100 jours

Hello Everyone

I have come to the awareness that I led all of you on... and I'm very sorry. Belgium has surprisingly kept me more busy than I thought it would last week.... and now I'm just now getting everyone up to speed! Terribly sorry, and I have no other excuse than that life is keeping me away from my computer :) I actually turned down plans with my Belge friends to go into town today just so I could write this... now my brother thinks I would prefer to be on the computer than be in town! Oh the little sacrifices I make to keep everyone updated ;)

Now you must all endure a disgustingly, long blog entry about how happy I am and how the weather is pretty much paradise.... once again, very sorry.

April 16th was my 100 days in Belgium... which means that now I have less than 100 days in Belgium. How sick is that? It seems so short that I can now put my time left here in days!! 100 days is kind of a big deal! It is at the point in my year that my mom is now planning my first meal when I get back home... that just kind of freaks me out. Things are that close! This just means that things are going to go by faster than they already have been... which is just scary! How can thins go by faster than they already are? I have to live everyday to the fullest... even more. I think spending a week in Greece with my best friends from Belgium is the perfect way to embrace my final days in Belgium... :) and taking a trip to the North Sea...and Spain... and Ireland... and Prague?
Which brings me up to my next topic! I'm going to Greece for a week in less than a week!! I love my life. I still can't believe it is happening... that I'm just going to go chill in Greece (Crete to be more specific) with my Belge besties for a week. If someone told me I was going to be doing this a year ago... I don't think I would have believed them. Life is full of wonderful surprises :)

okokok
now the disgustingly, long part is about to come! I hope I don't bore you too much!!
Last time we talked it was last Wednesday... that sounds awful! I promise I will not go MIA like
this again!
Here are some quotes that are keeping me company these days... and might be a better transition than me apologizing again about my lack of attention to this blog :)

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are. ~Palmer Sondreal

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Every now and then,
when the world sits just right,
a gentle breath of heaven
fills my soul with delight...
~Hazelmarie ‘Mattie’ Elliott, A Breath of Heaven

