I can't believe October is over in a couple days. I've only been here about 2 and a half months, and I have somewhere around 8 more to go, but time is going by so fast and I often find myself wondering how I can possibly bring myself to leave this place.
I've had a lot of fun the past few days. Friday was a good day at school. I found out I got 12/20 on my french essay, which I was very proud of. It was also good because I didn't have any afternoon classes so I just hung out and had fun with my friends. We left school at lunch hour and went to get fries, then came back and played some soccer and musical chairs. After school on Friday, Autumn (exchange student from Phoenix) and I caught the train to go to Tournai where we'd be meeting up with a few other exchangers for Greta's Hallowe'en Party. There was Claire, from Missouri; Emma, from Florida; and of course Greta, from Iowa. There were a bunch of Greta's belgian friends her party too, as well as some other exchange students living in Tournai who all seem pretty cool. We danced and talked and got to know other exchange students and some of her Belgies for a few hours until some people went home and the rest of us went out on the town. Us exchangers split up from the others for a little while and we ended up running into some French guys from Lille who were in Tournai for the night just for fun and they were giving out stickers of themselves. So we ended up hanging out with them and we brought them back to Place-St Pierre with us to hang with everyone. Being with the french guys made me feel very belgian because I was being thrown off when they said things like "soixante-douze" rather than "septante-deux" and in saying goodbye they do two kisses instead of one. Towards the end of the night we got some fries and said goodbye to everyone so we could go back to Greta's to sleep, since we'd have to get up at 9 the next morning. It was such a fun night!!
The next morning Autumn and I came home by train, I showered, then went off to Dinant with my host mom, Adeline, and Fabian. It's a really nice town! There's crazy escarpment, a cathedral, aaand it's the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the guy who INVENTED THE SAXOPHONE. So that's pretty awesome.
We came back for about 6pm, then Adeline and I went off to babysit for the family she babysits for almost every weekend (and I also happen to know the father because he's a Rotarian here).
Then at midnight, we went to Baileux for the Halloween Soirée where I danced for about 4 hours straight with 3000 other people under a chapiteau. I mostly stuck with my friends and classmates though. It was such a good weekend. Since my host sister and I got in super late last night, I woke up at about 3pm today.
I don't have school this week because of Toussaint :) And I go to London on the 3rd!
I don't know when I'll have the time to post again, but it might be after both London and Rome, so be prepared for a huge one :P
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
I hate the letter R and temperatures under 10 degrees
I'm good to go to Rome in November!! :D I'm very excited! I'm going to try to teach myself some simple italian phrases. Too bad I don't really know anyone here who speaks Italian. Well... there's the chemistry teacher, but I don't like her very much. She snaps her fingers at me to pay attention like every class, and I'm already looking at her or the blackboard. It's not like I'm sleeping or anything. At least I only have chemistry once a week!
I wrote my first French essay this week! Actually, in one day. But it did take all day. Procrastination has followed me to Belgium. However, I think I should get a good mark on it; I was very proud of my work.
In French class the other day, we were watching the videos of the oral presentations we did a few weeks ago. I hate watching videos of myself and hearing my voice already, but this was a disaster! I was speaking French with my awful accent in my awful voice... I did not want to be in the room. But I witnessed how horrible my accent actually is even though I'm trying my absolute best to pronounce everything the way it should be said... it just doesn't come out right. It's so hard ): I know it's completely normal to have an accent and it would be weird if I didn't. But hearing it on a recording just embarrassed me so much and made me not want to speak at all, especially in French ): and I don't know how else I can improve it, because I'm already trying my best ! I can't believe I actually have friends here that can stand talking to me! But for them I am thankful.
Today the school had to do a race thing. My grade did it later in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to run it, but I just didn't and no one said anything, so I just watched other people run and Autumn (the American exchange student), and I taught funny English expressions to a friend who wants to go on exchange to the States next year. But sometimes talking with Autumn is very amusing because we note a lot of differences in people here as compared to people back home, and we understand each other's slang and humor - it's stuff that people here just wouldn't find as funny, no matter how well they understand English. The most prevalent one today was shorts. A fair amount of guys here wear shorts that average at a length much shorter and/or tighter and/or in brighter colours than most guys would ever dare to wear back home. One of my friends was wearing white shorts, another bright purple... it's just very interesting to watch these guys run. And there's this one guy who has crazy thigh muscles (think speed skater), and we just call him Legs when we talk about him.
It's getting so cold here! In the evenings/nights/mornings, it's down to just above freezing, and I think the hottest it got all day today was 10 degrees. I'm definitely going to start wearing mittens to school next week.
