The Beginning of the End

I've been home now for a month.  I went through reverse culture shock, but now I've adjusted a little more and am a lot less thrown off by weird aspects of North American culture.  I guess I should talk about the last few weeks of my exchange that I haven't written about yet here in this blog.  I've only just been catching up in my journal writing.  I've been really busy and distracted by other things, or I just haven't been in the mood to do it.

So last you read, I was going to go out another two nights in a row before going off to Disneyland Paris.  So that I did and I had an insane amount of fun both nights.  Both nights I spent hours dancing on the platform with my friends.  I managed to come out of the party one night with a Belgian-coloured beer hat, which is a really cool souvenir I now have placed on a shelf in my room.  On the Saturday night, I got back around 4am and didn't even bother going to sleep.  I had to leave just after 6am to go to Disney, and I thought that if I went to sleep for an hour that I wouldn't be able to wake up and be ready to go.  So I slowly started getting ready after I got in.  Shower, change of clothes, making sure I had everything I needed, etc.

Andre, his host sister, host brother, and their little cousin came by to pick me up and off we went!  Unfortunately, it didn't stop raining all day long.  I wasn't as happy as I should have been for someone going to Disney.  My shoes and socks were soaked through, my hair was dripping - I was drenched! Not to mention exhausted!  I had only had a couple good nights of sleep since the end of exams.  We still did a lot of fun rides and attractions though.  We had a cabin for the night and I slept like a stone.  It still wasn't enough and I woke up feeling tired, but it was much better than nothing.  I had a way better time on Monday.  The sun was out most of the day, not a drop of rain, my clothes were dry, and I had a little energy.  Overall it was a lot of fun.  I even got a really nice pin for my blazer. 

Disneyland Paris

Late on Monday night, we got back from Disney.  And I slept in a little Tuesday morning.  All of Tuesday afternoon was spent getting ready for the Graduation and Bal du Rhétos in the evening.  That turned out to be a wonderful night.  We took a lot of pictures outside - the 5th years (who were the ones organizing the whole night) had even set up a red carpet for us, which was a really nice touch.  The principal and other school people gave their little speeches, some students got awards, everyone's name was read off, etc.  Us exchange students were given a gift.  It was such a nice gesture I wasn't expecting.  We got a beautiful metal box with "Chimay" on it.  Inside the box were 4 postcards, one Chimay beer glass, and one 33cl bottle of each beer - Bleu, Rouge, and Blanche.  After that, they served champagne, and people stood around to talk and take pictures.

The gift from school

I expected a little more from the meal, which was just a cold buffet - salads, lunch meats, bread, potatoes, that type of stuff.  It was good, but some of us found that it wasn't quite enough.  The guys at my table decided to take a whole pineapple that was on the main buffet table for decoration and we cut it up with dull knives at the table and ate the slices amongst ourselves.

Aurélien cutting the pineapple

After the meal was a dance, but before the dance, the King and Queen had to be chosen.  This was determined through a small series of competitions - one for boys and the other for girls.  The boys started off.   They had to partner up.  One was blindfolded.  The blindfolded one was not allowed to speak to his partner.  He was then told something by a 5th year, and he had to draw it.  The partner had to guess what he was drawing and the first group to guess this won.  They also did something else involving blindfolds where the blindfolded one had to run across the room and find his partner, who couldn't move, but was calling out to the blindfolded one.  I don't know how they determined two finalists from that but they did.

Then it was the girls' turn.  We did musical chairs, but with a little twist.  We started out with our shoes off and on the other side of the gym, then, when a special music was played, we had to run to our shoes, grab ONE, and come back to find a chair.  The next time the special music was played, we had to go and find one of someone else's shoes then come back to find a seat.  The next time, we had to go put their shoe back, and the time after that, we had to go find our other shoe.  Despite my best efforts, I could not find my other shoe and was promptly eliminated.  But I lasted a few rounds.  The four finalists, 2 boys and 2 girls, then had to do a little race with a book on their heads and an egg on a spoon in their mouths.  It ended up being Jerome and Alice who were King and Queen.  Then the party started! :)

After dark, we were all called outside, because the president of the 5th years had s surprise for us.  We were to light and set of paper lanterns into the night sky.  It was such a beautiful moment.