Thursday was not the best school day for me. I left at 1 (even though my french class doesn't start until 4) just because I literally could not sit in class any longer. It was bad. I just had this image of me sitting in the square in the sun before my french class... and I had to do it as soon as possible :) Totally worth skipping math. I got home around 7 from my class that night and my brother had his 2 good friends (my friends too) over. After school, they made their costumes for the 100 jours together so they decided to stay for dinner. It was fun to hang out with the boys. It reminded me of when I was growing up ... always being the only girl with the boys. It made me happy to play basketball with them and laugh along with their jokes... in french! Things have changed so much... when I first met Thibault and Constantin they didn't really talk to me because of my lack of French and now here I was playing basketball with them and making fun of their jump-shots...Does that make me fluent? Anyways... I forgot how well I used to play basketball! The boys were really impressed by it too :) They were like... "If we would have asked another girl from the neighborhood to play with us she wouldn't and if she did play she would suck." I think they were impressed that girls can actually play sports! Oh Europe... please let it be socially acceptable for me to play field hockey, soccer, and basketball like a normal teenage girl should be able to! Despite a few sexist jokes and bruises ... it was a fun night. Almost felt like summer :)
Friday was our 100 jours!! Ah!! Big deal! We couldn't wear out costumes to school because we had to go to our first class but then after our first class we all went to change into our outfits. Totally stupid... and weird. But I just went with it. All the girls got ready together in the gym. We were all doing each others make-up and helping making things run smoothly if something went wrong with our fairy wings or ballet shoes or a run in our tights... it was a happy buzzing of excitement. Everyone's costumes were so intense! My costume fit in perfectly :) Around 10:30, we all went to the little open area in the middle of the school and had a time where we called up the younger kids and teachers to do silly things and take pies in the face! It was crazy and reminded me of Sion. Then all the girls did a dance to a few songs ... and when the song ended the boys all went crazy shooting the audience (younger kids) with water guns and shaving cream. It was hilarious! The kids had no idea how many water guns we had prepared... so everyone was drenched! Even I got sprayed and hit with some shaving cream. It was great... you had a feeling that the rhetos (seniors) have wanted to do this so bad since they first go sprayed their first year of school. So great. Then after we cleaned everything up, we had a little barbeque. It was sunny and everyone was happy. It was one of those things I'll never forget. I was on this "Belge High" of happiness to be sharing this experience with my friends. After the barbeque, the whole class and I went to the park in Liege to continue the festivities. I love this park and it was great to be in it with 200 of your classmates all in costume. Pure happiness. Things even got crazy with shaving cream! Around 5 we all headed into town and stayed until midnight. It was great :) Such a great night! My friends and I all stayed at a friends house and just had a great night together. I'll never forget how much fun I had. It is days like this... that remind me why I came to Belgium.
Saturday was rough. I was completely exhausted. Marge and I had planned to hang out Saturday night ... so I took a shower and a nice nap and I was ready to go again! On any other occasion, I would have told Marge we would have to reschedule but she was leaving for Greece with Rotary on Sunday so I wouldn't see her for 10 days. We had to have one last sleepover - even if Mollie couldn't come. She came over around 4, and we went shopping for dinner supplies. We made an amazing salmon and veggie pasta... complete with brownies! I am happy to say that I could make an icing that Chef Margaret didn't know how to make... I mean it was just powder sugar and water but STILL. I'm really coming along as a chef :) We both ate so much but it was soo good. Even my brothers admitted that the brownies were good! Finally, we redeemed our cooking skills since the last few times we cooked something at my house it has always been a failure. After dinner, we watched 13 Going on 30 and painted our nails :) Such girls. It was the perfect, chill evening I needed after my ridiculous Friday.
Sunday started out by being a failure. When we looked up bus times for Marge, apparently we forgot to look up "Sunday" bus times. Marge and I literally waited at the bus stop for like an hour... classic. I felt so bad! She missed her train home and only had like 2 hours to pack for 10 days in Greece! Classic Fail. The rest of my day was pretty chill. It was so nice and sunny that my family and I had the first barbeque of the season together :) It was cute. We ate outside and it reminded me of what my family does in the Spring/Summertime. Benoit wasn't there... but it was still a nice family bonding moment. We figured out a move date for me to change families. It looks like I will be changing families on May 7th. Which is like the only reasonable time I will be able to! The next weekend (May 13-15) I will be at the beach with Marge and Mollie. Then May 23-29 I will be in Spain with Marge and Mollie. So that is the only date I will have to change families... but it seems so soon to me! I'm getting excited for a new experience but I always get a little sad when I think about not being at this house anymore... :/ bittersweet.
Monday I enjoyed my first real day of Easter Vacation. It was glorious. I went on a run and did nothing. A package from my mommy came :) Europe is a beautiful place but it is very expensive when it comes to clothes and food... and I have realized that every time the seasons change here I end up spending all my money! So, my mommy sent me some cute, spring clothes from America along with some Easter goodies :) It was the best package to open and have amazing, cheap clothes along with Whopper's Robin Eggs - my weakness. She also sent t-shirts for the boys (with the word "America" on them = cool) and Gate's barbeque sauce for the family to try. I was so happy the rest of the day and was already planning my outfits I'm going to wear in Greece! I have the best mommy :) That night the family and I (minus Francois, since he is studying for his exams... in a month) went to watch Benoit play tennis with his friend in a doubles tournament. It was cool to watch Benoit play a sport... other than ping-pong! The boy who Benoit played with was supposed to be ranked really high in Belgium and Ben was kind of nervous to play with him since he isn't that amazing of a player ... but it was actually the other boy who lost the match! Benoit played better than his friend did! We were all really impressed by him and you could tell that even Benoit was impressed by how well he played and how awful his friend played! Oh little, happy surprises :) I pulled a total Mallory Moment.... after the game we had a drink together with the opponent. There was this dog ... kind of like a pug but brown and had long hair around it's face. It was one of those dogs that "are so ugly they are cute". I love little dogs with faces that looked smashed in so I leaned over to Isabelle (host-mom) and said in French, "He is so ulgy!" I was going to follow this statement by saying that he is so cute... but the owner heard me! She was so offended and kind of gave me a lecture about how he is a rare breed, very nice, and not ugly at all... I was literally red for the whole car ride home from my stupid mouth. I felt so bad! The worst part was that I was like "Oh, no! I meant he is really cute!" She was like, "So he is a really ugly cute?" She was so offended! I really need to learn how to whisper when I'm talking about people right next to me!! Oh Mallory...
