eat fried food with friends :) After we went back for our hour of classes then we were free. I went with some girls to get lunch at Quick (the McDonalds of Belgium). I felt so Belgian! After this I went with a friend to get my haircut... which was an effort for me to communicate what I wanted to the hairdresser. But it turned out perfect and I learned some new french vocabulary. It was really fun and nice to talk to my friend while we were waiting. Then I went shopping withthem... it was just nice to walk around the city with new friends and speak in french and I don't know - I loved it :)

Thursday was another typical day complete with a 2 hour french course where it is too easy for me. I really need to talk to the prof about swtiching ...

Friday was really nice too. My teachers decided to not come to school for some reason so I only had 2 hours of French class (actual french class not to learn french) in the morning. Then we had class pictures! Story of my life - I missed the memo that we had pictures that day and showed up to school in my normal apparel and with my attempt to wear make-up. So that was fun to see everyone else looking extra nice. It was the fastest photo-shoot I have ever been to. Maybe that is because my school was all-girls... hm probably. But school was over for me at noon instead of the normal Friday ending at 2 so I just ate in the city with friends and chilled at a friends house for awhile then went home at around 7. My family wasn't home to it was nice to just chill alone and catch up with e-mails and such.

Saturday - or yesterday - was really fun also. I should use a differnet word than "fun" for everything... sorry about that. Saturday was splendid too! I slept in and after lunch I went for a run. After the run we went to this big shopping mall in Liège that was very American. But it was still cool we just kind of window shopped and walked around. They had a huge grocery store in the mall and we went for the weekly shopping. For some reason I love doing the weekly shopping. I always learn something new and get to try a new sort of dish when we go. Larry is an amazing cook and I have happily gained 4 kilos (I will not convert this out of embarrassment of how much it is in pounds) with his cooking. When we got home I decided it was time to finally carve the pumpkin that has been sitting in the garage for a good few weeks. It was so great! Nobody here carves pumpkins here so it was really fun :) I carved the normal jack-o-lantern face on one side then we (as in Larry and I) carved a kitty on the other side. We were really professional about it and like drew it out on a sheet of paper then converted it on to the pumpkin. But it turned out soooo great!! We put it outside and ahhh it was great. Canelle (the cat - and canelle is cinnamon in french) normally stands by the window when she wants in so we put the cat face so you could see it through the window - everybody thought this was great. And it is!! I love it and can't wait to go see it when I walk downstairs.

Today was another cultural exchange. Slept in again today we all lounged around until like noon. Then I decided to bake my chocolate chip cookies! Yes - I brought 2 bags Nestlé chocolate chips to Belgium, land of chocolate. Now that I think about it - that is embarrassing. Whatever! It was cool to laugh and bake them. They didn't have enough of sugar and butter so we improvised a bit but they turned out so good! I am very proud of them :) We made like 5 dozen - so we should be enjoying them for awhile. Then I had my first cooking lesson! I made my favorite dish ever - QUICHE. I love it so much. It was so cool for me to make stuff because at home I don't even attempt to make anything... because I'm very lazy. I'll admit it. So it was interesting to actually cook and I laughd a lot :) It turned out great. Well - I thought it was great. Bien sur (ofcourse). Then since it wasn't raining or too cold here, I went for a 2 hour hike with Larry. We have woods just in front of the house and it was so cool to just walk around. I was sweating by the end of it - but you know the cold sweat when you are cold but hot at the same time. The trees are really tall and skinny here - it looks like a scene from Harry Potter! Halfway through we stopped at an old farm and I enjoyed some hot chocolate with a brown sugar crepe :)

Good week :)

Dinner is ready!

All for now!

à tantot

Mallo

Exhaustion

Hello everyone.
This Friday I will have been here for 2 months... time is the weirdest thing. It feels like I've been here for only a little over 2 weeks!

I have decided to stop appologizing for my tardiness... because let's be honest. Life is happening! I am sleeping in my down moments instead of updating you and I will not appologize for that because I'm seriously dying of exhaustion here!! My school days start at 8:30 and end at 5:10 then on tuesdays and thursday I get to go to french class from 6 - 8. Longest days of my life are becoming "normal days". C'est la vie... I'm tyring to embrace it with a smile but my body is starting to hate me. My mind also - she doesn't know what to do with the constant switching back in forth between french and english. French is coming along though!! My Belgian friends (yes - I must specify) say that I'm improving! I was so happy! I try to speak french anytime I can but I'll have to admit it is very easy to get away with speaking just english here. I know some exchange students that haven't learned a bit of French... so I think I'm doing well :) I'm not fluent but I think by Christmas I will be pretty decent. French class will help! Great - just jinxed myself. I do have exciting news about school and me learning french. I took a test in my Sciences Sociales class just to try and it was about submission to authority and all that jazz. We had to read 2 texts on the subject and respond to some questions and I got a 100%! This is not a joke. I was so happy. I was grinning from ear to ear all day - I actually did better than some Belgians! I came home and the first thing I did was show my parents and they were so impressed - so impressed they gave me a pin for my blazer. It was so cute :) I am smiling now as I remember this. I will never forget how happy I am every time I see my cute, Tchantchès pin! Happiness :)

The weather is being weird. Actually that is Belgium I think. The weather here is very bizarre. It will be freezing, rainy, sunny, then overwhelmingly hot in a matter of maybe 2 hours. It is very fast. Last week was really nice and sunny though... everyone is outside when it is sunny because you don't know how long it will last or when it will come again. Which I like a lot. Makes you appreciate the weather...

