Christmas gone Belgian

Of course I have to address the question 'how was Christmas different in Belgium?'. And actually, it was more different than I expected. Mostly because of the fact that it's just not as important as it is in the US. Kids don't believe in Father Christmas and neither do they recieve piles of presents because they do believe in St. Nicolas who does come with piles of presents on Dec. 6.
We had a very nice celebration. Christmas was at our house this year, with all the family scheduled to come for a huge dinner and a secret santa exchange of presents (which they call 'cacahuete' which is literally 'peanut' - don't ask me why). We only ended up with about half the family though (still a good 17 people) because the snow kepts so many people away. From the time the guests started arriving at 7 until after midnight we just worked our way through meal after meal. Piles of appetizers, then two main courses, then dessert. It was a thouroughly good evening.
Merry Christmas to everybody!

NOT humming the Jeopardy theme song

We all know Jeopardy. I mean we've all at least heard of it. Surprise of surprises, french-speakers have their own. Because I live in a tiny town, we only get 4 channels (and now that a trees has fallen basically on the house, we don't get anything). One of those is "Euronews". The other three are the three national Belgian channels in French. So we get Belgian news, sports, plenty of movies (often American dubbed in French) and some series. I have to admit that I've become a semi-regular follower of the French soap opera that plays 5 nights a week, Plus Belle La Vie (literally "the life more beautiful"). And occassionally I'm around to see their Jeopardy: Tout Le Monde Veut Prendre Sa Place ("Everybody wants to take his place"). I even occassionally know the answers - American trivia pops up a lot more often, I'm sure, than French trivia pops up on Jeopardy..

Snow and snow and lots more snow

Had the weirdest day today. I woke up at 6:30, expecting a long drive to school because of the snow on the road. I start getting ready, I'm about 30 seconds into my morning rouitine, when my host mom comes in a tells me that there is too much snow, it's impossible to leave the house to go for my last day of exams - my French oral exams. I wasn't gonna complain, so I hopped back in bed for a couple more hours. I woke up again at 8:30 and started the laziest day of my life. There was at least 3/4 of a foot if not a foot of snow. The night before, the SECOND tree fell on the property - this one bumping up on the house and not breaking windows and one of the cars by sheer luck - my host dad had decided the night before to not park the car in the usual place. So after some TV and a slow breakfast, I went out with my brother and siser to pay around in the snow and on this huge - probably 75 foot - tree that was right in front of our house. After, with my host mom and sister, we went on a nice walk in the snow. And after that, lots of reading, TV, a lazy lunch. Enjoying the snow. No exam - that will be for when school restarts, apparently.
Welcome to Christmas vacation!!!!

I'm thrilled to tell you I have no idea what you're saying

Belgium is a country cut in two - the northern more or less half is the Flemish speaking part, called Flandres in French. The southern half is the French speaking part, called Wallonie. In the French part, it is mandatory to take multiple years of both English and Flemish. On many of the products sold in supoermarkets, things are written French and Flemish (and often English or other languages as well). It's an odd language, sort of a combination of German and English. But I absolutely love hearing it. I revel in a language that I am not expected to comprehend. It's normal that I have no idea what someone is saying when they speaking Flemish. I don't have to worry about trying to understand, focusing all my attention on listening to the words as sometimes happens in French or Spanish. Neither do I have to think about trying to translate it, or help the speaker, as sometimes happens with English. I don't want to, don't need to, don't feel expected to understand, and I love.

I'm not turning down free candy even if it does have violent connections..

About a week ago we celebrated St. Nicolas - a holiday extremely simlar to Noel in that it's a day for receiving gifts and eating lots of candy. St. Nicolas also resembles Santa Claus - or maybe it's the other way around. (see a picture of him below)
I asked around a bit and learned a bit the story of St. Nicolas. So, obviously, he's a Saint. He travels from house to house on his donkey, accompanied by a boy who is not black, but who's face is painted black - I believe he's called Pere Fouettard. If you're good, you leave your shoes out December 5 and the next morning St. Nicolas has left you candy and gifts. If you're bad... Pere Fouettard comes and whips you!
There are different stories about St. Nicolas, but I gotta mention this one becuas it's just so violent for a holiday story! So apparently, one night, three kids somehow ended up a butcher's house. I don't remember why - they had to buy something or maybe they were lost. Anyway, this butcher was an evil butcher. So he let the kids in, then killed them all and cut them all into pieces and hung them in room for storing meat. St. Nicolas came to the butcher shop and told the butcher he knew what horrible deed the butcher had done. He told the butcher to bring out the children. The butcher did, begging for mercy for what he had done. And St. Nicolas then revived the children.

