Bastogne, Birthday, Brussels

So I fail at blogging regularly but that’s okay. It means I have been super busy (which I have been!).  My host mom took me to Bastogne in the south of Belgium to see some of the US history there. We ended up doing a lot shopping and eating crepes which was fun. I did see a US Sherman tank which was pretty cool. It was really cold so we spent most of our time shopping or checking out the local goodies in the bakeries.
School that week consisted cleaning up from the Gala and quizzes to get some grades before the exams. I remember wrapping stacks of plates together for my cooking and service classes haha. It was a pretty laid back week at school.
My birthday was the 27^th of November, the day right after Thanksgiving so for my birthday, my host family and I had thanksgiving dinner together. Dinner included a pumpkin pie made by yours truly. My friend Gabby from California spent the night and had dinner with us. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday
The next day, Gabby and I went to Antwerp with a couple other exchange students. It was the first time I got to go somewhere after Paris. My grandpa was stationed in Belgium during the war so I had some old pictures I wanted to recreate and my friends helped me with that. We walked around the city and visited plenty of stores. I bought my first bath bomb from Lush in Antwerp! We had so much fun together. Gabby, Will (my friend from Brazil) and I even got to meet Saint Nicholas! It was a great after birthday celebration with a few of my exchange friends.
The next week at school was preparation for the exams. For Salle, we made all sorts of cocktails together which was really cool. In the cooking class we had to clean crawdads and I was so scared of them because they were alive. I had jumped when one came crawling towards me and the floor was wet so I slipped and fell which was slightly embarrassing but very funny now that I look back on it. Exams started at the end of the week. I had science and math which I feel pretty good about.
After my science exam, I went to Brussels to celebrate my friend Maeve’s birthday with her. Brussels was all decorated for Christmas so it was really beautiful. We ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant and went ice skating and got waffles. We also had a mini photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree! That was a lot of fun. Gabby came a little later so we got hot chocolate together and walked around the Grand Place.
That weekend I spent with Leon and Sao in Brussels. Friday night, I ate dinner with Leon’s family and met some of his  brother-in-law’s family from South Africa. They didn’t know a lot of French so we spoke English together. It was really funny because they had such different accents so we joked about that. Saturday I went to Namur with Rachel, Gabby, Anastasia, Maeve and Ilham. We did A LOT of shopping and found the cutest little café with really yummy crepes, delicious waffles and chocolaty hot chocolate. It was such a fun day with them. Sunday I went to the Thai market with Sao and Leon. I tried a lot of Thai food and liked them all.
The following week at school was more exams. I studied a little but didn’t stress about them because I am here to learn French, not the things the exams were on. One nice thing about exams week is the time we finish. We finish earlier so we can go home and study. Monday night, my rotary club had a Christmas fundraiser so the exchange students came to help. It was great to see everyone! On Tuesday, I met my friends in Gent and we saw the Christmas Market there. That’s one thing I really like about Christmas in Europe. Every city has a little Christmas market where local vendors are selling things for Christmas. Also every town is decorated in its own way which is also really beautiful. In gent, we did a little shopping, explored the Christmas market and drank hot cocoa. I found probably my favorite white hot chocolate at a hidden chocolate store there. It was simply amazing.
Friday evening I celebrated Hanukkah with my host mom’s family. We had plenty of yummy food and we gave each other presents too! I even got to lit a candle! It was so fun to see all the little kids run around and play with their toys. I got some jewelry, a scarf, bath/shower stuff and a Belgian cookbook! I am so lucky to be a part of their family, even though it is only a few months. The next day, we found a Christmas tree and decorated it together. It was really fun and now the house is all decorated for Christmas!
I have 2 more exams this week before I have winter break. For winter break I am going to go visit my old host family in Lyon with Rachel. I am really excited to see them again and be back in Lyon! It should be a very fun start to my winter break! I will also be changing host families soon so I am going to be spending as much time as I can with my current host family before I have to change.

Until Next Time!

Shelby

Sherman Tank at Bastogne

Birthday Festivities

Saint Nicholas and His Helpers

Cocktails

 

Ice Skating in Belgium

New Friends from South Africa

Antwerp  Crew!

