La vie.

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing"

- Agatha Christie.

In life, we are handed cards. And like a real game of cards, not every hand will be a perfect Royal Flush, but after several rounds, you lose. You're miserable. But guess what happens? You're dealt another hand and this time, you could be lucky.

In certain aspects, life is nothing but chance. But in the other hand, you can't sit back and think 'You know what? I'm going to wait for life to come and find me", because, as lovely and great life is, it doesn't give two shits about you. It's not going to come looking for you. Because life doesn't exist outside your own thoughts. It's up to you too live. à chacun son destin. To each their own destiny. You don't get in the car and say to yourself "I'm just going to sit here and wait for the car to drive me to the shops" and if you do do that, then you're a fool.

In life, if you want to advance, if you want to move forward, you have to work. You have to go looking for your adventures, you have to seach for your loves, for your fortunes. Because everything good has to be looked for. But everything bad will undoubtedly find you, because good and evil balance eachother out. But once we learn that, no-one is going to go looking for death or misfortune. So, no matter who you are, it'll find you and it will give you depressions. It will break your spirit. But, you have to remember who and how you were before it found you. You have to think to yourself, "Why should I let sadness and misery ruin my life when I can get up and find myself an adventure?". Because in our sadness, we pull the strength to find our happiness, because everyone remembers a time in their lives when they were sad. And you know that you wouldn't go back there if you had a choice, so you pull from your sad moments, the happy ones.

So as much pain as life will cause you, don't always try to forget it, or always avoid it. When it comes, live it, learn from it, and remember it, even though it hurts. Because that's what will inspire you to find your next moment of happiness, when you remember how horrible it was too feel like you did during your moments of sadness.

Qu'est-ce qui nous attire tant dans le malheur des autres? Qu'est-ce que cette avidité pour la cicatrice, les plaies? Et cette rage contre ceux qui veulent les lécher à l'abri des regards?

waaah

So, I'm going home a little earlier than expected.. It's weird to think that after living here for 8 months there is still something else waiting for me... For me, it feels like I just pushed the pause button on my life in Yass and I'm going to go back and it's just going to keep playing without interruption. But I know that's not true, and I know everyone has changed. Whether for the better or for the worse, I still don't know. But I know that this was one of the more extreme ways to discover who are my real friends. The ones who pushed pause on my part in their lives so that when I come back, they can just push play again and allow me back into their new lives, without interruption.

L-L-LOOVEEEeee

My Opinions On Love.. (in Analogy form, bien sûr)

Love is like a rose. You have to start from the beginning, and watch it grow. You have to water it and feed it and care for it. Then, you watch, as it transforms for a budding flower into a blossomed rose. And, when the moment feels right, you reach out and pick it from the stem. But, no matter which way you hold the rose, you'll always feel the little prick of the thorns, sticking into your hand. But, do you throw the rose away because you were foolish enough to let it prick you? No. You hold on tight and you don't throw it away, because at the end of the day, your wounds heal, and the rose is still a rose. A beautiful, ever blossoming rose.

time

I used to think, "why does time pass by me so fast? I feel like everything's changing and I don't have a chance to slow down", but upon reflection, I realised that it's me that does all the moving. Time stands still. Time is nothing. Time is a mechanical clock that has hands that move or an electronic number that flips over from 23.59 to 00.00. Nothing I do will slow time down because it doesn't move. I do. Literally. Every breath, every move is me moving further into time, deeper and deeper into my future. Time only seems like it's passing fast when we set a date. Like, the 14th of January. When I come home. I feel like because I only have 5 months and 24 days left, that time has passed so fast. But, when I think back about everything I've done, I say to myself, "Shit, I did all that in only 6 months?". I semi-learned another language, I made and lost some of my best friends, I learned to be me and make others accept or reject me for me, and I realised the true value of relationships. The people who I took for granted. The people I've realised no matter how hard I push away, how long I'm not there for, they'll still eagerly await my return. My family. I don't need to say "My family" and "My friends", because if they're the friends I've realised I truly need, the words "family" and "friend" are one in the same.

