The 4th Month Update....

Bonjour tout le monde! Comment ça va?! Tout va bien pour vous j'espère! Ici en Belgique.... je dis que tout va mieux maintenant, mais il est très difficile de temps en temps.  

"Hello everyone! How's it going? I hope everything is going well for you guys! Here in Belgium... well, I say that everything is going better now, but it's really hard from time to time."

Well I know it has been entirely too long since the last time I updated, but these passed two months have been a bit uneventful, and frankly quite difficult.

I shall start from Halloween... Well, Halloween is not at all popular here, so I was unable to celebrate. I made pumkin pie for my family however! But sadly, it was not a hit. Halloween day we had pumkin soup, and that was about the extent of my celebration.

Next big event had to have been my 18TH BIRTHDAY!!!! Although, it was fairly uneventful as well. On the evening of my birthday I went to a concert in Brussels with my host brother, François. It was at this cool concert hall called Le Botanique... basically a botanical garden with small concert halls. It was quite amusing. The concert we saw was The Anwering Machine (small band from Ireland) and the Tokyo Police Club (a popular rock band from Canada). We enjoyed the concert with my fully legal liberties of drinking beer and taking shots. Lets just say getting up for school friday morning was a tad bit difficult.... All in all though it was a great birthday. :)

The following weekend I made a Thanksgiving feast for my family. I cooked all day Saturday, starting at 11:30 and ending just before 9:00 in the evening. The dishes included my mom's famous "cheese ball" for an appetizer, a rosemary seasoned turkey, scalloped potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, and for dessert a peach cobbler. Everything turned out absolutely splendidly! My family was a bit skeptical about the cheese ball at first, but after they tried it, it turned out to be the biggest hit! It was an evening of American-style gluttony in the land of Belge.... But I figured it was fitting since their food has made me so plump.

Other than those events, not a lot has gone on. I've been sick a lot since I have been here, missed quite a bit of school, and on top of it all, I was really home sick and lonely for the better part of a month and a half.

If you all would like to know the blatant truth, I do not have hardly any friends here other than exchange students. The Belgians are somewhat hard to befriend because they are so cliquey at school... staying in their packs, keeping their tight circles as closed as possible. On top of it, most people in my class are one or two years younger than me, and maturity wise, anywhere from three to five years younger. The norm here for kids is to study ALL THE TIME.

Speaking of studying.... I absolutely hate everything pertaining to school here. They take it way to seriously... and I don't say this because I have no desire to participate in school (which is true) and not even the fact that I am completely done with school in the US... It's the fact that they take it so seriously for a school system that is a much slower pace and lower level than that of the school systems in the states. Us exchange students rant and rave every time we meet about how disillusioned the students and educators here are, and how much they ridicule our school system when it is clearly far superior to the system here. For example, in Belgium, the school system is set up to fail students. Anywhere between 50 and 70% of students repeat at least one grade. There are students in my grade that are 20 years old, and a handful of other students in the other grades that won't finish high school until they are 20 or 21. The teachers are cold with their students, there is absolutely no relationship or friendliness between student and teacher. In addition, they treat all the students (including upperclassmen) like we are in grade school... We have to stand in line outside, waiting to go to class, we are led to our classrooms by the teachers, we are not drink so much as water in class. RIDICULOUSNESS I TELL YOU! It's hard to believe that I had to come here and see this system to fully appreciate the liberties and greatness of our systems and teachers in the US. I can honestly say that all my teachers back in Eugene I had a friendship with, and that they do anything and everything they can to see their students succeed.

Before I came here, I was convinced that I absolutely hated everything about living in the US... again I find it hard to believe that it took me coming here to fully appreciate my life in the states, and the accessibility of my life at home.

I miss my friends, I miss my family (even though I SWORE all throughout the application process I wouldn't...) I miss driving, I miss my bed, I miss REAL junkfood, I miss microwavable food, I miss watching football, I miss being active, and most of all, I miss my pre-Belgium body.

I guess it really is as the saying goes, you don't know what you got till it's gone. And although this experience is challenging, exhausting, wonderful, terrible and the greatest test of character imaginable.... I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. :)

On the French front.... The language is still difficult and confusing with all of it's intricacies, but I converse fairly easily and I understand most everything that people say. I took my "mid-terms" this week and I feel like I passed... so that is good.

Well, until the next time I have the urge to blog.....

AU REVOIR! :)

Do you want to know more about Belgium?

Credit for this one goes to Breanna Briggs, but I enjoyed it, and it is somewhat helpful in explaining the oh so confusing assets of the Belgian government. :)

London, Paris, & Six Weeks Into the Greatest Year of My Life

Well, it has officially been six weeks since I arrived in Belgium, and I can easily say that it has been the best six weeks of my life thus far. Since I have been here, I have met oodles of great people; attended a few Belgian festivities; tasted WAY TOO MUCH good food; tried many a good beer and wine; traveled to two other countries, and found a new family with whom I will always be connected to.

