Picchyas

I've put on a bit of weight... ;)

I'm legal now!

Me on Halloween.

Full gypsy attire.

Notre Terre exhibit in Brussels.

Museum in Brussels

We're archaeologists!

AHH!!!

The Belge-Life

Well hello there, it's been a while! I'm sorry my posts have become so sparse, I just don't know exactly what to write about. My day-to-day experiences usually follow the same course: school, confusion, fun, happy, sad, weekend, repeat.... So I thought that I'd take this post to just talk a little about the Belgian life, in general.

School in general:

- No music in School. This is very different for me, seeing that I was so involved in the music program back home. I knew I'd miss it, but I NEVER thought I'd miss it this much. It was such a big part of my life so I just feel a little weird without it.

- No sports in school. Even though I never did any sports (Which is probably my biggest regret, even though I don't know how I'd find the time between band and everything else.) it is really different to not have them in school.

-It's longer and harder (that's what she said) than American school. But they get more vacations that we do, so I guess it evens out in the end.

My classes:

-Religion. Interesting class. It's a mix of religion, philosophy and the social issues that those concern. Mostly, the teacher just talks a lot and sometimes gives illegible notes. I think it would interesting though, if I understood French better.

-Geography. It should be called government, because it's more about politics than geography. It's not a bad class though. We don't really do much.

-History. I really like history but this class is HARD. The teacher is clearly very passionate about the subject and thinks everyone else ought to as well. This class consists of him talking, and then him talking more.

-Spanish. Least favorite class. I don't even want to talk about it.

-French (3B). This is one of my 3rd year (frosh) classes. I'm really popular with the kids but the class itself is boring. She usually either ignores me, or gives me a story to try to read during the class.

-French (3D/E). Second third year class. It is actually quite helpful in learning the language, just not too interesting. We learn about grammar and stuff like that.

-French (6A). This one's with my fellow 6th years. Another difficult class, but I really like it. It's challenging, but I feel like I can actually achieve something, I just have to try really hard!

-Chemistry. Ok, this one ties with Spanish as my least favorite. I don't understand a single thing, and it makes me feel terrible and worthless. I hate Thursdays. I didn't even like chem back home. Though I was actually quite good at it, I was just never really interested. I don't care how many electron shells Sodium has, nor how it reacts when mixed with something else. Sorry, but it just doesn't hold my interest. But what is interesting, is that I learned that my name can be spelled using element abbreviations from the periodic table. CLaIRe. (Carbon Lanthanum Iodine Rhenium) Cool, eh?

-Math. It's a little different from math in the US, which is frustrating sometimes, but it's not that bad. The problem is that I miss half of the classes in order to go to one of my French classes. So I'm half lost. What else is new?

-P.E. Unlike in the States, P.E. is actually taken seriously here, and it's not easy! I don't think I have ever ran so much in my life. But I like it, even though I may bitch about it every Friday, it's good for me. The only problem is that I keep getting blisters from my shoes. Hopefully the shoes

-Biology. Biology is was one of my favorite subjects back home but unfortunately, this class is a joke. It's so sad. We only have one hour a week and we don't learn anything. Major bummer.

Food:

-The chocolate here is better than anything else in the world. Enough said.

-Beer is good too. I've never had American beer though so I don't really know what it's like in comparison, but they say it's the best. Don't worry, I'm not an alcoholic.

ok.... That's all you get for now. (Just because I'm kind of boring myself. haha) I'll put some pictures up for ya!