#cieeabroad

[plebeianadventures]

L’êtreANGE bistro and boutique in Le Marais, Paris. Enjoyed a latte and a “ Génoise aux amandes et au rhum” (genoise sponge cake with almonds and rum).

I was absolutely in love with everything in this store. I visited mid-week around 7:30pm, and there was really no one else in the shop or café. The owners of the shop were very nice to me and even let me pay with a credit card even though I had spent just under €10 (most places get cranky if you run your card for small amounts because they have to pay the same credit card fee no matter the amount of the transaction). 

It’s a little spot off the main track of Le Marais, but well worth a visit.

[american-girl-in-a-belgian--blog]

Biology, Maastricht and Three weeks of updates

October 22, 2017

First things first, I’m sorry for going so long without updating. Originally, I was planing to do a two week update since that first week I missed was pretty uneventful, but I didn’t have time to update after I got back from Maastricht and I’ve been pretty preoccupied with school, other articles and the upcoming NaNoWriMo (which I’m totally going to concur this year).

Anyway, as I ready mentioned, the first week wasn’t that eventful. Monday, I didn’t have school and I still have no idea why XD. Like I’m not complaining, but it wasn’t a holiday or anything like that.

That Thursday, my brain was on vacation and I somehow managed to call Neurons “Nerfs” (aka Nerves) multiple times on my Biology test. But the worst part was probably when I wrote “hemisphere droite” instead of “Hemisphere gauche” and didn’t notice until I had already turned in the test.

Other than that, not much else happened besides the Tupperware party that we hosted. It actually wasn’t that bad, but at the same time we didn't really have dinner after which sucked (not that I was that hungry anyway). We also had diner at my host mother’s aunt’s house that Saturday where I discovered my hidden love for Potatoes and Raclette with bacon ^^.

Last week's P.E class was my first real glimpse of the fiery pits of hell since our P.E teacher decided that 5km wasn’t enough, so she made us run from the school all the way to the top of the citadel and back (which is more than 7km with half of it being up hill). I spent most of the run questioning the existence of the Runner’s high thing since it hasn’t seemed to have happened to me yet. At least I had Tuesday to recover since the bus felt like Striking again XD. 

Then of course, we have the Maastricht trip which was amazing! It felt pretty short since it was only for a weekend, but It really was a blast and it was nice to meet up with everyone again ^^. I’ll be making a post about the Maastricht trip so look out for that in the next few days!

Monday, we ran the 5km test  and I hated every second of it. Honestly, I don’t even care about the fact that I passed XD. I’m just glad to be done with it. The only problem is that I’m pretty sure I just switched one hell for another since our next unit is either dance or gym. While I’m far from a dancer, I really hope she picks dance or I’m going to end up seriously embarrassing myself with my noodle arms.

And finally, Friday I got to miss physics since I was on a guided tour around Namur with my history class. We talked about Namur’s place during both the world wars which woke up my inner history buff XD. I’m pretty sure we walked by some Stolpersteine too, so I’ll have to hunt those down again. 

At the end of the tour, they gave us some food that they ate during the world wars and while the porridge was basically slime that tasted like chalk, the potatoes tasted sour? I have no idea what they cooked it with,but if it’s not something I already hate, its definitely something I hate now.

And there you have it! 3 weeks of updates so now we’re back on track ^^

See you Sunday, 

Raychel 

(p.s I draw now)

(p.s.s. I got a 90% on the test for that french book)

(p.s.s.s I discovered that there’s this thing called “fritmap” which is a map of all the friteries in Belgium XD)

(p.s.s.s.s I love Tartiflette too)

[american-girl-in-a-belgian--blog]

Airports, Cities and Updates

August 28th, 2017

Friday night, I officially started my Journey as an exchange student. It’s odd to think that I’ve been waiting for this moment for months and now that its here, I’m not exactly sure how I feel. Navigating JFK and KEF by myself was fairly easy. My gate at KEF happened to also be an emergency exit, so I got to watch a lot of people get confused and got to hear the alarm go off everytime someone tried to open the door. Honestly, I thought it was going to be pretty stressful, but it really wasn’t that bad. It was pretty interesting to have to get off the plane into the cold rain in order to have a shuttle take us to the terminal though. But other than that, it wasn’t bad at all. I arrived at BRU Saturday afternoon. It was pretty easy to navigate as well, but what made this part interesting was the fact that I couldn’t find the W.E.P representative for the life of me. I literally wandered for about 45 minutes before I decided to take a brake and they ended up finding me. Turns out, they had their flag set up on the opposite side of where I was blindly wandering XD I spent a good amount of time at BRU as we waited for other exchange students, but once we had enough students together we headed over to the hostel and got situated. Sunday was my first full day in Brussels. We had french classes in the morning, which is just some basics for about 3 hours, and went to Gand/Ghent in the afternoon. Gand is a really nice city so I highly recommend you visit if you ever get the chance. We got to take one of the 90 minute boat tours and that gave us sooo many picture opportunities. We also had some free time to wander around the city in small groups after the group picture we took near the river. I’ve never taken so many pictures before XD Today we had french lessons in the morning, before heading over to brussels for lunch and dinner. Lunch was pretty good, but I really wish they added more salt, but that’s probably just because Americans tend to use a lot of it. We also got to do a waffle work shop which was a lot of fun ^^. Gaufres de Bruxelles taste a lot like funnel cakes. After the Waffle workshop, we saw these two guys that were completely and totally drunk in the Grand Place/Grote Markt XD. It was kind of hard to pay attention to the tour guide while they were singing and stumbling around, but they managed to find their way out eventually. The tour was nice, we got to see some of the most famous parts of Brussels and it was quite pretty ^^. There’s so much Mannekin Pis merch though XD. Not to mention the fact that there’s so much beer here. Like the Delirium Café has over 3000 beers there. Plus, its right next to the Jeanneke pis XD. Of course, the best part of the day would have to have been the 2 hours we got to wander the city on our own. Hannah, Philip and I went into a Primark and a Zara and kinda just looked around. Philip tried on these random women’s jackets and a pair of heels and it was hilarious XD People kept trying to get us to go to their restaurants so we just kinda lied and said we had somewhere to be. As for the updating schedule, I plan to update this blog every Sunday as well as having special updates at the end of each month possibly along with a monthly recap? I dont really know yet… See you on Sunday, Raychel

