21/4/2013

Woah, so it's been just a little over three months since I wrote here. It's been a while so grab some popcorn and a coke, because it's going to be a long one. So the week after I last updated I made a trip over to Brussels with my friend Henna. There we went and checked out the Grand Place, which is a large square that was the center of Brussels and has very old buildings from the Middle Ages. Located there is the old city hall and an old church that is very cool to see. Afterwards we went and saw the Atomium. The Atomium was the pavilion for Belgium back when they hosted the worlds fair in 1959. You can go inside and walk around in the spheres and use the tubes to continue to climb higher. It gives a good look at Brussels from the air. Inside they also have models of the pavilions of most of the other countries that were there. A while after my older host brother Mathieu went to California to visit the Google Headquarters and other firms like that. While he was gone I ate a thing that when literally translated turns into "Headless Bird." As it turns out there's absolutely no bird in it, headless or otherwise. It's actually a type of beef wrapped in a thing like bacon with a sauce native to Liege. I also started going to the scouts with my other host brother who's the same age as I am. He is one of the chiefs of what they call the Balidain, (pretty sure I spelled that wrong). That means I became on of the chiefs of the group of 6 to 8 year old kids. That was a new thing and was really funny because although I would speak to them in French they would thing that I was still speaking English because they couldn't understand my accent. It gets better with the older kids but it's still kind of hard sometimes. Sometimes I have trouble understanding them too, but that's normally because I can't hear them (it might be worth noting that I used the wrong "hear" just now. English has kind of gotten a little worse.) I also volunteered to help give a tour of Brussels to the Romanians who were coming to visit (Most of them speak English so I was translating.) So the next Wednesday I found myself in Brussels again and was learning how to navigate and what to show them while they were here. Also with my second family my host aunt really likes climbing so I started climbing as a sport with her here. I really enjoy it and I hope to continue that in the US. I also started going to a volleyball club with my host brother once a week as well. The next weekend I had what they call here a Hike but it was really more of like a mini camp out for a weekend in a building. It was there where I was given my "Totem." A totem is like a nickname that you're given when you become a chief in the scouts. My totem is Sajou. I'm not entirely sure what it is in English but it's the monkey that looks like it has sideburns. That week I had my vacation for Carnival. Monday I saw the carnival parade in a German speaking town called La Calamine. They had tons of floats and everybody had costumes on, it was really cool to see. Tuesday I went cross country skiing, which apparently I'm pretty good at. I was able to keep up with my host aunt who actually taught people how to cross country ski and she was going at her normal pace. That Wednesday I was at Bastogne where we saw a few American memorials and a couple museums. Thursday I went and saw the battle field of Waterloo and climbed the hill and saw the lion at the top. I couldn't stay up there long though it was a really windy and cold day so it was freezing. That Friday I spent all day teaching myself the calculus that we were doing in math class that I had never seen before. That Saturday I went saw the Boucle de Spa, which is a race where they have a speed limit and have to arrive at the finish the closest to a certain time that they can. The race was done all by old cars from 1964 to 1975ish. It was really cool to see all the old Porches and Lancias racing. We managed to get a spot right at a curve and saw a few cars actually spin out at the turn. The next weekend I participated in what's called the Franchimontoise, which is basically a giant game of hide and go seek tag. (most teams end up traveling 20 km to avoid getting tagged)  Most teams had about 5 people. The scouts between 13 and 16 had to try to avoid getting tagged and the scouts over 16 were the hunters and had to try and tag the other teams. This involved quite a lot of running. Since most of it was through the woods it was kind of hard when we saw a team and tried to chase after them because we had to chase them and avoid the trees at the same time. That Wednesday we went and visited Luxembourg a little with the rotary, and the next weekend I ran a 10K at the Jogging de Theux. My time was 66 minutes which I think is pretty good being I've never even ran a 5K before. It was really fun to do and we actually ended up running through the center of the town I live in. It was really cold though and it actually snowed while we were running. That Wednesday I went to Namur and saw the Citadel there it was still really cold and there was actually quite a bit of snow still. The next weekend my host family took me to see Paris for the first time! Paris is probably one of the coolest towns I've ever seen. While there I saw the Arc de Triomphe, a little of the Louvre, the Eiffel tower, The Montparnasse tower and the Rue d'Elyssees. We also saw this modern art museum where the building itself was one of the works. It was called the Beaubourg and the building was really a collection of pipes of varying sizes and colors all put together to make a building. When we got back the Romanians came to visit and so I made yet another trip to Brussels and gave the tour in English so everyone could understand. After they left we got our grades again. Most of my grades went up but I'm still failing Religion and Physics, but I'm failing a little less now. The only grade that went down was my English grade. (physical proof that I'm getting worse) Then we had our two weeks of