Enjoying the little time I have left

Wow I haven't made a single post in about a month. So much has happened I don't know that I can catch up at this point! But I'll try my best to briefly go over most things.

At the beginning of June, I found my dress for the "prom" after a good day of shopping with Autumn and Paloma.  All of us had luck in finding something, and we even had a little time at the end of our excursion to grab a drink with some other exchange students who were in Brussels that day.  It was nice.

I also did my presentation for my Rotary club about my year here.  I managed to do it without crying.  I am actually quite happy with my presentation.  I think I did a really good job.  It's weird because I wasn't at all nervous to be speaking in front of a group of about 40 people in my second language.  I actually felt quite at ease.  I used to hate public speaking, now I don't mind it at all.

The day after my presentation, I went to Tournai for the last time during my exchange year.  I went to say goodbye to my friend Greta, who was going home a bit earlier than expected.  I hadn't planned on spending the night there, but I ended up doing so.  It's weird not knowing when I'll see her again.  Next year, she'll be going to school in Ohio, which is closer to me than Iowa, so we'll likely arrange to see each other during the year a couple of times.

The next Monday I started my exams.  Everyone else had already started the Thursday before.  Anyway, on Monday I had my biology exam and my geography exam.  I am certain that I passed the biology exam, and I am just as certain that I failed geography.  I'm not worried about it - not like my grades matter.  Then on Tuesday I had two more exams: history and religion.  Religion I know that I passed (because I saw my teacher yesterday and he told me so), and history I'm not sure.  It could have gone either way.  But the teacher isn't very generous, so I probably failed.  Then I had almost a whole week of rest until my English and French exams the following Monday.  English was easy, of course.  I finished in under an hour.  There was a bunch of vocabulary, grammar, and then we had to write an article.  Easy as pie :) I wasn't at all stressed for French until the last minute.  It wasn't even a written exam.  It was more like a presentation/interview than an exam.  My first ever oral exam, and I just might have passed? I can't really tell because the teacher gives away nothing.  I should be finding out my grades on the 26th at the graduation and prom.

On the Wednesday during exams, Autumn and I took our first little day trip of the week to Liège.  We did a little more shopping than we had planned, but I got a lot of little things and didn't pay much for any one thing.  I ended up finding jewelry for the bal, so now my outfit is complete.  We also got some hair dye.  Just a natural medium-dark brown colour.  We used it on Friday, a couple days later, and it turned out pretty well! I'm happy with it.  Before my hair had a lot of blonde in it, but I like it better this one natural-looking colour.

On Friday, when we did my hair, Autumn slept over so we could leave earlier in the morning to catch our train for our second day-trip of the week : Antwerp.  It is a beautiful city.  I absolutely love the central train station!  There I bought a cute little dress and a longchamp bag.  Those kinds of bags are super popular here and I think they look really good.  It will also be the PERFECT bag to bring as a carry on bag on the plane.

The last day of exams for most people was this Tuesday, the 19th.  By 10am, most of us were out by the track celebrating.  It was a big organized thing and there was even a DJ.  We met a couple English guys who were passing through Chimay on their way to Croatia on bicycle!  They told me that they had been in the store, where they met the DJ, who told them that they had to come and check out the end of exams party, so they did.  They ended up meeting us english-speaking exchange students and our friends.  We invited them to the party we were going to after at a friend's house.  It was a really good day.  Everyone was in a good mood because the exams are over and summer is here.  Even if it rained a little, no one really cared.  I barely even noticed it was raining.  I camped out in a friend's tent in the host's back yard and walked home the next morning around 11.  I didn't get much sleep but it was a good night nonetheless.

The next day I went to a pool party, where, unfortunatley, I didn't have a lot of fun.  I lost my voice because of the after exams festivities the day before and couldn't really participate in any conversation. And then I got thrown in the pool with all my clothes on so I was cold for the rest of the evening.  On top of all that I was pretty tired from not having gotten much sleep the night before.  I ended up going home early, but at least I got a good night's sleep.

I was able to recuperate my voice for the next day, which was a very good thing.  I was able to talk with my friends at a birthday party I had to go to for two of my good friends, Alice and Elena.  There I had a very good time.  But just after midnight two of my friends had an argument outside.  I spent a good hour trying to comfort one of them.  When we went back inside, the party was coming to it's end.  Everyone seemed pretty tired.  A group of 7 of us went to the Queen Mary for karaoke night.  Unfortunately, karaoke ends at 1:00, and we got in after 2:00.  I got home at around 3, and only got one hour of sleep.  But I slept a little after 10 this morning until earlier this afternoon, so it's made up for.

In a couple hours I'll be going out again for the night, and then again the next night.  On Sunday morning I'll be going to EuroDisney with Andre and two of his host siblings.  We'll be coming back on Monday.  I'm so excited! And then on Tuesday is graduation and the bal du Rhétos!! :)

Time is going by so fast! I have something planned almost every day that is left for me here in Belgium. I only have 18 days left!! :'( At least I'm taking advantage of the time I have left - I don't want to waste a moment.

I probably won't be posting again until I get back home.