Happy Inane Answering Message Day

Not that I celebrated, as technically challenged as I am. Like today for example- After choir, mom didn't show up when she was supposed to, and when I got my phone out to call her, it wouldn't turn on. Of course it didn't occur to me at all that it might be dead... Ha, so I sat outside in the cold dark and waited for her for a half hour. Ha. That was sure fun... Then we went to pizza hut. And had yummy pizza. Yay.

As far as the overall day goes though, it wasn't bad. Mom had fed me sleeping pills and made me got to bed at 8 the night before, so I got a little bit better sleep, and thus was somewhat alive today. It was nice to have some energy for a change... ha. Also, I have now figured out how to check books out from the library, which makes me very happy. I checked one out that Stephanie recommended, and finished it before school got done... It was good, albeit a bit shorter than I prefer. 

If today was a pretty good day, why do I still feel like crying? I don't get it. Maybe I'm just tired.... Sigh. Maybe.

An all-time low.

Maybe I stunk.  Maybe I come off as aloof or cold. I don't really know the reason, but somehow, I was pretty much like a leper today. Or rather, I felt like a leper. Sorry; I suppose I'm not making sense, eh?

Today I wore my free hugs shirt. And received... guess how many hugs? One. 

I think I've lost faith in humanity.

Ahhhhhhh so tired...

Today was blah. I skipped lunch, wasn't hungry. Very tired, nothing made sense. Had double geometry first thing. I dislike math. And french. I'm not learning anything. Gr. Apparently I was dressed like a hippie today. whoohoo? Hm. Dance was canceled because the teacher had to be somewhere else, but about ten of us showed up anyways. 7 guys, 3 girls including me. So we just fooled around, I taught them a few of the cool swing dancing things I remembered. I'm scared I'm losing my ability to swing dance, without a partner who knows what he's doing. Actually, I think Boone might know how, in different style though.... hm. anyways. I waited alone for 45 minutes for mom to pick me up afterwards, then a half hour in the car while she went into the grocery. Whatever. I finished the chunky monkey ice cream, very sad event. It was tasty. I'm tired. You can probably tell. Whoohoo. Just shoot me now.

Oy! Bad Marissa, hasn't posted for 4 days!

Ha. Yes. Sorry. Been busy, you know. And technically I should be going to bed now. Well, turning out the lights I mean, I'm already sitting in bed as I write, or rather, type this. Ahaha. Anyways.

Our stuff came on Thursday. It came at the end of the day, but we didn't know when during the day it would come, so mom couldn't pick me up and I went home with one of mom's friend's kids. Brittany and Yvette, I think. Probably 5th and 3rd grade, respectively. After dinner we played the Wii, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics or something. I don't know, 

doesn't matter, I was bound to be bad at it at any rate! I've never been good at video games... But, much to my surprise, I actually won at dream fencing! It was amazing. But don't worry, I lost everything else miserably, so the world probably isn't gonna end. For that reason, anyways! Then Ma picked me up and we had our stuff! My very much loved sock collection and I were finally re-united, and I was able to show my true style on Friday. That was fun. The picture is me in front of our apartment building door. Note how awesomely I match, hahhahha. You probably can't see very well. Whatever. You know me. I like to coordinate! While I'm at it, here's a picture of our garage door too. Ok, never mind about that. ha. technical difficulties at a quarter to eleven on a school night....

I'll post pics of the house tomorrow because I figured it out now. kinda sorta maybe. ha.

Friday? I don't remember... Oh! yeah. I went to go see National Treasure 2 with Alicia and Katie Foster, who go to our church here and also St. Johns. Well, Katie does. Alicia graduated and is entering a Naval academy, which is awesome. The movie was quite as good as the first one, I liked it. And then yesterday at 5 I went over to Stephanie Ng's house, and we went out to dinner at a Chinese place and it was good and the waiter was really cute. Hahaha. Then we went back to her house and watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3 until midnight, at which point we went to bed. The movie was pretty good. Then we got up and went to church... I was really light-headed during the service, maybe because I had low blood sugar. I had to sit down at one point. Heh. Then I went back home with mum and dad, and ate an amazing amount of food. And read a book that turned out to be rather depressing, because the daughter dies and the dad moves out because the mom isn't handling her grief, but then the son gets Leukemia and his Last wish is to go back to their summer home where they haven't been back too since the daughter died. But then she's not really dead. But she isn't a bone marrow match anyways so there's no hope for the son, so he jumps into the lake and drowns. Very depressing book, I almost cried. What was it called? The Color of Hope? Something like that. I don't recommend it. Anywho. Ahhhh I need to go to bed.

