Amsterdam

It has been awhile since I have updated my blog! I have changed families a few times now! I stayed with my second family for a month and two weeks ago we decided it would be best if I changed to another family. We are still searching for a new family so I am floating in between my Counselors and Youth Exchange officers’ house. I had about Twenty minutes to get my luggage packed after leaving my second families and I am still a bit disoriented. I have half my luggage at one house another fourth of it locked in another house (the Rotarian left for vacation and we forgot about it, so I am not sure when I will get that stuff back) and the rest is with me now! It’s a bit crazy but the two families I have been staying with are so sweet! They each have four kids all who are in their twenties and are very welcoming!

My First night after changing I stayed at Andras house (My counselor). I went out with his daughter that first night to meet some of her friends. It was a long day and I fell asleep at the table in a restaurant while they were talking! On the bus ride back a guy asked us if we had a bag because he felt sick…. I have discovered it is a good thing that it rains all the time here. It washes away all the puke in the streets that’s the aftermath of Friday and Saturday “fun”! I stayed with Andras and Clare, his wife, for a whole week. Andras renovates chandeliers and is the best in Europe! He has renovated chandeliers in some of the most famous palaces in Europe!

While staying with Andras I had to walk a good 20 minutes to the train station and then take an hour and a half bus into Seraing where my school is at! I have had some “interesting” experiences in the busses in the mornings. One morning a guy just gets on the bus and does the splits, gets back up and does them again then as he is about to leave the bus does them one more time! It was by far the most random thing I have seen! Then one morning I was given a huge sucker from some people at the train station, it was for some political thing. But it made my day to be handed a sucker on my way to school! The next morning the bus driver told me he was not going to my school, so I waited at the train station for a whole hour in the snow for the next bus…. Comes to find out that his bus went to my school, he just must not have understood my accent! Needless to say my mornings are never dull!

After a week with Andras I moved just down the street to Franks House, he is my Youth Exchange officer. He also has four kids and they are a very laid back family, who joke all the time! Both Frank and Andras live very close to the center of the town, so Saturday and Sunday I went exploring a bit! Saturday I saw a whole new part of Liege I had never seen before!! It was so amazing; I never want to come home! We were also out of school all week because of Carnival!

Monday, I climbed  over 380 stairs (we kind of lost count but know that it is a bit over 380) and had an amazing view of the city! Then explored a bit more and then went back home! That evening I went to town with Franks daughter and some of her friends. Tuesday we just stayed home and watched TV and talked all day. She did an exchange to Mexico last year and hopes to return this summer.

Half way there!

The top!!

The view from the top!

Wednesday I had a thing with Rotary. We went to a small farm and saw some Belgium sheep, ate and got to talk with all the new exchange students who come from the southern hemisphere and are just starting their exchange. After the farm we went to a museum there in Bruge. It was a war museum and I met a guy whose mother housed a soldier who was from Lufkin. So he gave me all of the guys contact info and told me how he had just come back to visit Europe. We talked for a good 30 minutes about this solider and his time in Europe and how I needed to contact him. The guy also gave me a sticker from the museum!

After the museum we went to a WWII memorial and then headed back to Liege.

There is a long story to the flowers!

Thursday I woke up early to catch a train to Brussels’s! After I got to Brussels I met up with all the other exchange students who were going to Amsterdam! WE had about a two hour bus ride then took a break in Delft and had a few hours to explore then we went to a museum.

We were then off to Amsterdam! We arrived and ate at the Hardrock Café then went on a walk through Amsterdam! We walked through the Red Light District, which was honestly not as horrible as it is made out to be! Then we went and saw a few more things then headed back to the Hostel.

The next day we started with exploring a boat museum then saw a very famous old theater in the heart of Amsterdam. Then we headed to an old Jewish Synagogue. After we had some free time and got to explore a bit. After that we meet up all together just to be divided into groups. We were sent on a scavenger hunt! This was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We got to see and learn a lot! “Back in the day” the houses were taxed based on how wide they were. So houses are VERY narrow! They are also very long and lean forwards just a bit. They lean forward for two reasons. It gave them that much more space and the doors of these houses are VERY small and narrow, so it was easier to get furniture in the houses by using the windows! This also explains why EVERY house, new or old had a hook sticking out of the top of the house. We also learned that because there is limited space the houses don’t have a garden or a back yard, but instead share a courtyard. Normally these are very nice and have a little fountain; they are looked after by the city in most cases. It’s almost like their own private park!

The final destination of our scavenger hunt was the Anne Frank house! This was a dream come true! We learn so much about this in school, and to actually climb the same stairs as Anne Frank did and to actually be in her bedroom and see the real diary was amazing! Sadly we weren't really aloud to take pictures inside her house, but I managed to get a few!

The view from her house

That evening we ate at the hostel and then went to see the new diehard in the theater we saw earlier. The movie was good, but had sub titles in Dutch. Normally, this isn’t a problem…. But when the actors spoke in Russian it was translated just to Dutch, so you missed a lot. Thankfully I have picked up a little bit of Dutch and could figure out enough to understand what was happening in the movie. After the movie we had to run to the train and were lucky to catch the last train of the night!

The next morning we started with the Van Gough Museum, and then headed into Amsterdam to take a tour by boat! It was a neat tour, but after two nights of no sleep, it seemed like the prime time to try to take a nap! Sadly I didn’t get to sleep too much, but I was able to still take a bunch of pictures! After the tour we split up and had three hours of free time! I explored the town with some friends and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the center square and head back to the bus! Some exchange students managed to get an extra little tour of Amsterdam, they didn’t realize we all got off the metro and they stayed on! But we eventually found them and then headed back to Brussels!

Once in Brussels, the adventure was far from over! IT is normal for Belgian trains to be late, 10-20 minutes isn’t too bad! But our train was delayed 8 minutes to start with, then they added 8 more, then we were up to 30 minutes! Before we knew it was 40 minutes late! Then we were told to just take a new train that was 2 minutes before the projected arrival time of the first train…. By the time we made it to the new platform the train was delayed 10 minutes, so that meant we had to run back to the other platform to try to take the first train again! As we rushed down the stairs to the first train we were able to see our train pulling out of the station! The second train was cancelled so taking that one was no longer an option! We ended up having to wait another hour for the next train, that was then delayed another hour! We eventually made it back to Liege, only to find out that the reason we had train problems was because there was a bomb threat at the station in Liege earlier that day. It ended up just being a homeless guy who left his bag in the station, but people thought it looked suspicious.

After getting home I took Sunday to catch up on school and sleep! Come Monday I was dreading school! I don’t really like my classes, they are boring! But, I love my friends here in Belgium! They are by far the best! They are always willing to help me with my French, a few of them even go out of their way to make sure I know every bad word or phrase ever thought of! From talking on bus rides to learning horrible phrases in History and Biology they are by far the best! It’s sad to think that in 5 and a half short months I may never see them again!

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I have learned a few very important things these past few weeks!

1.       1. Going to the bathroom in public places here gets expensive! I have spent well over 10 Euros just to use the toilet!

2.      2.  Don’t even look at people who are walking down the street, and NEVER make eye contact!

3.     3.  Enjoy every moment you have! Time fly’s faster than you know! 

 There are more pictures on Facebook! I just put a few on here! :)