The Kingdom of Belgium

     People often ask me questions about Belgium when I tell them that I'm working towards going there in August. This is as good a place as any to answer some of the most frequently asked questions.


 1.Where is Belgium?
    North of France, South of the Netherlands, West of Germany and East of the North Sea.

2.What language do they speak?
    Dutch, French and German

3.Are there any famous people from Belgium?
    Yes there are. (This will eventually be a post all by itself)

4.What country is Belgium in?
    The Kingdom of Belgium is a country!

5.What is Belgium's capital?
     Brussels

6.What is Belgium known for?
     Many things you may not be aware of. (yet again this will be its own post)

7.Why do you want to go? Many reasons!
    "Why not Belgium?" would be a better question.
                    

Other option

     For everyone who hit the "Other" option on the "Fluent in another language" poll what was that "Other" language you would like to speak?

I love comments!

     I love comments because they let me know what I'm doing properly and what I need to improve on. I also love to hear if the topic of a post was interesting or if I should think of something else. I want to make a decent blog and I need your help to make it the best I can. Please let me know that I can make better or what I could add. I'll try my best to include your suggestions. Plus who wouldn't love to get their idea put into action? I want to hear what you think.

Harry Potter

     The Harry Potter books have acted as a sort of security blanket for me. They let me escape what's on my mind and give me a nice feeling every time I open one and read. They give my brain a sort of magical mini vacation to Scotland. Sure getting there is a bit unconventional but there are trains, brooms, the floo network and even flying cars and it is fun to mentally digest how cool it would be to use such transportation.

     I was very excited to find a marathon of the movies on today. Sure I don't love the movies as much as I love the books but that's all right. I think it’s fantastic that I can read to make myself feel better and I don’t have to feel the need to put makeup on my face to feel better about myself I can read. I am also grateful that I can read at all! I can also owe that fact in part to J.K. Rowling because I started reading her books in the second grade and sure that first book took a while to read but I improved my reading skills with her series.

         While abroad I hope that I can get enough time to at least read the books in Dutch and if I’m lucky I hope to get my own copies in the language to enjoy. I think it would be very fun to compare and contrast the books because translations change the names of characters or little parts of the story and that interests me.

Rain

     I've found that I've forgotten how nice I think rain sounds. I guess I've gotten too caught up in everything else going on lately. Its a bummer to think that I forget simple things when I haven't experienced them in a while and that really now ALL I would love is to wander around outside while its raining and enjoy all the smells and the familiar feeling of raindrops splashing onto my face. I would be overjoyed to finally feel a cool April shower. To see May's flowers after April's showers, to see tulips growing and uncut for the first time in a year although it seems like forever in teenage years. I would like to splash in a mud puddle and have an excuse to wear gumboots.
     I think we would all enjoy some rain after so much snow. Sure snowmen and snow angels are great, but we are over it! Perhaps we should work on our rain dance and encourage Winter to GO AWAY.
      The rainy mood link will let you listen to the sounds of rain, it is quite relaxing. The YouTube link will allow you to listen to Eddie Rabbit's "I love a rainy night".
 http://www.rainymood.com/while
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebt0BR5wHYs

Inspirational fictional characters!

     We do not give the characters we love enough credit in how we think and what we do. When was the last time you saw a wardrobe and wanted to find Narnia? How many times have you wished you could get the remote control with the force? Have you hummed "happy working song" as you worked on a project? How long have you been waiting for your Hogwarts letter? We all are affected by what we see but how often do we give our fictional role models a second thought when we say their catchphrase or act as we think they would in the same situation? Do we thank Lucy for finding Narnia or Obi-Wan for introducing us to the force? How often do we thank Snow White for the song or Dumbledore for the dream of that letter?
     I'd like to thank my fictional role models. Thank you:

• Hermione Granger, for showing me that smart girls really can figure out anything they put their mind to.
• Gadget from Chip and Dale Rescue rangers for showing me that girls can be helpful.
• Luna Lovegood for teaching me to keep an open mind.
• Lucy Pevensie for reminding me to never lose my curiosity.
• Tintin for inspiring me to see the world.
• Neville Longbottom for showing me to stick up for what I believe even in the hardest times. (and for being supermegafoxyawesomehot)
• Violet Baudelaire for teaching me to think my way out of sticky situations.
• Klaus Baudelaire for sharing the idea that being well read is one of the greatest talents.
• Fred and George Weasley for teaching me to keep a sense of humor.
• Schroder from the Peanuts for telling me keep to my own beat no matter what people say.
• Steve from Blue's Clues for showing me that all I have to do is "think, think, think" and I can solve problems.
• River and Simon Tam for showing me that love between siblings is one of the most important things one can have.
• Bear of Bear in the Big Blue House for teaching me Dutch.
• Sam- I- am for reminding me to try new things.
• Hazel Grace Lancaster for reminding me that other people have worse health than I do and they get along just fine.
• Mr. Noodle for teaching me that people can communicate without words or sign language.
• Elsa for teaching me to "Let it Go"
• Anna for showing me light heartedness
• Kristoff for showing me that I really do need people no matter how cool chilling out with a reindeer all the time would be.
• Merida for teaching me to stand up for myself.
• Thompson and Thomson for giving me a laugh and having everything "under control".
• Ginny Weasley for showing me to stick up for myself and show people who pick on me that picking on me isn't the best idea.
• Arthur Weasley for showing me to have wonder in the world.
• Little Critter for showing me to adapt.
• Katniss Everdeen for just being awesome.
• Velma for showing me that nerdy girls ROCK!

