New family!

So this past Monday, I changed families. I have to say, I think I am going to have a wonderful time here. I haven't seen much of how they interact at home, because right after I got here I went to a church camp with my new siblings, but what little I have seen, and with the interactions I had with them during this camp, I have a really good feeling about this family. That isn't to say I disliked my old family. It just was difficult because my parents worked all the time and there was no one my age. All of that has changed with my new family.

For starters, as I have stated before, there are 4 other children living with me. It finally hit me today, while sitting down for a meal together for the first time, that this family is bigger than mine at home. And it is my opinion that going from 6 to 7 in a family is a much greater change than from, lets say, 5 to 6. And maybe the change is exaggerated by the fact that for the last 4 months I have been living with just one sibling.

Also, both of my parents will be home a lot more often than in my previous family. My host dad is a preacher for a baptist church, something fairly rare in Belgium, and my host mom is a religion teacher for elementary schools. So my host dad usually works from home and my host mom will usually get home before me. Always having someone at home is something I think I will enjoy.

As far as my new host siblings, they are all really awesome. The oldest, Jérémie, is fairly quiet, but really nice. He reminds me a bit of Damien. He is 22 years old, and was one of the councilors at the church camp. He and I get to share a whole level of the house - the renovated attic. The next oldest is Jonas. He is 20, and was a senior last year with my host brother, Aurelien. He is now at university, and is studying Latin and Greek, I think. Physically, he is a monster. If Jaret is my baby brother bear, he is by big
brother bear. But he is really nice. He is very mellow, and nothing really gets under his skin. And my youngest new brother, at 18, is Jaquime (sp? :-/). I swear, he is Sasha, except instead of a shaven (I don't know if that is even a word, but bald doesn't seem appropriate. And he probably isn't still bald, that is how I remember him) head he has a black pony-tale, and instead of cow pants, he has slippers like these.------------------------->
I don't know what else to say, besides I am really excited. And then there is my little sister. She isn't that little; I think she is about the same age as the twins. She is really nice. I didn't have much contact with her at the camp, so I don't know what much to say, but the times I did talk with her, she was very nice. I think I am going to get along very well with my family here.

I think I have rambled enough. I hope you all had a wonderful chirstmas/winter holiday, and I hope you all have a wonderful new years. I miss you all.

~Weston Halberstadt

Merry Christmas!

I felt I couldn't go without a Christmas post for you all. So here you go. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. Christmas is not the same without all of my friends and family to celebrate with. But I will still try to make the best of it. Love you all. 

~Weston Halberstadt

PS-Sorry to all of you who don't happen to celebrate Christmas. Have a wonderful day sitting at home, eating Chinese food, and watching a movie. :-/

The holidays...

...are here! It is really exciting. I just realized today that there are 3 days until Christmas. Isn't that crazy! I was lost in my own little world of the torture of exams, and didn't pay attention to the date. Wow. Well, that is probably a good thing that everything is happening so quickly. It doesn't give me time to think, and for a big part that is what I've been doing here: sitting around thinking.

Another thing that is approaching quickly is my changing of families. On December 27, I will be moving to a different house, a different family, and a completely different set of habits to get accustomed to. Needless to say, I am scared out of my mind. But however scared I am, I am twice as excited. It is going to be so good to finally live with some kids my own age. I don't know how much I have told you guys about my next family. Everyone starts laughing when I tell them which family I am going to be going to next. They all tell me that it is going to be great living there. But I am a bit worried that their initial reaction is to laugh. But I can see how that reaction might be appropriate; my host mom told me yesterday that on her way back from shopping she saw one of my host brothers walking down the street in shorts and a t-shirt. And keep in mid this was with over a foot of snow on the ground. But overall I am really excited. They have 4 kids, and I know for sure 3, but I think it might be all 4, play an instrument. So judging by all of this, I am guessing there won't be a lot of silence in that house. And I do like noise.

Speaking of the snow, we broke some sort of record here. We have had over 3 weeks of straight snow. Ok, well it hasn't been snowing for 3 weeks, but at least once a day for the past 3+ weeks, it has snowed. I think today was actually the first snow free day. This is very strange, particularly this early in the winter (I do believe the first day of winter was yesterday yes?), but anyway, this many consecutive days of snow in December hasn't happened since 1901. That is a long time. It is pretty exciting.

I don't really know what else to talk about at this point. I could talk about my finals, but there isn't anything surprising. The classes I thought I would do well in (Math, Science classes, English) seemed to go really well. The classes I wasn't so optimistic about (History, Geogrophy, and French) were disasters. But I knew I wasn't going to do any better. At least I took all of my tests, and understood most everything. That is the thing I will celebrate.

I hope finals went splendidly for all of you who took finals, and I hope everything else is going well for everyone. I love you an I miss you all. Have a wonderful break.

~Weston Halberstadt

PS- I feel like my English is getting worse. Sorry about that. I hope it isn't too confusing to read... :-/

Wow, look. A post.

Yeah, I know, I am really failing at getting these updated regularly. I am sorry about that. Andrea did tell me it would become hard to make myself keep these updated. Andrea is smart. People should listen to Andrea.

So anyway, these past two weeks have been really busy. And really exciting for me. It feel like everything has been coming together in these past few weeks, and it has made me feel really good. The first, and probably most exciting thing that has come together is school. I feel like I have found my place among the people at school. Before I thought of them really more as acquaintances, but now I think I can truthfully say I have Belgian friends. It is what I came here to do, so it feels really good.

