"I'm a genie in a bottle baby" ... wow, where did that come from!?
Mood:  lyrical
Yesterday was Wednesday so everyone got out of school at noon time. I stayed at Adriana's house and then today I was supposed to stay in school until 4:30 when it usually gets over but on Thursdays I have 3 hours of study hall then English, so I decided today to just go home at noon. I was sooo tired. Here, I will tell you my normal schedule for school now that I have changed families. Don't think I'm bitching; I'm not, I just think it is amazing how much time I spend at school/ getting to and from school.

6am- wake up
6:45- leave for the first bus
7-7:05- bus arrives
8- I arrive at school
8:35- school starts
4:20pm- school ends
5:10- take the first bus home (of 2)
6:15- I finally get home!!!

*phew*

http://www.ufrgs.br/cvresultados/listao/
^go here, it is a website (all in PortugUese) with the list of names of the people who got into this really important college. "011820-6 Lourenco Fernandes Dutra Fonseca " :D CONGRATULATIONS LOURENCO!!!

This weekend I'm going back to Germany! So I will finally get to meet Heike! IM SOOOOO EXCITED because the last time I went, she was staying at my house and so obviously she wasn't there. So here we are... two girls who have never met before but we feel like we've known eachother forever; we know eachothers families, homes, and now we are finally going to meet eachother!!!! wweeeeee!

I just sent an email to my mom asking her to buy me the plane tickets to Brazil for December so I can visit Adriana next Christmas. Cross your fingers for me, I don't know if she will have a problem with it or not... After all, this trip is really expensive, I don't know if I can afford to go on another trip so soon... We will see.

Ok I guess that is pretty much it for now with my Random Thoughs of the day... I can't really say what I've been doing, because I haven't been doing anything! Oh yeah, I just thought I'd enlighten you: Where it says "Post Your Comment" and then there is a little bracket with a number in it, that is saying how many comments have been posted to that entry. You can click on it even if you do not want to post an entry just to see what other people have written. I'm not sure how many of you already knew that but I'm telling you, it took me a long time to figure it out... so there you go.

"Hui is a pretty city"..."Yeah, except for that huge nuclear pwr plant over there!"
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: My Party Scene
On Saturday afternoon I bee-bopped my way into Liege to meet Adriana at 2 at Fnac (a big store sort of like Borders, with books, calenders, music and things of that general clasification) I was on a mission to find a DVD player, card for my cellphone and a watch. "2 outta 3 ain't bad" ... but I figured that since I already had a cellphone then I didn't need to get a watch. I need a DVD player because I have started a rather large collection of French DVDs only to find out that they don't work in American DVD players because of different zones or something?!?! So instead of trying to sell them all off and return them I just figured I'd get a DVD player that they would work in! Pretty good thinking, huh? We first went to Media Markt because everything in all of Europe (I think) is on sale from January 3rd to the 31st. (When we went to London and visited cathedrals they even had things in the Church gift shops on sale!) I found a "lecteur DVD" for 45 Euros (which is pretty damned good seeing my dinky little cellphone cost more than that)

DVD players in hand, Adriana and I dragged ourselves to Mobistar (the cellphone company) so I could buy a card. It just so happened that "le plus beau garcon dans tout le monde, il travail la" and so I decided to stay and ask him to put the money on my phone for me and then had him hook up other random things to my phone just so I had an excuse to talk to him. He even spoke English with me, so I'm happy! I love my cellphone :D!!! LOL

