Just a little catching up to do
Mood:  a-ok

^ This was today... really. Adriana took that photo on my new dig. camera infront of my house. I know, I know, you thought I downloaded it off google. But your wrong (!!) its really belgium!! And this is exactly what last weekend looke like as well. The weather was wonderful all weekend and I even got a little red on my nose and shoulders.

I spent Saturday and Sunday with the Fauquenoit family; realizing that it is, most likely, the last chance I will get to see them before returning to America. That was a sad realization, but I can't be too upset because they are already planning on coming back to Maine next year, in the summer time!!

On May 1st, people give and recieve May Bells (flowers... I'm sure that isn't the right name, but anyways) the little white flowers that hang down, looking like bells... yup those. The Fauquinoit family gave me some before I took the train home that were so beautiful. Of coarse, upon my arrival back in Jupille, 3 hours later, they were somewhat less impressive... :/

(oufte! And my adventure home is a whole nother story!)

Thais, the Brazilian exchange student who they recieved in January is still there because her second host family is on vacation, but she will be moving shortly. Her french is really great, for only being there for 3 months, I'm pretty sure she knows as much as I do, and I've been here much longer. We didn't talk a lot, not like how I talk to Adriana, but she seemed really content there. (And she has every reason to be there... that family is soooo wonderful)


If it wasn't for the Fauquenoit family (and the Fayerson family, and Adriana (!!!)) being there when I really needed them, then I'm sure I would have terminated my exchange after 3 months. My only regret is not spending as much time with the Fauquenoit's as I wanted after I changed from my first host family.

Working my way backwards now: Wednesday was the Birthday of Amandine, Adriana's little host sister who is now 8. After school I went to her house to 'support that' and give Amendine her presents. Adriana bought her tons of diddl things. (Diddl is the white mouse cartoon like thing with the really big feet...remember? There is a photo of a diddl card I recieved on my Birthday in my '~And Ends' Album)

Ok stay with me here, because now I'm going to jump to next Thursday. We have a holiday, but I'm not sure what for, and 2nd and 1/2 host dad tried to explain it to me, but he didn't understand it either. I understood my School Journal to say that we didn't have school on friday after that either, but I think I'm wrong on that one. Oh well, I don't think I'll go anyways because if it all goes according to plans (as it seldom ever does) then I will be in Germany with Heike. Buuuuuuuuut... Jo, Heike's boyfriend, has hurt his back and I guess its not getting any better any time soon so that might put up a minor snitch in my plans... poop.

:(

poor jo...

poor me

... no just kidding ;))))))

I promised Christel that I would write more of my entries in French if she promised to read them but knowing that her computer isn't working correctly at the moment, I'll continue to write in english for now and then... maybe... my next entry will be in French. :)

...aaaaaaaaaand back to today. I skipped 3rd hour Geography to make a presentation in Mm. Bemeur's English class about highschools in America. I brought my yearbooks, and the DVD Mean Girls that I was going to show them, like I did for my French class... just in a different language. It was all set up and I was ready to start when I realized that the teacher wasn't there that day.

...grrrrrr

But its hard to stay angry ( with anyone for any reason) on such a beautiful day... because they are just so rare!! **we must improve the moment**

Tomorrow it will rain.

I'm such an optimist... :)

Saturday (oufte here we go again) was Laurie Fauquenoit's birthday and my mom made a little 'fete' for her. That evening while I was at her house (and she, at mine... ironic, right!?) I called to wish her a happy birthday.
**Mom answered**
I guess "we had a bad connection" at first because I said "hi mom! is Laurie there?" but all she heard was "- is laurie there?" so she passed the phone off. When Laurie took the phone, I wished her a happy birthday and she said "thanks... who is this?" -"ugh! its tracy! Didn't my mom tell you!?"

lol nope.

"bad connection" ... sure. This can only be the work of one thing... and phoneline isn't it, mom. :P


Because I live so close to school now, my mom wrote me permission to leave school at noon time to eat at home, but to get a real signed paper from the school saying that I can leave was another story. I had everything that I needed to finish the document except for a photo and the people were being so anal about it... like "well if you don't have a photo, even just for today, you can't leave" so I went and talked with Mm. Garot (the sous-directrice) or vice principle about it. She granted me permission just for that day and said to come back later to have my picture taken.

Later that week when I went back (during my Sciences Sociales class, because that was when she asked to see me) just to have a quick photo. It would have taken all of 3 seconds to do, but Mm. Garot was inspired and decided to take me all over the school, getting photos of me... "here with the lilacs" ... "there on the bench" ... "with the Magnolia tree" ... "put your hands like this"... so on and so fourth...

Its rather funny to see this strict Vice Principle going and doing random things like that. My whole S. S. class was in the TV Lab. watching a film and they could see me walking back and fourth all over the school with the V. P. and I'm sure they found that kinda funny...

being out of character once in a while never hurt anyone.