Christmas Fundraiser

Crepes from Namur

Maastricht & Viva for Life Gala

Wow it has been a while since I have posted on my blog! A lot has happened in those few weeks. First I want everyone to know I am doing perfectly fine regarding the attacks. I live in a small city 30ish minutes from Brussels and approximately 4 hours away from Paris. Not much happens here and I feel safe here. More of my thoughts on terrorism later in this post. As for where I left off on my last post. It was fall break and I had just returned from Paris. I was sick so majority of break I spent catching up on sleep so I could feel better for school. On the Friday of break I did go to Maastricht, Netherlands with a fellow exchange student. We spent the day exploring the city, visiting the churches and shopping at stores. We found one church that they converted into a bookstore. They sold English books so of course I bought one. We also found a super expensive department store and a market right in front of the town hall. It was a pretty decent day weather wise and it was a good experience for my first time in the Netherlands. Our train coming home was super late. It took me almost 4 hours to get home when it’s usually about 2. The weekend of November 7-8 I spent in Brussels with my host dad. We went to see 2 movies that weekend, The Intern and Specter (the new James Bond movie!!). Both were super great films and I am so glad I got to spend the weekend in Brussels. I also got to walk around place Louise with my host dad and we peeked into a couple stores. Place Louise is what I call the Belgium version of Champs-Elysees (minus all the tourist). It is also where Stromae filmed his music video for Formidable!! School started back up the next week. It was a pretty normal week besides the fact that we had Wednesday off for Reembrace Day. My host mom and I decided to take a day trip to Lille, France for the day. We did a little shopping and visited the Grand Place of Lille. It is such a beautiful city in France! She also showed me a traditional Lille specialty, gaufre vanille. It is really hard to describe but the transduction is vanilla waffle. Except it isn’t really a waffle because it is really flat and the vanilla is on the inside. SO GOOD! I also bought some cute riding boots from a little shoe shop in Lille too. The next big thing that happened that week was the Paris attacks. My first thoughts about the acts were heartache for the people who were a part of it and shock. Lots of shock. How could a city that I had just seen 2 weeks ago be attacked like that? It was absolutely horrible. I woke up Saturday morning with many notifications for all my social media accounts from people asking if I was safe and what not. Thank you to everyone who thought of me, fortunately I was safe and sound in Belgium. 2 major things I can take away from the attacks in Paris are: 1. you can’t be afraid because that is what the terrorist want. If you are afraid, they win. And 2. Not every Arab or Muslim is a terrorist. ISIS is an extremist group and I often think people forget that. These attacks reminded me a lot of 9/11 and the pain many Americans went through on that day. It is so heartbreaking we live in a world where these things happen. Paris is one of my favorite places in the world and it definitely hurt to see them suffer. Security across Europe has definitely increased after the events. Sunday, my host family and my host uncle (Samantha, Ilan and Elliot) went to Waterloo. I really enjoyed learning about it because it was such an important part of European history. The memorial they have about it is really interactive and super cool. I learned a lot and got to climb to the top of the Lion of Waterloo. We were the only ones up there at the time so that was really neat too. Monday at school we talked a little bit about the attacks. A lot of the students at my school had the same reaction I had: shock. I think that everyone was a little on edge from the attacks so we didn’t really have a lot to say. Other than that, school this week consisted on preparing for a big banquet and taking lots of quizzes.  We have exams in a few weeks right before winter vacation. The banquet we had this week was to raise money for Viva for Life which is an organization that raises money to give to underprivileged children. Tuesday, my class made chocolates to serve with the coffee. Wednesday we have half days so I went to Namur with other exchange students and we received our exchange student hoodies we designed together. Friday was the big day of the banquet (which I took no pictures of :( )! I left my house around 7:40am and got home around 1:40 in the morning. I was at school helping set up for it. The gala started around 7 o’clock and I was working salle so I had my own table to serve. At the beginning of the night, I was really nervous. Serving a table of 11 people with all the tips and tricks like serving the soup on the left side and the wine on the right and on top of that everything being in French definitely wrecks the nerves. Fortunately, the people at my table were super understanding and very helpful. By the end of the night I felt pretty confident! At the end of the night, the check of the money earned that night was given to Viva for Life by 2 students. I was one of the two students who presented the check! I went up on stage with an older student, Pierre who was the mastermind of the salle portion of the night. I didn’t really know what to do so I acted like Vera from the Wheel of Fortune and just held the check and smiled. All of my classmates started chanting my name which was so funny and really cool. They are some really great people and I am really really lucky I have the opportunity to meet them. After the people left, we cleaned up and went home. It was a very long day but I learned a lot! Today I had lunch with my host mom, uncle and grandparents in Waterloo and tonight Samantha and I are going to a jam with her friend. Right now Brussels is on level 4 alert regarding terrorist and attacks. I am not in Brussels but just outside but my host family and I will be super careful for the moment. I know I am safe here and that if it wasn’t safe, I wouldn’t be here. Tomorrow we are going to go to a city near Luxembourg and I am super excited for that because I haven’t seen that area before! Thanks for reading and for all the thoughts. I will keep y’all updated through Facebook although I think all will be well.