Easter break. After the first weekend of break I left for the Rotary trip to Spain. After a great 24 hour bus ride we finally arrived Salamanca. The next day we saw The University of Salamanca and the buildings around it. All over the place were paintings of funny symbols, our guide later explained that they were symbols from the doctorate graduates who had passed and were allowed to write their names on the walls on campus saying they passed. Interestingly enough though, it was originally written in blood. The graduates, after having passed a very difficult oral exam had to then fight a bull to actually get their degree. And if they failed their exam they had to walk out a special very small door and the people in town actually threw pumpkins at them if they came out that door. I also went to Madrid, Sergovia, Toledo, and Barcelona. Along the way we saw mostly Cathedrals and Monasteries and a couple castles. While in Barcelona we all went to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean sea. It was very very cold but totally worth swimming in. Even if we couldn't stay in more than 5 minutes at a time. While there I also saw what was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life, and that was the Sagrada Familia. It's a church that is currently under construction but its not like any other church out there. The inside and the outside are completely different than a normal church or even a normal building. I don't have any pictures because I managed to break my camera walking in, but I recommend looking it up. We then left and made a 20 hour trip back home and when we got back I slept most of the rest of the day. (Can't sleep well in buses) The next day I went to Ostende again and put my feet in the North Sea. (This was a tad colder than the Mediterranean) and the Sunday after that I went to the last activity with the rotex and we went to Walibi (my third time there) and that evening I changed host families for the last time and went to a birthday party with my host parents. That brings us to this week where because of being super busy over break I didn't study at all so I took 5 tests in 5 different classes and the only one I'm sure I passed was my test in English. Aside from that I'm pretty sure I failed the others. Wednesday I took a nap outside in the sun. (ITS FINALLY SUNNY HERE!!) and yesterday I really didn't do much. I played the cello for a while because I have a show for school and the rotary that I need to practice for. My Religion teacher gave me some songs that he'd like me to play but I need to listen to them and figure out what to play by ear so that takes a little longer. Today my host dad asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride and I said sure. We ended up going 30km and afterwards we went to the pool. (indoor, it's not that nice outside) When we got back I took a nap because I was exhausted. That's pretty much all I got. This for sure was not one of my shorter ones. Hopefully my next few will be a little closer together.

19/1/2013

So it's been a little bit more than a month since the last time I posted here. And since then I am positive that my English has gotten significantly worse. It's not super noticeable all the time but often when I say something in English the wording is really weird and hard to understand. Anyways, the last time I posted I was getting ready to take my exams. Well I am proud to say that I more or less passed. I passed all of my classes except physics and religion. We only took two tests in physics (both of which I failed) so even though I actually passed the exam for physics I still failed the class. And for religion we haven't taken our exam yet so I don't know exactly why I'm failing, but all my other classes I passed. And for many of them I was actually among the average grade. Then I had winter break. A whole month off from school. The first days I went around with my host family and we did some shopping for Christmas and things like that. I bought my self a warmer coat for my upcoming trip to Romania. Soon after we had Christmas, for presents I got a card game based on important places in Belgium and a Vocabulary game, and even though it's the junior version I still find it very difficult to play. Soon after was New Years where I went with my host dad and host siblings to their friends house where we played games all night. I pulled an all nighter to watch the ball drop in NYC and soon after went to bed. (I was tired). The next day I had dinner with my host family and brought all my stuff over to my next host family's house. And that day was also the day I left for Romania. We left at 9:30 pm and drove through the night and the next morning we were in Prague. While there we looked at the buildings and saw the big astrological clock there as well. We waited for 15 minutes to watch it ring on the hour where I learned it is like a giant coocoo clock. They had statues on the sides of the clock that actually moved around when it rang which was pretty cool. We slept at Prague that night and the next day we left for Poland and we arrived at Auschwitz in the afternoon. We walked around the smaller part of Auschwitz for the afternoon. That night we talked to some volunteers who help manage the place we stayed the night. (It was like a youth service camp) The next morning we were at the larger part of Auschwitz. There it is so big you can't see where the buildings end. The whole view was pretty somber. I didn't take any pictures, I didn't feel it was exactly right to take pictures of all that. That afternoon we left for Zakopane. We got there later in the night where some friends and I decided that we were going to go skiing the next morning because we had a free day. So that evening we went out to go find a place to exchange some cash (up to that point everyplace had taken euros). But first we had to figure out how much would cost. And since nobody from the group spoke Polish and not many Polish spoke French I was elected to ask in English. After finally