I <3 VENEZIA!!!!!
Mood:  loud
Topic: Trip to Venise, Italy

I just can't believe it actually happened! First I was almost sure that I was going, then I knew I wasn't going, then I thought I might be going again, then I thought Rotary wouldn't let me go, then the night before I was scheduled to fly out, I got the go ahead and knew that I was going. *phew*

Origionally, I ordered those plane tickets with a matching pair for Adriana and it was going to be us going together. I think we bought them about 2 or 3 weeks ago, mais pas plus. After we purchased the tickets and found out there were no refunds, her host family told her that they didn't want her to go. I just gave up hope and said well then I'm not going either. I stopped to think about it, because I just figured that I wasn't going, period, end of story. Then last weekend I started thinking seriously about what if I did go. I asked Killan if he would go with me and he told me he wanted to but he had too much work to do for school. I asked Sandyha but she didn't have the money. Finn- a commitment to his drama class. Miss New Hampshire- SATs in Brussels. Hugo- never got back to me on his answer. Finally I found Yonas. THANK GOOOOOOD for Yonas!!! (and his host mom) He told me that he'd been looking for a trip to make and his host mom wanted to pay for it for him! Plus it was her that got up at 3 Saturday morning to take us to the Charleroi airport.

Last friday (the 3rd) after school was a mad crazy day for me. I was scrambeling and running and crying some all over the place because the company closed at 7 and we still hadn't changed the name on the ticket from Adriana's name to Yonas'. 15 minutes before 7, Yonas calls me and tells me ... Ok tracy... its settled. I'm going.

YEEEEEEEEES!!!! OUIAAAAAAAAAAH! w00t w00t!

I grabbed a quick chocolate sandwich and headed out the door to catch the bus in Liege to Spa where Yonas lives. He picked me up at the train station around 9 and we spent the rest of the night online looking at what our plans for the next day would be. We went to sleep around midnight but had to be up again at 3:15.

** DREAMS**

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

And in my dream I think: AHHHH!! someone is going to drop a bomb on me!!

... no no wait, thats just my alarm clock. After a quuick breakfast we were en route pour l'aeroport. The plane left at 6:30 but we had to be there at least 40 minutes early to get our tickets and such.

I slept for most of the plane ride and woke up just as the plane touched down in Italy. Even at 7:55-8 in the morning, it was already warm and the sun was coming up. We bought a bus pass for 4,50 Euros, to get onto the island of Venise from Trevise where the airport was. Once on the Island, cars are not permitted because the roads are too little and the only means of transportation is by foot or boat. For an all day pass, it costed 10,50 Euros but it is unlimited access.

**You are never lost if you never started with a specific destination in mind**

Errant- wandering

In the morning, Yonas and I walked all over the north part of the island, absorbing all that was new and 'Italianish' taking pictures and video clips of every little thing and every little building. Seeing the big cathedrals and 'major tourist sites' wasn't so important to us as exploring all the side roads and little lost gullyways!!!!

We decided around 11 that we should find a goal and since we had bought tickets for free boat transportation we agreed that finding the nearest boat launch was a sound plan.

The first boat that came our way took us to an island secluded from all the other little islands that was just a cemetary (not just a cemetary as in insignifigant, mais just a cemetary as in, there was nothing else on the island.) its a beautiful island comme meme :) We stopped, took pictures and even got a picture of a priest coming out of the main buildings. chouette :)

From there we took the next boat (because the boats make a circular route of the upper islands, a little ways north of Venise, and you can get off at any boat landing, look around, then take the next boat in which ever direction you want to go in the circuit.) to the island Murano which is super ultra famous for glass making. They have everything made of glass (blown glass-- ultra fragile, ultra luxx, ultra exxxxxxpensive) that you could ever want or wish for short of a toilet bowl I think.

non... im sure if I looked hard enough, I could find a toilet bowl also !!! :p I picked up a couple of cute things there :)

3 pm- take the boat back to the main island

****************il faut que j'ecris le fin d'histoire plus tard parce qu' il est trop tard pour moi et je n'arrive plus de penser****************

**************** I've gotta write the rest of the story later because its too late for me to think any more*****************

Il a des beaux papillions comme meme
Mood:  happy




(well he's got beautiful butterflies any how) ;)

Wednesday I went into town with Adriana and met up with Killan. He couldn't stay too long because he had work to do but we got to hang out for about 2 hours and I introduced him to my exchange friends.

there are more photos of us in my June Album. Not a lot... but some. :)

I think I've finally found someone to go with me to Venise... if only Rotary says its ok..**stress* Crosses fingers :S I highly doubt it which really sucks because I've already bought my tickets (!!)

This whole situation is really making me nervous. Here is the deal:

... actually I have two deals, but ok, continuing...

