Shelby's Year in Belgium: Art Expos, Carnival, & Amsterdam

Bonjour Tous!
My dad is the one who reminded me to write my blog this time. I guess not being able to write just means I’ve been occupied with life here which is a good thing. The struggle now is to make sure I write everything in order! Here we go. So one of the first things I did with my 2^nd host family was an art expo in Brussels. It was super cool. They were all Belgian artist from Mons, where my host family grew up in. I had to leave early to go to a rotary meeting but I did see a lot of it. My rotary meeting was a “halftime” meeting to check on our progress halfway through our exchange. It’s crazy to think I am over halfway in my exchange. Somedays it feels like I got off the plane yesterday and other days it feels like I’ve been here for ages. No matter the time, I know I have to enjoy every day I have left here! A couple other things I remember were the Saturday night family/friend dinner parties my host parents threw. They were really fun times when I got to meet some of the family & friends. We also enjoyed watching movies together almost every night after dinner. They also help me out a lot with my French. We have also been to the La Hulpe Park together to take the dog, Fiji on walks. We also celebrated my halfway point together! We had black forest cake from the local bakery. It was yummy! I spent about two weeks with my real second host family before they left for Chile. While they were in Chile, I lived in a Rotarian (who lives maybe 5 minutes away) who is also hosting an exchange student. Jasmin, the other exchange student, is from Australia. We spent a lot of time together and I got to show her around Rixensart (our city), Brussels, and Namur. We got to go shopping together in Brussels with the other exchange students in our club which was really fun! It was cool to give Jasmin her first view of Brussels. We also went to a Pop-Art Expo in Brussels which I really enjoyed. I was really glad I got to live with her and have the chance to make some really great memories. We got to go to the Rotarian’s daughter’s school for a school party they were throwing right before our carnival break. We ate good food, watched fireworks and I even sang karaoke. It was such a fun time and we met some really nice Belgians! So in Belgium they have the vacation of Carnival in February, we get one week off! I kicked off vacation with my friend’s birthday party. We had a blast at her house with a couple other exchange students. It was a great way to kick off the break! The next day, I went to Carnival de Binche. Carnival de Binche is a huge party with confetti and lots of folklore. They parade around in little groups with drums (which each group has a different beat) and everyone is in costumes. That was just the Sunday part. I also went Tuesday (will explain that part later!). Sunday I went with Jasmin and Maeve and we took cute pictures while throwing confetti. We watched the little kids who were all dress up parade around until we got to cold and decided to warm up in the train station. Monday I switched back to my normal family because my host sister got back. Tuesday I went the Carnival de Binche again, this time really early so I could see the Gilles all dressed up. I met up with other exchange students around 8:30 am and we danced, caught oranges (the gilles throw oranges for good luck), laughed, and watched the parades throughout the day. You can say I was pretty exhausted plus the weather was sucky so we left around 3pm. It was a really cool experience though! To finish Carnival vacation, I went to Amsterdam with Rotary for 3 days. We saw a lot and I really enjoyed this trip. On our first day we stopped at Delft, which is this really cute city where they make delftware (typical blue and white pottery). We had some free time, during which my Canadian friend, Mackenzie and I found a really cute bakery that sold cupcakes! We tried a couple and then continued walking around the town. We then had a museum visit of a local artist. It was a little weird because there wasn’t any of his art in the museum, just analysis of it and his history. We did end up seeing some of his pieces though. That night we headed back on the road to Amsterdam. We ate at Hard Rock Café and then saw Amsterdam by night. My friend Kristin and I volunteered to help out on the trip so we wore bright orange vests so everyone could see us and not get lost. That night everyone started calling me mom because I literally was the mom of the trip (in a good way I hope!). We saw the famous Red Line District of Amsterdam. That was interesting. It’s weird to think prostitution is legal. Honestly I found it really sad that people can have that as a job. But I guess that’s