Every Wednesday at my school (and most schools in Belgium/maybe Europe) we get out at 12:30, and since it was a nice day I decided to take some pictures of my room and the farm. In the interest of not making this post longer than it already is, you can see them all on my photobucket here.
This is my room! Behind this there is a little hallway with a desk for me to study and some more storage places.
This is the view out of the window in my room!
One of the cows (bulls? I don't know.) with the grass I cut in the front of the picture. I almost killed myself driving around on the lawn mower (and had more than one person laugh as I tried to maneuver it) but I managed to get the hang of it and cut the grass in my host grandmother(Monique)'s yard without completely destroying it.
Calinou (sp?), the little kitten that stays at Monique's house but loves to run around the entire farm. She's very cuddly and I'm obsessed with cats so we're a good pair. Monique also has a little dog who is also absolutely adorable (and stops being shy as soon as I'm holding food of any sort. :)).
The ostrich that I didn't know existed until I saw it a few days ago! I'll try to list all the animals on the farm: cows, deer, chickens (including an evil cock that likes to chase me), sheep, a peacock, ducks/several types of birds that I don't know the name of, an ostrich, a bunch of rabbits, a horse, and I think that's it (not including the cat and dog).
After taking a bunch of pictures I went over and had a snack with Monique and she showed me all the family pictures she had in a collage on her wall. I read/translated a magazine on her couch for a little while, which I have found really helps me with vocabulary. It's also really helpful to just talk with her, because (as far as I know) she speaks no English and therefore our conversations are all in French, and she explains things by describing them in French rather than just giving me the English translation.
Today (Friday) I had a relatively easy day at school, with a study, french, another study, gym, math, lunch, and then another hour of math. Usually I would've had two hours of English afterwards, but the teacher was away so we were going to have two more studies. I, along with two other exchange students, decided to leave early (with permission) instead of sitting in study for two more hours. We made a loop around the center of Neufchateau, stopping at the grocery store (the other girls bought TONS of junk food, but I hadn't brought my wallet to school so I only had 2 euros) and then walking down to a pretty lake and eating their food at a little bar. Afterwards, we walked back to the school to find our rides and go home. I made little peanut butter and jelly (did you know they don't have grape jelly in Belgium?) squares to bring to my AFS meeting. It was my first time meeting everyone in the Luxembourg chapter and they were all fantastic. There was a buffet with foods from every country and we just got to talk with all the other students and get to know each other. I met my counselor who is really nice and lives quite closeby. I have 2 night orientation with the Luxembourg chapter 2 weeks from now, which I think will be really fun!
Tomorrow I have to wake up early to catch a train to Brussels where I'll meet my first host family and stay with them for the weekend. We're going to go to a little theme park on the coast of Belgium called Plopsaland and I think it's going to be really fun!