One of the things that really helped me feel part of the group was this competition/discourse thing I have been talking about. Well, I did the thing in front of the teachers and some of the other students, and that part turned out to be the semifinal round. The top 8 or so gets to move on and give their presentation in front of a different panel of judges, and I was one of the ones they picked. So in February I get to give my speech again. I am really excited about that. Oh, but how that made me feel like part of the group. Well, the semifinals was given on the stage with the mic, so two Wednesdays ago a big group of the presenters stayed after school (Wednesdays are always short days here) and worked with our French teacher, Miss. Foret, on talking with the mic and stuff. Just hanging out with those guys after school felt so... I don't know... right. It reminded me of staying after school and working with the mock trial team. It made me feel included. After winter break, we are going to start working on the presentations again for the final round, and I am excited for that.

Another thing, that I have talked about before, is playing cards with the guys in my grade. There are a group of us who know a game called bullock, and I really enjoy playing it with them. There is only one time, Mondays before lunch, that we have study time together at the same time, and that is probably one of my favorite times of the week. And I have gained recognition as the best player in the group, which makes me laugh. And one of the guys in the group wants me to try and teach him bridge... It is hard enough for me to teach someone that game in English... But we shall see...

Something that is interesting is that while I feel closer to the people at school, I haven't felt more distanced from the other exchange students. I don't take part in their weekly meetings in Liege, where they go to get drunk, and I have missed the last officially planned meet up because it was the same Wednesday that I stayed after to prepare my speech. So I really only have contact with one other exchange student here, one of the one who lives in Arlon, and it feels a bit strange. But I think it is good. It feels good. I didn't come here to hang out with a bunch of Americans, which is basically what it was with the other exchange students (ok, there was a Canadian we hung out with, but honestly, Canadians are just polite Americans with free healthcare). Another thing I found out is that the exchange students place an even bigger emphasis on getting drunk than the Belgians. It was illegal for them in the US, and will be when they get back, so I guess the mentality is they have to drink as much as they can here, while it is legal. That thought process makes me a bit sick, and it probably make them a bit sick too...

Speaking of rotary, I am a little angry at the people who organize everything here. So they sent out an email about an "Emergency Contact." I guess the title is pretty self explanatory, but it talked about the emergency contact changing, and I hadn't heard about an emergency contact before. So I sent the guy an email just saying basically, "Hey, I haven't heard about an emergency contact. Is this just someone we contact if we are dieing or something? Thanks." It wasn't anything too rude, or too time demanding. The guy just needed to email me back and say yeah, this is who you call if you have a problem. Just don't call it if there isn't really an emergency, and all would be fine. But instead I get a message back from a different person, who said, "Well, if you had been listening at the orientation weekend, you would know exactly what the emergency contact is for." And then he went on to explain how the number should only be used for emergences and only if his regular phones couldn't be reacher. The whole letter felt extremely condescending, especially the whole "if you were listening" bit. It seemed really disrespectful, from my point of view. They had made a comment earlier about how we shouldn't ask questions that are stupid. They summed up their point with, "There aren't stupid questions, just stupid people." At the time I thought that it was a very bad policy for a group of people who were trying to control 90+ foreign exchange students. But I forgot about this conversation until I got this response. Now normally, I am not one who likes confrontation, but the one thing that will get me angrier than anything else is if you don't respect me. I think that is why bad directors in fencing were able to get under my skin so easily. I felt like they didn't respect me as a fencer. Especially that one epee guy. Ugh, don't even get me started on him. So, needless to say, his response angered me. I really wanted to type a response back saying basically, "Well, I would have understood at the orientation weekend except for the fact that it was organized by a gaggle of headless geese. I honestly have not seen any sort of conference with any worse organization. So if you would have presented the information in a manner that is easy to follow and easy to understand, I would have been thrilled to listen." But the rotary does have a very large influence in whether I stay in Belgium or whether I leave. And I don't really know the word for gaggle in French...

Sorry about that rant. I probably over reacted, but I still feel angry... For now I have found a new way to show my discontent. Each time they get mad at me for not doing something correctly, I polity respond, "Last time I asked a question the Rotarian wasn't very happy to help me, so I didn't ask my question this time." I hope it will get my point across without them getting too angry at me(Well, they can be angry, but they just need to keep it internal. That would actually be optimal). But if they do get overtly angry at me, I can always pull the lost and confused exchange student card. That one always works.

One more thing I feel the need to share before I go. So last night, I had possibly the most French meal I have had over here. For dinner we had baguettes, grapes, little dried sausage disks, cheese, and wine. It was so wonderfully French, I almost had to laugh. And it was good.

Well, that is a short overview of what the past two weeks have been like. Next week I have finals. It isn't all bad thought because each day I finish by 12. Woo Hoo! Well, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. Hope everyone is enjoying the winter festivities.

~Weston Halberstadt

Snow!

