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!)