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

Ghent, Braine-le-Comte, & Charleroi

This week was a bit of a struggle for me. Almost every day I missed the bus and had to have my host mom drive me to school. I didn’t get a lot of good sleep even though I came home every day and lounged around. I also got a little homesick. I definitely understand now why rotary doesn’t want you on your electronics all the time while on exchange. Not going to lie, it is definitely something I need to work on. Anyways, I celebrated Jewish new year on Sunday with Léon and his family! We ate a lot of great food and I got see my host cousins which was really exciting! Monday I had my first PE class and it made me miss PE in the states. Yep I really just said that. We took a 15 minute walking in the pouring rain to get to a gym that we sat in for 40 minutes doing nothing. It was so pointless and very cold. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow! Monday evening I had a small dinner with Samantha, her brother and parents to finish of the Jewish New Year celebrations. Tuesday I had a day full of salle class. Salle is pretty much a class on running a restaurant so its almost as fun as cooking. We made cocktails Tuesday and they all turned out pretty good! Wednesday I had a quiz in organic chemistry. I didn’t know we had a quiz so it was more of a pop quiz for me! I got a 6/10 on it (not bad for not studying and being in a French chemistry class). Wednesday afternoon I went the Charleroi, which has a not so great reputation in Belgium. I got to meet up with other rotary exchange students and see how pretty the city is. It was a wonderful way to spend my afternoon. Friday was a really good day for me. I talked a lot with the people in my class and the professional cooking level. They all are so nice and friendly and funny. Friday I finally got to cook. My class made sandwiches and it was super easy. It reminded me a lot of working with my mom for her friend Becky, who is the chef of the Govenor of Wyoming. Friday evening I spent with my host mom and brother at the house. Saturday, Samantha, Elliot and I went to this really adorable bakery in Waterloo. There were so many tarts and amazing breads and cute little candies. After we bought some candy, we went to the Waterloo Brewery because there was a little event going on. At the brewery, people were dressed in uniforms just like the soliders would’ve worn at the battle of Waterloo! It was super cool and a little funny to see. There were a few mini shops to check out. Elliot and I found giant smurf statues and took pictures with eact one we found. Later that day, I went to Braine-le-Comte to spend the weekend with Rachel. Saturday evening we walked around Braine-le-Comte. I got to see her school and we went to a cute little bakery and chocolatier together. I bought something small from each place and it was yummy. We then walked through the woods and back to her house to eat pizza and watch Gossip Girl. It was really great to spend the night with her. Sunday, we went to Ghent for the day. Ghent is in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium so I was a little nervous to go because I know hardly any dutch. We had a lot of fun visiting the city. It was one of the first weekends we hadn’t gone shopping for clothes (mostly because on Sunday the stores were closed haha). We were able to go to Gravensteen which is a 10^th-century castle with a beautiful view of the city. It was my first castle I saw in Belgium! We explored the city and shopped in little shops. We were able to eat a brunch at this chic café called Simon Says. Afterwards we bought cuberdon from 2 different vendors to decide which had the better candy (Results: Rachel’s had better texture but mine had just the right amount of sugar). It was really a lovely visit to a magnificent city. Next weekend, there is an event with Rotex to go kayaking and I am really looking forward to that. I will make sure to take lots of pictures and write about it next week.

Until Next Time

~Shelby

Delicious Jewish Pastry for the Jewish New Year

Pastries at the Bakery at Waterloo

Charleroi!

