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! :)