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 

Exotic Diner!

This is the story of how 8 Canadian got starred at on the train for being decked out in Canadian swag. :)
Since being on my exchange, I’ve noticed that I have become a lot more patriot about being a Canadian. I’m pretty sure it’s what happens to most exchange students; wanting others to know how proud they are of their country. When I get called American I quickly try to correct the person (except for my history teacher, who even after being corrected by the entire class still thinks my name is Jennie and that I am American, who I have just given on trying to set straight), being Canadian is something I am proud of, and usually love because our country is so diverse and different. But with Canada being filled with people from all over the world, it is extremely hard to determine what foods are actually Canadian and not just ‘borrowed’ from other countries.
Yesterday ROTEX held a potluck lunch for all the inbounds in Belgium and their host families. There are a couple of things you should know before I start talking about this sweet weekend.
1. ROTEX is a group of Belgian rebounds, aka kids that have already returned from their exchanges, and they plan out activities for us inbounds throughout the year.

2. The hall that this lunch was being held at didn’t have anywhere for us to heat up food, so they suggested us making foods that could be eaten cold.

3. You can’t buy gravy packets or cheese curds in Belgium… Trust me I’ve looked everywhere!!!!!!!

The Mission

-         In groups of 4 or 5 students, get together and cook a speciality from your home country. Cooking enough to feed 45 people.

Because we Canadians are super cool, we decided to make one big group instead of two smaller ones (ps. There was more than just our group of Canadians. I think there are about 40 Canadian inbounds in Belgium this year!) So it was me, Jasmyn (from Powell River (one of the girls I flew here with), Devyn (from Vernon), Alana (from Drumhellor, Alberta), Michaela (from Ontario), Kanen (from Ontario), Jocelyn (from Ontario), and Cat (from P.E.I.) all in a group together. And because my host parents are really cool, and they love me, they let me invite my whole group over on Saturday afternoon, make a huge mess in their kitchen, take over their dining room to have dinner, stay up really late to finish cooking in their kitchen and then take over their living room for a sleep over!  Thanks hosties!

So on Saturday afternoon, Jocelyn and Cat got dropped off at my house and we walked to the train station in La Hulpe to pick up the rest of them( except not Jasmyn, because she wasn’t able to come, so she joined us the next day). Stopped at the store on the way home for pizza, and came back to my house to eat as we prepared a list of stuff we’d need at the grocery store. On the menu was Montreal-style Bagels and Maple Syrup Baked Beans.

Now I’m pretty sure the people at the grocery store already think I’m weird because I often just go there to look around at all the products we don’t have in Canada, or to buy cheese pizza and chocolate when I’m feeling home sick, but then walking in with 6 extra over excited, loud English speaking, possibly even singing the Canadian national anthem Canadians I’m positive they all rolled their eyes at us.
The recipe for Montreal-style bagels said it would take only 1 and a half hours from start to finish, but somehow we started baking at 3 pm and finally called it a night at 1 am. None of us had ever made a bagel before, but we figured that with my experience of ‘baking them off’ and Cat’s doctor/bagel making dad on speed dial we decided to give it a try. It was defiantly a challenge, and with the sketchy recipe directions I found on some Google approved blog, we are proud to say that they were edible!  Turns out you are supposed to boil the bagels before you bake them, and when I recipe says to only let them rise for 20 minutes, you really should listen to that, and not leave them out for 2 hours well your host mom has friends over for dinner in the kitchen. But with a ton of hard work, a huge mess of my kitchen and a frantic international call to Cat’s dad we survived.

Also on the menu was Maple Syrup Baked Beans. Which were a huge hit, and smelled amazingly. Way easier to make then the bagels!

In-between cooking, we had dinner which consisted of a very elegant spaghetti dinner, and a night full of junk food.  Nanaimo bars, ice cream and nacho’s and cheese sauce helped us think of home, well our new favorite snack Paprika flavour chips and Belgian chocolate added a Belgian feature to our night.  The next morning, we awoke bright and early to put the beans in the oven and then a couple of us ran down the hill to get fresh bread and pain de chocolat for breakfast before leaving for the train all decked out in Canada flags, t-shirts and tattoos.

