A Great Weekend

Last Friday night was the Soiree des Rheto's at my school. (Rheto's are the name for the students in the last year of high school here, like "seniors"). Basically a huge party with dancing, drinking, and hanging out with friends. It was a lot of fun and I danced all night :) It's so crazy that kids can drink at a school event...and the teachers were the ones selling the drink tickets at the bar! Haha not like America at all.

On Saturday morning I woke up really early and went to Brugge with my host mom and exchange student friend, Kamo. Brugge is in the Flemish part of Belgium, in the northwest of the country. I have been wanting to go to Brugge for a long time so I was happy that my host mom invited me. It is a beautiful city and everything was already decorated for christmas so it really put me in the holiday mood. I bought some Godiva chocolate that was so delicious :) It seemed like every other shop on the street was a chocolate shop!! My favorite. Next time I go to Brugge I would like to rent a bike and explore the city that way. Oh and it's so interesting to hear another language other than French. The main language is Dutch in the Flemish part of Belgium.

Sunday was a Rotary event in Brussels, called The Exotic Dinner. All the exchange students got in groups and made a dish from their country. I brought hot dogs, very American. Of course I ate the Mexican food though! Pico de gallo and guacamole mmmmmm. I miss it so much. I enjoyed the Australian food too...meat pies and pavlova.

Now it's another week at school. Time to get ready for the exams! Rotary exchange students only have to take four exams at Christmas so I chose French, Geography, and my two English classes. I will do the English exams in French though! Students here study so much for the exams and they take them so seriously so I can't really hang out with the Belgians on the weekends. So I think this Friday I'll go over to Maisa's house, my friend from Finland.

I will update soon with information on Saint Nicholas Day, a christmas holiday celebrated in Belgium on December 6th.

Bye for now :)

Soiree des Rhetos with Claudia :)