"Did she get to know my boyfriend?" , "Yes... Actually, she kissed him!"
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Trip to Germany
This weekend I went to Cologne, GERMANY to stay with the Steltzner family. Their daughter, Heike, is living at my house in America. I met her parents, Harald and Brigette, her brothers, Martin and Flo, and her boyfriend Jo. Infact, I got to know them so well that I kissed both Martin and Jo! LOL!!! (I'll explain later)

Heike went to America with the GAPP program for 3 weeks but her and one other student decided to have an extended stay for 3 months. For the first 3 weeks she was in America she stayed with Ashley Wolley's family, I think, but after that, she came to stay at my house with Laurie. She is returning to Germany on December 20th. I can't wait to meet her!! We have a lot of brownie eating and partying to do!!!

On Friday night, Harald and Brigette came all the way to Belgium to pick me up. (It is about an hour and a half drive from where they live in Pulheim) For that first night it was very hard for me to break my Belgian habits. *giggles* It is natural for me to respond in French all the time, so when the Steltzners talked with me, they spoke in English and I would start to respond in French! LOL! Plus in Belgium, when you greet someone, you give them a kiss on the cheek, so when I went to entered the Steltzner's house I said "Bonjour" and leaned over and kissed Martin on the cheek. I was about to give Flo a kiss too when I realized that the culture is different in Germany!! *giggle giggle snort*

The week or so before I arrived, they had worked some on their English (Flo has only been taking English for 3 months!) so when I arrived, and I was speaking french, they didn't know what to make of that!! LOL!

Friday night after dinner, I made American brownies with Martin and Flo. All of the measurements are in "cups and half cups" but the problem is that they don't have regulation measuring cups here, so I just guessed... "Yeah, that looks about right...uh, yup." And if I've ever told you about my past cooking experiences, then you know that this is NOT a good thing! Surprisingly, they turned out pretty good! Then we hopped in the HOT TUB for a little while!! *ahhh soo great* :-)

Saturday morning we went to a town an hour from Pulheim where they are in the process of having their "weekend" or "vacation" house being built. It used to be a horse barn but they are turning it into a house. The construction began in July, I think, and they believe that it will be finished in a couple more months! They didn't know if that would be boring for me to see, but I told them I want to be an archetect, and it is much more interesting to me then they think!

We left that town and went to a christmas market in Pulheim, maybe... I get confused. Yeah, Pulheim sounds good. They got me an oil lamp shaped like a wizard with a wick comin out of each hand and when u fill it with oil and light the wicks, he holds fire in his hands! Oh he is too cute!

In the evening we went to a "football" match. (Soccer match) because soccer is all the rage here. I tell people that I play soccer in America and they seem pretty impressed. (Because here girls don't often play unless they are reeeeeaallllllllllyyy good.) ... (I haven't mentioned to them yet that I am only a bench warmer... hehe) Jo (Heike's boyfriend) met us there and when I met him I said "Bonjour" and gave him a kiss too!!! (on the cheek) lol. So there you have it. I was in Germany for 3 days and I already kissed Heike's boyfriend and brother! She is going to have second thoughts about me coming to stay with her later this year if I keep this up! O:-) LOL! The team we were cheering on won 2-1!! woooowoooo

Sunday morning we went to the "Dom" (German for Cathedral) in Cologne. There are well over 100 different cathedrals in Cologne, but we visited the most important one. When we first arrived there was a service going on but people were still allowed in to climb the belfry, so that is what we did. (I've climbed the Eifle Tower, and I've climbed the Belfry of Brugge... but the Cathedral of Cologne, I climbed in high heeled boots!) I didn't get any photos, but besides the insane cold, it was postcard perfect!

After the descent, we waited for the service to get over in a nearby pub that is very famous and well known because it is sooo old and it has its own brewery there at the location. I tried some good local beer and a special German dish of raw meet, served on bread with onions. I ate it with some salt and couldn't taste the meet at all. It was pretty good!!

When we returned to the cathedral, Harald introduced me to one of the more important church members. He explained that I am originally from America, but I am living in Belgium as an exchange student for a year, and I am temporarily with them for the weekend because their daughter is in America, living at my house. He was so inspired by this that he whipped out his wallet and showed me a picture of him with someone from America...

It was Bill Clinton!!!

WooooOOOooooow... I was more than just a little impressed!

From there, we went on to see the Chocolate factory that sits on the edge of the Rhine river, in Cologne. (The Rhine River is the biggest river in Germany.) Saw how the pros do it, ate some good chocolate, and then rushed off to see Flo's soccer match.

Flo is soo good at soccer! (Better, by far, than even Corentin... and I think he's younger!) I think Martin must be really good too, even though I've never actually seen him play. We won by 14 points, or something crazy like that!

We celebrated by going to KFC (which, dissapointingly, they do not have in Belgium) and I got to enjoy some real American fast food!! Then dropped Martin off at a birthday party and we returned to the Steltzner's house. From there nothing very eventful happened; we ate dinner and at 9 I was returned to the Dor's...