After getting starred out on the train, we got off and met up with a couple of Australian oldies and hopped on a tram to them to ULB (a Belgian university campus) where they lunch was being held. We put the finishing touches of cream cheese and smoked salmon on our bagels and had my host parents bring the pot of beans with them we were all ready to serve.

In between serving parents our food, being asked my we didn’t make poutine and snaking food from other groups we got to hang out with our other exchange student friends. A brief appearance from St. Nicolas throwing candy around the room, and a lot of singing, it was a lot fun!

Super 7 thanks for coming over and making my weekend a whole lot better, we’ll defiantly have to do it again sometime! 

Remembrance Day in Flanders Field

                            A year ago today, I had my first interview for my exchange. I remember going to the Remembrance Day ceremony in the cold rain in the morning and then going to the Crest for my interview in the afternoon. That interview was probably one of the hardest and scariest things (besides actually going on my exchange) that I have ever done!

At the time it felt like it lasted forever. My parents, 3 Rotarians and I sitting across from each other in a conference room, asking us questions about me, my life here, my family, my hopes and dreams, what I want to do with my life, about my friends, anything you could imagine they asked out, and then they asked my parents to leave the room, so they could interview me alone. I have to say that was probably the scariest part. At this time, my parents were still my security blanket, and I always felt more comfortable with them at my side.

Trying to answer their questions with the best answers possible, well still trying to show off my personality and character was really really really hard, but I must had done something right, if I’m writing this from my bedroom in Belgium! :)
 

             Then they brought my parents back in and asked me to leave. I was sitting outside the conference room for what felt like hours! Luckily my cousin Jill and her family came out of the restaurant well I was waiting for my parents interview to be over, so they came and took my mind of things for a bit. Finally after what felt like a lifetime, I was called back into the room, and they finished up the interview, telling us that they still had 2 more interviews to do that day, but they would call me later that night with a decision.

My parents and I went to the restaurant and had lunch, and during lunch we found out who the second interviewee was.

              Later that night the phone rang and my daddy talked on it for a while. When he finally hung up he didn’t have the look I was hoping him to have. I was wanting the look of ‘Congrats Jane you did it, you got the exchange’, but instead he has a different look, a look of ‘Uhh-oh, she’s gonna be heartbroken’. Turns out they choose another student… but because of a lot of hard work from my local Rotary club, and a ton of luck on my part I am writing this blog from Belgium!

     Today is not only the 2 and a half month mark of my exchange but it is also Remembrance Day in Canada and Armistice Day in Belgium. The famous Canadian poem ‘In Flanders Field’ by John Mc Rae just happens to have been written in the Flemish region of Belgium. As today as it was a holiday we didn’t have school so me, Jocelyn (Canada), Alana (Canada) and Isa (Mexico) took a 2 and a half hour train ride to Ypres for the day; where we met our 1st friend of the day. She was from New Jersey and is going to university for the 3rd time in England, and decided to come to Ypres because it was important to her, and she was finally close enough to make the trip, to attend a Remembrance Day ceremony. It was an amazing day. 

We watched the Remembrance Day ceremony, saw the Queen of Belgium, visited Menin Gate; where we met our 2nd friends of the day, a couple from England who were tracking down her brother who had been killed in the 1st World war, Went to the 'In Flanders Field' museum, found a cemetery where "the poppies blew

      Between the crosses, row on row,"
Went for lunch and met our 3rd friend of the day. While walking out of the restaurant, a lady stopped us, and asked if we were exchange students. We said yes, and found out that she was from Nelson, BC. Then she was starting telling us how she came to Belgium on an exchange a couple of years ago, and when we asked where she lived in Belgium, her not thinking we would no of it, said "Ottignies" and we were all like "Hey that's where we live! (not really, but it's like 10 minutes away). Then walking to the Flanders Field museum we met our 4th friends of the day. It was a group of teenagers that were all carrying Canadian flags, so we went up to them and asked where they were from. Turns out they are students from Ontario at an international school in Switzerland, and came to Ypres for the celebration today, and coolest part was that their teacher used to be the RYO (Rotary Youth Exchange Officer aka the guy in charge of youth exchange) for a club back in Ontario before moving to Switzerland.