Wednesday, day 18

I didn't sleep well again last night- I'm sure I woke up, at the very least, half a dozen times. Loverly. That lack of energy of course leads to non-socialness, and two people asked if I was OK. I told Parker that I was just horbgorbling*; Once I explained what it meant (Horbgorble: To let your mind wander), he was delighted and said it was the coolest word ever.  Yay.

We had assembly today. We all filed into the big auditorium place after homeroom and then sat and listened to the history of Israel and Palestine. And then that's mostly what we talked about in English.  After that I had resource for geometry- Be proud of me, I got two whole sections done!

At lunchtime, Alicia and Julie kidnapped me and made me put on makeup. They also wanted me to just wear my tanktop, but I wriggled out of that one. For the love of Batman, what if I don't want to snag a guy? What if I'd rather be friends with someone instead of dating them? Dating just makes things awkward, in my present opinion. They wouldn't stop teasing me either, about me liking Parker. I do NOT have a crush on him, okay? Is it that inconceivable to want to be just good friends with a guy? Apparently. Also, eye make-up makes my eyes water. Or maybe that's just me... Sigh.

Later, I had lifetime, aka gym. We played basketball, but it wasn't any fun because no one would pass to me ever (I touched the ball once the whole period, for about 4 seconds) and because Parker wasn't there to do cartwheels with and joke with about passing to the other team. 

Then I had choir. We're singing Ave Maria, I'll be in Your Heart (from Tarzan), Sinner Man, and I think that's al we did today. Choir was okay, I was catching on to the songs fairly quickly. Not as much as Chorale back home, though. Even if Sinner Man is a really fun gospel-type tune. We did the doe, doe ray doe, doe ray me ray do exercise except it was counting and REALLY fast. like "1121123211234321123454321123456543211234567654321123456787654321!" As fast as you can possibly say it.

I was utterly tired after school (ok, all day but even more so then) and on the way home, we stopped at a gas station. The sign boated that it had all sorts of american and british foods, so I went to take a look. And you know what I found?? Not only several varieties of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, but Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! Ah! I walked out of there with some Chunky Monkey and two boxes of Mc&Cheese, and that cost about 11 euros. Holy Majoly! I can't tell you though, how wonderful it was to have some for dinner tonight. Ahhhhh.... Sigh.

I've decided that ever since I learned to talk well, I have not been so quiet for so long in my entire life as I have these past three weeks. It's really amazing, I don't know if you guys back home would recognize me with my mouth shut. I haven't had a hug other than from my parents in much too long. Can someone come visit me and fix that please? I've also become really reflective, my thoughts wandering in all sorts of directions. It's rather interesting. Almost as interesting as the fact that I've kinda slipped into a british accent, unconsciously. I don't know why I haven't started speaking with a French accent instead, maybe because it's harder for me... Hm, I have a fair amount of British-sounding teachers, maybe that's it. I don't know. At least I don't use 'like' several times each sentence. Usually. Ha.

Well, the computer's running out of battery and so am I. Two pieces of good news first though:

1. Our wireless is now working, as is the telly. Not that there's any other channel in English other than CNN...

2. Our stuff is supposed to come tomorrow. FINALLY!!!

Still a comic geek,

Marissa

My third week of school has started....

Tuesday, day 17

School is finally starting to get better, as weird as it is. It was sunny today, for the first time pretty much since we got here. Yes, the first time. I have a new French teacher, who speaks only in very rapid french. I have no idea what she is saying, ever. We also have our 10th grade research paper, which I guess is their version of CA's thesis paper, except it has to do with social studies. So I didn't escape it after all! Thankfully, it is not 25% of my grade. Did I mention how weird they grade things at St. John's? They scale it on a grade of 1 to 7, 7 being the best. Bizarre. Dance yesterday was fun, of course. We did swing and salsa and waltz, which was hard. I didn't really get it. After class we were discussing lifts and I showed Boone (That guy's crazy, but a good dancer. Hehe) the one spin on the floor. We might do swing next week too. Today I had to take a geometry test during lunch. I think I passed, which is as much as I let myself hope for. Yes, I'm that lost in the class. Geez. Anyways. 

What other news do I have??? Oh! I named my plant. It's name is Gertrude Wilhemina Chloris, Gert for short. Thanks for the suggestions. And....so. Hmm. Yeah. Uh....