     I am very grateful for all of their lessons and might make the list longer later. I'd love to hear who inspired you in the comments!

• 

Help me get to Belgium, Please.

     Hallo! (that means hello) As some of you probably know I was planning to do this trip my junior year however when the opportunity came to apply to go sophomore year I took it, and got accepted. In going sophomore year I can have junior and senior year to prepare for college. I have applied for a scholarship as every little bit helps I won't know about that though 'till the middle of April. We had some really fantastic fund raising ideas but now that I've gotten accepted we don't have as much time to put these into action. We have planned some bowling and roller skating fund raisers. We've also added a donate button to my blog. I need to raise $11,500 ($8,500 if I get the scholarship) If I exceed my goal any extra money will go to my visa fees and YFU trips while I'm abroad.
     If you are fond of snail mail I have a P.O. box and anything sent to it would ensure that I have a physical address for you to correspond with while abroad. P.O. box 476 Ovid, Michigan 48866-0476
    

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO THE EXCHANGE PROGRAM!

    Something I cannot wait for is all of the snow we got this year to melt because winter is getting old. So for everyone who is tired of snow and slush I'd like to talk about spring type things.
     I would like to start by saying that a few weeks ago in world history class we read about tulipmania where the price of tulips skyrocketed in the Netherlands. I realized that  at the time Belgium or at least part of Belgium (it was hard to tell from the map in the text book) was part of the Netherlands so that peaked my interest. I went on to research more than was in the book and found out that in some places in the world like the Netherlands and even some place in Michigan there are tulip fields.
   I would love to visit a tulip field and experience the colors of the flowers. I hope that the bright colors of these pictures make you feel as happy as they make me!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE SCIENCE! Today I watched a video of a man who took two things I happened to have in my house and did something cool. He took a plasma ball and a cfl (the squiggly light bulb) and he pressed them together. I tried this at home with my sisters and we got the light bulb to light up just by pressing it to the plasma ball!

Tomorrow I have an interview with the exchange program. I would be lying if I said I'm not even a bit nervous but I was told that it is conversational and non formal so that helps my nerves a bit. I can't wait to see how it all works out!

Hello! I'm Jolie. So this inconceivably amazing opportunity to apply to be an exchange student came up for me and I haven't talked about much else lately. I'd love to introduce my self as a more human person.
     I was born about two months prematurely, to put an idea of how small I was think of a baby doll (made to fit easily in the arms of little girls) and just try to wrap your head around the fact that I could wear my Daddy's wedding ring as a bracelet.
     I live with my two little sisters, Momma, Daddy and Debrr (nickname) my Mother's friend. Oh and that's not to mention our high strung five month old bloodhound puppy Buttercup.
  My extended family is HUGE! A family gathering can easily exceed forty people. I love that about my family especially since both sides of my family get along so well I have seen people from each side at the same time. I am very blessed to have such an amazing family.
     I love to explore and experience new things. When I can't travel or think of something to explore I like to research and just read anything. The problem with researching so much is that I can't help but want to go experience the things I read about. Its even more of a problem when I'm reading fictional books as you can imagine.  

This little guy is a sea otter (you can name him or her if you want ^J^). Sea otters live in kelp forests and eat invertebrates like clams and sea urchins. To help with eating they float on their backs using their stomach as a table and when supper has a shell they use a rock to crack it open to get to the tasty meal. These amazing creatures can dive up to 330 feet and when they find a rock they like they can keep it as long as they want in a special pouch. To keep from floating away from each other sea otters "hold hands" while their sleeping (awww).

A few days ago I persuaded my family to try Borsht because of the Olympics. Today we finally got to try it and it was a big hit! I hope we get to try different foods more often.

Today during English class we were working on our life timeline project where we have to include some historical type events that happened during our life. This is interesting because I did a bit of research on the Atomium in Brussels and found out that during my life it got restored. According to the article I read the Atomium could have been the Tintin museum! That fact kind of made my day and although I'm a bit sad that the Atomium isn't the Tintin museum I'm glad that the two are separate because I think that people need to relize that there really is more to Belgium than chocolate and World War One and World War Two battle fields. 

I

NEED to talk about "De Avonturen van Kuifje" (my best Dutch spelling of that) or "The Adventures of Tintin"! After all this amazing comic series was the first thing from Belgium I heard about before researching.
  Kuifje (a reporter)  and his dog Bobbie (Snowy in English) go on daring adventures all around the world. Tintin makes many friends on his journeys like Captain Haddock (a sea captain), Bianca Castafiore (an opera diva), Professor Calculus (a scientist) and Thompson and Thomson (detectives).
   Tintin's first adventure was "in the land of the soviets" and came out on January 10, 1929

I can only guess what will happen when I get to Belgium eventually but I'd like to pretend that my host family would tell me that they would travel with me and ask me where the first place I would like to go. In my scenario I would ask to be taken to the Atomium in Brussels. I would ask to get some frites and spend the day in the Atomium and walking through Mini Europe with my host family and enjoying being outdoors and I suppose I would also like to try some of Belgium's famous chocolate. Or maybe I would rather spend a day in Brussels at the Comic Strip Center a museum completely about the comics from the country. I would like to try the mussels and fries that I've read about and see everything! If we didn't go to Brussels I would like to go see the Titanic memorial in Spa or an old wind mill or even canals and castles. I would love to see everything I could.

Today we started our new semester classes. I can't wait to see how it will all turn out.
A few days ago I got a snow day for my birthday instead of exams all day! Then my family and friends visited and we had a nice time. Oh! I also finished reading "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green and thought that over some more. Due to the large number of snow days we have had I got to do a lot of reading which was nice.