Monday, March 22, 2010

Im still alive.

Its not that Ive gone missing or anything like that. When I was in training for this year an exchange students curve was explained to me.... at the begining everything is super exotic and exciting, then novemberish you start to get used to the new country and realize that a year is a really long time. then you get over it and realize that your really lucky to have such a cool experiance and simply live your life as a forigner. finally, you fall in love with your new version of life and are a total mess when Rotary makes you return to your home land. Im at the simply live your life stage. My name is Deanna and im an exchange student to belgium. its no longer a news flash or a banner that randomly streams across my brain and makes me gasp thinking about how remarkable this situation is. its simply a fact. I eat my breakfast of bread and nutella while drinking green tea, I go to my aerobics class on monday where the instructer yells things in french, i walk home from my private catholic school on days when it isnt raining. I make salads. I do laundry. i watch films with out subtitles, occasionally i take a train halfway across the country to visit a museum or something like that. its normal. everything that happens now-a-days is what happens to Deanna the exchange student. Sorry if i don't blog everytime I do something. Cuz at this point, im simply living. =P so certain cousins, aunts, and friends. CALM DOWN <3 im still here, im still making the most of it. and ill see yall soon =) love ya!!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

MERRY CHRSTMAS part 3 of 4

So here is one example of why being an exchange student is so great. I got christmas presents on the 13th of December, the 25th of Decemer, the 24th of January, and when i return home i have more presents waiting for me :))) this is the explanation of the January 24th.... so my two host sisters studied straight thru christmas. since exams are finished the fetes commence!! we ate alot... and then we opened presents (chocolate, scarves, jewlery, and a wallet for me) i do love when christmas last more than the month between thanksgiving and christmas. and since the 6 cds of christmas music only just arrived last week i have been enjoying Relient Ks 12 days of christmas.... quick question.... anybody NOT know what a pear tree is??

Host Family #2

I moved to a really really really sweetly decorated house. Its african/asian/cool. Theres a real dead christmas tree. My room is spread over 3 floors: bathroom and closet on the second floor, desk and stuff on the third floor, ladder going up to my bed in the loft on the 4th floor. I love my room! And geuss how many pianos are in this place... not one, not two, not three or four or five or six, but SEVEN PIANOS!! no joke. and the house isnt remarkably huge or anything but wow! There is a dog named Peanuts. I have two older host sisters in college. So far all theyve done is study for exams but theyre over now so the studing can cease (!) I ride to school with the neighbor and his son. I come home either with them or one of my host parents will pick me up or I 'take the bus' (ive tried three times, ive yet to take the bus home after school) 2ish weeks ago i went with my english class to see The Importance of Being Earnest. and who do you think was sitting behind me?? JENNA!! my friend from home who is also in Belgium! crazy!

December in a Nutshell

Im the equivellent of a Senior here. Saint Nicholas came to my class and gave everybody animal crackers not in the shape of animals. But I'm not complaining. St Nick and Father Christmas are different people here. The first came the 13th-ish of December and gave me a new journal and a bunch of chocolate. The second never actually came. HUGE disappointment! We stayed up until midnight on christmas eve and opened all the presents we bought for each other... i thought come morning therd be a lil something more from santa considering theres a 9 year old in the house and we were still lying to him. but no. we slep in christmas morning then went to the grandparents house where we ate alllllll day. and since half the family are teachers... for our entertainment we played Jepordy in french. Needless to say I was more than useless. I did know the capitol of Cuba. Luckily my team mate was my host mom so we came in second out of 4 teams. For new years my host sisters went out but i stayed at the house. We dressed up and watched the eiffel tower light up on tv then listened to the king give the same speech 3 times, once in french, once in dutch, and once in german (the three official languages of Belgium). i called my parents and was like 'happy new year' and they were like 'its only 6' a lil bit twilighty zoneish. doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.