Smurfs in Waterloo

Braine-le-Comte

Gravensteen in Ghent

Fun Weekend with Rachel

One Month in Belgium

Whoever said time flies when you’re having fun knew what he was talking about. I have already been in Belgium for a month and it feels like just yesterday I had gotten off the plane. I have experienced so much already in my first few weeks here and I am really looking forward to my next 9 months here. I remember talking to people about how difficult the first few months would be here. My first month in Belgium has had its ups and downs but overall I would say it has been pretty good. I can already tell my French has improved a lot over the time I have been here and I know it will get even better. I understand a lot and think the major thing I need to work on is speaking. I always get super nervous having one on one conversations with people in French (which is so weird for me). It will get better with time and practice. I remember my French teacher telling me how tired I would be all the time and he was so right. I have been really tired my first month, but that’s normal. Living in a different time zone and speaking another language drains you. I take a lot of naps after school and go to bed as early as I can. I started school Tuesday the 8^th and I remember coming home after school and crashing on my bed until dinner time. School here shares similarities with school in the USA but is also so different. To get to school, I take a 40ish minute bus ride from Lasne (my town) to Wavre (the city my school is). My first day, I had no clue where I was going so the secretary pointed me in the right direction. My school is called IPES and it’s a high school for certain occupations. At IPES, you can study anything from chemistry to optical. I am in the restaurant/cooking category as a senior (6eme here). So the first day of school we had an assembly where we go over the rules and expectations. It was a little overwhelming but I understood majority of the speech. Afterwards, we split to our classes. In Belgium school, you stay with one “class”. These are students who are studying the same thing and have the same courses together. I am in the 6eme (12^th grade) technical qualification for cooking. There are 5 other students in my class; Valentin, Lionel, Elodie, Flavien & Madani. We are together every day and they are all helpful. On the first day, I started in the professional option instead of the technical qualification option so I had to switch that. Fortunately, the students in professional and TQ have cooking courses together so I know majority of the people in that class now. The morning of the first day was really easy, we stood around and talked about our schedules and summers and then had lunch. Everyone in the school is very welcoming and inviting which is really nice. In the 6eme class for cooking there are 4 girls (including me) so we stick together. We ate our sandwiches together outside the school. Elodie, Chloé, and Bérénice are all very nice and super helpful. And they don’t speak a lot of English, so it’s a good way for me to work on my French. After lunch classes started. I had oenology and salle for my first day. They were really easy classes because we just talked about the content of the course. In salle, we are going to learn about various coffees, wines, cheeses and teas. Oenology is the studying of wine. That class was really difficult for me on the first day because I know very little about wines in English and much less in French. As my language improves, I think the class will get a lot easier. Wednesday is probably my favorite day of school for a few reasons. First, we get out of school early. Most days I start school at 8:30 and finish at 4:30. Each class is about 50 minutes. Secondly, my first 2 hours on Wednesdays are English class. How could I not love that?!? On my first Wednesday, we talked about similarities and differences between Belgium and the US. It was a great way to get to know them and help them learn about my country and English! After English, I had French class. I totally forgot that French class here would be like English class in the States so I walked in to class looking for a more elective style course and got a more literature based course. In French, we are going to be studying Cyrano de Bergerac which I had studied in my French class at Central. We also have to do four book reports throughout the year. My host mom has a ton of French books at the house so I can easily find a book to read and write about. I understood everything we talked about in French class and I feel super confident with that class. Math classes follows French class. To be honest, math in French was one thing I was super worried about but the class I am in is statistics. I took statistics in the US so I understand the math part. The difficult part is the French part. My teacher is very understanding and really nice too. My final class of the day is organic chemistry. This class started off super hard. The teacher talked so fast and I had never seen organic chemistry before. After we got some papers with pictures it started making a lot more sense. Science comes easy to me (Thanks, Dad (my dad in the US is a science teacher)). Wednesday afternoon I shopped for school, ate lunch and relaxed at the house with my host brother. Some courses I had Thursday and Friday are gestion (which is management), Economy, Geography, Dutch, and many cooking classes. Gestion, economy and geography are all semi new for me but I understand what is going on in the class. Dutch class was super new for me. Fortunately, the teacher understood that I was an exchange student who had never seen a word of Dutch and gave me everything in English. I think it’s going to be super difficult to learn a language in French but I am going to try. My first cooking class was super overwhelming. The teacher gave us all these papers full of information we have to know for our exams in December and June. We also got a schedule of when we work the school cafeteria and the school restaurant (yes my school has a restaurant that people can come to, its super cool!). I am nervous that I might mess something up because I didn’t understand what someone told me. Luckily, I have Madani in my group. Madani is in my group (6eme TQ Hôt) so I know him pretty well because we have all our classes together and he speaks some English. I hope after a few months it will be a lot better. Friday night, I spent that the night at my friend Alyssa’s in Waterloo. Alyssa, Rachel and I went out to Touchdown which is a sports bar and had a lot of fun together. It was a really cool environment for students to come and hang out together on a Friday night. Saturday, Rachel and I went shopping in Brussels. I always go shopping for clothes at H&M, which I feel so bad about because I know they exist in the states. The reason I go there is because I know I will like those clothes when I go back to the states and the European stores are really expensive. Saturday the tram I normally take was closed so we had to take a bus and the bus took forever so we spent like 3 hours travelling to City 2 (a wonderful mall in Brussels). We were so tired and so hungry but after we had lunch we were ready to go! After we went to a couple stores I had to leave to go to my Rotary counselor’s house for a dinner. I went the wrong way and kind of got lost in Brussels but found my way back. At the dinner, all four exchange students who are sponsored by the Genval club were there; Cami from Boliva, Pusiut from Thailand, and Dani from Mexico. Nicola and Carrie (my counselor and his wife) were so hospitable and we all spoke English together so it really felt like home. Carrie is actually from Idaho so it was fun to talk with another American in Belgium. They are both really wonderful people and I am so lucky to have such a great Rotary contact for the year. Today is Jewish New Year so tonight with Léon and Sao we are going to dinner with family. I am really excited to experience a holiday in a different religion. I also get to skype my family today! We decided to wait to skype a month after I got here so I could settle in. I have already skyped a few of my friends at home and it has actually really helped me out because seeing them happy makes me happy and of course they want to know all about Belgium. It is still so surreal for me that I am staying here for the next 9 months. I always feel like in a few days I will be hoping on plane to go back home but then I realize Belgium is my new home. I am so excited for the next few months and I know they are going to fly by!

