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
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