how it is. That night, my room had ice cream together and we went to bed because we were tired! I roomed with 5 other girls, Olivia (American), Mackenzie (Canadian), Kate (American), Brier (Canadian) and Maddi (New Zealander). The next day was the busiest! We went to a navy museum (which definitely gave me a Pirates of the Caribbean vibe). We got to go on a remake of a famous trade ship that sank. We then visited a Portuguese Synagogue. There were a lot of Jews (and still are!) in Amsterdam. They brought a lot of diverse culture to Amsterdam to make it the beautiful city it is today. We had free time for lunch and my friends and I found the cutest bio place with delicious salads. We didn’t have a lot of time to eat because we had to make it on time to see the Anne Frank House. I gave 2 presentations on the trip, one on Anne Frank and one on Vincent Van Gogh. They both went really well. The Anne Frank House was amazing. I have been interested in the history of the Holocaust since 8^th grade so it was really surreal actually going to this place I have dreamed about for years. It was full of history and I really enjoyed how they laid it out. While I walked the tour with my exchange friends, Tim and Kinsey, I had such a sad feeling. It’s difficult to think that this young girl lost her life over her religion. I can’t even put into words the feeling that came over me when I went into her room. It was a tiny little room that was dark and hardly sufficient enough to live in, but she did for over 2 years. The museum was just so well put together and I highly recommend that everyone goes there at least once in their life. We couldn’t take pictures but I did buy the book about the house (so if anyone at home wants to read it let me know!). It really put in perspective how lucky I am to have the things I do have. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. After the house, we walked around Amsterdam, specifically the “Jardaan” quartier and the flower market. We honestly did so much walking and saw so much of Amsterdam. You could get so lost though because the buildings all kind of look the same. The flower market was full of tulips that you could buy. I definitely need to go back to buy some with my mom sometime. We then headed back to the hotel for a little break. My room spent the whole breaking talking together. It was really fun to have some girl time with them. That night we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. I did my other presentation (which the Rotarians seemed to really like). I am such a huge fan of Van Gogh so it was another thing I was really glad I got to see. The museum was absolutely wonderful. I loved learning about his life and artwork. It was honestly such a great end to the night. We headed back to the hostel and got a teeny bit lost. At the hostel, Maddi, Kate, and I went down to the bar (which Rotary allowed) and made some British friends! We stayed up talking with them until 1am which was also super fun. I find that such a pro about Europe, you can go anywhere and still meet someone and have great conversation with them. Everyone is so open here. It’s wonderful. On our last day we visited the Rijks Museum, which is pretty much the Louvre of Amsterdam. Kate and I explored that together. It was nice but I didn’t really know any of the artist so we moved through it pretty quick. I think we saw about half of it. After the art museum, we had a boat ride through the canals of Amsterdam. That was honestly a great way to wrap up the trip. Looking back we saw so much of Amsterdam. When the boat trip finished we got three hours of free time. My friends (Mackenzie, Kaylee, Olivia and Kinsey) went to find the Fault in Our Stars bench. I was so excited to see it as it was the one thing I wanted to see on my trip (that wasn’t on the agenda). We spent the last few hours in Amsterdam eating at an Argentinian restaurant and popping into souvenir shops. It was such an amazing trip filled with a lot of wonderful memories I will always remember. Thanks to BRESA for having such a good trip planned for us. As for Valentine’s Day, I spent it with Jasmin in Louvain-la-Neuve (the college town). We ate some really good wok and then watched Netflix and ate chocolate. It was a really chill day. Yesterday I stayed home sick, I’ve been sick since Amsterdam: p but now I feel a lot better. I lost my voice (from yelling watch out for the bikes (because bikes are everywhere in Amsterdam!)) and needed to catch up on my sleep. Tomorrow my host parents get back and Saturday I have a trip planned with my Rotary club to Mechlen to see a fort related to the Holocaust. More details about that next week. I promise to write next week because these once a month updates get long!

xx
Shelby