Its been quite some time since i've blogged and alots happend but i'll try to remember it all. I'm into my 4th week of school and its true, school everywhere is pretty boring. Or maybe thats becasue i dont understand most of it. Who knows. Anyway in Belgium, secondary school is 6 years with the sixieme (6th year) being the last year before college. In my school, i'm in the last year of school or Rheto. Theres two classes in Rheto, 6A and 6B. i'm in 6B with about 20 other students. I have most of my classes with this same group of people except for certain classes (like foreign language) where we're mixed.
this is my schedule. Every day is a different set of classes but every week is the same. There are 9 blocks per day and every block is 50 minutes. So sometimes you have a double block of something. Also you'll notice i have a lot of social science. Thats because thats my area. Every student has a focus. like mine is social science so i have more hours of that and only 2 hours of math and three hours of science. somone who is math fort could have up to 7 hours of math per week.
Monday
Spanish
biologie
chemistry
study hall
history
lunch
english
english
french
Tuesday
Spanish
history
social sciences
study hall
physics
lunch
PE
PE
french
Wedensdays (we get out at 1 instead of 4h10)
French
french
study hall
study hall
morale
Thursdays
study hall
english
math
math
PE
social sciences
social sciences
morale
Friday
study hall
english
social science
geographie
study hall
lunch
spanish
spanish
french
one thing about the classes that makes it difficult for me to understand is that its primariliy lecture style. No textbooks. The teacher may write on the board or just dictate notes. Because of that i miss a lot. Luckily some of my teachers have noticed and have starting writing important info on the board for me.
thats all for now
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Offically 1 week...
Now that i have been here a week, i suppose its actually time for me to update. I feel like simultaneously there is a lot and nothing to say. Its seems like its been longer than a week since i've left thats for sure. But anyway life here in Belgium is going well. I've adjusted to the time change and am starting to get used to hearing french all the time (which btw sounds completely differnt from french class). I can understand quite a bit especially if its directed towards me. Things get more complicated when its other people talking amongst themselves. However i am horrible at speaking french and have an obnoxious american accent. But oh well. Hopefully with time thatll get better.
Earlier in the week I went to Brugge for part of the day with my host mom, two of the host sibs, and one of their friends. Brugge is apparentley the most touristy of Belgian cities but it was still fun to walk around the city and expierence Belgian fast food in the form of Quick. Next we went to the beach where i met some of my host sibs cousins and grandparents. It was really cold but i still braved the freezing water (which was actually enjoyable). So i can now say i have swam in the North Sea.
I also went earlier in the week to register for school. It dosent seem too bad yet. I believe im on the social sciences track of study (mostly because thats all i qualify for). School dosent start until Sept 6 so until then im just chillin and enjoying the rest of summer while all the MHS kids suffer through school.
until next time
Earlier in the week I went to Brugge for part of the day with my host mom, two of the host sibs, and one of their friends. Brugge is apparentley the most touristy of Belgian cities but it was still fun to walk around the city and expierence Belgian fast food in the form of Quick. Next we went to the beach where i met some of my host sibs cousins and grandparents. It was really cold but i still braved the freezing water (which was actually enjoyable). So i can now say i have swam in the North Sea.
I also went earlier in the week to register for school. It dosent seem too bad yet. I believe im on the social sciences track of study (mostly because thats all i qualify for). School dosent start until Sept 6 so until then im just chillin and enjoying the rest of summer while all the MHS kids suffer through school.
until next time
Friday, July 30, 2010
Visa app and the such
Hey Everybody!
So far my blog has been fairly boring so in an attempt to make it more interesting, I'm going to talk about the visa process.
A week or two ago I got my visa info from AFS and I started the crazy process of collecting different kinds of documents and waiting for AFS to send me the rest of the documents i needed. After calling the consulate in New York numerous times and going to the bank and the doctors office, I went to Fedex and got my application shipped off to the New York office of AFS. Because of the time constraints, AFS is going to personally walk the application over to the consulate in hopes that it will get thru the scrutiny faster.
So essentially now im just waiting for my visa to be processed and sent back to me.
Also I've been painstakingly trying to prepare for my departure in 19 days. I have so much to do in so little time. I'm working on going through my closet and trying to create a packing list. Unfortunatley I think of new things to add to the list all the time so its kind of like a never ending process. I will say packing for an entire year and multiple seasons is a lot of work and stress. But soon I'll be in Belgium and it'll all be worth it :P
On the plus side though, I have all my paperwork in for AFS and I have my flight to New York booked. So just one step closer...
jusqu'a la prochaine fois
So far my blog has been fairly boring so in an attempt to make it more interesting, I'm going to talk about the visa process.