I'm going into withdrawal. I only have 5 different pairs of socks, and you know I collect them... okay, so it's an obsession. I had to 'narrow it down' to just one box. And I'm not saying how big, either. I miss my socks. Not to mention that one of my few pairs I have with me is getting holes! (My poor irish toesocks) Bah Humbug.

Um. We're supposed to make propaganda posters for english class. I'm doing mine against global warming, and it's going to be something along the lines of someone about to litter, then... GASP! "What would Captain Planet say!?"Or something like that. I dunno. I wanted to do something with spiderman, but I couldn't think of how to turn Spiderman into a propoganda poster. Actually, I just did as I was writing this! Someone throwing away a... banana peel, and spiderman at the top saying "You can help keep the city safe too!" 

Hahahahahaha I am so mental. I've started sounding slightly british as well, for whatever reason. I don't know. My English teacher is actually English. Ha. Sweet. I like my biology teacher, I like the class too. Although the conversation (Or perhaps inquisition) that was going on today in class... Heh, it makes me smile now. "What? You've never said **** ever? In your life? Or ****? Or ****!? What do say when you get mad? Do you just scream, Ahhhhh?"

.....For the love of batman, is it that inconceivable? 

Slightly astounded,

Marissa

PS

Tomorrow is choir for my first time. I hope it's fun. I heard we're singing some song from Tarzan and Ave Marie or whatever....

Who are you? MY NAME IS... OPTIMUS PRIME.

Church today. This is our second time at this church, and we were STILL almost the last people to leave! I met the Fosters. I rather think I've made a friend or two. We went to lunch at this Iranian deli type place, all the way across Brussels, and it was like something out of a comedy movie. Then Katie and Alicia Foster invited me and a girl named Monica over to their house. They had a huskie named Oreo, he was sooooooo adorable! We watched Transformers (Yay!! I love that movie.) and ate popcorn and ice cream and it was glorious. Then we played Funky Monkey, aka Egyptian Rat Race. So much fun. I actually felt, for the first time, that I had friends who I actually knew. It was so nice.

Did I mention what mom and I saw the other day? A dog. But not just any dog- A wolfhound type. And if it was standing and I was standing, we'd meet eye to eye. I'm totally and completely serious.

I don't want to go to school tomorrow. Big surprise.

I'm still tired of living out a suitcase. We're hoping we get our stuff from customs this week.

Ummmm... Yeah. That's the day. I suppose.

Goodnight.

Saturday, Day 14

My stomach is much better today. About time. I went outside and took a walk today too. Eating is becoming easier. Ha, that’s for sure, because all I want to do right now is dig into my own personal pint of coffee ice cream… My thoughts are spinning in a thousand different directions right now, but I’ll try and present the most pressing ones in a clear fashion:

• I really do not belong in that geometry class
• I do not want to be here, and yet I know I would regret it if I went home now. This is conflicting and irritating.
• I need someone here. Besides my parents. Someone who can really be called friend.
• I am so very tired of hearing the same things over and over again.
• I really miss being surrounded by familiar things
• I just want to run off into a large park and scream my head off until I feel better. Stupid city, stupid stupid stupid lack of space and air and trees and SANITY. Or maybe that’s just me! GAH.
• I have no idea how I can want to never eat again and want to eat until I explode at the same time…
• All of Linkin Park’s songs start to sound the same after a while
• That one song, ‘Breaking the Habit’ still makes me laugh for no reasonable reason.

 

I think I have worked myself into a fine temper. How’d I get to this point? I think it started when I tried to make sense of my geometry. Ok, I need to stop thinking about that. Except I can’t. Dad is making me put up with it for another week to see if I catch on. I highly doubt that I will.

 

Thoughts rushing through my head like the train never on 

time

Past conversations and relics of ponderings gone into the space I call a 

mind

Feelings black as ink seeping out into a puddle, mixing with my 

irritation

Yet no thoughts I think are quite as black as the subconscious 

inclination

Resistance is a loud watchword of my anger, total rebellion the deep 

urge

It haunts my soul, knitting lace stained with poetic ink and the lyrics of a 

dirge

So many things, for so long always silent, waiting, biding their time…  kept 

confined

All these things rushing through my 

mind.

 

Yep. Crazy poetry (If you can call it that, it’s more like the incoherent ramblings of a mental patient) is a definite sign that I’ve gone into one of those completely insane moods…. Oh how wonderful. Worry if you want, but it’ll probably be over before anybody reads this, and I’ll be good again. As one of the quotes on Christian’s profile reads:

"Sometimes I wish I had that button. That 'off'-button on the back of my head, which when I press it makes me dumb and happy for the rest of the day..."

