Overcoming Sickness

Hey guys, still not a lot to talk about.  We had our first break from school this year, with no school on Thursday and Friday.  I woke up pretty sick on Tuesday so I ended up only going to school Monday.  So the past week mostly consisted of sleeping in till noon, watching movies, and playing Playstation 3 with Arthur and his friend Norman.

I wasn't too sick by yesterday so I went out with my host-mom, Arthur, and Arthur's friend Charlotte.  We went downtown to the bar for a beer, and then Arthur, Charlotte and I walked around town handing out fliers for the Ms. Luxembourg beauty pageant.  My host-mom's niece Victoria is in the pageant.

I also went to the McDonald's in Marche-en-Famenne.  It's very deluxe compared to what we have in America!  There is one huge drawback, though.  When I ordered a McFlurry, I looked at the menu and realized that I couldn't add Oreos.  Then I found out my host family had never heard of Oreos, even when I showed them a picture.  It's going to be a long year, but I think I can hold through.

We also watched two movies in French, Chicken Little and Bruce Almighty.  So far every movie I've seen in Belgium has been dubbed from English.

Arthur has a tutor who happens to speak English, so he is going to be helping me too from now on.  Today was my first day with him, he mostly just helped me with the French language in general, helping me to pronounce and read vocabulary.

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I have to say, my host family is very nice, but it almost seems like there's nothing for me to do but sit on my computer, watch movies, and play video games.  I have been sick part of the time, but even still.  I'm getting a little bored, so at least I have an AFS party next weekend.  I have to cook an American meal and bring it for dinner, and I'll let you know how that goes.  À bientôt...

Keaton

Marche-en-Famenne

Incase you were wondering what the town looks like, here are some pictures:

http://fr.business-etape.com/imgActivite/thumb/Ville-Marche-en-Famenne-3268_2.jpg

http://cache.virtualtourist.com/15/2286082-a_fountain_Marche_en_Famenne.jpg

http://www.fundacjadlawolnosci.org/evs/projekty/marche-en-famenne.jpg

It goes...

I haven't been posting much because there hasn't been a lot going on.

I just finished my second week of school.  The students and teachers are really friendly and helpful.  I've had to take a few tests, and if I don't understand a test, they'll let me take it home to do it for homework.

On Wednesday, Arthur hurt his back so we didn't go to Judo, and on Thursday, he got sick and lost his voice.  So were mostly just hanging out, and watching Les Simpson on TV.  I don't mind because school can be exhausting so relaxing at home is nice.

I bought new clothes on Thursday, and clothes are definitely more expensive in Europe than in the U.S.  40€ ($51.96) isn't terrible for a pair of jeans, but later my host-mom told me she likes JBC because it's the cheaper store.

Last night we went out to buy new shoes because I only came with one pair.  I got a nice pair of Vans. Then we came home, drank wine, and watched Scary Movie (in French of course).

One scary story is that I lost my ATM card for a while.  In America, I'm used to getting my card back as soon as I enter my pin.  Then the last thing I do is grab my receipt before I drive off.  But at the CBC Bank ATM I've been using here, you get your card back after taking your receipt.  Thankfully I'm not the first person to leave their card in the ATM, so the bank still had it a couple days after I left it.

(That's me^^^)

This morning I have to go register with the city hall to confirm that I'll be here for ten more months.  Wish me luck!  I'm having a great time but I miss you guys a lot.

Keaton

It's been: One week! (since you looked at me)

It's been a week since I first arrived to my host family's house, and twelve days since I left Michigan.  It seems like I've been away from home for so long, and then it hits me that I've only started my year.  I have mixed feelings about this notion, but for the most part, I'm doing great.

Yesterday was the first day I was able to sleep-in since I've been here; I can definitely say I needed that.    Shortly after I woke up, I went to the gym in Marche-en-Famenne with Arthur.  Arthur is a blue-belt in judo.  I went to watch him on Wednesday and he asked me to try it next time, so I did.  I had to learn by using my vision for the most part since I couldn't really understand what they were saying.  It was interesting, and definitely something I'm not used to.  I guess I'm doing it again this Wednesday.

