Joyeux Noël !

Joyeux Noël à tous !

So for Christmas in Belgium, all the festivities are on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is more like "recover from last night" day. So on Christmas Eve my family drove up to Liège because the entire family lives in Liège, well except for us. We all gathered around and had wine and "muchies", many different appetizers after the Christmas Eve service at church. After a while we called Pauline on skype to say hello. We ate dinner at this huge table that sat at least 25 people. We had shrimp and bread with jams, and many different meats that you cook at the table, some salad, ratatouille, and ice cream or crême brulée for dessert. It was so delicious! I have a few pictures but not many, and I'll upload those in a bit. Everyone opened their gifts in mass chaos, but it was so fun. And since there are so many family members they do a secret santa thing. So after dinner we handed out the secret santa gifts and once you open it, you have to guess who gave it to you. Around 2am we left to go my host grandmother's house to sleep for the night. Needless to say, I slept so well that night! All the  chaos and French is truely exhausting. The next day we had leftovers before heading back home. Once I got home I called my family on skype and had like a second Christmas. Everyone was gathered around the computer opening gifts. Oh so much funness! I'm still recovering from all the festivities but it was well worth it.

I'm not really doing anything for New Year's mainly because the party I would be going to is going to be based on drinking and getting drunk, which is obviously not my cup of tea. So, I'll be chillin at home with my host family. Nothing special. And I realized recently... I can't watch the ball drop from Times Square this year!!! That's like tradition! It's gonna be so weird not seeing that this year. I will do my best to watch the London parade to see all my friends march! I'm excited to see that.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Laura

O, Christmas Tree

It's Christmas time!! Finally! I'm so excited, you have no idea. It's nice to finally see Christmas things start to go up around town. I even saw some lights lit in the city today while walking around after school. When I got home, the people delivered our REAL Christmas tree! It's so cool to have a real tree for a change, though I do love my fake one. :) Then we set it up and decorated it with lights and ornaments. And it looks AWESOME let me tell you. Or rather show you...

 

I love it! It's an awesome tree.

Plus, I just realized this, it's my 4-month anniversary in Belgium! That's awesome and scary all at the same time. In a sense it feels like it's been an eternity because I haven't seen my friends or family, but in another sense it's like "where did the time go?" I remember them always telling me before I left that you would start to have dreams in French after about 3 or 4 months. Well, they were totally right. Dreams in French are scary, because I wake up and have no idea what just happened or what anyone said in the dream, including myself. Yet it's completely awesome because it made perfect sense at the time. It's an experience that is clearly hard to explain.

Birthday Time

Wow! I'm 18! and I have no idea where these past 18 years went 'cause I definitely don't feel like an "adult". So for my birthday I had three of my friends from Verviers over and Tara, the Canadian in my town, for dinner. We ate Raclette (spelling?), and it was SO delicious. Really one of y favorite meals. Though, you better not be planning on doing anything the est of the day because it's heavy and makes you really tired. But, its deliciousness makes up for it. :D Then they all slept over at my house becase the next day we went to Brussels to see New Moon! Loved the movie, by the way. It wasn't one of my favorite books, so it wasn't my favorite movie either, but it was still good, and it stuck to the book, for the most part. Of course, everythig felt in fast forward because they ca't possibly fit everything into a two-hour movie.

Trying to find the movie theater was interesting. We had directions but sill managed to get lost, lol. We saw these police officers pull over a car and we were next to a cathedral, so, we pretended to be really interested in the cathedral until they were done writing the ticket. Then we ran over to ask them for directions before they left. And they said, "go straight, then right". Well, to anyone wondering how complicated this could possibly be, there are 50 million rights and we had no idea how long to go straight. So we wandered staight for a while. Along the way we looked at several maps, with no revelation, and the preceeded to ask some pedestrians. Some of which spoke french, and one that spoke english. None of which lived in Brussels, so naturally that didn't help. We then proeeded to ask a store clerk who liteally played out the entire walk to he movie theater for us, turns and all. So we said, "merci" and went on our way. We did what she said, and voila! the movie theater! We were so happy we literally screamed. (We got a lot of strange looks, too.)