And another quote for the day, this time courtesy of my dad:

“I got all straight A’s until I didn’t.”

Not the best day.

Friday, day 13

Well, so much for sleeping well. So much for sleeping almost at all, actually. I think I got about 4 hours at best, 2 at worst. Dinner really didn’t sit well, although I felt hungry during the night. My body is so confused. Still, even with the lack of sleep, I probably would have tried to go to school if my stomach hadn’t been… a huge convincing factor. Heh. Apparently I didn’t seem as miserable as I felt, because dad made me promise – twice- That I wasn’t faking to get out of my geometry test. As if. If I do well (again, as if!), then it’ll be all well and good. If not, then at least the teacher will know how perfectly awful I am at geometry.

Although I’ve never really bought into the whole bad luck ‘Friday the 13^th’ thing, the day sure isn’t being kind, seeing as I feel even worse than yesterday. This supports the theory of stomach flu, seeing as if it was food poisoning, I should have started to feel better soon after I got it out of my body. One of mom’s friends told her that getting sick is rather common for people moving here from far away, because we haven’t built up immunity to the different strains of bacteria and viruses that have changed and mutated differently from the ones from where we moved. Goodness, this is annoying; I shall be very irritated indeed if I don’t feel better tomorrow.

I am very bored after sitting in bed for the third day in a row- I’ve already read the three books at my disposal, and there’s no internet until 7pm. I might have energy to take a small walk, but it’s raining again. I need something to distract me from my stomach, but no such thing has presented itself. Similarly, I highly doubt that I have the patience to draw. (Sigh) Which is really too bad, because I accidentally gained a very nice, new sketch pad. I went to art class one day because I thought that’s where I was supposed to go. The teacher talked to whole time - Yes, the entire time – while we were gathered around, trying not to sleep standing. It turned out that Art class is full, but before we left, he gave me the sketch book and the description of a project I suspect they have been working on already for quite awhile. So, I haven’t gone back to art class, which looks like a huge load of work anyways, and I have a nice new sketch pad.

I really feel like a baby- I lie in bed all day, and all I do is eat (if you can call it that!) and sleep, pretty much. The good news is that I found another book, one that dad got for the plane. It’s The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor. It’s really your typical globetrotting tense tale of conspiracy and action, along the same vein as Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, and Tom Clancy. Probably not as good as Clancy – Of course, I haven’t read any of his books in ages so I wouldn’t be a good judge – But quite decent, none the less. It passes the time, is sufficiently distracting, and is thus all I needed.

Mom came and crashed on my bed when she got back from the store. Apparently I have the comfortable bed, mom’s and dad’s is really rather… firm. Like a brick, mom would say. She also would say that the reason why Europeans stink is because it’s such an effort to do laundry.

It’s day 13 of being in Belgium, day three of being confined by the stomach flu, about half past six, and oh dear. I’ve gone mental. Mom was relating how she had not slept well, and I told her how I very much identified, and then described my similarly sleepless night. Somehow we started talking all ‘Yah, you betcha’ and then put my glasses on Francklor… you see? The loopyness has started. When mom and I get to a certain point, we both get this way. I had better wrap up this entry before it gets too bad. Tonight I am able to post everything since Monday, and what mom has written as well. Yay. 

I STILL haven't ever gotten the hang of thursdays....

Thursday, day 12

I slept very long, 11 hours at least. I guess I need it. Mom came in and had breakfast with me, and then left for a bible study that’s made up of a bunch of moms from school. I’m glad that she’s making friends. Actually, I think she’s even better at it than I am. She’s had more practice, I suppose!

I spent the day reading, writing letters, and other such restful activities. I still feel sufficiently muddled though, so I decided not to attempt my homework, even though I have that geometry test tomorrow. (Shudder) I also have a geography assignment that is due tomorrow. The week really has zoomed past for me, or the past two days have at least. Seeing as I slept most of these past two days right away! Perhaps the teachers will give me grace- And if they don’t, oh well. I thank the Lord that I have come to realize that sometimes, you’ve done all you can and no amount of fretting will change anything. That right there is what will help me sleep tonight, and I thank the Lord for that too! 

Blessings, 

Marissa

PS

The DSL package has come already, and dad hopes to put it all together on Saturday. Hopefully then I will be able to update more than every few days. I just hope he can figure it out though, since the directions are all in French!

Goodbye, my cookies. I shall miss you dearly.

