On second thought, I don't miss driving that much anymore...

So I don't really have time to make a whole new post on top of everything else I have to do when I come online, so this is mostly copy and pasted from an e-mail I'm sending to my mom.

So my host mom managed to run her car into a little wall on the side of her sister's driveway... and it got stuck there.  The driveway is on an incline so she was reversing into the driveway and managed to hit the wall at an angle, and keep going, and then get it stuck so that she couldn't pull out. and it was on such an angle that it wouldn't work if she tried to go back and turn the wheel the other way.  She had to call one of our neighbours to help us. Somtimes I don't really like driving with my host mom. But at least the strong neighbour men (who I'm pretty sure are both firefighters) managed to get it out. 
And another thing that has made me newly uneasy about the road is that yesterday I witnessed a terrible accident. Thankfully it was only one car, but it was still totally awful.  We were on the highway, driving back from a Youth Exchange Orientation meeting (but it was the host mom of another exchange student driving, not mine). There was a car on the other side of the highway that we witnessed hit the short wall on the side of the road. The noise that that made was what first grabbed my attention.  So all a really saw was a bunch of dust and the car.  Then I look behind to see if the car was still there. I expected it to still be on the road but swerving a little to try to regain control. But no. This car went tumbling over the wall and I watched it with my jaw on the floor as it rolled a few more times.  We pulled over for a moment, but there were a bunch of other people pulling over, getting out of their cars, and pulling out their cell phones, so we decided to keep on going. So I don't know if whoever was in that card is even alive... it's horrible. It was a truly scary thing to witness and still doesn't seem real.  I've only ever seen anything like that on TV. The only difference is this wasn't just a stunt and someone could be dead or in a coma for all I know. It seems about as real as the dream I had last night were two of my guy friends here in Belgium dressed up sort of like Jesus and we making me lay on the ground with my hands under me an flicking water at me.

Okay so my classes are French, English, German, History, Geography, Phys. Ed, Biology, Chemistry, and Religion.  School is soo different here.
Friday I only had english, french and geography class. I got to school at about 7h30, because usually school starts at 8h05.  I was alone for a little while, then a couple girls I knew arrived and I stuck with them for a while until a bunch of other people showed up.  I already know a lot of people thanks to my host sister, so I was talking with a bunch of different people and I already knew a few who would be in my class.  High school here is really a lot like grade school in that you stick with your class all day. You're with the same 25 or so kids.  And its a weekly schedule, not daily, so you don't have the same classes at the same time every day.  I don't exactly know what will be when, so for the first week I'm just going to follow my classmates.  The first day we only went to english, french and geography, then we had a sort of mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year.  I filmed the songs for my host sister because her boyfriend, Guillaume, was playing guitar.  Guillaume is in my class and I guess he's sort of my friend too ( i dont really know who to call my "friends" yet because I sometimes feel like I havent made a lot of my own friends yet, and that they're my host sisters friends and not mine, but I know I'll strengthen the relationships that I already have with some of her friends and make new ones so I will have a lot of my own friends, but that will come with time) So I sat next to Guillaume in french class. And his dad is the teacher, too. He started the class by reading a story and I understood a bunch of it.  I was trying really hard to pay attention the whole time.  I actually have to try really hard to pay attention here when everything is in french.  its not like at home in english where I can be 75% asleep and still know what's going on. Here i have to be 100% attentive 100% of the time if I want to be able to follow a conversation or a lesson.  Even then I usually dont get everything, but I get the general idea or topic.
Like last night I was at a meeting thing for the jeunesse de Seloignes (a group of older adolescents/young adults in the tiny town/neighbourhood of Seloignes who plan events and stuff) and it was a meeting where they were discussing what to do for their next ducasse, what color to make this years t-shirts, and different day-trip possibilites they can do together. It wasn't extremely exciting stuff and I was just sitting there listening.  But it dawned on me that I was actually understanding a good 75% or more of what was being said. I was able to laugh along at the jokes, and not just prentending to laugh, or laughing because everyone else was laughing. I actully genuinely understood a lot.  I thought back to when I was with people the few days after I got here and remembered how I barely understood anything. maybe a word here or there.  Its truly amazing. 
I don't know if I'm going to be included in this little day trip or not they were discussing.  I probably will be if I pay and/or have nothing else to do that day.  I think they are planning on going kyaking somewhere here in Belgium.  I think it would be nice. And its a lot cheaper than the other options they were considering, like London, EuroDisney, and Paris. I'm already in on the london trip that Rotex is helping to organize in November, and its not that hard to get to Paris. EuroDisney would be interesting though. But still it's basically in Paris so I could go there for a day with other exchange students. Maybe I'll bring it up with a few people I met at the district orientation yesterday. I met a sweet girl from Iowa.  We talked a lot.  She lives in Tournai, which is pretty far away from where I live, but it wouldn't be too hard to get together every once and a while by train. We exchanged cell phone numbers and are already facebook friends.
So I'm in on the London trip, and I just requested to be in the Spain trip. Italy is booked. Its been booked for a little while now. I didn't think everyone would be so proactive since the trip is in April.  I really wanted to go to italy. I could have put myself on the waiting list, but in doing so, I wouldnt want to wait around forever only to not be able to go on the trip, and then miss out on both trips.  I'd rather go to Spain than nowhere. and I'm sure it will be amazing too. And there's a greater possibility of me travelleing to Italy alone, or with family, or even sometime this year and meet up with family I don't know very well.  Whereas I may never have the chance to go to Spain again.  So I was initially dissappointed, but I'm not too upset about it.
Anyways. The 6th year (Rhétos, which is equivalent to our senior year, or grade 12) is going on a field trip next friday to a concentration camp.  Breendonck. Its still in Belgium. I just wikipediad it, and it wasnt a particularly big concentration camp, but it was mainly used as until people were transported to Auschwitz.  It should be very interesting. I wonder if I will feel that vibe that everyone talks about (whos been to a concentration camp) where you can feel the souls of the people that died there, or you can sense that it was an evil place or something like that.