I've done a lot of adapting here. A lot of adjusting to culture and trying new things. But, I didn't want to miss Thanksgiving. Knowing that every single person I know from home was going to be sitting with their family on Thursday afternoon watching the Packer game, eating turkey and pie, would have made me feel just a little bit too far away.
A month or so ago when I mentioned to Milja and Taiana that I wanted to do Thanksgiving here they were all for it. Milja hunted down a turkey (not literally, they don't have wild turkeys here) at a meat store. She had to have it specially ordered, and then specially made, because neither of us thought that we would be able to make a turkey without it being completely dried out and gross. Taiana helped me make invitations and we gave them to Anita and her daughter, Marja and her family, Milja's parents, and Peter. I e-mailed my mom for all of the pie recipes, and we decided to skip the stuffing. Then, closer to Thanksgiving we decided that it was better to do Thanksgiving on Wednesday, because then I could still go to running practice in the evening.
So, on Wednesday, I went to school for the first three hours, and Taiana called in sick, which she actually was sick, so it made sense. I was not sick, and Milja decided that honesty was the best policy. Her note for the school said, "Sofia will not be at school today, because we are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving which is a very important holiday in America." I wasn't very sure about this, but luckily I just had to leave the note in a box. Then I walked away really fast before anyone could come.
I came home around noon on Wednesday. Milja grocery shopped and cleaned, and I made two apple pies the American way. They both went in the oven by Milja's mom. Then we picked up the turkey from the meat man in Alkmaar, who was very proud of the turkey he had made and tried hard to sell us some more meat. This was no American turkey, it was definitely a Dutch turkey. It was about the size of one of the rotisserie chickens that we all buy from Economart when we're too lazy to cook. With the eleven of us we picked it compeltely bare, but it was the perfect amount for eleven people.
After we had picked the turkey up we moved the piles of papers off of the table and brought in an extra one. We put red table cloths over the top, and candles on the both the tables. Peter came earlier with bottles of wine, I brought the turkey to the neighbor (Marijka, remember?) to bake (only for half an hour since it was premade) and Milja made mashed potatoes and green beans. Milja's dad had made pumpkin soup. The story behind the soup is that I was originally going to make pumpkin pie, but when I found out that they don't have any canned pumpkin here, I was too lazy to actually carve the pumpkin out and boil it myself. So then her dad did all of that work instead, and made pumpkin soup. Milja's mom made cooked pears, and homemade applesauce. Once the whole table was set we had so much food, just like any American Thanksgiving. Eric (Marja's husband, remember?) carved half the turkey, and I carved the other half, or tried too. Before we ate we went around the table and everyone said something that they are thankful for. Everyone was so sincere, and said something that they had really thought about beforehand that this part of the evening turned out to be a little emotional for everyone. But, it only made it that much nicer.
We ate all of the turkey, all of the pears, all of the bread, almost all two of the pies, almost all the mashed potatoes, and almost all of the ice cream.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday. We celebrate it because the Indians in America helped the pilgrims survive their first winter in the new country, and without them we would have died. This makes it a little ironic that the very first Thanksgiving I spent in a country other than America, was the first Thanksgiving that I really stopped and was thankful. First of all, being gone has made me much more thankful for everyone I have at home. So I was thankful for my family, who I sometimes forget to treat nicely and appreciate when I'm actually there, and for all of my friends. Secondly, I'm thankful that I somehow ended up in the Netherlands, in Milja and Taina's family. And then that they're extended family and so many of their friends, who didn't even decide to have me come here, have made me feel more at home and a part of everything than I ever would have hoped for. They all stopped in the middle of their busy week, and were happy to take part in a holiday that doesn't mean anything here. This year I celebrated Thanksgiving just as well as I ever have in America, where the indians and the pilgrims actually gave thanks for the first time.
Milja's birthday was on Thursday, but we didn't actually celebrate it until Saturday. Then she had a party with people from the family, some of her friends, and Peter and his mom. We all just sat around together for a long time eating and talking, and then later ordered pizza. After the pizza, I left because at 7:30 I had a Sinterklaas party with the girls from my class. A few weeks ago everyone had drawn a slip of paper with the names of one of the other girls on it, and then we had to buy a little present for her, and make a "surprise," which is just what it sounds like. Something out of paper mache, or aluminum foil, or card board, that is funny and homemade that you can put the present in. Then we also had to write a poem about the surprise. There were seven of us who did it, and we had a lot of fun with the surprisen, the poems, and the presents.
