Almost done

Today I start packing...I leave on the 5th for Poland come back to Belgium the 19th and then off for redding the 25th...Its going by faster than ever...weird..

Fact of the day:
Since the last post Leigh-Ann has had a lot going on: friend came to visit, really fun! Spent some time with school friends and then went off to see Berlin, Dresden, Prague and several obscure places as well...o and rediscovered her enjoyment in biking : )

Life in Europe

I spent the night in an ancient city, I ran threw an enchanted forest, i picked lots of gooseberries, and then i talked to my family on a magic mirror...
It has been quite the adventure today i must say....
: )


fact of the day: Leigh-Ann is finding fair tails are quite common and very true, just the way we think of them is a little different than the reality

Rainy Belgique

Its raining again out side.Now that its not -14 deg C im actually getting to enjoy the rain. I like the lush green country side with specks of cows, chickens, goats, sheep, and what ever other farm animal. Its relaxing and pretty and just makes me wanna drink hot chocolate and stay indoors all day...The past week or so has been pretty weird. People are leaving left and right including one of my two best friends here is leaving in two weeks, I cant picture being in Belgium with out either of them : / Belgium= Alexandra and Hilly. And to make it weirder im going to see my parents in 24hrs. I cant explain how i feel, im actually not really sure how i feel... its like a mix of excitedness and nervousness.. Nervous because im not sure how ill react to seeing them, im not sure if they are going think iv completely changed and just not me anymore, tho i somehow doubt that. I guess its just the idea of seeing my parents doesnt seem factual in my brain. In my brain I have my Belgain world and my home world..and because my brain has never seem them together it doesn't seem natural that they would collide. But apparently they are because i have a train ticket to see them tomorrow! I really am excited, out of everyone my parents have been one of the most quite but most deep missings. Im overwhelmed with thankfulness that they are my parents, each one has such strong roots within me and are greatly responsible in the molding of whom iv become in this life. I love them both so muchand im just so excited to see them so soon and get to show them this adventure iv been on for the past year. Its going to be great: )


Fact of the day: Belgians often put butter on their ham and cheese sandwiches...weird?

life life and not really wanting to leave

hmmm catching-up in Leigh-Anns life, I just have to say that i cant speak english correctly anymore so please forgive any weird sentence structures or unreal words...God is still working on my heart like crazy, I feel kinda like im in the 8th mile of a 10 mile run if that tells you anything... Im flat out exhausted, questioned my self and my coach more than i thought possible, but in the back of my head i keep telling my self that this training run will be done eventually.. and ill appreciate it sometime AFTER its finished... but in the mean time it sucs.. As far as the rest of my life goes Im absolutely loving it! I have the best family i could ask for, all the stress brought on by the last one is wiped away and gone : D I have two very eco-friendly parents who love having people over at the house, a 21 year old sister named Anuke that i love ( she did an exchange in the states for 6 months), another 20 year old sister named Geraldine, another 17 year old sister named Olivia, and a 14(or 15) year old brother that everyone calls Moose : ) Life is calm and energetic here all at the same time, there is always someone around to talk to or something to laugh about but plenty of personal space too. Iv jumped leaps and bounds in my French which makes making new friends so much easier and funner, Im pretty much thinking in only French at the moment which is awesome. I could probably even do my homework now that i understand what my teachers are explaining, but lets not get our hopes up too high on that one ; P Right now all in all life is turning for the better and God is doing great things for me spiritually which is an amazing answered prayer ( pray that he keeps it up!) I dont understand my life at all sometimes but im glad he's there. O! i should blog about Italy the next chance i get, it was absolutely amazing, i was afraid that i was getting my hopes up to high but there is not a chance of that, it was just as amazing as i had envisioned, absolutely beautiful... If i ever get the opportunity i would love to do a short-term exchange there..

fact of the day: Alot of Belgians eat pasta with ketch-up... is that normal in the US??

Stress..

Life has stress. Things that bother us a lot of the time shouldn't and yet we let them build. Right now I'm learning how to figure out what and why somthings stress me.. Nothing big and terrible is going on, just somthings stick and stay in my mind when I know I should just them brush it off. I dont know, maybe the things that stress us have a lot to say about us, what we consider important in life?Thoughts??

Isn't it good if some things bother us?? Somethings SHOULD bother us. But there is a difference between being bothered and being stressed... I guess I'm just learning how to give those things to God instead of letting them boil and turn into stress, I really hate feeling stressed...I don't know why it takes me writting a blog to figure out what I already knew...lol life is funny that way I guess...ok

I love you all and am thinking about you lots

night night!

Fact of the day: Leigh-Ann gets to go to the Flanders part for a local carnival!: D

17 DAYS TILL ITALY!!!

Yep it’s true! I cant really believe it myself but im sure it will hit me just as I drive past Switzerland....AHG im excited...Me and my friend Hilly just watched Roman Holiday in celebration of our up-coming trip. If you haven’t seen it you should pretty much just stop by Showtime Videos and pick it up now... I love old movies... there is just poetry to them in the way they tell stories...It’s like you actually should pay attention to details... If you are a girl this is defiantly a good quality girl time movie, friend(s)pop-corn, ice-cream and roman holiday= a very good night: ) if ur a boy don’t feel left out though you can always watch this with your date and let her be impressed by your good taste in movies...its a classic









Fact of the day: Boys wear scarves on a daily basis and actually try to match thier cloths....Leigh-Ann isnt sure how she feels about it....

The Blogging Groove...

Yeah two days in a row! im on a role! I actually kinda miss bloging now that im not (as) preoccupied with being confused and stressed out of my mind...being an exchange students does that to you...I’m not even sure I could explain why or how but just all the little details of life all thrown together I guess. Being an exchange student is kinda like being reborn.... with some vague knowelge. Absolutely every detail that you can think of has the potential to be different and usually is, or at least it seems like it. Things that you would never even think twice about in your old society becomes a monumental task. But just like babies you somehow adopt, imitate, and learn and start to blend. Lol I wouldn't say that I'v been completely blended and puréed but im defiantly progressing further than I would have thought possible when I first got here, only knowing how to say "sorry, I don’t speak French".
I can’t believe how fast time is flying...I had a dinner at my first host family’s home so that I could catch-up and meet my third host family! So I had all families all together and it was a lot of fun. They all even surprised me with birthday presents: ) It was really cool, but also really weird being able to carry long and real conversations with my first host family...I knew them pretty well before I had changed families but for the first time their voices didn’t sound like adults off of Charlie Brown. I really think im going to like my next host family. It’s a big one: D Ill have three sisters, 21, 19, 17, and a host brother who’s 14 and is called moose??im not sure why lol, I actually haven’t met him or the 19 year old sister but the two sisters that I had met both seem really cool, the oldest one did an exchange in the US for 5 to 6 months so we already have some common ground! Mom, if you are reading this we need to talk ASAP about host family gifts! Im changing in less than three weeks!! OK well I need to go off to bed! Ill try to write about more interesting things from now on but we shall see just how successful that ends up!: )
Good night everyone and have a good day!
love you all
Fact of the day: Leigh-Ann has never been so white in her life!!!-not kidding. The only reason i know this is because the sun came out so that i could see just how white i actually am!

















It was a cold winter!
This was my backyard : )