After judo, Arthur, Caroline, Caroline's mother, Caroline's boyfriend, and I went out for dinner.  We were going to eat at an Italian restaurant.  Unfortunately it was booked for the night, but we were still able to order pizza from it.

While we waited for the pizza, we went to a bar called Le Cercle Brasserie.  I was there with Arthur on Wednesday and I ordered a beer, so I tried the wine this time.  Both were excellent.

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Last night, Arthur told me to be ready for a seven kilometer dog walk with him and his friend Norman by 9:00 in the morning.  First I assumed we would be walking around his neighborhood, until Norman showed up and all of a sudden Arthur and I were in the car with his family.  We drove about ten minutes out to the middle of nowhere and pulled into a dry field with a grill and a small shack.  Friends of Norman's parents were there with their two dogs too.  We all sat on picnic tables and talked for about five minutes when we got there.  I wasn't exactly sure why we hadn't started walking yet, until another car pulled up with one more dog.  I realized they invited a couple more friends, until another car showed up.  And another.  And another.  And more and more, and the next thing I know, we're walking in a huge line of people with about thirty dogs.  

It was nice to be around dogs though, because my host family has about nine cats, and I miss my dog a lot.  The best part was that one of them was a border collie, and reminded me a ton of Savannah.

Anonymous Border Collie

Savannah

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I'm feeling like a lazy American right now.  I haven't started watching the TV in my room until today when I got batteries for the remote.  I wasn't going to stand up and change the channel with my hands, would you?

Salut!

Keaton

Settling in Marche-en-Famenne

I just finished my second day of school at the Insitut Saint-Laurent in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium.  I finally got punched in the face with French.

After embarrassing myself attempting to rap Eminem in front of everyone at the AFS talent show on Saturday night, we had a dance party for a few hours and then we went to sleep.  The next morning we woke up, cleared our hotel rooms, and went over to the park for our last activities together as a group.  I imagined that Belgium would have cold summers, but we were working up a sweat just laying in the sun.  I like to consider that good weather.

After the park, we went back to the hotel where our host families came to pick us up.  My house consists of Caroline, her son Arthur (both pictured below), and Caroline's mother.  They don't speak much English, but we are able to communicate well enough.  They're very friendly.

(Keaton Seafer)

Marche-en-Famenne is a small town, and it's much nicer than I was expecting.  Being out in the country, I assumed it would be somewhat of a hick town.  I guess you could compare the downtown area to downtown Holland or East Grand Rapids, but cooler.  We live within a two minute walk of downtown which is also very nice.  Arthur and I walked down to the video store the first night.  We satisfied my love for horror movies by renting Scream and Final Destination, both dubbed in French.

 

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Monday was my first day of school.  That's when I started drowning in French.  Most of what the teachers say flies right over my head.  Everyone knows a little English, but not very much.  Only one or two of the students I met are fluent.  I'm okay with that because I didn't come to Belgium to speak English.

The courses I take are math (which seems to be Algebra II), science (including biology, chemistry, and physics), French, art (including drawing/painting, music, and photography), history, geography, phys. ed, religion (the Institut Saint-Laurent is Catholic), and English.  I have the same schedule every week, but not every day.  For example, I only have phys. ed on Monday and Tuesday, and I have math twice on Friday.  On Wednesdays, the Institut Saint-Laurent only has class in the mornings.  Thursdays, I don't have to come in until 10:00, as opposed to 8:20.  And believe or not, I seem to be doing extraordinarily well in English class.

I have almost all of my classes with Arthur, except for the fact that he takes Greek and I take art.  Because of this, the secretary, who helped me figure out my schedule, walked me to my art class (the school is made up of several small to large sized buildings).  The secretary doesn't speak English, but she is very nice and we were able to communicate a little bit on the way.  She told me they have had other students in my place before, and I will be speaking French by Christmas.  I don't remember being this excited for the holidays since I was little.

The people that I talk to at school are friends of Arthur.  We speak a combination of French and English with each other.  They are really nice, and I haven't met anyone yet that wasn't friendly.

