Hi there!
What a week it has been! I'm seriously tired out. I feel like I could fall asleep at any second. This week has gone by so slow and there has been so much going on. And there is so much more to happen in the remaining three weeks that I have here in Belgium.
It's amazing how time is such a fluid concept. We count things down by days and hours and minutes. And for each person the time seems to pass by at a different rate of speed, although in reality we all have the same 24 hours in each day on this earth. Curious.
So, after a last weekend of traveling with Brent, Monday was difficult as always, because I was tired. It didn't help that there were construction workers at our house for the first three days of the week repairing parts of our driveway. They came early every morning and all the noise right outside my window woke me up each day.
Monday passed without too much excitement, just English class as usual for Elise.
Tuesday evening, I had my French class and we took a walking tour through the village with our professor. It was really nice because although I know the city now, I didn't know the history behind everything there is here. It turns out that Arlon is the oldest city in Belgium! Who knew?! After we walked around the village, we all stopped and sat at an outdoor cafe in one of the small plazas and had a drink. It was nice to just chit chat in French with our class mates and get outside of the classroom for a change. After we were done for the evening, I walked back to the school with a Spanish girl from my class, and I encountered my first tri lingual problem. My brain is so used to defaulting to French these days that I found it difficult to speak to her in Spanish, which irritated me very much, since Spanish is my first language love and I have studied it much longer than French. But it is true that if you don't use it, you lose it, and I haven't had any practice with Spanish conversation in many months.
Wednesday, the girls had a half day of school, like normal, and much to their dismay we had to begin to study for their exams. Here in Belgium, there is a large exam at the end of every school year and if the kids don't pass it then they can't go on to the next year of school, and they have to re do the previous year. This exam is huge and covers all the material they did over the entire year. It's so big that they do it one subject/section at a time each day over the last two weeks of the school year. Holy crap! So it's overwhelming for the girls, but also for me, because it is my responsibility to make sure that they pass the exam and do well and can go on to the next year. As you can imagine, this is a lot of pressure for me, because I want them to do well!
On Thursday morning, I met my friend Michelle for breakfast and coffee at Maison Knopes, my favorite cafe here in the village. After we ate quickly, we walked around the market that comes to town every Thursday. It's like a farmers market with all sorts of fresh grown foods but it also has local artisan goods and clothes and such. It was nice to get out in the sun for the morning with her and enjoy the marketand her company. After this, I came home and made lunch for the girls and studied with them more after school.
On Thursday evening, I had my French class again and we began to seriously study and review for the final exam, which is this Thursday! So not only am I trying to study for my own exam, but I am trying to help the girls with theirs! Obviously theirs are more important, because it doesn't really matter much if I pass or fail my exam, however, I would like to pass it just to say I did well and accomplished something while I was here.
Friday was a whirlwind. Sebastien had been in Paris all week for work, and on Friday Catherine left to meet him for the night in Brussels. So the girls and I were alone. After school, I took Elise to her art class and then Emma to her English class at Michelle's house. When I can, I like to stay with the class on Fridays because I enjoy working with them and I also enjoy watching Michelle's teaching methods. Truly observing her classes of different age levels has made me consider becoming an ESL teacher of some sort. I enjoy working with education and forging language and the kids. I admire how hard she works.
After the class, Emma and I came home and it was just the two of us for the night, since the parents were in Brussels and Elise was staying at a friends house for the night. We went to the store together to buy sleepover goodies. In American stores, there is an international section which has a small section of products from select countries. Friday for the first time, I noticed that there is an American section in the international aisle, here! How bizarre this was for me! So we bought American microwave popcorn, which Emma had never had before, and some Belgian chocolates and headed home.
We had lasagna for dinner, and afterwords, we made a giant pillow and blanket fort in the living room and enjoyed our salty American popcorn (in Europe they eat it with sugar!) while watching "The Parent Trap" in French. Finally around midnight, we went to sleep.
Saturday afternoon, the parents returned home with Elise in tow and we had a quick lunch together before the girls went to tennis in the afternoon. I skyped with my friend Brittany, and as always, it was good to see her face and catch up with her.
Then, around five pm, I walked into town to my friend Lora's apartment to meet her and her daughter, Lea. We went for a walk around town together to enjoy the beautiful weather we have had this weekend, and then we had dinner at a pizzeria and sat outside. At least three people passed who she knew. She is so kind and she is friends with everyone she meets. What a good soul.
After eating dinner, we went to the movie theater in Arlon, my first time going. We went to see Maleficent, since her daughter was with us, and it was more kid friendly. It was her first time in a movie theater! (She is 2). And she did so well! Although the movie was all in French with no subtitles, I was happy to say that I understood most of it. Also, there are some things you don't need language to understand, like hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially if that woman is Angelina Jolie.
After the movie, we walked around town a little bit in the fading light and then back to Lora's apartment to have a quick drink before I headed home for the evening.
I had such a great time with her and she is truly a good friend that I have met here. I will be sad to leave her!
Today, Sunday, we all had breakfast together at home, and I helped Catherine prepare some dishes for the big family barbecue we had today. Today in Belgium it is Father's Day. It isn't until next Sunday, my birthday also, in the United States. But it was truly the perfect day for a barbecue, hot and sunny. The girls and their cousins used the pool. But all the drinking wine in the sun has made me oh so tired today.
However, I am happy to say that the whole family noted how much my French has improved since the last time I saw them on Easter. This made me feel good about myself, because I still think my French is fairly weak. But it was a true compliment to hear.
Tonight, the girls cousins are sleeping over since there's no school tomorrow for some sort of religious holiday. But tomorrow we also need to crack down on studying because exams begin on Tuesday! I'm sure they will not be happy about this. I will be just as relieved when these exam are done as they will be!
But it won't be long until I am done with my brief time here. I say brief, although at time it has not felt this way. There have truly been ups and downs and highs and lows, but in the end, I suppose that's how life goes anywhere. The one consistency around the world is that no matter what happens, life goes on.
The rest of my time here looks like this: this coming Friday, I will head to Groningen for one last time for my birthday weekend to visit Brent. When I return next Sunday, I will have just two weeks left in Belgium before I depart on the 1st of July to meet Brent and Stephanie for a ten day vacation in Croatia, which we are all super excited about. Then, hopefully on July 11, I will be flying back home to the good old USA! I still haven't booked a flight home yet, so stay tuned for the actual fight date.
This week ahead will feel long, I'm sure, as it always does when I'm counting down the days to see Brent again (5, if you're interested). But these next five days will be packed full of cooking, studying, driving, exams, and my French exam on Thursday! Yikes, lots to do!
I hope everyone at home had a great weekend and has a great week ahead!
All my love
XOXO
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