Hey everyone! Im here sefe snd sound, the flight went well, but I couldnt sleep. My town is sooo beautiful, all old buildings, and everything is brick. My host family has been wonderful, for future reference; my host mom is Fabienne, my host Dad is Fabrice, and my host brother is Damien. Ill get some pics up asap, but Ive already been on here for a while, it takes forever to type anyhting, because the keyboard is very different, and the interent connection it quite a bit slower than in Canada. But here's an account of what Ive been up to this week...
Ive been so incredibly busy, my host family must think Im superwoman with the amount of things they arrnged for me! Monday, I played TENNIS with my host parents and thier friends, Tuesday, Damien and I took the bus 'in to town' to see the school and his dad's work.
Wednesday, I went wimming with Damien abd his grandfather, whiwh was quite fun, despite the fact that his grand-pere has a very thick accent and I cant really undersand him. Oh, and I got lost in the change rooms, everyone goes into this one room, and then you go into a smaller change room, and get changed, then go out the other side of the small room and there is a room with lockers, then you go into the swimming part. They didnt tell me about going in one side and out the other though, so after a few minuts of looking like a stupid tourist, Damien came looking for me.
Thursday, Damien and I took the train to Antwerpen to go to the zoo, which had all these crazy animals that I had never heard of, and I had my first waffle!!!!!!!! SO GOOD, all warm and sugar coated....yum. We were on the train home and we were practicing 'Avoir' and 'Etre', because my host dad tests me every night, and wwe almost missed the stop! After we got off the trian, and after we thought it was the wrong stop, then realised it was the right stop, Damien was like "at least if we had gotten lost we could have practiced 'je suis perdu, tu es perdu....." It was great.
And today, I had my first rotary meeting, there was lots of wine and lots of cutlery! Then I spent a few hours with Virginie, who was in Canmore for her exchnange last year. She took me shopping in her city, where my rotary meets (Charleroi), but we had a guy from brasil with us, so we didnt shop very long. we looked at a few churches, and got my new cell phone fixed, it needed a new SIM card, it was the cell of the last exchange student in my club, so I dont know why it wasnt working, but oh well, its good now.
And voilà, thats my first full week! until next time!
Love,
Melissa
I cant believe Im leaving tomorrow!!! Last year when I applied for this, August seemed soooo far away, and its finally here! This is so crazy, this is the last time Ill be on this computer, or have dinner in this house, or sleep in this bed for a whole YEAR!!! Im so excited I cant even stand it! But, my best friend is coming over tonight to say goodbye, and that is going to be really really hard.
Thanks to everyone for all your support! Ill see you on the other side!
Travel Times and Terrorists
Yay, so yesterday my travel agent Fed-Exed me my passport/visa and my tickets! I leave here at 1:50 pm, then its off to Minneapolis, a 1 1/2 hour layover there, then to Amsterdam, and a 2 hour layover there, and then to my final destination...Brussels! And my visa is soo pretty, its all...pink and green and shiny. lol, I love it.
The flight is only supposed to take 24hrs...BUT...with everything that just happened in London with the attempted terrorist plot, I am expecting it to take WAY longer than that. I know that I dont leave for 8 days, but still. And now I cant take much with me onto the plane. Only:
-Pocket sized wallets/purses
-Travel Documents
-ID
-Money
-Medications
-Sun/glasses, but no cases for them
-Contact cases, but no bottle of solution
-Sanitary Items
-Unpackaged tissues
-Keys, but they cannot have an electronic device on them (ie. garage door opener/remote car starter)
There were some others, but they dont apply to me, like baby formula, but another passenger has to taste it infront of an airline official.
You cannot carry:
-Food
-Beverages
-Hairspray
-Shampoo
-Toothpaste
-Hair gel
Etc...anything liquid.
And EVERYONE is subject to hand searches.
I mean, I dont want to sound selfish here, because I know that this is a really big deal, and Im really happy that they caught the guys before they could do any harm, but....this really, really sucks. I guess Im just lucky that Im leaving next week, and not today.
Countdown
Alrighty, for my own amusement (an incase I get so excited I forget how to count) I've put a ticker at the botton of the page, it shows how many more days there is until I leave! Yay!
It's quite pretty I think :D
Anyways, my flight is booked for the 18th, and my travel agent is fed-ex-ing my passport, visa, and tickest on Tuesday, which means Ill have them on Wednesday. That should be exciting, I havent seen my poor passport since....March, when Rotary took it away *tear* And now it has had the plastic surgery of passoprts! Its got a visa in it! yay! Ive heard that visas are very pretty colours, so I cant wait to see it! And my tickets! Ive never had plane tickets!
So much excitement, I dont know how Ill ever handle it all! LOL
The Invasion Begins...
...on August 18th.
My travel agent just emailed me to say that she's received my Visa, which was the LAST STEP. Now that thats been accepted and sent back, the coast was clear to book my ticket, which she is going to do for August 18th, which will put me in Belgium for August 19th sometime in the afternoon!
Im so excited
all over again its like the night I found out I was accepted into the program all over again. I'll write more later, I have a headache and just worked 8 hours!
Au revoir!