Today we didn't have a race: just a normal practice in the dunes. It wasn't raining very hard, and we had a nice workout. Today though, one of the runners from the girls team told us that she isn't going to run anymore. It shocked me to hear, and I know I'm going to miss having her on the team. She's one of the runners that I always look at and think, "that's the kind of runner I want to be." But the fact that she recognized the point where it was better for her to stop than to keep going is admirable. Anyone who has anything that they love to do, knows how impossible it would ever be if you had to stop.
So this is crisis month. After three months, the exchange student is supposed to lose it and have a "crisis." I don't feel any crisis coming on. But maybe it's not something you can sense?
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The First Part of Everything I Haven't Written
I have a huge cup of tea in front of me right now, because I have a feeling that everything I have to write is going to take a long time. Actually, if I wrote everything I have to write, this would be like the 8th Harry Potter book. So I'm not going to write everything, I'm going to edit out a little bit. But, I'll try my very hardest to write all of the important things.
The first thing we're going to skip over is two weeks ago, because nothing very exciting happened then. I had a cold, I ran horribly at practice, and other than that I can't remember anything (actually, maybe that was the week before... I have no idea). On the Saturday of that week Peter, Taiana, and I had a surprise for Milja, because her birthday was coming up on November 26th. For her birthday Taiana and I bought her a session of "koe knuffeling" which is "cow hugging." I think it's something we should start in Wisconsin. Maybe the Link brothers would be willing to lend us some of their jerky cows for hugging? The only thing I knew about koe knuffeling before we went there with Milja was that it was a day of relaxation where people spent time around cows to help them relax. It took an hour and a half to drive to the place where the koe knuffeling was, and we didn't tell Milja before we left what she was going to do, so the whole way there she was on edge trying to figure it out.*
After a while of driving all of the countryside started to look much more quaint, and farm like than the land where I live. Really I was just waiting to see a sweet old woman walking through a field of tulips and wearing her Dutch clogs. Milja still didn't know what we were going to do when we drove up the driveway to the barn, but she figured it out pretty quickly since there was a sign there that said "koe knuffeling." Peter, Taiana, and I had to leave, because they don't want people watching, since obviously that's not very relaxing. We went to a nearby city and were just planning on walking around, but it turned out that Sinterklaas happened to be coming to the Netherlands once again on that Saturday (seems a little bit suspicious, don't you think?). The whole city was pretty crowded with all of the Svarte Piets, the little kids, and Sinterklass's whole entourage. We still spent the day walking through the city, but it wasn't as quiet as we had been planning on. Still we got in a fresh stroopwaffel each, and time for coffee and cake at a cafe. Also on our walk my camera was suddenly broken. But yesterday I finally used some serious force to make the lens go back into the camera, and now it works again. We'll see how long that lasts... but it will teach you: if something's broken you just have to push on it harder.
When we picked Milja up from the koe knuffeling, you could tell that she'd had a lot of fun, so our birthday present was successful. There's lots of pictures of her lying on the cows, and actually it does look a little bit relaxing. The cows here are a lot cleaner and nicer looking than our cows in Wisconsin.
On Sunday almost everyone from TDR had a race in Tillburg, which is also about an hour and a half drive. At this race there were way more people than at any of the other races, and also some girls from Belgium. There were a bunch of races, all of them that were different distances and age groups. My distance was 3,7 kilometers, with the Junior B girls. It wasn't actually raining on Sunday, but it had the night before so the entire course was really wet and muddy. There also weren't a lot of really big steep hills, but more than half the course was made up of twists, and turns, and tiny steep hills. Most of the hills were about like a ditch you find on the side of the highway, and at the bottom was a huge puddle of mud. I ran way to timidly on all of these hills, way too slowly the whole way, and over all the race just did not go well. My time was worse than the times I ran in 4 km cross country races at home, which is depressing to see. But hey, there's more races coming. I loved watching everyone else run. One of the girls from "the" TDR team won her 2km race, and it was so much fun to watch her. The way the fastest girls run seems so effortless, it's like they're not even tired.