The lines a the theater are like none other, and europeans have no sense of the word "hurry". Once we got through the line, we got some popcorn and they gave us the option of salty or sugary. We all said simotainiously, "salty". (We eat  lot of sugar here on a daily basis.) Oh deliciousness, and themovie was great. It was in english, but had subtitles in french and dutch (or flemish). One good thing about really excited fans is they might actually shut up during the movie, lol.

After the movie got out, I had 15 minutes to catch my train, becaue my host mom hadto pick me up at a certain time because she was going out that night. So, no waiting an hour for the next train. (Remember, we don't know where the station is.) So, we speedwalk back through our steps and once wefound the station, literally ran to find my platform. I ran down the stairs just in time to see my train pulling onto the platform. Whew! So onc I got on the train, I filled out m ticket thing and went to sleep. I managed to go through a two and a half hour train ride without ever getting my ticket stamped. I'm really surprised they didn't wake me up. Now, if I were this kind of person, I could erase the markings and reuse that part of the ticket, but that's technically stealing, and I could never live with myself.

Needless to say that was a fun weekend, and very exhausting as well.

Now, a week later, I ate pancakes for breakfast! I was super psyched to eat pancakes! Life is pretty great a the moment, (except that my keyboard hates me and misses like half my keystrokes), but other than that it's great!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :)

Retreat, Paris, and Chez Tara

My school has a retreat for the seniors to go somewhere for three days with their respective class to get to know each other better. For three days I was surrounded by french 24 hours a day and no internet. At first I wasn't too excited about this retreat, but once I was there, I was excited. I knew it would be goo for me. This retreat involved me answering many questions (sometimes in french and sometimes in english) about myself: where I am and where I want to be, and me standing on a table to fall into the arms of my classmates. We did many other games and activities that might seem pointless, but they really helped me to learn about my classmates, and for them to learn about me. I now know everyone's name in my class, except for one. And I know it starts with an N, but I just can never remember it. Grr. :)

The day after returning from the retreat I headed to Paris for three days with the Rotary. It was so much fun too. On the way there, I didn't really know anyone, but I definitely made some good friends along the way. We visited le tour Eiffel, le musée de Louvre, le chateau de Versailles, l'arch de triomph. le cathedral de Notre-Dame, du shopping, etc. It was all awesome.

Upon returning from Paris I went to stay with Tara for 4 days. We made cookies, went shopping in Liege, and played perhaps a million games of Uno. Wednesday afternoon we had tea with the governor of the province of Luxembourg. That was fun simply because I got to see everyone again. They had pound cake too, it was delicious. I know that "the press" was the there and they interviewed a few exchange students. I wonder where this will show up. I'm not in an interview, but I am in the picture, so I'd like to see this. Today at Tara's St. Nicolas left candy in our shoes. Actually it's a marshmellow kabob and a clementine. YUM!! :D It was awesome. We were really confused at first though because we didn't know the story of St. Nicolas.

Apparently, St. Nicolas is usually December 6th and that's where he comes and leaves candy in your shoes if you're good. And it's for little kids. But he also comes like a month before too. I pleasantly surprised to find this out today. Sounds like 3 times the candy as normal, haha, Christmas, St. Nicolas, and today. When candy is involved, I will never mind being treated like a child. :)

Finally I'm back home to sleep in my own bed after over a week of traveling. It was a great week, but I'm super glad to be home.

London for New Years?

So it seems completely possible that I might be able to go to London for New Years! I'm so incredibily excited!! I hope it works out. There are tons of rules and guidelines I have to follow, and a million forms I must get filled out and signed before it can happen.

This would be the ideal plan, though we all know that things rarely go according to plan. I would get permission and everything from my host parents, my real parents, my host Rotary club, and my district and get all the detailed forms filled out about what we're doing every minute we're there. My host family has some relatives that live in London, and they would be there if something came up. I doubt I would be allowed to get on a plane and fly to London by myself, in which case I could bring a couple friends with me. Belgian or not? I don't know yet. Though, if I had belgian friends go, I would definitely be learning some french along the way, instead of speaking english the entire time. Otherwise, I'll take some friends from Canada, or possibly the US. And since England is english-speaking, I would be able to communicate freely if I had any problems. :) I'm hoping I don't, though.

Tomorrow, I will be proposing my plan to one of the Rotarians and hopefully, they say yes. If they say no, then all my excitement is wasted. Who knows, I might end up just staying at the house on New Years with my host sister. I'm thinking London sounds like a TON more fun though!!

