Spring time is finally here
Mood:  smelly
Spring time has finally arrived! (I say "finally" as if its June or something!) When in truth, it is super warm for a day in March. (when you read 'super'you have to think it like the french say it: 'souuuuupehhh' with the emphasis on the 'oup') Everyone came out of hiding and life way gay! :D!! Girls sporting t-shirts, tank tops, and skirts (actually the girls here wear skirts year round, mindless of the weather... I find myself saying "I wonder if she knows its cold out?" a lot) and guys without winter jackets; everyone eating icecream! Oh so great! It is funny because we had still some lingering snow on the ground, not more than 4 days ago. Then, as if someone threw a blanket over Belgium (check out Belgium on a map some time... my theory is that it is completly possible to blanket this country); it was spring time. The world just woke up one morning and flipped a switch; it was that dramatic.

And because today is Wednesday, school gets over at noon time and I got to go into town with Jana (pronounced Yana because it's German) to enjoy the beautiful weather. This is, sadly, her last week here in Belgium because she is only staying here for 3 months... and now her 3 months are drawing to an end... :( But I have to admit, that in the short time she has been here, her French has improved imensily. It has gotten 10 times better than when she first arrived. And that is, in essence, what she came here to learn. So bravo, Mission Accomplished!!

We made a tour around Liege, bought 2 waffles (with chocolate... oooOOOooo trop bon!!! ;D)I talked Jana into getting a piercing at StevePiercing (I am such a bad influence, I know; I'm not denying it... I'll be the first to admit it, actually!) She got that nub pierced that attaches your eat and the side of your face. then went for icecream! While we were eating our icecream a super hot guy came up to us and asked us where we bought it but of coarse as soon as a hot guy starts to talk to me, I forget all of my french. I mean... I could have said that it was too hard for me to explain but that we would show him because he's hott and we are exceptionally nice to hot guys... but alas, I didn't have the capacity... my vocabulary is shot when a cute guy enters the vacinity. pfff. lol :p c'est pas grave.

As we were finishing up with the icecream, Adriana comes out of no wheres, saying she was looking for Gustavo, but couldn't find him. So we compromised and went to EXPO to find a super
cute card for her brother back in Brazil who is turning... 16? maybe? While we were looking around there, we spotted Lewis, an exchange student from Venezuela and then Finn called. I went to the Corr to search for him and then brought him back to the center of Liege where Jana, Adriana, and Lewis were. We bee bopped around there for a bit, soaking up the sunshine (such a rare sight in Belgium... I have to stress this) Jana left around 4 and when we walked her to her bus stop we met up with two other girls from rotary. (one brazilian and one from... I forget where, but she speaks Spanish) so Adriana stepped aside and talked with the girl from Brazil in portuguese, Lewis was on my other side, talking to the other girl in Spanish, and Finn and I are in the middle, comparing lip gloss in English. Yes, we were a sight to see!! ;)

I had to leave at 5, but before I caught my bus home, our mini hord stopped in at FNAC (like a European version of Borders) so Adriana could see the price of the book, "Da Vinchi Code" a super good book that I am thinking about buying in French too. From there, we were not far from Delhaze (a supermarket) so Adriana, Finn, and I all went to Delhaze where Adriana picked up chocolate to send to her aunt in Portugal and then we made little sticker photos in the machine outside of the store!! Too cute! Check it out in my "And Ends" album. Its the one in black and white of Adriana, Finn and me! :D

Ok thats it... then I took the bus home!

And if you are curious about my last post on the 13th... no my host mom did not let me stay home on Monday! :( lol I will survive...

Tuesday night we ate couscous!! I was so excited to start eating, that I didn't wait for it to cool enough and burnt the tip of my tongue... then couldn't taste any thing for the rest of the meal!! yes... bravo... :p i know it!

Ok I'm pretty sure that is all the super cool things that I've done since the last time I wrote.

-ciao!

"There's got to be something better than in the middle"
Mood:  lyrical

^j'essaye a ajoute un photo de toutes les filles a chez Fauquenoit, mais c'est compliment impossible!!! arrggeee!