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been a while since I have blag-o-blogged... I've been busy with stuff/been feeling lazy... Yeah, sorry about that. So first piece of exciting news is we have gotten snow! It is really exciting, but at the same time, a bit depressing... It means that the winter is here, and isn't going to be leaving for a while... I was so cold last night sleeping, I don't know why... Made me a bit sad... But still, snow is snow! I would have a picture, but I am lazy, and that requires getting out my camera, taking the picture, finding my thing to plug the memory chip into my computer, wrestling with Blogspot to get the picture uploaded, and then wrestling with the formatting to make everything look descent... Yesterday looked something this. (For those of you less tech savy, click the blue this and it will link you to a new page with a picture of snow... facepalm.jpg)

Another problem with the cold, besides it being cold, is it becomes a real difficult decision to open my window when I shower. See, my room was a garage at one point, and so the shower in my room is just a plastic insertable (not a word, but I don't care) shower, without a vent or anything... Normally I would open my window when showering (I would leave the blinds down. Flashing my neighbors was not something on my list of to do's while here) to let the steam out so I didn't turn my room into a sauna or a penicillin farm. But now it is so cold, that doing that is really not a happy prospect. The shower is nice and warm, but as soon as I step out ARCTIC FREEZE! Not fun the first time I tried it... Haven't tried is since...

In other news, the French class project, that I may or may not have mentioned previously, went really well. I worked a lot with my French teacher, and some of the other students (Thanks Nadège!) to get the pronunciation down and to make sure the stuff I wrote was good French (most of it wasn't and had to be changed... sad face) But I got everything fairly well prepared, and presented. And it went amazingly. It turns out the thing was a competition, and 8 or so of the people from each class got to present for the other teachers and students. 5 people were chosen by other students, and 3 or so were chosen by the teacher. I was one of the ones chosen, which was really exciting for me! I wasn't chosen by my class mates, which would have been really satisfying, but when my teacher suggested I move on to the semifinals(I think that is what they are calling this next part), the other students all agreed, so that made me happy. But that also means I have to work that much more to make sure my pronunciation is perfect, or as perfect as can be, for the speech. I have discovered that the French language has a lot more sounds than English. There are the ones I was already familiarly with, the French 'r' and such, but there are also others that I didn't really think about. There are about twice as many vowel sounds in French as there are in English. Makes me sad...

So that is basically what my week has been like. Cold and a bit frustrating, but worth all the work I had put in.  I hope everything is going fine state side (or in England...). I missed you all during Thanksgiving. Wish I could have been there to celebrate with my family and see all my friends back home for break. Hope your family time was wonderful.

~Weston Halberstadt

better now.

~Weston HalberstadtPublish Post

Sorry, but I am feeling a bit down. Going to blog about it...

I guess it is time I did one of these... Sorry to skip a week. I was really busy last weekend, with halloween and all (yeah, they don't really celebrate it here, but we had our own party). I took a train ride 2 1/2 hours away, and basically stayed there all weekend. So I didn't get around to writing a post... sorry.

But that doesn't fully explain the situation, because this past week we had no school. It was our fall break. I did absolutely nothing... So really there is no reason I shouldn't have had a post for you. As messed up as this may sound, I think it is because I am starting to get home sick... Like really bad. And the homesickness makes me want to cut away from all of humanity, so I just shelled up.

I never thought I would get homesick, but that is because I imagined homesickness hitting me differently than it did. I have always thought about homesickness as missing all of the people from home. For me, that isn't it at all. Don't get me wrong, I miss you all, terribly, but that isn't the reason I am so sad all of the sudden. I am feeling homesick not because of what I left behind, but because of what I feel like I am lacking here. I feel less connected to people here than I did in the United States, and that is what saddens me. I don't know if the distinction makes any sense, but there is really no other way I can describe it.

It has alway taken me a long time to get close to people, to make friends. Sure, I can get along with people, but really close friends are hard for me to come by. They are also something that I have come to rely on a lot in the past few years. And suddenly I am here in Belgium, where my only close friends live 2 and a half hours away (other exchange students).

I told one of the girls from school, when she asked why I always looked alone at school, that it was normal for me, in large groups with people I don't know very well, for me to introvert, which is true. But I think I might have been more cheery than I really am feeling... I don't know... The sad thing is it is becoming easier to be cheery around other people.... Ugh, I feel like such a moody teenager, blogging about how no one understands me and how I have no friends... this is pretty sad...

I would hug you cactus.

I don't know. Maybe the problem is just the week off. I had nothing to do for the week, and so I just sat at home... Without much human interaction. Maybe I am just getting used to this, and so when people interrupt my solitude I get sad, even though I need more than anything else for my solitude to be interrupted.

I should really stop now. I am sorry if I depressed your day... I just need to write all of this down, and I needed to write a blog. I am still very grateful to be here in Belgium, and I am really looking forward to the next really happy moment. Because that moment with be amazing in comparison to this bitter period I have stumbled upon. Thank you all for reading this. Please don't think me too emo...

~Weston Halberstadt

My dreams

So, I understand that blog title looks a bit strange, but that is going to be the main focus of this blog. I realized that this week has contained nothing really all that exciting. I could go into about 5 different stories, but only a couple of you would appreciate the stories because they are only funny because they are a reference to an obscure inside joke. So, instead, I will recount all of the dreams I have had, and remembered, in the past week.

This is actually really exciting for me, because I rarely remember my dreams. Like, there are probably 2 dreams that are memorable enough for me that I remember from before I got here. One to do with a porcupine, from when I was like 5, and another having to do with weed whackers, from just last year, which is probably the most vivid and memorable dream I have ever had. If I am in need of another thing to talk about on a post further down the line, I will just recount this story. It is one of my favorites.

