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.