Living in Belgium :: Personal Narrative Essays

Living in Belgium   Question Answered Recall a multicultural experience that has positively impacted your educational career. Discuss your experience and describe the ship room in which you have benefited from this experience.   My friend Owen and I used to play a game to take up time when we walked down the chaussee in downtown Waterloo, Belgium. We would settle to identify the origins of people who walked by us. If someone bustled past us, practically knocking us down, while smoking a cigarette and wearing tight pants, they were Belgian. If they sported a windsuit and brand-new white sneakers wed mutter American, as they passed by toting their map. We had more trouble telling Swedish and Finnish people apart, but we were pretty mature at that too.   I recalled this a few days ago and it amazed me how much I have changed in the last year. In the summer earlier tenth grade, I moved to Belgium for eighteen months. During the time I stayed there, I adapted to the Bel gian way of life - speaking (rudimentary) French, sampling escargot and endives, and learning my way around the complicated maze that they call streets. However, I am such a typical American now that sometimes I feel like I never even left the States. Instead of spending my Friday nights playing snooker in a smoky caf&381 in Waterloo, I might go to Applebees and a football game with my friends. It seems so strange that my life could change so much in such a short time. I find myself deficient little things that I took for granted while living overseas - fresh bread, dogs sitting with their owners in restaurants, and passing international landmarks on the way to school. Its not to put that I dont like my new way of life, but just recently I have real numberized how much I have changed. When I lived in Belgium, I would dread another trip with visitors of the family to the Grand Place. Now, I would love to see the Mannequin de Pis in downtown Brussels. I dont know when this transfor mation took fix because I didnt even realize that it was happening. The funny thing was that while I lived in Belgium, my friends and I would always lament on how much we craved Reeses, Butterfingers, marshmallows and real peanut butter. We would talk about how much we missed our friends, malls, and movies without subtitles.