I'm pretty sure the Rhétos trip won't overlap with my Spain trip! The Rhétos trip usually takes the last three days of the Easter holidays, and the first three daysof school after that. And I think I'll be going to Croatia. It will be between Croatia and Scotland, and Croatia will be much warmer, and I'd probably be more likely to visit Scotland in the future than Croatia. Even though I have a bunch of friends going to Scotland, I'll still have a lot in Croatia too. We shall see. I've yet to really decide; these are just my thoughts.
I wrote my first French essay this week! Actually, in one day. But it did take all day. Procrastination has followed me to Belgium. However, I think I should get a good mark on it; I was very proud of my work.
In French class the other day, we were watching the videos of the oral presentations we did a few weeks ago. I hate watching videos of myself and hearing my voice already, but this was a disaster! I was speaking French with my awful accent in my awful voice... I did not want to be in the room. But I witnessed how horrible my accent actually is even though I'm trying my absolute best to pronounce everything the way it should be said... it just doesn't come out right. It's so hard ): I know it's completely normal to have an accent and it would be weird if I didn't. But hearing it on a recording just embarrassed me so much and made me not want to speak at all, especially in French ): and I don't know how else I can improve it, because I'm already trying my best ! I can't believe I actually have friends here that can stand talking to me! But for them I am thankful.
Today the school had to do a race thing. My grade did it later in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to run it, but I just didn't and no one said anything, so I just watched other people run and Autumn (the American exchange student), and I taught funny English expressions to a friend who wants to go on exchange to the States next year. But sometimes talking with Autumn is very amusing because we note a lot of differences in people here as compared to people back home, and we understand each other's slang and humor - it's stuff that people here just wouldn't find as funny, no matter how well they understand English. The most prevalent one today was shorts. A fair amount of guys here wear shorts that average at a length much shorter and/or tighter and/or in brighter colours than most guys would ever dare to wear back home. One of my friends was wearing white shorts, another bright purple... it's just very interesting to watch these guys run. And there's this one guy who has crazy thigh muscles (think speed skater), and we just call him Legs when we talk about him.
It's getting so cold here! In the evenings/nights/mornings, it's down to just above freezing, and I think the hottest it got all day today was 10 degrees. I'm definitely going to start wearing mittens to school next week.
I'm pretty sure the Rhétos trip won't overlap with my Spain trip! The Rhétos trip usually takes the last three days of the Easter holidays, and the first three daysof school after that. And I think I'll be going to Croatia. It will be between Croatia and Scotland, and Croatia will be much warmer, and I'd probably be more likely to visit Scotland in the future than Croatia. Even though I have a bunch of friends going to Scotland, I'll still have a lot in Croatia too. We shall see. I've yet to really decide; these are just my thoughts.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Month 2, Day 2
Now I'm finding it a little harder to find things to talk about in this blog because now nothing seems out of the ordinairy. This is my life now, and it's normal to me. I'm sure there are plenty of interesting things going on, but they've just become normal to me. I've been here already for two months yesterday!
At school, the Rhétos (seniors) have been all busy thinking about and voting for colours and designs for the t-shirts and sweaters we will all get in November, as well as where to go for our Voyage du Rhétos in April. Hopefully, I will actually get to go. I'm worried that it might overlap with the trip I'm taking to Spain with Rotary, so I'm hoping the one with school will be the day after I get back or something so I can actually go with them. I'd really hate to miss out ):
But there are so many choices!! A few different places in France, Croatia, Budapest, Austria, Copenhagen, Prague, Scotland, Portugal, Tuscany, and Barcelona are among them. Croatia seems to be in the lead as so many people have signed up for that one. I've yet to decide where I want to go. But I can only put my name down on one, and almost all of them are interesting to me!!
I got a letter from one of my best friends back home yesterday, which I absolutely loved. I like getting real letters in the mail :)
I also went shopping in Charleroi after school yesterday. I managed to find a pair of boots for winter for 25 € ! But that was an enjoyable afternoon. When I arrived at Charleroi by train I met up with Martine, who's basically like a host mom to me here, except I won't live with her. Her daughter is out on exchange to Texas, and I'm basically here in her place. So she takes care of me :P But she's super nice and really fun and we get along very well.
I'm strengthening my friendships at school, so that's good too. I have a few people I consider close friends, and then I'm just normal friends with a large number of people.
At school, the Rhétos (seniors) have been all busy thinking about and voting for colours and designs for the t-shirts and sweaters we will all get in November, as well as where to go for our Voyage du Rhétos in April. Hopefully, I will actually get to go. I'm worried that it might overlap with the trip I'm taking to Spain with Rotary, so I'm hoping the one with school will be the day after I get back or something so I can actually go with them. I'd really hate to miss out ):
But there are so many choices!! A few different places in France, Croatia, Budapest, Austria, Copenhagen, Prague, Scotland, Portugal, Tuscany, and Barcelona are among them. Croatia seems to be in the lead as so many people have signed up for that one. I've yet to decide where I want to go. But I can only put my name down on one, and almost all of them are interesting to me!!