getting the information all translated for everyone we went out to find a place to exchange. After about a half hour walk we found a place to exchange and after we all got our money for the next day we went and hung out at Mcdonalds for a little bit then we all went back and went to bed because we were told that the ski place opened at 7 and we wanted to get there at 7. So the next morning we all got up at 630 and went out to the ski place (about a 10-15 minute walk) and found out that it didn't open till 9 at that point it was about 815 (we lost some time because we got lost on the way there). We decided to head back and eat a little bit more for breakfast with everyone else and we left again at 915. After getting there and all our ski stuff sorted out. (we had some mild problems with the language barrier) and learning the polish word for helmet (I wasn't going without one after the incident with the ski lift last time I went) we finally got on the slopes. I quickly discovered that the ski lifts there are very different and instead of chairs they have metal poles with little plastic seats that you stick between your legs that pulls you up the hill. After falling off of that about 4 times I finaly figured out how to get to the top of the hill without falling down. I then started to go down the hill and learned quickly that skiing in Iowa isn't really skiing. It's more like sledding on skis. Here I had to relearn how to ski and I couldn't race people like I had done at home. After falling a lot I was glad the coat I had bought was leather, that way it was waterproof and it softened my fall a little bit. Then in the afternoon we went to the top of one of the mountains and had a snowball fight and went sledding. After we got back it was around 6 at night where we ate supper at the hotel and some people went out afterwards but I hung out at the hotel and talked to people. The next day we left for Deva, Romania which took most of the day. The Romanian border was the only time on the whole trip that I had to show my passport. After finally getting into Deva we were divided up and introduced to our host families for the three days we were there. I then went back with mine and we talked about the traditions of Romania and what they like to do. I then went to bed rather early being tired of sitting in the bus all the time it was nice to have a real bed for once. The next morning we had to be at school at 8 so after waking up early and eating breakfast (which is very big in Romania) we took a bus to school. In the morning we learned about the different parts of Romania and how and why they are divided the way they are. We then played a game that was to teach the Romanians about Belgium. For a large part of the Belgian part I had to translate what the teachers said because most of the Romanians spoke English better than French. Afterwards we had lunch (at around 2) and after lunch we went back and wrapped things up and talked about the next day a little. We then went home and ate supper where I tasted some traditional Romanian dishes which were super good. I went on Facebook for a little bit then headed to bed because we had to be up early the next morning to go visit other towns. The next day we visited two towns one was Sibirie and the others name escapes me. One town was where the Romanians gathered to protest and finally change from communism. The other had a few museums but we went to go eat and looked around the town itself for the time. then we had to go because it was a 3 hour trip home. That night my host taught me some Romanian (its really hard) they have two other letters and several different types of the letter a. The hardest was that the letters all sounded like a different letter in French or English. The next day I slept in and then went to a national park where they had plants from all over the world (a few trees I recognized from home) and in the afternoon I went to town to go shopping because I was told good quality stuff was much cheaper there. Many of the things were cheaper but I didn't buy anything because nothing really interested me. My host though did buy me a Romanian to English dictionary which will probably be useful again when the Romanians come here to visit. That evening we had some sports teams to play against each other. We won in basket ball and indoor soccer but we lost in volleyball. The next day we left early in the morning for Budapest. When we finally got there we walked around a little bit and saw a large cathedral. That evening was the best part. Before supper we all went to the spa there which was outside. The water was heated and steaming and while we were in there it started to snow! The only bad part was that we had to make a freezing run in just a swimsuit outside to the water. Afterwards we went to a rather classy restaurant and had some chicken and french fries (I think many belgians missed that) and then we all got back on the bus and drove through the night to get back at home at 3pm the next day. That day was the real day I changed families and I spent most of the day getting my things sorted out. The very next day we had to go to school. It wasn't very fun that day because I was kinda sick and still tired from the trip. but I got better by Friday. On Friday the daughter of the very close friends of my host family came and spent the weekend with us. She's originally from France and she studies here so she stays with my family once a month because it's easier than going home every weekend. That weekend there was also a little dinner with the Rotary for a fundraiser which I went to. It wasn't super exciting but I was glad my host family came with so I had people to talk to while there. Monday I went to the Rotary and gave my speech as normal and today I went to school and actually managed to answer a question in history which normally doesn't happen for me so I was pretty proud of that. And I finally have all this written. I think this is my longest one yet. And it's just about supper time now.