Ok so not really that much has happened in my life since the beginning of this year.
The biggest part of my life has been school, but I've already talked about that.
I became close with the inbound RYE students in 6400 and hung out with the ones around Windsor fairly often. And now I understand entirely how my Belgian friends must have felt when I left last year, now that it's not me who's leaving. I now see both sides of the story, even though they really aren't all too different in the end. So unfortunately I've already had to say goodbye to most of them. I've become closest with a Brazilian girl, Bethina. And she doesn't leave until the beginning of August, so I will still be able to see her one or two last times when I get back home and give her a proper farewell (thank God).
Bethina has actually taught me so much. There were some things that I did on exchange that I seemed to have forgotten when I came back home. But hanging out with her more kind of reminded me of who I was on exchange, and that it was a good thing. Things like putting myself out there in social situations and just talking to people. I did that on exchange but I stopped doing it back in Canada. I mean, I still did a little, yes -- but it was much less.
It's also thanks to her that I have the friends I have now at the university. They are basically all Brazilian exchange students who are here for a few semesters. They're all in engineering, so I probably wouldn't have met any of them otherwise. I've been going out to parties with them since May and I have a blast every time. I even had some of them over at my house the Friday before I left for Belgium for a little BBQ pool party. That was really fun too, even though the weather wasn't ideal.
I've been working as a cashier throughout the year, though not very often. I was only scheduled maybe once a week, which was really not enough. I decided to quit instead of take a leave of absence to come to Belgium. I realized that I didn't want to go back to a job where my availability was 24/7 but I only worked 4-5 hours/week. I am keeping my eye out for when a list of TA positions I can apply for at the university come out. I can really see myself being a TA for Spanish or Language and Linguistics! I also managed to find myself a little job teaching Spanish. I currently only have one student, but we meet on Monday nights and I've started teaching her beginner Spanish and I am payed for it. It's fantastic! I think it would be really cool if I could build on this. I have another friend who is very interested in learning French, and I think when I get back I will be working out an arrangement with him.
Back in May, one of my Belgian friends who was doing her exchange in Ohio came to visit me for a few days, so that was pretty awesome. And Manon had come to Canada the week before we left for Belgium. So she was at my BBQ with the Brazilians, and I also took her to Niagara Falls and Toronto.
It's weird how many things change and how many things stay the same a year after exchange. Especially when you return. Some people look a little different, some people have gone different ways, and you know that you and the people you were closest with now have a year of totally separate experiences and stories to share... but really nothing has changed. It was like it was yesterday. It passed so quickly too. A year really isn't a very long time.
When I first came back, and even before I left to come back, I thought it might be easier to leave the second time. Because I actually have a life back home that will continue on very easily (not like before where it was in a transition period and my future path wasn't too sure). I have friends I am looking forward to seeing. I want to go back to say goodbye to one of my best friends. I am very eager to hang out with the Brazilians again. I am actually looking forward to second year (even though it's pretty intimidating). I want to find a job and start saving money for my future travels. I want to go back and do all that..... and I think I almost forgot how much I freaking love(d) Belgium!! Yesterday I thought about it. It's going to be hard to leave for a second time. This time I know I won't be coming back in a year, probably not even two. It might be much longer than that. If I go to Chile or somewhere on another exchange in 2015, I'll surely have to save up money for that, so I wont be doing any major travelling before then. So that means the earliest I could come back here is in 3 years. And even then maybe not. I might be doing summer courses and stuff because going to Chile is going to mess up my graduation time (big time).
Anyway, there are so many little different things here I've forgotten about. The fact that you have to specify if you want flat or sparkling water, they don't serve pop or water with ice cubes, there are no ceiling fans in bedrooms, people tend not to have screens on the windows or screen doors (which are always open) so there are flies flying about everywhere in the house, creme fraiche is used to cook so many things, chugging beer isn't easy anymore (I'm out of practice), you can wear the same outfit like 3 days in a row (which is awesome for me because this way I won't have to do almost any laundry while I'm here), etc....
As far as speaking French all the time again is concerned, I haven't forgotten much. Sometimes it's difficult for me to find the words or say something entirely correctly, but I understand everything. And when I don't understand something, I admit it and I ASK. WHY COULDN'T I DO THAT BEFORE!? lol I didn't do it during my exchange year. I would always pretend I knew something or I would tell myself I'd look it up later. That's one of my regrets from my exchange year is not asking enough questions. Now every time I will ask "qu'est-ce que c'est?" or "ca veut dire quoi?" or "comment s'appelle ce truc la?". I ask someone something like this multiple times per day. But I never did that after the very beginning of my exchange. I was embarassed not to know something. Now I don't care anymore. I opened up a lot during my exchange, but I didn't noticed that I opened up even more within the past year of being in Canada. Because I am noticing changes in myself that I didn't know happened, but I can tell there is a difference between the person I am now and the person I was last year. I think it has a lot to do with the large Brazilian influence in my Canadian life hahaha.
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