The 10th of September, I had the privilege to travel to London with my host brothers, Benoît and François, a few of their friends, and my host sister, Fanny. We drove from our humble village of Deux-Acren (pronounced deuzz-ack) to the port of Calais, France to take a ferry to Dover, Great Britain. The ferry ride from France was about 45 minutes long and quite quaint. Upon arrival in England, we drove for about two and a half hours to London, where, that evening, we attended a concert of the popular English band, Muse at Wembley Stadium. We were a group of seven, including three good friends of François and Benoît from Belgium. Three of us stayed at the apartment of another Belgian friend who now lives in London, the others stayed at a hostel type place nearby. 

Antoine, the Londoner-Belgian, served as our tour guide and travel director during our stay in London.

Le Grand Concert de Muse

The concert was set to start at 18h00, with the doors opening at 16h00. We left Antoine's house around 16h30 and took the metro from nearby to Wembley Stadium. We arrived just shortly after 17h00, and had no problems getting in... EXCEPT that the dude at WILL CALL didn't want to give François our tickets because in the English computer systems when the character "ç" is used, it shows up as "c4sdf" or other ridiculous characters such as this... Thus making finding our tickets near impossible. But, with our good Belgian luck (ironic... refer to my video post about Belgium) we got out tickets. So, we secured our spots in the standing room only section (the best spot of any show), just left center of the stage, about 30 meters away. SUPERB spots.

 The group in our "I <3 Muse" t-shirts, minus François. 

Back from left to right: Me, Fanny, Sophie, Kevin and in front left to right: Antoine, Remi, et Benoît

(I'm not supposed to post any pictures with any of my host family in them, so no one tell my host mom! She always knows....)

The first band that went on was called White Rabbits, a GREAT band from New York. Next was The Big Pink, a very disappointing and weird band from I don't care where. And then... from London, one of my favorite female artists... LILY ALLEN!!!!! She was AMAZING.

 Lily Allen!!!

And the band we had been waiting two and a half hours, and traveled to a whole other country to see......... MUSE!

 Opening song: The Resistance.... EPIC

 Exogenesis Symphony Part 2 (Cross Pollination)

 Playing on a moving lift about 10 meters in the air- SWEET

 The lighters, cell phones, and camera flashes that illuminated the stadium during an encore.

 Encore- Exogenesis: Symphony Parts 1 &3

(Acrobat dancing from an inflatable UFO)

Two hours of utterly amazing music and two encores later, I had officially experienced the best night and most amazing concert of my life thusfar.

The original plan for after the concert was to go out and get a drink, but after waiting an hour to get on the train and the short ride home, we were all too tired to go out, so we returned to our slumber-spots, and slumbered. 

Saturday morning we got up bright and early from our amazing night, at the ripe young hour of 9h30  departure time. Our first sightseeing spot of the day was a very large and famous park. After, we saw a few huge cathedrals; Harrods, one of the largest, most expensive, and most popular stores in the World (at one time it was the chosen store of the Royal Family). Then, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the house of the Prime Minister, Camden Town, London Tower, London Tower Bridge.... perhaps there are  other attractions that I have forgotten, for it was a very long day in which we traversed most of London by foot in just one day.

 

With one of the famous London Guards!

 (He was supposed to be a mounted guard)

                         In front of Buckingham Palace                            

        Left to right: Fanny, Antoine, Benoît, François, me, Kevin          

AGAIN: HUSH HUSH TO HOST MOM! ;)

We left early Sunday morning for the ferry in Dover, and made it back home around 14h00. It was a truly amazing weekend that I'm sure I will never forget. 

Le Petit Voyage à Paris

My host dad, Laurent, is a doctor. A few weeks ago he had a medical conference in Paris and invited us to come along with him for a short voyage. We (Laurent, Cécile, Fanny, et moi) left for Paris Saturday morning at 6h30. We arrived in Paris around 9h00, and from the conference center, Cécile, Fanny, and I took the metro to a station just a few minutes away to meet Cécile's sister and brother-in-law. From there, we walked to the Louvre, Notre Dame, Le Centre Pompidou (HUGE modern art museum), Les Champs Élysées, various cathedrals, followed by a leisurely sightseeing boat ride (on which Cécile and I both fell asleep). From the boat, I got quite a few good pictures of me with La Tour Eiffel in the background. That evening, we had a delightfully delicious dinner as a group at a quaint little restaurant. Afterward, we went to a nearby theatre to "regarder une pièce de theatre" (see a play). It was a comedy called "Le Technicien", I understood the majority of it, but most of the witty jokes were a bit too much for me to comprehend. Making this our end of the long, fun-filled day, we returned to the hotel for a much welcomed sleep.

From the boat :)

 In front of the former house of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Laurent had his convention again Sunday, so we did a little bit more sightseeing in the morning and into the early afternoon. We saw more cathedrals, and hiked up to what my legs and butt would tell you was the highest section of Paris, but I'm not entirely sure if that is true. Here we saw Saint Pierre de Montmartre, a huge cathedral overlooking Paris, the art district of Montmartre where some of the most famous artists worked and lived; Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste tenoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Langston Hughes just to name a few. On our descent from Montmartre, we saw Moulin de la Gelette, a cute little vinyard, a few houses of old french celebs, and last but not least, the Moulin Rouge. Marking this our last sight to see in Paris, we took the metro back to the convention center to meet Laurent, and headed home to Deux-Acren.

