St. Nicolas and SNOW!!!

St. Nicholas… Well it just kept getting better! Monday the University celebrated it. They were in front of our school yet again throwing flour at people who didn’t give them money. Lucky for us we got dropped off at the back of the school and were able to avoid it. But, talking with the other exchange students they just pretended not to know what was going on and were able to get into school without being floured!

That Sunday we had our first snow!!

 

Monday during school it snowed again! Quite honestly that sucked! I was stuck inside a building pretending to listen to a teacher when all I could do was stare out the window and think “It’s snowing... in Belgium”. Thankfully I had an off period and got to just sit and watch the snow fall, building up the courage to go outside and play in it a bit. After throwing one snowball the Belgian I was with told me and the other exchange student to stop. A teacher was coming and if teachers see you throwing snow you get a 2 hour detention… so needless to say we stopped and went back inside. By lunch time it had “warmed up” and the snow turned to rain, so within minutes all the snow was gone! It stayed cold this whole week!

 

 

I learned a lot of neat things this week thought…..

1.       Don’t mess with the Belgians… they know Karate!

 

 

 

 

2.       Don’t leave your bag in the study room…

3.       Most importantly…. That this video is really funny!!

 

Wednesday the Rotary took all the exchange kids to Germany! We took a 30minute train ride across half the country then a 45 minute bus ride into Germany and got to see a local Christmas market. It was really cool, and cold! It started to snow and these weren’t normal snowflakes, they were like pre-made snow balls falling from the sky! It was crazy!! But so pretty!!!

Thursday the 6^th also known as St. Nicolas was awesome! I had a white St. Nicolas!! We had quite a bit of snow fall early that morning. If I was back home there is no doubt that school would have been canceled! But, not here in Belgium! So I woke up saw the snow and wanted to go back to sleep, but instead proceeded to get ready; doing my hair, makeup and all that stuff. When Manon, my host sister yells “Allison, could you please come down stairs”, I thought that was odd so I dropped what I was doing and went down stairs! That’s when I remembered the 6^th isn’t just the 6^th it’s St. Nicolas! I had a VERY YUMMY bread thing sitting on my slippers, then in the living room a nice cozy sweater and a huge bucket of candy and yummy Belgian treats awaiting me! I LOVE ST. NICOLAS!!

All throughout school Thursday it snowed on and off, but because Exams started on Friday we had a half day. So afterschool Donna, another exchange student from California, came home with me to study for our exams. We had the most American dinner that we could have that night. My host family ordered pizza for dinner, so Donna and I made Ranch for them! They liked it too!!

Friday, it didn’t snow much more but stayed COLD! I made my first Belgian snowman with the help of Donna and Manon!! Then we destroyed it by throwing snow balls at it. I also got the best package in the world Friday! A coat I ordered online came!!! I was so happy! I won’t be freezing anymore!!!!

 

I change families in 18 days :'(