Belgian Christmas (14. - 30.12.)

Salut!

I know I didn't write a lot the psat weeks, but there were no coments and there was so much happening in my life that I just prefered to tell you everything later, and later... and later. And than it was too late so I didn't want to write anything at all... But I'm finally here to wrap up my 2015 experience in Belgium so repare yourself for a long article with many, many photos. There were many days during the holidays when I just relaxed, blogged, read or went on a walk and there's nothing interesting to write about (well nothing not personal), so I'm just going to talk about the adventures of the Belgian Christmas time! Let's get into it, shall we?

One of the most important days was Friday, 18th December. This was the day when I got my "bulletin" (report) and I saw that I SUCCEEDED! Yes! I did it! Although the marks weren't quite as good as I'd like them to be, I did it and I got through four exams in the French language! (You can read more about the Belgian exams in my last post if that's something you are interested in...)

The weekend after my "bulletin" (19th - 20th December) I visited the other Czech exchange student in Liege. We looked at the Christmas markets, bought our presents (a candle for her and earrings for me), walked through the town, ate, ate, ate... and skated! Can you believe it? Because I can't - I never really learned to ski and I fall all the time... And I did that weekend too, but it was fun! In the evening we prepared a Czech meal for my friend's host parents and we talked through the whole night, as you can surely imagine.

On Tuseday, 22nd December me and my host family went to Brugges. It is a town known for the cannals and beautiful houses. We didn't visit anything particular - we just walked through the town and the Christmas markets the whole day. Did I mention yet that I love Christmas markets? If not, you know it now. And I still didn't find a better one than that one in our lovely Prague ♥

23rd December was the day of preparations. Everyone wrapped the presents and me and my host brother had a choir rehearsal. After I tried out my solo, everyone told me I have a beautiful voice... and a cute accent! I didn't know if I should cry of happines or anger. No, just kidding, I was really happy anyways. And so I got a second solo! Yes, for the day after! Yes, in French! Yes, seriously.

For me Christmas is just 24th December throughout the whole day and night and then it's over. In Belgium it was quite different, but one thing was the same. Everyone was nervous, cleaning and kind of didn't know what to do. In the afternoon me and my host brother had the final rehearsal and I tried to sing my new solo for the first time. I wasn't sure though so I got another person to sing it with me. A duo is still better... An hour later the mass started. I successfully sang my solo and my duo and successfully forgot to add the memory card to my camera so someone just filmed the duo for me with their camera. Anyways. After that the brother of my host mom arrived with his family, we ate and talked. They left around midnight and guess what!? We opened the presents then! I don't have a photo because I already tidied everything up and it's kind of too personal, but... I got a comic book "How to become a Belgian", a perfume, a mug, candy and a colouring book. My host family knows me well, I was very happy about their choices.

However I opened my Czech presents on 25th December (normally it would be the Belgian presents on 25th and the Czech ones on 24th, so I did it th other way round) in the morning. I got some books, cute decorations, sticky notes and owl stuff. If you know me well, you knwo that cats and owls are my passion - mostly owls though. Owls on bags, as statues, on t-shirts, notebooks, pens or sticky notes or whatever. I just love them! Anyways that day we spent at the grandparents' house with all the family and I even sandg a song in Czech. It was great and I really felt welcome and home. (Same as on 27th December when we went to visit the other grandparents.)

And now let's see the photos!

Liege:

Brugges:

Mass:

And yeah, that was everything I wanted to tell you about my last days of the year, I wish you a great new one and see you in 2016 :) 

Marky