Tuesday, August 28, 2012

beaucoup de pains

Lol, my blogger is in Dutch now! Je ne connais pas le Dutch!! :p

Well... this is my fourth night in Belgium. When I left the United States, I thought that I'd blog right away about my first day. But my plan was botched by AFS itself.

For the first two nights (if you don't count the one on the plane from New York to Zurich), all of the AFS students staying in Belgium this year were in Brussels together. Without internet access. It was ok - we all got to know each other very well, however, blogging really wasn't an option.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning were spent in Brussels, learning about Belgian culture and how to deal with any difficulties we may have.

Sunday evening, my host family picked me up and we drove home to Verlaine. It was uneventful, for the most part. We all learned just how terrible my French truly is and we talked about all the weird awkward stuff like what my duties are around the house and whether or not I do my own laundry.

I had my first meal with the family. Croissants. I've realized that Belgians eat a loooot of bread. It's cool though - it's the awesome bread that we only get when we go out to eat or on special occasions in the United States, so it's a treat. A carby, delicious treat.

Eva (my host sister) and I went for a walk around the town with un chien, Jack, and then a second walk with un cheval, Sweety.

Yesterday, I met the rest of the family - Eva's older sisters, their significant others and un bebe, Zephyr, who is quite possibly the cutest thing ever and the grandparents. It was a bit overwhelming, but they were all super night and welcoming and tried to speak English for me.

This morning, I went t my school in Huy for the first time. It's in a 1,000 year old abbey, and I have religion classes. Also, my luck finally ran out and I'll have to take a physical education class. On the way back to Verlaine, we stopped and saw a few chateaus. Tres belle! It's crazy how old everything is here. My house is five hundred years old. I saw pictures, and I *think* (not sure how to ask... :p) that it was damaged in World Wars and my host parents restored it in the '80s. 

It's interesting coming for Oberlin and OUR war history to Belgium and THEIR war history. I've been plotting how I'm going to tell my family about that...

So far, the hardest thing is thinking quickly enough. It's frustrating because I know that the French is in there somewhere, and if I had time to write it out, I could do it perfectly. But as soon as someone asks me a question and everyone is looking at me, it's like the entire world is in fast forward. Then everyone is watching and repeating themselves and it's even faster.

2 comments:

  1. That reminds me of my time in France! I had Roman ruins at the end of my driveway. I used to just put my hand on them and try to imagine the stone being rolled into place thousands of years ago. Mind-blowing!

    You'll be amazed at how fast you adapt to the language. Two or three weeks and you'll be good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My family keeps taking me past chateaus and all I can say is " ":o tres ancienne :o" hahaha

      Delete