Farewell Pedro
Mood:  blue
Topic: Trip to the Belgian coast
Pedro left today. He was an exchange student from Brazil who came here to Belgium last January and now it is his time to leave. Adriana talked me into going to the airport with her to say goodbye to him... and goodbyes are always difficult. I'll admit, I've only met the guy 2 times prior to this but I still cried when he left because it was soooooooo hear renching. His host family was crying, he was crying, all the other Brazilians who came were crying. I can't help thinking about when I leave... Its only 6 months from now. Where has the time gone? I hope that I am missed as much by the people who have gotten to know me here as Pedro is going to be missed by his family... When Adriana and I returned to her host house we were "triste" some, thinking about how much we are going to miss eachother when we leave. I know I have made a true friend, and I am sure that in our lives, no matter what the distance, we will have to see eachother again.

On a happier note, I got a phonecall from Cliff last night! I haven't talked to him in soooooo long!!! He called at 11 and we talked until almost 1! He's in Florida now, but still doesn't have liberty... so hes bummin, but hopefully if he passes a test or hands in some papers or something, he will be granted liberty and will be able to wear civilian clothes again. Oh I'm so excited for him! lol!

Last weekend I went to the "mer" with Adriana, Pierre, and Kacha. The city we went to is Oostend (the biggest port in Europe) We rented a bike for 4 and made Pierre and Kacha pedel while we sat in the back and laughed our asses off at how stupid we must look!!!! Tons of fun!!!! Before we left, I got some sand and shells of the beach so I can say I have sands from Belgium, all sophisticated like!

On Saturday around 3:30 Pascal came and picked us up and brought us back to Ploeegstert where we stayed until Sunday.

Next weekend I'm going to Cologne, Germany, with the Steltzner family!!! They have a lot planned to do and I hope I'll be going back a lot when Heike gets there. We need to do some serious brownie eating and German partying!!! :-D

Well thats all for now. Sorry I don't update this often... I really do a lot, I just don't have the time to write tons... Desole. But tomorrow I have 3 hours of free time so I will add all my photos to my album!! Check that sh!t out.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Thanksgiving
Nobody celebrates turkey day here... go figure! My host family didn't even ask me to make a small celebration with them, or aked me what we do in America... Infact, it would have gone completely unnoticed had I not had a rotary meeting and someone not wished me a Happy Thanksgiving... I'm like "What!? What day is it" So now I'm thinking I should change my "Happy tRACY in Belgium" to <> ... I'll see if I have time after I finish this post. :-P

... Oh look, I'm already finished... Do I really have nothing to say? Have I really been doing nothing since the last time I wrote!? No, I've been keeping busy, but now I forget what I've been doing.

This weekend I'm going to the ocean with Adriana, Piere, Kasha, and hopefully Pedro. Pedro is a Brazilan who is here with WEP but he is leaving next week because his time here is finished and Adriana wants him to come with us so she can say goodbye. I'll write more next week after my adventure in Oostend. (the city by the ocean.)

The weekend after that I am going to Cologne, Germany to visit the family of Heike. (The German girl who is staying with Mom and Laurie until December 15th.) I will visit again after she returns so we can hang out!!! And eat brownie mix!!!! :-D!!

Hopefully the weekend after that, Adriana and I will go to Mastrict, Holland which is only 20 minutes away from here... Or if we're feeling frisky, we might make it all the way to Amsterdam. I'll see.

I got my photos back from the Carrefour FINALLY but now I need to find the time to put them in my photo album... this is tricky because I need to remember to bring them to school and then I need to find a computer that isn't being used (because the computer at my host house is faaaaaar too slow) I also have a cd that the Fauquenoit's gave me of my trip to the French coast and my visit to Brugge, and when I get the time I'll load that on to the computer also. So check back a lot and I will have tons of new things!

I think I need a 2 do list. I also want to add a page to my webpage for Heike and Laurie. They are doing tons of things that I want to write about and display pictures of!

Here we have Exams before Christmas... Yeah, how horrible is that!? And I have just recently been informed that I need to pass 3 of them or I will be sent home. No stress or anything... I don't understand SH!T in my classes still (ok actually I am understanding, but I still missed out on the first 2 and a half months of school when I didn't understand, so how can I participate in Exams!?)

happytracyinbelgium typed this up at 6:01 AM CET

Updated: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 6:24 PM CET

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"I'm sick and tired of always being sick and tired"
Topic: Brugge & the French coast
I'll post pictures as soon as I get my CD back from the Carrefour. It has been finished since Tuesday but here it is, Thursday, and the slip my host family needs to bring in is still stuck to the mirror in the hall... There are pictures of Paris and my adventures with the Fauquenoit's along with some odds and ends from in between.

