Exams and The Preschool

My school had their midterm exams last week and the week before. AFS has a rule that while we're not taking exams, we have to be helping out in the community. I only had to take two exams, which were conveniently on the same day. I chose to help take care of little kids in a preschool in my town. There were usually about 10 kids everyday, anywhere from age 0 - 2 1/2.
I really enjoyed working with the little kids and getting to know them for a while. I met some other really nice people that worked there, one of which is my age and is going to do this as her job when she gets older.
The kids were really adorable and we did things like crafts and dancing. But, sometimes they weren't so nice. Stealing toys, being bossy, falling, tripping, crying and bloody noses. You know, normal little kid stuff. Anyway, I really enjoyed it.

As for my two exams, I decided I'd take Physics and English. Both of which, I passed. So I'm pleased! (: English was almost perfect (I was hoping so..) and Physics was a little more than half the points, but hey, at least it's still passing! Hopefully at the end of the year, I can try to take almost all of my finals, just for fun.

Christmas Concert

Astrid, Kelly and I all sing in a "Pop Choir" in the city. I've been rehearsing with them since the second week that I've been here.. mostly Christmas songs, of course. We rehearse every week on Sunday and it's really been a lot of fun to join in.
Earlier in the month, we had a Christmas Concert with 5 other choirs. It was a really long concert, but really nice at the same time. We definitely had a jazzy-pop feel to our songs, where all the others had very classical music.

We sang:
Blizzard
A Child is Born
Angels Carol
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

 Then we went back up to sing some Dutch Christmas songs with the other choirs that were also there. It was so much fun to sing in Dutch, and I didn't think I was so bad! (:

Oh, and shout out to my mom who had her own holiday "Magic of Christmas" concert over this holiday season. Check out the link below (: She's in the back row on the right!

http://www.wcsh6.com/video/1322345354001/1/Magic-of-Christmas

A little Thanksgiving

It's been a while since I've written, but like always, a lot has been going on.

On December 4th, we had Thanksgiving here at my house. Astrid and I prepared all of the food for the whole family. I was pretty scared it wouldn't come out great, but it seemed to be much better than expected.

Together we prepared;

2 Apple Pies

Stuffing

Roasted Potatoes

Beans

Carrots

And of course, Turkey!

It was so much fun to make and even MORE fun to eat (:

After we ate, we played games that Sander had gotten from Sinterklaas.. Like Angry Birds! (:

AFS Internationale Avond

Last Saturday, AFS had an evening for our group, ZUL, a group of students hoping to go with AFS next year, and parents. We had to make one dish for dessert thats typical of our country. Because I wasn't able to make burgers or pizza or
something really typical American, and someone had already made cake, I chose to make Zucchini Bread. It turned out really well.

 Also, in addition to the dessert, we had to create some type of act to show SinterKlaas(pretty much like our Santa except he comes on the 6th of December). I chose to play and sing a country song. It was really nice seeing the Thai girls and Indian girl do traditional dances fro, their own home. It was a lot of fun!

Chrysostomos

Chrysostomos is a celebration students in the last year have here for the last 100 days of school. Obviously that isn't until Janruary, but for now, everyone is planning and planning to get everything done just right.
First, we had our Pre-XMOS party a few weeks ago. Honesty, it wasn't that great, mostly because there weren't many people. But like I said, it's only the Pre party! I'm sure the real party will be good and everyone will go to it.
Next, along with getting ready for the real party, the school will take a song and make a video with the whole class in it. We've rehearsed a little part of the song already in which we'll have a big flash mob in the court yard of the school during break. It's going to be so fun. Next week we'll have a whole day to just create it and not have class (:



Another cool thing about it is that many people get invited to go to other school's parties. I invited Aysu to mine, and she invited almost all our AFS group to hers. Hers was a lot better. More people, nicer club, better music. I hope our real one will be more like that. It was nice to be with all of my AFS friends (:

Dancing till my Feet Hurt!