C'est tout de les chantages. Ma maman, elle me demande tout le temps comment ca va? si je suis malade, et si 'oui' si je veux prendre du medicamo... mon reponse est: si je dis 'oui' tu va me lasser a domicile demain? :) lol! Je ne veux pas aller a l'ecole demain, vraiment. J'espere que j'ai un semain de l'ecole et apres c'est vacance mais les gens me dit que j'ai encore deux semain... ca n'est pas bon pour moi et j'ai deja declare a ma maman que si ca cest mon programme, pour moi, mon vacance va commence en 1 semaine.... lol je suis une rebele!!! (?sp)

Mon weekend, c'etait tres bien... fatiguent (meme que je n'ai fait rien... bon, je suis malade) mais bon tout le meme. J'ai vu Thais et Meghan (deux filles super sympa et gentille!!) et je vais ajouter les photos de toutes les filles quand Pascal Fauquenoit me les envoye. Thais, elle est la depuis 2 mois mais son francais est deja incroyable!! vachement!! Je veux remercier la famille Fauquenoit pour prendre ma valise gigantique!! Et pour tout les choses tres genereux de cette famille, ils sont vraiment geniales!!

Humm je sens que je manque quelque chose mais il n'arrive pas quoi...

Ok, regardez mes photos, s'il vous plait, parce que j'ai ajoute du photos de mon anniversaire!!

Samedi soir ma famille a mange le couscous sans moi!!! ahhh je suis tressss triste de ca!! J'adore le couscous, vachement!! (ca nest pas quoi j'ai oublie dire, mais en tout facon, cest important pour moi!!) Je garde le couscous pres a mon coeur.

Ah hah, ok je souvien le truc que je recherche! Quand j'etait chez Fauquenoit, j'ai parle avec Jodi, la maman de mon ex copain! Ca me fait super content parce que je n'ai pas parle plus avec elle depuis noel (c'est vrai que j'ai recu et envoye les lettres mais cest pas le meme quand vous parlez avec un person sur le telephone) et apres elle me passe Melanie, la petite soeur de Clifford, et jai parle avec elle aussi!!!! Ahhh elles me manquent bcp!!! Le raison que j'ai appelle etait pour chanter "joyeux anniversaire" en francais mais il n'etais pas la et quand je esseyais a appelle chez Sue et George, son GSM etait fermer... pfff. Tant pis.

et voila
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I'm trying to put a photo of the girls at the Fauquenoit's house but it isn't working!!


--> its all about the blackmail! My host mom is always asking me "how are you? do you need anything? do you want to take some asprin?" I answer her: If I say yes, will you let me stay home from school tomorrow? Vraiment I do not want to return to school. It seems like such a waste of time to me. When I talked to Meghan (the girl staying at the Fauquenoits house who was an exchange student 3 years ago) she told me about how great her situation was in school and comparing it to mine, I'm really not set up in a way that is benefiting me very much. I do learn so much more when I'm home with my host mom. I think I only have one more week of school, then its vacation for me... but someone told me that I'd have two weeks... whatever the case, I've already made up my mind that my vacation starts in one week, regardless of everyone elses schedules! :D Rebel; I am!

My vacation went over well... tiring (despite that I didn't do anything strenous (sp?)but I was sick so thats the difference.) I got to meet both Thais and Meghan (two really great gals) and Thais' french is incredible after only being there for 2 months she can understand practicly everything and can make sentences and all! I'm impressed! I'll add photos of that when Pascal gets them sent to me.
And I would like to thank the fauquenoit family for taking my huge suitcase with them and for everything else they have done for me, they are truely a godsend for me!

Hum I seem to be missing something but I can't figure out what...

Ok well check out my photos "odds and ends" because ive added some photos there of my birthday.