Well a lot has happened lately but I'll start where I left off last time. On Wednesday afternoon after visiting the Louvre (November 3rd) we headed back for Belgium. Late that evening I arrived at the Fauquenoit's house and stayed there until Sunday. (November 7th) On Thursday Pascal and Cristal took me to the city of Brugge which is a really old city in Northern Belgium that was built in the 13th century, I think. It is similar to the Italian city, Venice, because there is a river that runs all through it and you can get around by boat so before we left we went on a tour of the city by boat. In the center of town is an old cathedral with a big bell that still chimes the hour. You can climb the belfry and see how it works, so (after just climbing the Eifle tower two days earlier) I climbed that, and reached the top at exactly 3:00 so I got a first hand experience as to how the bell worked... But then of coarse my ears were ringing the whole rest of the day. Brugge is also known for its famous "dentelle"-lace. There are tons of stores that sell beautiful expensive lace and I got a little "papilion"- butterfly made of lace to put on my Rotary Blazer. That night after Pascal had left for work, Cristal took me and her two sons to a "friterie" which is a french fry (oh excuse me, I mean Belgian Fry) restaurant. Even thought they are really common here I had never been to one so of coarse I got pictures of that.

Friday I went shopping with Cristal. I finally got a winter jacket which I desperately needed!!! Its one of those marshmellow looking ones and its soo warm but it isn't water resistant so when it rains, I absorbe the water and then I'm left soggy the rest of the day.

We all went to visit "la mer" on Saturday. (The ocean) But not the Belgian coast, instead, we went to the northern coast of France because it is prettier. (In the northern part of Belgium where the land meets the water is completely flat but in France there are more hills and cliffs.) I have never been to the shores of Belgium but I'm planning on going there the weekend after this one with Adriana and Pierre. But back to Saturday: The place we visited in France is about 500 miles east of Normandy and you can still see the "pock marks" where bombs were dropped in WWII. (Pock marks, hah, they were gullies the size of my living room!) I got to walk along the beach and, unlike in Beigum, there wern't tons of condominiums crowding the edge of the beach, it was just pure and beautiful. Before we left, we went to an "ocean zoo" that sat right on the beach. It was huge and there were a lot of displays of different sea animals (including a big shark tank!) Ahh! I loved it! (and a little Nemo tank too!) That night we went out to eat at "Le Pirat" which is a restauratnt designed to look like a pirat ship. They have a buffet and a big grill so you can choose what you want to eat and then cook it yourself. It was so much fun and it went along perfectly with the "ocean" theme of the day!

Sunday I had to go "home" and Pascal and Cristal showed me how to take the train and explained how to use the train when I want to come back to visit them.

Tuesday night (November 9th) after school my club counselor, Dimitri came over to discuss my "issues" and so I explained everything and then Friday (the 12th) he and another Rotarian came back and we decided that I would stay with the Dor family because I'm just so tired of arguing and pushing with this system...

On Wednesday the 10th of November I went with Adriana and the rest of my French 2h (French 2hours a week) class to see the Italian Opera present Don Giovanni. It was all in Italian of coarse but there were French and Dutch subtitles on a screen above the stage so I could understand it.

Paris: The most incredible city in the world!
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Trip to Paris
On Monday, the 1st of November, my host family took me to Paris with Noemie and Corentin. It was a 4 hour drive and it was night fall by the time we arrived. When we arrived at the hotel we had made reservations at, it was horrible! It looked like something out of a horror movie; The main entrance was in an ally way, the room smelled like paint thinner, and the shutters were half broken or hanging off! So we looked up the Vincent Hugo Hotel to see if they had any free rooms, and thankfully they did. We drove across town to the new hotel, that was really pretty. Corinne, Stephan, and Corentin all stayed in one room, and Noemie and I got another. It was conveniently located right near the Champs d'Elyse boulavard so everything was in walking distance! (Including the Eifle Tower!) The first time I got to see the Eifle Tower was Monday night, and it was all lit up. At the beginning of every hour all the white lights would turn on and flicker so it looked like it was shimmering! Oh wow it was soooo amazing!!! Just like I've always dreamed of!

After we got all of our stuff put away in our hotel rooms, we went walking up and down the Champs d'Elyse boulavard, looking at all the famous shops and restaurants. Everything was so beautiful and top fashion. It was crazy what some of the people were wearing! But hey, its Paris, I expected this!

On Tuesday we toured the city on a double decker bus, like the ones in London. I saw the Ritz Hotel, the Louve Museum, (just passed by it, but didn't go inside) the big garden with a whole bunch of statues dedicated to different things, the Champs d'Elyse (again), the monument in front of the Ritz Hotel with all the Hiroglyphics, the Notre Dame Cathedral (You know, like the one from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame?!)the Lafayette galleries, and of coarse the Eifle Tower. After the tour, we stopped at the Eifle Tower and actually climbed it. There are three different platforms, but the stairs only go to the second one, so we had to take the elivator the rest of the way. The view was breathtaking!! I could see on forever!

On Wednesday we headed back to Belgium around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, but first we stopped for a short 5 hour stay at the Louvre. There are, I think, 6 different sections of the Louvre and after being there for 5 hours, I pretty much got one covered. But then again what did I expect, it is the biggest museum in the world! The famous David and Venus (or Aphrodite if you prefer) is kept there along with Da Vinci's famous "Mona Lisa." (or Gioconda) but I didn't get to see the statues because we didn't have time and I didn't get a photo of Gioconda because there were so many people around it and, well, it will give me an excuse to go back again!