When I was a junior in high school, I hosted a Belgian exchange student as part of my high school’s exchange program. I was much more interested in going to Belgium, but unfortunately not enough Americans signed up to go there, so I was stuck just hosting.

When the Belgians arrived, we all made small talk and then took our respective students home. We all became pretty good friends over the course of that week, but seeing as they were only there for eight days, I didn’t expect much of anything to happen with one student in particular. His name was Joerie. He was tall, with brown curly hair and beautiful green eyes. His sense of humor was so similar to mine and I loved his crooked smile.

At the end of that week, the volcano in Iceland erupted and the Belgians found out that their flight home was cancelled. The next flight they could get for the whole group was the following Sunday. That meant another week with Joerie! I couldn’t believe it. That night the whole group had a party to celebrate the extra week we had together. Joerie and I took a walk and talked for hours and hours about everything from family to school to sports to religion and so much more. When we decided to head back to the house, he kissed me for the first time. It was the best kiss of my life.

The next week was the happiest of my life. Because the exchange coordinators hadn’t planned on the extra week, the students just followed us to class every day. Even though I wasn’t hosting Joerie, he came to all my classes and I often drove him to his host’s house at the end of the day. For the first time in my life I felt as though this was someone I could really be with. My favorite part of that week was Friday afternoon when we walked out of the school building to the parking lot and Joerie took my hand even though there were hundreds of other students outside. Who else was going to understand the foreign exchange student and the host together? A lot of people shouted and clapped, a few snotty girls looked shocked and whispered as we passed, but I didn’t care.

A few days later, the students went back to Belgium. Leaving Joerie at the airport was the most heart breaking thing I’d ever had to do. We promised to keep in touch and I promised to get enough people to travel to Belgium the following year.

The following year passed by slowly for me. Joerie and I exchanged a few letters and emails. By the end of the summer he had a new girlfriend according to Facebook, which I took as my cue to get over it already. I dated a few people throughout my senior year, but coincidentally ended up single right before the trip to Belgium! I noticed that Joerie was also newly single right before my trip as well.

After a year of planning and fantasizing about how it would be to see Joerie again for the first time, I was finally going to see him. On the train ride from London to Brussels, I couldn’t sit still. My friends joked that we would get married one day and I would live in Belgium with him. It didn’t sound half bad to me…

When I did finally see him, my dreams came crashing down around me. He barely spoke to me during the week I was there. He was in college a few towns away but he kept taking the train back to the town where he was from and I was staying. I was so confused. He kept visiting, but only ever talked to me about the weather and school. I was heartbroken. Here I was, half way around the planet basically to see him, and it was as though we had never met.

It wasn’t until the last night before I left the country that I got was I was looking for. Joerie had classes the next morning but nevertheless he took the train back to town to see me one more time. He brought a bag of gifts too. There was a jar of Nutella, some Belgian chocolates and an “I heart Barcelona” t-shirt. I had mentioned that I’d been to Spain but not Barcelona one in passing the year before and not only did he remember, but he went there and got my a shirt. I couldn’t believe it. I was even more confused now. We caught up that night and he apologized for not talking to me more about important things earlier. He said that he didn’t know how I would react or whether I felt the same as he did. Of course, we couldn’t just stay together but we did promise to keep in touch and see how things went for the future.

Now, I’m in college studying English Education with the intention of living in Europe (Belgium!) and teaching English there. Joerie and I talk on a regular basis and are both trying to figure out our future together. Never in a million years did I expect to be preparing to leave my life in Baltimore to spend my life with some European boy, but I am!

(Screen) Name: Christin Elise

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