Until Next Time,

Shelby

Namur with my Blodnies <3

Waterloo (we climbed to the top!)

Maastricht, Netherlands

Lille, France

Gaufre Vanille in front of Meert (the bakery you get them from!)

Sunset from a walk home

Viva for Life Gala (pc Berenice)

Old Dutch Church in Maastricht

Champagne & Paris

What an amazing week! Last time I posted I talked about my plans to go to France with school and rotary. Both were amazing trips and I saw so much. So on Monday I went to school and then after school (approximately midnight) Samantha dropped me off. My classmates and I claimed back seats in a bus to go to France. We arrived at Rungis (an international market right outside Paris) at 4:30 am. We saw the fish, the meat, the fruit and vegetables and the flowers that the market sells. It was MASSIVE! Each section had their own room filled of the product people were selling. It was super early in the morning for me to understand all the tour guide said but I did enjoy seeing all the fresh food and took a couple pictures. After our tour, we had breakfast then got on the bus and headed towards Champagne. As we were leaving, we caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. In champagne we had some free time so my school friends and I bought an iced tea at a café. It was the most expensive iced tea I have ever bought (3.80 euros!!) but we got access to a toilet so it was worth it. After we drank our tea, we went to a cute little macaron shop. I bought everyone a macaron to try. They were really delicious. For lunch we ate at a restaurant in champagne. It was some kind of meat (I think either chicken or duck) with a champagne sauce. After lunch we headed towards Champagne de Castellane, a famous champagne maker. We were given a tour of the caves where the champagne is made and stored and then we got to try the champagne. I can now say I have drunken champagne in Champagne! After that we headed back home to Belgium. We got in a little earlier than expected so there was a little trouble for me getting home but fortunately my friend Berenice gave me a ride home. Merci Beaucoup! After the trip, I was really tired and became sick. Wednesday, my host mom and I went to the town hall and I got my Belgian ID card (which I needed for Paris!) and we tried to open a bank account for me but it was a little complicated so we have to try somewhere else. Thursday I packed for Paris and relaxed at home after school. Friday I was on sink duty with my friend Chloe for cooking class. It was actually really fun to work with her even though we had one of the not fun jobs. I also received my grades for the period, I passed all my classes and did really well for an exchange student. After school, I helped Samantha and Elliot decorate for Halloween! We ate dinner and then I spent the night in Limal with my friends Dani and Cami. The next morning, we left together for Paris! We got on the bus at Namur and headed to Mons to pick up more students then to Paris. We spent 3 days in Paris (including Halloween). We travelled for most of the morning. Our first stop was the Palace of Versailles. I visited last time I was in Paris but this time I saw more of the gardens and the chambers of the queen’s ladies plus all the rooms in the castle. It is really such a beautiful place. I can imagine living there a few hundred years ago having balls and such with royalty. Maeve from New York and I explored the gardens together which was a lot of fun. Fortunately for us the weather in Paris was warm and nice. After Versailles, we headed towards Paris. We ate at a restaurant called hippopotamus. All the waiters were dressed up for Halloween and I was so afraid one was going to scare me, and one did! After we took a picture with the spooky staff we piled into the bus to see a little bit of Paris at night. It was amazing but I wish we could’ve walked around outside of the bus! After a little drive, we got off to go on a boat cruise. It was actually the same cruise I went on with my school the last time I came to Paris. It brought back a lot of good memories. The cruise was so much fun and we took a lot of pictures together. After a fun-filled day we arrived at the hotel. I went straight to bed because I was sick and tired. Day 2 was a day full of art! We went to the Louvre and the Museum d’Orsay. Maeve and I covered almost all of the first floor of the Louvre together in 2 hours. It was awesome to go back and see the Mona Lisa. We had lunch at the Carousel de Louvre which is like a shopping mall in the Louvre. I bought an instant photo camera for myself as a birthday gift. I am super excited to use it! In the Museum d’Orsay I saw impressionist paintings (Monet and Degas are my favorite!) and I got a quick peek of the Van Gogh section of the museum. Afterwards, we waited almost 2 hours for some exchange students who didn’t know what time they needed to be back. It was kind of a bummer that we lost that time but there was a street performer that kept us entertained. Once the MIA students were found we headed towards the Champs-Elysees and Arc d’Triomphe. We had 30 minutes of free time so Maeve, Gabrielle and I (the 3 sickies on the trip) took photos together in front of the Arc d’Triomphe and checked out a souvenir shop. We then had dinner at a cute little restaurant on the Champs-Elysees. Afterwards we had more free time so we walked to the top of the Arc d’Triomphe. It was so beautiful to see all of Paris from there. I really liked it because it was something I didn’t see before. We got to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle up there too. That was one of my favorite moments during the trip. Afterwards, we went to the Eiffel Tower. The view from the Eiffel Tower during the day is amazing and at night it was like Paris was a new city. I definitely understand why it is called the city of lights. So beautiful. We were on the Eiffel tower while it twinkled at 10pm and I thought it was cool knowing that the people of Paris were looking at this massive structure I was on. We returned to the hotel and Maeve and I went straight to bed, again trying to get rid of our plagues. The next day was our last day in Paris. Our first stop was Notre Dame. Maeve, Gabby and I went inside the church and then walked around the church and across the bridge with all the locks on it. I saw the area where Mackenzie and I put our lock from the first trip to Paris. We also went to Shakespeare and Co, a very famous book shop but it wasn’t opened until later during the day so we bought books from the vendors on the side of the Seine. Afterwards we headed towards Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. I bought a painting from an artist in Montmartre and Maeve and I bought macarons from a little shop there too. They were very yummy! We walked down the stairs right in front of Sacre Coeur to get to Hard Rock Café. That was so cool to see the church from close and then from a distance. I went to Hard Rock for the first time in Paris!! I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we had some free time so Gabby, Maeve and I walked around. We found chipotle so I bought some to eat on the bus. It was so good and I definitely missed it. We then said Au Revoir to Paris and headed back to Belgium. It was such an amazing trip with a wonderful group of people. I am really glad that was my first trip with Rotary and I am looking forward to my next trips with them. This week I have fall break so I plan on resting and getting better. Friday I am going to the Netherlands with some other exchange students and then hopefully spending the weekend in Brussels. It has been a pretty good vacation so far. That’s all I have for now! Thanks for reading.