Around 6 we went to Romain (Charlie's) house ;) because that is going to be Adriana's second host family so we wanted to get aquainted. They are so nice!!! ... I can see her having a difficult time with his little sister, but no worries...*zen* ... :P Then his mom took us, Adriana, Romain, and me to the "Gare"- train station to catch our train to Hui. When we got there Emma (Australian) Hugo and Mariana (Brazilian)and Hugos host brother were already there waiting for us. We waited another 10 minutes for Finn to show up then headed out for the Centre of Hui. The first bar we went to wasn't bad. Expensive, but that wasn't an important facter for me because I just had other people buy my drinks! :) But there was a lot of smoke and no one was dancing...or stripping... wow it was nothing like Liege Wednesdays! We all stayed there for about 2 hours, at some point Adriana and Hugo's host brother left to pick up another Austrailain and "Stoner" (a Brazilian) I forget what his real name is but that is what some of the people were calling him so I'll stick with that. Humm and Marcelo, Patricia, her boyfriend, and another Brazilin whose name excapes me at the moment showed up not long after we got to the first bar too... When he first saw me he leaned over the table and asked if Romain (who was standing dangerously close to me ;)) was my boyfriend. LOL, I can understand where he might have gotten that idea, but nope, not exactly the case! So after I assured him that he wasn't then Marcelo came over and put his arm around me and bought me a couple drinks. Soo great! He told me that he's backing to Brazil in a month, after only being here for 5 months, instead of staying for the whole 12 months. I can't understand why!? He says he likes Belgium but he just doesn't want to be here anymore. This is so sad! :( I really care about that kid!

Hugo was my designated boyfriend for the night, but Adriana tried explaining Brazilin phychology to me... its difficult. In Brazil they are very up front with you if they want to kiss you, they kiss you, and if you want to kiss another person later that same night, ok thats fine. Hmm... And one time when we were outside we met up with 2 people from...humm was it Spain or Mexico. Well I doubt they are going to read this and correct me or be offended if I get it wrong, so I'm gonna go with Mexico. They are with Rotary and both from Liege (and go to Liege Wednesdays all of the time) but honestly I have never seen them before in my life! Oh well, I'm sure I will be seeing them a lot more now if they do the Wednesday scene. :D

We changed bars but the scene was pretty much the same... there were more people dancing in the second bar we went in but I think they were drugged or something...it was bizzar... Once when I was going out to get some fresh air some guy tried hitting on me and while I was trying to understand what he was saying (he talked really fast French) I almost fell out the door (when I wasn't even drunk... buzzing maybe, but deffenitally not drunk) So...quite a way for me to make a nice impression... oh well :P!

After that everyone pretty much split up and most of the Brazilians (aside from Adriana and Hugo) went to O'Malley's pub to eat spaghettie (at midnight.) I went to the Big Ben with Adriana, Hugo, his hst brother and his hst brother's friend, where they had some really good exotic drinks but I forget what they were called. Adriana really liked Hugo's host brother and he seemed interested in her too but everytime they started talking his friend would jump in and make it completely impossible for them to get anywheres! Ahck! After a little while Romain and Finn joined us from wherever they had been and we all shared a couple of exotic drinks. Hugos host brother and friend left around 1 because they have exams tomorrow, and so we finished our drinks and decided to switch bars.

Rounded ervy' body up and located a pita store (which I still can't understand why was open at 1 in the morning, but whatever!) When Adriana was trying to get chairs for everyone, she took one from a table that no one was using and the guy called her a "Salope"- which means bitch. We didn't think that was too overly impressive but no one knows French well enough to tell them off properly so we just dropped it.

Then all of a sudden it was 2h dans le matin and we had to pick a taxi to Hugo's house because obviously there were no running buses. We all had to be really quiet so not to wake his family, and it seemed like forever before they figured out where everyone was going to sleep. The house was pretty much a mansion and I think that everyone could have gotten their own room if we had thought it out better, but we ended up with with like 4 people in each room. "Crammed" is an understatement!LOL I don't know about everybody else, but I fell asleep around 3.

Then this morning we woke up around 10 and got ready to leave really quickly because we didn't want to impose on Hugo's host family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUGO!!!! Today is his birthday and his family put out a couple of little presents for him this morning at breakfast, it was so cute!

