And now for something completely different...

Say hello to my new neighbors:

I just finished my first full day with a new family that lives a little (or so I was told-- it's more like 40 minutes by bus) outside Liège.  My first family was having some difficulty adjusting to having me instead of their son who is now in China, and thought I might have a better stay with someone else, so here I am!  

My new family lives in a big house on the outskirts of a town called Othée.  My host dad (Alan) has an electric company which my host mom (Sophie) works for as well.  They have a seven-year-old adopted son named Constantin who is much cooler than me.  After one day, we seem to be getting along quite well, and I think I improved my standing with Constantin by "fencing" with him.  (Except that he actually does fencing.  Woah.)  I'm settling in pretty well here, though it was quite the shock to my system to discover that the bus to Liège leaves at 7:04 (let me just say again, 7:04.  That's earlier than I woke up at the other house.) and that the bus stop is about a 10 minute walk from the house (that's as long as it took me to walk to school).  I hit snooze on my alarm a few too many times this morning, but eventually dragged myself out of bed around 6:30 to quickly eat and get dressed before heading to school.

I was a bit too tired in a lot of my classes, and nearly fell asleep during physics when the prof dimmed the lights to show us a video demonstration of conservation of energy.  However, this must be common of exchange students, because when the lights came on, the two Rotary boys in my class were both sprawled across the benches fast asleep.

I got home around 3 despite finishing at 12:30 (I missed the 1:05 bus home so had to wait until 2:05), had a very delayed lunch, had my new host parents sign my quizzes-- ah yes, I also learned today that when the profs here hand back your quiz, you have to get it signed by your parents and bring it back to them-- and went for a run.  It was a lot of farm scenery; tractors, cows, the occasional car (what I had thought were just pedestrian roads are apparently for driving, too, despite being about 5 feet wide), and even this bar:

which just goes to show, the countryside can be a pretty happening place.  (But in all seriousness, the town is pretty nice, and there actually are a couple small businesses.)

Well that's all the big news from here.  À la prochaine!