Until Next Time!

Shelby

School Trip to Champagne

Champagne!

one part of Rungis for the fruit and vegetables

Sunrise at Rungis

Versailles

The Winged Victory

Arc d'Triomphe with Gabby and Maeve

on the Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur

my new camera

Notre Dame

Hard Rock Café Paris

First Trip to IKEA

Wow time goes by so fast Belgium. I can’t believe it’s almost November! This week was pretty normal. Monday I presented my project on Ile-de-France. I think it went pretty well for being an exchange student. Tuesday I worked salle (service) in the area where the students eat lunch. I was super nervous but it went pretty smoothly. Wednesday I went shopping in Brussels with Sarah and Rachel. We went to Primark, H&M, and Hema. I got a warm trench coat to wear for winter from H&M. We spent about 2 hours in Primark. Primark is this massive clothing store that has every piece of clothing you could imagine for a relatively great price. It is really crowded all the time and usually there is a line to get in! After a rainy afternoon filled with shopping I came home and had dinner with my host family. Thursday was pretty normal, nothing too exciting happened. Friday I worked in the kitchen for the restaurant at school. I was stationed on desserts (which is my favorite) alone. Being alone was really stressful because I was learning how to make the dishes/decorations, trying to go fast, and speaking/listening to French all at the same time. It was so stressful but everything turned out okay! Friday night we stayed in. We watched back to the future in French because Wednesday was back to the future day. I went to bed pretty early that night and slept very well. Saturday I worked a banquet with some of my classmates. We went to a new elementary school and served drinks and food to little kids and their parents. Some of the little kids were so cute! It is always a fun time with the kids from my school. Saturday evening I went to the Flemish part with my host mom. We had dinner with her friend Martine. I had a yummy Belgian Waldorf salad and tried a White Belgian beer. It was a nice dinner and a calm end to a long day. Today, Samantha and I are planning to stick around the house. We went to Ikea (it was my first time ever so I was excited!) I am going to pack for Paris and skype my parents. This next week is a week I am really looking forward to because Tuesday I am going to Champagne with my school and then Saturday starts my trip with rotary to Paris. I am too excited to go back. Less than a week!! I will be sure to take tons of pictures and share them on my blog next week, which I will write after I get back from Paris.