No snow day, but got a free period anyway

Arrived at school 30 minutes late today because of the snow. There can't have been much more than half an inch, but it was enough that everyone was driving about 30 km per hour. And those were the daredevils.
But we arrived, though it was halfway through first period.
Then, in third period, my Spanish teacher told us we weren't gonna be having that period for the day. I didn't understand why until I went down into the cafeteria with my friends and saw almost the whole school. My friends explained to me that for third period today, the teachers were going on strike. So we had a free period. I couldn't help but wonder what the teachers were doing during that free period. They obviously weren't out in front of the school holding signs demanding better pay, but they couldn't exactly be in their classrooms working either as that sort of goes against the whole purpose. Never did find out.

In the US we eat nothing but pb&j

This Sunday Rotary has a planned activity for the exchange students in Belgium (we are about 200), for those interested - make a dish typical of your country and serve it to your fellow exchange students and their families. I was stuck for a while on what was American food - hamburgers seemed much too boring. Eventually, with a bit of help, I decided on meatloaf. I made it Saturday and arrived Sunday mid-morning with a meatloaf that I was actually rather proud of, and settled in to see what other Americans decided was typically American food. Not surprisingly, there were a couple dishes of stuffing, some turkey, a few cranberry sauces - Thanksgiving leftovers! What had me cracking up, though, were the mountains - literally, stacks upon stacks - of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I think at least 5 or 6 people decided to bring that as their meals, and as each person was supposed to bring enough to be 10... we were brimming to the eyeballs with peanut butter and jelly.
My family came to the lunch, and while we were there my brother, Mathias, lost his tooth. My host mom warned him to keep the tooth for the mouse! The tooth fairy doesn't visit Belgians. Nope, here a little mouse comes, takes your tooth, and leaves you a coin...

Family Number Two

After Paris, I had a couple of days before heading off to London. My current host family was off to the sea in France. Therefore, we arranged for me to stay for a couple of nights at my second host family. They are a family of 5, and I can tell that I, again, will be going into welcoming and loving home. Whatever good deed I did in a past life, I’m getting rewarded for it by three amazing host families. The father of my second family, Stephane Watillon is a kind, quiet man – the president of my host club who works as a notary – a full-time, much more involved job in Belgium than it is in the United States. Dominique is his wife – an energetic woman who always ready to smile. Their oldest daughter, Adeline, is a freshman in college. Claire is about my age, though she is a grade older than me in school (I’m in the equivalent of junior year, she in senior year) and we seem to have plenty in common. The youngest is Olivier who is I would like to say 14 or 15. He’s a funny kid – always making jokes (which I understand about half the time on a good day) and ready to laugh. Everyone is extremely friendly. And as sad I already know I’ll feel to leave my home here, my new family here, I am comforted I’ll be going to live with the Watillons.

Paris in the fewest words possible

If I am going to keep this short, this is gonna be really a summary of what we did. We were only gone for two nights, but still, seems like we managed to fit in a fair amount of stuff.
We left the Saturday the started my week long vacation for All Saint's Day, and arrived in Paris mid-afternoon. We missed out on the Palace de Versaille thanks to too much traffic, so instead we headed straight for the Arc de Triomphe. After a being let loose at the Arc for a bit of free time in Paris, we returned for dinner which was followed by a nighttime tour in bus of Paris - we saw the Eiffel Tower and the twinkling light show it puts one for two minutes every hour, we saw the Seine, drove past the Louvre, the Ritz, the Notre Dame, and many other famous places whose names I have already forgotten.
Sunday we had a continental breakfast in our hotel, but they served croissants and pain au chocolat! I spent my morning taking a semi-guided walk around Paris to see many of the same well-known areas in the daylight. We ate lunch under the Louvre before heading on into that overwhelming museum. Dinner followed, which was itself followed by a short boat ride on the Seine at night. The boat ride ended at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and the group them went to the top (by elevator, not by foot) and had a beautiful view of Paris at night. We took the metro back to the hotel, got slightly lost and made it back around 12:30.
The next day we made two final stops before heading on home - Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur - two beautiful (and understandably famous) churches. We ate a thoroughly American lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and headed on home (by tour bus, the same way we arrived in France).