Anywho, this whole thing came about because I was having an extended email conversation with Erin, and for some reason we got started talking about dreams, and I was frustrated that I never remember my dreams. I have always seen sleeping as a waste of time because you are just comatose, lying there, doing nothing (obscure XKCD reference for the day), and if I remembered my dreams I would not consider it such a waste of time. So I did some research (googled "remember your dreams") and was introduced to the following site: http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html. I took there advice, and have been able to remember about one dream a night. Some times I remember the waking up bit and knowing I had dreamed, but I didn't write it down and forgot the specific dream, and just knew I had dreamed and remembered it at one point. That is the most frustrating. (BTW, my handwriting is bad at 2 in the morning... like really, really, bad. Like worse than me writing with my nose. Worse probably than me writing with my toes. (Of those two mentioned, I still can't decide which would be worse. I should try them both some time.))

Oh, and sorry I didn't date them. I am too lazy to do that. But they are in chronological order.

1. iTunes worked
     -This is significant because on my computer iTunes doesn't work, and it is a bit frustrating. I think I was using my computer here, and I just clicked the iTunes thing, and iTunes popped up. All I can remember.
2. Chocolate cubes.
     -This is my yummy dream. It was about little cubes of chocolate, the same shape as older, fat keyboard keys. They were a beautiful black, and were really shiny and smooth and cool. And I can't remember if I made this up because of the connection with keyboards, or if it was actually part of the dream, but these chocolate keys might have had white chocolate letters on them. Doesn't that just... sound... wonderful. I would do quite a bit for chocolate like this right now, and I am living in Belgium... Ah well, will have to just be happy with my Côte d'Our. Yumm...
3. I was actually related to my host mother.
     -This one was probably my favorite of all of them. My cousin Matthew, who actually grew up for 2 years (I think, might have just been one) was a star appearance in this dream. He was chatting with my host mother, and they were talking for some reason about her wedding and it came up that Matthew had been at the wedding (just for the record, Matthew was not born when my host parents were getting marries). For some reason all of this conversation was in English. I think I stole the keyboard from my host mother and started to type to Matthew that I was their host son for the year. We got talking and some how Matthew was related to her, I remember knowing how he was related, but I have forgotten. I want to say he was her nephew by marrage, but I don't know... But somehow his relation meant I was related.  Also, I have written in my dream diary that Annick, my host mother's name, was spelled differently. I don't know why I thought this was important, but I did.
4. Explained my necklace.
     -This one was a very sharded one. I didn't actually write it down at night, I just had a random thought that I explained my necklace (one from Sarah. Thank you Sarah. I still wear it) to someone, and I remembered doing it, and explaining it in English. But thinking back at that time, I didn't remember ever doing it. And then I was like OH YEAH, it was a dream. so it got a little note.
5. I had really big floaters of back wash in my water bottle.
    -Pretty self explanatory. Not really a story here. Just had chunks of chewed food in my water. Moving on.
6. Found my other sock.
     -For a while I have had just this one loner sock, and so in this dream I was ecstatic to find the second sock, even more so because I was running out (like I often do). I eventually found the missing sock, stuck in the bottom of the cloths hamper here.
7. Soccer goal.
     -This was a strange one. There was a big group of us, I don't remember who, but I do remember it was a mix of people I know from back home and Belgians I have met here. There was a soccer goal, and we played 3 different games with the goal. The first was just one person a goalie, and everyone else was throwing stuff at the goal and the goalie tried to block. If I remember correctly I was the goalie. Maybe not the whole time, but for part of the time. I have written we played a game with "sobreds" If anyone knows what a sobred is, please tell me. I have no clue. But then the third game was the strangest. I didn't see the objective or the outcome. All I saw was someone lowering down one end of the goal, so the left post was like 2 feet tall, and then people started climbing on from that side of the goal. I don't know what was going on, and I had not yet gotten on the goal. I was woken up at about that time, so I got no more of that dream. Was a little sad...
8. Man in black robe.
     -This was one of those dreams where not a lot happened, but the image was very vivid. Very clear. It is probably my second favorite, behind being related to my host mother. It was just this image of a man, in a black cloak, gliding through a forest. Everything was very detailed, but it was a bit blurry, almost like someone painted the image. It instantly reminded me of the Village when thinking back on it. It was very creepy, and I very much want that image from my head in the form of a painting. Too bad I can't paint.
9. Guy in a af is ass
     -Yeah, have no clue on this one. Wrote it down at whenever in the night, and then waking up later and reading it, that was all I could get out of it. The first a might be a 9, but all the other letters are pretty clear. That is all I got and I have no clue what it means. But it must be true. Those nine guys in af must be complete jerks.

So those were my dreams for a little over a week. I hope to keep up this dream diary and keep on trying to remember everything that happens. Maybe instead of all of them I will just share my favorites with you every once in a while.

So yes, that is a taste of what Westons do in Belgium for a year. We wake ourselves up in the middle of the night to scribble on paper about what we might or might not have made up. Fun times.

Miss you all terribly. And congrats to all at the most recent NAC. I heard it went smashingly for all, and I heard about some top 16 finishes. Congrats ;-). I am glad everyone is doing so well. Keep it real for me back in the states.