Please, say yes. :D

School

Constantly throughout the day I think to myself, "wow, that would be cool to put in my blog" but then by the time i get to my computer I can no longer remember all the awesome little things that happen. But for now, I'll try...

oo i know! I can tell you my school schedule! Okay, here it goes, hold on tight!

Monday
1. Francais
2. Maths
3. Etude (study)
4. Francais
5. Musique (now changed to francais 3)
Lunch
6. Arts
7. Etude
8. Espagnol

whew, one day down, only four more to go..

Tuesday
1-5 Francais 2 (my special french class with all my exchange buddies)
Lunch
6. Histoire (now changed to francais 3)
7. Geographie (now changed to francais 3)
8. Physique

oh yay, wednesdays next :)

Wednesday
1. Religion
2. Maths
3. Chimie
4. Francais
5. EP (PE)
School ends early!!

two more left..

Thursday
1-5. Francais 2
Lunch
6. Maths
7. Etude
8. Anglais

oh yes its Friday!

Friday
1. Espagnol
2. Arts
3. Biologie
4. Etude
5. Anglais
Lunch
6-8. Arts

yes, I have 4 hours of art on Fridays.

I don't know how in the world I am ever going to memorize this schedule. It would be harder if I didn't have Francais 2, because then I'd have an additional 10 hours of class. Yeah, I definitely love Francais 2.

I guess I could comment on my classes, now, maybe that's interesting to some people.

Francais - I don't have a clue what she lectures about in class. Not one clue. But I do know that I will be giving a presentation in French about the USA and where I come from on May 12. At least I'll be able to speak French by then.

Maths - I actually do understand what he says most of the time, and he is an amazing teacher. He's crazy, but math teacher crazy. Oh and he actually went on the Art class' trip to Paris as a chaperone. That was kinda cool. It is hard to keep up though because I miss 2 of the 4 hours each week because of the Francais 2 course. But right now we're covering -basically what we learned in precalc- (because I don't know how to spell what it's actually called.) :)

Etude - Awesomeness in a box. The sixth years, or seniors, have their own study room that they can go to, instead of the other one that everyone else goes to. It's awesome, and I get to talk to my friends, and learn French. And then, of course, are the few people that actually study during that time.

Musique - I can't say anything about music, because I actually haven't gone to the class yet. Hopefully soon, though.

Arts - Art is interesting because I never know what we're doing. See, the art room is composed of 4 classrooms connected together, and I never know which one we're going to be in. He might be lecturing over history of art the while time, or we might be drawing on our own the whole time, I never know. (aka, talk to people and learn French, or write poems or random stories in order to avoid actually drawing anything. If you've seen my drawings you would understand why.) Oh, and there's a sign in the art room that talks about the 9 planets. I wonder if it's known that there's actually only 8. I still can't get over Pluto not being a planet.

Espagnol - Spanish is great! I love it! I understand everything, because it's Spanish!! Haha, but yeah. Really, the BVW teachers are amazing, and I never realized how amazing until I came here. Here, the foreign language classes are halfway taught in the foreign language, and halfway taught in French. So, in other words, we could be learning more if the teachers spoke in the foreign language the whole time. But, my spanish teachers taught me a lot, and I've learned a lot of French since I've been here, so I actually end up translating from French to Spanish for other people. It makes me feel good. :) The basis of learning new vocabulary is just translating it to French, which obviously does me no good, so that part is hard. I have to look up all the words I don't know on my own. I wish they would try to describe the vocab in Spanish and not just translate it. And actually that's better, because then you connect the word with the thing or action, not just the French equivilant.

Francais 2 - Awesomest class here. I get out of an incredible amount of school, therefore the teachers don't expect me to be able to keep up on the work or anything. It makes life a lot easier. The teachers at the 'special school' are amazing teachers. If you don't know, Francais 2 is a class where they teach French as if you've never had French before. They teach it as a foreign language. It really helps a lot, more than I ever imagined it would. So, back to vocab, we HAVE to explain everything in French, and only French, because people speak all different languages, and French is the 'common language.' Most of the exchange students speak English very well, with Spanish being their native language.

