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.