Last-last weekend (ahhh that is bad - but not appologizing!!)
Friday, I stayed home and watched my sister because a family friend unexpectadly passed away. I had no plans that night and it was good timing for me to watch Lisa... she played and I caught up with Facebook.
Saturday was special. We didn't do anything during the day but at night - for some reason - the town decided to light up the massive amount of stairs (remember?) with candles. Not only just the stairs but the old citadelle and pretty much the whole downtown was lit up with little white candles. It was so romantic and disgustingly crowded with people. It was so pretty against the warm, darkness of the night - yes that was poetic wasn't it? Marta and I were so cute, when we saw a candle blown out or knocked over we would relight it. Ofcourse I would sing the song "Go light you candle" - shout out to my Sion girls - and Marta would sing "Candle in the Wind". It was cute. I liked it. I stole a candle and was joking I was going to glue it on my blazer ... we will see if this happens. But everyone was a bit tired all night and we stopped for a good half hour at this random spot in town. I just thought we were chilling and enjoying the people watching. But ofcourse I was lost in translation and we were waiting for a fireworks show. It was the best surprise :) I love moments like this... when you just go with the flow and are pleasantly surprised. These things are teaching me to go with the flow more and not psyhco analyze everything. Which I have a tendency to do... :/
Sunday was nice. My host grandfather (the father of Larry) works as a tour guide of a very nice museum in Liège and he gave us a very nice tour :) It was all in French - but I tried to follow along. I could understand a lot of things but a lot of things were very technical terminology ... so that was sometimes a failure. It was very interesting and the museum was full of so many cool things! Not to mention it used to be a house and Napolean stayed a night there ... not a big deal (does everyone know that I have sick-obsession also with Napolean Bonaparte yet?). Then after we went to a cute little farm that specializes in goose and pears and had a fabulous lunch there. I wanted to eat there all day. I am drooling a little as I write this... it was amazing!! It was such a nice sunny day and the flowers looked so pretty against the old stones of the farmhouse. I loved it. After this my parents when to the funeral of their friend who passed away and I went to my friend's house and skyped for the first time in 2 months! I am actually really impressed that I lasted so long without seeing my parents and friends. It was so great. I loved it. It made me so happy and just rejuvenated - not homesick at all. Which is good!!

okok interruption of the merry-go-round of happiness
Last week was really hard for me. It was a mixture of a lot of things... but I was so emotional. I would feel like crying at random times through out the week for no real reason. It is not at all that I'm not happy here. I have talked to a few other exchange students and past exchange students who have all experienced the same thing. I feel a lot of the time "personality-less". This has a lot to do with lack of french fluency I think. Actually - a whole lot. In the states I am able to say what I'm feeling right off the top of my head or be funny or say something intelligent or just plain "being mallory" but here I have to put in a whole lot more effort to do any of these things with success. It is tiring... but part of the deal. I am almost rediscovering myself from ground 0... things will fall into place though. It it not unhappiness let me clarify ... but something within myself that comes with the deal of living in a different country that speaks a different language. C'est la vie. I am feeling better about things now though... I have a much better attitude towards the challenge :)

This past weekend
Friday, I hung out with school friends.
Saturday I got up at 6:30 in the morning to catch a train to Namur - a city in Belgium about an hour from Liège - for a Rotary event. It was so early... but I sucked it up and actually had a good time despite my lack of sleep. It was cool because we visited the Parliment of Walloonia - anyone following Belgium politics? I really don't want to get into what is going on with the politics of Belgium on here (my blog) because I honestly don't really understand it well enought to talk about it objectively. But it is kind of a big deal to visit it now because it might not be there in the future... it was really interesting. It was such a nice day - so sunny! We took a boat trip and I just caught up with friends I made in Brussels. There was probably 100 of us because they gathered 3 districts together. So it was nice to see people you normally don't see :) I had fun! I didn't do anything that night - I was beyond exhausted. Story of my life?
Sunday was really relaxing :) I slept in and got up for breakfast then took a run. It was so sunny and everyone was just lounging in the sun all day. But I had to make a power-point about Kansas City, my family, and my school all day. Yes - it took all day. I think it is pretty good ... but I have to present it all in French. So we will see how that one goes. I am actually presenting it tomorrow! Wish me luck - here everyone says "Bonne Merde" which literally means Good Shit but it is nice to say that to someone. I think? Then that night I watched a movie with my family... it was called "Meeting with Joe Black". Brad Pitt was in it and he was so young and cute! I loved the movie and I understood a lot of it! Success!

All for now. I need to go do some finishing touches on my presentation ...

à tantot!
Mallo