Tuesday I got up early to go on a run and then I met my friends from school (Louisa and Tersia) at the mall to go shopping. Tersia was a bit late so Louisa and I just sat and talked for like 30 minutes and then when Tersia got there we talked for another hour! It was funny. We had lots to talk about though! 100 jours was a big day! The day was spent with us gossiping instead of trying on anything... which was fine with me :) It was nice to sit and talk with my friends... in French. We enjoyed a nice ice cream along with good conversation. So Belge.
Wednesday I again got up early and went for a run and then met up with a friend in town. We had Liege's best ice cream and then went to all these amazing places of Liege that the average tourist doesn't know about. Back in the middle ages, Liege had a "citadelle" (huge walls for protection) built around the borders of the city that are still in contact today. My friend knew this secret garden hidden but open to the public until the sun goes down. You can see all of the city but you don't know it is there when you are in town because the buildings block it. It was literally amazing... full of green grass, blooming flowers, tall trees, and historic walls melting in the sunlight. It was a beautiful day :) We had good conversation and beautiful views that kept us smiling all day... When the sun went down we had pitas at the best restaurant in town and I took the last bus home. Great day. I was planning on writing my blog on this day but that damn sun always wins ... especially when mixed with secret gardens and pitas.
Thursday I hung out with the same friend again and some other friends from my french class at the University. It was another beautiful day and we ended up going on a 2 hour walk along the rivers that run through Liege. It was so much fun to just walk and talk about whatever was on our mind :) I ended up spending the night at my friends and we just watched youtube videos, played poker, and just talked. It was a surprisingly, fun night spent with friends I would have never met if I didn't come on this amazing adventure... :)
Friday I was beyond exhausted and just stayed in with Alain (host dad) and Francois. I watched a documentary on the marriage of Kate and William. I'm kind of obsessed with this beautiful, British couple so it was fun to watch a program about them. My host dad saw that it was on the TV Guide and was like, "We know what you will be watching tonight!" They know me so well :)
Saturday was such a great bonding day :) I went for a run and then had lunch with the family. After lunch, the 3 of us (Alain, Isa, and I - since the boys were too cool to come along) took an hour and half car ride to the South of Belgium bordering France to visit the famous Abbey where they make the famous, trappist Orval Beer. The Abbey of Orval was founded in 1070 and became a Cistercian Order in 1132. The Abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution (you can still see the ruins of the old church) and then rebuilt before the Second World War in 1926 (finished in 1939) in an Art Deco and Romantic Cistercian style plan. Around 1076, the Tuscan Countess Matilde visited the valley and loved to take strolls along the spring that ran through the valley. She some how lost her engagement ring in the spring when she was getting a drink of water. She went to a nearby chapel to pray since she was so desperate and sad that she lost her late husband's ring to her. While she was leaving the chapel and passing the spring, a trout came to her and gave her ring back. She was so overwhelmed with joy and the power of God that she said, "Oh! This really is the Valley of Gold!" Now, for those of you not up to speed.... "gold" in french is "or" and "valley" is "vallee"... and that is how the region became known as Orval. The trout and gold ring are now preserved by being the symbol of Orval and to this day, the spring that Matilde lost her gold, engagement ring in is still used as the source of water for the Abbey and the Brewery. Not only is the Abbey famous in a religious and architectural sense, but the Abbey is also famous for it's trappist beer. The Brewery of Orval was created in 1931 in order to finance the reconstruction of the Abbey... and to this day the revenues of the brand are used to finance social works of the monastery and maintain the buildings. There are only 7 trappist beers in the world still in operation... and Orval is one of them (in order to be called a Trappist Beer, the beer must be brewed in an Abbey by monks -or some religious order)... so it is kind of a big deal. The monks are also kept busy with making cheese in the "fromagerie" or cheese factory. The Abbey of Orval has been making "Port du Salut" cheese since 1928 from an ancient, monastic recipe from 1816. The cheese is made from fresh, whole cow's milk from neighboring farms. The neighboring farms are in a part of Belgium called Gaume - which in the heart lies Orval. The cheese is known for its smoothness and is washed by hand in order to obtain a rich taste and soft texture. Not only was this Monastic visit so interesting but it was so beautiful... I couldn't stop taking pictures! I even got to see a monk :)
I loved spending time with my host-parents and visiting a beautiful and interesting part of Belgium. We have not done tons of activities like this together as a family (since life gets busier as the days pass) so it was even more special that they took me to do this :) I will never forget my sunny Saturday spent with my parents at a interesting, old Abbey in southern Belgium.
Yesterday (Sunday) we had a barbeque to taste Kansas City's famous Barbeque sauce :) It was so cute! They planned a barbeque just so they could taste this concoction that my mother sent from America! The boys didn't even try it since they are kind of picky ... and Isa thought it was too spicy (which after being in Belgium for 8 months... it kind of was a bit spicy for me too!) ... but Alain loved it! I think he had half the bottle! I love this sauce and it reminded me of home so much... I love how certain tastes or smells just remind you of home. I'm trying to figure out if it is bad or good that 'home' is brought to memory by barbeque sauce.... I'm such a mid-western girl sometimes. Even if the family doesn't end up using the sauce on a normal basis.... it was still cool to share a part of my life in Kansas City with them :)
Today I went on a long run and the sun is shining... yet I have decided to spend a majority of my day inside working on this blog! That is what I get though for putting it off so late... no complaints from me! I just hope I summed up everything in a respectful manner, full of some humor, and thoughtful insight from the American in Belgium.... :)

Hope everyone has a good week full of sunshine and laughter (was that too hippy for even me?)
All for now :)