First day of SCHOOL
Mood:  hungry
Topic: First day of school
I can't explain it...I'm always hungry. But do I reach for an apple? Nope. I just gotta' have chocolate! I swear when I return to the United States, I'll weight 500 pounds! But just a few minutes ago I had a chocolate bar that was dark chocolate with vanilla syrup in the middle! Oh, it was sooooo good, I think I might go get another one soon.

Oh, right, school...Ok well last night I set my alarm for 6:45 so that I could hop in the shower before anyone else needed it. So I was up and going around 7:00 but then Corinne came and told me that today I only had to go to school in the afternoon. So I can sleep in... good to know... so I went back to bed and got up around 9 or so. Noemie had to be at school at 10 so after I had my shower and everyone had eaten breakfast, we went and dropped Noemie off at school.

Then, since we were right there, we stopped at the bank and opened an account for me to keep the money from Rotary in. They give me about 65 EUROS a month, which is over 70 American dollars...I think, so I needed some place to put it!

We got back home around 10:30 and I just bee-bopped around the house for a bit, uploaded some pictures on to the computer from CDs that I had brought, and around 11:40 or so I went downstairs because I thought I had to be in school at 12:00 but first Corinne took me to the "boulangarie" or bakery and we got rolls and such for lunch, then we went and picked up Noemie at school. We all went back to the house and ate lunch together, with Morgane, her boyfriend,and Stephan.

Here, everyone is a lot more relaxed and layed back. No one is constantly rushing rushing rushing to get somewheres, they budget their time better than Americans, I guess.

After lunch, Corinne brought me and Noemie back to school for the last hour and 45 minutes. They took me to the English teacher and left me with her while Noemie went to her own class. She, the English teacher, took me to a classroom, 4E, which is going to be like my main classroom or something... I guess the teachers move from class to class, instead of the students, so the people who are in that classroom with me are going to be the ones in all my classes... For a little while anyways.

See I figured I'd be in the 9th grade here, but actually, they stuck me straight into 10th grade, so now I have no idea what is going on, if I am even still going to be moved to the 11th grade or not. I don't want to be with 10th graders, I want to be with people my own age!!!

Then tomorrow I have to go only in the morning, because I guess I don't have any classes in the afternoon, so Corinne is going to pick me up before lunch...But come "lundi" (Monday) I have to go alllll day long. Which is from 8:15 to 3:15. (Not that different than Mt. View)

At my school, they have a Gymnastics team and I think I'm going to join it. Corinne also showed me a brochure for a club like a YMCA kinda thing that offers gymnastics too. She said I could both take the class (which is like 99EUROS for 30 someodd classes) and join the team if I wanted. YEAH! The club has a whole bunch of things to do and the classes are all held after school, like 2 or 3 times a week. Noemie plays basketball there. There are also dance and Thai-bo (or however the hell you spell it) classes that sound kinda fun, and I need to do something with my time and calories!

Well when I know what I plan on doing, I'll let everyone know! For now, I'm off to get another CHOCOLATE BAR!!!!!!

chow

August 31st; It must be Tuesday
Mood:  special
Now Playing: Something in French
I GOT MY FIRST LETTER TODAY...and THAT is why I feel special!! (Ok, well actually, it was a card) My neighbors, Marie, Richard, Sisi, Collin, and Darrell, all signed it! They also send mushy e-mails all the time that make me cry! Thanks guys! (Just kidding, I love them, keem 'em coming!!)

School starts September 2nd here. So tomorrow is my last day of summer, then its to school. I'm not to worried about it though... I only have 3 classes and I start out back in 9th grade.
1) French
2) Art
3) Gym
It shouldn't be too awful difficult. Once my French improves, in about 2 weeks or so, I get upgraded to 10th grade, and some more classes are thrown in, and finally when I master French, I advance to 11th grade. But here, after 6th grade, they refer to 7th through 12th as 1-6 again, so actually, I'm going to be starting in grade 3, then going to grade 4, before finally settling in grade 5! Wednesdays are half days and someone from my host family is scheduled to come pick us up and take us home, but Corinne, my host "Mom" said that if I don't enjoy any of the afterschool activities and don't like any of my classes, she will send me and Noemie to private art lessons come Wednesday afternoons!

On the weekend of the 28 and 29 I had to go to an orientation for all the "inbound" students to Belgium. There were a lot of us; but I had expected there would be more Americans when in reality, the majority was Brazilians and Canadians! Everyone had pins and business card things to swap. There were a lot of presentations and things, that got reeeeeeeeeealy boring, but I suffered through. There was also a lot of time to socialize too though. I met a girl named Jung-Yeon Kim. (Pronounced Chong-Young Kim) She is from South Korea and right before she left, she met my sister, Lorie, at an exchange student meeting! They exchanged cards and everything and Lorie showed her a picture of me and told her that she would probably meet me here, and WE DID!! Small world huh!? Because we had to stay the night, everyone got their own rooms, kinda like a hotel, but with only one light, no bathroom, sink, or wastebasket... Beer was offered at dinner but a lot of people said it was warm so I didn't try it. Later on at the "party" thingy, they had cherry flavored beer that was tolerable, but everyone only got two and they were small. All the Rotary people said in the rules there was to be no drinking, but then afterwards they mentioned that beer is a big part of the Belgian culture and when they said "NO DRINKING" they mean don't go out all the time and get drunk because that gives Rotary a bad name.

