Good evening. What is happening? What is going on? Welcome to Wingene, Belgium!
First of all: happy New Year! I wish that all your dreams can come through! 31 December 2015, a hectic but a wonderful night. I spent my New Years eve at a party at Betekom (small village near Aarschot) with my girlfriend and her friends. My 2016 started with me kissing my girlfriend in a town that I had never heard before with people that I had never seen before in my life. In 2015 a lot of things happened in my life, and that's also what my new blogpost will be about.
My 100 days
This day is a special day, you celebrate the final 100 days of your secondary school career! There's a parade in the city, you do things with people of your grade, you have a party,.. But everything starts with the pre-100 days. We're almost 18 years old, so we use every occasion to have a drink, same thing happened here. The night before the 100 days everyone went to bars, got wasted and just did crazy things (sometimes too crazy, I have to admit). Me and my friends drank a few beers, but we decided not to be too drunk, because we were looking forward to this day ever since we started secondary school.
6AIT, just the best class ever
So friday 27 february 2015, the day I had been looking forward to since I started secondary school. The day started with whistling, throwing firecrackers everywhere, set off pyro,.. in the streets of Tielt. Everyone had to know that it was our 100 days and that it was going to be a special one! The day started with a breakfast that the school had organised. After that we had a team-building activity at the town square followed by a 'special' lunch that the school gave us. After terrifying the other kids at our school with setting off some more fire crackers we went to the bowling. Nothing special, everyone was just siked to start the parade. So, the parade. Every class of every school had to dress up. Our class decided to wear Panda onesies, because why not? Everyone gathered at the local park where the parade started. Then we all walked to the town square. More than a thousand people came looking at our parade, it was amazing! To finish this wonderful day we had a party until sunrise!
my friend and I, enjoying the parade with a lot of confetti
College
My final year at secondary school meant that I had to go somewhere else, I had to go to college! First I got graduated, I received this import piece of paper that decides your future. Deciding what you want to study isn't easy. After going to different universities and colleges I decided to study International Business Management at Artevelde college and university in Ghent. Why International Business Management? I always wanted to work or live abroad and do something in the economic sector, so I thought that this would be the perfect course for me! College is very different than secondary school: more work, not being compulsory to go to class, living in a dorm,.. College brings a lot of responsibilities with it, but so far I'm enjoying every minute of it! I made new friends, live in a dorm, just started a new life.
Trips
2015 was also the year when I went to 4 different countries. During spring break I went to Barcelona with my parents,brother and his girlfriend. I went there before, but I can't get enough of it! We visited Park Guëll, Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, Olympic Park, Camp Nou, and much more! Barcelona is the city where I found myself, I found my identity over here. This city will always have a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to go back there in September!
Barcelona, I love you!
During the month May something else happened that I had been looking forward to since I started secondary school, I went on my culture trip with school to Prague, Czech Republic! We could choose between Prague and London, but my friends and I decided to go to Prague just because London is so close by. 11th May, 4 am. We all gathered at our school for a 15 hour bus drive to Prague. About this bus ride I'll only say this: it was a hell. After this long trip we arrived at our hotel, Golf hotel. Wonderful hotel: the food was amazing, big and modern rooms and very friendly personnel. The school planned out our trip. During the day we visited places such as the historical city center, the jewish ghetto, Terezin concentration camp and a local glass factory. During the evening we were free, we could go to the city center until a certain hour and then go back to the hotel with the bus. Once back at our hotel we had parties every night. It was just an amazing time!
I tried to make some new local friends, he's a cool guy
This has probably been the trip that I had most been looking forward to: my roadtrip in the North East of the United States of America. I always wanted to visite the US, and I finally did! We went to New York, Newport, Cape Cod, Boston, White Mountains, Albany, Niagara Falls (Canada), Bethlehem and Philadelphia. I won't describe every city seperately (otherwise this blogpost would become book) so I will say what I fascinated me the most. The cliché that Americans only want the biggest things is true. I think New York city is the perfect example for this: skyscrapers, SUV's, hamburgers,.. I'm impressed Americans! Oh yeah, about your food habits: we Europeans don't really like to have fries and hamburgers combined with a milkshake as breakfast, so we decided to go to Dunkin' Donuts. Man, the first time I went there I thought I was in heaven. I didn't knew that there were that much types of donuts.. Since then we decided to go there every morning. Combined with a mango black tea the perfect start of the day!
The bigger the better
The thing that dissapointed me the most were the Niagara Falls. I thought that these were in the middle of the nature, not that you could find the Canadian version of Las Vegas next to it.. The falls were nice, but not to spend your entire weekend over there. The place that I will always remember is Amish County. They have no pc, no gsm, no radio, no tv. They only have their friends and God, but they're still the happiest people that I have ever seen. Just amazing! My roadtrip ended with the possibility of missing our flight because we were stuck in traffic. Not just a regular one, a traffic jam of 6 hours. We were in Philadephia and had to go to Newark, a trip of 2 hours. Our flight was at 6 pm so we decided to go to the airport at 11 am, so we would be well on time. This would have happened, only if they didn't decided to close the only highway to Newark Airport.. A 50 mile traffic jam combined with a motorway with just too many traffic lights, imagine the frustration and panic the we had! But everything went well, we were able to check-in, go through security and board in just 30 minutes (that's how you should do it Brussels Airport!).
Most fascinating people I have ever met
The love of my life
2015 was an important year for me. I graduated, I had my dream vacation, I found my own identity back but I also found the love of my life. 24th of June, a day that I'll remember for the rest of my life. I had just finished my final oral exam and I was waiting at the train station with a white rose in my hand, just to see her coming off the train. I had met her a few weeks before, and ever since then I knew that she was special, that she was no ordinary girl. The girl her name is Cato, she is 17 years old and lives 100 km away from me, but most important: she's the love of my life. We have been together 6 months, but during our relationship we have had some problems, but as Bob Marley once said:
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” And ladies and gentlemen, I have found her! I'll do everything to make her happy just because she means the world to me.
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
So this was my review on how my 2015 went. And I got to say, 2015 you were legend.. wait for it.. dary, legendary! Let's hope that 2016 will be as exciting and fun as 2015!
See you guys in 2 weeks with a new blogpost!
P.S.: you may have noticed that my lay-out changed, thanks to my wonderful girlfriend! I just love it, I hope you do too!
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