~Weston Halberstadt

Party in Jemelle

     So, for all of Belgium high schools, Wednesdays are half days. So, many of the exchange students here go to Liege to get drunk after school on Wednesdays. This is something I haven't done up to this point, and I don't really plan of attending, but the Kanzinians and I had a party of our own last Wednesday. Washington has to go home early because of issues with her school here and at home (credits are not going to be able to transfer and she needs 3 credits to graduate) so it was required that we had a going away party for her. The problem with this was half of our group lives in Arlon, which is way south of where Washington and I live here in Hamoir. It would take 2 hours and 2 trains to get from one location to the other. But luckily, there is one station in the town of Jemelle with a direct train to from each of our towns. So we each boarded our respective trains and met up in this town.
      Let me tell you a bit about Jemelle. This town is pathetic and scary. There is really no other way to describe it. Getting off the platform, the first thing we see is some sort of gigantic industrial building. I think it was probably a quarry. The second thing we saw was an abandoned building with rubble coating the floor and every window broken.
     I would like to point out how our first impressions did not involve people. That is because there were none. Honestly, we saw no more than 2 people in the whole time we were there, and they were in cars driving away from the town. I can't get my stupid camera to upload the pics, but just believe me, there was nothing in this town. It was like this was the place where the zombie apocalypse hit, and all the zombies were scared inside by the sunlight.
     I was perfectly content exploring this town, possibly because I have no concept of self preservation, but the others were a little afraid of being raped, so we took a train one stop south where there was actually something to do. I don't remember the name of the town, but there were visible people, so it was for sure an improvement. We found a random mini grocery store, bought some drinks and bags of chips, and then sat under a tree, talking, drinking, and eating chips. It was a lot of fun actually, and we avoided being raped or killed, so in the end I think it was a success.
     I want to take this last part of this post to say Washington, we will miss you! I no longer have an excuse to go to your house and eat you host moms waffles (so good!).
     I hope everything works itself out. Good luck with everything Kelsey.
~Kansas

Weekend in Namur

Washington and I in the car, super psyched for the day at the beach.

Found these creepy things...

I was a fan.

I'm on a boat and...

It's (not) going fast and...

I have a new found obsession with stairs... And even though the pic is crap, I really liked these stairs.

And port holes too. Expect I liked how this picture came out.

Look at that anchor! 

I loved it. Those were fish fillets, being sold on the side of the street.

A caption isn't needed I don't think...

I like the beach.

My blog is called Barefoot in Belgium. I feel obliged to provide some feet pics.

Look at that spoon!

Have you ever seen a more awesome spoon?

And now for pictures from this last weekend.

The Wallonia Flag/Coat of arms.

Idaho eating some sorbet by the river.

Washington and I.
On a boat and, it's going fast and!
(It was actually a moving boat!)

We were really tired and wanted to sit so we went running for this bench.

They were bike racks... :'-(

So that is what I have been up to. Miss all you guys. How everything goes well.

~Weston Halberstadt

My last week

You guys are lucky. I want nothing other than to just pass out right now, because I just got back from fencing practice and I feel dead. But, because I love you all I will take the time to write a blog post for you all before I loose conscientiousness.

But I won't take the time to put my new pics on here (I actually have pics this time, it is exciting.) I will be sure to get them on here sometime... I feel like a bad person for not staying on top of this.

So anyway, my last week here. It has been a really good week, but at the same time it sucked. It sucked because for pretty much the whole week I was sick. I recently found out that Cedric was sick the time I met him, and I am pretty sure I picked up what he got. I felt pretty bad for the school week, but I made myself get up and do stuff. But then on Saturday I didn't have to get out and do anything, so I didn't. I was wearing my pj's (just sweat pants and a t shirt, but I had slept in them the night before) and a bath robe until 4 when my host dad got home, and then I lost the bath robe... Yeah, that was pretty much the low point of my week...:-/

But Sunday was for sure the high point of my week. I got to go on a trip with another exchange student, Kelsey, and their family when they went up to the coast of Belgium on a day trip. It was awesome. We got to see this old ship that used to be the King's, we got to see the sea, I got to eat muscles and friets (so good!), we got to walk around this random town, and I got a bunch of really long car rides which was a very nice change of pace and very relaxing. And I got to have some Nutella ice cream, so it was all great! I have a ton of pics from that trip but they take forever to upload and I already told you all of my plan to pass out, so later, I promise.

So that was pretty much my week: feeling sick and then going to the beach. Oh, and I got to play some monopoly... I won :P It was great.

Oh, and in the beginning of the post I lied. I'm the lucky one. You guys are awesome. Having such amazing people reading my blog makes me happy. I miss you all.

~Weston Halberstadt

I know, lame right?

Ok, so I have all sorts of wonderful things to tell you all about that happened this last week, but I haven't had the time to type them all up or make a video. And right now I have to memorize a presentation for French class. So I promise I will have an update within the next few days, but for now I will leave you with the presentation I am working on memorizing:

 Ordre ou désordre ? Systèmes ou confusion. Ma tâche aujourd’hui est expliquer mon choix, ordre ou désordre. Mais ce n’est pas un choix.

Vous en doutez ?  

Réfléchissez une seconde. 

 En ce moment, votre cerveau est utiliser un ordre neuf  pour créer votre pensée.

 Tout votre corps a un system. Si le system est trop changé, vous mourez. Essayez de vivre sans cet ordre. Vous n’y arriverez pas.                  / J’ajoute pour que ce soit plus clair./

Toutes les matières  physiques utilisent un systèmes. Le même system. Si on a suffisamment d’information sur une particule,  on peut connaitre la position de la particule. Notre monde est construit sur ce system.

L’Ordre n’est pas seulement vos livres rangés dans une pile alphabétique.

L’Ordre, ce sont les règles qui définissent notre monde.  

(all the red is the corrections my French teacher made for the sake of clarity. It really isn't that read, if you think about how bad it could have been. I am actually sort of proud of this little 1 min speech. Now I have to memorize it... :-/)

 Thank you all for putting up with me. (not part of the presentation, but I feel it might be fitting)

Weston's Ramblings: Enter if you dare.