He doesn't exactly live IN Hui, he lives about a 10 minute drive from it, which is like an hours walk. He says "Hitchhike to Hui, its not difficult, there are plenty of cars" LOL yes!! So we split up (the 8 people who were left, everyone else left earlier in the morning and took a taxi I think) and 3 of them caught a ride after only walking for 5 minutes or so. Lucky bast***s! LOL :P We continued walking for another 10 minutes with absolutely no luck before finally Hugo's family came and picked us up and took us to the Gare so we didn't miss our train.

Reeeeeeeeeally smart me had to make the comment about how beautiful the small city of Hui is. About that time our boxcar train passes by these 2 HUGE funnels that make up one of the largest nuclear pwr plants in the country! ...Ok, that was a little intimidating... but besiiiiides from that, it is really a pretty city! :D

Liege Wednesdays
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: My Party Scene
I should be careful what I write about this. Rotary says it is not allowed and if they "catch us" they will send us home, but (dont worry mom) it wasn't dangerous. :)Yesterday I went with Adriana to Liege to the Carre (a square of all bars and nightclubs) where all the exchange students meet on Wednesdays. (I won't mention where in the carre...its a secret! :-P) I don't usually go, but we made an exception because there was a big party for 3 or more people who were leaving us to go back home. (Those lucky bast***s) There were mostly Brazilians, but a lot of Belgian people showed up also, which isn't normal, but whatever, bring on the drinks! It was a fun time, finally being able to mingle with people who speak french is a nice change...its also good to know I can still remember my french even after a couple of rounds of Jupiler! (one of Belgian's best beers)

Then last night I stayed at Adriana's house... We watched Bridget Jones, The Age of Reason in French... umm... found her a second host family!!! (I was getting desprate and losing hope that we would ever find her another family here in Liege), but Romain's family accepted her! This is so great because it is like a "fete"-party all the time with Romain!! (I just posted some photos of him in my Odds and Ends photo album)if you care to check that out.

What else to say? ... I'm loving my new host family. (Not liking so much that I have to get up earlier and take 2 different busses to get to school, but its what I do if I want a good family!) :)

Sorry this post is so incoherent (sp?) but like usual, my mind is elsewhere. I'll write more later probably.

*bisous*

*ciao*

P.S.- THIS SATURDAY BE AT THE HUI GARE AT 8 (AT NIGHT)IF YOU WANT TO GO TO HUGO'S PARTY!






^ me after I eat all this GREAT Belgian chocolate

"Its ok, we've found you now"
Mood:  blue
Topic: Second Host Family
The exchange students returned from London around 1:30 in the morning on the 6th which is a ...Thursday? yeah. But we were still on vacation until the 10th so it was fine. (we were supposed to get back late on the 5th...but anyways) Adriana's mom came to the train station to pick us up and I stayed the night at her house. The next day I dragged Adriana to the Dor's house with me to help me pack all of my things and the next day I was moved in to my second host family. That was Friday, that I was switched. (still on vacation) It is much smaller than the Dor's house. I don't get my own room, I must share with Justine, who is the same age as me. My bed is a little makeshift mattress that I have to pull out from under Jasmine's bed every night and put back the next morning. I don't mind at all. Don't think I'm bitching, I love this family right to death, they are soo nice to me and even though my host mom is nervous, at least she isn't nervous with me. She doesn't work as in leaves the house every day and gets a regular salary, but she does enough work right at home. The house is spotless and the fridge is always stocked. "Je suis tres content ici" -I am very happy here. But because my new family lives in Herstal (which is a long ways from my old neighborhood) if I want to continue to go to my school and see my friends here in Jupille, I must wake up at 6 (like at hoooooome) and take 2 different buses to get to school, then I arrive a half an hour early, but I can't take any later bus because they have a schedule conflict. *sigh*