Photos

Just... not here. On Facebook. If you have one and do not have me, I'm under Elizabeth Horton. All sorts of Belgium, London, and Paris photos.
(Reports on London and Paris are still coming. I swear it!)

On Halloween (only two weeks late)

I forgot to publish this post - coming soon: London and Paris!
There is Halloween here in Belgium, but they just started celebrating it 10 or 15 years ago. For that, it's not nearly as big as it is back in the US. Hardly anyone puts up decorations. I did, however, with the help of my two younger host sisters, Amelie and Emma - thanks to my parents who sent me the decorations (one of those fake spider webs, and then a door hanging). They do go trick or treating with the very young kids, but the older kids tend not to.
And they don't have candy corn here! I had some of my friends taste candy corn - some of them liked it, but a majority thought it was nasty. Blashphemous!

From style to sandwiches

Another 5 new and different things.

11. Fashion
As expected, the fashion here is quite differnet than in Rio Rico. At my school, it's almost completely what I would call prep, but a prep who especially loves jeans. Jeans are an even more important part of the wardrobe here than any where else I've been - by far the most common article of clothing.

12. Stand up
Each time a teacher enters the classroom at the beginning of class, the whole class stands for him or her. The problem is that sometimes the teacher is already there, or only a few students are there when he or she walks in, and then the rules (in a figurative sense) are not clear. And sometimes we stand sometimes we don't. Which is fine - I watch the people around me and follow their lead. The only problem is when I'm at the front of the class and I don't notice all the people behind me standing up and I don't follow their lead. And there I am sitting when everyone else stands. More than slightly awkward...

13. Quizzes
Grades here are based solely on quizzes. You do homework, and teachers may or may not look to see whether or not you did it, but you get no points for doing it, neither for class work. Tests are everything. Take your pick whether that's a good or a bad thing.

14. Leftovers
It's considered not very high class, here, to take leftovers away from a restaurant. My impression is that if you ask for a box, you'll get one, but you may also get a few strange looks for asking. It's just not something you do - so sad, since the food is always amazing.

15. Grades
The Belgian grading system is very similar to the US, but there are a few slight differences. An A is 85-100 rather than 90-100, though the rest of the letters correspond to 10 points each. That makes a B 75-85, a C 65 - 75, and so on. A D is a passing grade, but a failing grade can be an F (0-45), but you can also get an E (45-55)! I always wondering why we did use E. Also, you can get a B, a B+ like the US, but on top of that there is B++ (and C++, and so on).

10 new and different things in my new and different life

(In no particular order other than that in which they randomly popped into my head.)

1. Skinny-ness
No one here is fat. Okay, of course I don't really mean no one. But I can think of one or two people that I have seen (and no one who I actually know) who are not average weight plus or minus a few pounds. kilos. whatever.

2. Hello
Everyone says hello to everyone. Not in the big cities, but here when you walk into or leave a store, when you pass somebody on an empty street, when you go into or leave a restaurant - bonjour, au revoir, bonsoir, salut. More than I was used to even in little Rio Rico.

3. Bisous (kisses)
With friends, you kiss them on the cheek to say hello. Every time. If you don't it's almost sort of offensive - your friends notice and bring it up if you don't give them a kiss and say hello. You do the same with anybody you know even a little bit. But that is all you do. If I walk into a room and make eye contact with someone I don't know, I'm used to smiling or waving. You don't do that here. People don't smile back, don't wave back... It took me off guard at first, but it's just something you hardly ever see here.

4. Feet/syllables
In my French class we're studying poetry, starting with the basics. I remember worksheets that I loved so much trying to split each line into its feet, trying to figure out whether to mark a dactylic foot or an iambic foot. But French poetry doesn't have feet!!! It has syllables, but no feet!

5. Music notes
Here, rather than naming music note by letters, as I am used to (a, b, c, d, e, f, g), they use words. The do re mi method. But even that isn't the same. It's do re mi fa so la ci do.