[plebeianadventures]

#scotland #edinburgh #architecture #history #cobblestone #travel #uk #studyabroad #cieeabroad (at Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

[plebeianadventures]

Going back in time for the next couple months with throwbacks from Europe. Stay tuned for more #latergrams! This one's from a door at the Notre-Dame in Paris! . . . . . #paris #notredame #architecture #history #art #metalart #cieeabroad #studyabroad (at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris)

[american-girl-in-a-belgian--blog]

Buses, Aquariums & A Whole Lot Of School

September 11th, 2017

I feel it important to say that on Sunday (not yesterday, the Sunday before that) I told Hannah that with my luck, I probably wouldn’t even make it to school on Monday. I must’ve jinxed myself because I actually almost didn’t make it to school XD. 

 After I realized that my neighbor wasn’t taking the bus with me, I knew I was screwed. Sure enough, I don’t know how or why I thought my stop was earlier than it was, but once I got to my actual stop I was debating on whether or not I should get off since I had already decided that I either missed my stop, or it was coming up. I ultimately decided to wait a bit and low and behold, if it wasn’t for this lady that spoke just enough English to give me directions on how to get to school from almost outside of the city, I would have ended up in the next town over XD.

Other than that and almost getting lost on the way home, the first day of school was pretty good. I managed to meet the other Exchange students as well as this Belgian guy, Simon, who speaks really good English. If it wasn’t for him we would’ve had zero idea about what was going on. 

Tuesday, was definitely less eventful. This time I didn’t miss my stop and I made it to school no problem, but I ended up getting stranded in the town across from mine on the way home XD. Apparently, you can’t just assume that every bus on a line goes to whatever stop you need to. I figured I should wait for the bus that I should’ve taken to show up (i got out of school early), but it never showed up so I just had my host mother pick me up since I didn’t feel like walking 30 minutes to get home. I was probably there for around 2 hours.

Wednesday, I found out that my P.E teacher is trying to kill us. In the U.S, we only tested on the Mile run, but here in Belgium they’re testing us on the 5 Kilometer run. That’s 3.1 M I L E S. Granted, we have like 43 minutes to do it, but I’m so bad at distance running. 1 mile is already way too much for me. I also realized that my French teacher kind of looks like Eliot Waugh from The Magicians XD.

After school, we went to the hospital since my host father’s cousin’s girlfriend had a baby. It was really awkward for me since I barely understood anything.

Thursday, was nothing special. I had 3 hours of math which is an actual tragedy, but other than that, it was a pretty good day. I don’t know why this keeps happening, but they keep changing the classrooms on us so I keep getting lost XD. I pretty much just follow people to my classes or get lost since I’m directionally challenged (yes, I know directionally isn’t a word).

Friday, I had two free hours since the Religion (which is more of a philosophy class thank god) teacher wasn’t there. One of my friends, Kaspars, had like 4 free hours, so he snuck out of school and went home XD. He ended up getting to math class late and got scolded by the teacher, but managed to get off Scott free. 

Saturday, was basically nothing. Some family came over and we got the book (Charlotte by David Foenkinos) I have to read for French class from the Library, but that was it.

Yesterday, We went to the Aquarium/museum in Liège. The Aquarium portion wasn’t as nice as the ones I’ve seen in the U.S, but it was still pretty cool. The Museum portion was kinda trippy since it had dead animals preserved in these test tubes like you see in movies and stuff. It was pretty cool if not slightly creepy. 

When we got home, I was ready to type this up, but I just didn’t. I don’t know why, cause I had the page open and everything XD. Late is better than never I guess.

School is pretty good. Even if I don’t understand too much yet, I’m definitely getting better. The progress is a little slow right now from what I can tell, but I’m sure it’ll start picking up soon ^^. The school Itself isn’t as technological as my school back in California, nor is it as nice, but It’s still pretty good. If anything I feel like this school has some really odd rules... 

