Well, I just finished the first leg of my exchange. Honestly, I have no idea how I feel about it. My life in the last 80 some days have felt like 2 crazily overwhelming weeks. At the same time, it's been forever. I wish I could go back and start it all over again. Have I missed out on things? Could I have done something differently? Would I be feeling the same way I do now? I have no clue. Luckily I'll never know as it is not possible for me to go back in time. I can only focus on what's in front of me, one thing I've learned so far is that I have no time to look back. It's been a very frustrating few months. At home, I'm such an exuberant, outgoing, talkative person. In Belgium, I saw myself turn into the opposite. Things have not been easy. School was really hard, Language was really hard, My host family situation was really hard, These were all things that could've been expected to happen on exchange, But it's a different story when you live it. I can happily say I think things are looking up from here. I would say that my french is FINALLY starting to progress. I've gotten to the point where I can understand most people when talking to me. Whether they are family members, school kids, or locals (which I find quite impressive since the Liegeois accent is CRAZy fast.) I'm starting to enjoy school more. Not because people are being kinder, or I've made more friends. Just because I can understand what people are saying and doing more times than not. I have a rhythm now too. I understand which classes I have to go to, teachers are good, I can participate in things more... I'm also only at school for 1 full day a week now because my french lessons have changed from 2 to 4 days a week. 12-3 Monday, Wednesday and 9-12 Tuesday, Thursday. I've also finally started journaling! I have 3 months to catch up on but I know it'll be worth it when I look back. It's really fun getting all my film back because most of the photos are a surprise to me. I definitely need to be taking more photos. My camera roll is basically just Paris and Barcelona. I don't know what else to say... I know this is the shortest blog I've ever done whoops. I am honestly just shocked with how far I've come, and all the things that have happened so far. I bet you know I went to Barcelona, which was absolutely amazing. The blog post will be up shortly. As always if you want to talk to me you can email me zbrygidyr@me.com or my Instagram.
Bisous
~Z