David Guetta!

Last Saturday, I took the train to Liège for a David Guetta concert.  For old people who have never heard of David Guetta, he's a famous French DJ, but really popular in the US too.

I went with other exchange students.  I actually didn't know any of them before I went, but I knew of them through other exchange students.

When I got to Liège, I met up with the three other guys I was supposed to share a hostel with, one American, Caleb, and two Canadian, Will and Evan (with apologies to all Canadians who consider themselves Americans).

I can cross "all night concert" off my bucket list now!  It started at 8 PM and ended at 5 AM.  They failed to mention, however, that David Guetta would only be there from midnight to 2.  No problem, though, it was still a lot of fun!

When we first got there, the opening DJ was a friend of the other American's host sister.  Small world in Belgium.

I left the concert with Caleb, Will, and Evan at around 4 AM to walk to our hostel.  Caleb had booked a room for us, so we thought we were all covered.  It turned out that the hostel was completely booked, and we never exactly understood why.  Maybe Caleb accidentally booked it for the next night.  But they let us sleep on the wood floor, and I had some clothes to use for a pillow so it wasn't too bad.

A lady told us we had to get up at about 7:30 AM, but said we could sleep on the couches in the side hallway.  You can imagine how happy we were when it turned out that there were couches available the whole time.  It was a pretty laughable situation though.  We decided to go to the train station a head home.

Yesterday, my English teacher told our class we would be watching a surprise movie in English the next day.  It  turned out to be Mrs. Doubtfire!  I forgot how funny that movie is, and my English teacher was happy that I knew the film.  I told him that my mom used to complain my siblings and I should be better behaved, "like those kids in Mrs. Doubtfire."

Tomorrow, my school is going to see Moonrise Kingdom at the movie theater, and then I have the next week off of school.  Stuff to look forward to!

Bonne nuit,

Keaton

Chinese Restaurant

At my school, I set next to a Chinese girl named Christine in most classes.  She speaks fluent Chinese, plus a fair amount of French and even more English.  Her birthday was on Sunday and she invited my host brother, myself, and a few other friends to her birthday dinner at her family restaurant.

The cook was a show off, but hey, he had something to show off.  It was sweet!

Weekend in Liège!

I've been up to a lot lately! On Saturday, I had an optional AFS trip to Liège for a boat ride, and I brought my host brother with me. We took a train to Liège.  When we got there, we rode a ferry around the Meuse River, which took about an hour.  Afterwards, we all went to a restaurant together for lunch.  It was a pretty crazy day after lunch.

One of the American students in Belgium, Callie's host-parents wanted her to leave Liège shortly after the ferry ride.  She was going to walk to the bus stop and take a bus to the train station.  Because I'm a fantastic person, a girl named and Ana and I went with Callie to keep her company.  It wasn't hard to find the bus stop, but then we couldn't find the right bus.  It started raining so we ran into McDonald's to call a student named Chris who lives in Liège, because he would know how to get to the train station without a bus.

We ran through the rain for about ten minutes until we got to the station and said goodbye to Callie.  Ana said she was sure she knew how to get back to the restaurant, so we trusted her.  It started raining harder and my umbrella flipped inside out every 30 seconds.  After about a half hour of running through the pouring rain, we realized we were back by the train station.  So then we decided to trust Chris, who took us in more big circles (not to say I wouldn't have done the same, but I didn't get cocky;).

After waiting over an hour, my host-brother called me and was freaking out that I wasn't back yet.  He told me to meet him at the train station, and I told Chris just to lead me back to the river, because I was pretty sure I could get to the train station by then.  I crossed the bridge and realized I had no idea how to get to the train station.  I asked several different people for directions, but everyone led me a different way.  I forgot that there were two train stations in Liége : the one that I arrived in, and the one that we took Callie to.

Running around lost and alone in a big city in a foreign country with a foreign language is one of the most frustrating things that can happen to you.  Eventually I made my way to the wrong train station, but figured out how to take the train to the other station, where my host-brother had been waiting for me.  Even if it took a long time to figure out, I did it in French, so I'm all good;)

 I know you're all dying to hear the rest, but I'm tired, so I'll finish later

AFS Party

Something I love about Belgian schools: no substitute teachers.  Yesterday we were told that my geography teacher wouldn't be at school today, so I got to sleep in for an extra two hours.

The AFS party last Saturday was probably the best weekend I've had since I got here.  It's not so much that I did a ton there, but it was just fun to get out and talk with other exchange students.

Saturday was the first time I've taken the train since I first got to Belgium.  My host-mom helped me buy my ticket, and I was dropped off all alone at the station on Saturday morning.  It cost about 8€ for the ticket and the train ride was a little over a half hour.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do when I arrived in Namur, so I was relieved when a lady in an AFS sweatshirt came up and asked me if I was Keaton.  Then we got in her car and drove to the party. I was surprised she had a Ford, because there are a number of people in America who refuse to buy American cars.

When we weren't in our small groups, everyone tended to hang out with their own "language".  Spanish speaking people were with Spanish speaking people, Italian speaking people were with Italian speaking people, and English speakers were with English speakers.  There were three other American students, and a boy from New Zealand.  Some of the students I already knew because they came in the second arrival with me.  The rest were from first arrival, so I met them for the first time.

We all had to bring a food from our own culture.  My host-mom didn't seem to want to make anything, and she talked to an AFS volunteer who said just to buy chocolate chip cookies or something, so I just brought a ton of those.  Not to mention a box of Twix!

When my family and I hosted a Dutch exchange student two years ago, his liaison was a friendly middle-aged man, who was just there to make sure everything was OK.  I expected my liaison to be of similar character, but when I met him at the party, he turned out to be a 19 year old guy named Geoffroy.  I'm glad though, because this way he isn't only my liaison, but also a friend.

Most host-families were at the party with their exchange students, but my host-mom was gone last weekend, and my host-brother just had his wisdom teeth taken out.  AFS told my family that I could just sleep at the party because the trains didn't run that late.  The party was in an old, rented theater and I didn't exactly know where I was supposed to sleep, so Geoffroy just told me I could sleep at his house.

It took about a half hour to drive to his house.  Geoffroy told me on the way that his house was like an old barn, and I wasn't really sure what it would be like.  But when we got there, it turned out to be very modern inside, and pretty big too.  Thankfully he's taller than I am, so I didn't feel cramped up in his car or house (in Dutch West Michigan, I'm used to being fairly average in height.  In Belgium, my host-brother told me I'm like a giant).

At his house, we stayed up for a couple more hours talking and watching random YouTube videos until we went to sleep.  Before Geoffroy and his mom drove me to the train station, we ate chocolate for breakfast and he showed me some more around his house.

It wasn't a great weekend for learning French, but it was still a lot of fun.  A lot of people tell me I'm improving though, so I'll take that as a good sign.

Keaton

Durbuy

I was getting restless, but things got better Sunday. We went to Durbuy, or "the worlds smallest city."  Check it out!