A Really Great Week of School

On Tuesday, I went over to my friends house to spend the night. We made super good spaghetti and watched a really nice movie. We also screamed at the top of our lungs because there was a spider on the wall behind us. It was a good night. (:
School this week was a little bit weird. We had school, but no classes on Wednesday-Friday. Instead, we had activities and choir rehearsal. Since the choir is going to Barcelona, we've been having to practice a lot lately. One day we practiced for 3 hours. The next, 4. Everyone was very tired after.

On Thursday, we had a 'Cafe' in school with the music department. The whole thing was to support Children in Calcutta. A teacher of ours goes there every year to help and they always do a cafe in the school to raise money. It was a really nice day. A bunch of people in the music class played music while everyone in the school came in and ate tons of food. (: It was a really fun day. 

On Friday, the music classes went on a trip to Brussels. We took the train and went to a museum about instruments which was really interesting. After, we went to an opera house and got to walk around and learn all about the shows that they do there. It was really beautiful.

AFS Mid-Orientation!

Half way through my year.. kinda scary actually. The time is really flying by. On Saturday, I got on the train with two of my AFS friends to Leuven. It didn't take too long to get there, but when we were finally there, we were alone so we had to stand outside for 15 minutes in the cold waiting for everyone. My feet were absolutely freezing! When everyone finally got to the station, we got on the bus and left to go to the camp. The location was in the same place as our first welcome orientation.
It was really nice to see everyone again. We played a lot of games and had a lot of fun. But it was still a weekend busy with workshops and talking about each others problems. It's too bad it wasn't two nights staying there because it was a really short time to try and see and talk to everyone. We had a party on Saturday night and in the morning we had to go home. Short and sweet. But it was super cold.. so its a good thing we went home so soon.

New Years Concert & Friends

At school, we had a new years concert for our choir. We sang mostly church-like songs, but they were still really nice. In the spring, we're going to Barcelona for a choir competition. I really enjoy the choir, the pieces are sometimes difficult but it's helping me a lot with my music reading skills! A brass band also played after the choir was done singing. It was really awesome to see and I enjoyed the music a lot.

After the concert, I went over to my friend, Agustin's house for his birthday. After we sat there and talked and caught up with everyone, we decided to go into town to a bar. It was so much fun and the music was so good. We stayed there for a while and then walked back to his house. Aysu and I had to take the bikes home. We went back and had a really delicious snack. In the morning, we made a really nice (really healthy) breakfast. I really like going out with my AFS friends, they're great (:
(It seemed everything happened on the 28th of January. My concert, a party with my AFS friends, and my 1 year anniversary with Thomas(:!! )


Every Wednesday, I get out of school at about 1pm. This week, Astrid and I decided that we'd have lunch together in Hasselt. It was a really nice time and we ate really good food. One thing I'm practically obsessed with here is lasagna. I don't know why, but it's the best I've ever eaten. After we ate, we went and walked around the shops.
That night, we watched the movie Rundskop. I thought it was a really good movie. It was actually based in, filmed, and in the dialect of my town that I live in here(Sint-Truiden). It was nominated for an Oscar, but sadly didn't get it.
(http://rundskop.be/)



That Friday, I had to wait for Nienke to get to Hasselt. I had an hour to kill so Ellen and I decided to get a drink. It had just started snowing maybe an hour earlier and it was so beautiful. The snow doesn't really stay for more than a few hours, so we took the opportunity to take a few pictures while it was still really beautiful!

When Nienke was finally in Hasselt, we took the bus to my house and spent the night pretty much just chilling. We ate tons of food (hehe), watched movies, and played games. In the morning, we made a really nice breakfast and then went outside in the snow and took pictures. We went to a little orchard, it was a lot of fun!

X-MOS!

Not too long ago, we had a huge day to celebrate the last 100 days of school, called x-mos. The whole point of the day was to put on a show (with music, dancing and small acts) to make fun of teachers and show talents. Also, we were able to trash the school and paint faces and hair of the younger years.

Everyone was given a whistle and a black hat to decorate however they chose. I did mine with all of the colors of the American and Belgie flags. We all got sweatshirts and t-shirts with our names on them, which the whole 6th year wore on Friday (the day of the show). We had to go to school at 7:00am on Friday. Which meant waking up at like 5.. good thing the day was worth it! When we got to the school, we all ate breakfast together. Once we were done eating, We went outside and set everything up for the show.

When all of the younger grades got here, we pretty much attacked them with lipstick and hairspray-dye. When everything was ready for the show, the whole school was outside waiting to see what would happen. It began with the principal carrying a torch like in the Olympics to the center of the field. There, they lit a bunch of really beautiful, small, fireworks.

The theme of the show was Circus, so there were people dressed in animal costumes running around, people doing flips and tricks in the middle of the crowd, and a ring master in the center. The show consisted of the ring master sliding down a rope from the top story of our 3 floor school, and a group of guys stripping into their boxers to I'm Sexy and I Know It - yes, just like the music video. The last thing for the show was a huge dance by all of us 6th years to Party Rock Anthem. That was probably one of the best parts. It was the entire class, including the box head like in all of the LMFAO videos.

After we were done with the huge act, all of the kids had to go to their classrooms. The night before we had lined the intire second floor with balloons. All you could hear for the entire day was POP! POP! POP!

Each person also had a bag of confetti that we proceeded to dump in everyones hair and throw down their shirts. It seems mean, but they were having just as much fun as us! After trashing pretty much the whole school, we got to go prepare for our second show while all of the younger kids had to clean our mess.. haha!

For the second part, we went inside to the stage and put on a big show with music and dancing and acts to make fun of the teachers. Here, I was in one act with my friends in my class. We sang Mama-Mia and had to wear really funny things on our arms and legs.

After the show, we went as a class to get something to drink. By this time, it was like 4 or 5. Our class met up with our class teachers in a nice cafe and we all, had a really nice meal.

After the meal, it was 8pm already. So we started walking to the party. The party was a lot of fun. I spent most of the nice with one of my best friends, Elise. With the exception of it being really really hot, it was a good party. I was certainly tired afterwards and for the next 3 days I didn't have much of a voice.