Week 3 – found my feet!

Monday

Last week started in a very… sleepy manner. I slept through my alarm and had to hurry up to get to school. The moment I was there we started with a math test. I think I did pretty well!

In drama I received my first assignment. I got grouped up with a couple of people and we had the best time making frozen scenes based on Phineas and Ferb’s title sequence song. 

In the afternoon, a wave of sleepiness hit me. I almost dozed off during physics, and when I got home, I wanted to take a 30 min nap, which ended up being a 2 hour one. After eating, I read a little bit (Little Women,  just started the book, but I already highly recommend it!), and got into bed early for a good and long sleep.

Tuesday

On this day, Vancouver was covered with a small layer of snow in the morning. The weather forecast told us that by the end of the day, we’d have about 20 cm of snow. It was extremely exciting coming out of school and seeing only white everywhere. 

Talking about school, on Tuesday I received three textbooks which each weighed a ton. I couldn’t avoid not getting myself a locker. I have one of those combination locks that you see in every North American high-school movie, and I am proud to say I understand how to operate one! 

The team I went bowling with on Sunday felt like having a movie night, so we put on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and we grabbed some blankets and snacks. Movie nights with snow or rain falling outside are one of my favourite things. Most of us ended up falling asleep before the end, but we did have fun. 

Wednesday

… a day full of visiting new places. 

After school, some friends and I decided to go to Metro Town. It’s this place in Vancouver with a huge mall; they have pretty much everything you need there. I was very, very confused trying to find my way to different stores. 

One of them was Muji. They have all these cute notebooks and interesting pens, it was fun playing around with some of them. 

When I got home, my host dad invited me to come along to Costco. Even though I was exhausted from Metro Town, I agreed to come along, and wasn’t disappointed. 

For all the Belgians out there, Costco can be compared to Colruyt. But here, every food article in Colruyt is suddenly twice it’s size. Put all these foods on racks that are 6m tall, and organize the shop like a Brico. That’d pretty much the only way I can describe Costco. It was IMMENSE. I felt just ever so slightly intimidated by it, which made my host dad laugh. At least I got to buy some orange juice :). 

When I got home, I got hit with homesickness for the first time since I left. I was listening to sad songs so I probably also brought that fate on myself. I realised that getting busy was the only way to clear your mind. I played some songs on the piano, read from Little Women, wrote down some stuff I don’t want to forget about this exchange, and finally was sleepy enough to go to bed. 

Thursday

I started the day off with having a laugh at how sometimes the advertisements on the radio modify their voice so they sound like they’re on an old radio. I’ve never heard of that technique before but it’s pretty funny.

In math I didn’t understand a thing that day but in drama we had tons of fun. During psychology I took the Myers-Briggs personality test and apparently I have the character of a teacher or a champion! Some of the descriptions don’t match up to my personality, but otherwise they got it pretty right. In physics I learned that an 81% is still a B. I was slightly disappointed, but now determined to do better on my next test. 

After school, a few exchange students and I went ice skating. We had all levels of skaters, from only having had skates on one other time in their life, to someone who used to take skating classes. We had lots of fun, and a few even ended up playing ice hockey. 

After that, all of us were exhausted. I crashed in my bed and immediately fell asleep that night. 

Friday

Ah, Friday, finally the end of the week. All I did that evening was rest, and FaceTime a few friends. The rest was spent either reading, or sleeping. Very boring day for a blog but good for the soul :). 

Oh, actually, at school we have a cafeteria almost completely run by students. They prepare, cook and sell the food themselves, the last part during lunch hours. I was surprised how good the food was. I got from them some really delicious cinnamon buns!

Saturday

The first thing I did in the morning was call my Belgian friends. The moment they all came online and I saw their faces, I had a flash of homesickness for them. I miss them all so much. Luckily they cheered me up immediately with stories of how horrible school was that week :)). 

A little while later, a Canadian friend of mine found out I knew nothing of New Westminster, the area I live in. He decided to solve that by taking me on a little tour, to a viewpoint, and a few other different places. Only later in the evening I realised and regretted that I forgot to take pictures of that beautiful viewpoint … I will have to fix that next time. Well anyways, I now (kind of) know my way around. Let’s hope I don’t get lost next time I try finding a McDonald’s. 

Sunday

On Sunday my friends spontaneously decided we should go to the trampoline park. I’m so happy I came along, it was the first time I’d ever been to one. Falling in the foam pit is definitely the weirdest feeling you can imagine. I had tons of fun doing flips into the foam pit, and making my other friends fall in when they were unwisely standing close to the ledge.