Wednesday, Day 11

It’s kinda funny, seeing as I felt fine when I went to bed at 8. Not the ‘haha’ kind of funny, but the ‘gee, that’s interesting’ kind of funny. (And anybody who recognizes the previous sentence as a quote and knows where it’s from gets MAJOR kudos, I’m talking lots of points.) Anyways. I had taken a Tylenol PM before I went to sleep, so in my grogginess I couldn’t wake to enough to realize something was wrong. I just thought it was my dream that was unsettling. Finally around midnight I woke up somewhat, and had enough sense to take out my retainer before I staggered for the toilet. I didn’t know my stomach could hold that much, actually… Although I thought I had gotten it all out and was fine, I wasn’t. Lucky me, to be up-chucking about every 20 minutes much of the night. Needless to say, neither mom nor I got much sleep. The stupid thing is that not even halfway through the night, there wasn’t really anything for my stomach to reject anymore! But that didn’t stop the gagging. Ew. Half-sleep, feel hot and sweaty, stomach hurts, grab the bowl, heave up hardly anything, rinse my mouth, lay back down shivering, and repeat. All night long. And let me tell you, I feel so bad for mom, because it was nasty. Mom had to get up right as she was finally falling sleep, too, because she had to be up to get the door when the movers came with all our boxes. Everything we packed up was supposed to be here today, but apparently Customs went ballistic and like, tore into everything. Mom says it’s because the movers labeled something funny. Note to self: Remind mom not to bring so many vitamins next time. So we’re not getting it today, I don’t even know when. Soon, hopefully. I’m tired of living out of my suitcase. I’ve been tired and groggy and lightheaded most of the day. I hope I don’t have to go to school tomorrow, I don’t really think it would be worth it. I’m SO thirsty though, and mom won’t let me drink much of anything, which is probably smart but still annoying.

It’s about bedtime, and mom is letting me eat something. Yay. When your stomach is grumbling because it’s hungry, then you know you’re getting better. Mom says I certainly am not going to school tomorrow, which is very good. She also says that it might not be food poisoning, it could be the stomach flu, because apparently it’s been going around at school.

Oofta. I may have been sleeping much of the day, but boy am I tired. Goodnight all, and I hope that nobody with a weak stomach read this. Haha.

Tuesday, day 10

Biology will be an easier class, I think. The teacher is very laid back and nice, or ‘chill’ as Gaetan would say. We watched a movie on Borneo today. Then I had writing skills, which I don’t know why I’m taking really. Maybe it sounded fun. Perhaps it will be. Anyways, we’re going to write adaptations of fairy tales. Today we watched part of a BBC movie based on Rupunzel. It was weird. And then at break I just went into the resource room where no one would bother me and read my book, because I felt much too tired to be social. During Study Hall, I went to the library for the first time and Alejandra set me up on the computer. It’s strange, they let you do pretty much whatever you want. Facebook, baby! Yeah. They don’t even mind if you have your ipod out and stuff, or your phone. Not that I would be using my phone- who would I call? It’s not like I know anybody’s numbers here.

Our Geometry test is on Friday, and I’m scared. I’ve never been so completely lost in a class, not ever! It seems like it wouldn’t make sense to plonk me into this class 4 months in when I’ve never studied that subject before, but geez. During my resource room time, which used to be my free period (Sigh), I’m supposed to be catching up, but since I struggle so much with the daily work, I have to do that instead of catching up, which doesn’t help me at all. It’s too much geometry when I already dislike it in the first place! Urg. Anyways.

I have a French test tomorrow, and Religion. I haven’t had religion here yet, and I wonder what it’ll be like? Not likely as good as Mr. Dunavan’s. :] I miss that class, along with Mr. Brown’s class. It was always so great. Well, I actually liked most of my classes, but those two especially.

I have choir tomorrow too, after school. Again, I wonder what it’ll be like. I know a few people who are in it this time, besides Parker. That boy gets around. Speaking of boys, did I mention that there’s this guy who’s name is Boy?  Really. I think he’s French, he speaks it quite fluently. As do a lot of people. Apparently there are a fair amount of people who speak Swedish, too. And I heard some people speaking Spanish today. I met a guy named Lucas from the Netherlands, and Constantine who seems to be a character. This one guy talked to me during lunch and I had no idea who he was; That is, he looked familiar, but I can’t for the life of me remember his name! Loverly. Truth be told, I’m starting to feel social again, but now am finding that I have no idea what to say! I wish I had my book of useless information, it’s always a great conversation starter. (Sigh) I’m tired, I think I’ll be opting for sleep rather than Geometry! As if I could figure it out anyways. Yeah, right.

