One fun-filled night
For those of you that I didn't tell already, yesterday was something we here like to call the 24h de Vélo. It's this huge party at the college town, Louvain-la-Neuve. And by huge I mean 50,000 people huge. There's a bike race where people ride their bikes for 24 hours... not even kidding. It's mostly an excuse for all the students to get wasted. I know there are a bunch of you getting worried at this point but don't worry, I stuck to Coke and dancing the whole night.
To start the day off, there was a huge group of us, which sucked cuz we'd start moving but half of us wouldn't come or someone would call and say "Hey I'm at the train station come get me!" So we'd have to move our huge group again. Although something interesting did happen while we were waiting by the gare. We were just chillin when these two girls came up to us and starting talking about sex ed and then they pulled out two cucumbers and dared me and Niha to race each other putting a condoms on them. No lies.
The day went on and I saw some of my friends from school so I went off with them for a few hours and they know how to dance! And then there's me, who has absolutely zero skills. I went back to my exchangie buddies and we just partied until about 4 in the morning then I went back to Niha's house to get some rest but I'm still super tired. I didn't bring my camera cuz I didn't want it to get stolen so no pictures, sorry.
Bisous,
Chelsea
Two months ago today...
I arrived in Belgium... crazy, huh? So I just found out that my dad is coming to visit this weekend and I am so excited! It may mean no Taste of Chaos but I think I will live and I couldn't find anyone to go with anyway.
Today I didn't have to go to school! Yay! Well, actually, I did go to school but it wasn't mine. I went to this thing called Speak Academy. Pretty much me and some friends went to this school in Bruxelles and we watched a movie that I think is called Swing Boys? I dunno, it was about this kid who rebelld against Hitler with swing music? You can tell how well I paid attention to the movie... But it was cool I met a bunch of new people, some new Belges friends. One in fact has an amazing taste in music and I was so happy to meet her! She introduced me to this new band called The Kooks who are reeeeaaaally cool. AND she knew Jack's Mannequin already which pretty much made my day.
Oh! I almost forgot about yesterday! My counselor took me and my little German friend Franziska to the south of Belgium. We went to this cave where there are a ton of stalagtites/mites. They were so pretty. So during one part they turned off all the lights except the ones that light the path for a dramatic effect or something? So all I see are these lights and shadows of feet walking up the side of a wall while they played LOTR music. I was so reminded of the Mines of Moria, I was expecting a troll to pop out at me any minute. And then, me and Franziska saw a bat... not a good thing. After that I was totally freakin out, gettin all paranoid and just at the peak of my paranoia, the water decides to drop on the top of my head. Yeah, I screamed. Then Franziska almost peed her pants.
That's all I can think of right now and the only reason I'm typing this is because I'm trying to put off studying for one quite large French test tomorrow... wo I'd better be doing that.
Bisous,
Chelsea
Funny Story
Funny story today, well actually it was on Friday but I'll tell it today. At school Jeremiah kept making fun of me because I can't say my R's, then I was making fun of him because he can't say his H's and then I decided to tell him that he sucks, which in French is "tu es nul." Unfortunately I didn't pronounce the word right. I ended up saying "Tu es nu" which doesn't mean you suck, it means you are naked. Yeah, good times.
Friday night Maxime had a party for his birthday, which is today. It was kind of a big deal, dj and everything. My parents left for the weekend to the beach because they didn't want to be around for it. We pretty much danced until 3 in the morning then we had to turn the music off because it's the law. And by that time I was super tired so I just headed to bed. It was really fun, I met a lot of way cool people.
That's about it for today,
bisous,
Chelsea
Guess who met MATT COSTA!!!!
Yeah, me! Last night was pretty much amazing... and that's the understatement of the year. At first I was super stressed out cuz our train got into Brussels at 5 20 and I read somewhere that the ticket office closes at 6 and we had no idea how to get to the venue. We asked this old lady and she's like "Oh I'll show you the way!" So she brought us along and when we told her we needed to get there in ten minutes she was like "Ok, run!" So we're sprinting down the street and Niha is like a freakin Olympian and sprinted forever only to find out that it doesn't even open until 7 and we had plenty of time.
The opening guy wasn't that amazing. Some of this songs were good but it was only the fast paced ones and most of them were super slow and I was kinda like um... I want Matt. And the club was suprisingly nice, especially compared to In The Venue. It was clean and had nice bathrooms and everything.
And then Matt and band came on... :) I was so super excited it was ridiculous. Honestly, the crowd kinda sucked so I was like screaming my guts out trying to get everybody going and it kinda worked. Between songs there's always that quiet lull, especially when everyone's tired so there wasn't anything going on and I yelled out "I love you!" and he was all "Oh yeah, I love you too!" and I was exstatic after that. Then another one came around and I was like "Gloomy!" "Sorry, I didn't catch that." "Gloomy!" (Gloomy is the name of a song just in case you don't know) and he was like "Gloomy? I don't think I even remember that one." Then he started playing the chords but couldn't remember the words so I started singing along really loudly with him and... oh it was amazing. i was so excited he actually played it.
After the show we stuck around for a little bit to see if we could meet him so we were just chillin by the stage then the other guitarist came out and gave Niha Matt's pick (I was un peu jealous). And then he came out! He came over to us and started talking and I was all "It was me who requested Gloomy!" "Oh, that was you? Sorry I kinda forgot the words." But I was so excited that he actually played it that it didn't matter. Then he signed my ticket and then all the sudden there was this HUGE group of people around us trying to meet Matt. Then I asked him for a picture and I was trying to take it but he's all "Here lemme help!" So yeah, it was him that took the picture below. And Niha decided to pop her head in at the last second and she almost took out Matt's face but it took out half of her face instead. Yeah so last night was pretty amazing...