     I feel like typing today, and I don't feel like fighting with YouTube or Window's Movie Maker, so sorry to all of you hoping to hear my voice; this week you get a boring old blog, none of that fancy vloging stuff.

     As you guys might have gathered, my emotions here are sort of all over the place. Overall, I do not hesitate to say that I am having a great time, but there are times when I want to be somewhere else. This is normal for exchange students - or at least that is what I tell myself. But the other day I noticed something that made me a bit sadder. Sitting on the bus I had the realization that one of the reasons that I am able to keep my spirits so high is the knowledge that eventually I will be returning home. Right after I realized this, I decided that I needed to change my outlook. You guys at home are great, but I need to find my place here outside of the context of my return home. Everyone says Christmas is one of the harder times, and the reason they state for it is you aren't with your family and usually you are. I think it is also a hard time because an exchange student has been gone for long enough they realize how long a year away from home really is. So that is my goal, to make myself understand that I won't be going home soon. And I can't lie to myself. I am really bad at it... This should be fun. I don't know if any of this makes sense to anyone, but I felt like I needed to write it down.

     So enough of that depressing stuff. Let's write something people might enjoy reading. So in a lot of my blogs I have been talking about this guy, Damien (I am pretty sure that is his name at this point. I would say 87%). Well, yesterday I actually went over to his house. I love his house. I know that might sound strange, but there was something very appealing about it. I don't know how to say this without seeming extremely judgmental and offensive, so if I come off that way please understand I don't mean to. This is just my impressions. Maybe I look at everything too judgmentally...

     Anyway, their house. I am looking for words to describe it, and the only thing I can come up with is used. Every bit of space was being used for some practical purpose. Nothing was solely there to look nice. To some it might seem a bit messy, but to me, everything was practical. Things were left where they were used. Bottles of drinks were left in the middle of the kitchen table because when someone was drinking they would sit at the table. Blankets were left on the couch because folding them up and putting them in a cabinet seems silly when the next person is just going to take it out again and use it on the couch. And maybe the practical use of space was a bit out of necessity, because with a dog, 7 cats, and two parakeets living in the house, not to mention the goat and chickens outside, space had to be used efficiently.

     Speaking of outside, that space is used to the fullest as well. As I said before there are chickens and a goat (yes, they have a goat, for a pet. It is amazing. I laugh so much when Damien takes the goat for a walk to come and visit us here.) But also they have a green house with bell peppers, chili peppers, egg plants, and tomatoes. They also had lettuce and spinach (I think) in a little garden. Also they had corn growing in another place. There were a few apple trees around the place. They had another little green house place where they were growing vines with grapes. There was probably more that I didn't catch, but  When he was showing me all of this, the only though I had was I want to live like this. It is a lot of work, but something about growing your own food has a romantic appeal to me...

     So in my other posts I have talked about how Damien talks very little. He is very quiet. Well, I found where all of his words went. His brother, Cedric I think (I'm so bad with names :-/), never stops talking. It is really funny because looking at his parents, there is that same split. Their father is very quiet. The only time I have heard him speak is when he was spoken to or just saying hi to me. Their mother, on the other hand, talks all the time. Their parents live two years in the US before having kids, so she speaks very good English. Even when I tried to answer in French, she would switch back to English, making it very difficult for me to work on my French. But then she and Damien left to go see a play and I got in a conversation with Cedric. My French got quite a workout with him. He speaks very quickly and very often. It was a humorous situation. He would ramble in French and I would try to catch all I could. Usually I got the general idea, but sometime I would get completely lost. In those situations he would look at his father and say, "Traducteur!" in playful exasperation, and sometimes his father would translate, but usually he would just tell Cedric to slow down. Occasionally he would ask me a question, and I would, in my bad French, attempt to give an answer. This conversation is probably the first that I have had in French that I think had some notable substance. We talked about cultural differences between the US and Belgium, political situation in the US and Belgium, what it is like to be on an exchange, and various other subjects. I felt magnificent after that conversation. I don't know how to describe it. In other blogs I have commented how conversations here are fairly superficial or just conveying basic information. It felt good to talk about something a bit deeper. I don't know how else to say how I felt.

     Another thing that was great about spending time at their house was Cedric is a fan of Super Smash Brothers. We ended up playing a few rounds of it, and though he, for the most part, kicked my Picachu's butt with Young Link, I still won a few rounds. It was a lot of fun to find someone close to my age here that is easy to interact with. Damien is great, and I really enjoy when he comes over and we talk, but it is difficult for me. I feel a bit awkward the whole time. But with Cedric it was easy. I don't know if that makes sense, once again I feel like my words don't convey exactly what I feel, but I can find no other words to use.

Sorry the picture looks pretty bad. It was the best of the ones I took, but the moon was beautiful when I was taking the picture; beauty which I obviously wasn't able to catch fully. Still felt like the blog needed a picture. 

  
     Anyway, walking home from their house last night, I had this feeling of overpowering joy that I almost skipped all the way home. I guess this blog was an attempt to explain that feeling. I guess the whole point is I am really excited to have found this place and I look forward to visiting their house again. I feel like I have found something I had been missing up till now: a group of people I can socialize with where I feel natural. I guess I had that a bit with fencing, but that group doesn't extend outside of the gym. I have a group of people I hang out with at school, but all of their activities revolve around alcohol, and everyone tries to get my drunk. My host family is great, but there is no one here my age. I interact with Laura, but that usually consists of me bouncing her higher than she has been on the trampoline or playing card games while watching Hannah Montanan (I am so sad that her name had enough of an impact on my stay to get included in my blog).
  