 

PS

Laura is my hero, for too many reasons to record. <3

Go you, La.

Can we just skip Monday and rename it something else? Like chopped liver or something more cheery?

Monday, day 9

I didn't sleep well again last night, surprise surprise. By the time we got to school I already felt like it had been a long day already. It didn’t help that I had double Geometry right off the bat. Then French, then Geography, which seems like it’ll be a lot of work. Awesome. The only thing remotely remarkable about the day that I can remember is what happened after school. Ballroom Dancing Class.

Today we warmed up to Benny Goodman, then split into pairs to Tango. I didn’t know anybody but Parker, really, but I ended up with a guy named Danny who was very patient with my lack of tango experience/prowess. I finally started to get it at the end though.

Now I am home and mom is making dinner, chicken I think. I am exhausted, and I hate Geometry. I even hate spelling it. Grr.

All I want to do is sleep. Or maybe have a good cry, for no real reason other than it seems appropriate somehow…

Sunday: One whole week in Belgium!

Mom was throwing up all night last night, so she couldn't come to church, which was a disappointment. Church was ok. Dad got dial-up working, hence me being on the 'net. Yay. 

I don't have much to say today, except the following:

• I do not like Geometry, nor do I understand it (At all)
• Internet is a sanity-saver
• I do not want to go to school tomorrow
• You guys are awesome, thanks for the comments!

Goodnight.

Saturday, Day 7

Last night three garbage trucks came in the middle of the night to collect garbage, waking me up. It basically sounded like they were driving through my room, which of course I appreciated immensely! I suppose Friday night is a good time to do it because many people are up anyway, but for those of us who don’t have a life, it’s very annoying. This morning we got up (Before noon, thank you) and went to Ikea, which was very busy. By the time we were checking out, I think all three of us were dead on our feet and mom and I were close to tears… We had a bunch of stuff, so dad pulled the car around, mom waited with the stuff, and I stood in line for food, because we were all starving also. I got four hot dogs, dad’s Coke-Lite, and a slushie, and was attempting to put a lid on dad’s drink when I accidentally knocked over the very full slushie cup, which dumped half of it’s contents onto the counter and floor before I grabbed it. Not having any napkins or anything to clean it up with, I was forced to leave it, which of course made me feel like total scum of the earth. Then getting into the car, which mum and dad had loaded at this point, the lid of dad’s pop decided to come off and it spilled all over me, so now everybody at Ikea thinks I pee coke. Awesome. And then I started bawling and had to sit the whole way home in cold wet jeans. All I can say is that it better not stain! Heheh.

But now I have a bedspread that’s all squares of blue and green, a floor lamp, some candles and a picture. The kitchen has rugs, we have mugs, plates and a can opener, and the office has a desk chair.

AND, to my immense happiness, I have now adopted a plant, a mini ficus tree! It’s absolutely beautiful, and has high aspirations, I think. I don’t know it’s name yet, but we’ll get acquainted, wait and see.

We went to dinner, and it took FOREVER. Actually, I don't even want to talk about it.  They had good ice cream though. Even if I was about ready to sleep in my chair by the time I got it.

Tiredly,

Marissa

Yay for the weekend!

It’s day six today, Friday (Verdi), and guess what? I didn’t wake up at all last night! If it hadn’t taken me an uberly long time to fall asleep, I actually would have slept well! Imagine that.

I didn’t go to school today (Yay!) because we needed to go present ourselves to the whatchamacallit place and get our whatsamawhosit card thingys…. Yeah, I don’t know. But we were going to take a taxi because we didn’t know exactly where it was, (?) and the taxi driver had no idea where the place was. Mostly because he only spoke French. So we walked an hour to the place, Dad talked to the person for about three minutes, and we left. Okay… Then we caught a taxi and were home in minutes. And it was about 10:15 at that point. Haha, I got a free day. ;D I’d spend it unpacking, but really there isn’t much to do, because none of the boxes are here yet, we only have our suitcases. Everything else comes on Wednesday. And dad just came in and informed me that we’ll get DSL and TV in two weeks or so. Why do we need a TV? Everything’s in French anyways, except for like, NBC and BBC!

Anyways, until we get DSL (Yay!), we’ll have dialup via the phone or something like that. Or maybe we’ll just go to an internet café. Whatever. The good news is that walking an hour this morning has given me an appetite again. Well, it’d be good news if we actually… Oh, for the love of Batman! Can we get something edible around here please? Agh. I would do much for some Kraft Mac & Cheese right now! In fact, if somebody sent me some or gave me some, I’m fairly sure that I would start crying. Pathetic, I know. Whatever, I’ll go shrivel up from shame and mortification some other time, I'm hungry. Although I’ll probably be laughing at myself in a few months!  How silly.

