Wow, already three days in Belgium don't worry I'm alive !!

Salut,

It has already been three days since I have been in Belgium and what an adventure it has been. To start with my plane from Portland to Minneapolis was delayed two hours because President Bush decided to go and shut down the whole airport, and then they were doing construction on a runway. Arriving two hours late into Minneapolis: Clarissa, Ian and I missed our flight to Amsterdam. But we got on standby and waited and as we waited we meet two other Rotary Exchange students Ernie and Emily both from California. Also we met two other Rotarians going to Belgium to see there old host brother and go on a biking trip across Europe. After making it to Amsterdam, we missed our other flight from Amsterdam to Brussels by an hour because our plane was yet again delayed. We got on the 5 o'clock flight, so we didn't have to wait too long. We also saw a picture you would never in the U.S airport and portrait of a womens naked breast, it jsut shows how open there culture is.After an exhausting day, we finally arrive in Brussels, and since this whole voyage no one else knew French I was the leader of the gang, so when our baggage was not in Brussels when we arrived, we had to fill out claim sheets which I did for most everyone because they couldn't read the form. After our house families waited for us for 5 hours we finally arrived. My family is very nice there is Nathalie (the mom), voisin or Pascal ( the boyfriend who lives in the house), Juliette ( my host sister who is 16), Alix (the huge dog), Parilene (the girl donkey) and pom pom Pipou( the male donkey). Not to mention the neighbor Hugo who speaks to me in Wallo ( old French) and has shone me pictures of the house from back in the days because he has lived across the street his whole life. And also his tractor Joseph which he talks to sometimes. My house was built in 1734 and the barn was built in 1840. The town I'm living in is called Silly, Belgium and has a population of around 7,000. Our house is centrally placed because a couple blocks up the street is many fields of beets and corn and forests, then down the other direction is the center of town. Last night I went to m first Rotary Club meeting and everything was great, it is a very small group of around 38 members. I love it here! Today was my host mom's birthday and the Godparents of Voisin came and gave me my first box of Belgium chocolate and mmmm it is soo good!!!

Culture differences:

It seems that everyone here smokes even my host family (inside) but I am developing ways to avoid it. Even kids my age are smoking and know one really cares.

Most everyone drinks alcohol with everything, we were just having juice and they offered me some alcohol flavored stuff to put in it. Drinking here is natural to everyone and is common among young people. ( don't worry I only tried a sip of voisin's beer cause he said I had to try but I don't like alcohol at all and I know it's against the rules as well, even though most kids look at me like I'm crazy when I say no alcohol please).


* I have attached pictures of my town, the airplane trip and my family.