I know I've done more since the last time I wrote, but I forget (I have that right you know; its 12:10 in the morning here on a Monday night... Tuesday Morning to be exact)

Adriana came over today and we took pictures with my new camera. Those are in my May Album. Check that some time! :)

Ok that is allllll for now.
-ciao

IHOP a chez Duschesne

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES AT THE DUSCHESNE RESIDENCE

Today we had an American style breakfast for lunch. Bernard, my host dad made the pancake batter and started to cook the pancakes but then I took over about half way through. (me... cooking?... I know what you're thinking) but surprisingly they all turned out alright and my family liked them. We also had bacon, sausage, and eggs. Marie-Anne, my host mom, invited some friends over and their two children so there was 11 of us in all.

Like yesterday, it was sunny until later in the afternoon, but it hasn't started raining yet. In the morning from 10 to 11 I went for another walk with my host siblings. All 5 of us went on this excursion, not just Guillaume and Charles, like yesterday. It was a much shorter trail than the rabit path, but because Laure was with us so it took longer.

--whooops, spoke too soon. It just started downpouring.--

**Welcome to Belgium**

The rest of the day (so far... because it isn't over yet) I spent with my host family, enjoying the sunshine. What a beautiful Sunday afternoon it was.

I've added tons of new photos to my Duschesne Family Album that were taken today.

enjoy! -ciao

Antwerp... the city of Diamonds
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Trip to Antwerp

Yesterday, Friday, was a Teacher Parent meeting day so there were no classes for the students. Adriana and I traveled to Antwerp (Antwerpen in Netherlands; Anvers in French) to visit the "City of Diamonds"

What a beautiful day to go traveling. Thursday and Friday, were both sunny and warm. It was the first time I've gone anywheres without my big winter jacket since November.

Because it is located so close to the Netherlands, Dutch is the city's official language, but most Dutch speaking people can also speak English.

As soon as you leave the train station, you enter the 'Jewish Quarter' where there are tons and tons of Jewlery shops and over 20,000 Jewish residents whos ancestors have inhabited Anvers since the XII century. Today, Anvers is the biggest diamond center in the world. (1/4 of all diamonds in the world are origionally from Anvers... therefore I would bet that even Britney Spears has diamonds from that city.) We visited Diamondland, an exposition building that shows the cutting and sculpting of diamonds... visiters can make purchases also: for a 0.01 size was 15 American dollars--> 0.05 was, I think, 77 dollars. The sizes ranged from 0.01 all the way up to 0.50!

'La Maison de Rubens'or (The House of Rubens) was our second stop of the day. It is where, during the the early 1600's, the famous flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens, once lived. He has become an official representation of Anvers and in his life, Rubens created nearly 2,500 works of art including paintings and sculptures. His interest was mainly to paint religieus, historic, and mythologic scenes but he also contributed, as it was clearly demonstrated when we visit his house, to the architectural branch of art.

4 or 5 clothing and shoe stores later, we arrived in the 'Groen Plaats'-in Netherlands or (Grand Place) where you can sit around the fountains and pic-nic or rest. Still in the Quartier of the Grand-Place is 'La Cathedrale' or (The Cathedral). The largest of 4 Churches in Anvers, it holds the title of the biggest Gothic Church in the 'Ancient Lower Countries'

A hop, skip and a jump down the road from the cathedral, at the entrance of 'le quartier de la Mode et des Beaux-Arts' (The Fashion and Arts Quarter), is 'Le Musee de la Mode' (the Museum of Fashion) where collections from the Flanders Fashion Institute are displayed. (Such bizarre things... the fashion world is crazy!)

Further south, rests the Museum of Arts where most of Ruben's works are displayed. But that, along with The Museum of Contemporary art and the Museum of Photography, were too far away for Adriana and I to walk to.

The train ride home laster 2 and a half hours (when normally it takes an hour and a half to get from Liege to Anvers)because we went home early and took the first train to Brussels, then a connecting one to Liege that took a path similar to this
---> /\/\/\ <----instead of waiting for the train that went directly to Liege. + 20 minues of walking from Adriana's house to mine = 1 exhausting day.

But I'm sure we took some great photos!:)

And this morning started out to be another good day like yesterday. I woke up around 9:30 and after breakfast, went for a walk with Charles and Guillaume. I took the same route as we had taken the morning that we went rabit searching, but we didn't see any bunnies. :( It was amusing all the same and Charles took a good solid 2 hour nap when we got home.

By 2 in the afternoon it was raining like my host dad had predicted it would and I don't think I've done much since then.

Adriana left for Amsterdam this morning with WEP; I hope the weather is nicer there for her than it is here.

~~ Tonight I am babysitting for my host family who is out at a barbacue with some friends. The kids just finished watching a hockey movie 'Miracle' and are now in bed, sleeping... I hope. My host dad rented the movie 'O' for me to see this evening, so I'm going to sign off and

--if that fax machine doesn't stop going off I think I'm going to have to break it (!!)

... see my movie.

