Rain and Adventures!

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!