XOXO
Shelby

My School Schedule

Brussels Saturday

Walk from the Bus Stop

Touchdown with Alyssa and Rachel


 

Last Week of Summer!

Hello All!

Here’s my quick weekly update. This week was pretty crazy and very busy. Monday, my host sister Luna left for Chile. There was a lot of emotions for everyone in the family but she made it there safely! On Tuesday, I was able to go to Mons (another beautiful city in Belgium) with a couple of my friends. It was really great to see my friends and explore another city. I went to the oldest café in Mons, Le Paysan with my friend Kiara. It was really cool to see a business with so much history still running today. We then met up with Rachel and Byron and a couple of his friends. I rubbed the head of the monkey, who is in the Grand Place of Mons, for good luck. We had a fun time playing games in a pub together. Rachel and I also did a little bit of shopping and I bought some super cute combat boots for 25 euro (round that to about 30 US dollars, it was a steal!).  I had a cold since Saturday and after being out and about Tuesday, I was really tired so on Wednesday I slept literally all day. I woke up at about 6pm and cut some carrots for dinner we were having. My host mom and I do a lot of cooking together and that night we made what I am going to call European Meatloaf. It was super good and we had potatoes and carrots and wine to go with it. My host mom invited her friends, Delphine and Martine over and we had a fun girl’s night together. I understood a lot of French that day and it was really fun to interact with all of them together. We sang and ate a lot and I definitely started to feel a lot better. Thursday I went to Louvain-le-Neuve. This city is probably one of my favorites in Belgium. Imagine Boulder as a European city and you have LLN. I went with Brier and Kiara and we ate some really delicious cheesy pasta (almost like my families recipe for homemade mac and cheese). We also shopped in the mall at Louvain-le-Neuve. I bought a couple shirts for school, socks and a hair straightener. It was a really fun day and I was happy to visit LLN again! Thursday night I went to the cinema and watched a beautiful Turkish film with my host mom & her friends. It was really crazy to see a Turkish film with French and Dutch subtitles but I understand most of the film! Friday was another day for relaxation. I spent the day looking at scholarships for college for the first time in months. I also realized I will be starting school here pretty soon so I practiced writing in cursive because that’s how they write in school. Friday night we went to Samantha’s parent’s house as we do most Fridays to have a Jewish meal together. We ate some really yummy fish and I got to show them pictures of Cheyenne and my family. I really really like her parents and they are so nice and help me with my French. Saturday we had inbound orientation with all of the inbound students of District 2170. I was so excited to see all of my rotary friends that I made a week ago. We listened to all the rules and expectations for the day so when it was over we were exhausted. That night, I helped Samantha make spaghetti Bolognese. It was really great with carrots and celery. Today (Sunday), Samantha, Elliot and I made a trip to Brussels. We went to the one of the few places I hadn’t seen very much, Place Sablon. Sablon is a beautiful church located in Brussels. We walked around the church and I took so many pictures! Pierre Marcolini is a superior Belgian chocolatier and today, we visited and bought chocolate from a store. We ate lunch at a restaurant and I had a Belgian classic with 3 different sauces and meats and of course, Fries! After lunch, we walked through the Galleries Royals. It’s pretty much an area full of shopping, how could you not love that? I bought a classic Belgian candy, cuberdon. Cuberdon is like a jelly bean but 10 times better. We met up with Samantha’s sister’s family and went to their house for a little bit. It was a long but exciting day. And for those of you wondering how my language is going, there are good days and bad days. I usually understand a lot but speaking always freaks me out. I think the more I get comfortable, the easier it will be. Also meeting so many people means different accents I have to hear while they speak which causes some difficulties. I hope I can understand enough at school because tomorrow is my last day of summer vacation before I start school at IPES! I am going to enjoy it as much as I can. Look for my update next week!

Mons

Waffle & Tea at Le Paysan

Lasne, the city where I live

Visit to Brussels today with my host family

Sablon in Brussels

CHOCOLATE

Cuberdon