My English teacher is very engaging and is excited to have me in class.  He likes me to help other students with their English and even told me to correct him if he makes mistakes. I asked him where he learned English, assuming he studied abroad in the U.S. or U.K.  Apparently he learned it all in Belgium.  He said it was okay for a while, until he started listening to English podcasts on his MP3 player three years ago.  It made his English a lot better, and he is going to recommend French podcasts for me.  He also told me to go to him whenever I need help with my French.

So far we've been eating dinner shortly after Arthur and I get home from school (around 16:30 or 4:30 P.M.).  The Belgian cuisine doesn't seem far off from the meals I eat at home.  Today we had meatballs with potatoes and greens.  Yesterday we had chicken with fries and salad, and my first day, we ate spaghetti with tomato sauce and parmesan.  The only main difference I noticed is Belgians use mayonnaise with their fries instead of ketchup (and you eat them with a fork).

I am having a great time so far.  My host mom just put a TV in my room so I'm typing with Nickelodeon playing in the background in French.  Arthur and I are going to walk downtown soon, and I think he wants to rent Scream 2.

Until later,

Keaton

First Post

Saturday Sept. 8, 2012

Well my arrival in Belgium was yesterday, and I haven’t been slapped in the face with French or faced much of a culture shock yet.  It started Wednesday Sept. 5 when I was dropped off for orientation at the NYC Hilton Hotel in NYC near JFK Airport.

A large majority of the students at orientation were leaving for France or Italy.  There were only six of us headed for Belgium, delayed due to a difficulty finding host families in Belgium.  During orientation, we played typical mixer games to get to know each other, and then we spent the night at the Hilton.  It was a very nice hotel.

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On Thursday Sept. 6, we woke up around 8 A.M. for breakfast and hung out until it was time to head to the airport.  The six of us that were going to Belgium traveled with the French students (which seemed to make up of about 40 students) to Zurich, Switzerland.  The plane took off around 6 P.M. and the ride was about 8.5 hours. Some kids were smart enough to bring sleeping pills. Otherwise, you got a half hour of sleep, like me.

Arriving in Zurich around 8:30 A.M. (2:30 A.M. in NYC/Michigan), the French students and the AFS leader, who guided us around the airports, left us for Paris.  The six of us going to Belgium hopped on the one hour flight to Brussels by ourselves.  When we arrived, there were AFS volunteers who led us onto the train to the Van Belle Hotel in Brussels.

We got to the hotel around noon (6 A.M. in NYC/Michigan).  There we met other students traveling to Belgium through AFS from Denmark, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Finland, Norway, Hong Kong, Latvia, and a few other countries.  We divided ourselves into small groups and did more orientation activities.

Around 3 P.M. (9. A.M. in NYC/Michigan), we walked over to a park. Being awake for 24 hours along with the stress of traveling, many of us fell asleep at the park.  I fell asleep on the grass for about two hours.  Actually, I was so exhausted, I also instantly fell asleep for a short period of time on the train to the hotel and as soon as we went up to our hotel room.  My room mate woke me up so I wouldn’t miss the activities.

After dinner at about 7:30 P.M. (1:30 P.M. in NYC/Michigan), we were supposed to do some more mixer activities, but I snuck upstairs to take a nap instead.  I ended up waking up at 8 A.M. the next morning.

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Today after we ate breakfast, we met with our small groups (classified by language) to discuss social differences between our countries.  It’s much more fun than it sounds.  They also tried to open us up to the traditional European greeting of kissing everyone's cheek.  That still feels weird. 

Because we were supposed to arrive two weeks ago, they made up for it by taking us a for a ride on a double decker bus through Brussels.  It’s a beautiful city!

Now I have to go embarrass myself at the group talent show.  I don’t have wifi at the hotel, but I will post tomorrow when I arrive at my host family’s home (or whenever I get the chance).  I’ll try to update weekly, and I’ll also try to post pictures as much as possible - because I wouldn’t want to read a blog without photos either.

Au revoir

Keaton