Talk to you soon!

Shelby

Shopping in Brussels

Fall in Belgium is so pretty!

A Snapshot of Sunday's Walk

IKEA Meatballs

Macas d'Or & Beautiful Badness

Hello All.

So in this blog I am going to write it in French and in English (French for my Belgian friends and English for my friends back home.) I hope my French isn’t too bad! Anyways here we go!

Monday I had touristic geography. I have been working on my project on the Ile-de-France all week last week but I didn’t get to present because there wasn’t enough time. I think I will present tomorrow! On Monday, I also found out about a school trip I will be going once. We are going to the French region of Champagne for a day during the end of October. It sounds really fun and I am really excited to go with all my classmates. On Tuesday, I cooked in the cafeteria. There was carrot soup, pork and apple crumble. The apple crumble was my favorite. Wednesday started the trend of coming home and going to bed late. After my 3 classes, I went home for 2 hours then went back to school in my clothes to work in the restaurant. My school catered a huge event for the city of Wavre, the capital of Barbant-Wallon and the city where my school is. I worked the event with my other classmates. It was so much fun and reminded me so much of home when I used to work with my mom and Ms. Becky. I cleared tables and served the amazing masterpieces of the students who were cooking back in the kitchen. I was really nervous to carry things (I actually ended up breaking a couple wine glasses that night oops!) but I did pretty well. My favorite part of the night was taking pictures with all of the IPES students together at the photo booth. The night finished around midnight and I was in bed by 1 am. Thursday was a long day mostly because I was super tired. In my economic class (honestly it’s more like government class) we had a quiz on last year’s topics so I pretty much knew nothing, but my friend gave me his notes from last year and I had made copies. The test was open note but the teacher literally sat next to me and worked through it all with me. Even though I understood almost all the questions and had the notes. Thursday evening I went to a concert with my host mom in Brussels. We saw Beautiful Badness, the band of her music teacher, perform. They were amazing and their music was so cool. We bought their CD and jammed out on the car ride home. Friday was another day in the kitchen for me at school. We had some left over merchandise so our teacher gave us a challenge. It was like a simple version of the TV show chopped. We had to make a plate with a sauce, salmon, 3 different vegetables and a potatoes. The chef said I could do it American style so I cut the vegetables like I would if I made a fajita and grilled the salmon with the veggies. I made mashed potatoes and garlic cream sauce too. It tasted pretty yummy. Friday night I spent with Rachel! With the crazy long, exhausting week I had we pretty much walked home from the gare, ate dinner and went to sleep. The next morning we woke up at 6 am to catch the train to Namur. In Namur, we met up with other rotary exchange students to visit the parliament of Wallonia. Belgium is split into 3 different governments, The Flemish government (Flanders), The French government (Wallonia) and the Brussels government. It is complicated to explain so watch this video to help get your head together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9_nWglRDX0
After we sat in the seats of the members of parliament and listened to speeches about the government, we went on a boat ride in Namur. It was cold but worth seeing the beautiful houses right on the edge of the river. After Namur, a few of the students (including me) went to the Horta Museum in Brussels. Horta was a very famous architect from Belgium and the museum is his house. It was so pretty and the tour felt like we were back in time. I could imagine living in his work of art. After the tour, I stayed at my host dad’s apartment in Brussels. I love coming to the big city for the weekends when I can. Sunday, I was finally able to sleep in. Then we had some friends over for lunch. I took the little girls who were here to the park to play. It was really peaceful and fun to see everyone again. Countdown to Paris is 12 Days y’all! I am so excited to go back to one of my favorite places ever.

