Don't Bother Trying to be a Good Samaritan

I'm hoping that being in Belgium gives me a free "opt-out" of the whole being thankful thing today.

I went to Liège last Saturday with a bunch of exchange students (it seems like that's all I do, doesn't it?) to celebrate the birthdays of my Serbian and Californian friends.  The day was going pretty well at first, walking around the city and having fun, until I ran out of money and had to stop at the ATM.

There were two ATM's side by side and a lady was using the one next to me.  I put my card in the machine, entered my PIN, and chose to withdraw some money.  Suddenly the ATM next to me started beeping.  The lady forgot to grab her card.  So I grabbed the card and sprinted after, got it to her, and made it back to the ATM in about 15 seconds - just enough time to have my card swallowed!

I went back to Liège yesterday to see if I could get my card back.  It turned out that because I was only at an ATM, and not a bank with real employees, the card was destroyed as soon it got sucked back into the ATM.  So now I'm without money on the other side of the world until I get a new card mailed to me.

I was raised listening to Bible stories like "The Good Samaritan". I ran the lady her card by instinct.  Can't you see the real problem here?  If it weren't for our Puritanical society trying to force its idea of morality on us left and right, I wouldn't be in this mess!

Now enough of my bad humor.

I felt like I was spending too much time doing nothing during the school week, so I finally started an extra curricular activity.  I walked to the tennis club after school because the instructor wanted to see what group level to put me in.  It was a weird feeling when I realized I hadn't played in three years.  I explained my financial situation to the club too, and they were nice enough to tell me "play now, pay later".

Since I've finished complaining about my life, I guess I have time to mention what I'm thankful for.  I'm extremely thankful for my family that bend over backwards for me, even when I'm all the way across the Atlantic.  I'm thankful for my friends that stay with me through the best and worst times, and that it will only be a matter of time before I'm back screwing around with them.

Obviously I'm thankful that I'm an exchange student.  I have a host family that's happy to have me and have made a lot of good friends within these past few months. I'm thankful that I'm able to spend a year in Europe, to help me learn about the rest of the world while learning more about my life at home at the same time.  Believe me, I never realized how grateful I am for my life at home and the people in it.

Thanksgiving 2012

Now that it's getting close to Thanksgiving, I'm feeling a little homesick.  I'm going to miss going to Aunt Vicki's with the whole family, eating pie, and walking down to Lake Michigan in our coats.  Of course I can never resist taking a dip too.  Going abroad helps you to realize what your true values are.  Normally, my parents would have to pull me out of bed and tell me over and over again to get ready to leave.  Now I'd give just about anything to be there for that one meal.

Maybe I'll even set my alarm for 3 the next morning and pretend that I'm going Black Friday shopping.

This past Friday was my American friend Nicole's birthday. She invited me and our Kiwi friend Cameron to a party with her Scouts.  It was supposed to be a sleep over, but her mom came and took us to Nicole's house around 3 AM so we could sleep more comfortably.  After that, I was exhausted from the long week so I just rested for the remainder of the weekend.

I have more birthday parties this Friday and Saturday, and thankfully I just found out I have a mini vacation next week with no school Monday and Tuesday.

See ya next week
Keaton

Namur

I went to Namur both Saturday and Sunday last weekend.  Saturday was a get-together with AFS exchange students organized my American friend Emma.  We all met at the train station and walked to a Tex-Mex restaurant.  The food was very Tex-Mexian, but best of all, there was a Michigan license plate on the wall.

After that we walked around the city for a while while some people shopped and others just tagged along.

People started to complain that it was too cold outside, so we all went to a bar to warm up.  They took us to a bar with a cave-like basement, and lucky for us, it happened to be empty.  There were about twenty of us.  We had to go down a very narrow staircase to get to the basement, and the top of the staircase was located in the middle of the first floor.  One of my friends fell down the stairs - it was very funny (and that was before anyone had ordered a drink!).

We stayed down in the cave until people started heading home one by one.  When there were about five of us left and a group of other people came downstairs, we headed out too.  We had some time to spare before we caught out trains so we went to a Belgian-style fast food stand.  I ordered a cheeseburger with fries, and when they gave me my food, all I had was a huge paper cup of fries.  I tried to explain that I ordered a cheeseburger too, and the guy kept telling me he already gave it to me.  I thought I had been ripped off, until I looked and realized that my cheeseburger was inside the huge pile of fries.

On Sunday, I went back to Namur, but this was for an event planned by AFS for the Namur Chapter (which I am in).  We started off going to a museum of music, which was really bizarre.  Our tour guide would lead us into different rooms and have us make music with what seemed like a bunch of African style instruments.

Next we went to a cave.  It was some cave found in 1904 by a bunch of workers. I think it was the only cave I've been to other than Mammoth Cave.

After the cave, we went down to the bridge for a while, and some of us ate at a restaurant.  

Finally, we took the train back to the main station.  It was a great vacation!  As for today, school was terrible and my next vacation is in 7 weeks.  Wish me luck!

À plus tard

Keaton

Happy Halloween!

It's hard for me to believe that it's already November, but that must mean I'm having fun.

Fall vacation started last Friday, and other than the first night, I hadn't really done much until yesterday (anyone who isn't a parent/teacher can feel free to ask me what happened the first night of vacation!).


Yesterday I went to Liège to celebrate Halloween with other exchange students.  First I met up with my friend Will in Namur, and from there we took the train to Liège.  We arrived a few hours early and we were both starving so we started off by walking around looking for somewhere to eat.  We were trying to find McDonald's, but we decided we wanted some food that was more substantial, so we ate at Pizza Hut instead (isn't it great that we're branching out and trying new things?).

We didn't know where to find the bar that the exchange students were at, so another Canadian exchange student from Rotary Club came to help us find it.  It's so much fun getting together with other English speakers and making fun of each other's accents!

We walked around Liège for a while longer before we got to the bar.  We met up with some other Americans and a German guy.

When we arrived at the bar, I talked and said hello to a lot of people I hadn't seen for a long time outside of the bar.  Things were somewhat crazy from the get-go, though.  People were already dancing on the tables at 2 PM, so I went with another group of people to a different bar with a calmer setting.

When we got to the second bar, I was going to order something when I reached into my pockets to find out I didn't have my wallet.  That was probably that scariest thing to happen to me in the past few months.  A few good friends walked with me back to the original bar and my wallet was sitting on an empty table.  They don't come more absent minded than me.

After a few more hours of socializing together, we left the bar and went to the fair in Liège.  I was with AFS students at the time, but they weren't interested in doing any of the rides so I met up with some Rotary students that I met earlier in the day.  I can't really describe the ride very well but I got a pretty good view of the city.  After that, the Rotary students helped me find the train station and I went home. I also forgot my camera, but I'll post pictures later if I find any on Facebook.

Tonight I'm going to the movie theater with my host brother and some friends from school. We're seeing some French movie that I've never heard of before - gotta try new things!

For the rest of vacation, I'll be meeting up with other exchange students on Saturday and Sunday, and doing all my homework on Sunday at midnight (or Monday at midnight, whatever floats your boat).

In other news, I've been wanting to see The Sixth Sense for a long time, so I watched it the other night.  First I liked it, then when it was over I hated it, and then the next morning after sleeping on it, I realized that I love it.