Newie Notice

It happened so fast, me being in Australia, speaking to people who were already here, and now, already, that's me. Speaking to the newies, eagerly anticipating their arrival.

Watching how excited they are to be coming, and seeing them flounder around, worrying about visa'a and Rotary travel packs makes me see how fast time goes while you're here. It's almost like you move into another universe, where time moves strangely irregularly, and things you always worried about often don't matter so much. You come here because you choose too, you choose who'll you be on exchange, the side of you that you'll show to everyone else. No-one here knows anything about you and it's up to who you want to be portrayed as. Your exchange will only hand out what you put in.

Personally, three very important things I find here on exchange all begin with F. Hence, my three 'F's':

1. Learning FRENCH. You're not just going to be able to speak if you dont try. You have to really work at it, no matter if you "already speak french" there is a good chance being in a native speaking French country will double your french skills.
2. Making FRIENDS. Exchange friends are reasonably easy to come by. People are here for the same reasons and are just as eager to make friends. As for Belgians, them you'll have to work a little harder to get. Really, they lose nothing by not becoming your friend and leaving their comfort zone and working to become your friend. You, on the other hand, lose out on an important cultural part of your exchange. AND;
3. Your FAMILY. You're not always going to be a perfect macth but they did open their home for you and made your exchange possible so you have to work to work it out. 90% of the time your family will help you achieve the other two 'F's' and it'll make your exchange so much better if you make an effort to be part of the family.

Our lives are lived inbetween the fast lane and the slow lane. Times will be slow, when you're at school, when you're doing nothing, but when it's fast, it flies by like a car going way to fast. A blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of thing. You have to keep your eyes open for oppurtunities.

My parting words are these final words:

• Come with few expectations but a VERY open mind. No two exchanges will be the same. EVER, so 99% of the things in my stories will be different to what you saw from the same thing we did together or something completely different. Each experience is different.
• Be prepared for a hard year. As much fun as we have, it is a hard year away from your friends and family. When you come here, you know no-one. That can be could, but it is also very difficult to find the surface and learn to swim after you've been thrown into the deep end of the pool. Make sure you are prepared emotionally.
• Get ready for a wild, fun, friend filled, crazy, wild and unexplainable year. You'll forever have stories only your exchange friends will understand and you'll form a strong bond with the friends you make here, having gone through such amazing experiences together. If you're prepared to work, this year is honestly going to be one of the best years, and you will forever remember it, be telling stories to your grandchildren who'll never believe that Nan was that cool.

Rotary Youth Internation Exchange Program

Upon reflexion, coming on exchange was the most stupid, reckless, impulsive idea I've had, but also the best. The people I've met, the friends I've made, not to mention the second language I'm learning amongst everything new is amazing, and I would never have made a different decision if I was granted the chance to go back. Being so young for exchange, to leave home and begin anew somewhere else, was a crazy chance. How was I to know if I was ready, if I my young, impulsive, fickle ways would work anywhere outside of my comfort zone? I didn't know. And having that has made me realise what kind of person I want to be, the kind of person I'm trying to become. I want to be reckless and ruthless my life, I don't want to be tied down with information I'll never use, and things I'll never need. I want hands on life experience. Important things. Like another language, friends in countries where I can visit and see how they live. I want to see the world, and if it's true that your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die, I want mine to be a vibrant re-make of a crazy, reckless, ruthless, exhuberant life that'll make it all seem worth it, not a bland vision that's as predictable as an episode of Gossip Girl. Life is meant to be a challenge, one hurdle after another, so why not let it be like that instead of taking away the hurdles and just running around in circles?

"Je vis ma vie comme ça"

"and to be able to come here and live, love and learn life;

i had to leave all my doubts in Melbourne Airport as i boarded QF009"

what a wonderful worrrld

my my my.
its absolutely astonishing to see people these days stuggle with futile tasks, easily accomplished with mondern technology, compared to the hardships of building something like the Coloseum. After visiting Italy, and seeing how old, but how beautiful everything it is, it makes you realise just how reliant man has become on technology to do simple things, myself included.