Saturday night my family ate couscous without me!! I'm crushed! I love couscous more than anything else in the world... well maybe mom and gram come before couscous... but not much else. (thats not what Ive forgotten but its still important to me so I'll write about it anywyas :p) PASTA will never break my heart (couscous included)

ooOOOooo ok I remember now what I wanted to say! This morning I called Jodi, cliffs mom to sing happy birthday to Dustin. He wasn't there but I got to talk to Jodi and Melanie! Oh I'm tooooo happy about that, really! I haven't talked to her (yeah the occasional letter swap and such, maybe) but not on the telephone, since christmas!! I tried calling George and Sue's cellphone but it was turned off so... tant pis :/ I tried.

Bonjour, tu peux parler en francais?
Mood:  chatty


FUEL - Shimmer Lyrics

She calls me from the cold
Just when I was low,
feeling short of stable
And all that she intends
And all she keeps inside,
isn't on the label

She says she's ashamed
And can she take me for awhile
And can I be a friend,
we'll forget the past
But maybe I'm not able
And I break at the bend

We're here and now,
but will we ever be again
'Cause I have found
All that shimmers in this world is sure to fade
Away again

She dreams a champagne dream
Strawberry surprise,
pink linen and white paper
Lavender and cream
Fields of butterflies,
reality escapes her

She says that love is for fools who fall behind
And I'm somewhere in between
I never really know
A killer from a savior
'Til I break at the bend

It's too far away for me to hold
It's too far away...
Guess I'll let it go
---------------------------------
Voici est mon chanson prefere! (ca c'est juste un, en effet, j'ai beaucoup)
Anything- Simple Plan
Why Don't You and I - Santana
One Headlight- The Wallflowers
Bad Day- Danial Powter
et plein des autres...

Je suis toujours malade. J'ai reste chez moi pendant tout cette semaine. Je tousse tout le temps et je crois que j'ai donne mon rhume a ma famille! Aujourd hui, Yasmine, elle reste ici avec moi. Je dor beaucoup mais j'ai finalement trouve les temps pour finir mon livre pour Francais 2h. (La Seconde Vie d'Abram Potz) Trop bizzar!

Quand je reste chez moi j'apprends plus de francais que quand je vais a l'ecole. lol c'est vrai. C'est parce que ma maman, elle parle beaucoup avec moi et quand je fais un erreur (et je fais plein des erreurs) elle me corrige mais a l'ecole personne me corrige et aussi, je ne parle pas beaucoup. Plusier fois, je me suis assie et j'entende a le prof, mais normalement, je ne fais rien a l'ecole... c'est comme ca. pfff. Malhereusement, je dois retourner a l'ecole, lundi prochain et j'y vais pendant 2 semains et apres, c'est la vacance de PAX!!

Je ne sais pas quoi je fairai pour la vacance de PAX. Tout ma famille va partir. (mon pere d'acceuil a Chine, ma maman d'acceuil a Paris, ma soeur, Justine, a Grece, et Yasmine va rester ici pour etudier) je ne peux pas donc rester ici, mais ma troisieme famille va partir pendant PAX aussi... meme la famille Steltzner en Allemagne... meme la famille Dor... umm... ca n'est pas bon pour moi... meme la famille Fauquenoit. non, je crois pas. pffff qu'est ce que je vais faire!? Ca va, j'ai encore deux semain. Je vais demander la premiere famille de adriana si elle voudrais m'acceuiller.

Cet weekened je vais aller pour voir la famille Fauquenoit et rester la samedi soir. Je rencontrai Thais (l' eleve d'echange qu' habite chez Fauquenoit de Brazil) et Meghan (?) aussi je crois. (peut-etre pas Meghan parce qu' elle travaille maintenent dans un universite en France et je ne sais pas si elle a les temps pour me voir)

Et le weekend apres ca, je vais aller avec la premiere maman d'acceuil d'Adriana pour voir un presentation d'art a l'universite lequel elle est une professur. (Ca c'est Samedi) Et Dimanche, ma soeur, Justine, elle a un 'pique-nique' avec rotary, qu' en effet, n'est pas un pique-nique vraiment, mais, c'est un... je ne sais pas quoi pendant tout le jour et moi et ma maman (?) vont l'aller aussi.