______________________________________________________________

Since these little voyages, I have mainly gone to school and just hung around at home. During the week it's pretty quiet at the house, usually just Benoît, François, Azeline, my host parents, and me. It's nice most of the time, but it leaves for a lot of free time... which often turns into nap time.  I will confess that the previously set goal to run or bike everyday has failed miserably, and I regret to say I have gained x# of pounds. I'm steering away from the scale until I start to lose some of this unwanted poundage. Recently I started a scuba diving class, which will help me stay active. François and I still run sometimes, but not quite as often as we were. This last week I did start swimming laps in the beautiful pool in our backyard at night, which has been nice. Regrettably, my host dad plans to close it for the winter this weekend. I was supposed to start a Zumba class yesterday (dance exercise), but Wednesday afternoon I came down with a debilitating virus that has made my body hurt allover, and given me the worst of migraines and sore throats, which has in effect tied me to my bed for the past two days. Hopefully I will be able to start Zumba next week, cause I need to do some calorie shedding activities!

Tomorrow it is on the schedule to go to a town called Namur for a "All District Rotary Event" containing a boat ride, lots of walking, picture taking, and hopefully eating (bet you can't guess why I'm so fat...). And tomorrow evening there is a soirée for my friend from school that's turning 18, which should definitely be fun. But, we shall see if my bed-ridden illness has subsided just long enough for me to see the daylight. On the upside, my Belgian friend Loïc has diagnosed me via wikipedia to having Mono. Whatta guy!! ;)

I will try to update my blog somewhat more regularly, but it is very time consuming and requires lots of brainpower. Because lets face it, being an exchange student is a full time job, filled with lots of language headaches and much needed power naps.

À bientôt!

A quaint word before the next novella....

I've said it once, I'll say it again, I am aware that I don't blog nearly enough as I should... There have been many a great events since the last blog, so this blurb will be short and sweet (j'éspere...), and I will try to just touch on the main points up until now....

September 3rd I had my first solo rendez-vous with some fellow exchangees in the college town of Mons about an hour away by train. The group consisted of Americans- Sarah from New York and me, Canadians- Brianne and Jannelle, and an Aussie- Julia. Julia and Sarah are the only ones that live in Mons, so we all stayed at Sarah's house that night. Sarah literally lives across the street from the University of Mons, and about two blocks away from the beautiful Grande Place. Upon arrival, the Canadians and I got some pizza at an Italian place waited for Julia and Sarah. After that, we enjoyed an evening of fun, dancing, and meeting new people at the great Marche Aux Herbes.

Saturday I returned to Deux-Acren via train bright and early. In the afternoon I went on a very nice bike ride with François for about two hours. It was the perfect weather for it too. We rode along the river into the Flemish region of the country- which one can easily tell is much wealthier than the French region. That evening I had a Rotary obligation with my host sister Fanny at Le Fêstin de Lessines. A festival set in the middles ages, par the history of the city. Fanny and I had the great privilege of dressing like the Ugly Stepsisters from Cinderella, and sitting on display for the whole town while we ate very interesting food with our hands...


I started school on the 6th, which is relatively the same in the sense that is boring. However, the courses and regulations themselves are quite different. I have 8 classes per day, one hour each in length, and 5 alone before lunch. This was the real shocker for me, because with my schedule in the US, I had an hour and a half of class before lunch... Still adjusting to this aspect to say the least. I am in 6th grade (sixième, Rheto) the equivalent of a Senior in the US. My class of 2011 consists of about 50 or so kids, split into two sections- A and B. I am in A, classes based around the sciences. (I have no idea what the other classes are based on, but we often have classes together.) Before school, after breaks, and after lunch, every class must line up and wait for the teachers to escort them to class- also VERY strange. Once in the classroom, everyone must wait until the teacher gives permission to be seated. And once seated, I am fairly certain one is not to get up or move from their seat. I go to school 8 hours a day with the exception of Wednesdays, when everyone gets out at either Noon or 1h00. I am still trying to figure out the schedule, because there have been multiple occasions that classes did not follow the schedule. Per week, I have a total of 12 hours of French, 3 hours of PE (all of which are back to back Tuesdays after lunch), economics, history, optional history (just an extra history class), English (my favorite class!), and Greek. My understanding of the courses is very strange... While I understand nothing in any of my French classes, I understand everything in my history and Greek classes. I have met a lot of nice kids at school, and they all try and help me out. But I know and understand that I am still the "new foreign exchange student". 


Starting yesterday I have had quite a douzzy of a cold. I ended up coming home early during lunch yesterday, and staying home today. I am feeling much better today and plan to go to school tomorrow. I would like everyone to know that today wasn't a complete waste... Hold onto your hats everyone, what I'm about to reveal might blow your minds.... Don't say I didn't warn you... Ok, here it goes...


I, Ashley Sarah Mathers, on this 15th day of September in the year 2010, cleaned my room AND my bathroom. But not only did I clean, I swept and mopped the floors, cleaned the bathtub, the sink, and I even scrubbed the toilet. I also ironed a number of wrinkly clothing items. 