Until Next Time!

 

 

 

En Français:

Bonjour tout le monde.

Pour ce blog, je vais écrire en français et en anglais (français pour mes amies belge, anglais pour mes amies aux Etats-Unis). J’espère mon français n’est pas très mal. Alors, on y va. Lundi, j’ai le cours géographie touristique. Je travaillais sur le projet de l’Ile-de-France tout la semaine dernière mais je n’ai pas présenté parce qu’il n’était pas beaucoup de temps. Je pense que je vais présenter demain. En Lundi, j’ai appris d’un voyage avec école.  Nous allons aller à Champagne en France pour un jour la dernière d’Octobre. Je suis très contente pour un voyage avec mes amis! En Mardi, J’ai cuisiné dans la cuisine communarde. Il était soupe de la carotte, porc et crumble de pomme. Mon préfère est le crumble de pomme. Mercredi a commencé la nuit très tard. Apres mes 3 cours, je suis rentré à ma maison pour 2 heures. Apres les 2 heures, je suis revenu q école avec ma tenue pour salle. Mon école était le traiteur pour les Macas d’Or, un grand éventement dans l’hôtel de ville en Wavre. Je travaillais avec mes amis d’école. C’était très drôle et il m’a rappelé les temps j’ai travaillé pour Mme. Becky (une aime de ma mère). Je débrasais les tables et servi les nourritures des étudiants dans la cuisine. J’étais très nerveuse pour faire le servie (malheureusement, je cassais 4 verres) mais c’était pas mal. Mon part perfore du soir était quand tous les élèves prend une photo ensemble dans le photomaton. Le soir a fini à minuit et je suis allé à lit à 1 heure sur le matin. Jeudi était un jour très long parc que j’étais fatiguée. Dans EES, il était un contrôle du 5ieme année alors je ne connais pas tous mais j’ai fait les photocopies des mots de mon ami. Le contrôle était avec les cours mais le prof a aidé moi pour tous la cour bien que je connais comment faire avec les mots. Jeudi soir, ma mère d’accueil et moi sommes allé un concert de Beautiful Badness en Brussels. C’était magnifique. Elle a acheté un CD et nous avons écouté sur la route à la maison. Vendredi, j’étais dans la couine encore. J’ai faire le saumon avec les légumes <<Fajiita>> et la purée de pomme de terre. C’était très bon. Vendredi soir je suis resté avec Rachel. Nous ne faisons pas beaucoup parce nous étions épuises. Le prochain matin, nous nous sommes réveillés à 6h sur le matin pour aller à Namur. Dans Namur, Nous avons rendez-vous avec les autres étudiants de rotary pour faire une visite du parlement de Wallonie. Apres la visite, nous sommes allés sur un bateau. C’était un peu froid mais la vue était très belle. Apres Namur, Je suis allé à Bruxelles pour faire une visite de la Musée Horta. Horta était un architecte belge qui est très populaire. Nous ne pouvions pas prendre les photos L mais j’aimais beaucoup. Apres la visite, J’ai resté avec mon père d’accueil dans Bruxelles. J’adore la grande ville pour les weekends. Dimanche, je dormais beaucoup. Nous mangions avec les amis dimanche aussi. J’ai pris les petites filles au parc. C’était très beau et calme. Il y a juste 12 jours avant Paris! Je suis très contente pour aller à ma ville préfère dans toute la monde.

A la prochaine fois/ Until Next Time

Shelby

 

 