Adriana, la pouvre, elle a toujours le phenomie (phenomenie (?)) qu' elle a retrappe depuis elle a retourne de Portugal. Elle n'etait pas a l'ecole pour tout la semaine non plus...

**pfff la vie d'un eleve d'echange, c'est difficile!**

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Ok now I'll translate for 1. those of you who can't speak french (which is most of the people who read this) and 2. for those of you who do speak french but who can't understand what I've written due to sooo many errers!! :)

--> I've been sick this entire week! I have not gone to school once! (Monday was a Teachers workshop thing or 'Conge' if you will, and no one went to school) and then Tuesday, MY BIRTHDAY!! I became sick, like I've already written about in my last entry, and it hasn't gotten any better since. But its given me time to catch up on some sleep and find time to finish my book for French 2h (A french course I take for 2 hours a week) I just read La Seconde Vie d'Abram Potz... it was so wierd.

This is fine because I learn more french when I stay home sick than when I go to school. My host mom is intensivly teaching me french. I think I've learned so much since Tuesday! We talk all day and every time I make a mistake she corrects me but at school, well for one thing I don't talk all day; non, that is the teachers job. Usually I just sit and listen to them talk... or maybe just sit and pretent to listen to them talk... and sometimes I don't even pretend. And when I do talk, no one corrects my mistakes (and I make a lot of mistakes) so how am I supposed to learn from that?

So Monday its back to school for me, sadely... but then 2 weeks of school and then PAX vacation. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do 4 that because my family won't be here (my host dad works in China, my host mom is going to Paris, my host sister (Justine) to Greece with her senior class, and Yasmine is staying here to study) My third host family isnt available to take me early because they are also going on vacation... as is Heike's family, as is the Dor family... as is the Fauquenoit family. I have no idea, really, what I'm going to do! Maybe I'll ask Adriana's first host family if they want to host me for 2 weeks or so.

so this weekend I'm going to the Fauquenoit's house and staying there Saturday night. I will finally get to meet Thais (the exchange student they are hosting from Brazil) and Meghan (an exchange student that they hosted 2 or 3 years ago who has come back to visit) (?) or maybe not Meghan because she is staying right now in a university in France where she is studying so I don't know if she will have time to see me.

And the weekend after that I'm going to an art presentation on Saturday with the ex-host mom of Adriana at the college she works at. Then for sunday, my host sister, Justine, has a rotary pik-nik (pick-nick (?) pique-nique (?))lol that she has to attend and I'm going along also since its rotary.

Adriana, the poor thing, has pnemonia (sp?) again. She had it before, when she went to Portugal (hense why she had to stay an extra week) and now that shes back she has caught it again!

ahh **its hard being an exchange student**

I've been hearing a lot from Cliff lately. He's talking about coming to see me in May. I don't know if that will work but he gets some sort of crazy Navy discount on practicly everything so I don't know... maybe. C'est un reve. And when I get back to America, maybe I'll brave the fact that I'm a red head, grab some extra bottles of sun screan and go visit him. While I was on the phone with him, he passed me off to one of his friends and said "speak french to him"
me-bonjour, tu peux parler en francais?
kid- ...
me- allo? tu es la?
kid- (to clifford) wow thats wierd man
me- ... passe-moi mon ex copain s'il te plait

lol, ok... and then I went downstairs and randomly handed the phone to my host mom, who started, immediatly, talking to clifford in French... then she stopped and listened for a second. (I'm pretty sure she got the same response from him that I got from that kid I didn't know) she just laughed and handed the phone back to me. Poor cliff was not understanding anything, but he said that he was bound and determined to learn french, so that someday we can talk together in french. You know, it isnt just something that you wake up one day and know... it takes a long time and a lot of dedication... practice... effort. Believe you me! But I admire his ambition to even want to learn French because when I first came here I told him that I would teach him french and he wasn't so kean on the idea.

Ok thats all for now.

-ciao

Happy birthday to 'nous', happy birthday to 'nous' happy birthday dear Yasmine, Lori, and tRACY, happy birthday to 'nous'
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: My Birthday!

