Bienvenue en Belgique!!!
That is not just rain on a tree, it is frozen rain drops! I feel
it perfectly represents Belgium weather! The cold and rain!! Needless to say it
is COLD! The past few nights it has been below 0, during the days only getting
up to about 5 or 6 degrees IF we are lucky! But it rains with that 5 degree
weather so not only is it cold but its wet also! Yesterday at about 10am I was
sitting at the table eating bread J and
looking outside. It was 2 degrees and raining!! That is just crazy!!! I went
out yesterday and explored the city but wore an undershirt, long sleeve shirt,
a cute cardigan, a sweatshirt and my letterman with a scarf and was still
frozen! I have a feeling this winter might be a long one!
Two weeks ago I spent a Saturday in Brussles with some exchange
friends. We went back and found the “Mannequin Pis”. They dress him up for the
seasons/holidays and any other time they can find a reason for it. This time he
was dressed with a cute little polo and jeans! While we were in Brussels I took
a few pictures for a WHS senior who needed a few cool Belgium pictures with me holding up an AHMO sign!
After we took this
picture, this
English guy comes up after seeing us holding up the AHMO sign and asks what
AHMO is. But he did it in French so with my broken French I try to explain it
to him. He gives me this odd look and said he’d like the English version. So, I
told him it’s for Football game we yell AHMO and it is kind of like “I’m a
gunna to kick your butt” but with AHMO in front of it. He gives me another odd
look and says “all right, so it’s like I’m gunna kill you..aaaahhhhMO”. I just
agreed with him and tried to walk away, but then he turns to all the restaurant
and yells” AHMO means I am going to kill you”. Then proceeds to go up to people
shake their hands and tell them “AHMO”. So there is now a man walking around
Brussels saying AHMO to people thinking he’s telling them to die! It was by far
the funniest thing I had ever seen!
We stopped and got some Sushi while in Brussels and came
across the coolest restaurant! It was a sushi bar that had unlimited sushi, but
wasn’t like a buffet. It was ten times cooler then that!! It had a bar
stretching down a good half of the restaurant and running around the bar was a
train who carried all the sushi around! It was by far the coolest way to serve
food that I have ever seen!
That next day I went to “La fête de la Paroisse”. It is a
ceremony that has been practiced for quite a while! Before when hunters went
hunting on horseback with their dogs they would have a huge ceremony at the
church to bless the horses and dogs and feed them a piece of bread. They still
feed the horses and dogs but they were not going out hunting! Along with
feeding the animals they had “Rallye Trompe de l’Hertogenwald”. They played a
hunting Trumpet/French Horn looking thing both inside the church during the
mass and after during the ceremony for the Horses and Dogs.
After the ceremony there was a little cookout at the church.
They also played their horns there too. The cookout was neat; it was inside the
back part of the church in a huge room. The church has two parts the modern
part that we have mass in then this back part which is a lot older and prettier
too. What was crazier than feeding animals blessed bread was that they served
beer and wine inside the church! That was a bit shocking for me!! They didn't just serve beer in the church but had a bar inside it!! Bienvenue en
Belgique!
After the lunch I went and saw the Scouts play a game where they
all dressed up as Smurfs and ran around. I didn’t really figure out the point
of it, but it looked like they were having fun. Right after that I played a
game, which I don’t remember the name of, that is similar to Corn Hole. We eah
had 2 heavy metal balls and you try to throw them closest to a little plastic
ball. You can hit others balls out of the way and pretty much just throw the
ball and hope for the best!
That Wednesday we had “Cross” it is a school wide cross-country
run/ mini-marathon! It was a 3km run through the woods. We went to our first
two classes then waited for our class to run. It was kind of fun but the leaves
were falling and of course it had rained the night before so the ground was wet
and muddy. So the leaves became very slick and I have no idea how I did not
fall!! Plus, I am pretty sure the whole thing was uphill!
Right after the run, I had to run to my Rotary meeting! Here the
Rotary meetings are more focused on eating and talking with the people around
you and less of a meeting where they discuss club business. There is a quick
welcoming and announcement then we all eat and they drink wine and we all talk
with the people at our tables. Then we eat dessert and someone may make another
announcement then we drink coffee and before you know it, it’s over!
This past weekend I went to the birthday party of my third host
sister. I met a lot of super nice people! I was talking with this one guy about
how different the driving is here and how scary it is! Of course, everyone from
Europe argues that the driving the here isn’t scary! The he proceeded to tell
me how he got a ticket for going ONLY 110MPH….nope, driving here isn’t crazy at
all!!!! I never before have used the handles inside the car doors or the ones
on the ceiling of the car by the door… but then I came to Europe, and now I am
holding onto them praying quite often!!
I also have discovered my favorite shop of all them here in Belgium…La Boulangerie! I bet you can see why!
Merveilleux is the name of this Oh So Yummy dessert, and the name fits it well! Merveilleux means wonderful or marvelous in English!
Yesterday I went out with some other Exchangers and saw
Liege by foot to say the least! I feel like we walked the through whole city like
five time! But I saw some pretty cool things!
