This last month has a whirlwind of nonstop moving around. I get baffled and tired just thinking about it. I am in my second family who live in a chalet out in the “boons”. Now of course this is what Belgians consider “boons” to be. Though admittedly it is just a small collection of houses, no real communal structures, it is only three kilometres north of Malmedy, a fairly good sized town where most my friends live. So of course when I quite nonchalantly said “well I can just walk into town”, they all gave me this look saying, calm down there mister “I’m a super Canadian”. The concept of walking three kilometres, which honestly is not that much, was just not getting grasped. All being said though, I haven’t actually done that walk yet. The reason that I have once again landed a phenomenal family! It is a single mother of two (one in university the other in Idaho) with her boyfriend. Both are huge believers in making the most of life, and therefore are willing to drive me just about anywhere. Unfortunately that means they are very often busy, especially because the mother is a nurse and therefore has some sporadic hours. Thus why I’m so thankful for my third host family, who let’s me come whenever I want. In fact I’m with my third host family so often it’s almost half and half now. So I am quickly becoming a champion of quick and small one night packing.
Now onto the actual doings of this month. First and foremost, MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am now seventeen! It’s still weird to read that sentence. Now seeing as my birthday was on a Sunday, and Sundays are not exactly the quintessential celebration days (especially as it was the last day of Christmas break) we celebrated the “Reveillons” of my birthday. Kind of like a New Year’s of my life. So I went into town with some friends, and we fooled around until midnight when officially celebrated the day of my birth. It was great fun. One of friends even brought a little cupcake with a candle on it for me to blow out, seventeen times, they relit it sixteen times. It was economical! I then spent the actual day at home resting up for school the next day. My host mother baked me delicious apple pie in celebration.
School is pretty much the same. They all think I’m crazy for wearing shorts and tee-shirts to school in winter, and don’t understand how I seem to know more people in the school then they do. I’ll be going to Berlin with my grade in March! To which the only downside is we have to sell economic light bulbs to raise money. So if anyone reading this wants some economic light bulbs let me know, you’ll have to pay for shipping and I cannot guarantee their arrival, but hey, if you get them they’re more then just economic light bulbs, because they come with a story. As far as subjects go I think I have finally gotten a grasp on the math that we are doing! I’m still passing French and will be entering a contest about deep marine life in abysses with my Biology class.
Rotary has been pretty quiet with me, but considering the amount of people that might be being sent home that’s probably a good thing. On a brighter note I have a newie! So, in case I haven’t explained this already or you’ve simply forgotten, in the Belgian Rotary exchange system there are two streams of students. The August-July students, and the February-January students. So they took this system and used it to their advantage by creating the newie, oldie system. So when I arrived there was already a large group of students that had been here since February. One of these students, (a certain FANTASTIC Diana Nixon) was my oldie. So she was part of my club, and was responsible for helping me get settled and make friends. She did an amazing job of it too! So now that she has gone and a new batch of students have come in, I am now an oldie, to a Maddy Lovelle. Though I doubt I will be able to reach the standard that Diana achieved, I will do my best to help her.
Sports have just been getting better and better. My soccer is starting to win. And by a lot! I myself have put in three goals! (and one beautiful cross in assist) We actually won a game 9-1 the other day! Granted the other team only had nine players, but nonetheless! It was great. I have also started to run with my host father. This region is perfect for it too. The rolling Ardennes, make a beautiful surrounding for a long distance run. I’m also going to be looking into starting some Track and Field.
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