christmas :)

Wooh, so. where do i begin??
OK well i'll start from where i left off. On the 23rd (the evening) i went and watched Ter and Shan do their christmas concert for school. it was so good!! :) Also that night we can just say that my host father said some things about me and to me that made me happy again that i was leaving the next day :) also that made me cry, but that's all good! it was dark haha.
On the 24th i woke up in the morning to find it had snowed like 30cm overnight (no exaggeration). first thought that came to my mind = shit. haha at first we thought we couldn't get out of the house but then realised we could. so we went to school to get the reports. before we left i gave my host mum a letter explaining all my feelings etc, i could tell it meant a lot to her (she said it was so beautifully written and the best present i could have given her) and she cried a little with me :) At school when i got my report and saw i'd passed everything (woohoo!) my host mum told me she was so proud of me :) my host dad said to me "well at least you've succeeded at something." i had nothing to say to this so kept my mouth shut, thus he repeated it to make sure i understood. lovely :) We then met with the family i would (and am) staying with for one week. and thus the changeover began!!
On the way to my new house i learnt a few things: that we'd probably be having a christmas party that night, that the wind had made the snow 1m in some places, and that the three youngest kids in the family are deaf (but have hearing aides etc). I felt immediately at ease with this family, it was really nice :) At the christmas party we had some of the family over. we opened the presents (i got three from my family :) ) and then tucked into the feast haha. it was really different, the mum had made lots of different little appetizer things in cool shotglasses and they were so fancy and cool!! :) i really enjoyed also how the whole house is decorated for christmas :) We all hang out as a family, or just us kids and we eat or we play board games or we watch a movie or something, and it's really cool :) today we went for a walk in the snow and went on the luge, then we came home and made a tintin snowman :)
Also mum and dad and em and nana rang on christmas day, and it was super cool talking to them :) So   yeah.. i'm looking forward for whats to come!! and i'm feeling so relieved and lighter in spirit now :)

:)

Ok, so my life has been sorted out for at least the next two weeks! (thank God..)
Tomorrow i am going to school in the morning to collect my report, then i am meeting the family that i will spend the first week of the holidays with there, and going home with them! phew! haha. They're a family who have a son in Holland on AFS who knows Abbey from Columba. so she hooked me up and he called his family and they were all for it!! Then for the second week i am going to stay with the family nanny, Jackie, who is super nice :) By then, hopefully, AFS will have found me a new family for the next 6 months! It all sorta happened really fast, but i feel like i made the right decision. i don't want to have regrets about my exchange, i don't want to be wishing that i'd spoken up. after all, i'm here for me, so i don't think i should be spending my time pretending to be happy when i'm not...
Last night i felt almost a littl sad to be going. Everyone is kinda making an effort before i go, and it's actually really nice! I especially feel bad for my host mum, because she feels like she's failed me and is actually really sad to see me go. but i can't stay just for her.. I do hope that i see them again, because i do still care about them! So yeah.. i'm alittle mixed with emotions at the moment. a little sad for leaving, and for being a little alone at christmas (although i think i'll have fun :p) and happy to have made such a big choice for myself, i feel a little grown-up! haha. also anxious as to how this next wee slot of time will all turn out.. whether i'll fit in all well etc :) and also relieved to have found somewhere to stay over the holidays. i really don't know what to expect, but i'l sure it'll be exciting :) at least i know i have a home haha. one feeling i know i'll have over the holidays is cold! It's been snowing constantly... and its pretty and all, just... not all that convenient.. haha but that's all part of the experience!!
I was telling a girl from school about me changing family and she got all sad saying "aww, but you'll no longer be at school with us!!" it made me feel really good that she'd miss me :) haha. it's good to know i'm not alone here. that i have friends and .. yeah.. i dunno, it's just nice :)
So yeah.. interesting times lie ahead... and i'll just have to wait and see how they turn out :) :)

hooooommeless :) :)

