It Feels Like Everything That Happened Before I Left Was Another Life

I feel like my family and friends that I left in Utah were all part of a separate life. I feel like I've been here for a life time because I feel like I know people so well and I belong here now. I love that I feel comfortable over here. I still miss everyone back home when I take the time to remember that they are still part of my life. I want everyone to know that no matter where in the world I am I will always be a friend to everyone and I'll always be willing to talk. I am still myself in this new world and I still love helping everyone.

School is getting better little by little. I've had a few tests. Math was okay I got 13 out of 20. History was AWFUL I haven't gotten my score yet but it can't be good. English was a piece of cake my teacher looked at her watch when I finished and then looked at me and just smiled. I think it only took me about 2 minutes. In my French class I have to read a book and it just so happens that the book I got assigned is 450 pages!! IN FRENCH!! I have a month to read it and right a letter to the girl who presented it. AAAH I've only read 15 pages! My night class is pretty good. I've made some friends there. My teacher is really nice. Right now I feel like it's a little too easy but I'm beginning to think it will get more challenging. It is really helping me with my language and with my confidence. Each class period I speak more in French and feel more comfortable with it.

I have gone into downtown Brussels quite a few times but I really wish I could go farther away more often with my new friends. People always come here though. Hopefully next time we'll go farther away :)

I really like my host family! I am comfortable around them and I talk to them whenever I can form the right sentence in my head. (luckily, that happens quite a bit it just comes slower than I would like)

Sunday was the Journée Sans Voitures (day without cars) in order to save gas everyone went places on bike or public transportation. It was soo cool! There were so few cars I was shocked! I found out that you can actually get in trouble if you drive without authorization. I was thinking about what it would be like to see a big U.S. city like L.A., San Francisco, or New York. That would never work out!

It's a Small World Afterall

More PICTURES!!!

Look on Facebook for captions and if anyone can teach me how to make captions work on here that would be lovely!!!

The Greatest Times in Life are the Ones We Have the Hardest Time Explaining Just Right

I've done a lot since the last update...

So first things first School: It's hard that's for sure... I do my best to understand but it takes a lot of work... I get tired and forget to listen. Then I realize I missed something important. I've been trying harder lately and it's gotten better already. The schedule is different over here. I have the same classes every monday but I have different classes on the other days. On mondays I start school at 8:20 with Social Sciences I have that for about an hour. Then I have 2 hours of math. After the 3rd hour there is a break. it's kinda like recess but everyone just stands in the foyer and talks. Because everyone in my class is in the same level in everything the Dutch class would be way too hard for me so instead I go to the library. After math on mondays that's what I do. Then I have an hour of Science. Then it's lunch for an hour. Then I have history for an hour and English for an hour. School gets out around 3:30. Tuesdays I have Math, dutch (library), Geography, Religion, French, 2 hours of gym, and then Social Sciences. Wednesdays I have English, 2 hours of Social Sciences, Religion and French every wednesday school ends at 1:00. Thursdays I have French, library, English, Geography, History, Math, and Science. Fridays I have 2 hours of French, English, Science, Math and then normally after lunch I would have dutch but instead I get to go home after math. I have had a little bit of homework mostly in English so that's a cake walk. I also have some in Math... its actually getting easier instead of harder... :)

I've gone downtown a few times with Alyssa (another rotary student from California) and Isabelle (she's here from Australia with a different program for 4 months) They are really fun to spend time with I have enjoyed being with them a lot! I've made a lot of friends and people are trying to talk to me. I feel more welcome already :). Margaux's cousin is in my classes and she is one of my closest friends who doesn't speak a word of English. We went to her house for dinner one time. Her parents made mussels and fries. This is a specialty meal in Brussels. I liked it a lot. I was excited to taste mussels for the first time and really liked them. My host family is very grateful that I am not a picky eater. They say that I am very easy to cook for because I like anything. and will taste anything new.

I went to church once (just sacrament meeting) and really liked it I'm gonna try to be able to go more often when I can. I got invited by the Young Women's president in my ward to a fireside last week. Elder Ballard came to speak to us. It was so intense!! I loved the passion of all the people in the audience! It was so great! A lot of the things that were said felt like they were being said directly to me! It was exactly the answer to my prayers that I needed.

The rain is intense here. One day I was at school and the sky started to get gloomy. I walked outside to go home and it was sprinkling a little bit. I was walking towards the bike racks but by the time I got half way there the rain drops were the size of golf balls!!!!! It was soooo crazy!!!! It was raining way hard for about 5 minutes before I was able to see well enough to ride my bike home. Crazy thing is that the next day was really nice... almost hot.

I've gone to a couple more rotary things and I've really enjoyed making new friends :)

Saturday was AMAZING!!!!! This weekend was called "le weekend bande dessinée" which means the weekend of comic strips. Saturday night there was this huge tribute to comics in the palace plaza. all of the buildings in the plaza are white and they had a big tower in the middle projecting comics all over the place. It looked soo cool especially when it was like you were watching a movie!! The buildings really looked like they were falling over!!!! SOOO cool!!!!

Pictures coming up in the next post... :)

It's a Small World Afterall!!

Email List

Hey everyone!! Once a month I'm gonna send out an update of how things are going in my life and all the great things I've done! So if you wanna be a part of that just let me know your email!!!

Everything's going great so far! I went swimming today. It felt really good to work out again. haha it's been a while. School starts tomorrow so I'll have more information on that soon.

It's a small world afterall!!