Sunday, August 7, 2011

Leaving/Day 1

(Written on the plane from Chicago to Brussels, last day in the US)

Well, it's only around 6pm and already it's been an eventful day. After waking up and saying goodbye to both my brothers and dogs, we (meaning my parents and I) drove down to the airport. Once I had my boarding passes, I hugged my parents goodbye, and off I went through the security check, where I was (of course) selected for a random extra screening. So, the final images my parents had of me was me being escorted to the back by a TSA officer. Lovely.

But, before when I was waiting to check my bags, a man who was a district chairperson in India was behind me, and gave me his card. I thought that was pretty cool, because I didn't expect to meet anyone associated with rotary. Then, of course, I saw someone with the blazer on my flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. After the flight we talked and I found out that she was going to Finland, and her flight departed an hour before mine. So I decided to follow her around so I wouldn't be lonely.

Then we met like 15 other kids going to Finland, so the layover was quite enjoyable. Two of the Finland-bound kids somehow ended up having to take my flight to Brussels instead of going straight to Helsinki, so we ended up talking during our delay (as the other Finland kids had left).

Now, I'm sitting on my flight to Brussels, slightly freaking out because all of the plane announcements were in English, French and Dutch. The lady I'm sitting next to only speaks French, so I feel like this is going to be a fun trip.

<><><><><><><><>

Wow.

Here I am, sitting in my brand new room, with my brand new parents and siblings.  I can't believe what I've been waiting for is finally here.

After I landed in Brussels, I was immediately spotted by my family.  We drove back to their house (our house now :D, which is about an hour away from Brussels), talking a bit about ourselves and some differences between the countries.  They kept saying that their English wasn't any good, but seeing as how it's sooo much better than my "Dutch", I can't complain.

We stopped for some bread, had breakfast, and I was given a tour around the house.  By then I was exhausted, so I unpacked quick and took a nap until we left to pick up Marcela (the other exchange student living with us).  Once we dropped her stuff off at home, we went out for dinner.  I had fries and steak, though they did manage to get me to try mussels.  It was... interesting, to say the least.

At home once again, we did another tour around the house, and I finally got the wireless working with my computer.  I would go into detail about how lovely the house is, but I'm afraid it's time for bed seeing as how I couldn't get to sleep on the plane.  Yayy, sleep!

No comments:

Post a Comment