All of the above mentioned items were done of my own free will on my own accord. I welcome any comments, kudos, virtual "pat-on-the-back's", or donations for my hard work in monetary form at anytime, payable to Ashley Mathers- 14 Place d'Acren, Lessines, Belgique. 


(That last part was a total joke, please don't send me cash, for it will get lost/stolen in the mail.) ;)


And there you have it.... yes mom, this is all 100% true. And no, don't expect it to happen when I get home. ;)

And now, a few lists-


MY NEW FAVORITES:

• Speculoos- This will be the product of my kilotory demise. Basically and gingerbread-like spread the consistency of peanut butter.
• Nutella- Always to die for, another product of my kilotory demise.
• CHEESE- It's all so good... and it's in EVERYTHING.
• Beer- I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy a good beer now and then. Not often though, for it is a very acquired taste.
• Wine- I do enjoy a good white wine with dinner every night, par the Belgian custom.
• BREAD- Another product of the kilotory demise. I eat so much bread now that I am too embarrassed to state the number of pieces I consume on a daily basis. 
• Motorcycle Rides- I have been inspired to get a motorcycle along with a license when I return home. 
• The Driving- While it's fast and crazy, and sometimes scary, it encourages me to know that there are MANY drivers that are worse than me in the world.
• The Fashion- It is a fashion based around neutral colors, stripes, heels, boots, flats and skinny jeans. People dress up here EVERYDAY, it is socially unacceptable to walk out of the house in sweatpants or pajamas. If someone does this, it is permitted to shun and stone said offender. (Just kidding on the stoning part... But shunning is highly likely.)
• Faire les bisoux!- This is the cheek kissing that is done upon EVERY meeting of EVERYONE you meet, even for the men. Yes, men faire les bisoux with other men, all the time (and think absolutely nothing of it.) I absolutely LOVE this custom.
• And the men of course!- I've said it once, I'll say it again... European's are good looking, 'nuff said.

MY NOT-SO-FAVORITES:

• Red Wine- Just can't dig it. 
• The driving- While I also love it, it does make me a bit car sick sometimes.
• Les Crêpes Flambé- Or drunken crêpes as I like to call them. This is a dessert crêpe cooked and set on fire with Cognac. They are supposed to be quite special, but there is just too much of an alcohol flavor for me.
• The effervescent smell of cows- It is everywhere and it is just not pleasant. 
• Feces on the sidewalk- This is EVERYWHERE!!! Dog feces on the sidewalks, and it is socially acceptable! One must be very careful when navigating any sort of sidewalk, path or street. 

• School- I'm just not digging these long hours....

So this blog wasn't as quaint as I wanted it to be, but sometimes you just need to use words! I will be writing a fairly lengthy blog within the next few days about my recent trip to London. 


À bientôt!

(P.S. That wasn't my real address, so please don't try to send things there. If you are interested in my Belgian address, email me, comment the blog, facebook me, anything works, just ask!)

The Cove PSA - My Friend Is... (I realize this has nothing to do with Belgium, but this is a subject near and dear to me... Please watch!)

Ohh Mon Dieu!

I have no idea where to start from where I last left off.... I have been in Belgium two weeks now, and I can honestly say I have loved every moment of it! This is truly an AMAZING country, and I am SO glad that I followed through with my voyage. Because, as hard as it is to believe, there was a time after my acceptance, that I absolutely didn't want to come. Crazy, I know.

Last Thursday we had a HUGE Rotary get together in Brussels for all of the Rotary districts in Belgium, equalling out to somewhere around 300 exchange students. It was a ton of fun, and I got to meet a bunch of cool kids from all over the world! First we went to the royal palace (of the king) and took a tour... It was HUGE; and there really is gold on the walls, and chandeliers in every room, and giant portraits of anyone that is important in every room. haha. We were strictly forbidden from taking pictures inside the palace, they even made you LEAVE your camera's and large bags outside the palace to assure that you would not break any of the rules. BUT, being the rebel I am, I stuck my camera in my blazer pocket and snuck it in... JUST so it wouldn't get stolen, I didn't take any pictures inside. ;)/:(
After our rendez-vous at the palace, we went to the Parliament building and were explained to how (relatively) the government here works, or is supposed to work. If you are unaware, there is currently no government in Belgium right now. There is a King that serves for the purpose of the image of unity (i.e. he cuts ribbons and smiles for the camera), there is a prime minister who is for the most part in charge of everything, but just like our government, it is a bicameral legislature made up of way too many people for such a small country. haha. After that I returned home via train with my counselor Christine and my host mom Cécile.

 

I am somewhere off to the right, about 2 people behind the flag. These were JUST the students from the US.

Friday was relatively calm, rested at home for the most part. However, in the evening I went for my second motorcycle ride since I have been here with Benoît (eldest host brother whom I have a mad crush on) and my host dad Laurent tagged along on his "hog" (equally large, but not a Harley). It was a lot of fun, but this time was more winding and site seeing than speed. ;)
Shortly after we got home, a couple (friends of Laurent) had arrived at the house from France. We had a fancy three-course dinner at the house following hor d'ourves and champagne. I had my first run-in ever with the age-old "too many silverware" problem. I had to ask my host brothers which utensils to use, needless to say they laughed at me. A LOT.