SOoo.. i am currently searching for a home over christmas (As nicole suggested i should go to the railway station and pretend that i'm Paddington Bear). Seeing as my family is leaving the 24th, i'm stuck in that awkward situation of finding somewhere to stay for the holidays toute de suite!! Obviously AFS won't leave me on the street, but i'd rather be with someone i know at christmas than a random volunteer...
I've been trying to hint to friends to take me in, and sometimes not so subtlely, but to no avail... I went to brussels today to meet with someone at the AFS office, and we talked about my options.. there's the possibility that the family nanny can take me for the first week, we just need her to say yes (fingers crossed!!) and i will be seeing her tomorrow, so hopefully we get that sorted out (unless she says no, that'd suck..). Now i'm searching for the second week. Abbey (from Columba) had said she's ask her family if perhaps i can go stay with her in holland, i'd love that! but i need to know now haha because a) i'm almost homeless and b) they have to send a permission slip to my mum and dad in NZ. sooo... it's kinda rushy. this all means that i'm super super stressed, and easily prone to tears! haha (i made the mistake of wearing eye makeup today ... :p) but i'll keep ya'll updated!
Today in Brussels this little boy came up to me and was shaking his money cup at me. i tried and tried to ignore him. he eventually left, but the second time i saw him i gave in (by now i have a slight feeling of what it's like to be homeless. even if he's just gonna give the money to a druggie, at least he'll get brownie points for it) so i emptied out all my coins (about 23 cents) and gave it to him, he was thrilled! but then his companion came along. i had to say no, i had no more! and i felt less guilty cause i knew they were working together. later in the day the first boy came up to me again (i think he didn't realise it was me at first) but i just laughed and shook my head, he understood and moved on nicely :)
Ok. so tomorrow, hopefully i'll have my life sorted out slightly... but... no promises :p

so this week has been a biiiggie ..

Soo.. this week brought around the end of exams.. don't know how well they went but we shall see...!
On thursday i went with some of the girls from my class to Brussels. We looked arounf the Christmas market (so cool) and at the big christmas tree in the Grand Place. We were going to go ice skating.. but it was raining and we didn't much like the thought of falling on soaking ice.. so we went and drank hot chocolat instead. :) After we did a spot of shopping and had a wee munch of Quick. It then started snoooowwing :) So we decided instead of drinking in Brussels we'd buy a bit of alcohol to take back home :) it was very exciting. we drank and ate chips in front of a woodstock video :)
on Friday i went to see harry potter (finally) and it was A W E S O M E. but not long enough!!
On saturday. . . some AFS people and my counsellor came over to our house so we could all 'talk'. It was a little awkward. but basically both my family and I are not so happy with the way things are with each other and.. it's just not really working out.. Thus I am changing family. However, this poses the question as to what I am doing over Christmas... i'm currently a little homeless. AFS is  trying to find someone.. and have asked me to ask friends, but that's a little difficult to do.. people already have plans and.. yeah. but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime i'm just hanging out with the family.. it's a little awkward now, but at least it won't last long :) i'll keep you all updated on that..
It snowed majorly the past day, at least 15cm i'd say, it's insane !! but so pretty :)

exams

this week on monday morning i had my english exam. it was ok, but kinda annoying how i had to write half of it in french. hopefully that doesn't mean i end up with an embarrassing result!
hmmm... we haven't really had more snow, and on thursday it stated to rain meaning that it's byebye to most of the snow for now :( but winter hasn't even started yet (it starts the 21st Dec) so we have a loooong time for snow just yet :)
hmmm my week has been average really, studying for exams :) - although i got a free coffee. a lady ordered wrong so they gave it to me :) aaand... i sent a few christmas cards too, still a couple to send though. also .... hmm... on friday i did a little christmas shopping,; so that's sorted :) although i forgot to get something to wrap it in... :p
Next week i'm on holiday on wednesday afternoon, so i might try to go see the christmas market in brussels, and perhaps another town in belgium, who knows? should be fun :) :) and i'll see who else in my class is keen too :)
I'm terribly sorry, this post is fairly dull - my mind has turned to slosh after all my studying, but i'll try to make the next one a little bit mmore fiery :)

salut snow :)

well now... this week has been fairly cold! i can tell you that! On monday evening it started snowing :) it was super exciting. Then it pretty much continued to snow the rest of the week. This means that it's very dangerous walking outside during the breaks at school. not only because you risk both embarrassment and death from slipping  over, but also because there seems to be a constant snowball war. they appear from nowhere!!
On thursday i had my first exam, science. It went pretty well i think, i was only unsure about one question, seeing as we hadn't convered it in class. Luckily i didn't choose to do the science exam so i had a bit of free time :)
On friday some of the girls from my class and i went luging in the snow! it was excellent fun! although i think my technique needs a little work cause i ended up covered in snow from head to toe!! took a while for my jeans to dry off... haha. That evening i went home with a girl from school (who's mum happens to be my english teacher - but we only spoke french!) They have six children. SIX! but the family is really nice. they play board games and sing st nicolas carols in front all the fire, and all things good :) :) On saturday we took the donkey for a walk in the snow (it was more of a snowstorm really), then on the way back, St Nicolas appeared!he came home with us and gave us all speculoos and mandarins. it was magical!! :) :).
So yeah, christmas is coming, and its snowing! crazy crazy crazy... :)
anyway.. that'ss allll really, so salut!!
xox