Oh, something for you guys – If you do not have Facebook, first of all you should get it, (That's where I'll tend to post pictures) but if not than please send me your email addresses! Mine is iroopert@mac.com, please drop me a line once in awhile, I’d LOVE to hear from ya’ll. ^.^

Want to hear about something else that’s kinda funny? So in gym, we wear uniforms of course, the usual grey shirt and (black) gym shorts. Well, the only socks and shoes I had with me were my Converse and my very pink knee socks… Needless to say, I stuck out a bit. It was pretty amusing, and I think I will continue to rebel in that way. Hehehe.

So I’m trying to think of what I can do in my room. I can’t hang anything except where something else has already been hanging- there are three pictures that I could replace with something else. And then I can have a cool bedspread. But that’s about it. Any ideas? Maybe I can make cool striped with coloured masking tape or something- Masking tape is super easy to remove, right?

Anyways, I have decided what is the hardest thing about this move: The isolation from anything familiar and the resulting feeling of aloneness. Even the fact of not hearing English spoken very often outside me and mom and dad makes it worse because it’s something else that we don’t have in common with the people here. You know, if I had even one person I knew fairly well with me, someone to relate to, I would feel tons better! The people who wanted to hide in my suitcase and come with me had no idea how much I wanted them to. I mean, I have mom and dad but it’s just not the same somehow. I love them dearly-dearest, but… I don’t know. 

Guess what? There’s a little bakery on the corner. Mom and I ate there today and it was good. We had real hot chocolate, which tasted a lot like chocolate bombs, if you’ve ever had those. Amazing, in other words. I could barely finish it, and it wasn’t that big of a serving!

I’ve really been having quite a lot of fun today fiddling around in iPhoto. I didn’t know you could do so much to a picture! Plus there’s this fun little application called Photobooth… Hehe, boredom breeds creativity. You might see a few of the better ones on Facebook, actually. If I feel narcissistic.

Well, that’s about all my news. Mom has some, but she can tell you about her big accomplishment! Hooray for doing a load of laundry in the dungeon! Go mom! :D

Much Love,

Murr

 

P.S. I have decided that news of home would be wonderful. So. Talk to me, email me, SOMETHING, and tell me what’s going on! It’ll be fun. Please?

THURSDAY, Day 5

I think I am finally starting to find my way around St. John’s now, mostly anyways. I still have trouble when I have to leave C or D level (the top two levels where most of my classes are), for lunch and such. People are usually pretty helpful though, and a couple girls have kinda taken me under their wing. Which is nice, for sure! It’s hard enough to get used to a new place and stuff without feeling unbearably tired, ache-y, slightly sick to my stomach AND alone. It’s the 5^th day here, and if I could go a night or two without waking up half a dozen times, I think I would be fairly good health-wise. Let’s hope it happens soon, eh? I don’t think any of you back home would recognize me these last couple days- I haven’t talked, like hardly at all! It turns out that, put into a completely alien environment, deprived of sleep and rather confused, I become shy, withdrawn, and extremely self-conscious. Isn’t that interesting? I have never wanted to be invisible so much as I have these past few days!

Anyways. We’ve moved into our apartment, which is a nice enough place. I like it, but certainly isn’t home yet, nor is it remotely home-like. For one thing, my room is cream. ALL OF IT. I can barely stand the plainness, the lack of colour! Ick! It’s too guest-roomy. (Pictures of the whole place to follow, including the neighborhood and such.) I’ll take pictures of school eventually, maybe after school sometime. Goodness knows I’m much too embarrassed to take pictures while people are around! Yeah, the weirdness continues. Also, I have not been eating much at all. Don’t worry, I get enough food to survive, it’s just that every time I have food in front of me, I’m either not feeling well again or too tired to eat! It’s kinda funny, how perfectly awful timing my body has in relation to wanting to eat. (Like now for instance! It’s 10:43pm!)

Moving is not fun, and although Belgium is nice enough and I’ll probably end up liking it very much, I certainly do not like it much right away, not yet! And as much as I love Minnesota, this dreary unfamiliar place where people only speak French can never compare! If you had asked me yesterday, or most of the days up to yesterday, I would have said yes, I want to go home. But now maybe, with the jetlag wearing off, my mind might be changing. Which is good ‘cause it’s not like I can hop on a plane and come home! Not that I want to get on one of those beastly machines anytime soon… Ugh. So I don’t want to go home, I want to BE home. There’s a difference.