Because it was a school event, it was supposed to end around 1-2am, but because it was our last school event all together, there were no problems, we were on our best behaviour, and even the teachers were still having fun, we were able to keep it going until 2-2:30am!

After it was over, most people left right away, but there was a small group of us who stayed behind either waiting for our rides home or trying to figure out what else we could do because we didn't want to go home yet.  At this time on a Tuesday night there was nothing left open, so most people went home.  So there were three of us left.  We walked through town a little and one guy walked home, since he lived really close by.  Then we were just two, and we walked to a nearby park.  We sat and talked for a while and then called my friend's mom to have her come pick us up.

The next night there was a party for all the graduated high school students of the region (so grads from 5 different schools).  Not as many people were there as I expected, so it was rather quiet, but I managed to have a good time.  That night, one of the best moments of my exchange happened.  I was with one of my girlfriends and we wanted to join in on a game that some other people were playing.  I didn't know any of the people in that group, but it was a pretty small party so it's normal to talk to some strangers.  Anyway, the two of us join this group, and soon enough after, my friend leaves to go talk to someone and I was left alone with the other people.  It was cool, I was welcomed into the game.  I'm sitting there and talking and playing with them for about half and hour and we decide to play another game.  It was a "telephone" type of deal.  The first time someone tells you the message or phrase, you have to say "what?" and then it goes all the way back along the chain of people, and comes all the way back, and they repeat it to you.  The second time you hear it, you are supposed to understand and then pass it along to the next person.  Because the guy next to me was purposefully talking weird, I didn't actually understand what he said, so I had to say "no, seriously, what?" again.  I was told "noo you only say that the first time!" and I replied, "I know how to play, but I actually have no idea what he just said!" he repeated it again, still in a backwards manner, so I just looked at him.  Someone jokingly asked, "what, you don't speak french?" I said "not really", to which some people laughed, thinking that I was joking too, so I said "no seriously, I'm an exchange student from Canada, I speak English and I learned most of my French here" And then people looked really surprised! A couple didn't even believe me at first.  I was so happy to have been taken for a Belgian.  That was the best moment I think I had as an exchange student.  I had the success of total integration that some exchangers only dream of.  It was truly an awesome moment.

I also nearly lost my phone that night.  Just as I was about to leave, I go to chekc my phone, but then realize I don't have it.  My friend Nico called it and another friend, Guillaume, picks it up as he's walking over towards us.  Thankfully it was found so fast, because I was being waited on to leave!  I also remembered, in that moment, that it would be the last time I would be seeing one of my friends, so I had to say my first real goodbye.  I hugged him and I didn't want to let go.  It was awful because I knew I was really in a rush to leave.  I silently and awkwardly cried in the car on the way home.  Then spent a little more time crying before getting to sleep.

That was at 4-4h30.  I went to bed at around 5.  I then had to wake up at 6am to be in Chimay for 7, where Autumn's second host mom would be picking up all of us exchange students and take us to the airport to see off Autumn.  Once again I was exhausted.  Saying goodbye to my best friend that day didn't even seem real.  It was really hard, but for some reason I wasn't able to cry.  I really wanted to, but I just couldn't.  I had done it before, and I did again later, but I didn't shed a tear in front of her.

In the afternoon, her host mom dropped us off again in Chimay and I went out for lunch and the Grand Café at the Grand Place with Paloma, Ish, and Alejandro.  Andre had to go back home early, so he didn't stay with us.  After we ate, we loitered a little bit at our table then we all made our ways home.  I ended up walking the 3 or 4 km to my home in Bourlers since my host parents were unavailable.  I was glad though.  It was nice out, I had my iPod, and I had just eaten a huge amount of pasta.  I got to bed at a normal time that night.