I got a letter from one of my best friends back home yesterday, which I absolutely loved. I like getting real letters in the mail :)
I also went shopping in Charleroi after school yesterday. I managed to find a pair of boots for winter for 25 € ! But that was an enjoyable afternoon. When I arrived at Charleroi by train I met up with Martine, who's basically like a host mom to me here, except I won't live with her. Her daughter is out on exchange to Texas, and I'm basically here in her place. So she takes care of me :P But she's super nice and really fun and we get along very well.
I'm strengthening my friendships at school, so that's good too. I have a few people I consider close friends, and then I'm just normal friends with a large number of people.
This weekend I have birthday parties to go to! Those should be fun.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Clarification :)
It has come to my attention that any Belgians following my blog may have miscontrued what I was trying to say in my last post, so this post is for them:
Désolée aux Belges qui a lu mon dernier publication dans ce blog. Je ne pense pas que vous êtes stupides, pas de tout! Je trouve que beaucoup de vous etes très intelligent. J'ai seulement voulu de dire que je trouve que l'école ici est moins dur que l'école chez moi. Évidemment, il y a des cours qui sont plus difficile qu'autres (par exemple, pour moi FGS est vraiment difficile), mais il y a aussi certains choses que j'ai déjà appris.
NB - Je ne suive pas quelques cours que les autres étudiants dans ma classe suivent (comme néerlandais, maths, et physique). Alors, je peux rien dire sur le difficulté de ces cours la. Aussi, j'ai fini le 6eme chez moi ;)
- C'est pas mieux, c'est pas pire, seulement différent! -
Désolée aux Belges qui a lu mon dernier publication dans ce blog. Je ne pense pas que vous êtes stupides, pas de tout! Je trouve que beaucoup de vous etes très intelligent. J'ai seulement voulu de dire que je trouve que l'école ici est moins dur que l'école chez moi. Évidemment, il y a des cours qui sont plus difficile qu'autres (par exemple, pour moi FGS est vraiment difficile), mais il y a aussi certains choses que j'ai déjà appris.
NB - Je ne suive pas quelques cours que les autres étudiants dans ma classe suivent (comme néerlandais, maths, et physique). Alors, je peux rien dire sur le difficulté de ces cours la. Aussi, j'ai fini le 6eme chez moi ;)
- C'est pas mieux, c'est pas pire, seulement différent! -
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Mostly School
Permission to go to Italy is still in progress, so I don't have any updates about that, but, in exactly one month from now, I will be in London, England :) I'm really looking forward to that trip too. Bonding time with some exchange students I don't normally see is always nice. And I've never been to London before, so it should be good. I'm sure I will take a lot of pictures.
School is still going well. And it's still a bit easier to understand things with every day, but I fell like I've reached an extreme slowing down in my learning curve. Maybe it's just because I'm used to being bombarded with new information by now, or that I just did most of my learning within the first month of me being here, so now it's just slowing down. I think it's the second one. I don't learn as many new words per day anymore, execpt when I have geography class. Basically we sit there and read articles all class... and it takes me about 10 times as long to read one, because there is a word in every sentence or two that I don't know... there are lots of underlinings and random english words written in green on my notes.
But while we're on the topic of school, I want to say that I think, if I were a native french speaker, school here would be a breeze! Everything in my chem and bio classes that we're doing now, I learned two years ago. And my french class... well we're preparing to write and essay. The teacher is going on and on, class after class, explaining how to write this essay... back home, teachers took one class or less to explain an essay. After that, it was go do it, and if you have any questions talk to me on your own time. Teachers here explain things foreverrr. Like my biology teacher has been dicsussing Mendel and his peas and hybrids and Punnett squares for like 3 classes now... not even unveiling new information each time. Just going over and over the same stuff. I think it should only take one class for the amount we've learned so far. But, back to french class. The requirements for the essays here seem to be much more leniant than back home. In my grade 12 english class, I wrote 10 page in-class essays, and 7 page typed up essays. I saw an example of an essay here, and it was 2.5 pages. And that's not even taking into consideration the huge margins because stuff was written in the side! If it had normal margins it would have been 2 pages.
If I was fluent in french, I would be laughing. And my french class are the most advanced french students in the school. Maybe my grade 12 english teacher was just that much of a hard ass, (don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the woman) that I now believe if a paragraph is not (at least) almost a page long, it is much too short... but man these guys have it easy.