For example, apparently you can’t just drink water during class. You have to flash the bottle at the teacher and let them know before? Maybe this is an actual thing in other schools, but I’ve never had to do that before. We also have to stand when the teacher walks in the room and wait for them to tell us to sit.

I don’t know if this is true or not, but Simon told us that the third time you get caught with your phone the school takes it for the rest of the school year. It’s hard to believe, but based on what I've seen I think it might actually be true.

Surprisingly enough, I think Math or Physics is going to be my worst class instead of French or History. French and History aren’t actually that bad. My French teacher is super chill and even if all the literature stuff is going to be a challenge, I feel like I’ll be ok since some of my class mates are totally willing to help me. Same thing with basically all of my classes except math honestly and if I asked around I’m sure I’d find someone there too.

Honestly, I’m glad that I’m such a History nerd since all the stuff we’ve talked about so far I already knew.

Can I also mention how the Bus system doesn’t let me enjoy my getting out of school 2 hours early on Mondays and Tuesdays? The only buses that go to my stop leave after school so I have to wait around instead of going home early         -___-. It’s better than being in class I guess.

I really need to start practicing my french more though...

Anyway, I’ll make sure to do a better job updating!

See you on Sunday for real this time,

Raychel

(P.S. I hate AZERTY)

(P.S.S. I hate how the classroom numbers they give you basically mean nothing since the classes keep M O V I N G.)

(P.S.S.S The only classes that haven’t moved are P.E and Religion and I haven’t had Religion yet.)

(P.S.S.S.S. Both teachers and students switch rooms here.)

[american-girl-in-a-belgian--blog]

Family, Old friends & New Lives

August 3rd, 2017

In 15 days, I'll be boarding a plane to visit family in New York before I fall off the face of the earth for a year. Normally going to New York isn't much of a big deal for me, but one of my closest friends is going to be kidnapping me for a day, so I can't wait to visit! It's been way too long since we last saw each other :)

I'll be in New York for about a week and then I'm off to Belgium! Now that I think about it, exchange doesn’t feel so far away anymore. Of course, I’m still as emotionally confused as I was in my last blog post, but I’m definitely more excited this time around!

I’ll be living in a really small village on the outskirts of Namur, the capital of the Walloon (French speaking) region, with my host parents and my 4 year old host sister. When I say really small, I mean about 1,200 people which will definitely be a new experience for me considering my current high school has about 2,200 people. I’ve never considered where I live to be a particularly big city, but it’s nearly 100 times bigger than where I will be living, so I guess it must have some size to it!

Also, while I’m talking about new experiences, I feel like I should mention that both Religion and P.E are compulsory subjects at my new school in Namur. I’m not a very religious person, though I tend to say I’m Roman Catholic, so that should definitely be interesting. Not to mention, I haven’t had P.E since Freshman year because of Marching band and I haven't done much since then, so we’ll see how that goes XD. I’ve never had to take a bus before either.

 Being the oldest child isn’t new to me, but I only have 2 years on my brother, so living with a 4 year old girl will definitely be new :)

Impatiently awaiting the 25th,

Raychel

[american-girl-in-a-belgian--blog]

Mixed Feelings & Ticking Clocks

July 11th, 2017

24 days from now, I would have started band camp. I would have endured the heat of Californian summers with short water breaks and endless flute section memes. I would have come home from 9 hour practices with aching calves and renewed tan lines. I would have complained, laughed, and sweat a lot, but in the end, I would have loved every second of it. Only to do it all again for the rest of the week. Marching band would have destroyed the small threads that vaguely resembled my social life until the end of the season.

27 days from now, I would have gone to registration. I would have picked up the rest of my textbooks, received my class list and taken an awful yearbook photo. My friends and I would have tried to figure out if we had any classes together even though the class list wouldn’t have been an actual schedule, just a list of classes in no particular order. I would have been scrambling to finish my Summer homework that I’ve had the better part of 2 months to do.

36 days from now, I would have started off my Junior Year of High school. I would have met up with my friends at our usual spot, around 20 minutes before school started, and complained about how much I really didn’t want to be there. The bell would have rung in its familiar series of tones that always cut off a bit too early. We would have started the year off, with a series of rotations that we’d go through for the next few days.

37 days from now, We would have done the school wide lip dub. I would have hated every second of it.

44 days from now, wouldn’t have meant anything. It would have just been an ordinary day in the life of a High school Junior.

It’s odd to think that that’s not my life anymore.

44 days from now, I’ll be boarding a plane to take me to my new life an ocean away. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet, but 44 days isn’t that far away.

Part of me wants time to move faster, yet I can’t help but doubt that I made the right decision. I’m scared to face the future, yet I can’t wait for all that’s coming my way! Really, my feelings are just a jumbled mess of anything and everything, but if there’s anything that I know, Its that I’m going to be alright. Things may be hard some days, but I know I’ll get through it and in the end, I won’t regret making this decision.

Nothing worth doing is easy, right?

-Raychel