My first deal: My trip to Venise. The ticket is reserved for the 4th until the 5th of June. Humm that is what.... THIS SATURDAY!! ahhhh! How much did it cost? oh just over 150 EUROS!!!! =O First there was the problem of how we were getting to the airport by 5 in the morning, then Adriana's family said she couldn't go... then I found Yonas yesterday who said he'd love to go with me+ his host mom would buy the ticket for him + his mom would drive us to the airport at 5 in the morning! Wow sooo great! I love this woman!!! Then... my family tells me that I have to ask Dimitri... this is going to be a little more difficult. oh crap!

Second deal: the next time I talk to Dimitri, I also have to ask him when my Visa expires because I really want to stay here until the 11th of August. Infact, I've already gone ahead and bought the tickets because i figured if I waited any longer then thre wouldn't be any places left. J'en ai marree!! (I'm so tired of this) because every time I send an urgent e-mail, they people respond 3 weeks later! I can't just sit on my ass all the time waiting for them!! And I asked my counselor of Rotary (Dimitri) about my Visa + if it was d'accord (alright) with him and gueeeesse what... he stiiiiill hasn't responded yet. So last night I called him and he told me he was busy and that he'd call me back. Did he? non of coarse not! dahhh! My host mom explains to me.. well dimitri is a very busy person. Well thats great... maybe he shouldn't have chosen the roll of taking responsability of the inbound exchange students.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lori goes home today!! ahhhhh *stress* I know how much she wanted to stay... :( but Jack is 'estatic' about her return! (je suis fiere de toi, Jack) hes expanded his vocabulary since she left! :p!

tick tock tick tock tick tock
Mood:  rushed
Topic: My Party Scene
Bad tracy! BAD BAD BAD! I've not updated in so so long. woah.

Tripod greeted me today saying that 15 people went to my website just yesterday and 431 views this month. I think they are lying to me... :P

So whats new? I'm dating Killan again. bitter sweet relationship, you could say that. Not much I can say about it in my blog. We went into town on Friday (because it was suuuuch a beautiful day!!! :D) and talked and decided to profit from the time im still here. I'm not sure if he took it to mean what I wanted it to mean but this 'second time around' is a lot more... mellow. :/ En plus, he has a lot of work to do and it doesn't leave much time for me. Whatever.

Friday night I went out with Sandyah and her friends. Did some partying. I saw Killan but he got angry with me around 2 in the morning and went home. I got to Sandyha's house later in the morning on saturday (around 8) and got some quality 4 hours of sleep. Her boyfriend dropped me off in town around 1:30 and I met up with Killan just to talk and make sure things were still good between us. they are :)

My host family picked me up in town and brought me home around 2:30-3. Later that day my little 6 year old host brother, Charles, broke his arm while at 'scouts' and ... the poor thing. it was really a bad break too. Two places on his left arm. He went imediatelly to the hospital and they did surgery. Afterwards the doctor was talking to him and she asks: 'so how many brothers and sisters do you have?" He replied: Well I have one younger sister and one older one, and two brothers.

awwwwwwwwwwww!!!! :D x10 (!!)

He got to go home from the hospital that same night and now hes here with a big cast and can't go to school or play the drums or do anything fun, really. Hes ultra ultra sad about that but everyone tries to keep him ocupied with board games and such.

Saturday night Sandyah called me to see if I was going to the concert in Liege but my family said no. I was pretty upset at first, realizing the aspect that I've finally started getting the chance to get out and do things and now I don't have much time to do it all. (without craming two things into one weekend and that makes my family nervous) :( But then I found out that Killan wasn't going and I calmed down.

Sunday was calm. Adriana came over and we enjoyed the nice weather (friday, saturday and sunday were all REALLY nice days with temps in the 40?C (!!) I jumped in my baithing suit and even got a little bit of color! I'll post pictures later.

Monday was back to normal rainy Belgium. I made my presentation in Science Social class about Gay Marriage and then asked the teacher afterwards what she thought about my french. She said that I still have a lot to learn and that it isn't very good for being here 8 months. She thinks I'm not attentative enough and that Adriana's french is better.

... maybe I shouldn't have asked.
I'm not sure if what she said has since motivated me.. or depressed me.

:/

I'm going on Euro tour. Its official. I've already payed (finally) with only 2 weeks left before it happens, it was about time. I leave the 15th of June and get back the 29th. first bus! (the best! :p) loool

If I don't get my plane ticket changed then I will be going home the 2nd of July but I'm in the process of moving it to the 11th of August. I hope that works out, cuz I wanna stay here in Belgium (learn french better, profit from my time and from being young) My family will go on vacation around the middle of July so if I stay then I'll have to find a place but I think I'll ask the Piette family. They were so nice with me when I was there and that would defenitally improve my french! I miss my host mom Piette so much!!