For another thing in french class, I might be analysing George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four again. That could be interesting. I wish I had kept all my stuff for my various essays on my computer... but, surprisingly enough, I remember a lot.
Us exchange students get extra french work, but it's grammar stuff, to help learn the language better, and not what we're doing in normal french class. Today our teacher for that gave us Treasure Island (L’île au trésor), and we have to read two chapters by next week. I think I am able to handle it. But it's weird, because the teacher for that gives us worksheets with things that range from being as simple to identifying masculin and feminin, to as hard as filling in the blanks with the proper word (7 options, they all sound exactly the same, mean totally different things) ex. Sens, sans, s'en, sang, sens, .... and two more
and we are supposed to know which goes in the blank of a completely french saying that doesn't even translate into english. So it goes all over the place, from being things I learned when I was 6, to things I haven't even the slightest clue what they mean!
I watch Castle on Monday nights. It's on TV here, but it's always repeats ): and watching it isn't the same without my mom. It's also not as funny in french, but I still enjoy it, and because they are repeats and I have seen the episodes before, I can imagine what they actually said, in their english voices, and it is funny, so it's ok. But I wonder if I'm ever going to see any new episodes.
I finished my second book since being here yesterday. I obviously need to find more things to do on school nights (actually read like 510 pages in a week). But I don't usually have much homework to do, and somehow all my other friends do. And I'm sure it will take me a lot longer to read "L’île au trésor", especially since I'll probably have my french-english dictionary open more than the novel!
School is still going well. And it's still a bit easier to understand things with every day, but I fell like I've reached an extreme slowing down in my learning curve. Maybe it's just because I'm used to being bombarded with new information by now, or that I just did most of my learning within the first month of me being here, so now it's just slowing down. I think it's the second one. I don't learn as many new words per day anymore, execpt when I have geography class. Basically we sit there and read articles all class... and it takes me about 10 times as long to read one, because there is a word in every sentence or two that I don't know... there are lots of underlinings and random english words written in green on my notes.
But while we're on the topic of school, I want to say that I think, if I were a native french speaker, school here would be a breeze! Everything in my chem and bio classes that we're doing now, I learned two years ago. And my french class... well we're preparing to write and essay. The teacher is going on and on, class after class, explaining how to write this essay... back home, teachers took one class or less to explain an essay. After that, it was go do it, and if you have any questions talk to me on your own time. Teachers here explain things foreverrr. Like my biology teacher has been dicsussing Mendel and his peas and hybrids and Punnett squares for like 3 classes now... not even unveiling new information each time. Just going over and over the same stuff. I think it should only take one class for the amount we've learned so far. But, back to french class. The requirements for the essays here seem to be much more leniant than back home. In my grade 12 english class, I wrote 10 page in-class essays, and 7 page typed up essays. I saw an example of an essay here, and it was 2.5 pages. And that's not even taking into consideration the huge margins because stuff was written in the side! If it had normal margins it would have been 2 pages.
If I was fluent in french, I would be laughing. And my french class are the most advanced french students in the school. Maybe my grade 12 english teacher was just that much of a hard ass, (don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the woman) that I now believe if a paragraph is not (at least) almost a page long, it is much too short... but man these guys have it easy.
For another thing in french class, I might be analysing George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four again. That could be interesting. I wish I had kept all my stuff for my various essays on my computer... but, surprisingly enough, I remember a lot.
Us exchange students get extra french work, but it's grammar stuff, to help learn the language better, and not what we're doing in normal french class. Today our teacher for that gave us Treasure Island (L’île au trésor), and we have to read two chapters by next week. I think I am able to handle it. But it's weird, because the teacher for that gives us worksheets with things that range from being as simple to identifying masculin and feminin, to as hard as filling in the blanks with the proper word (7 options, they all sound exactly the same, mean totally different things) ex. Sens, sans, s'en, sang, sens, .... and two more
and we are supposed to know which goes in the blank of a completely french saying that doesn't even translate into english. So it goes all over the place, from being things I learned when I was 6, to things I haven't even the slightest clue what they mean!
I watch Castle on Monday nights. It's on TV here, but it's always repeats ): and watching it isn't the same without my mom. It's also not as funny in french, but I still enjoy it, and because they are repeats and I have seen the episodes before, I can imagine what they actually said, in their english voices, and it is funny, so it's ok. But I wonder if I'm ever going to see any new episodes.
I finished my second book since being here yesterday. I obviously need to find more things to do on school nights (actually read like 510 pages in a week). But I don't usually have much homework to do, and somehow all my other friends do. And I'm sure it will take me a lot longer to read "L’île au trésor", especially since I'll probably have my french-english dictionary open more than the novel!
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