Anyways, more on my school: It’s bigger, and has K-12 I think. The ground floor is A level, second floor is B level, and so on. High school is on C level, and some on D level too. We have an AB schedule, which seems awfully irregular to me. First off is Advisory, which is like homeroom- Attendance, announcements and such. As far as classes go, they’re each about 40 minutes long, and I have English, Religion, French 1 (They’re a bit farther along than our French 1 class! Not to mention much more particular on pronunciation), Biology, Geography, Study Hall, Health, Writing Skills, Lifetime (PE by any other name will still never smell sweet!), PE, Geometry, and Dance and Choir, which are both after school one day a week. Here’s the deal with Geometry though- I’ve never taken it, and so there’s 4 months of lessons that I don’t know. I also have a bunch of free periods where I have nothing. So I’m getting tutored and playing catch-up during my free periods! I have the wonderful privilege of getting to do 6 chapters in addition to normal class assignments, which of course are going right over my head because I have hardly any idea what’s what. Quadratic Formula? Nope, not a clue, sorry.

And then- On Tuesday, the Biology teacher told Gaetan and I to just not come to class this week, since it’s the last week of the semester. So this was my schedule today: Advisory, double Biology, PE, double Free, Lunch, Geometry, French, History. So basically, I had the whole morning free. Except I had to spend it doing geometry. We got almost a whole chapter done, I was about ready to shoot myself! AGH. And then Lunch, and then… Geometry. Oh joy.  Thankfully, after that was mostly nothing, because French is short enough that it’s not painful, and we didn’t do anything in History of course. (I’m in history this week only, then I switch to Geography.) Actually, before class I had an actually mini-conversation with this pleasant fellow named Parker, about drama and such. He’s cool, I can tell.

 

PS On the way home I saw somebody pull into traffic on a 4-wheeler.

Monday, Monday, Monday

It's day two for us, and I'm no less tired, that's for sure! Today we got up at 7am and had a quick breakfast at the motel's café (It was very good, and they had Nutella!) before heading a few minutes down the road to school. We parked on the edge of the campus by a small deli that is (as I was to later learn) on school property, and therefore okay to go to during lunch. Sweet, or 'dope' as a few people I know would say. I was very nervous, but a nice lady took upstairs where I met two other new kids, Rebecca who's Swiss and in 9th grade, and Gaeton, who's from Cali and in 10th like me. We all took a test (Oh joy!); Math, which went okay except for the Geometry which I didn't know how to do; And English, where we had to write half a page on our first impressions of Belgium and list the last 3 books we read for school. I accidentally put 'Minnesotan' for nationality, which was kinda embarrassing; I guess I just wasn't thinking. Tired brain....

I start school tomorrow- It's at 8:30, isn't that glorious? I think so. I'll probably get up earlier anyways so I can exercise and stuff. 

Well, I can't think of anything else to say right now, except comment! Ask questions or something, I don't care.... Just comment, so I know I'm not just wasting my time with this. ;] Thanks!

Well, here we are.

Jet Lag. (Picture is from when we were flying over NJ)

N'est pas chouette. C'est... bet. beaucoup.

I'm hearing a lot of French. It seems so surreal... and most of all, I feel very out of place. It really will help when we get some sleep and get into our apartment- The motel we're staying is really roomy though.

....Roomy like a closet. Heh.

The flight was very long, and I've decided that the only thing worse than not sleeping is trying to sleep and failing almost completely. Also, it is very hard to sleep on an airplane. You probably have noticed that before.

I didn't cry when we left and said goodbye to the fam, probably because it hasn't sunk in at all. That comes later, when I'm actually making use of my mental facilities and realize how long it's gonna be.

School starts tomorrow, at 8am-ish? I get to take a test, an entrance exam actually. I'm pretty excited about that, can't you tell? Ha. Ha. Hahaha. Yeah. Scary first day of school.

There are a lot of adorable puppies. La chien est jeune et joli. Also, a lot of people smoke here, which does not suite my taste.

We're talking with a gal mom has been emailing with; her name is Johnna, and she's really quite nice. :] She's been here for 10 months already. It'll be nice to know SOMEBODY.

We have internet here at the motel, but it'll probably take awhile to get it hooked up at the apartment. So I'll post and stuff while I can. :]

To All My Democrat Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.
Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Republican/Non PC/Independent Thinking Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!