-ciao!

horray for the sun!
Mood:  a-ok
It is sunny today! ouiah!!!!! I got out of school at noon time because on Thursdays I have no classes in the afternoon. Usually I walk home, and today was an great day to do that,considering the exceptionally good weather, but for I don't know what reason (maybe it was becase I just happened to be passing the bus stop when the bus just happened to be coming by) I hopped on the bus, only to find out much to late that I took the wrong bus. bus 67 and 68 pass by my house... not 69 ...and I was on bus 69. By the time I got off, it was too late and I was hopelessly lost. Crap. I had to get lost on my beautiful afternoon off from school. I walked and walked and ran and walked some more and never thought I was going to get home. Finally I stopped and asked a woman if she knew where Bellaire was. She tried explaining it to me, but must have heard my really strong american accent because she opted to drive me their instead. (!!!!) wow that was so nice because I was a loooooong way from home.

Adriana had religion class directly after lunch, so she couldn't leave with me, but instead came to my house afterwards. We chilled here for 2 hours with mr. Zi zi Coin coin since it was too late for us to go into town, then I walked back to the school with her because she had French4 and had to make a presentation.

She tried making her presentation in her last French class, yesterday or two days ago but the teacher told her to redo it. She had made a speach earlier this month for French class too (and that was what started this whole thing off) and when the teacher graded it, he gave her a 45. a 45!? His explanation was because she had to ask people to correct it. Um... yeah, did he expect that she would write a first draft and have it be absolutely perfect?! People who speak french as their first language can't even do that, so why in He!! is he expecting that from her? She decided that if he wanted a presentation without faults then she would talk in Portuguese because then no one could correct her. So she stood up infront of the entire class and started her presentation. Portuguese is very similar to French and at first the teacher (and all the students, I think) thought she was talking in French, but no one could understand her. After 10 minutes, Pierre finally realized that it wasn't in French and that she would have made her whole thing in Portuguese if someone didnt stop her. "Adriana... in French"

She stopped... "But no, I made a presentation earlier and you took 65 points off because I had to have someone correct it, so I decided that if you wanted a flawless performance, then it would have to be in Portuguese."

The teacher was BEAT RED!! "But I didn't take points off for that.."

*Adriana shows him her paper*

..."Oh, I see" ... (still completely red) "well I will look this over and in the mean time, I would have liked you to come and talk to me privately about this"

But that teacher... and all the teachers at INDJ are the same, never had time to talk to her every time she asked, he was busy; She even asked the English teacher to try and see if she could go to the teachers meeting but Mm. Bemeur forgot to hand in the paper...

And after 8 months of being here and having the teachers make shit with our lives... we are getting tired. They do not read the tests we hand in (no... they would much rather make fun of our French before they actually gave it a grade) then do nothing to support us or make this any better. Their minds are like this ---> . <--- They only see one way of doing things. The students are not much different; And I am just sick and tired of it. J'EN AI MARREE!! I am going to request that this school does not accept any more exchange students.

And I know, as sure as I'm standing here, that next year will be the same as this one, different person, same senario. But all the students will say "oh, those exchange students last year, they didn't want to learn french, they just wanted to come to act stupid, and skip class." ..."They didn't ever study and got really bad points..." ..."All they cared about was traveling... not school" SO WHAT!? I study french. I can speak french!!!! Wasting my time stressing over Math and Science homework isn't how I want to spend the one year that I am in Europe. They live here. Their Easter vacations consisted of skiing in France, or Switzerland, or visiting Paris, Amsterdam, Germany, Spain, Italy. This is normal to them. They have their entire lives to see it. I don't.

I... live... in... MAINE. What don't they understand?! I can't just come back on holiday on a skiing trip in France. I will, thinking practically, never return here the rest of my life. I don't want this short time to be wasted (and i say this with such contempt) on unsupportable homework for unsupportable teachers in unsupportable classes.

Yesterday the science teacher passed back the tests that we took the class before. There was a big red x through the only question that I answered (because for the first time ever, I thought that I actually knew the correct response) and at the bottom (because I didn't know the other answers, I drew for the remainder of class) I had drawn a sheep, then a cow, then a pig, then a human. I titled it "Darwinism" lol, cute huh? He put 3 big red arrows through my drawing and wrote a little comment (in french) 'is this the the only word you know in French?'

...excuse me?

That was it. I was done. I left school right then and there, returning home at what already would have been a half day; making it a quarter day for me.

And for his information, 'Darwinism' is a word in English also.

But I am 'a-ok' Wednesday afternoon I went into Liege with Adriana when she was finished, and we went shopping (which always makes me feel better) and I saw the cutest pants and vest at H&M that I need to go back and buy. ...neeeeeed.

And let me just repeat it one more time:
ITS SUNNY TODAY!!!! 8) When Adriana came over we took some photos outside and I will add those to my April Album right now while I'm thinking about it.

-ciao
bisous a tout le monde!

Math Class
Mood:  cheeky
My productive 2 hour math class:

^Adriana's contribution