Katie's Report October 2015
Hi! Here's my nice "little" report for September!
I'm starting to get into the routine of life here. At the beginning of the month I started school at Le Sacre Coeur de Lindthout taking an art pathway. I never really had time in my course schedule to pursue art courses at my school in the US, so it's really nice to have the opportunity to take them here! My class size is generally just 11 people and at most 20 which is a lot smaller than I'm used to, but I like it a lot because everyone is friends with everyone and I've found it a lot easier to fit in than I had been expecting. The school works a little differently than my school in the states, but I think I've finally grown accustomed to it all and it's actually really great!
I also started music lessons at a music school located right on my school's campus. The building is very old and very beautiful. I'm taking violin lessons and I'm in a small chamber ensemble. I was very surprised to learn that they have different names for notes here. I thought I could at least rely on music to be the same, but I actually have to got to a special music course to learn the French terms for notes. It's actually quite interesting and I think the people I've talked to in the class were rather interested in the difference as well!
Overall, I can't believe it's already been a month, but, moreover, I can't believe it's only been a month! I feel like I've done and seen so much already, its unbelievable! I try and go out and see things as often as I can and its really great to know other exchange students in my area. But its also really cool to have some Belgian friends from school! I celebrated my birthday last Friday and my friends from school surprised me with a cake and they took me to the movies after school! It was honestly one of my best birthdays ever! Then on Sunday my family had a nice dinner with me which was so kind and lovely!
The language is definitely getting easier, but the feeling comes and goes. At school I'm still very lost in class, with the exception of Science because a lot of the terms are the same in that class. The other weekend I went out with my host brother and I was able to converse fairly seamlessly with the other Belgians. Yet, other times it's extremely difficult to understand people. I haven't yet reached the point where it makes sense, which I guess makes sense because it's only the first month. I dreamed in French a few times but they were small, basic things that actually didn't make a lot of sense. But at least I know my brain is trying!
Tomorrow I'm going to help paint my host sister's new house and then Sunday we will celebrate my host mom's mother's birthday! Also, each weekend my host mom and I go to this amazing outdoor street sale called Brocante. It's located in a different neighborhood each week and tomorrow is a really big one that I think we are going to! You can quite honestly find anything and everything at Brocante and it's quite amazing!
So there's September! Everything's great and awesome here and thank you again for making all of this possible!
Katie