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