Beautiful Badness

my food ~ ma nourriture

Namur

Boat Ride ~ Sur le Bateau

Photo Booth Pictures ~ Photos de la Photomaton

Parliament Visit ~ Visite de Parlement  

2 Months in Belgium!

My what a week I had! Monday I had the day off and had my first rotary meeting. My rotary club is the rotary club of Genval. Monday evening we met at a country club to listen to the rebounds (people who went on exchange) present their year abroad to the club. I love listening to them talk about their year because you can see how much the exchange meant to them and how it changed them. It inspires me during my year here. Then, the inbounds (me and 3 other students) presented themselves to the club in French. My club is really welcoming and very nice. I am excited to be a part of their organization for the year. Tuesday was my only full day of school this week. I got to spend most of the day in the kitchen. I made rocher au coco alone and did the dishes! Dish duty is definitely not the best but it’s part of the kitchen. After I cleaned about 100 dishes I got to help plate desserts. I think plating is fun because you can express yourself in the food. Wednesday was a strike with the buses, so I didn’t go to school. I only had 3 classes that day so I didn’t miss much. I worked on my project of France for my Touristic Geography class. I am going to present the gastronomy of the Ile-de-France tomorrow. I made a cute little brochure to be my visual aide. In the afternoon, I went to my host grandparents’ house for most of the day. I hung out with my little host cousins and we went to see inside out. I still love it even after the 3^rd time. Thursday was a half day at school for me. I went to my English and math classes then came home and finished my Ile-de-France project. It was really nice being able to come home early because I normally get home at 5/6 o’clock. Friday I had a field trip with the 6 TQ and P Hôt. We went to a vineyard in Namur (south of Belgium) and cut grapes for the vineyard. We also got to try wine and the juice from the grapes. It was really muddy and kind off a long day but with my classmates we had a lot of fun. There was a tractor and all the boys hopped on the back to ride in it and I got on it then fell into the grapes. Fortunately the buckets caught me before I crushed the grapes but it was a great laugh for everyone. We had fun dancing as we waited for the bus too. Friday evening I had a dinner with my host mom’s family. They are such wonderful people and the food is always so great. I was super tired from the vineyard so I went home pretty early. Saturday was one of my favorite days so far. Rachel and I went to Oostende, a city right on the North Sea (shout out to Aksel for telling me to go there). We had lunch and then went to the beach and took lots of photos. It was really windy at the sea but it was sunny (a rare thing in BelgiumJ). I was so happy to go to the beach. I walked in the waves and picked up a lot of seashells (#shellsforshelby!!). I am so lucky that the ocean is only a few hours away and I can’t wait to go back soon. It is for sure one of my favorite beaches I have ever visited. Saturday night Rachel spent at my house! We had pizza and uploaded all our beach pics then went to sleep because we were exhausted. Today we went to a cute little market in waterloo. I bought some dried fruit and chocolate and meloncakes (aka heaven) and little macarons. Then we dropped Rachel off at the gare and came home. I had lunch with Samantha and her brother and now I am going to skype my parents and clean my room. Next week, I should have a full week of school haha. Soon I will be leaving for Paris with rotary and I cannot wait!! Hopefully these next few weeks go by as fast as these last few months have.

Until Next Time!

Shelby

Exchange Students of the Genval Club!

Rocher au Coco

Field Trip to the Vineyard

An American in Ostende

First Drum Lessons

Another good week here in Belgium. School is going really well for me. Monday was pretty simple with PE, Accounting and Touristic Geography. Accounting is actually really easy for me to pick up on and the teacher was so surprised I understood so much my first time. In Geography we are learning about the tourism and gastronomy of France. We have an oral project due in 2 weeks on a certain French region. My region is Ile-de-France, which is the region Paris is in! I am a little nervous to give the presentation orally but I know if I practice a lot it will be good. I chose the Ile-de-France as my region because I am going back to Paris at the end of October with Rotary. I am so excited for the trip and it is literally all I can think about! Tuesday I had cooking classes. The last few times in my cooking classes, I worked on something with my friend Elodie, but Tuesday I got to make something all by myself! I made a 4 part cake (1 part eggs, 1 part flour, 1 part butter and 1 part sugar) with apple chunks. It was super easy and super delicious. I was really glad I got to do something on my own. Wednesday I went to Liege for an hour or so. The train ride to Liege is really long (almost 2 hours!) so I didn’t stay long but I did see a beautiful church and some of my rotary friends. Wednesday evening I had my very first drum lessons. Samantha bought me my first pair of drumsticks and I was so excited to use them. I have lessons at RhythmGo in Rixensart for 30 minutes every 2 weeks. It was really fun because I got to learn the parts of the drums in French and in English. I want to buy a drum set in the States so I can play there too! Thursday I had 3 quizzes, 1 in French, 1 in Statistics and another in Human Sciences (normal geography). The French quiz was a vocab one and I practiced the words by using quizlet. I think I did really well on it! Geography and Stats were really easy too. On Friday I worked in the restaurant. Elodie and I worked the bar together. It was a lot of fun making drinks for the clients. My teacher had me ask the guests if they wanted tea or coffee in French. I was really nervous at first because my accent and pronunciation are a little rough but after some practice and help from my classmates I was confident enough to do it and it went really well! Saturday, Elliot had soccer in Brussels so we spent most of the morning watching soccer (or football as they call it here). After lunch we relaxed a little bit and then went shopping at Louvain-le-Neuve. I bought a couple of sweaters and cardigans for when it starts to get colder. At Louvain-le-Neuve there was a huge concert right outside the mall that we watched for 30 minutes. The weather was beautiful and the music was great. Sunday morning we took a walk by Elliot’s school. It was so green and beautiful. We walked to the Foire de Verres which is this huge expo of glass. It was so beautiful and we had to be very careful not to break anything. Later in the day we had a meeting for Samantha’s singing groups. I decided to join the choral with her which I am really excited about. They sing mostly English songs so it shouldn’t be too difficult for me. Today (Monday) I have no school because it is a teachers work day. I was able to sleep in and work on some of my homework for school. Tonight I have a dinner with my Rotary Club. We get to hear the Rotex talk about their exchange and the inbounds (me & 3 others) get introduced to the club. It should be a really fun time!