Niha and Nicole chillin before the show
Me and Kylie the Kiwi (I can't not call her that, it rolls off the tongue so well) before the show...
Me watching Matt... thanks for taking the pic Niha
Oh no, this isn't photoshop, completely real... Niha, Matt, Me and Kylie
Bisous,
Chelsea
"Une voiture qui tourne...?"
So today was actually a somewhat interesting day. I got to school and my French teacher was like "Ok, half of the class isn't here right now and later we have the car so we're not gonna do anything." And I was a little confused about the car thing so I asked my friend, Jeremiah, and he got all excited and started talking about "une voiture qui tourne" and I still didn't know what he was talking about until we finally went outside. The fuzz came to our school with this car that was elevated and hooked up to this machine. It's kinda like in all those movies where they're roasting a pig and it's on a stick between two other sticks...? Do you know what I mean? Anyway, it was like that only a lot more complicated. So I guess it was supposed to show how much a seatbelt can do... but all it really did was give kids and ride and get them outta class. It was so fun, we just got in the car like normal and made sure to put our seatbelts on then one of the cops controled the car and would flip us upside down and all this stuff. It was much better then French class in my opinion. And the best part about it is that all the 5th year French classes got to do it... and I'm in all of them :)
I guess my principal decided to change my schedule without letting me know. Today I walk into English all excited cuz I didn't feel like doing much work today and then my teacher's all "What are you doing here? You have French!" and I was so confused. So she goes into the teacher's lounge and comes out with my schedule and is all "Yeah, you have French right now." So I go to class and everything is fine until I actually look at the kids in my class, they're like freaking 14. No more English for Chelsea, only thousands of French classes.
I feel like telling you some words I like and some words that bother me... a word I like: pleuvoir. I like that it means to rain and to cry. I kinda like to think the sky is crying when it rains.
Word I hate: encore. It means again, still and yet. These are completely different words people. And it's not like I can tell just by the sentence which one it means, with exception of yet.
Bisous,
Chelsea
PS: Matt Costa is tomorrow and I am so excited. I'm going with some other exchange students and then they're gonna spend the night at my house. It's their first concert and they're so pysched... and so am I. They love Sunshine and honestly, who can't?
PPS: No comments about the painting? Hm...
Whatchoo tinking?
Ok so everyday I have community classes I have a little time afterwards and today I wandered into a little art shop and fell completely in love with this painting. It's called Carla by Marco Castilla, just wanted to put it up to get some opinions, so what do you think?
Bisous,
Chelsea
PS: Sorry I think Bailey might be the only one to get the joke in the title.
Um...
So today started out like crap. Last night I had some major stomach pains and I hardly got any sleep. I feel like I fell asleep right before my alarm went off. Most of you reading this know how I am in the morning, which is hardly a person. Since I was so tired, I took longer than normal in the shower almost falling asleep and therefore I didn't have enough time to do everything else I needed to do. I ate my breakfast so fast, then went upstairs to brush my teeth and whatnot then ran back downstairs to make my sandwhich and in the middle of that my mom yelled "on y va!" My sandwich was half done and I only got about 3/4 of how much seran wrap I need then stuffed the sandwhich in my bag and ran out to the car. Once I got on the train I realized that I forgot my cell phone and to charge my iPod. Then at French classes we had a test that I forgot to study for. I was so tired I fell asleep in the middle of it and there are a bunch of older people so all the ladies in the class were like my mom "Are you ok? Do you want me to buy you a coffee??"
After class me and Niha went to this restaurant called EXKI which is this huge health resto and we got some hot chocolate since it was freezing. I grabbed my sandwhich outta my bag and realized the spread was all over my book.
At school I don't know if my geography teacher is trying to make that class awkward for me or that's just how it is. We're talking about the Israel-Palestine conflict and she's openly on the Palestine side (I mean she was in some of the videos *cough*propaganda*cough* we watched) and the US is allies with Isreal. She mentioned how the US is funding 25 percent of the Isreali army and I was fully aware everyone in the room was staring at me so I kept my eyes down the whole time. I'm not America, I don't choose where the money goes or who we're allies with.
When I came home I was pleasantly suprized by a package for me from all the YW at home. I'm not sure how the fact I miss popcorn got out but I guess it did cuz I know have about 15 packets of microwave popcorn. That made me smile. Thanks guys, if any of you read this.
That's about all for my crappy day,
Bisous,
Chelsea
0110
Hey everyone, it's my update of the weekend! Yay for the weekend! So anyway, Friday night I did the same thing as before: hung out at Louvain-la-Neuve with the same people, it was pretty fun. Saturday I didn't do a whole lot but during the day I went shopping at Wavre and FINALLY got a cell phone. It's a little piece of crap but it will do, no need to spend tons of money on a phone I'll only use for a year. Then later that night I happened to get onto msn and lo and behold! Bailey and the whole Mod Squad is on! Then we figured out how to work the web cam and mics and it was a partay! So yesterday was the really fun day, me and some friends decided to go to a free concert kinda spur of the moment and it ended up being WAY fun. It was this huge concert against racism and there were 4 concerts on the same day all over Belgium. I went to the one in Brussels and it was amazing. The venue was the square right outside the palace and there were tons of people there... like high up in the thousands. After the concert was over we just walked around the city a little bit then ate some dinner. Kelsey claimed my pasta looked like vomit but I thought it was pretty good.
It would be cooler if the people and the other buildings weren't there, I try to be a good photographer, doesn't work very well.
Yeah... I was only about halfway back when I took this pic, there were just as many people behind me. And if you could actually see who was on stage, you would see Girls In Hawaii, the best Belgian band ever.
The King is home :)
HAHAHAHAHA... and that's all I have to say about that.
That's about it for today, à bientot!
Bisous,
Chelsea