6. HORTON Caitlin
On every official document you write LAST NAME first name. So I write HORTON Caitlin, rather than Caitlin Horton or Horton, Caitlin. Because my driver's license reads (in all caps):
CAITLIN
ELIZABETH
HORTON
I ended up being registered for my theater class as Elizabeth Caitlin. As in my last name is Caitlin and my first name is Elizabeth (and Horton dropped off into the atmosphere). But we managed to straighten it all out. Caitlin Elizabeth Horton exists again.

7. Teachers teach everything
My titulaire - sort of my home room teacher, though we have no home room class period - is my French teacher, my history teacher and my religion teacher. And from my impression, a lot of the teachers teach multiple combinations of things like that.

8. Random starting points
Each year students have history and geography rather than one year one class, one year the next. For that reason (or I can only assume so) we start in the most random places. The first lecture we had in geography (this is cultural geography, I believe it would be called) was on India's revolution for independence from Britain. In history we started with European political systems of the 1700s.

9. Cursive
Everyone writes in cursive. In really, really pretty cursive. Okay, I take that back. Every student - boys and girls - have beautiful cursive writing. The teachers tend to have hardly legible cursive, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it's a result of writing on the white board. Either way, I'm not a teacher. And I don't writing in beautiful cursive. In fact, my cursive is worse than my print, which tells you a lot.

10. Pens
No one uses pencil except in math, and most people use fountain pens. The real kind that you pay 15 euros for and whose tips look like the next step after quills. But even better, the ink in those kinds of pens erases. It's awesome.

The promised pictures

Here are a few pictures that I've taken here and there - just in time for my one month anniversary of being in Belgian (it was Saturday).
I am planning on posting a better picture of the house when I get around to taking one. But for now, this is my new lovely house in Arbre, Namur, Belgique.

This is the chateau (the castle) - not the chapeau (hat) which I always want to say in placeof chateau - next door. I literally live next door to a castle. Only in Europe...

My host brother, Alexis. We were just starting off on a short bike ride.

I mentioned the obstacle course that Belgian's put out for their drivers - here's an example. There are a lot of these, randomly placed on the roads.


I saved his life! I thought he was kinda cute in a slug sort of a way.

This is one of the many pastures that cover the countryside around my town. This one runs along one side of the house - this picture was taken out the window of the room that contains all of the closets in the house.

A few houses along the main road in my little town of Arbre.


In the big city - Namur - the buildings run right along the river, La Meuse.

During a weekend outing with the family, we stopped at huge old church in a nearby town. Actually an abbey now become a church plus boarding school.

The youngest of my host siblings, Amelie, caught in the middle of a bounce.


My host sisters Emma and Amelie at a different nearby town, one where my host mom's parents live on the weekends. This spot at the river was amazing - it felt like it had been pulled from a movie. It was your iconic European village, with charming houses, and a stone bridge crossing a stream that ran down past green fields and trees in the distance.


The same stream, looking the other direction.


The fireworks of the Fete du Wallonie - photo taken by Emma.

After the fireworks, we waited on the bridge, and looking up the river, the city lights along the street reflected quite beautifully into the river.





Wallonie - the name of the French-speaking region in Belgium - projected on to the citadelle (see below) along with the rooster, Wallonie's mascot/symbol for the Fete du Wallonie.


The citadelle in Namur - basically an old fort - lit up at night after the fireworks.


My host sister, Emma on one of our bike rides around the countryside.

It's always the little things

So schools been coming. The classes really are not that hard - I'm basically back into junior year. Here it's called cinqieme. I've covered the math, the science, the geography, and so on - but the language barrier brings the classes right up to my level. Being a math nerd that I am, math is one of the classes I look forward to - I don't have to worry about understanding French quite as much because so much of the classes is numbers. I understand the material and after a short refresher remember what exactly I need to do for most of the problems. But the other day was stuck - I couldn't figure out how one graph had two intersections on the x axis, at 2,5. I was sure the instructions (in French) we referring to one point, but then why were there two numbers - 2,5? I sat there, totally lost, and finally called the teacher over to explain it to me.

I swear, I really did know that in Europe, 2.5 is written with a comma. Two and a half is not two point five, it's 2,5. I knew that little detail, but the change hadn't really settled in to my mind, fixed itself as the new normal way to do something.


Let me assure you, I remember now.

Who knew heaven was covered in Nutella?

