So on friday I went home with Eliza (the girl from Latvia) because there was a music festival in her village. We went to it :) It was pretty cool. there were two stages, and the bands switched between them. there were some stalls too, mostly selling beer and food! I had a couple of beers (i am in belgium, after all!) one was a blanche, and the other a kriek - which is cherry flavoured, it was yummy :p We saw a lot of our classmates there, and it was good cause we got to talk to them a bit more. and Eliza was helping out making the pasta, so while she did that, I got to hand out with them :) We got home at 3am, and I was veerry tired the next day!!
It had started raining a little friday night, and its been pretty steady ever since! I kinda like it though, its... homey-feeling :)
Last night we had guests over, so we had another feast :) mmmm and for dessert we had this like rasberry mousse-cake thing. it was delicious.
Now for some things  i've been noticing:

• firstly, I have started to occasionally think in french. i start thinking something.. and the words just happen to be in french. and then i realise when i cant think of the word i want and i'm like wait! i can think in english if i want! I think i had already started dreaming in french.. but i can't be sure..
• i've also noticed something about the way people drive here. first of all, you are always a perfect driver, and everything is somebody else's fault. secondly, the curb is not the edge of the road, nor is the footpath. you can use them to drive on if you want :) The speed limit is the slowest you should be going. if you go faster, you will get beeped at and abused. if you go faster, you will be doing the beeping and yelling. And i have noticed some people feel that traffic lights are more of a guidance than a rule..
• However, i must say that i think people in belgium are very friendly :) they are not up themselves, nor like too proud. they are humble, and mostly willing to chat and whatnot. it's nice :)

hmmm.. soo, i feel thats a good enough update for now :) On monday i have a day off school, as it's the french belgian celebration! so i get to sleeeeep :) (as i am always tired, especially after a music festival)

it's been a while..

So.. i haven't really written anything for a while.. but nothing too exciting has happened.

I've been going to school - it's pretty good, gives me things to do during the day. and people talk to me more and more.. although still not heaps! but its good :) I understand.. most (ish) of what we do in class. although i'm hopeless in history and french, and maths is kinda hard!! but i figure, if i don't do very well, it's not exactly the end of the world...
A big thing at school has been organising the school trip away at easter (next year). Students can choose to go to Morocco, Syria, Portugal or Prague - but there is a limited amount of places for each! and not everyone would get to go. I chose morocco (cause its looks awesome!) but it turns out there was one too many wanting to go there. The vice-principal told me that seeing as I am the new kid, i couldn't go. BUT she said i can go to portugal if i want. or not at all. So i chose to go to portugal. It would have been my second option anyway!! So now i'm going to portugal at Easter.
This past weekend has been like a celebration of french-belgium. my family and i went to see some music (all in english, and lots of it very popular). it was pretty cool :) And this weekend I am going to a music festival in one of the villages near mine - i think it should be pretty good!
hmmmm.. emily sent me a package for my birthday :) it was a box of goodies from nz :p - i must say, they're all gone now (although i did share with my family!!)
hmmm... i dunno if theres anything else super exciting right now, sooo BYE!! :) :)

Birthday in Belgium

So today I woke up and realised, "Hello, I'm 18 now." It was rather exciting.
I had a date planned with my parents over skype, so i snuck upstairs and stole the computer. It was good talking to them. but strange too. It's strange to think that i won't really see them for like.. 10months? hmmm yes, strange. I also talked to jas, and met the fish!! It was exciting :) They are very very cool :) I felt sooo loved with all my birthday wishes, like heck yes, go me! Haha.
Then, shortly after I had finished, Shanel crept into my room and gave me a birthday card!! It was very cute, with "Happy Birthday Harriet" on the front and 18 candles, and an acrostic poem inside :) Then the rest of the family came home and said we were going out for lunch, and that we were going to a restaurant to eat meat!! (Because, I am from NZ and I like meat :p) - It was very thoughtful!
Before the meals came; Shanel gave me a little present, it's a wee soft toy dog, very cute!! (It has a little ribbon collar that says "I love you").
For a starter, my host mum had escargot, and she let me try it (my first experience!!) It really wasn't that bad.. a little strange to think what it was.. but it was just kinda like meat i guess.. My host father had the craziest starter though, it was bone marrow!! (Shanel wanted to know if it was human..)
We all had a big steak, it was yum yum yum. But we had to rush home because the boys had a drum lesson and we were going to be late!! But they said we would buy a tart, as we didn't get dessert :)
It was a very pleasing birthday :)

