Cher Rotary,
How is everything going back in good old Sun Shine State? La Belgique is a bit windy, around 78 degrees , and of course the sky is spitting, Besides all that, it's doing well. I am really bad at writing reports, sorry, so I guess this one is for la fin d'Avril et Mai.
The 24th of April, I changed my host families from the family d'Hoop to the family Robert Currently, I am "l'enfant unique pendant la semaine " the only child during the week days. I have 2 host sisters, Julie ,19, is in Brazil, and Sophie , 21 is at the university Monday to Friday and comes home on the weekends. My host parents are vachement chouette. (really cool). I live outside of Brussels , in a town called Meise , ik woon in Meise. It is a flemish speaking city. I still am going to a French speaking school in Brussels, so it takes me 55 minutes to arrive at school in the morning,which is not cool at all. In fact if that isn't bad enough the bus only comes twice an hour. Grrrrr.
In a better note, it has given much more time to spend with the family , for I am too lazy to go to the movies and cafes with my friends on the weekends , so if I don't have something
special planned I stay with my family and do chores, la marche (the market) , or school work. My French and Dutch have improved in this family because every night my host father and I correct a note I have written to one friend or another .
The 28th to the 1st of May , I was in Berlin with the Rotary , we visited what was left of the wall, which you can buy in small pieces for $9.99, the Parliament , Staatliche Museen, Checkpoint Charlie, Pergamon Museum, and a lot of other interesting places. Of course, the most fun was the 10hour bus rides and the youth hostel where we all joked around and gave out
rotary cards. =o)
The 5th of May I went to Dinant, a small town near Namur, Belgium. It was really nice and we hiked in the small hills and visited caves. The 13th of May , I went with Rotary to Amsterdam, Holland. I'd already been there but it was still a blast. We visited the Van Gogh museum, and afterwards , keukenhof , an immense flower garden. I took so many photos , it isn't even funny.
The 16th I went to see a concert, Up With People, it was really fun. It is sort of similar to an exchange , there is a group of young people who travel around the world singing and living in host families. It reminded me of Marie, because she sang so beautifully for us at the camp out.
The Friday before last , my school had a "seniors " day. All the 6ieme got dressed up in Halloween costumes and we ran around annoying the younger grades and throwing candy everywhere. Then we had a bbq which was followed by a spectacular . My group performed a
dance set.
The 22nd of May I gave my Rotary presentation. It didn't go to bad. The Brazilian , Flavia, speaks french much better than me so I felt a little bummed out, but it soon passed. I spent most the evening with Julie, a Belgian who will be an exchange student at my house next year. She's a sweetheart.
The 24th I was in a play for school, I played "Dieu" God. I had 7 lines and I stressed the whole week memorizing and perfecting my accent.
The 26th I spent the night at my best friend, Sara's house because Saturday we awoke really early and went with some classmates to Walibi , a theme park similar to Bush Gardens. It rained and it was cold but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. We were even happy the weather was so disagreeable , the lines were soooo short.
Today, I am writing you and later on going with my family to Celtic, to visit my host grandparents.
This Friday is my last day of school, 4 days of school left!!! (excluding exams) Saturday I am going to Paris and Monday, Euro Disney. If I don't get around to writing before then I start my tour the 20th of June. We will visit, 6 counties. Germany, Austria, France, V Republic , Monaco , And Italy. Then afterwards my brother and mommy arrive and we are going to Spain, and France.
I hope everyone is doing well and sorry this is so long.
Des Gros Bisous ,
Nicole
