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| view from my bedroom |
It doesn't feel like it's been 5 months , honestly . Being half way through doesn't seem real, I don't even want to think about the day when i have to pack up my things and say goodbye. I didn't really even get to be comfortable and used to everything till about october/november, so i don't really understand how anyone could to a 3-5 month exchange. You'd still feel like a tourist after everything in my opinion. Everything would still be new and confusing . Plus you probably wouldn't learn much French.
My french , is okay.I get complimented on it a lot but I feel like I'm not that good. I can speak well when i know exactly what I want to say. Now i'm having trouble with past tenses , ironically enough the section my English class is working on is EXACTLY what I need to learn in French. Ex: " I wouldn't have come if i couldn't get a ride." stuff like that . Hopefully when I start my French class next month they'll cover that.
I know I've probably covered this before in earlier posts but its bothering me more and more . It being the random English that is on everyone's sweatshirts here. Things like America College #1 Team 1945 or Atlanta Football Club . I'm just like YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT ANY OF THOSE THINGS ARE!!!!!!!!!! And yes i know there are plenty of shirts buried somewhere in a forever 21 stateside with random french scrawled on it , BUT my point is ,that Europeans are notorious for loathing Americans or at least our way of life. Yet... you listen to our music, wear Converse and Nike, drink coke like water, and all have dreams of going to New York or Los Angeles . It also seems a little hard to find good music here, there are several belgian groups that i've heard and liked but the radio is domniated by weird club music with dubious lyrics . All sounding eerily similiar * BOOM BOOM BOOM THE SOUND OF YOU LOVE MAKES ME HIIIIGGHHHHHH*
The official name of where i live here , the region , is called Le Borinage. and it's known for the now not so functioning coal mining industry . My host sister and I were talking about it yesterday and its .... not very prosperous. I'm actually in the poorest Provence in Belgium. It wasn't always this way , we were on top of things during the Industrial Revolution. You can tell this area used to have money because there are plenty of really nice houses left over. Now its ...yeah... there's an incredibly high amount of unemployment and apparently there's a mafia type family in the next town over. Sometimes i think the main attraction of this area is that you aren't far from a train station to take you somewhere else. It's a good thing everyone i've met here has been incredibly welcoming and nice to make up for it :)
Speaking of somewhere else I went to Lille yesterday! My host sister , Elena, her friend from school and I all took the train for the SOLDES ( sales) . The trip wasn't even that long , 45 minutes i think. I went out with the intention of buying a new purse and pea coat, I got half of my objective accomplished. Unfortunately my debit card was empty and i got to have that nice awkward moment at the cash register when you're card gets denied. It was still really cool , the city is beautiful and i was going to take photos but we were on a mission of consumerism NO TIME. La prochaine fois
After shopping we went on a night walk with my host brother and sisters youth group. It's kind of like the Scouts you find all over belgium but a bit different. I don't know the differences really i just know that they don't want you to call them scouts. we walked 12 km and it was much needed . WHAT IS THIS CALLED AGAIN , Exercise?! After the walk my knee locked up quicker than all the stores here at 5 pm. ( old soccer injury from my glory days *sniff) I'm actually going to try and join the indoor soccer club in my town and wednesdays i'm going to go running with my host sister and host mom in their jogging club. I'm going to get fit if it kills me ...which it probably will.
I'm pretty lucky , my host siblings are great they always ask me if i want to go out and do things with them , more time to work on my french and be SOCIAL.
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| Bedroom |
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