I really love how much you´re able to just got out and dance with your friends. It never gets old. Last week, I only had school Monday-Wednesday, which is funny cause I had vacation just the week before. So after volleyball on Wednesday night, I took the train to Leuven to meet Nienke and spend the night with her in her dorm.  I got to Leuven around 10pm and we walked to her room. After we got changed, we left and went to a cocktail bar and both had a drink and ate more fruit and chips than we probably should have. (:
Once we had finished, we went to a big square where they had maybe 5 different bars to choose from. We went into one, but it was so small and had way too many people to dance. After going to three different places, we settled in a really nice place with plenty of room for us to dance and have a blast. They played awesome music and the atmosphere was good, too. It was a much needed sister date!

The next Saturday night I went to a party in Sint-Truiden called "Bompad" with Roeland, Kelly and Astrid. There were thousands of people there and they had to close the place 2 hours into the party because there were more people lined up outside wanting to come in. Good thing we got there early and already had tickets. The party was from 9 till 4, but we only stayed till 2. Still so much fun.



And we had a really good time laughing at a guy that was already wasted at 10:00! (The guy behind me).
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These two were probably the best places I've gone to dance.
So far. (:

School Vacation!

Two weeks ago we had the whole week off from school. It was a really nice break from the long hours we have to be there. Before the vacation even started I had begun planning every day.

During the weekend, I stayed at home mostly and hung out with my family. We all went out to eat muscles and salmon.. Mmm(: It was a dinner for the people that had helped during the Levensloop fundraisers.

Monday was probably the most fun of the whole vacation. We had a big get together with AFS again. It was awesome. We got to see everyone we wanted to from the first camp. I had to take the train there, thank goodness I went with some friends because I wouldn´t have known what to do, haha. We all met in Leuven and said hi to everyone again after so long. We then split into groups and went around the city looking for certain buildings or statues. Once we were there, we completed a task and then ran to the next place. The catch was, each team had a balloon. If another team pops your balloon, you pretty much lose. Lets just say.. my team didn´t exactly win. (: After the run around the city, we went back to our regular AFS groups with the people from our area and went out to eat dinner. Now comes the fun part! We all went and got changed and went to a club in the city where AFS had arranged everything. We were there from 10pm-3:30am. I was sooooo exhausted after that. The music was really good and It was so nice dancing with people I hadn´t seen since       the beginning of my exchange.

 

On Thursday I went to Antwerpen with my friend, Aysu. It was too bad the weather wasn´t great, but we went and saw some really nice places around the city like statues and beautiful buildings. We also went to a beautiful art museum. Sad thing was, after we got past the first floor, the power was messed up and the doors wouldn´t open anymore. I didn´t do it I swear!! Thankfully we were able to see the modern art and ancient art sections.

On Friday, I went and spent the whole day with my friend from school, Ellen. I went to her house and ate dinner with her and her really nice family. After, we sang karaoke, so much fun!Then, I went and watched her dance practice for a play she´s doing in a little less than a month, can´t wait to see it! Then, went met up with a few of her friends and we went out to a really nice bar and danced for hours.

Super Busy!

At the end of September my family went and helped out at a charity for cancer called "Levensloop". Most people in Maine would know this as "Relay For Life". So far we have volunteered for this organization twice. The first time was just a concert/show type thing with fries and beer (typical, eh?) :) And the second time was the actual walk. It was the first one in Belgium, so they told me and it was a really nice experience. Here, they also sold fries and beer. You have to know one thing about Belgium.. They really are crazy about their beer and fries. And they should be.. both are delicious! I'm pretty sure I've eaten more fries in the past two months than in my whole life!

In school, things are going really well. I've gotten to know a lot of nice people and I'm enjoying every second of it. I am taking really difficult classes but still trying my best in them. I've taken a few tests so far, and I just wanna say.. I thought my favorite class would be English, but it's actually the one I hate the most. And Physics is my favorite.. sad, huh? Truth is, English here is really difficult. First of all, it's British english.. how am I supposed to know they write "practice" like "practise" (-2 points by the way!). It's really nice to be able to pick and choose which tests I take and not, and it certainly makes it easier to focus on the language and not have to worry about studying.