So Saturday night I went to the Fete de Wallonie, which is basically a full out, all day, all night, 4 day long (if not longer) party. I think it's a celebration of Wallonie, the French part of Beligium, but my impression is that for the majority of the population it’s really just a party for the sake of a party. I went with my family, wandering around among the three or four different stages with different bands playing at each. The streets inbetween the stages were blocked off for cars, and food stands and other fesitval type jewelry, clothing stands. At one of these I bought my first real Belgian waffle. I’d had waffles here with the family – but these were the street vendor, still hot, still fresh kind. It's different. And amazing. I can't even describe how heavenly - the dough was soft, almost melty and warm inside the glazed outer crust, and mine was slatherws with Nutella.... Wow wow wow I want another one so badly.
After an hour or two, around 10 o'clock, we headed to one of the bridges over the river that runs through town, to watch the fireworks. The city turned off all the lights in the general section of streets near the river where the fireworks would be, and the show began. The firework were accomanied by music - an interesting mix, from an old Belgian singer, to a popular modern Belgian rapper, to the Black Eyed Peas, to the old song that goes "Yes you're lovely..." and "Just the way you look tonight..", to the Abba song "Dancing Queen". It was a good show, and a nice night.

So I've found myself something else to enjoy doing here in Belgium - bike riding. My first time here was a maybe a week or so after I arrived - Erika offered to show me the village, so we went on a short ride - not more than 15 minutes. I had to reremember how to ride a bike, which didn't take long but did event in, I'll admit, a couple embarrassing false starts as I tried to get going for the first time in a little while. It was a nice day – if I remember correctly, the sun was actually shining, so we took a small shortcut up to the top of the hill of the village, then biked back down the hill and home in a sort of a circle. And I loved it.
So the next day I went again by myself, and had the perfect bike ride. It was sunny, but the air was too chilled to allow it to be hot. I drove up into the village, but then instead of following the short loop back to the house, I continued on upwards, driving past the many small pastures and not-so-small houses that make up the countryside here. The road, thin and winding like almost all the roads here, was a slight uphill grade on the way up, which meant on the way back I could coast the whole way. I was all alone, with just the occasional car passing by, so I just enjoyed the solitude and beautiful country. That was the first time it struck me that I really am in a totally different place than Rio Rico, and I love it here, too.

The first day of school (followed, quite unexpectedly, by the second day)

Well, I lived through the first day of school! It was extremely difficult and quite exhausting - not just because everything was in French and my mind was overloading trying to comprehend even a sliver of it, but also because it is slightly discouraging when you are overwhelmed by tons of people who have their group of friends and are happy as they are, and you can't try to join their conversation because you don't know what they are saying.
So basically, I was drained, exhausted, and at least slightly discouraged.
But I forgot that it was the first day, and the first day is followed by the second day. At the end of the second day I am sitting here writing this feel not hardly discouraged or stress, only slightly drained and in an overall better mood. The classes were more comprehendable today, I felt like I actually made some progress with making friends - all sorts of positive things. And of course the free period I had first thing this morning certainly helped.
Classes here are not like those at Rio Rico High School - a classroomfull of students are each in what is called a class - mine is 5b - and they have a bunch of their subjects, what are called courses together - they see eachother a lot basically, sticking together through many of the courses. And each day has different courses - my first hour Monday is not the same as my first hour Tuesday or Wednesday.
There are 8 hours worth of classes each day plus a lunch period and two ten minute breaks during the day. Monday I started with Geographie, and we spent mot of the period on the basic introduction to the rules of the classroom, the basics of the course, the usual first day in most classes. It almost all went over my head, but I didn't sweat it because it was just the usually pretty common-sense rules.
Next was Complementaire de Francais - basically extra French classes. This class was the hardest I've had so far - we started writing in French basically immeadiately. I was confused and lost, and my poor neighbor was stuck with a partner (we wrote our stories in pairs) who was basically of no help. This class was a big part of why I felt so tired and discouraged at the end of the day.
However, after that hour, I had two hours of Spanish - i should remark that an hour is actually just a 50 minute class period. I understood the most in that class that I had all day because the professor spoke almost solely in Spanish. But more than that, because we were all not fluent in Spanish, I think it was the fact that she spoke slowly. Anyway, I was pleased with myself - I understood a lot and as this is a first level class, I'll be keeping Spanish in my mind without having to worry about getting lost trying to learn a hard level of Spanish in French. Lunch was followed by my second hour of Complementaire de Francais. Again discouraging and tiring, though I am determined to make it not that way next week. I next had my easiest class of all, English. This is more advanced English than the Spanish class - they read articles and have discussions basically trying to get the students to think, speak, read and write fluently. I just enjoy the break, breeze through the homework and am used as a prop by the teacher as needed, for example when no one else in the class can answer the question.
Two hours of religion followed but it was more of the basic intro that I didn't understand and didn't sweat.
Because this is so much longer than I'd hoped it would be, I'm just going to say that today my free period was great, my classes weren't quite as hard, and I had a couple Belgian students to hang out with during class. I'm feeling much more positive about the year than I was and am ready to tackle dreaded Gym tomorrow (especially since tomorrow, like every Wednesday, is a half day).

