Yesterday afternoon I walked to the bus station to pick up my friend Yu-Chi, and exchange student from Taiwan. We walked to my friend Michelle's house, where Sharon, an exchange student from Ecuador, met us. Michelle's host mom drove us first to Jordann's house, where we picked her up, and then to another exchange student's house, Giulia. Giulia is also from the U.S., and she invited us and a couple of other students to her house to cook and eat Thanksgiving dinner! The four Americans got cooking around 6 PM, and two roast beefs (Turkey isn't very popular until Christmas here), no-recipe chocolate mousse berry tarte, and everything else (including pumpkin pie :) ) later, we were sitting around a Thanksgiving table in a house that had never celebrated it before, with 7 people who had never eaten pumpkin pie. We went around the table and said grace in our native language (there was French, English, Spanish, Hungarian, and Chinese), and we dug into the delicious meal!
It was a truly wonderful night, and one of the most memorable Thanksgiving's I will ever have.
Pictures coming I hope!
I'm pretty sure that the worst of the homesickness is over, and part of this came about with the realization that this is actually my last month with my first host family. I'm feeling like I really want to savor it now, even while feeling a bit stir-crazy.
I had a fantastic day at school today. One of the problems that I have encountered is the fact that for my current lunch buds (who are all amazing and wonderful friends) outside+cold+standing+sandwiches= lunch. I love talking to my friends, but I had started to not look very forward to lunch because of the hour of standing and feeling cold. Today it was about 38 degrees (fahrenheit) and raining, so lunch hour was really sounding unappealing at this point. But then one of my friends had the lovely idea of going to his house to eat. We walked about 5 minutes to his warm, cozy house where we proceeded to eat lunch and have an abba dance party. My teachers for the rest of the afternoon weren't there so I had an 45 minutes of study and then got to go home early! (In Europe they don't have substitute teachers-if the teacher isn't there in the morning you have study hall, and if they're not there for your last period you get to go home early! It's a wonderful system). It was a lovely day! :)
So while I'm still not feeling nearly as great as I had been a couple of weeks ago, it's not quite as intense anymore. I feel a bit as if I've fallen into the feelings that I had in late August: not feeling the need to cry all the time, wanting to feel occupied, and ups and downs (not as severe as in August however). I've talked to quite a few other exchange students and most of them have felt this change in the past week or two as well, so I know that it's a stage that I will just have to ride out and deal with.
But while at the moment on the inside I'm a bit melancholy, there are a lot of exciting things (well, not all of them are necessarily exciting) that are to happen in the next month. The first is the Thanksgiving celebration with other exchange students. This Friday 7 or 8 of us are having dinner at another exchange student's house, I think it will be awesome. The next Friday my exams (ahhh!) start. While that's not exactly a nice thing to look forward to, it will take energy and time to study, therefore making me busier :) My exams end the 17th of December, and that Sunday my family and I are going to a "Marché de Noël" (Christmas market) in Germany! Those markets are famous in Europe, especially Germany and France, so I am super excited for that!!!
For about a week, though I've had some amazing experiences just in this weekend alone, I've been starting to feel a bit... strange. As if the rapid excitement that I felt all of October and the beginning of November was going away, a bit of homesickness, and some moments of feeling down. Some things that I haven't felt since August. Today it was really annoying me that I'd been here for 3 months and feeling a bit like this. I decided to investigate "The Exchange Student Survival Kit" (a book that was given to the exchange students). Little did I know that feeling this way is actually part of the process - and I'm right on time. The book talks about the ups and downs of settling during the year, starting with the extreme ups and downs that most students feel in the beginning, to the high that usually comes after school has started and we've truly begun to settle in, and then to the culture shock that normally shows itself around the 3rd or 4th month. Earlier this year I thought I would skip over this step, because I didn't feel shocked by the culture! (As I would assume someone from the U.S. in China or India would). Because while there are lots of differences here, they were never the sorts of differences that I thought would affect me greatly, or cause any sort of culture shock (especially after the first month!). But the book was talking about how it's not necessarily one particular habit, or a huge difference in food, but simply the overall experience beginning to truly sink in. Things aren't as new and exciting, and it's when the realization that I am actually living here, doing school, having obligations, balancing time (just like I did in the U.S.) surfaces. While I'm still feeling a bit down, it makes me feel so much better to know that this is a normal thing. I talked to the exchange student from Taiwan tonight and she said that she's feeling the exact same thing!
This weekend I was invited by a friend from school to go to her grandmother's apartment in Ostende with her family. It felt so great to be invited to do something like that by a classmate! Even just being asked brightened up my day so much. It was really fun too, Friday we went to Bruges for a day (just me, Judith, and her brother Félix). Bruges is absolutely beautiful, and I have lots of pictures but they were lost!! If I figure out a way to get them back I will put them up. I still have some of Ostende though. Friday night we took the train to Ostende (only about 15 minutes) and walked to the apartment. There, we ate, talked, and watched "Madame Doubtfire", which was awesome!! I loved hearing French when Robin Williams spoke... so funny. I could actually understand it too, which doubled the pleasure.
Judith and I slept in the same room, and when we were about to go to sleep I got out a magazine to look at, but then we started talking. We talked about the day, boys, school, friends, everything normal to talk about during a sleepover, but all in French! It felt both extraordinary and completely normal to be doing that-but most of all it made me feel like I was on top of the world.
That morning we went to a modern art museum - and nope, it's not more interesting in Belgium. We spent the day in Ostende walking around, going to the beach, and riding in a go-cart! They're super popular in the north by the ocean, and really fun to ride in! I think I have a picture from the first time I went to the sea here (somewhere in August). That night we played a game, watched Kung-Fu Panda (also great in French!!), ate spaghetti, and then headed home. In the car I taught them the song "you are my sunshine" which everyone loved! It was a fabulous weekend, and I feel like I've made some great new friends! :)
The beach in Ostende at sunset :)
Judith and I
Félix, Judith's brother, walking on the rocks
Every once in a while one has an experience where words simply don't suffice. These three (almost four) days in Paris were one of those experiences. I went with Jordann, Michelle, and another exchange student (not rotary) Jacob, who is from Australia. We stayed in a little hostel called Aloha, did everything we wanted to do and more, saw so many aspects of Paris, and did so much is so little time without feeling rushed. We didn't go with Rotary because there wasn't any room in the trip when I went to sign up, but now I wouldn't want it any other way. We had no itinerary, just a list of what we wanted to do. So many of the fun experiences came from mistakes and spontaneity, it was CHEAP, I didn't feel like I missed out on anything, and I feel as if I have a new family.
So here's a little poem I wrote about it:
We’re not going there, we’re here Are the words that launched
My realization,
That I am living my dream
That I am a part of his and hers,
That I can step of the path
To eat where beggars eat,
To fall in love with three,
To let the lights and gargoyles seep into my limbs until I am transparent to them,
Until I am the bread on the cobblestones and the rose floating down the river,
Quand je peux voir la ville par les yeux français aussi,
When a day could be formed from my laughter,
When a year could be formed from ours.
I’m not sure what home is anymore,
But I’m beginning to think that we all have many.
I just found one.
There are a bit to many photos to put on my blog, but I have lots on facebook! Videos are coming soon too :)