I struggle to imagine myself in those times, actually doing laborious work and having to do it for my village, for my family and survival, instead of now, stacking a few shelves and actually getting paid to do it. Places like Italy are abundant in culture, you just have to be prepared to find it, instead of looking for the easy way of finding it. Looking at a museum from the outside, taking a photo and reading about it on wikipedia or google is not the same as going inside and first hand experiencing it while you get the chance. If you look hard enough into the struggles of the past to do something considered so simple these days, like build a house, or plumbing, it makes you realise just how lucky we really are.

I've seen the evidence of people having struggled severely to just put a piece of bread on their families table, and as in every culture, there are the rich but now, lust and greed have over taken regular things. Instead of fighting for bread, we're fighting for control, for money and for material possessions that'll do us no good when we're dead. Seeing how much better things turn out when you work for what you want makes me want to work that much harder in life to achieve the things I've got, the things I want and the things I need.

"Only when the last tree has been cut down,
the last fish been eaten and the last river dried up.. Will man finally realise, we can not eat money "

oh la la.

There are only a few things I don't like about Belgium.
1. I hate forgetting what the 'sun' looks like.
2. I hate not being to understand everything all the time.
3. I hate having to actually try to work, like in learning French.
4. I hate learning French.
5. I hate nearly getting run over every time I cross the road because, in Australia, we drive on the left.
6. AND I hate school starting an hour earlier and finishing an hour later.

but, the good things out way the bad :)
1. I'm making Belgian friends.
2. I have friends from all over the world.
3. I'm going to Italy next week.
4. I'm going to Lady Gaga in May.
5. I feel smart because I'm learning another language.
6. I feel independant because I'm 13,000km away from home.
7. I feel sassy because I can conduct a route home on a train in another language when I sometimes couldn't work a bus in English.
8. I'm happy because being pale here isn't always a standout.
9. I'm spending a year in Belgium.



LOVE MY LIFE.

hm...

I feel like I don't understand people who can walk through life with no purpose. Who go to work and do a job they hate, come home to an empty home, that may well house a family in a house but not a home. I mean when you think about it, life is the longest thing you'll ever do but its still not very long. What? 80-90 years at the most and nearly all of us won't make it that long. Why wait around and do something you hate so you can have a stack of money you'll never use?

I feel like with my life, I'd do things I can think about when I'm that old and I can't walk because of arthritos or whatever. I want to sit back and relive everything I did like I was just there. I dont think reliving a boring desk job is what I want to do. I want to look back at a perfect beach, a crazy club or something you'll truly only ever do once, like exchange. That's why one of the main reasons I came on exchange personally. To experience something I'll never experience again. People are always like "Oh you're so young, you should wait until you're older..." Why? I might not ever be 'older'. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow or I could live till im 100 but I'll still never be young enough to do exchange again. I want friends I can visit all over the world, I want to be the one who says "Oh hey! I've been there" or "I've done that!".

I'm going to live my life how I want to be able to remember it. I want the whole deal. Nights out I'll never remember, with people I'll never forget, Seeing things some people 3 times my age have never seen and doing things that I'll never tell my friends back home coz you won't understand till you've done it. I want a life that was worth living too me. I would rather be a poor travelling person, working in a bar here and there and see everything to see, then some worker at a job I hate with an extra bit of money in the bank.

parle de l'amour

Oh, my religion teacher, also known as Carlisle Cullen, has got me thinking about l'amour. Not coz I love him but because he teaches about it, you know love and Jesus and shit. I'm so surrounded by romance and romantic things. Love in learning, learning French, otherwise known as the "Language of Love" and seeing how it affects people more or less the same everywhere.

I've never been nieve enough to think that love is restricted to a skin colour, a culture or even a specific set of rules in general. There's no rhyme or rhythm to the way it works, it just... does. I don't know if I personallly believe in "love at first sight" or whatever, but you don't know. You never do until it happens to you. You could meet your other half at school as a teen or in a nursing home as an elderly; No boundries.