(I hope there was better punctuation for you, Dad :p)

Sooo.. the last week

Lots has happened since i last posted anything...
Firstly I went to paris for the weekend. casually. we stayed with family in the suburbs, and went in to the centre a little, but more for a drive-by. it was all good with me seeing as i've been before. On the saturday night we went to see Fame at the theatre. it was good! even in french!
I also had my first week of schoo. it's not too bad really.. i just copy things down in class, and the teachers don't really mind that I'm not really trying. to them, i don't have to succeed this year, so they don't have to worry about me! I got a shock the other day though, when in english (which i usually find fairly easy) we had to answer questions in french!! it was outrageous! And, i used to think calculus was fairly difficult in NZ. It's nothing compared to trying to learn it in french!!
Today we had another AFS excursion to brussels. we went to a chocolaterie and a brasserie!! yum yum yum. so we got to tast true belgian chocolate and beer.
However... Eliza has given me a cold! friday i came home after school and went straight to bed. i kept waking up totally confused as to where i was.. but it was goood to get some sleep :) I get very tired trying to understand french all the time!
hmmm.. that's really all the's been exciting this week. so i guess that'll do!

School

Soo.. today i had my second day of school. yesterday i went for like an hour and a half in the afternoon. Everyone in my year were herded into the gym thing and then blah blah blah (french) then suddenly me and Eliza (AFS from Latvia) were up the front introducing ourselves!! then.. we were put into classes and sent on  our way. my french teacher is this big fat man who constantly has to wipe the sweat and spit from his face. he smells lovely too.
This morning we had french. i drew a picture lol. we had to copy down stuff from the board, but i don't see how i should do that when i can't even read the words let alone understand them. i think in the end we were told we were going to read and write about french literature. i may just have to play the "i'm foreign" card for that.. then i was supposed to have social sciences, but nobody knew where i was to go. this was a little stressful. i ended up just wandering around a little lost until a lovely girl came up and found someone who could help me!! after like 40mins of researching, they realised i had a bit of a clash, and wouldn't be doing social scences after all. They gave me my timetable (phew!) and sent me on my way. so in the end I only had three classes that day (and four studies) - i think i'm going to like fridays!!
So my classes today were french, maths (we did simple derivatives a super hard and confusing way!) and english - which i must say could be my best subject so far!! :) We're learning about USA, but at least all the words are ... english! :p
LUNCH: So i went and got a croissant, mini baguette and pringles (for in the baguette of course!). then later i got a rasberry sorbet. yum yum yum!!!
Anyways.. i'm casually off to Paris this afternoon for the weekend, so see ya after then!! (yes, i realise i won't actually see you, but you get my drift).

Harry Potter

So last night we went out to dinner because Loan came home. he seems nice :) but anyway.. the restaurant is called Cafe de la Poster, so it has all these letters on the wall.
I swear that one of them was a letter from hogwarts!
Although, yes, I am fairly blind and it was a short distance away.. it was like parchment paper with a red was stamp! thus, my only possible conclusion could be that it was indeed a letter from hogwarts. thus crushing my dreams by confirming i am in fact, not a wizard, and hogwarts do not want me. but that's ok, i can be a Shaman.
I'm starting school today. i've been telling people i'm excited and nervous. i haven't been telling people i'm 2% excited 100000% nervous. lol.

But we'll see how it goes... :) :)