On Saturday night, AFS ZUL (which is the section of Belgium I'm in) got together and went to Hasselt, the city where I go to school. We were finally meeting out counselors who would be there to help us if we had any problems. We went to the fair that was going on there and then we all went to a cafe to eat, of course, FRIES! (: After that, we all went and had a drink and talked a lot. I really like my counselor, as well as all the others. I hope the whole group can get together again soon.

I had my first volleyball game at the beginning of October. I only played a little, but it's been really fun. I've had a few games since then and I've been able to practice my setting a lot. I really like my team and coach. Everyone on the team is very friendly and they help me a lot on the court. Everyone here is really good at volleyball. My team has a lot of really good hitters and a really good libero. I think they are all making me a better player.

This past weekend, Astrid and I carved two pumpkins together. The first pumpkin was all cats (: It was pretty much based on Simon's Cat, which is absolutely adorable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP1Pk62X7XQ
Anyway.. then, after we were done with that pumpkin, we decided we should do the second one. So, we chose to have a pac-man pumpkin. It turned out so nice can it was so much fun to make. We have one last one to carve!

Yesterday all of us went to see a show in Sint-Truiden (the town I live in). The play was about a really rich couple who meets their new neighbors, a bunch of slobs. It was actually hilarious, but it was really difficult to understand sometimes. In Flanders Belgium, everyone learns "perfect Dutch" in school, but also, every town has their own dialect. So the whole show was in dialect. I was happy I understood the little parts that I did and I can't wait to see another play in a few months to see if I can follow the story even better!

School

I started school on the 1st of September. It was very interesting.. I have really grown close to my class, and I really like them. The thing is, we stay with the same group of people the whole year. I'm with the music class. For the most part, I really like all of my classes and teachers. It's definitely a challenge with the language barrier, but I have a lot of friends who help me translate things. Even English class is difficult.. mostly because it's British English.

I have so many classes in school; Math, Science, History, English, Dutch, French, and then 4 or 5 music classes. I'm really lucky that I get to have flute lessons every week, and on top of that, piano and choir. I also started playing volleyball and so hopefully I'll be able to play in my first game this weekend. The level of play here is so high, but it's a really good challenge.

Last week, my brother and I went to see the Amerika vs Belgie voetbal game. Although it poured almost the whole time, it was still a lot of fun. I was rooting for Belgium by the way, and we won(: I'm pretty sure everyone there knew I was American and was confused as to why I was cheering for the "wrong" team. Oh well!

Then, it was Roeland's birthday. Astrid and I made really good cupcakes and zucchini bread. It was all gone by the time the party was over. Yum!

My First Week

 

So first off, I am SO lucky I left last week and not now.. During Hurricane Irene. I was so excited to meet my family that if the flight was delayed at all, I don't know what I would have done. The flight from New York was good, except we didn't have any movies to watch.. very disappointing. But, the book everyone wrote in took me a good 4 hours to get through<3 Thanks guys (':

When we finally landed in Brussels, we had to take all of our things to a huge Monastery. Trust me.. 3 nights there was enough. There, they talked to us multiple times about our feelings and different situations we'd be faced with. Also, they taught us a traditional dance.. more on that later.
I met a lot of really awesome people at the camp, and Belgium isn't that big, so I know I'll be seeing them again real soon. We left the camp on Monday to meet our families.

So about that dance.. we weren't able to just go and see our parents right when we got to the meeting location, we had to dance in front of them and talk about ourselves in Nederlands (ha.. niet zo goed..) At home I have a Mom, Dad, brother, sister and nephew. And there's still so many more!

For the first few days, I was just so excited to see everything and be with my family that I pretty much disregarded my need for sleep.. big mistake. Now, I'm sporting a raspy voice, cough, and stuffy nose. So as of right now, sleep is kind of a priority. Which is fine with me because my bed is wicked comfortable.
So, I slept in till 11 on Wednesday and was woken up by none other than my sister, Nienke (: (: (: Such a nice surprise, and it was pretty much like we haven't been without each other. We spend the afternoon out looking at different shops and sitting outside at cafe's talking.

For the last few days I've been trying to decide what school I'm going to. I have chosen a music school which will offer me lessons and practice time with both flute and piano. I start on the 1st of September. I'll let you know how that goes!

Tot ziens.