I have a very real fear of the buses here... It is not pretty. They make me nervous. I get lost... constantly!! Today is Tuesday and vacation officially ended on Monday but Monday morning my host mom brought me to school so I didn't have to bother with the bus situation. But to return home after school I had a slight problem. I got lost and didn't know when to get off the bus so I just randomly chose a place and guess what... it was the wrong one! And with my luck, I chose a place that was in the middle of a black out. I couldn't tell the difference between street and sidewalk until a car would go by and I had to jump out of the way so I didn't get hit. I still don't have a GSM (cellphone) so I had no way to call my family and I didn't want to knock on anyone's door because there were no lights so I thought everyone must be sleeping!! To top it all off, some guy with a really bad limp came out of the middle of nowheres and started trying to chase down cars, holding his hands out and yelling and cursing that he needed help (all in french of coarse... I didn't want to get involved) I was cold, lost, crying and it was just a mess. All of a sudden I hear someone say in a small voice: Tracy?? Oh god, I didn't think it could get any worse, but now I'm hallucinating!!! (But it was Yasmine, the older of my two host sisters.) She had come looking for me! :)

When we arrived home I was still a little shook up and she hugged me and said, "Its ok, we've found you now."

I love my host family. :)

"When a man grows tired of London, he has grown tired of life"
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Trip to London
The best way to start out the New Years, I think, is TO GO TO LONDON!! I left with Adriana and her WEP group (like my Rotary Group)on January 3rd at 6:30 in the morning. We took a bus to the French shore where we got on a Ferry that took us and our tour bus to England. From there, it was 3 more hours to get into London. But we also stopped in Canterby to see a Cathedral there and buy postcards and do what we wanted. Then we got lost looking for our hotel and were finally set free in London around 6 PM. Adriana, Mariana, Paula, Hugo, Diego, Marcelo, Finn were my bus buddies (or mainly the people I hung out with on the Bus)I'll try to upload a photo, if I can steal it from Adriana's blog since she won't send them to me!! (salope!)

When we arrived, I was dying for Chinese food but Adriana talked me into KFC because its a lot cheaper (especially in England) so we went with Paula and Mariana (two of Adriana's friends who are also from Brazil) to the nearest KFC. Paula went out with me later that night to look for a club but the woman who we asked gave us crappy directions and we finally gave up looking around 11 and just went back to our hotel. That was all of Monday.

Tuesday morning I went with Adriana to purchase tickets to the Phantom of the Opera that is showing exclusively in London but the tickets were #40 each and that is $80 so I decided not to buy any. Adriana, Marcelo, and Paula each bought ones though. N' we hopped on our tour bus that we had brought all the way from Belgium to go visit Madame Tiussou (the famous wax museum) and then we were set free for the day to do as we pleased. Most of us went to see the Big Ben and do the Tour of London by double decker bus. London Bridge, The London Tower, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Saint Paul's Cathedral, umm... and lots of things. Got to see the guards with the big black plume hats that are not allowed to move. So beautiful!! :D or maybe I just think they are beautiful because I am intimidated by their important official uniforms! ;) That night the people who bought tickets to the Opera, went to that, and I hung out with Mariana. Guy seeing *ahem* I mean sight seeing. Then we went back to our hotel and got online for about 2 hours to talk to some of Mariana'a family and friends back in Brazil (Eu falie com o cara mais bonito do Brasil lorenco!! :D) (sorry if I spelled his name wrong)

On the day we returned, the 5th, we first went to the London Tower which is a biiiig castle overlooking Tower bridge (the famous bridge that has 2 stories and the bottom one opens to let boats pass through) before scooting off to Picadilly Circus to do some quick shopping before heading back to Belgium.

The bus ride home was probably my favorite part of the trip.. but class just ended so I'll add more info. later

*ciao*

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Well for the first hour or so I slept and bummed around because I was sad that we were already leaving and I was thinking about stupid things that I shouldn't have been worrying about on my TRIP TO LONDON! But then once we crossed the French border I came around and everyone sang and danced (on the bus which made us all feel really drunk because we kept falling over whenever we went around a corner) We went around the bus asking all the people of different nationalities to sing their national anthem, Adriana and I danced like Britney Spears, I sang "Baby Got Back" with Finn, and Hugo held my hand and sang to me but it was in Portugese so I didn't understand it!!! Sooo great!