I'm not even sure if people my age can 'fall in love', because how do you know that person is just it? We haven't done enough, seen enough or experienced enough to know, but that's just me. I see the idea of love as a family, a house and making it home, a complete life you make with someone else. And, to truly have that, you have to be at a place in your life, a completely self-less plave, where you're in a position too, more or less, give half of yourself away. You need to have lived to have learnt compassion, trust and most importantly, for me anyway, faith. You have to be able to put everything you have inside your.. soul into another person and have faith that they'll do the same for you. It's like jumping off a ledge and not looking to see if there is a safety net to catch you.

I think every person, good or bad, black or white and poor or rich have another perfect match out there, like those two first pieces of a jigsaw puzzle when you know the picture is finally gunna start coming together. I doesn't matter what they look like or what they've done because they're meant for eachother.

Chance

It's amazing how much of our lives is left up to chance. Every little movement, every little choice we make, completely alters the future, even if it is only a minute thing to change, like time of arrival, which, even that can be grande.

You get all these people who are like "I control my future, I decide what I do, where I go and who I meet", which, in a way, is true but slightly by personal decision, because it's so impossible so determine absolute outcome. If your so much as 30 seconds late crossing the street, you could miss a car that would otherwise have hit you. Everything around us is chance. Like exchange. You take a chance and become completely in limbo. You don't offcially belong to the country your in, but you aren't in your own country, so it's a big chance that you take that you'll belong.

Personally, coming on exchange was the best chance I ever took. You're faced with decisions on chance everyday. Every decision is a fork in the road. Should I go? Should I stay? You have no way of knowing what will happen if you choose either, but one shows you strength and independance, builds up your personality and creates courage, while the other is a comfortable life, surrounding by the same thing on a different day. Meeting the people I've met is really a once in a lifetime thing, and I don't know if I would've ever met them otherwise because that, my friends, is up to chance.

what up

Since my last post I've been BUSAYYY.

On Wednesday we went to Celtica in Brussels and we also looked around the town. Très Belle. Celtica was INSANE. So many awesome people in one spot is surely unheard of. I also started school on Thursday. Not so good but the exchange students there are mad but the people are mean to me haha. Then on Friday I had the "newie" weekend at Wegimont (a massive old castle that is scary as shit when all the lights are out) and met some other 'oldies' and the rest of the other inbounds that wrent from Australia. I was SO tired on Saturday.

On Sunday, I went sledging with my mum, dad and younges brother and sister. It was so fun and I OWNED my brother in a snow ball fight. Then we came home and I chilled. Back to school today but :( Although I am excited to spend my birthday on Wednesday in Liège with my friends :) Should be an expereince.

Anyways Im out to exploreeeee
A Bientot :)
Shannon

finallyy here!!

So, my flight landed in Brussels Airport yesterday at about 1.30pm local time (after being delayed for 3 hours in London Airport :( haha). The planes werent to bad, and thank you god, i did NOT have an annoying child sitting/crying the entire way, or really any of it. Good movies but terrible, made out of rotten cat food :( but i suppose thats the trade off for a quiet trip.

Anyway, after a 1hr trip to my new home time, Strèe, getting to know my host parents, Dominque and Genèviève, one of my brothers, Romain and my younger sister, Salomè, we arrived. They showed me my new school, St Mariè and I went to the local super market with my host mum, where they keep alcohol in the normal part of the shop, quaintly nestled in between two regular aisles, bizarre!!! After a hefty 12 hour sleep, I had a croissant (what else) for breakfast and went into Liège for shopping. Thankfully, my credit card stayed clean and unswipped (barely). It was sort of snowing today but not enough to build a longed for snowman but on Wednesday, it is supposed to be minus 10!!!!

Tonight, we are going out for dinner and then tomorrow to the police station to finalise my visa THEN off to school :S. My poor French should make that interesting...

Anyways, until next time, Au Revoir!!