Today I got to cross another thing off my bucket list and it will be something that I will always remember. Being able to experience Remembrance day in a huge way today was something I will always remember. Today I was a part of history. 
Thank you to all the troops serving and protecting our country! <3

J' ADORE PARIS ( and not only because my hoodie says so!)

When I was choosing countries to go to for my exchange, one that was always on the list was France. I have always wanted to live in a tiny french apartment with a view of the Seine, buy fresh baguettes everyday from a cute little french bakery, work at Vogue Paris, get to wear heels to work everyday and spend my free time reading in front of the Eiffel Tower... Just like every other non European-er. Clique I know, but it has always been my dream to go to Paris and finally my dream came true! :)

             Bright and early... Well actually it was still dark out. I got up, ate breakfast, and got my host mom to drive me to the train station. Two train rides and an hour and half later I arrived in Namur with the birthday girl Marina (Brazil). On to the bus with 59 other just as excited exchange students from all over the world I went!  
   On the bus, we were given name tag's that we had to wear for the entire trip (if you fb stalk me you can see these 'styling' things in some of my pictures) and before I even got off the bus at the rest stop I had already lost mine.

       A mere 6 hours later we arrived at the Versailles; the first of many stops on this crazy 3 day adventure.
Now I'd seen pictures of the Versailles before, but going into it I really had no idea what it was or why it was so important. Turns out Louis the Fourteenth and his wife Marie Antoinette lived, and they were forced to leave when it was invaded during the French Revolution.  It was beautiful inside and out, and from the windows inside you could see parts of the HUGE gardens, but unfortunately  the gardens were closed to us. Guess I'll just have to go back again! :)
We were given 3 hours at the Versailles before we had to be back on the bus on our way to our next sight, so after looking around, most of us exchange students ended up at the entrance of the gardens. Now when you put 60 exchange students from all over the world, who all speak different languages together singing is destine to happen. Now no one really knows who or when the song was created but us exchange students in Belgium have a theme song. It's in Spanish and Portuguese with a little English part, and everywhere we go we sing it loudly!  From the time of getting a new name tag after the rest stop, to getting back on the bus at the Versailles I had lost my second name tag... Let's just say the leaders weren't liking me that much right then! So well killing time at the Versailles we broke out into it. It was soo cool seeing all the other tourist stopping what they were looking at to watch us! :)

 

             Here is a video of us singing our song on the way up the Eiffel tower. 

     After the Versailles we went and had dinner. On the menu that night was tomato and tuna salad, ratatouille and chicken with creme brulee for desert. The restaurant we were eating at was kinda fancy, so the wait staff gave us crayons and paper napkins to keep us busy so that we wouldn't break anything well we were waiting for our food, but because I am so awesome I managed to not only spill my glass, but break it all over the girl sitting across from me plate. Let's just say the waiters didn't bring my table anymore refiles after that...
After dinner the bus drove around Paris, showing us some of the famous sights at night, stopping right in front of the Eiffel tower for us to get out, and see it for the first time... in the rain! :) 
Paris at night+ Paris in the rain= Prettiest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then we went to our hotel, got our rooms assigned, and had a meeting about rules, and the plan for the next day. Had some free time to experience life as a French-y and went to bed.