Saturday we had a district Rotary meeting in La Louvière about an hour away. It was the "Welcome Meeting", and basically we discussed rules the whole morning. It was a much smaller group of exchange students, there were about 70 of us and it was good fun all around. They served lunch and dessert, with a wide array of beverage options including wine and beer, for the students as well!
As soon as I walked through the door when I got home, my host mom told me that they were leaving with the French couple to visit Bruges (a large city in the Flemmish portion of the country). And the #1 rule of Rotary Exchange is.... ALWAYS SAY YES! So, I said yes. It took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get there, and as soon as we got there we sat down at a little café and had a beer. My beer of choice is Kriek (pronounced "creek"), it is a beer with cherry flavor and is very good. After we finished our beer, us girls went out on the town to walk and explore. Everything closes early here (around 18h00), and it was about 18h30 when we started walking... so shopping was somewhat out of the question, but the sight seeing was fun. We managed to make it into a Belgian chocolate shop and bought beaucoup des chocolats!

                          This is a church (I believe...) in La Grande Place de Bruges.

After about an hour and a half of exploring, we returned to find the men in the same place, and went on our way towards home. We stopped in a village close to ours called Hellebecq and had a wonderfully fancy dinner. It was also a three course meal, and after having that, I don't think I will ever go back to having American food! All in all it was a very enjoyable day.

This week has been slightly less jam-packed with activities, so I have been able to sleep in quite a bit and just be lazy before school starts.
Monday, the plan was to get up around 6h30 to meet a group of exchange students at the Bruxelles Centre station at 9h30, meaning I would take the train from my village at 8h35. WELL.... As many of you probably know, once you hit that snooze button, you are screwed. I hit the snooze at 6h30, and woke up finally at 8h25. I jumped out of bed, raced to put clothes on and get ready to go; made it out of the house at 8h35 (I thought the train came at 8h44), RAN to the train stop, and made it there by 8h44, but when I checked my schedule, I learned that the train had left about 10 minutes early. GREAT. Sounds like me doesn't it? So, I took my time walking home. I got home to find out that EVERY door to the house was locked. I had to text my host mom to have her let me in. Then I was able to sit down, eat breakfast and drink coffee as per my new morning routine. I looked up the times for the next trains, but by then it had started pouring rain outside so I decided against going to Bruxelles for the day. I finished eating and made my way up to my room to take a nap. I was in bed when my fellow exchange friend texted me to see where I was in Bruxelles. AHH PUTAIN! So, I told him I'd be at the central station in an hour and a half, got my butt out of bed AGAIN, and went back to catch the train. This time, I was about 10 minutes early.
I made it to Bruxelles around 13h30, met my friends, and we were off! We went to a Greek restaurant for lunch, and I saw a guy wearing an Oregon tee-shirt. WAH!!!! I told him I was from Oregon, and he had no idea what I was talking about. He was Grecian and on a trip with other students from Greece, but had no idea what or where Oregon even was. I was still amused be the fact that he was wearing the shirt though. ;)
After eating we explored for a short time, and then found a pub where the rest of our friends were. I stayed there and chatted for about an hour and a half before having to leave to meet my host mom at the Bruxelles Midi station, in order to meet my OTHER host sister Fanny whom just got back from a one month exchange in Mexico. She is very nice and I foresee a good friendship with her. :)

Benoît is an engineer (along with François, and Damien and Fanny are studying to be engineers as well) and he works often in Romania, Czech Republic, Austria, and sometimes in Russia. He is a manager of "projects" such as building stacks(?)... I think they are supposed to be skyscraper-like buildings, but I don't understand because every time someone attempts to explain it to me, they explain it in french and I don't understand the message. :( BUT, from what I have gathered, he is in-charge of hundreds of workers on these projects and he has lots of responsibilities with his job. ANYWAYS, he left Tuesday evening for an undetermined amount of time to Bucharest, Romania. So that means no motorcycles for me anytime soon. :(

Today, I woke up late, ate, lounged around for a while, then I went on a run for about half an hour. Afterwords I helped my host mom put the garbage, recycling, and yard debris in the van to take it to "Le Container". Basically a large recycling center, but you have to have everything presorted and they are very strict with all the regulations- unlike in the US where you can throw everything in the same bin and have it automatically sorted. But, it was quite the adventure either way; I almost fell into a recycling container full of yard debris that was 70ft long and 30ft deep- it was filled to the brim, but nonetheless still scary! We got home around 18h30, François was home by then and asked me if I wanted to go running. I told him that I had already gone today, but, I decided to go with him anyways for some EXTRA exercise. I know... ME, exercise? NEVER. Let alone twice in the same day. So, altogether today I ran for about an hour, probably somewhere around 5-6 miles. I feel quite accomplished. There is a ongoing joke/bet in my host family about how many kilos I'm going to gain by the end of the year- Benoît says 7, François says 14, host dad Laurent says 20, I say ZERO! ;) And this is KILOS we are talking, NOT POUNDS! 1 kilo = roughly 2.2 pounds.... That is A LOT of weight!! My new goal is to run and/or bike everyday from now on... ambitious I know, but this weight thing is killin me.

