Dans le beau pays de Belgique

Well I'm in Belgium. It's a beautiful country. It's going to be hard to keep up with this blog because my first host family doesn't have internet.  Right now we're at my host mother's sister's house. 

I'm really glad that I have a host sister my age, Adeline.  She's introduced me to her friends, so I actually know some people. 

I arrived on Friday morning and I went to bed at 8pm that night.  On Saturday night, I went to a party that a group of young people hosted in one of the villages here.  I met a lot of people there, but I don't remember most of their names. It was just too much at once! but I had a great time.  My host mom picked us up at 3am.  To most people here, that's early.  Sometimes they party until 7am! We woke up at 10am the next day and went out and met Adeline's group of young people to advertise for the party that they were hosting this weekend coming up. I like the advertising for these parties. We taped posters on about 5 cars, a van, and two trailers, and we drove around all day through the villages blasting music, honking our horns, and handing out flyers. It was fun.

I'm keeping active while I'm here and I'm not just eating chocolate, fries, and croissants all the time.  Yesterday Adeline and I went to the pool and swam for about an hour and a half, and they day before we walked around for 2 hours so I could see the town and take some pictures, and I also went for a short run with my host mom. 

But the food is great. There's only one thing so far that I've tried that I don't like.  They are these mini hot dogs that come out of a can. 

Belgians claim to have invented french fries, and they have tons of different sauces to put on them. Mayonnaise is very popular too.  But I don't think anyone here has ever thought of dipping their fries in chocolate (which is another thing Belgium is famous for).  I was cold, and I made the mistake of ordering hot choclate with my fries. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that, but the +20 other Belgians I was with thought it was pretty funny.  I asked Adeline if they'd all think I was weird if I dipped my fries in chocolate, and she looked at me as if I had three heads! I'm going to get her to try it, even though she thinks its disgusting. I got her, her boyfriend Guillaume, and my host mom to try them with salt and vinegar, which is also unheard of.  I don't think any of them thought it was bad.

I'm having a great time in Belgium and meeting a bunch new people. Every day my french is getting better, and I'm sure when school starts it'll be getting exponentially better every day!

And today I got a cell phone with an AZERTY keyboard.  Soon I'll feel like a true Belgian :P (except for the bit about chocolate+fries)