Chez Aymeric, Zoubi, et de films d'horreur

Friday night I spent the night at one of Geraldine's friends, Aymeric's house. We had a little party, the theme being horror movies. After school Geraldine and I, along with two of her friends Manon and Gregoire, headed out to Aymeric's house. Manon and Gregoire both go to my school, although no one else who was at the party does. Overall there were ten of us there, although only eight spent the night.

After dinner we were just hanging out and Aymeric started playing the piano. Now, I had known he played the piano. I had heard one of his songs, a song he wrote for Coraline. As many of you know, Geraldine's best friend Coraline, known as Zoubi, died two days before I arrived in Belgium. She was a pilot and her plane encountered some turbulence, ending in her crashing. So, the first few days that I was here, a lot of the time was consumed by everyone preparing for the funeral. And I would just like to say, it is very clear that she was an amazing girl who was loved by many people. Geraldine and her friends put a lot of effort into making everything after her death go as smoothly as possible. And right away I noticed one major difference in the culture here. Yes, everyone was sad, of course, but everyone was very strong in public, and very down to business about everything. I mentioned this to Soizic, my oldest host sister who is in Canada now, on my third or fourth day here and she replied that yes, everyone cried the first few days, but now life had to continue.

I never met Coraline, but her death has affected me in many ways. It has taught me a lot about life and about love and about loss. I think about her everyday and I worry about Geraldine and her friends. I know that they are sad and it is hard for me because I don't know how to comfort them if they are crying. My French is not strong enough for that. But I am doing my best. And they are all doing very well. They are all a lot stronger than I would be if I was in their place, without a doubt.

Above is the video of Aymeric playing Coraline's song last night at his party. I have heard this song many times. It's Geraldine's alarm every morning to wake up for school. And whenever I hear it playing, it just makes me stop. Every time I hear it, I get the chills. We all take so many things for granted. Our health, our wealth, our intelligence, our family, our friends. And Coraline's death was the reason I started my entire "appreciate" mantra. My second week here Geraldine had a few friends over for dinner, and after dinner they went to her grave. They told me I didn't have to go with, but I wanted to. I chose not to go to the funeral, because I did not want to be a burden to the family, having to introduce me to people and deal with me not knowing what was going on. But, I felt that if I went to Coraline's grave, I would not be intruding. So I went along and we probably spent an hour there. Everyone was just talking about her, and of course, I didn't understand anything. But it just really hit me how terrible the situation was. These amazing people, Geraldine and her friends, lost someone very special to them. And I know that Coraline was special. Geraldine and her two best friends Manon and Pauline wrote a song to sing at the funeral, Aymeric composed the beautiful creation above, everyone compiled letters and pictures to make a book in her memory, and everyone had nothing but good stories to tell about her. She was seventeen years old, a normal seventeen year old girl. That could have been anyone, it could have been me, it could have been my best friend. But it wasn't. And I am lucky. So, that night, standing by Coraline's grave with her best friends, I promised myself that everyday I would appreciate all of the blessings I have, including the blessing of being alive.

I don't know who is reading this, or what you believe, but I believe in God and I believe in Heaven, and I know that Coraline is up there watching over all of us here in Belgium. The subtitle of the book her friends compiled was "Pilots never die, they just disappear behind the horizon". And she didn't die, her memory lives on.

Last night when Aymeric was playing this song, everyone was talking and fine, and I was just sitting there, bitting my lip to not start crying. It is a beautiful song, one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, and the emotion and story behind it is what makes it so powerful. I'm not sure if anyone reading this can understand at all what I'm trying to say. But as a lyric by Immortal Technique can sum up for me "appreciate them to the fullest extent, and then beyond, because you never really know what you've got, until it's gone". This lesson has hit me hard this year. I never really appreciated how amazing my life was and how many wonderful people I was lucky enough to know until I had to leave. And it was not often that I stopped to think about how truly and deeply I appreciate and love all of the people that love me. But now, I know that I need to appreciate them. I need to appreciate everything in my life because honestly, I am so lucky.

So, if you are reading this, I would ask you to take a moment tonight and appreciate everything that you are blessed with. Your family, your friends, your health, love, happiness, peace, laughter. And say a prayer for Coraline and all of the people whose lives were affected by her death.

But anyways, to continue on with the story of my night.

After awhile more of playing the piano, Aymeric started dancing with Manon.

They do a dance called "Rock", and let me just say that it is ridiculously impressive. It's sort of like swing dancing. Next Saturday I am going to a dance party, where everyone will be dancing "Rock". I do not know how to dance "Rock", and it is going to be an interesting experience for me.

After awhile we started our first horror film. They put subtitles in English on for me, although with a horror film it doesn't really matter what the words are saying, it's more the blood and gore and things popping out that are important. Overall throughout the night I believe four different horror films were played. The only one I watched in it's entirety was House of Wax, which was bloody and creepy, but entertaining nonetheless.

I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed bonding with everyone at the party. Geraldine and her friends are great people, and I know that I am going to have a lovely year spending time with them.

I appreciate: everything