Then today I had to go to this "Speak Academy." It's a one day course that is supposed to teach me French. No, its not a miracle, and no, it didn't work. There were a lot of other exchange students there that I had met at the orientation and we all had to watch french movies in French with French subtitles, Watch French music videos with French subtitles (and most of the music was really good), and then do this activity which was really funny in a stupid way. We had to partner up in twos and go out and find these four shops that the teacher had written down for us in French. (In a city we had never been to, surrounded by crazy Belgian drivers!!) I went with Jung Yeon and at first we didn't know how to read the map and got waaaaay lost, then we went back and had to get more directions, and so on and so fourth. In the process we looked like complete idiots, were kicked out of a bookstore, and hassled by an old woman for money... But we had fun!

Thursday, the 26 of August, 2004
Mood:  lazy
Topic: First days here
I must write fast because here it is 1:40 in the morning!!
Today I had to go to a Rotary meeting with Stephan, my host "Dad." They were going to expect me to have a presentation, but they are giving me a month to learn the language first, then they are going to throw it on me.
Yesterday I went shopping after I got my revised Visa. It is "tres cher" here. (it is very expensive) and the American dollar is worth less than the Euro anways so I'm screwed in this deal no matter how you look at it, but oh well the clothes are nice! After we went shopping, we went to Corenton's "football" game which is actually soccer but in French they call soccer football, which makes sense, right!? Unfortunately, they lost but they worked their butts off and for 10 year olds, they are really good. Better than me, honestly, but no surprise there! They must be almost as good as Cliff anyways and there so young!! In school they don't have a lot of sports, just vollyball, basketball and soccer so everyone goes all out on soccer! They start playing soccer as sooon as they start to walk! Parents probably buy soccer cleats for their babies before they get them booties!! (I'm just making an educated guess on that one though.) It rained really really hard durring the soccer game but they played anyways because they are that dedicated to the sport. When I was filling out the paper about myself to send to my host family, I made the mistake of mentioning playing soccer...I mean I could have been more relistic and said truthfully that I was a benchwarmer and supporter of soccer, but no, I said I played soccer... So when I arrived they expected that I would be good... haha! Here they don't have a seperate girls and boys team, they just have whoever is good enough gets the jersey, and rarely girls play soccer, just because it is so brutal here!! Violet could do it... I can't. Nope!
Tuesday was a lazy day. I woke up at noon and did some chatting online. Corinne, my host "mom" had to work that day, but her Mom and Dad came, my host grandparents. They do the cooking when Corinne isn't around. The Grandfather is called to "godfather" either in the place of grandfather, or also... I don't know.
Monday, the 23rd, I went with Noemi, (the 15 year old) Corinne, and Stephan, to visit my principle and check out my school. Not right now, but soon I will have a link to my school's webpabe so you will be able to see how HUGE and scary looking it is!! When I first go to school, I will start out in the 9th grade and stay there for two weeks or so, then graduate into 10th for another few weeks and then once my French is proficient, I will be upgraded into 11th grade! Only here the grades are known differently...let me explain:For the first six years you are in school you go through grades 1-6 then you move on to Junior High which is 7th and 8th, then its on to highschool for the last 9-12 grades. Here they start over at 1 when you enter 7th grade and go up from there until you graduate at 6th grade. So actually here I will be in 3rd, then 4th, and finally 5th grade!! lol! At the end of the meeting, the Principle said to me,(and Stephan translated) that if I have any problems to come see her and talk only in French and she will help me... Thanks a lot lady! Oh well... Later that day I went swimming in their pool with Corenton. I will post a picture of my back yard in here somewheres. It was really nice!

The Plane Ride and the First Couple of Days
Mood:  blue
Topic: First days here
Where do I begin?? Well for starters, the keyboards are different here so it might take me a while to plug this out. You don't even know how many times I have written that. THREE! Ok well now you know because the computer has died twice while I was trying to make an entry in my web journal.


I left on Friday to go to Portland to stay the night at the Comfort Inn Hotel. Before I left I said my "Goodbyes" to the Gardner Family, Gram, Richard, Marie and the kids, and last but not least, Bill. Leaving Gram's house and knowing I wouldn't be back for a year to see her was the hardest part. But by 5:30 pm on Friday it was au revoir Waldo...

Mom kept saying that she didn't want to arrive in Portland at 8 in the evening, so when we got there around 7:50 I was pretty impressed! Cliff, Maxine, and Chan'tal accompanied me to Portland for my final night in the US.