That's the first week that I skipped. We're half way caught up!
*Just a warning to anyone who might want to drink a cup of tea in front of the computer: Sometimes you might try to take a drink out of the tea but its too hot, and then you might move really fast, and spill the tea all over the desk your sitting at, and then the tea might spill all over the papers that your supposed to use to learn Dutch. I've known people who've had it happen to them before.
The first thing we're going to skip over is two weeks ago, because nothing very exciting happened then. I had a cold, I ran horribly at practice, and other than that I can't remember anything (actually, maybe that was the week before... I have no idea). On the Saturday of that week Peter, Taiana, and I had a surprise for Milja, because her birthday was coming up on November 26th. For her birthday Taiana and I bought her a session of "koe knuffeling" which is "cow hugging." I think it's something we should start in Wisconsin. Maybe the Link brothers would be willing to lend us some of their jerky cows for hugging? The only thing I knew about koe knuffeling before we went there with Milja was that it was a day of relaxation where people spent time around cows to help them relax. It took an hour and a half to drive to the place where the koe knuffeling was, and we didn't tell Milja before we left what she was going to do, so the whole way there she was on edge trying to figure it out.*
After a while of driving all of the countryside started to look much more quaint, and farm like than the land where I live. Really I was just waiting to see a sweet old woman walking through a field of tulips and wearing her Dutch clogs. Milja still didn't know what we were going to do when we drove up the driveway to the barn, but she figured it out pretty quickly since there was a sign there that said "koe knuffeling." Peter, Taiana, and I had to leave, because they don't want people watching, since obviously that's not very relaxing. We went to a nearby city and were just planning on walking around, but it turned out that Sinterklaas happened to be coming to the Netherlands once again on that Saturday (seems a little bit suspicious, don't you think?). The whole city was pretty crowded with all of the Svarte Piets, the little kids, and Sinterklass's whole entourage. We still spent the day walking through the city, but it wasn't as quiet as we had been planning on. Still we got in a fresh stroopwaffel each, and time for coffee and cake at a cafe. Also on our walk my camera was suddenly broken. But yesterday I finally used some serious force to make the lens go back into the camera, and now it works again. We'll see how long that lasts... but it will teach you: if something's broken you just have to push on it harder.
When we picked Milja up from the koe knuffeling, you could tell that she'd had a lot of fun, so our birthday present was successful. There's lots of pictures of her lying on the cows, and actually it does look a little bit relaxing. The cows here are a lot cleaner and nicer looking than our cows in Wisconsin.
On Sunday almost everyone from TDR had a race in Tillburg, which is also about an hour and a half drive. At this race there were way more people than at any of the other races, and also some girls from Belgium. There were a bunch of races, all of them that were different distances and age groups. My distance was 3,7 kilometers, with the Junior B girls. It wasn't actually raining on Sunday, but it had the night before so the entire course was really wet and muddy. There also weren't a lot of really big steep hills, but more than half the course was made up of twists, and turns, and tiny steep hills. Most of the hills were about like a ditch you find on the side of the highway, and at the bottom was a huge puddle of mud. I ran way to timidly on all of these hills, way too slowly the whole way, and over all the race just did not go well. My time was worse than the times I ran in 4 km cross country races at home, which is depressing to see. But hey, there's more races coming. I loved watching everyone else run. One of the girls from "the" TDR team won her 2km race, and it was so much fun to watch her. The way the fastest girls run seems so effortless, it's like they're not even tired.
That's the first week that I skipped. We're half way caught up!
*Just a warning to anyone who might want to drink a cup of tea in front of the computer: Sometimes you might try to take a drink out of the tea but its too hot, and then you might move really fast, and spill the tea all over the desk your sitting at, and then the tea might spill all over the papers that your supposed to use to learn Dutch. I've known people who've had it happen to them before.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sinterklaas Comes to Town
Friday night was the yearly "Team Presentation" from TDR. Every year in the fall there's a presentation for "the" TDR team, meaning the presentation is actually for the main team from TDR... I run on the youth or the "jeugd" team. Anyway, everyone was allowed to invite people, we got these cool looking invitation cards to give out. I brought Milja and her friend Anita (remember, from the school?!). All of us had to wear Nike clothes to the presentation, because the Nike people who sponsor the team were going to be there, and apparently it's important for them to see us wearing Nike clothes. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a very great supply of Nike clothes, and I have no supply of casual Nike clothing. Some of the girls from the team lent me clothes to wear though, so all of us went in magenta Nike clothes. At the presentation we all sat together, and the other team sat up front in chairs. The Thursday before the presentation the team had gotten their package of Nike clothing, so they started out the night in matching yellow and grey sweatshirts. Then at the end of the presentation they changed into the sweatsuits... the girls got light blue, and the guys got yellow.
