Better Late than Never, Right?

I am terrible at blogging. I've been writing in my journal, so that must count for something.

Well, as of today, I've been living in Belgium for nine months.

NINE MONTHS.

I'm now on six weeks-ish with my third host family, and I absolutely adore them.

I actually had problems with getting a third host family; the family I was supposed to be staying with had some medical problems in the family, and it would have been too stressful for me to go stay there. So, a week before I left for Italy, my counselor found the family I'm with now, and I couldn't be happier living here.

This is me with my host mom, Farrah, host sister Victoria, and my host dad Eric. I also have a host brother, Richard, but he left before this picture was taken.

Tonight is the exchange student talent show, and I'm going with my host dad. I'm not performing . . . just watching :) Tomorrow we're going to Bruges and to the Belgian coast . . . let's hope for some good weather! Belgium doesn't seem to know that it's May, not January. Silly Belgium.

Tantôt,

Alyce

Snow in Belgium.

There's a minor blizzard going outside right now, and I've been at home for the past two days as to not get my other classmates sick with my cold.

I woke up this morning to the news of my sister's engagement, and I'm so excited and happy for Anna and Thane! I talked to her a few hours later, and it was wonderful to hear her tell me about how it had happened.

So. Yes. I haven't been up to much.

This post is rather pointless. Oh well.

xx,

Alyce

Happy Birthday to meeee :)

It's my birthday! Nineteen! I'm old! Only three hundred and sixty four days left of being a teenager, and that just hit me right as I was typing. Wow. I won't be a teenager in 364 days. How . . . eugh.

Anyway, my day has been wonderful. I just felt like talking about my birthday from last year and then my birthday from this year. Yay :)

2009:

I got ready to go to school, and in my car is a balloon from Brenna with a number "1" written on it, and throughout the day, I was given more and more balloons that contained confetti, a picture, and in total four rings and eighteen candles.

I went and ate at Panda (I think it was Panda, anyway. I'm sure I chose Panda. I love Panda. Someone should send me some.) and then I went and got sung to in chorale, got more balloons, and then when I went home I got a text message about there being a live MuggleCast that night, and my mother is fully aware of how obsessed I am with the MuggleCasters - it's a Harry Potter podcast that I listen to religiously - and I was very excited. In the meantime Brenna came over with the last of the balloons and brought me my favorite tea from Starbucks, and after she left I unsuccessfully tried to get the MuggleCast hosts to sing "Happy Birthday" to me, and they acknowledged that all the people in the MuggleSpace chat wanted Ben to sing, but they didn't know why, and he later started beginning to sing Happy Birthday but never finished the song. Alas.

Then my family and I all went out to the Hideaway, the best pizza place on Earth, and I saw our chorale's amazing accompanist Judy Mitchell who shares the same birthday as me, and that was great. After dinner, I rejoined Brenna and we went and saw "Bride Wars", listening to Spring Awakening and New Artica on the way to and from the theater and it was just a great day. The next day I had a "party" and all of my friends came over for presents, cake, Apples to Apples and we watched "Pineapple Express" and I think another movie, but I don't remember which one.

It was all just splendid :)

2010:

Yesterday, I went to school, and because of the mighty power that is Facebook, most of my classmates knew it was my birthday the next day. I was just standing next to Pauline and Kelly and Pauline was like "it's her birthday tomorrow", and I really wasn't expecting anyone to know about it, but facebook is facebook hahaha. So, throughout the day my classmates tell me "Happy Birthday", and once, Adrian said it to me, and Florence kind of yelled at him "NON C'EST DEMAIN!", to which he replied that he knew it was tomorrow, but saying it face-to-face was more special :)

I raced to the bus after school so I could get my package from mom before the post office closed - and when I say race, I mean RACED. School gets out at 4:15, the bus leaves at 4:19, and the next one is at 4:38. Our gym teacher let us out early, at 4:09, and the bus got there at 4:17, so I booked it. I never book it, but I wanted that package THEN, dang it!! So, I get home and we go to the post office to get it, and then Hélène wanted me to open it as soon as we walked inside, which I did, and it was full of just wonderful things, including a singing card - my third in a row :) Later that night I went to Rotary, where I met the new exchange student at our club; he's from Thailand and doesn't speak much French at all, and speaks little to none English, so it was difficult to communicate, but he was really nice. We're supposed to say what we've been up to since the last time we attended a Rotary meeting, and so I told them about Paris, Sweden, New Year's and my new host family, and then they were like "is that all?" and I said "Well, tomorrow is my birthday" and they all laughed and said I was getting old. When it came time for desert, the owner of the restaurant came out with mine and he had placed a big sparkler in my desert, and hearing the noise freaked me out hardcore, and then everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me, which was just really nice. It was a good meeting.

This morning, I woke up and watched "The Office", and then went downstairs and watched Nickelodeon in French with my two host sisters, and then my host mom made us crepes for brunch. Then I braided Hélène's hair, and we watched "UP!" in French, then Charlotte came downstairs and we watched some ice skating, too. Then, my Aunt Patricia from my first host family came over and surprised me with chocolate along with my two host cousins who I haven't seen since Christmas. They're so adorable. Tatyana and Ethan played with Hélène very well, and then we ate cake, and all three of them helped me blow out my candles. I'm pleased to inform you that with our forces combined we blew them all out in one go. They left a while later, and then my first host mom came over with my present and we all sat around and talked for a while, and she told me about how anytime Tatyana comes to the house, she'll always go up the stairs, and when they ask her why, she'll say she's going to say hello to me. They explain that I've moved, and she doesn't understand what's going on, and I guess one time she even started crying because she wanted to play with me and I wasn't there. I'm going over to their house for Ethan's birthday, though, and that will be fun.