     Unfortunately, there may be some negative consequences from finding this new group. Last night, while I was down B spamming with Picachu, there was a party going on in the town where my school is. I was invited, and said I would probably going, but because I had found something more fun and involving less alcohol, I decided to not go and stay in Hamoir and hang out with Cedric. I haven't heard much from people from school, but I did get one message from a girl there asking why I didn't show up. I explained that I was hanging out with someone in Hamoir and I was having a good time, but I also explained that I knew everyone at the party would be trying to get me drunk (they told me this the day before) and I didn't really want to have to deal with all of that. I don't really know what to make of her responses because the first was "Oh, that's a pity :o"(Do I still put quotes around it if I am translating?). But then about 30 min later I got "Ha, ok I understand :)" I don't know what to make of that, but we shall see on Tuesday. (No school Monday! Ha!) But I guess I don't really care what the result is. It will make school hard for me if I lose their support, because they were quite encouraging, but if me not showing up to a party because I don't like to drink makes me lose that encouragement, then I don't really care. We shall see.

     So that is what has happened in about 2 days of my week. The other days are pretty boring, so I will just stop with that. Considering how long this is already, you guys probably are not upset by that decision.

     I love you all and I am missing you like crazy. Have a great time in the United States.

~Weston Halberstadt

Honey Badgers

Hey everyone. I came across this and felt the need to share it with everyone.



Have fun all. Watch out for those badgers.

It's been a month! ZOMG!

Finally got my lazy butt around to finishing this.

 Btw, my room is cold. Just thought I should throw that out there. Space-heater is going on... now!

The fencing dictionary I tried and failed to show.

Yeah! French words. More to learn...

Yeah, smiley faces! And now I know where the perrys are.

Schedule before (notice all the free time)

Schedule after (free time reduced by a factor of 1^8(lolz is a joke))

Miss you all. Hope all is well.

~Weston Halberstadt

And he took my shoulders, shook my face

For all of you out there fighting, you will always be in my mind and in my heart. Stay strong.

First week of school (and then some)

Hey guys, I'm trying out doing some *bushy* vlogging instead of just typing. I explain more within the video. Hope you guys enjoy this.

Had to split it into two parts. I hope it isn't too long for you guys. I'm sorry, but talking is just so easy and I don't get tired of it like I do with typing.

Here are the pics. I hope you all like them. 

These first three are of the train station in Liege. It is modeled after a whale skeleton, and it is amazing

It was very expensive and lots of Belgians are a little upset about that, but I liked it.

Some random metal sculpture I found. I'm pretty sure he is supposed to be a transformer.

Autobots GO!

This really awesome stairway we found. It looked like dominoes.
I really like the random people who walked up it while I was taking the pictures. 

BTW Bear, this might be easier for you, but it is a pain in the butt for me. Having to do all the recording, waiting for all the downloading, and doing all of the other stuff isn't fun... Grrrrr..... >:-< JK Bear. You're awesome. It is just sometimes your ideas aren't.

Last week before school

     Ok, so I had started writing this blog last afternoon and I had to start completely over because so much worthy of note took place last night. It was going to be quite a bit shorter with an apology for having so little to tell, but now instead of 1 thing to talk about, I have two. (It doesn't sound to impressive, but just think about it as a 100% increase. That is a pretty large margin.) 
     
     Number one: I had my first fencing practice. I think all you fencers know what I mean when I say fencing fixes everything. Any problem you have, if you just go to practice and fence some really good, hard bouts you will feel loads better. The only exception is if your problem is with your fencing. Then you are just SOL. But anyway, it was great! The coach was as nice as my first impression lead me to suspect, the people that were my age throughly kicked my buttock, but I scored some touches, so I don't feel too out of my league, and from what I could tell the people there were really nice. It is hard to get a grasp of personalities  when you don't understand what everyone is saying, but no one was ever mean to me, and they were all very helpful. That is always a good thing. 
     A bit of excitement that happened during practice was what Kelly (my fencing coach in KC for those of you who don't know) has informed me was a drop in blood sugar. (Wow, that sentence was convulsed. I'm sorry. I don't know how to fix it. And I don't have my editors close at hand. bwa!) So it was after we had done our warm up, and we had gotten our equipment on, and we were starting to do drill work. It was normal epee stuff: just keeping distance with the foot work. I was able to keep up with the first bit quite easily, but then in the time it took the head coach to change the drill, I ended up sitting on the floor because my legs would no longer support my weight. The room was spinning and I couldn't see anything. My stomach started to feel like it wanted to throw up. During all of this my only thought was really, "I can make it through this. I don't want to look like a fool in front of these new people. I don't want them to think that us sabreists are so weak we can't handle a little bit of drill work." But in the end I decided sitting down was better than passing out. I ended up sitting on the side of the gym watching for about 20 min, while my partner for the drills offered me some of his water (I was too stupid to remember to bring one of my own. I forgot drinking fountains don't exist in Europe) and a sugar tablet. The combination of the two was successful in returning me with all of my energy, so I got up and got destroyed by some beautiful fleches. I just want to take the time to say thank you to that guy who helped me out. I don't know his name or anything really about him, but I am grateful. I don't know how else really to thank him at this time. So I'll leave my thanks here.