Until Next Week,

Shelby

Foire de Verres

Cooking Class

the beautiful view of Lasne from part of our Sunday walk

Liege

Sunset on my street in Lasne

Sunday Walk

Rafting in Coo & Going to School

This week was definitely much better than last week. Monday was pretty much a normal school day. PE was much better this time. We walked to the facility then ran/walked for 30 minutes. Running is really easy for me here because of the lower elevation. At the end of the year we have to be able to run for 40 minutes straight without stopping. Thats double the amount we had to run in PE in the states! But running is good to burn off all the calories of the speculoos and waffles I eat here, hahaha. Tuesday I had salle. Although I couldn't do much with service (thanks to the language barrier), I was able to watch and help out a little bit. I also got to try a lot of the food. Everyone was like Shelby try this try that. Pros of being the exchange student haha. On Tuesdays and Fridays we get to have lunch made and served to us by the younger kids. It's always super cool because lunch at home wasn't like that at all. This week we had omelettes, veal with pasta and french toast for dessert. It was really yummy! Tuesday and Wednesday was a Jewish holiday of Kippur. Tuesday we ate at Samantha's mom house. Wednesday was the big party where we ate a ton of food because the adults fasted during the day. I tried a little bit of everything and it was all super great. I can't wait for Hannakuh with them!  Wednesday I had 2 quizzes, one in statistics and the other in organic chemistry. I got a 9/10 on the organic chemistry one! After school I stayed home with Samantha and Elliott. We had quick (a fast food restaurant that is really big in Europe) and ran some errands. I helped Samantha make cakes for the big dinner we had Wednesday night. Wednesday night we celebrated Yom Kippur. I was able to go into the synagogue in Waterloo. I didn't understand what was happening really but it was cool to see! We ate so well after the service. I loved trying all the different foods. Thursday was a normal Thursday. Friday I went to Brussels for the weekend! I met a couple of my friends at one of our favorite cafés in Brussels! Then I went to a movie and dinner with my host dad, host brother and his friend. We saw le tout nouveau testament. It's a film about Brussels and its kinda of bizarre but I really liked it. It's pretty funny too. It was filmed in Belgium so I thought it was pretty neat. For dinner I had salmon and fries! Amazing as all the food here is! Saturday I went to Coo to go rafting with the other exchange students. We literally had trainfuls of exchange students coming together. It was so much fun. I was in a raft with my friends from the US, Canada, Australia & my belgain friend who went on exchange to the US. We sang songs and raced other people. We also got stuck on some rocks a couple of times but Maureen got us unstuck. She's the real MVP. I loved being able to see everyone and spend time outside. The trees and hills were beautiful in the south of Belgium. Sunday I was with Léon and Sao and we went to a friends house in Wavre for lunch. It was this really good (and a little spicy) Thai food. I got to play some games with the kids my age and that was really fun. It was a really fun and relaxing weekend.
Until next weekend
Shelby

One of my Belgian friends working on presentation of desserts at school

Yom Kippur

School Lunch in Belgium

My Favorite Classroom: The Kitchen!

Waterfall at Coo

Sunday playing games with friends