--side note-- After Francais 2 all the exchange students, like 6 or 7 of us, go to a bar and they drink and we all talk and have a good time. Then after a while we go grab lunch, if we don't already have one, before all the school kids come into town. (Notice the differences between 'we' and 'they.') With most of them speaking Spanish as a first language, they speak it with each other, so I get a fair dose of Spanish each week, whether it be in a classroom or not.

Histoire - I have no clue what he talks about. Haha

Geographie - It's pretty boring. I don't understand most of it, but what I do understand is boring.

Physique - It actually reminds me of precalc. I'm actually interested in it. You know, anything with visuals in a world of unknown helps a lot. I've never had physics so I don't know how well I'll actually understand or do anything, but it's fun and interesting.

Religion - It should be banned from the planet. I have no clue what he talks about either, but the teacher is way, way to strict, especially teaching a religion class. I thought religion might be cool, but I was wrong. All I've learned so far is that "there are 2 worlds, a scientific world and a spiritual world."

Chimie - I just don't like chemistry. It's not my thing. Plus, I don't understand anything.

EP - Yeah, I thought PE would stink because I'm used to not having it, but guess what?! I'm taking yoga, and it's awesome. One, it's basically stretching a million different ways, which I think feels incredibily wonderful, and two, there's no running involved or getting all stinky from sweat. :) Definitely a plus.

Anglais - It's okay. It's not my favorite class by any means. It's actually painful to know everything and not having to learn. It's sounds weird, but it's true. I would much rather be in Spanish class. (I really want to take Flemish) And Jessie, if you ever read this, I now know how you feel in Spanish class. It's truely painful. Oh, and my teacher makes me do everything in French instead of English. Strange, but possible very beneficial. On the bright side, though, I absolutely LOVE hearing their accents when they read the English. It's so incredibly adorable beyond explination.

Biologie - Awesomeness. We're learning genetics right now, and I understand everything. I really enjoy learning all the biological terms in French. I don't know why, but it's fasinating. (Thanks Midder B for being a wonderful teacher!)

Whew! Finally finished describing classes.

To finish up my talking about school, I'd like to say that my friends are simply amazing. I love you guys! They're always so helpful and answer any questions I have, they make sure I understand what's important, and keep me included. This couldn't have worked out better. :)

---Monday's edits---
So now, they've changed my schedule and I have a third French course with the fourth years, or sophomores, instead of my history, geography, and music classes. I'm not incredibily depressed about it. I've never been to music, so I don't know what I'm missing, and history and geography are just torture, so I'm beyond excited. Plus, the teacher is super nice and helpful. She's also my Spanish teacher.

Awesome Day!

Nothing really important happened today, it was just a really good day, and I'll tell you why.

For one thing, I actually have a definite schedule now. Yay!! By that, I also figured out that I do in fact have a biology, music, and Spanish class. I was beginning to think I didn't have those classes, but they're on my schedule! Also, I had three hours of "etude," or study hall. What's not to love?

Secondly, I talked to a couple girls in French during etude (like I was actually a part of the conversation the whole time! It was awesome.) With the help of my handy dandy french-english dictionary, we made it through.

Then it was time for this mysterious Spanish class that I didn't think I had. I went to class and the teacher asks me different questions (in French!) about how long I studied and how much Spanish I know. And I was actually able to answer the questions in French! (Note: By the amount of exclamation marks, it should be obvious that the writer is very VERY excited about this matter.) The first task of the day was to write a description of a famous person in Spanish so the class could guess who it was. (We worked in partners.) I ended up transñating the vocabulary from French to Spanish for other people! That was COOL!! The next task was to write, in Spanish or French, what we wanted to learn that year in Spanish class. Well, I obviously don't know enough vocabulary or grammar to write this in French, so I wrote it in Spanish. But, the STRANGE part was that French was coming to mind faster than the Spanish.

My overview of my language learning... Spanish used to be something that I could speak freely with my American friends, but now it's getting harder. French is much more immediate now, sometimes it comes to mind faster than English. Now, THAT'S WEIRD!!!

Basically, it was an AWESOME DAY!!

Trout, Petting Zoo, Liege, and Paris

My host dad went fishing one day and caught some trout. The next day we ate them, or the day after, I don't remember exactly. I was a little nervous because the fish was starring at me from the plate, but it was actually very delicious.

