the calendar says it's christmas time

Well it’s Christmas Eve…

Blue skies, sun shining, and a temperature of about 2 degrees. Snow nowhere to be found. It defiantly doesn’t feel like Christmas this year. Sure there are Christmas decorations, a tree, presents, and a mall filled with restless shoppers trying to get the perfect gifts, but there isn’t Christmas baking, Christmas music, stockings hung over the fireplace or the traditions that I’m used to.  I know this is all a part of becoming a part of other cultures, creating new traditions and making new memories, but I have to say, being away from home at Christmas sucks!!! Maybe it’s because Christmas just came super-fast this year, maybe it’s the fact that I still had school yesterday, or maybe it’s because I’ve been so caught up in everything else going on in my life, but I looked at my calendar one day and realized that Christmas was only a week away and I hadn’t even started shopping yet.

Thankfully when my family sent my presents from Canada they also included a present for my host sister and for my host brother. That made Christmas shopping a little easier, but still I have to say I hate Christmas shopping. Spending hours in a crowded mall, over heating because you`re wearing your big winter jacket, arms filled with shopping bags, standing in checkout lines for what feels like forever.

Where is the Christmas spirit in that? After dealing with all of the hassles this year, I’ve decided that I am going to start Christmas shopping in October next year so I don’t have to deal with all that.

I don’t’ really know the plan for Christmas with my host family cause I haven’t asked, but from what I have gathered I think we are opening presents tonight at midnight, possibly after a big dinner, and then tomorrow we are having another big dinner with a turkey!!! I know that’s happening because my host mom asked me to make gravy for it! J

In Belgium Santa Claus is called Pere Noel, but he doesn’t bring presents on Christmas Eve when you are sleeping. St. Nicolas brings presents and candy and puts them in your shoes (stockings) on the 6^th of December.

Christmas is defiantly not as commercialized here as it is back home. There isn’t Christmas specials on TV, or at least that I know of.( I haven’t watched TV in a month, partially because I don’t have time, but also because the TV never works when I try to watch it…) I haven’t heard about a lot of Christmas party’s besides the one I threw! J Which turned out great, and I think everyone had a great time!  My favorite part of Christmas in Europe is all the Christmas markets. Every town seems to have one, and I love looking around seeing what everyone is selling. I even took a trip to Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, Germany) on Tuesday with my host mom, Cat (Canada), Marina (Brazil), and Rodrigo (Argentina) to go shopping at the Christmas market. Germany was beautiful, with a lot more snow then Belgium has (which is none btw). There is so much more of Germany that I want to see, so I’m hoping to take a trip to Germany for a couple of days during Carnival in February! J

I should probably go get my day started now. It’s 2:30 and I haven’t gotten out of my bed yet today! J

Plan for the day: hang out, paint my nails and chill at home! J sounds like a perfect day to me! J

Country Count

One of the things I wanted to do this year was see as many countries as possible, and I am doing just that! :)

Countries I've been too.
-Canada (well no duhh)
-U.S.A.
-Mexico
-France
-Holland
-Belgium
-Germany
-Italy
-Vatican City (well technically it's a state)
-England
-Luxembourg(BORINGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!, lasted about 1.5 hours before we jumped on the first train back home)

Countries I want to see this year,


-Czech Republic(hopefully in June)(just not enough time, permission, or money :( ))
-Denmark(as much as i want to go, i just don't have the time or the money to go this year :'( ))
So far the country count is at 9(&and a state), by the end of my exchange I want it to be at a minimum of 10! Challenge accepted! 
Challenge Succeeded! :)
edited-december 21st
edited-april 23rd
edited-may 20th
edited-july 2nd

It's finally starting to feel like Christmas time!

In the Grand Place there is a HUGE Christmas tree, all decorated, with a nativity scene with real animals in it, and twice an hour there is a light show, that is pretty amazing!  I've probably seen it about 10 times already and every time I find myself loving it even more! It started feeling like Christmas on December the 6th, which is St. Nicolas in Belgium and a lot of central Europe. What happens is little kids (and big one’s like me! :p) put their shoes in front of the fire place before they go to bed the night before, and if they have been ‘good’ their shoes will be filled with candy when they wake up in the morning.

 I guess I’ve been good lately, because I came to the breakfast table with a pile of stuff from St. Nicolas for me the next morning!  He (aka my host parents) brought me a chocolate version of St. Nicolas, a gossip magazine in English, speculoos cookies, and some money!  I guess I must have been really good!  As  I write about this event, I find myself realizing that it’s Europe’s version of stockings for Christmas, because I asked my host dad the other day if they did stockings at Christmas because I didn’t find any in their Christmas decorate box nor have a seen any in the stores, and they don’t do such a thing. This holiday was just a part of me growing with the culture of another country and I’ve already decided that next year and from now on (Or at least as long as St. Nicolas will come) I am going to celebrate this holiday! And when I walked into my class room that morning there were oranges and chocolate on everyone’s desk from St. Nicolas!
Last week I came home from somewhere and my host dad said “Jane, you got a huge parcel today, it’s in your room’ so I ran up the stairs like a crazy person, and ran into my room to find a parcel from my family! :) Ripping it open, only to find everything wrapped, was kind of a disappointment, until I got to the bottom and found a bag of Swedish berry candies that weren’t wrapped. Sorry family but I just couldn’t wait. They were so yummy and I promise I haven’t touched anything else yet! :) ps. If anyone wants to make my day, receiving a simple present of Swedish berries would make my day!!! I’ve pretty much been able to find everything that I need in Belgium or make my own, but Belgium and all of Europe have bans on some types of sugars so finding things like my favorite candies is really hard. My friend was looking for corn-syrup the other day to make a dessert, only to find out that it’s illegal in Europe. I never knew something so simple and harmless like corn-syrup could be banned.

 And now on a serious note...

 Today I came home from school, had lunch with my host family, and then signed on to Facebook. Turns out as I was walking home from school there was a grenade bombing and shots were fired in a city called Liege about an hour east of where I live. I guess what happened was this guy was supposed to appear at the Place de Justice today for a hearing (he had previously been in prison for possession of drugs, and fire arms) and instead of showing up to court, he decided it would be better to throw bombs and shots injuring around 60 people and killing 4 including himself. There are a lot of exchange students who live in and around Liege, and I know of about 7 exchange students (a couple who are very good friends of mine) who were in Liege at the time of the attack. One friend was told to get into a hair dressers shop and had to wait there for 2 hours, just blocks away from where the attack happened and a couple other friends ran into a shop and locked the doors when they heard the gun shots. Thankfully they are all safe now! <3 

Tomorrow I don’t have to go to school because it’s the Dutch exam and learning one language is already hard enough for me, so trying to learn another in a different language didn't seem like fun, so I don’t take Dutch and instead get a free period during that time instead! :) So me, Valentina and Tasha (the 2 other exchange students I go to school with) are planning on hanging out and watching movies all afternoon, and hopefully I'll go get a new cell phone this morning. It’s been 4 days since I’ve not had my cell phone and everyday just gets harder and harder. I am legit going to go crazy if I don’t get myself a new phone really soon!!!!!!!!!!!  (worst part is, I  didn’t have a phone until I got here, and now I cant even survive 4 days without it, hey momma & daddy birthday present idea!) 

Sorry this is randomly written. I wrote it last night, and to be honest I'm just too lazy to change it from future to past tense! :) Hope everyone has a great day and try to stay safe! <3