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
Thursday, 9 February 2012
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.
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.
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