Anyone heard the phrase "It's a small world"?

17h09
Today my two other host siblings - Erika and Alexis - arrived. Amaury, Benedicte - my host arents - and I woke up nice and early to go get them. Afterwards we stopped for breakfast at le Pain Quotidien, in Jambes - a town not too far from Arbre, my current town. I hadroissant with a chocolate filling, as well as regular bread with a white chocolate spread, as well as yogurt with fresh fruit, as well as a huge cup full of delicious hot chocolate. Fate being fateful, our server was none other than Carole-Ann, the Belgian inbound student to southern Arizona last year, who I had met at one of the Rotary meetings. It was crazy to just run into her on accident. The food was great and I ate more than I should have.
Anyway, Erika and I hit it off. She's my age, just having turned sixteen. According to Benedicte, I will be in the cinquième grade with Erika. I had it in my head that school started the first of September – this coming Wednesday. It starts the 6th, the Monday after tomorrow. Apparently I go to register this coming Friday. So I still have a solid week of vacation before school starts!

Driving's never been so fun

22h03
Going backwards in time a little bit, the plane ride over was extremely uneventful. The most exciting moment was probably when I was offered wine with my dinner on the overnight flight from Dallas to London.
Today we went to Ikea. I would explain how different or similar it is to those in the US had I ever been to an Ikea in the US. However, I do have to mention a couple differences – the roads!! They not only have smaller lanes, which I remember from being in Europe before, but they have roads that seem basically like one lane roads, but are not. I remember the first day driving home from the airport to pick up my host brother from where he was sailing, driving on this tiny road wondering where the road was that took cars in the other direction until I figured out that was the only road. Also, Belgians construct their roads to be obstacle courses – they are full to twists and sharp turns, blind spots, but also random speed bump type things and fences that stick into the road to make it less wide – to remind Belgians to drive slowly, my host dad told me. From my limited experience so far, it doesn’t work. At all. You don't drive in Belgium if you aren't willing to Claim and Capture your Place on the road. (capital letters on purpose.) If I get a chance to take a picture of the obstacle course, I’ll post it here. Forgot my camera again.

Cats are just as important as anything else

So far, so great. I enjoy being here – everything is still new and different and I am enjoying it. The Bronchart/Dewulf/Thomas family is extremely friendly and welcoming. I have yet to meet the two older children of the five, but the three younger children are so excited to tell me things and see me that it makes me feel really welcome. I was afraid they would all be afraid of the strange American living in their home, but that’s not the case.
As one might expect, everything here is green. I think I’ve only seen the sun once since I’ve been here, and that was this morning. It wasn’t even really seeing the sun, it was just sunlight peeking through the clouds. It rains almost continuously, but so far I rather like it.
The family has two cats – Grosschat and Blabla. Grosschat is sleeping on the couch across from me. He’s well suited to his name (it means fat cat) – his large nature reminds me of Garg. Blabla, a totally black cat, resembles my cat Grillo not only in color but in coordination as well. He fell into the small pond they have outside their house as he was drinking.
I promise pictures are to come soon - can you believe I left my camera at home on my first trip to Brussels? All the exchange students in Beligium met for an official welcoming and tour of the Royal Palace, the Grand Place, and the House and Senate. A tiring day, but interesting.

I'm here! ...Right?

8h57
I'm here! (And it's still raining). I just looked out the window and saw the pouring rain. I had a strange feeling this morning – this is my second morning here. I woke up and as I woke up I had a semi-subconcious thought. Wow, that was weird; I dreamt I was in Belgium. I opened my eyes and was almost slightly surprised to discover that I wasn’t in my bed in Rio Rico. I almost said home, but this is my home as well, now.