Liege is almost famous in the eyes of the exchange students, everyone wants to go there, but to anyone else, it's just another city. And the people back home, don't even know about it. It's common to go to Liege or Luxembourg to go shopping because there are a lot of shops. It's a very fun, and large city, and you might just run into people you know. I actually did. I saw two of the girls I met at the airport in Washington D.C. It was pretty awesome. Most of the exchange students live around Liege, so it isn't uncommon to see them.

Thursday, I was walking back from my special French class with Tara, my Canadian friend, and we found a "petting zoo" in a parking lot. It wasn't really a petting zoo, but rather a vendor selling animals. (Mostly chickens) They were all so cute and adorable. Then we started feeling really bad for them, because they were all cramped up inside these little cages, so we left.

I went to Paris yesterday with my art class at school. I never ever thought I would say that. Especially it being just a day trip. We left from school on our tour bus at 5:30am and arrived in Paris around 10ish. It wasn't terribly long though. I enjoyed looking at the French countryside, plus it was really early so I slept a bit.

In Paris we went to a science/art museum type place first. It was really cool. The anatomy stuff was awesome, because I actually understood what it was talking about. (Everything's in French) But it was big, and there were a million things to do. Here were just a couple things.

Afterwards we went to the Louvre Museum, which I believe is famous, or at least everyone seems to know it. It was beyond huge, and amazing. The artwork is fabulous. I didn't know any of it previously, but it was great. Here are a couple pictures.

Later, when we had some free time, a couple friends and I went to la tour Eiffel. (the Eiffel Tower) It was also quite amazing. We took the long way there because we were trying to find it by simply seeing it from far away and walking in the general direction. Bad idea. Look at a map. It took us over an hour to get there, and only about 20 minutes to get back. Yeah, haha, look at a map. What was quite skocking to me was that the Eiffel Tower wasn't the main attraction in Paris. There were plently more people interested in the museum and walking around enjoying the 'grand place.' It's so big, and beautiful. There's no way to describe it, and even pictuers can't do it justice. It's just something you have to see in person.

Twilight

I know that Twilight isn't really about Belgium, but it is a part of life in Belgium, so I'm writing about it anyway. I definitely love the saga and am dying to see New Moon. I wonder if it'll be shown in English or French? Hmm, well either way, it will still be amazing. And by that time, I will understand the French! Bella's Lullaby is a beautiful song and I don't know what else, but it's an awesome song.

I am currently trying to read New Moon in French, and it's proving to be quite a challenge. But, I'm determined to read it and actually understand. I know it will help me learn French, and I don't have an English copy so this works. (For the best, really.)

I also am reading Midnight Sun (in English), which for those of you who don't know, is Twilight in Edward's view. It's amazing to get the second perspective on things. It's just simply awesome, and I'm definitely in favor of Stephanie Meyer finishing it. If anyone ever finds out that she is, let me know!

Actually, in America, New Moon comes out on my birthday. Here is comes out on November 18th. I'm not complaining or anything that is comes out sooner, but it was kind of cool that it came out on my birthday.

So everyone: remember that you should all read the twilight saga (again, if you've already read it). That's my only advice today.

My Weekend Thus Far

Yesterday (Friday), I went to my first Rotary meeting. It was pretty cool. I mean, the French was a little over my head, but still cool. I'm pretty sure we ate dinner (for the meeting) at a hotel in Luxembourg. I wondered why we were having a meeting in Luxembourg when everyone there lived in Belgium, but anywho, that's how it was. The food was -eh- okay, but the dessert was delicious. Below are some pictures from that night. By the way, the sugar cubes were awesome. We were all half asleep, so they really helped.

Today, I woke up around 11 after having a good night's rest. I read some of Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer. Took a shower. Looked around on facebook for a bit. Checked by email. I thought I was leaving at 1:30 to go to my neighbor's house because we were doing something together that day. (At the time I had no idea what. And my host parents went to a wedding.) Then, I was informed around 1 ish that I needed to leave at that moment because the bus we were taking to the city was leaving in 3 minutes. (We were planning on going to see a movie at the cinema) So, my hair being wet, having just taken a shower, I got my things together, grabbed my hairbrush, and ran out the door. Once I made it to the neighbor's house, we ran through the field, went through a fence, and finally made it to the bus stop. We sat there for about 10 minutes and then decided mutually that we had missed the bus. So then there were two options: one, walk to the next village and catch the bus there, or two, go to the cinema tomorrow. And of course they all leave it up to me to decide, so I said tomorrow and we walked back home. They were all secretly happy that they were not in fact going to have to walk to the next village. I'm sure of it.