 The next morning we were up bright and early, enjoying a french breakfast of crepes with nutella, fresh croissants and pain de chocolat, and french cheeses before heading out. First stop of the day was a choice between the Museum d' Orsay or a walk around Paris. After already surviving the Versailles and wanting to see all the typical Paris sights, I chose the walk. So me, Maranda (U.S.A.), Jennica (U.S.A.) and 3 cool leaders walked around Paris, seeing the National Music Academy of France, the Obelisk (that was stolen from Egypt by Alexander the Great and brought all the way back to Paris... but my question is how'd they get it to Paris, because this happened before ships, trucks, and moving sidewalks were created...?) The leaders knew that we were more interested in shopping and seeing things like The Ritz hotel, Channel, and Tiffany and Co. then being in a museum so they were really good about showing us what we wanted to see! 
Ps. Any future Belgian inbounds who go on the Paris trip! Go on the walk instead of to the Museum, a billion times better and you get time for shopping! :)
 After the walk we went to the Louvre for lunch (cheese pizza, and coffee flavored zebra cake) and then we headed into the Louvre. The Louvre is HUGE, there was so much that I wanted to see, but it was so big that I would get lost trying to find something or find something else I was interested in seeing on the way to the first thing, so I didn't get to see everything I wanted to, but I did see the Mona Lisa, and the Mummy exhibit which were on the top of my to see list. The leaders had put together a little quiz for the Louvre so me and my partner went on a quest. We wanted to win, and we did! (not only because we were the only group that handed it in, but because we got all the answers right)
In Europe they do Day Light Savings Time a week earlier then in North America, and because I only got my phone since I've been here I didn't realize that I had to change the clock back an hour manually, so I ended up leaving the Louvre an hour early, and because there was so many of us in our group. The ticket people just counted heads instead of giving us all tickets, so I has an hour to kill and no way to get back in the Louvre, so I went to the food court, found the 'classy version of MC Donalds' and WIFI and had an hour long break! :)

After the Louvre we went to a huge shopping street in Paris for awhile before having dinner at a restaurant right beside the Arc. On the menu this evening was the best mashed potatoes I've ever had, roasted chicken and ice cream. After dinner it was time for a boat ride down the Seine. The lady sitting in front of us on the boat was in Paris celebrating her birthday so we all sung for her. Not only was I on the boat with kids from all over the world, but I met a couple from Mexico, a couple from China and a family for Hungary. The boat ride just happened to finish right in front of the Eiffel tower, so we got off the boat, ran across the road, and hoped into an elevator going up, up and away... well actually to the top of the Eiffel tower!!!! :) It was so cool being up there, it felt like I was on top of the world. And well waiting in a really really really long line go to back down, we found flags and under the flag it told you how far away from that city you were. I didn't find Vancouver but I did find Seattle and it said it was 6500km away so I'm about 7200km away I'd figure...

Standing at the top of the Eiffel tower was absolutely amazing! I got to see all of Paris, and it was stunning. We'll standing at the top I realized that if it wasn't for my exchange I probably wouldn't have gotten to Europe for a long long time. I don't no what I would do without my exchange. It's still only the beginning, but I already can say that this is the best year of my live so far! :)

When you go up the Eiffel tower you have to take 2 elevators, so on the way down because we were in a rush to catch our tram (like a subway) we decided to only take the first elevator and run down the rest of the stairs. So 674 steps down, a couple of run in to's with complete strangers, and me tripping down most of them, I made it down the Eiffel tower, with no broken bones! :) We left the Eiffel tower, caught our tram, and went straight to bed at the hotel. 

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, packed up our rooms and headed to Notre Dame, then to the most beautiful place in the ENTIRE world! The Montmartre is a huge church placed on the highest hill in Paris, and in front of the church there are stairs that look over all of Paris! Most definitely my favorite place in the world now :) Around the church are streets filled with tourist shops, and creepy old men artist who ask to draw you every time you walk past. From there we went for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe Paris. *Going to the Hard Rock is a Rotary trip tradition and it happens on every trip! :)* for Hamburgers, french fries and ice cream. Then it was time to hit the bus for a 6 hour nap on the way home. Nap aka awkward movies and random dance party's on the bus! :)


We arrived in Namur just in time to catch the train back home. It was Halloween night and the trains were nothing like I'd ever seen before. There were so many people on them, and we got asked for ID when the ticket guy was checking our tickets. The station I always get off at;which seems to be one of the safest and the quietest, but that night it wasn't. There was glass all over the place, and the windows from the bench shelter had all been broken...

Over all this was the best trip ever! I had always wanted to go to Paris, and I finally got to cross something off my bucket list!

Guess What!

ONLY 9 DAYS UNTIL PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not that anyone's counting or anything) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!