I have really fallen in love with my new family and have become so attached to them. I do believe it is the perfect fit. I can't imagine leaving them in a few months. My host mom said that if I want, I can stay with them for the whole year. I would REALLY like to do this, as long as it doesn't cause problems with the next families that are supposed to host me. Yesterday they even invited me to go on vacation with them in July to a small island off the coast of Italy called Corsica. ABSOLUTELY YES!!! And I also found out that I'm going start diving classes every Friday night to become a certified scuba diver. Laurent, Benoît, and François are all certified and I hear that they scuba dive often. I am SO excited for this! Perhaps I will get to put my new skills to work on vacation in July. ;)

ANYWAYS, I am fully aware that I do not blog enough and every post is about a novel and a half in length, but "Like sands through the hour glass, so are the Days of Our Lives." If anyone can post a comment of what that is from, I'll surprise you with something in the mail! ;)

Alors, je dois me coucher maintenant. Bon soir, et à bientôt! :)

The last few days....

Have been so amazing that I don't know where to start!

OK, Friday- Friday was the the first day of the awesome weekend I had. In the morning, I took a little walk in the "village". Got some good pictures of it. The name of the town is Deux-Acren, which literally translates to "Two Acres". So you can kind of get a feel for how big this "village" really is. Probably the same size of Drain or Sisters in Oregon; but it's cute! The buildings are old and they look amazing, but the people here think it is a dump. You always like what you don't have, right?? After I returned home, I wrote in my journal a little bit outside because it was such a nice day out (about 20 degrees Celsius which is somewhere around 70 degrees Fahrenheit I think.) I wrote for about an hour or so, and by that time Benoit had come home from work. He asked me if I wanted to go on a ride on his motorcycle with him, and if you know the most important rule of exchange, it's to always say, "Yes!" And that is exactly what I did.

Benoit has a zippy little Yamaha "crotch rocket" in nice color scheme of blue and silver. I got to wear a fancy motorcycle jacket that has metal in it for protection "Just in case we crash," Benoit told me. Haha. I was only a little nervous after that, but everything was fine! Cecile told Benoit not to go too fast, BUT I told him I liked fast... so we went fast! The ride lasted at least an hour and we went through probably 6 or 7 small towns or villages. There is not a lot of countryside here because the country itself is so small and condensed, but what you do see of the countryside is beautiful. There are SOOOOOO many cows here that it is unbelievable. If you think there are beaucoup des vaches in Oregon, you should come here. Some people have them in their backyards even. And they are HUGE. At least twice the size of any cow I've ever seen in the United States. Not gonna lie, they look tasty. ;) Since the speed laws are either not enforced here or not important, we got up to 170 km/h on the freeway , roughly 106 mph. I feel that we should drive like this in the United States- I like FAST.
 
After nous faissions une promenade a moto, we ate dinner. A lovely meal of goat cheese wrapped in bacon (my mom would have my head if she knew that I actually liked it because she knows I would never try something like that if she made it. :) ) We also had salad and fries. It surprises me that people here eat such HUGE helpings, and eat so often, but that there are HARDLY any people here that are overweight, and virtually NO ONE that is obese. I haven't found any food here that I haven't liked yet. 

After dinner Francois, Benoit et moi went to Ducasse d'Ath. The festival of giants in the nearby town of Ath. To put it simply, it was amazing. I got to hang out with Francois and Benoit, meet many of their friends, and try a few different kinds of beer. It was a very good night and we got home at roughly 4h30 du matin, so I went to bed at about 5h00, and then got up at about 10h00. haha. The first thing that I bought since being in Belgium, was a round of beers for mes nouvaux copains. I ordered them all myself, in french and everything!

                                                                                                                                  
Saturday started out much the same. Got up, batherd, got ready, ate breakfast, bummed around, ate lunch, bummed around....


Then Cecile asked me if I wanted to go to a store with Laurent, Azeline and her to buy a chemical for the pool, so I said yes, of course! We went to a big store called "Dreamland". Very french huh? It was a store a lot like Toys R' Us, but more expensive. It was fun to see. We returned home at about 17h00, I changed my clothes, and Benoit et moi left for Ducasse d'Ath for the second night in a row. 

