Marché de Noël

So this past Wednesday we had a rotary trip to Aachen, Germany where there was the Marché de Noël. It had snowed all day and since there are a lot of exchange students who have never seen snow before, everyone was pretty excited. So of course we all jumper off he train and started a massive snowball fight. I got tackled a few times, and by the end couldn't feel my hands because of the snow, but it was still a lot of fun. 

When we got to Aachen, we were free to roam around by ourselves. Kelsi, Emily, Alba and I roamed around the shops, bought a few things, and just enjoyed the atmosphere. We all wore christmas hats and most people got into the spirit of things. All of the shops are small wooden stalls that are lined up in a square. You have to wind your way through the shops and there are some that sell small toys and things like that, while others sell German or holiday food. 

When we went to the designated spot to meet up, we were all given boot shaped cups of hot wine. It really warmed you up, and afterwards we got to keep the boots. :-)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope everyone stuffed their faces with awesome food.

In case you didn't know, Belgium does not celebrate thanksgiving. So I spent Thursday at both regular school and my french class. And afterwards, i skyped with friends and family back home and saw everyone enjoying a huge thanksgiving meal, which i did not have the pleasure of participating in. However, i was determined to bring a bit of the states over here. So i attempted to cook Thanksgiving dinner by myself...

I invited my friend Isabelle over too and she said that she would help me with he cooking. But she's Australian so she doesn't know much about Thanksgiving either. We couldn't get a turkey, so we made a roasted chicken instead. Green beans, carrots, and mashed potatoes. I was wicked nervous since i've never really cooked before, except for pancakes and mac and cheese. But everything turned out really well. It was definately a first for me, and i've decided that my future husband is doing all the cooking, but it was still a lot of fun. Except for all the stress :)

Oh, i forgot about the pie. It was pretty horrible. We burnt the pudding so it tasted like, if you can believe it, burnt pudding. But it's all good, we all laughed it off, and ate it anyways.

St. Nicolas

So here in Belgium, they have discovered the best holiday. It's called St. Nicolas. Or St Nic for short. The true holiday starts on November 21, for my school at least, and from that day on, all of the kids put their shoes by the fireplace, and every night St. Nicolas comes by and puts little presents in the shoes like candy or biscuits or other small toys. And on December 6th, the actual fete de St. Nicolas, he puts lots of toys. It's kind of like the big finale. But when you're older, it also has another meaning, an excuse to drink.

For the few weeks before St. Nic all of Rhèto (seniors) makes tabliers. A tablier is directly translated into apron, but they're more like big white lab coats. And eceryone draws a huge character on the back, which has to be perfect btw, and then you bring the tablier to school and everyone signs them. Kind of like a yearbook. In my town, St. Nic really started the night before on Thursday. Everyone went to a nearby bar and started to drink and finish signing tabliers and just talk and hang out. When some of the people arrived at about 11:00 they were already drunk. So my friend Kelsi and I went home after a while, but most people went to another bar or stayed over together at someone's house. The next morning everyine wears their tablier and goes out into the streets very early with mugs and stops cars in the road and begs for some money to buy beer. It used to be that if people didn't give you money you could throw flower at them, but you're not allowed to do that anymore. So Kelsi were going to get up at 5, but we slept through the alarm, so we went out at 8 instead. It was amazing, the streets by the school were filled with kids in white coats. But then the bell rang and since our school is kind of like a prison we had to run to get in the gates before they closed them. Everyone had drawings on their faces and had dyed their hair, and were still hungiver/drunk from the night before. 

For 3rd and 4th period, the was a big show that rhèto put on for the rest of the show. There was someone dressed up as St. Nic and then everyone else had made little skits. Most of which were just making fun of the teachers. It was all wicked funny and some of the teachers got really into it and had skits of their own. At lunch, we all went down to Place Verte (the center) and there was already a party started at some of the restaurants. And the place was filled with kids form all of the other schools, so it was just a mass of white. Then we had to go back to school, and the show was put on again for the older half of the school. After school, people go back into Place Verte, and then there is a huge party that everyone goes to and just drinks a lot. However, Isabelle and I left right after school to go to a Kanye West concert in Bruxelles.  So i didn't get to go to the hugs partys. But Kanye was so unbelievable, and afterwards we went to a bar near the Grande Place and had a really good time.

Hey guys,

Ok, so nothing that exciting has happened in the past week or so. But there was this small chocolate fair in Verviers that a few of my friends and i went to. It was in this big tent and a bunch of chocolate stores had set up stands. They put out a lot of free chocolate to advertize themselves and there were a few really cool chocolate statues. The next day, i went to Aubel with my mother. Aubel is a nearby town where My mother grew up and where her parents still live. It's also very famous for its cheese and other dairy products. But on Sunday there was a festival to recognize all of the animals. So there was a big parade where all of the horses in the town were ridden around to the center and then blessed. And after that people could ake their dogs down to get blessed as well. 