At the house, we watched a movie whose name I do not know, ate lasagna, and watched some more shows in French. All the while we were talking about everything. Somehow we got on the topic of Twilight and I learned that she has the Twilight books in French. So of course, I am now attempting to read New Moon in French. And it's not easy, but extremely gratifying when I understand something. I know I now have hours of good reading to do in my free time, which is something I love. And I'm learning French, too! It's just awesome. After reading for about an hour, we watched some more shows in French, and then ate this Asian food, whose name I do not know, and some fries. Actually it was pretty good. The fries weren't true Belgian fries, just ones we found in the freezer and put in the oven.

After a while, I decided I should walk back to my actual host home and get some sleep as it was late, and I knew I was doing something tomorrow. (Like going to the cinema, and NOT missing the bus.)

English Class

Today, I couldn't find my English class, which for one is strange because I'm typically surounded by all my classmates. So, I followed some other people I knew to a different English class. We watched an Australian documentary about home-schooling. It was actually somewhat interesting the first time. By about the third time I wasn't paying attention anymore. When class ended, I found out that my real English class had been canceled, and I thought, "That might be why I couldn't find it." Haha. But, talking with people was definitely better than just sitting by myself for an hour until the rest of the school got out.

--- Random note---
When I go to blogspot.com (without logging in) the page is in Flemish. I thought that was mildly interesting because I live in the French part of Belgium, not the Flemish part.

Food

Belgium is most obviously known for it's delicious chocolate. Each year Belgium exports tons of chocolate around the world. It truely is wonderful chocolate, and if you haven't tried it, you should. (Twix bars are my favorite candy of almost all time, and they taste even better in Belgium. Maybe it's the Belgian chocolate, I don't know, but they really are amazing.) There are also Belgian waffles. Now, before I came here, everyone told me to try some belgian waffles, and I always thought it was a joke. I didn't think somewhere could actually be known for waffles. However, Belgium is in fact known for their delicious waffles. American-Belgian waffles are just not the same. These you will actually have to travel to try. There is simply none other. Beer is also a big thing, but I haven't tried it, so I can't comment on it.

Now for everyday food. Each morning when i wake up for school, I go downstairs to find the table filled with an array of things to put on bread. (Bread is truely a staple in the Belgian diet.) There are different jams, cheeses, butter, peanut butter (from my kitchen at home), nutella, and sometimes other things. Depending on the type of bread that morning, I decide between the cheese, butter, or nutella. And some mornings, like this morning, I eat an apple with peanut butter. Peanut butter, I've come to find, is very much an American food. Most people outside of the US don't like peanut butter. However, my family does.

This morning I was sitting at breakfast with my host sister, and I was eating my apple and peanut butter just like I would normally, and I look up and she's looking at me strangely. So, naturally, I ask her if she wants to try. And hestitantly she puts some peanut butter on her apple slice puts in it her mouth. Surprisingly, she liked it. I was actually surprised too.

My host dad, makes us lunch every morning (a sandwich) for us to take to school, and we have the option to also buy lunch in the city and so forth, which is also a sandwich. They're all delicious, so I usually just take the ones we get from home.

When we get home from school we can eat some bread or fruit as a snack before dinner. For dinner we eat a wide variety of foods. Some pictures are below. The dessert, bottom right, is filled with ice cream and topped with melted chocolate. Messy, yes, delicious, YES!

All in all, the food here is quite amazing and fresh. American food does not even compare, although there are a few things I miss. For instance, my white rice that I ate at least 3 times a week and my crisp, salty potato chips. Yumm.

August 11th

So, I will be leaving in 3-4 days... something like that. 4... yeah 4. I just started packing and I realized that there is a lot more to packing for a year than I expected. And i truely believe that my suitcases have shrunk because there is no way that only that much stuff fills up my suitcases. It might present a probem shortly. I went shopping today to get the gifts for my families, but there are still a few odds and ends. Like, it's almost my host sister's birthday and I need to get her a present.

This whole ordeal still feels like a world of fantasy. The people I've met, everything... it all seems so unreal. It will only seem real when I meet all these people that I talk to. I can't wait to meet everybody.