When we arrived, we went to the house of a friend of Benoit's to have a desert that is special just for the Ducasse. It was an almond-like tarte, and it was very good. We hung out there for a little while before hitting la fete (festival). Francois met us in la Grande Place and we all had fun and drank some beer. (I mostly had cokes that night, but a few beers also!) It was much like the night before, except we left a little earlier this time. We got home at about 3h30 and I went to bed around 4h00.
                                                                                                                           
 Christine was supposed to pick me up at 11h00 Sunday morning, right about the time my host mom knocked on my door and said, "Ashley, you must wake up now. Christine is supposed to be here at 11h00." "Merde. Ok, I'm up!" I raced to get ready since I didn't wake up until 11h00, didn't take a bath, had a morsel of breakfast, and then waited an hour for Christine to get here. When she arrived, she announced that that she is always late.... always. LIKE ME! :)

We went to Ducasse d'Ath for la Cortege (parade of the giants). Along the way we picked up a German exchange student named Alexa who is on exchange with AFS. She was very nice and we spent most of our time together that day. For lunch, we went to the house of a Rotarian, a judge in Ath. He was very nice, and the food was.... well I guess earlier I said I haven't tried anything that I didn't like... but I have. There was this fish thing.... Looked like a piece of candy or a cookie actually: it was square with green, pink, and yellow patches. I honestly tried to muscle through it, but it was impossible. I took two bites before I threw in the towel for that one. After lunch, we went to the OTHER house of the judge to watch la cortege from an upstairs balcony. The parade was LONG.... Probably three hours or so. Boring for the most part, but it had it's moments. After the parade, we went downstairs for wine and la tarte de la Ducasse. It was there that I met a few Rotarians and my second host family. Natalie Joly, my next host mom, asked me if I like to ski. I told her that I've never skied, but that I snowboard. "Oh good, because we go skiing in the ALPS often. You will come with us." WHAT?!?!?!?!! Concerts in London, weekends in France, skiing in the Alps... pretty sure I love this country. :) 

We said our goodbyes to the judge and everyone we met, then proceeded to la Grande Place for MORE desserts. Christine bought 28 Creme Puff- like things, minus the creme filling, approximately the size of a baseball each, for 4 of us! It's another special treat of Belgium, deep fried and topped with powdered sugar. I swear that everyone here is TRYING to make me fat. My host mom even said, "Don't worry about gaining weight, you must experience ALL of Belgium." HA! Yes, it's true. They are trying to fatten me up. Anyways, these treats were quite delicious, but I only had 3. I couldn't possibly keep eating or my stomach might have actually fallen out of my butt. (Excuse me if that was impolite. ;) ) We watched a the parade again in the place where it ends, but Christine says that it never ends because the people always say. "Encore, encore!" And the people get what the people want. We watched there for probably another hour. 

I didn't get home until about 10h00 that night, so Cecile and Azeline had gone to bed, and everyone else was watching TV in the living room. I sat and watched with them, but it is hard to watch American shows in French when you can't read lips! I went to bed shortly after. I am happy to say that I had a very good and eventful weekend.

 
                                                                                                                         
Today, Monday, I slept in until lunch time at 13h00 (on accident! My alarm went off at 10..) All-in-all it was a pretty lazy day. Stayed at home, rested, bummed around and ate lots of food. C'est la vie!

Now it is about 3h10 in the AM and I must get some sleep. Bonne nuit! :) 

Le deuxième jour!

So, today started out with waking up at the ripe young time of 8h00. Christine (my club councelor) met us in downtown Lessines so I could get une carte d'identité (a Belgian ID). After we finished applying, we went to le BNP, my new bank, to set up a debit account. Overall, those two things made for a very boring hour. But after that, my host mom took me to the Mobistar to get me a prepaid calling card for my cell phone. My host mom is almost overly nice, I have yet to spend a single euro. I can't REALLY complain about that though. :) This was my first experience in la grande centre de 10.000 gens. It was good to get out and see new things though. Although this is supposedly the poorest part of the country, it is all old and beautiful.

While getting ready for my day before we went to town, I had my first experience with the European bathing system. I took a bath in my bathtub, and since the water is so expensive here, you wet yourself down, turn off the water, scrub, and then rinse. Since I hadn't been able to shower since Monday evening, I took this opportunity to shampoo and condition my hair, and also shave. (Just in case you wanted to know! ;)) I should add that it was advised to me that if I shower everyday, I only wash my hair or shave every other day. So, today I did both. By the time I was finished, the mere 2-3 inches of water that were in the bathtub were not clear. This was quite discouraging.

After we returned home, we had lunch. Nothing too special, bread, cheese and ham. I am loving this diet based on bread so far. Hopefully I don't get too fat, too quickly. ;) We then went out again to go grocery shopping for Cécile's friend. We ended up buying only a few things, and again my host mother spent an outrageous amount of money on food, 212€/$272. It was crazyyyy. Then we went to Fernande's house to deliver said groceries, she was very old and walked with a cane, but she was very nice.

We arrived home just in time to rapidly unload the groceries and leave again to take François to pick up his car in another town about half an hour away. On the car ride there, I learned that François is going to a Muse concert in London in September, and he invited me to come! AHHHH!!!! SO excited! :) Earlier that day, my host mom also told me that we would go to Paris and Normandie at the end of September for the weekend. I just LOVE these people! :)

I came home from town with François, needless to say he is a crazy driver.... I LOVE IT! :) We picked up Charlotte from Lessines on the way. When we got home we drank some Porto Santelmo, and had hors d'ourves of green olives, cheese, and cherry tomatoes. We then moved onto a bottle of French Chardonnay, and then to a steak dinner with salad and skinned potatoes. After dinner, Benôit convinced me to try the Belgian beer, sooooo I did. Honestly, it tasted like beer. Either way you slice it, I'm pretty sure I just don't like beer. ha. I also tried the "World Famous" ice cream with a Belgian cookie called Speculoos. Pretty much vanilla ice cream with a gingersnap and caramel. All in all it was good. I have yet to try alcohol I like though.... Charlotte says to try the Fruit Beer of Belgium, or as I told her, "Bitch Beer." ;) It made the boys laugh.