I only chose the 'Chillin' icon when it asked my mood because it has the symbol of a pill and that seems to fit me right now.

So its my birthday! Which is also my sisters birthday. Which is also my host sister (Yasmine)'s birthday! My big 1 7 (Lori anne's too! :P ) and Yasmine's 2 1!!

I woke up this morning at 5. Sick; *deep breath* oh my... I'm telling you. My whole body ached; I had a fever, I was caughing, my throat hurt. Ouch. Happy birthday to me! pffff. My host mom called the doctor at 7 and made an appointment for 9:30. This goes without saying that I stayed home from school today. Even though I was sick and had woken up really early, I decided not to go back to bed because I seem to get worse when I'm laying down. So from 7-9 I sat at the kitchen table with my host mom, looking strikingly similar to a 'pomme de terre' <--- potato. At breakfast, my mom gave me some strong 'medicamo' <--asprin? and by 9:30 I was feeling much better.

In the car on the way to the doctor's I got a text message from Jorja: "Hey bitch 'happy fricken birthday' and il c yah at the pub tomorrow-hope u have a good day. xxx love, me xxx" <--- I do love that girl! :) Then at noon time Adriana called me to make sure I was ok and to let me know that she brought my birthday present to school today only to find that I wasn't even there! Thank you darling!! Maybe I'll be in school tomorrow... maybe not. But I'm still planning on going into town in the afternoon whether I go to school or not. :P

The doctor didn't find too much wrong with me (because like I said, by 9 I was feeling much better) but she still told me to go to the pharmacy and buy 3 different drugs. Greeeeat. I wasn't too overly impressed with that! After paying so much for this crappy insurance, I then have to go above and beyond the $1000 already spent and spend 35euros because of something that in America would just be looked at as a Spring time flu. Europeans are dependent on these pharmacies because they don't ever give their body time to take care of itself. At the first sign something might be wrong, they stuf themselves so full of drugs they don't know up from down! I tell my host mom, "Its' not like this in America... Maine anyways... we tough it out." She says "well most of the drugs here are bought from the United States." My response to that was: "The United States has to sell its drugs to Europe because no one in America is buying them!!!" lol! my host mom has a good atitude, she puts up with a lot from me. (and if you know me at all, then you can verify that its not an easy task :) )

When the Fauquenoit family goes to visit Laurie in Maine over PAX vacation they said they would take a suitcase with them of all the things I didn't need for the last 4 months that I'm here. So I spent the rest of today unpacking everything I have and chosing what I do and don't need. (This included heaving two heavy suitcases and one lightweight one up 2 flights of spiral stairs, then lugging (lugging?) two mildly heavy suitcases and one that weighed more than me back down the two flights of spiral stair cases.) This is no easy task, let me tell you, especially for a sick person!

The weekend after next I'm planning on going to an art festival (?) or presentation (?) on Saturday with the Marie (Adriana's x-host mom) who works at an Art University and because she believes in my art skills, she has invited me to go with her! Then Sunday is a Rotary weekend thing. I'm not sure what that means, but I have to go to it. Show my support and such.

----------------------------
ok more about the Latino Party: Come to find out, Thais was there (the Brazilian exchange student who is living at the Fauquenoit's house right now) and saw me but didn't know who I was until she went back to the Fauquenoit's house and saw a photo of me so she felt bad for not saying 'hi' and also, Danial, a canadian who is in the Fauquenoit's district, was there too. Get this, someone stole Thais' wallet out of Danial's bag and that had tons of important information in it!! OMG I feel terrible for her! Who would do that?! I mean, we were all exchange students, and no one knows better than an exchange student, (a Belgian exchange student) how important credit cards, bus passes, and identity cards are.) I'm disgusted... pfff.
---------------------------

My host mom is complaining of a headache... I hope I haven't given here whatever little virus I may have... poor fragile little european. :(

Well we are eating dinner in the dining room tonight (as opposed to eating in the kitchen like normal) where we have a bigger table because Nicholas, Yasmine's boyfriend, is coming for dinner (since it is her birthday) so I'll go help prepare that.

