'Where's my Paulo?'

Omg where do I even start writing about such as amazing trip?


        Considering I'm my mother's daughter, I'll start with the food(in true bradbury fashion). So when you think of Italy, you imagine pizza, pasta, gelato, and nutella, and that is what I got! :) Three course lunches, 3 sometimes 4 course dinners, starting with pasta, a main dish(potatoes&meat) and finally finishing with dessert. Through most of our meals were eaten at our hotels, resulting in lots of night we left the table after only the pasta course so we wouldn't have to sit through instant mashed potatoes or smelly fish. Just on a side note; Italian's don't eat vegetables!!! The only time my body enjoyed a vegetable on that 11 day trip was the tomato's in the pasta sauce... Defiantly not my 8-10 recommended  a day. My proudest food moment of the trip had to be my rule of Gelato at least once a day! :). Another highlight was the eggplant pasta we had one day; you see I have a new found love for eggplant, and even made eggplant and tomato casserole for a couple of friends I had over for lunch after my trip to Italy. 


      As much as it felt like I spent my whole time in Italy eating, I was actually there to learn, to see the sights, and be a tourist...Which I did only to realize I don't actually like getting cattle called through thousands of other tourist, camera strapped around my neck and the least stylist but most comfy walking shoes, ruining my outfits. As much as I like to say I hate being a tourist, I was totally excited to see all the sights. Vatican city was beautiful, and even thought others wouldn't count it, I'm adding it to my Country Count list! :) 
The Colosseum was way cooler in person then it is in my textbooks back home, It was ginormous and you could tell it was super old!
 Thanks to the 16th Chapel and the Pantheon I have now seen the 1st and 2nd largest unsupported dome roofs in the world (<--yeah i'm kinda  geek!) which by the way is much more impressive then it sounds...


Ever since I went to Naomi's 8th birthday and we went and saw 'Lizzie McGuire The Movie', I have been obsessed with everywhere they go, so well I was packing for Italy I went on iTunes(thanks parents for all the gift cards) and rented the Lizzie McGuire movie so I would be all fresh on the sights of Rome.
Basically the point of all that background knowledge is that  1. When I saw the Trevi Fountain I almost peed my paints in excitement. 2. I sat in front of the fountain, eating my gelato and looking cute hopeing to find my Paulo, unfortunaely I didn't find him this time. But that just gives me another reason to go back! :) 3. Well I was looking for my Paulo, some Mexican girls who were on the trip with me started singing 'What dreams are made of' from the movie which just made things a billion times cooler.


The 11 days of this trip were so jammed packed I barely had time to sleep, and because of that, they all went by so fast that everything we did kinda of just got all jumbled together so I think the easiest way to tell ya'll what we did each day.


Day 1- Bus ride through Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland all the way to Rome, Italy. 24 hours with a bus full of grino(a)'s! :)
Day 2- Vactican City, by day, relaxation and sleep by night.
Day 3- Colosseum & walking tour of Rome by day, adventure with Italian teenagers we met in the street by night.
Day 4- Ancient port of Ostie and Abbay de Monte Cassino.
Day 5- Lemon Cello shopping in Sorrento, tour along the Amalfitain coast.
Day 6- Most Beautiful Boat tour ever around the island of Capri, touring & lunch in Capri and Anacapri
Day 7- Soaking wet rainny tour of Pompeii (also way cooler then what you learn in the textbook) Random Fact; Pompeii had a brothel even before it was covered by the Volcano  :)
Day 8- Another super cassy awesome for our photos umbrella nedded day, well visiting Pise.
Day 9- Easter sunday; Boat ride to the island of Murano a glass blowing tour/showing and visiting the island of Burano
Day 10- Venice!!! :), btw, it reminded nothing like Bruges to me, even though everyone says Bruges is the little Venice...
Day 11- Bus ride all the way back to Belgium. 


There is just something about it that beats anything else. Traveling with students is an amazing thing, especially when half of them are latino(a)'s (always ready to party& always singing). 


Italy 2012 is an unforgettable trip, forever and always! <3

Loud, and Proud!

D.2170 exchange students singing our song while on a boat tour of the Port of Antwerp :)

Where has all the time gone!?! 

