Shelby's Year in Belgium: 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