Tomorrow evening, Benôit et Françoit will take me to a big festival in Ath. It is supposedly the festival of the marriage of David and Goliath? I didn't know when they went bromo, but I'll let you know how it turns out. ;)

Je suis très fatigue, bonne nuit! :)

Je suis en Belgique!!!!

After 15 hours of flying and about 18 hours in airports, I AM IN BELGIUM!!!!!!! The travels here were long and boring, and I managed to not sleep a wink on the airplanes, even after taking two Advil PMs. We met up with about 10 other Belgium-bounds in Philadelphia, and I am happy to report that they all seem like pretty cool kids. ;)

My first host mom, my third host mom, my Rotary counselor, and her daughter all met me at the airport bright and early this morning. They were so excited to see me, and they were all so nice!


The drive to my town of Deux-Acren, which is part of Lessines, took about an hour from Brussels. It was a very nice and scenic drive. It's very green here much like Oregon, and they have A TON of cows. The weather looked a lot like Oregon when we arrived as well- a pleasantly dark cloud cover, drizzly, and about 18 degrees Celsius (60 Fahrenheit).

When we arrived at my house, we took my things up to my room on the THIRD floor. My host mom and my counselor both commented on how much luggage I brought. ;) We trekked it up stairs to my personal room, with a large queen sized bed, AND my own bathroom. After setting my stuff down, we went down stairs and ate breakfast du pain avec Nutella, sauccisson, du jambon, et du saumon fumé. Afterwords, I got a full tour of this enormous house, complete with a dining hall, living room, kitchen, doctor's office, about 9 bedrooms, and a SWIMMING POOL! My host fathers car is a BMW X5, my mothers a large Toyota ban, and the cars just "hanging out" include a Land Rover, a Porche Boxter and a Porche Carrera. Oh, and my host dad has a PLANE. Hell to the yes! He said he would take me flying sometime!

I also met 4 of my 6 host siblings- François, Sebastian, Damien, and Azeline, my 14 year old sister with down syndrome.  They are all very nice, the boys speak practically perfect English, although none of them think so.


In the afternoon, my host mom and I went to the grocery store for a "few things". She bought enough food to feed the entire VILLAGE! And spent 165€, roughly $212.

After we got home, I started to help my host mom unpack the groceries, but through a series of events, fell asleep at the kitchen table. haha. I then proceeded to take a 2 hour nap.


Laurent and Cécile went out for the night, so it was me and the boys, and a family friend named Charlotte for dinner. She also spoke practically perfect english. She was telling me that she went on exchange to Mexico last year, but I think it was just a short term exchange. 

Before dinner, we had a some Porto Bello (?). It's a Portuguese wine-like liquor. I personally thought it was aweful,  but it seems to be a favorite of the boys. Charlotte said she prefers Martinis. I think I will become quite good friends with this girl. ;) François made a delicious dinner of chicken in "special sauce", des frites (fries), and salad. It was all very delicious. The only thing that I have found that I don't like so far is de l'eau minerale, sparkling water. And it is practically ALL they drink! Gah! It is almost painful to drink. Instead of sparkling water, I have taken up drinking Coca-Cola, ou Coca en français.

After dinner we chatted for a while, well actually they chatted and I mainly tried to listen. When Cécile or any of the boys address me, they speak to me in English. I want them to talk to me in french cause I CAN UNDERSTAND, mostly. ha. But they will speak to me in french when I quit giving them the deer in the headlights look. ;) Charlotte left after a while and then we proceeded to watch an American movie with french subtitles, their choice not mine! The movie was, "The Usual Suspects". I watched about the first five minutes before falling asleep on the couch. I woke up just in time for the credits. 


All in all it was a great day. I am glad that I was placed with such a nice family, and I am excited for the coming months with them. :)

Preparations and Setbacks

Visa- check

Tickets- check

Luggage- check
New Swag- check
Packed- uncheck
Going Away Party- uncheck
Passport with Visa in-hand- uncheck (I believe Fedex LOST my Passport)
Called Belgian family via telephone- uncheck
Super nervous- CHECK
SUPER EXCITED- CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK CHECK

So although I still have a TON of stuff to do... I am ready to get the hell out of dodge! (I don't quite understand the expression, but I've always enjoyed using it.;) )

I leave in 9 days and seems like there are a million and one things to be done, but really I only have to tackle the beast named PACKING. RAWR. So that should be interesting....

I fly out of Portland August 17th at 8:45AM, then to our connecting flight in Philadelphia, and from there it's nonstop to Brussels! We arrive at 8:00 Belgium time, so it seems like it's about 24 hours of traveling, but with time changes and everything it's really not that long. There is another girl from Oregon that is leaving at the same time, Breanna Briggs. I love that girl to death! I'm glad that we're flying out together. :)

Anyways, that's all for now. More to come as the departure comes nearer.