I used to write all the time, updating ya'll on my amazing life here in Belgium, but it seems every time I start writing a new blog, I just end up getting sidetracked (thanks 9gag.com...) or just get frustrated at all the spelling mistakes due to the fact that my French is finally starting to come, which makes my English awful most of the time. But I am totally committed to finishing this blog and updating ya'll on everything there is to know! But first I have a question. Since when is the word 'everytime' not a proper word!?!
Ok, time to just jump into this! First lets start with Carnival! :)
Carnival in Belgium is nothing like the weekend adventure that comes to Rupert once a year, with it's 'quote' cool and awesome rides. No, no, no  it's a week long break from school, with parades, confetti, and men dressed up in funny costumes with even funnier hats! My carnival unfortunately did not include this...Wait unfortunately isn't the write word to be using here! I spent my carnival like this-->

Friday Night--> American Party for my friend's Birthday! :)

Saturday--> Sleep/ Movies with Tasha! :)
Sunday-->More Sleep(cause you can NEVER have enough!:))/Sleepover at Cat's
Monday-->AMSTERDAM!!!!!with Cat and her host parents!:)
Tuesday-->MORE AMSTERDAM!!!!!!!:)

Wednesday-->Brussels with Morgan and her American family

Thursday-->Maastricht with my host family! :) <3.

Friday-->Zeeland(the North Sea in Holland) with my Rotary person and her daughters! :)

Saturday-->Host brothers soccer games/Sleepover with my Brazilian friend Marina!:) <3

Sunday-->SLEEP!!!!!! :)
Crazily busy week, but so much fun! I don't think I've ever been so tired or so happy that I had absolutely nothing I had to do on Sunday then I was that week!

Next adventure was a weekish of hanging out, trying to be Belgian(<--which is a billion times harder then it looks!), a couple birthdays/sleepovers, my ever so needed french lessons and even a crazy night of salsa dancing with Latinos! :) And finally the much anticipated visit from my amazing and oh so lovely sister Ally!
Yup that right, she made it, without the 'Bradbury family flying curse' getting in the way! :) What actually happened is, she was in Paris with her university program on a field school type thinger, and just happened to have to come to Belgium to check out the world famous, and honestly best in the world chocolate world here in Brussels and then had a weekend of free time after, donc elle reste en Belgique avec moi! :) We had a great weekend together, with a night out meeting my exchange student friends, lots of laughs with my host family, and a trip to Bruges and the North Sea! :) Thanks love for coming it was so great to see you and I love you so much! <3

Me and a couple exchange students celebrated a not so celebrated holiday by Belgians in Brussels, crowed with Irish people straight from Ireland! :) So much green and so many cool accents!!! And last week was wall about trying new sports. Played tennis with my host family on Sunday, and squash and a self-defense class for 'Sports Day' with school on Monday... I now know why I play hockey and not games with racquets and balls!

Today I had a super cool adventure. Well actually it started yesterday with a 2 and a half hour train journey from Genval to another town in the south-eastern part of Belgium called Verviers, a bus ride and coming to the conclusion that as soon as you get out of a city, the rest of Belgium smells like COW! adventure to Morgan's(american from seattle, who is also canadian and i love very much!) for a sleepover. BLT's which tasted like heaven after not having bacon for 7 months, 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' and a mess of her bedroom after trying to figure out a last minute outfit for her to wear today, was the perfect night before our big Rotary day today.
Not only did I get to see all my Canadians, hang out with super cool exchange students for hours today, play with those annoying clappers that we have for hockey games, and wear heels all day, but I also got to meet the International President of Rotary aka the most important person in all of Rotary in the entire world! :) It was a huge honor, and he seemed really nice. Best part was that after he left we got to go watch 'The Hunger Games' payed for by Rotary, in English! :) (hehe).

Today was the first day of my Rotary weekend. Saturday is the District Conference in Antwerp which means, more singing for Rotarians... more blazer wearing (which is super heavy now and dangerous to wear!!!), and more exchange memories! :) Oh and I think it might even include a boat ride...? and Sunday is a ROTEX activity at the Adventure Park in Wavre. Tree climbing, wooden bridges and more dangerous fun with exchange students! :)

This next week is going to be crazy! Monday and Thursday I have a oral presentation for my Social Science class, Tuesday and Thursday I have french lessons, Wednesday I have to pack for both Italy and for when I am staying at my host uncle's(because my host family is going to the States to visit there daughter before I go to Italy and get back after I get home from Italy), Saturday is going to be spend doing all the last minute errands I need to do, and Sunday I leave for ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) 

Kay, well this will have to do for now, as it's 11:24pm and I have school tomorrow and have not gotten anything ready for it yet.. Good night everyone, or maybe good morning depending on the time change. Love you all! and make sure you have JULY 8TH marked on your calendars! :)

ps. we change our clocks forward on satuday night so then the time change will be 9 hours ago not just 8.