I was able to Skype with a bunch of people tonight, which was great, and also got a lot of birthday wishes on my facebook. Oufti :)

I had a great day, and cannot wait to celebrate my twentieth next year in Kansas!

Love to you all,

Alyce

Hello!

Almost a month since I last posted. ANYWAY :)
I just wanted to share a fun little story that happened today.

So today, this woman came into my class to talk to certain students about absences, and she was talking really fast to me and I tried so hard to understand what she was saying, but I couldn't at all. Pretty much the entire class got quiet to listen to her talk to me, and then when she walked away, Quentin, who was sitting next to me, asked me if I understood it, and usually in instances like this, the part of my brain that knows French shuts off completely, so I responded in a resounding "No." Not "noN", I said "no" with the most American "o" I have within myself, and then everyone who was listening (it was mainly just all of the girls and then the three boys sitting next to me) all just started laughing. Then Quentin explained to me what the woman said slow enough for me to understand it. Good times, good times.

I've progressed to the point in French where I understand everything that's said if I'm paying attention, but my responses aren't very interesting. I'm just such a grammar freak and I don't want to mess up, but I know that that is part of the learning process. I'm also getting along really well with my classmates now, which is good, and am attempting to do the homework we're given.

I have also changed families since I last updated, and I like them so much. They're very kind and we get along magically. (I just really wanted to say magically.)

Alright, well, I'll give a more detailed update on this past month probably next week.
Love always,
Alyce

JOYEUX NOEL!!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!!! I love you all so so so much, and I can't wait to see everyone in six months!

Tonight we're celebrating with my host dad's family, and tomorrow we'll be with my host mom's family, so it'll be a little crazy, and then I'm moving on either Saturday or Sunday and I'm not anywhere near close to being done packing, so that will be an adventure within itself :)

I *did* promise pictures from Paris, so I'll just put some of those down there. We were lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, we walked a LOT) to get a lot of snow while we were there, so we were always very bundled up. I'm hoping to get back there before my exchange is over, there's so much more to see that I didn't get to, and I want to explore the Louvre properly and throughly, and I also want to go to Disneyland Paris. Who doesn't love some Disneyland?

To see all of these pictures in high-res, go to my Flickr page, the link should be on the side of this page.

My host sisters, Valériane and Valentine in front of the Eiffel Tower.

A blurry Eiffel Tower at night. I've been obsessed with blurring pictures of lights lately. Please forgive me :)

Me and Valentine in front of Notre Dame and their lovely Christmas tree :) We went on a Sunday and got to see the last part of their Mass, it was so cool.

Yes, I am obsessed with taking pictures of my feet wherever I go, too. But this one's actually cool, the star I'm standing on marks the geographical center of Paris.

View of the Champs Elysées from the top of the L'Arc du Triomph. I don't do too well with heights.

The entrance to The Louvre. Did you know there's also a STARBUCKS and an APPLE STORE in the Louvre?! That place is seriously heaven.

Stained glass windows in Notre Dame. I love the stars on the ceiling.

This was in some department store that I can't remember the name of.

Please go check out the rest on my Flickr! It's under the set "Paris", of course :)

Also, I apologize for not sending out the package like I said I would. I'll send it when I'm with my next host family. IT WILL GET TO YOU EVENTUALLY, I promise.

Love ALWAYS and Merry Christmas, everyone!!

- Alyce

I'll be going to Paris tomorrow with my host family.

Hey, mom, do you remember a thirteen year old Alyce who sat crying in your old blue van because I didn't think I would ever go to Paris again? Hahahah. Oh, memories.

I'm sending a package out to my family when I get back on Monday, and hopefully on Tuesday I'll go see Avatar, and then Wednesday is my French test with Rotary. Wish me luck!!

I'll update this when I get back with a ton of pictures!

xx,

Alyce

Whoops . . .

I do believe I have mentioned that I am a terrible blogger. Sorry . . .

So, this week was great, but it would've been more amazing if I didn't wake up yesterday with a terrible cold. It's mostly gone right now (thankfully), but I still feel kind of out of breath in my chest and stuff. Hopefully that will be gone in two hours or so because I'm going to the Liège Standard game! Standard is the soccer team of Liège, and I'm really excited about it, and in an ideal world we will not be sitting in the cold and it will not rain, but it's Belgium, and of course it will.

This week was really great though. Tuesday was St. Nicholas at my school, and all of the seniors dressed up in costume and we threw candy at the underclassmen and then we all went into the gym for a big assembly thing, and that wasn't as much fun. On Wednesday we went to Germany with Rotary, and we found a Starbucks :) We were there for a Christmas market, but Starbucks was the priority, for sure.

Well, I don't really know what else to say right now except that I am tired and have a terribly stuffed up nose and just want to curl into my sock drawer and sleep for days. Or, maybe that nice, triangle pillow from home. I miss that pillow. It would make life so much easier right now. I tried improvising one by placing a bunch of jackets and cardigans on top of each other and sleeping on that, and it seemed to work, but it's not the same.

Love always,

Alyce