Due to popular demand,,,

I know it's been more than a while since I wrote last and i'm sorry, but time flies when you're having a good time :P
But that's not totally true, there have been some heavy moments. Officially, i've felt homesick to a dangerously high degree once...but then i played badminton and was completely fine, which serves as a good expample for the following; in the first weeks, time passed in moments of extreme awesomeness and then boring lows, it's as if in the beginning i was momentarily bipolar. I would go through heavy moments where i felt that i was alone, and why had i put myself through this blah blah blah, but then something would happen, and it didn't have to be big, and i would then be so happy that i was in Belgium. It was bizarre and after talking to other exchange students I saw that it wasn't just me and that they hads experienced the same thing, but now that doesn't happen. And i can see now that those seemingly inescapable dark moments were just a passing thing and not really something that had any real meaning.
Anyway, other changes i've noticed. My french accent has astronomically improved; i can tell because the r's that used to sound like a gurgle now sound like actual r's (although i still can't say cirurgien or aéroport without making a face)I understand everything when somebody speaks to me, and with unwavering focus i can watch french tv without using subtitles. More and more often I can respond and speak at the same speed as the people here, although i still often have to look up words in the dictionary; that's probably what frustrates me the most, my french vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure are extremely limited. Or so it feels to me; Malika my host-mom and several people say I'm way too hard on myself I've also learned a lot of belgian-isms. For example, in belgium they don't say soixante-dix (70) or quatrevingt-dix (90), they say septante and nonante; only in belgium. Also Belgium is the only francophone country where they say à tantot instead of à bientot for see you soon.
The one thing that awes me and frustrates me to no end, is the belgian's lack of appetite to travel. In this itty bitty country, where you can just take the train in any direction and arrive in another country in less than 2 hours, there are people who have never been or have any desire to go visit Berlin, or Paris for example. I think of the multitudes of kids, me included, back in Canada that are itching to travel, to backpack across Europe, or Asia, anything, and then the kids here that have the luck to live in the country that's right in the middle of Europe and they don' take advantage of it! Why God why??
Something else that has way more influence over Belgium than i at first thought is the conflict between the french-speaking-Wallonians and the dutch-speaking-Flemish. Not a day goes by where it doesn't pop up in conversation, or something is said on the radio. And it's actually been escalating; tomorrow there's going to be a demonstration in Brussels.
And noooooow, places I've been; places I'm going. I've now been four times to Brussels and i love it; in the old centre of the city there are murals throughout the place painted after famous comic strips like Tintin (because apparently Belgium is the country of comic books), and there's this outdoor bazaar where they sell the most bizarre and quaint antiques, and Manneken Pis which is the most belgian thing there is, more so than even chocolate and beer and waffles and fries, and it's this tiny statue that pees and is always dressed up in costumes. There's also Janneken Pis, which is "the sister", you can probably guess what she does. I've put up pictures of my first voyage to Brussels on Facebook (if you haven't already seen them)
I've been twice now to Bruges; the first time with Malika and Norton, a brazilian who is a friend of the family. The second time with other exchange students from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the States. Bruges simply put is an amazingly well preserved fairy-tale-like-town; I've also put up pictures of Bruges.
In Belgium I've also been to Namur, Ottignies, Dinant, Luven, Louvain-la-neuve, Florée and there's probably more but I can't remember.
In France i went to Pérrone which is close to the Belgian-French border, and in the end of November I'm going to Paris with Camille who is my host sister and two of her friends. In mid March i'm going to Amsterdam for three days, and for spring break I'm going to Greece.
:D