A week or two ago I got my visa info from AFS and I started the crazy process of collecting different kinds of documents and waiting for AFS to send me the rest of the documents i needed. After calling the consulate in New York numerous times and going to the bank and the doctors office, I went to Fedex and got my application shipped off to the New York office of AFS. Because of the time constraints, AFS is going to personally walk the application over to the consulate in hopes that it will get thru the scrutiny faster.
So essentially now im just waiting for my visa to be processed and sent back to me.
Also I've been painstakingly trying to prepare for my departure in 19 days. I have so much to do in so little time. I'm working on going through my closet and trying to create a packing list. Unfortunatley I think of new things to add to the list all the time so its kind of like a never ending process. I will say packing for an entire year and multiple seasons is a lot of work and stress. But soon I'll be in Belgium and it'll all be worth it :P
On the plus side though, I have all my paperwork in for AFS and I have my flight to New York booked. So just one step closer...
jusqu'a la prochaine fois
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Departure info and such
Okay so I've finally gotten around to updating this thing. Since my last post I have gotten my flight info and departure info! wooooooo
I will fly from stl to jfk on August 18th and arrive there in the early afternoon. After that i'll spend that night and the rest of the next day hanging with other outbound exchanges students and doing AFS orientation stuff.
On the 19th i board a 6pm flight out of jfk and will land in Brussels at 7:40am the next day (which is complete craziness). Finally, i'll spend a couple of days there with AFS before meeting up with my host family.
I'm pretty excited and also slightly stressed and nervous. Mostly excited and ready to be in Belgium. And the stress basically comes from trying to figure out my visa application, and trying to imagine what i'm supposed to pack. I just got my visa info this week so all i got to do is get a million documents filled out and sent in to the consulate. No big deal of course.....yea right....
okay a plus tot!
I will fly from stl to jfk on August 18th and arrive there in the early afternoon. After that i'll spend that night and the rest of the next day hanging with other outbound exchanges students and doing AFS orientation stuff.
On the 19th i board a 6pm flight out of jfk and will land in Brussels at 7:40am the next day (which is complete craziness). Finally, i'll spend a couple of days there with AFS before meeting up with my host family.
I'm pretty excited and also slightly stressed and nervous. Mostly excited and ready to be in Belgium. And the stress basically comes from trying to figure out my visa application, and trying to imagine what i'm supposed to pack. I just got my visa info this week so all i got to do is get a million documents filled out and sent in to the consulate. No big deal of course.....yea right....
okay a plus tot!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Graduation, class 2010
So this is only semi related to exchange but none of it would have occured without Belgium.
Tonight was my high school graduation and I am now literally done. Its such a weird feeling. I started high school with a certain group of kids with the intention of completing my four years of school and graduating as the class of 2011. Within the span of this year, that idea has completely changed. I have just graduated, in 3 years, with a group of people i hardly knew, and as the class of 2010.
Anyway just saying that im glad my hard work paid off and that its weird :P
Tchao
Tonight was my high school graduation and I am now literally done. Its such a weird feeling. I started high school with a certain group of kids with the intention of completing my four years of school and graduating as the class of 2011. Within the span of this year, that idea has completely changed. I have just graduated, in 3 years, with a group of people i hardly knew, and as the class of 2010.
Anyway just saying that im glad my hard work paid off and that its weird :P
Tchao
Thursday, May 20, 2010
MAP!
For those of you unfamiliar with Belgian geography- here is a conveinent little map :D
The line in the middle area is the showing the boundary with Flanders in the North and Wallonia in the South. The red dot is supposedly where I will be living.
famille d'accueil
Okay so I have something intersting to write about. I just got my host family which has brought about a whole new wave of nevous/excited energy. According to the sparse info i have, I'm going to be living in province of Namur in the town of Perwez . Its basically right in the middle of Wallonia. I have 6 host siblings in addition to the parents but I don't know if all of them live at home. From what I can tell, its a small town of about 4000 in a rural area.
So its all pretty good essentially. I wasnt expecting to get a family for a long time so this came as a pleasant suprise. But like i said, now i'm going to have thses thoughts swirling in my head for the rest of the summer.
a bientot!
So its all pretty good essentially. I wasnt expecting to get a family for a long time so this came as a pleasant suprise. But like i said, now i'm going to have thses thoughts swirling in my head for the rest of the summer.
a bientot!
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