Opera and MORE Snow!

Well, I can now say I have been to an Opera! It was all in Italian, so I understood almost nothing! But it was very neat to see! It was very colorful and had a fun story line! But after two hours of listing to people sing in a language you don’t understand it gets hard to stay awake, so I kind of fell asleep in the last song, but the clapping afterwards woke me up!

I wish I could say my ride/way to the Opera was as nice as the Opera! For about 3 days before the Opera we had had snow. That snow was still on the ground and it was still below 0 outside come Wednesday for the Opera! I got ready for the opera at my third host families place with the exchange student who is living with them now. I was under the assumption that they would be driving us to the opera, NOPE. We were to walk up a hill, down a hill, then up another hill and then down a long street to the bus stop! Normally, not a problem! But in a dress and in heels it’s a bit more challenging. In a dress and heels in the snow it is even more challenging! It is a wonder did not freeze to death or have toes fall off because they were so frost bitten! Once we trekked our way to the bus stop, we realized there wasn’t a bus coming! So we had to walk back up the street, down a hill, up a hill and back down a hill, in the snow in heels and a dress! Then we got a ride to the Opera from my third host mom! (Just as a side note, that snow is still on the ground and it has been almost two weeks)

I have grown to hate snow! I hate it with a passion! It is better than the rain though. When it rains it is cold to begin with then you add water and it is miserable! At least the snow is a little bit dryer but even colder! I think I am going to have to get used to it though, our school has a snow plow! I think that is a good indicator that the snow will be sticking around for a while!

The weekend after the Opera I stayed home, It was too cold to do anything! The snow turned to ice and made everything slippery and practically a death trap! Someone from school sent me a message on face book, telling me how it was funny to watch me walk on ice! Other than almost dying when I walk outside, not too much more happened during the week either! I have been speaking a lot with the Belgians and have been told my French is improving! This makes me so happy to hear!! I understand almost everything now, which is really nice! At school I make an effort to not sit with other English speakers and I feel as though it is starting to pay off!

We had the new Exchange students from the Southern Hemisphere arrive at the beginning of this week! We have three new ones at my school! And one new one in my club! Wednesday school finishes at noon here, so I went into town and helped kind of show one of the new kids around.  It was a lot of fun! I even got to see a few new things myself!

This weekend I went and explored a new town, Namur about an hour train ride away. It was really cute! While we were there it snowed almost the whole time so we tried to stay inside and all promise to go back and explore the town when it is warmer! ! I still managed to see a bit of the town and had a lot of fun! We took a new train back to Liege, one that stops more than normal. Emily, the girl I road back with, and I were freaking out because we thought we took the wrong train! We were trying to figure out how exactly to tell our host parents we were halfway across the country and had no idea where exactly we were! But thankfully, we took the right train!

( It looks like the ground is snow covered... but it is actually ice with a little bit of snow on top of the ice!)

Today I don’t plan to do too much, other than enjoy the fact that it is 5 degrees outside and that snow is melting!!!! FINALLY!!!!! 

GOOD LUCK TO ALL MY FRIENDS WHO ARE SHOWING AT FORT WORTH!!! YOU GUYS WILL DO AMAZING!! PLEASE SEND ME SHOW UP-DATES!!!!!!!!