My First Week

I have made it a week in Belgium! It's wonderful here, the landscape actually reminds me a lot of Northern California. Very green, plenty of open space, and farms with cows, pigs, and horses. The weather has been fantastic; in the high 70's! I wasn't expecting it to be so sunny and warm, so I've been sweating in my jeans and sweaters :) Perhaps a little California sun traveled with me...

For the past week, I was in the town of Sprimont, near Liege. School hasn't started yet so we were able to go on a vacation. My host mom, two host sisters and I stayed in a lovely cottage. During our stay, we watched movies in french with english subtitles, went to a zoo, and went to a large pool with slides. My french is improving, it definitely helps to be immersed in a french speaking family.

So I think my new favorite things are Melo Cakes and little gauffres (waffles) that my host mom buys at the supermarket. So delicious!!! However, Francoise (my host mom) is very healthy and so she doesn't let her daughters snack too much on chocolate or other sugary snacks. I'm so happy I'm staying with this family :) They don't sit around all day eating chocolate, fries, and waffles. We went on a 12 km walk (about 7.5 miles) and Francoise gave us each a gauffre in the middle of the walk for energy. Thus, I don't feel guilty about enjoying my yummy snack when I know I'm walking 12 km. Food definitely tastes so much better when you have it in small qualities and savor it :)

While we were driving to Sprimont, I saw a sign on the road that said Paris- 298 km. Paris is about 3 and a half hours from my house!!! I'm crossing my fingers that I will be able to go there soon :D I love living in Belgium and being so close to everything!

I will update my blog soon about my day in Brussels and other exciting things that are happening around here.

Bisous <3