-ciao

-------------------------------

For dinner we had shrimp and pasta. Afterwards there was coffee and cake... then my host sister brought out a big box and presented it to me: A 6 pound jar of Nutella!! (3 kilos!!) OMG!! That is bigger than me! I am too happy!!!!!! w00t! I'm gonna have to eat all of it while I'm here because I don't see how it is going to fit in my suitcase... better to eat the extra weight because I, unlike my suitcases, don't have a weight limit. Mom's advice was: "got any heavy jewlery? swallow that too, we'll worry about getting it out afterwards!"

At 8h exactly, Mom called me and we got to talk for all of 9 minutes (because her phone card was only good for 9 minutes call time to Belgium... where as if she had called South Korea, she would have gotten 12 minutes... go figure, right?!) When our 9 minutes were up, I told her to get online so we could talk more (and its free) but before she got to the computer someone knocked at the door: a florist who brought a bouquet of flowers to my family on mine and my sisters behalf, from my aunt and uncle. MERCI!!! Then when she finally got to sit down and start typing to me the damned phone rang! Guess who it was!?

Me! lol! my host mom said that because it is my birthday, I can call mom and talk to her since 9 minutes wasn't a very long time. That was the best birthday present ever (even better than chocolate) because I haven't talked to her since the last time I was in Germany!

...so... cliff called me tonight. To wish me a happy birthday. I haven't talked to him in over 3 months. Wow it was wonderful. All in all, despite everything, today was a good birthday.
:)

-re ciao

Latino Party
Mood:  party time!
Topic: My Party Scene
On Saturday afternoon I went to the movies with Julien and Alexandre to see "Trouble Jeu" or "Hide and Seek" (with Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Shue, and Dakota Fanning) its cool that I'm here in Europe seeing a film with Elizabeth Shue and saying " hey, I know her sister, she went to school with me."

And then while I was surfing the internet, I randomly come across an article about Wilburs Chocoaltes of Maine. Cool, I know that guy too!

---------------------------
So Saturday night was the big Latino party!! I only know a handfull of people who didn't go, it was pretty big. I have no idea how Carlos, the person who set that whole thing up, even found the place to do it. It was some small discotec in Sart Barnard (which I don't think is even a town, it is more of a Commune of Namur, like Herstal is a sort of commune to Liege) where there is really nothing else and you can only know about it if you live in the area. People came from alllll over to Namur (there was a hord of us, really) where we all crammed into a small train headed for Sart Barnard. When we got off the train we had to follow this narrow path through the snow... under a bridge... along dimly lit sleepy roads... until we finally reached this little square ... I'm not sure what to call it. It was like a 'dance stall' made up of one big room with a bar on the side, a little bathroom in the back and a dj set up on the stage. (but everyone was up dancing on the stage anyways.) It was so great, getting out and meeting everyone! w00t! That lasted until 6 in the morning but the train didn't come until quarter past 7 (even though everyone was rushed out because someone said a train was supposed to pas a 6:05) That left us standing in the cold for an hour and a half in the wee hours of the morning... I wasn't too impressed with that. Met up with Jorja, a girl who lives right next to me, literally, and took the train back with her. Grabed a quick bite to eat at Quick (Belgium's McD's)

**Why? because it was closer than McD's and I was cold. lol! ;)**

Got home around noon. Ate lunch, then went to sleep until 6. Luckily for me, today is a 'cong?' at my school which is like a teachers day and I didn't have to go to school. I slept through 'till 11 and voil?; thats that.

----------------------------

So when I got home, my host mom informed me that Dimitri (my club counselor) had stopped by Saturday night and talked with her. I was all worried about that for all of 10 minutes until she told me that he just wanted to let me know that Rotary is going to pay half of the 750 Euros for the end of the year Euro Tour and they have already reserved my place on the first bus!!!! Ahhhh! Cooooool! omg 15 days straight on a bus around europe for half the price!!! (maybe that doesn't sound too appealing, but honestly, this is the best thing that has happend to me!!!) I CAN'T WAIT!!

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well I'll get headed since my host sister needs the puter.

-ciao