So yes, not only have I only been in this country for less than 24 hours, I now need to head on over to Brussels in the afternoon to meet with some 200 other kids like myself from all over the globe.
Still without a cell-phone or even EUROS, I head off not knowing what entirely I have in store for me. When I was dropped off, I vaguely understood from what my Host mother said to me (*note that I was a little overambitious in asking my host family from day one to speak to me only in French when in reality I've only studied it for less than a year*=), I understood she was to meet me back at the same location in front of the Palais-Royal at 6 pm.
Each country had a flag that we needed to wait under and to my surprise, there were over 30 kids alone from the US! (Here me thinking I was going to be the only one T_T) There were students from as far way as Taiwan and Japan to several South American countries, Europe, and Oceania*. (*Pst - That includes New Zealand and Australia).
We then were corralled over by the other Rotary leaders to go on a tour of the Palais-Royal itself and made sure each of us was stocked with a waffle and water bottle.
Delicious.
Honestly, the Palais-Royal was phenomenal! I took so many pictures of the beautiful interior from the classical paintings to an enormous chandelier encrusted with shiny, emerald green beetles.
We then afterwards we herded over to this two-story restaurant where after almost TWO HOURS of waiting, we finally get served....meatballs and french fries. T_T
Our last stop of the day was to visit Parlement - an experience equivalent of visiting the US Senate in Washington D.C. We all got the seat at the actual seats of politicians and hear a speech given by one of the head figures of the House of Representatives.
Finally, the day ended and we were free to go. I had forgotten my watch at home so I only assumed it was 6 pm. After trading some pins with some fellow Rotary students* I made my way across the park to the Palais-Royal. (*It's apparently a tradition in Rotary to collect pins from other clubs and decorate your jackets with them along with other memorabilia).
So as I'm walking, a sinking feeling hits me that this may be a bad idea. First of all, I don't have a phone so I can't call for help. Second, I don't have any money to buy a train ticket (better yet, even KNOW how to get home). And lastly, I was still unclear about how I was going to get picked up. I kept thinking for some reason she said some man was going to pick me up that was her brother (??) So in a split decision, I speed walk as fast as I can - trying not to draw too much attention to a frantic looking 18 year old in a bright orange dress and jacket covered in pins - back over to Parliament praying some one would still be there.
To my luck, some older gentlemen Rotarians were left but I was pretty sure none of them spoke English. So I quickly bolted over to one last Rotary girl, who was from either North Carolina or Georgia, and asked her if she knew anyone of the Rotary adults spoke English. When she also didn't know, my anxiety built. I was running out of options. So when I saw the girl leave to get in the car with her host mother, I panicked and ran after her, begging her host mother if she spoke English.
Not only was the mom fluent and more than willing to help me out, she was a good friend of my host mother too.
We all drove over to the Palais-Royal again and waited in the car for about 15 minutes while the mom called my host mom. I kept apologizing to the other girl about this and even though she seemed mildy annoyed that I was keeping her, she ultimately seemed friendly. I soon realized that the whole issue was that the tour ended early and it wasn't even 6 pm yet. So when the time came around, I spotted my host mom walking to the park from a distance and felt instant relief.
Trying to express my thanks to the family, the Rotary girl also had a host sister who looked about 16. I still had my $20 on me as back up so I tried to translate, "Do you want to see this?" The whole car erupted with laughter as the host sister awkwardly took it. I then realized after a couple minutes she wasn't giving the $20 back, I realized I actually said, "Do you want this?" I ultimately realized it wasn't worth it to try and get it back and it was the least I could offer them for waiting with me.
Before I left, the other host mom invited my host mother if she wanted a ride back to the train station. She obliged and would you know it, it began to rain on our way there. What luck!
So things worked out all right in the end. The next day the first thing we did was get my cell phone at Mobistar (highly recommended for exchange students on the move), went to the bank, and finally achieved Internet access. I haven't fully worked out a schedule yet but hey, it's only been three days.
The lesson I learned that day was: The Boy Scouts know what they're talking about, "Always be prepared" and when you're not, Don't be afraid to ask for help. Ever.
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