     The second exciting thing that happened was the friend of my host brother's (the really shy one who I had the conversation with that I was really excited about) came over and showed me the notes and work he had from his math class last year. 

     It got me really excited for school (starts tomorrow) but at the same time it depressed me a bit. I realized they are basically going to be starting me in the middle of calc BC and moving forward from there. I guess it could be worse, but looking at his stuff I realized how much I had forgotten over the summer. I think I am going to be very surprised when I get into the class and I am going to do very poorly. And I know I am not expected to do well, but I mean it is math. My favorite subject. The subject I consider to be my best. It will be a little crushing for my ego if I fail at math here. Ah well. That is the live of an exchange student. I am still excited for school because I will be getting out of this house and meeting new people and everyone says the school is where your French gets better the most quickly, so all of that is good. 


     Sorry I don't have more to tell. I wish I did, but I am sure the post for next week will be giant. Not only do I have the first week of school, but on Wednesday we also have another meeting with all the rotary students. We are going to visit some mine somewhere. I am pretty excited. But like always I am missing you all back home and quite often i wish you all were here with me. You should all move to Belgium. You would love it. 


     Anyway, thank you for reading this. I hope everything back home is going well. Gah, I am really bad at ending these. Sorry for that. It is like saying good bye, but to a whole group of people at once through text. I don't even have the added tool of the hug to implement. Just pretend I am hugging you right now. Yeah, that works. E-Hug to finish off this post. I love you all. 


~Weston Halberstadt

Units of Energy, Tanks, Cow Pants, Bruxelles, and Polygamy

 Hi everyone. I'm really excited for this post. The past week has been amazing.

     

The first thing I feel the need to talk about is how nutritional facts are presented over here. It made me so happy to see the labeling showed above on a cheese container. Since seeing it, I have checked other sources, and have found that all nutritional facts in the EU are displayed this way. They have the courtesy to actually say that the units measure the amount of energy in the substance, they aren't lazy with the stupid Cal vs cal, and actually call them kcal, and to top it all off they decide to also show the amount of energy in kJ. Seeing all this information in SI is making me so happy!

  

    Now I fell like I have to include a picture of the tank I saw at a party. It was actually an American tank, because I took it outside of an museum of American military stuff. I thought this town was a strange place to have a museum of American military, but whatever. And for all of you wondering, no, I didn't fall of the tank, but that was because no one would let me climb on it. I probably would have managed to tumble if given the opportunity. 

  

     Now, at that same party is where I came into contact with the mullets and the man with the cow pants. I mean look at that outfit. I am sorry the picture is so blurry, but they would't hold still for me. They were too busy head banging. They were actually the second group to play. They were by far the better of the two. The first group was disappointing me a little to start out with, but after their attempt at Sweet Home Alabama, I was wanting to just leave. But then these guys took the stage and, well honestly, I couldn't care less how good their performance was. I'm glad it turned out well. Their Message in a Bottle was great! With outfits like that, and actually good performers, how can you go wrong?

     After this party, my week was pretty boring until I Thursday. It was then that we got together with all of the Rotary exchange students in Belgium (there are like 200 of us; in my district alone, there are over 80) and had a grand time. We got together and looked at the royal palace, the parliament building, and this big square. It was sweet. 

Random trio playing on the street. Made me happy.

Ceiling of the congress meeting room.

Awesome seal

  

Picture of the square thing. (all the people in blazers with pins are students)

     It was a pretty sweet day, and it got even better because it was when I joined my polygamous colt. Yeah, the Kanzinians are pretty sweet. I don't know home else to describe it.

Idaho, New Mexico, and Washington

 After that Thursday, we met with the Rotary students again, but this time just my district. We had our orientation weekend, and were subjected to a lot of rules and papers and what not. It was a fun time when we were able to talk with the other exchange students, but the rules were so boring. So, to pass the time, we went through the rules and found some of the most ridiculous things written. Here are some examples:

I guess dancing is a place here. I have yet to find it. It is probably pretty dangerous.

Pirates are never to be invited. That is so unfortunate.

While these statements are true, in writing they look ridiculous. 

So I guess any other age isn't a problem.

There was no caption with this picture and throughout the whole presentation they didn't
give any explanation as to why there was a picture of a dead person. We found it very strange.

      Those were the best examples we could find. Awesome right? I feel a little bad making fun of their bad translating, but the feeling goes away every time my attempts at speaking are laughed at. :-/ Ah well.

     Speaking of my speaking being laughed at, in the middle of writing this entry the house phone rang. I went to pick it up because I was alone and it might be my host family calling me. The person on the line launched into a string of really fast French (ok, normal speed French. It is still fast compared to what I can handle.) and in my most polite voice I told this person that I was an exchange student and that I spoke very little French. They said something that sounded like, "It shows," in English, and then hung up. I will say I was a little put off. It was a major factor that lead to me putting these pictures on the. 

     On that same line of thinking, I really want my French to get better. I know it is dumb to be getting so impatient at this point, but I am. I want to speak. I want to understand. I want to communicate. I know, it will come, but I want it now. Not being able to speak, to say something intelligent, is the most frustrating thing. All of this time with the exchange students made me painfully aware how little French I am understanding, and how much I miss talking to people. Ah well. I guess it is part of the process. I just wish it wasn't. 

    Like always, I am missing you all, thinking of you all, and wish you were all here with me. Have a great time starting school/work/whatever else you do when the summer is getting finished. 

           With love,

                  ~Weston Halberstadt