First week of serious business!

Classes have started! Schedules are mad confusing, and everything conflicts but I'm slowly wading through this. I made a chart on Excel to map out all the overlaps, and if only I could figure out one last class I'll be all done! It's exciting. I like making lists.

I had my first Japanese class in Belgium yesterday. Not gonna lie, I was terrified about it. Here I am, with my English speaking self, taking a Japanese class at a French university. How many things in that sentence don't match? What am I thinking? Look at my life; look at my choices.

Turns out it wasn't so bad! We mostly watched a series about a guy named Yan who likes this girl Okata, but Okata has OBVIOUSLY friend-zoned him and is moving to the country with her parents anyway. Sucks to be that dude. In class I met 2 girls: Amélie (like the movie!) and Bathilde. Maybe one day I'll make Belgian friends? Fingers crossed!

This story I'm about to tell is proof that I can make just about anything a political statement and/or a lesson Black People (it should honestly be class). Today, we had Modern French Civilization with Philippe, who is the lovely, whimsical Belgian man that helps run our program. He wanted to spend some time getting to know us, and I don't rightly remember how exactly this exercise was relevant to the class (it was though), but he went around the room asking everyone where their families were from (historically).

Now I know what y'all are thinking. How am I supposed to answer that question without doing 1 or a combination of the following:
1: looking totally lame and going "America" since I can't rightly break down what countries my ancestors came from because of that whole slave thing
2: going off on a rant that would go something like, "What the heck kinda question is that my people were SOLD and no one kept records RAWRAWRAWR!"
3: just going, "Africa." and give everyone the gimp eye
4: just going, "I'm Black." and being done with it.

All those options ran through my head. I have no idea what country my people came from for obvious reasons. This has always worked my nerves, so to speak, because I've always been really interested in genealogy and that sort of thing. Everyone I've ever known can go, "Oh, my family is -insert 10 countries/nationalities here-" and I can't and I hate it. Fortunately, I recently learned a bit about my family history and was at the end of the line, so by the time Philippe got to me, I had formulated a proper response.

Philippe: Et toi, Alyssa? (And you, Alyssa?)
Me: Ma famille vient des pays africains, et de l'Allemagne, et j'suis amérindienne aussi. (My family comes from African countries, and Germany, and I'm American Indian as well.)

He made the greatest face at me. Philippe always makes REALLY great faces; he's very expressive. This one was sort of like a kid that's found a really fascinating toy. Anyhow, he makes this great face at me, and then says,
Philippe: Tu est comme Tiger Woods! (You're like Tiger Woods!)

I laughed on the inside. Seriously I did. Never made that comparison before, but I guess it works.

Who wins at being fascinating? I do.

Yes, that picture was necessary.

Happy Black History Month!