Random info and a surprise! :)

my life has been keeping me super busy lately!
Topic #1, the language- i've finally started french lessons, so hopefully now my french will improve cause really this is getting ridiculous, i've been here for almost 6 months and i still fail at the language!!! :'(  if it doesn't approve and i leave at the end of my year here without being able to speak the language i will feel like a failure!
Topic #2, school- it's boring as ever, but i've finally started making some friends(that don't speak english). last week was really cool because as part of the curriculum in Year 5 you need to do so many hours of volunteering so what they do is, the teachers place you in a primary school or a nursing home or a daycare center (for me i was put in a 1st grade class) and you spend 2 and a half days volunteering there. it was really cool and the little kids were adorable! <3 
Topic #3, vacations!- only 6.5 more days until it's carnival and i get a week off school! :) this week is going to be spent experiencing carnival, a day trip to Luxembourg and maybe a trip to Maastricht, and exploring more of Belgium. after carnival we have about 5 weeks of school before a 11 day trip to ITALY!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Topic #4, vists!- i have the best visitor ever coming to visit me! my amazingly wonderful, awesome sister is going to Paris and Belgium with her university  and i get to see her! we have about 2 full days together, and we've already been planning everything to show her! my host families, my stompin' grounds, my friends and all the tourist traps are about to get canadianized and sisterized!!! :) countdown=27 days! 
Topis #5, activities & adventures!-lately i've had some crazy adventures. a rotary meeting in Namur with my whole district, shopping trips in Antwerp, sleepovers, concentration camp visits, and my first wednesday spent in liege. there is so much i wanna see and do still this year and i need to use every free moment i have because my time here is getting shorter and shorter each day...
Topic#6, returnal :(- my plan was to only tell my parents when i am coming home, and i was wanting to walk into a party or a family dinner, or show up at one of my friends jobs but really thats super hard to plan and also this way people can come meet me at the airport!  i leave Belgium JULY 7th and because there is only one flight a day on weekends into PR, and i miss it by about 2 hours i think i'm flying into Rupert on july 8th. it kills me to think about having to leave behind this amazing year and this country that i love so much. the only good part of leaving is that i get to fly home with two of my many loves! Sylvie; one of the girls i flew here with and Devyn; another BCian who i've met here. it's gonna be one crazy plane ride! :)  i have a couple of rules for y'all (really i'm not a bitch i just really like when things go my way!)
1. please don't remind me how soon it is until i get home! i don't want to come home and it kills me even thinking about it. booking my flights was super hard and well you'll be counting how long it is until i get home i'll be counting down how many days i have left here and will be trying to make the most of them!
2. come one, come all to the airport and meet me when i get off the plane!!!!!!! bring everyone, and signs and camera's! :) more the marry'er!! :) 
3. if i came home to a properly cooked roast beef (aka not raw!!!) dinner i might just be the happiest girl in the entire world(well at least as happy as i can be, well im sad about having to have left Belgium)
4. first stop on the drive home from the airport is going to be tim hortons!!!!!!!! can't wait to walk in there with my blazer covered in pins and getting starred at again like i did before i left when my blazer was so empty.(omg that feels like a life time ago!!!)
Now that I'm finished sounding like a spolied brat( which really i am not!!!) we can continue on! :) 


My time left here is going to be spent living life to the fullest and trying to cross everything off my bucket list! :) Just found out that I might be going on a trip to Prague for 5 days in June and I don't remember if I've already meantioned it but my next host family is taking me to London, England and we are sailing (on a legit sailboat)  through the English channel home to Belgium! :) trip/experience of a lifetime! :)
Hope you all have a great day, and have a Happy Sweater Day! :) http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/23136/1/it's+national+sweater+day
<3 <3 <3

Ft.Breendonk

          I knew it would be sad, I knew it wasn't going to be like going to other museums, but I didn't know it would be so emotional!
Saturday morning, I woke up and walked through the snow to the train, meeting 3 other exchange students in Brussels, we caught a train to Willebroek; the town that has the concentration camp outside of it.  After getting lost and freezing out butts off from walking in the sold and snow for almost 2 hours we finally found Fort. Breendonk. ~I would love to know how fast the Google maps person who says it was only a 20 minute walk from the train to the camp walks!!!
 *Fort Breendonk= the only concentration camp in Belgium
Walking into the office, seeing the photos lining the entrance and the barb wire fence we started the tour listening to each number as we entered a room. Finding out what had happened in each room, often there were rooms that I felt creeped out in and I would try taking refuge in the hallways but it was worst for me being alone in the hallways then feeling creeped out in a room with the others. We walked down the hallways following the arrows until we found the next number to punch into our listening players. '4, 8 green button' and started into the doorway of a room that looked just like any of the others from the doorway. 5 steps in I stopped turned around and walked as fast I could out of that room. I could barley handle standing alone in the hallway, but I had just walked into a torch chamber. There was nothing worst for me then being in there, and waiting alone int he hallways well my friends were inside was awful and scary too! I was extremely glad when they walked out towards me and we could walk away from that scary place. \
Instead of continuing on we went outside and looked around the grounds.
 I think we were all pretty relieved when we decided we were finished. It was a really weird experience, and left me feeling privileged that  I will never have to go though what those who lived at the concentration camp did.