We ordered Chinese food delivery and when we had all we could eat, Mom took us to the movies to see "Without a Paddle." We caught a taxi back to the hotel room which was really exciting for Chan'tal! Her and Max crashed soon after getting in and Cliff and I stayed up talking for a while...

Three hours later everyone was up and going because we had to be ready for the shuttle bus to the airport at 4:15am. Bags loaded on and everyone settled on the shuttle and we were off... About half way to the airport Mom realized that I had forgotten my cash that I was supposed to bring with me on the plane ride so when the shuttle got to the airport, Cliff, Chan'tal and I got off while Mom and Maxine rushed back to the hotel to find it. But no worries, we got it all situated before I had to leave.

Then before I knew it, it was time to say "Goodbye."
Those are always the hardest and I knew it would be, but it was harder than I had ever expected.

Security was a breeze and once through I just stood on the other side of the wall, knowing full well that everyone was only 15 feet or so away but that there was no way I could get back to see them again, so I went and took a seat for 20 minutes or so. The plane I borded going to Washington DC was too small to pull up to the Terminal so I had to walk through the terminal and across the runway in the rain to my plane. There was Mom, Max, Chan'tal and Cliff all standing by the fence waving!!

Once on the plane we were told that it would be delayed for about 20 minutes because of the rain and lightning. Even in the downpour, Cliff didn't take his eyes off my plane until it took off, a half hour later. Then it was au revoir Maine...

I arrived at the Washington Dulles Airport in DC around 9:30 am and had to wait there until 5:20pm! There is just so much to do in one airport, just so many shops to browse through, just so many things to buy at Burger King and Starbucks... it was soooo boring! I tried to get a hold of my uncle, David who lives in DC but by the time we got in touch there was no sense braving 3:00 pm travel security in DC to see him for a few minutes then go back through security! Damn. The other exchange students going to Belgium finally started showing up around noon or so which was nice. Before I borded the plane to Brussles, Belgium I called Mom one last time and told her that I was on my way and then... it was au revoir America...

Somehow I missed customs or something because getting by bags was a breeze and then I just followed the herd to where the families were waiting to pick up their exchange students and as soon as I got into the airport area where the parents were waiting I heard "Tracy Tracy Tracy over here!!" I was thinking of maybe hugging everyone but the caught me off guard when the leaned over for a kiss on the cheek! I met Aurelie (pronounce OR-ah-lie) Dor before she had to catch her plane to the United States and the rest of the Dor family; Corenton(he is 10 today), Naomie (she is 15), Morgane (she is 19), Corinne my host mom, Stephane my host dad, and Christoph (Morgane's boyfriend). Laurie Fauquenoit was there also at the airport but her plane was leaving soon so I got some pictures and she and her family left to see her off.

Before Aurelie had to go, we went to a cafe and everyone got pastries and stuff but I was still nervous from the flight so I just got a soda. There were more pictures taken and I will post them sometime when I get the chance!

Then we went to say goodbye to Aurelie and it reminded of when I had to say my "Goodbyes" and I got all sad also!

The ride to my new house was about an hour and I slept most of the way. Ok... my house... it is brick and two stories tall (in Belgium and France they do not cound the first story so actually it is 3 stories) I have my own room that is big. All the rooms have tall ceilings and it is beautiful. I will post some picture as soon as I get them developed! Everything is different here and I am tempted to get out of the car once in a while and take pictueres of random things like cars in parking lots, things in the grocery store, gas signs and gas pumps... road signs...trees and everything. The roads are smaller and the cars go fast around these 90 degree turns and boy is it scary. The cars are more compact and you rarely see an old compact car because they are all modernized. The lines in the middle of the road are white not yellow and right now it is 3:26 in the morning here and if I look out my window I can see the sparkeling city lights of Liege a little ways away. Pretty!

Some thing funny is going on here... like I said it's 3:30 in the morning and a car just drove by and honked a few times so I looked out the window and the car was backing up and honked again. Then I heard people moving around inside and the person who had honked got out of the car and ran over to unlock the gate... Whoever it was left now but that was odd for the poor new little exchange student to have to witnes on her second night here!!!

I have so much more to write but now it is 3:47am and I am tres peut (very tired)

au revoir

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Pre-departure jitters.
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: Rockford Files on TV
Well, Lori is gone. We took her to Boston last weekend and said our goodbyes for a year. It was a Hallmark moment and everyone cried.

Now its my turn and I am feeling soooo rushed. I still have to pack up my room, but that won't take very long, and my bags still arn't packed. Have you ever tried to pack your life for an entire year into two bags under 70 pounds? Well if you have then I understand, and if you haven't then let me tell you it is really difficult...

I'm running out of time to say goodbye to everyone who means something to me. I just can't spend enough time with Mom, Gram, Cliff, and his family.

It's back to packing for me now, so long. The next time I write, it will probably be in BELGIUM.