Whitney Brown -- Belgium

April 7, 2008

Happy Spring Everyone!!

I hope you all had a nice Easter holiday and that the weather is getting warmer for you in the states! its raining here in Belgium - as usual. Life is going so great in Belgium lately! I am so happy. A lot has happened since my last email, but ill try to make it brief.

In the beginning of March my Mom came to visit me in Belgium. I got to show her all around my new little country and we had so much fun together. She was here in Belgium for 5 days and we also made an excursion to Dublin for 3 days. We had a great time exploring the city, visiting the guiness storehouse and trinity college, and taking a tour of the beautiful Wicklow mountains and national park.

2 days after my mom went back to NY, I moved into the house of my 3rd host family. They are sooo great! And am so lucky - it is such a better feeling with them than with my 2nd host family. My new family has welcomed me with open arms and treat me like one of their own children! They live right in the center of the city which is also a really nice change!

2 days after moving into my new host family I left for a 12 day trip to Italy with my Belgian school. It was an amazing experience. We traveled all over - visiting Pisa, Florence, Rome, Assissi, the beautiful tuscan hillside, pompeii, Venice, Siena. I made sooo many great new friends within my school - it was the school's senior trip, so there were 100 of us. So now school is a lot more fun for me with all of my new friends! It rained almost every day in Italy but it was still beautiful and unforgettable. We were in Rome on Easter so we got to hear the pope! and I also got to celebrate my birthday in Rome ... and since i made so many new friends we had a blast celebrating!

When we returned to Belgium we still had one week of vacation before we had to go back to school, so I was still busy busy. I went to visit the American WWII Cemetery and Memorial in the south of Belgium with my friend Faith. My host mom and sister took me to the Belgian coast for the day - it was very cold but really beautiful. My host parents also threw me a birthday party and invited some other american exchange students over for the night. We made tacosss, went to the movies to see Step Up 2 and just had a great time laughing all night. Yesterday I went to the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels - interesting to see because Belgium had a Colony in the Congo.

Today we went back to school... but i'm still very busy. Tonight I go a classical orchestra with my host family and friday they are also taking me to a ballet in Brussels. Now I am trying to see and do as much as I can before June 25th and i head back to the US. It is right around the corner!! I miss you all so much and hope you are doing well! Talk to you soon!

Love,Whitney