Since i don't really have a lot to say, and since i started this blog pretty late into the year, i'm gonna talk a little bit about my friends. At my school there are 4 exchange students. Raquel just turned 17 and is from Venuzwala, Isabelle is 18 and is from Australia. She has been here since January and so will be leaving in January :( And Kelsi is 18 and from Texas. In or nearby my town there are also a few other exchange students. We call ourselves the "V-Crew", yeah, we're wicked cool and even have a secret handshake. But in the V-Crew you have Rachael from New Zealand, Carissa/Canasian from Canada, Emily from New York, Jonny from Canada, and Anastasia from Russia. We all usually hang out a lot together and all go to French lessons every monday and thursday (except Emily doesn't go to those). Every Wednesday before we either have a rotary activity or go our seperate ways, we always eat at PITA, aka the best place known to mankind.  There's also Ollie from New Zealand, Sean from Nebraska, Alba from Texas, Adam from Colorado, Mariano from Argentina, and Fernanda from Ecuador. These are my friends who don't live in V-Crew but in Belgium and we hang out a lot.

So in the top picture is Isabelle and I at one of my host cousin's wedding. The next picture is at Louvain La Neuvre and from left to right is Jonny, Mariano, Alray(from South Africa), I don't know who the girl is, Ethan (from the US), and Sean. The next picture is on the Ferry on the way to England. From left to right: Ollie, Rachael, Lucas (from Brasil), me, and down below is Emily. And the Final picture is at The Opera and again from left to right: Alba, Melassia (from Venuzwala), Kelsi, Raquel, and me.

Paris

Ok so the next weekend, i had another trip set up to go to Paris, again with Rotary. Once again we left very early in the morning, and had a coupe stops along the way. Unfortunately, the weather was a little muggy out, so not ideal. The first thing we did when we got there was visit the Eiffel Tour. My friend Fernanda (from Ecuador), and I went up to the top first thing. Because of the weather we couldn't really see much of a view, but it was still fun t be up there. 

After that, we took a boat tour on the Seine. It ws really nice, but a little bit too cold. But by the time we got back, it was pretty dark out and the Eiffel Tour was lit up with blue lights. It was GOEGEOUS!!

The next day we went to visit The Louvre. That place is huge, so we obviously didn't have enough time to get to look at everything, but we did see a lot. Not to mention we got lost a few times. Good thing we knew how to ask for directions in French. After the Louvre, we went to see Notre Dame. We went up to the top and this time there weren't very many clouds in the sky so we got a good look at Paris' skyline and rooftops. After that, we drove down to the Champs-Elysèes and got a good look at L'Arc de Triomphe (my favorite Paris monument). We got to do a bit of shopping before meeting up for dinner at a restaurant called Chez Clemont's. 

The next day we drove to the Castle of Versailles. We took a quick tour of the inside before going out to the gardens, WHICH WERE HUGE!! It took us a couple of hours just to walk through part of it. I wish i had gone there in the spring or summer when the flowers are really in bloom. But it was still beautiful with all of the fountains too. 

England

Last week was my first school break. I had two rotary trips set up so i was pretty busy. On Saturday morning we took a bus from Liège to the cost of France. We made two stops along the way to pick up some more exchange students living elsewhere in Belgium. When we got to the coast, we went to through customs and took the ferry to England. We arrived at the White Cliffs of Dover which were absolutely beautiful. We got a few hours to ourselves to walk around Canteburry and do whatever we want. My friends Kelsi, Emily, Ollie, and I went shopping for a bit then went to visit the Canteburry Cathedral. It was gorgeous and definitely a must see. 

Then we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to London. There we saw Big Ben, The London Eye, The London Bridge, and The Tower Bridge by night and then again by day. We also got to visit The Winsdor Castle which was breathtaking. The next day we went to The Tower of London and took a quick tour, then were allowed to wander London until dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. Emily, Kelsi, and I walked down to St. Peter's Cathedral and only briefly went nside. We didn't take the guided tour. Then we took the subway down the Bg Ben and visited The Westminster Abbey. If you ever go to London, this is one of the places that you have to visit. It has so much history in it and it really takes you off your feet. Then we walked down to Buckingham Palace. By the time we were done it was getting dark so we headed back for diner.

The trip was amazing and i want to try to go back there before I leave Belgium. It would be nice to be able to visit on my own time.  

Hey everyone,

So i finally decided to set up a blog. I'm not very good with computers so it may take a while for it to get good, but just stay with me.

So i've spent almost three months here in Verviers, Belgium. I go to a high school called Saint Fançois-Xavier 2 (SFX2). My house is about a five minute walk form school and about a 15 minute walk into the center of town (Place Verte), where I go almost every day. 

In my family i have a 14 year old sister Anne-Laure who also goes to my school. I also have a 19 year old brother Adrien who goes to University in Brussels. He lives in Brussels during the week, but in weekends comes back home. It's like that for all universities here, not like in the US when you stay at your school until break. Their other siser, Marie-Caroline is on exchange in Australia right now.