"she believed in me when I stopped believing in myself"
Mood:  blue

"Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everythings ok and everythings going right"

not a very long lived story. thats all. back when I had tons and tons of things to say, I forgot half of them and my entries turned out rully short. Now I don't have anything to say so you can imagine the size this entry is going to be. humm koi d neuf? (thats right?) sure sure.

I asked mom if I could stay in Belgium longer (until the end July/beginning of August) ((even though the biggest reason for staying is ...no longer a reason...)) and she said yes in a round about way. As in, if I don't go on eurotour, then I can stay because that money can go towards changing my plane ticket date. As if it costs 375 Euros to change a plane ticket. I'm skeptical on that one. And I was "agressive" in the email I wrote her so now she is sad with me. :(

"Your letter was terse, and this one is terse in kind. Have you forgotten who has footed the bill for the time you've been there? Have you forgotten how much everyone here misses you? Do you care that your lilies are up? Or that gram turned 90 in December?"-mom

*learn something important- my mom is brutally honest

me: yeah, 'we broke up'
mom: he must have found a better offer.

... :)

**something else important- she was once like me:

Bunny dit :
I was like u when I was young.... I had so much love to give, and it felt sometimes like no one wanted it....
Bunny dit :
I wanted to love someone who would love me in kind
Bunny dit :
I wanted to MATTER to someone, be so important that nothing else compared
Bunny dit :
I wanted someone in my corner, who loved and appreciated me no matter what
Bunny dit :
someone who understood me like no one else could

boy do I know how that feels. :,(

so...its friday and my plans fell through for the weekend. I officially have nothing to do tonight or tomorrow. Sunday tho, for a change, I'm going to dinner with the PIETTE family. :)))

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ok so this entry isn't a very happy one. I have the right to that non? it is my blog...

Bunny dit :
I fell out of myself by trying to be everything I was expected to be for someone else....... I got lost. You go out there and become who you want to be. If someone else wants to join you on the ride, fine. If not, you'll make it on your own


"No matter where I go, I know where I came from"

OUFTE
Mood:  rushed
"OUFTE" that is all I have to say.

..no not true... I have too much to say, thats the problem. I'm so far behind myself that I don't know what to do. I have to stick to writing primarily in Engish because it takes too long to write everything twice (as you can see in my dernier deux entries) and infact, in the very last one that I wrote, I cut it extremely short because I had been working on that one entry for plusieur jours.

So now to begin where I left off. Friday, the 6th was the day that I went to School with Heike. Saturday morning I left Germany to head back to good 'ol Belgium. After dancing all night with Martin (both times that I was in Germany at the School parites) I never once spoke to him and as I was leaving Germany, at the train station, I figured, oh well, I guess I missed that chance. Then guess who took the same train as me to Cologne. YEAH! Martin! What a coincidence! We talked for a quick 10-15 minutes and then at the Cologne station, he walked me to where my second train would be and gave me his e-mail address. (!!)

Once on the second train headed to Liege, I was in a little room with 3 other people. It so funny that 3 people who know nothing about one another, who have nothing in common, could prove such great company! There was me who speaks french and english, A Woman from Germany who spoke english, french, and german, an American soldier who had been stationed in Germany for 2 years but was going home that week who spoke only English, and an arabic man who spoke only in Arabic and French. We all got along fine. Once in liege, 3 or so hours later, I showed the Arabic man around the center of liege a little bit and then scotted home. But before I went home, I stopped at a flower shop to buy some flowers for my host mom for mothers day.

o:)

Noticed that Womens' day is March 8th (same as my birthday! I know that is what everyone was thinking!) and Mothers day is May 8th? kwite the koincidence, non? so what is April 8th? :)

When I arrived home, no one was there and because I wasn't sure how long they would be gone, and since I couldn't find a vase for the flowers I stuck them in the fish bowl! yep! I know I know, good thinkin' tracy!

theeeeeeen there was the week, that wasn't so eventful. There were some things... like Adriana and her host family. And then the Rotary meeting where I took adriana with me and we drank too much wine... then coca blanc on top of that *rubs nose* <-- sign of drunkenness oufte that was tooo ofunny

During the weekend Adriana left for Paris. Ca va. It was oooook.

.... I <3 paris (!!)

Friday, Sandyah called me to invite me into town to party with her. Yes! I'm there! I met Killan who(after a long period of uncertainty I am now officialy dating ):)(I have an album dedicated to him, if you're interested in seeing photos) and so everyone stayed in town until 6 saturday morning.

No school on Monday, Adriana was still in Paris. I went into town with Killan but nothing was open so we just walked around ... a lot. It was fun tho :) Being with him is fun. :D