The main part of the presentation was a slideshow of "Top 10 Moments" which was the best moments throughout the year. They showed video and pictures of all the athletes winning races, or finishing at the top of national races. It was definitely inspiring watching the same athletes that I get to train with sometimes beat people from all over Europe. It makes me want to run faster!
After the presentation, Milja and Anita drove me to Alkmaar, where there was a party going on for two of the exchange students from our region. They invited 25 exchange students from all over, and then we all slept at different people's houses who lived in Alkmaar. By the time I got there on Friday night, the party was already over, but it was still nice just being with the other exchange students there. There were four of us at Andria's house (a girl from Indonesia). Antea was there (remember?!), Sara from Belgium, Lauren from Minnesota, and me. It's not that we did anything particularly exciting on Friday night, but it was nice just because we all relate to each other so well. Every time anyone would say anything, everyone else would be like, "hey, me too!" It's a good feeling that there's other people going through the same type of thing that you're going through, whether it's good or bad.
Saturday morning, we started out walking at about 10:30 to meet at one of the boy's houses whose birthday it was. After we'd walked for about fifteen minutes, we realized that it was going to be another half hour to walk, and that we could actually take a bus. So, we took the bus. All of the exchange students who were in Alkmaar for the weekend met at Francesco's house (from Italy) and from there we walked to an ice skating rink. The ice skating rink actually was two rinks, one that was like a track (only made of ice) where everyone was speed skating, and then another rink. Really, I wanted to speed skate, because it made me think of skiing, and winter, and Wisconsin, and... you get the picture. I wanted to speed skate! But everyone else was using the normal skates on the normal rink, so I went with that too. The regular skates made me feel like I was at home too, and it was fun watching everyone who came from places with no ice skating rinks try to do it.
We were at the ice skating rink for a really long time, and at about four in the afternoon we all went back to Francesco's house again and ate cake. After that, the plan was for everyone to take the train about ten minutes to Rafael's house (from Venezuela, who also had a birthday) and eat and have a party there. But, we had already told Andria's host parents that we were going to eat dinner with them, so we went back to her house (again with the bus). Antea and I basically stood in the kitchen and watched while Andria made an Indonesian dish for dinner. It was spicy chicken with rice, and of course it tasted amazing. Then, she told us that they usually would eat it for breakfast, though for us it was definitely a dinner meal.
Once we had eaten, we did go back to Rafael's house with the train for the party. There were lots of us there, but it didn't go until very late because everyone still had to take the train back.
All right. Sunday morning Milja drove ("Milja drove" is going to become a very popular frase I think... it happens a lot, usually involving bringing me somewhere) back to Alkmaar to pick up Antea and me. We knew Sunday was going to be an exciting day because.... Sinterklass was coming to Akersloot! Whatever you do, don't get Sinterklass confused with Santa Claus. They do look kind of the same (except Sinterklass was waaaay taller), but Sinterklaas brings presents on December 5th, which is his birthday. Also, Sinterklass doesn't have elf helpers, he has lots of other helpers called Svarte Piet. The obvious question is, why was Sinterklass coming to Akersloot on November 15th, if he doesn't bring presents until December 5th? To be honest, I don't really know. I do know he lives in Spain, so maybe he just wants to rest for a while after his long journey on the boat.
Antea and I walked to the lake by Akersloot with Danique, a friend from school. It was raining, but that wasn't really a surprise. At the lake there were tons and tons of little kids with their families watching and waiting for Sinterklass to come. He came across the lake by Akersloot with a boat, and with all his helpers in the boat with him. The helpers all came through the crowd and gave out papernotas, and candy, and talked to the little kids. Then Sinterklass got in a horse-drawn carriage and rode through the town while all the rest of us went to the church. While we were waiting for Sinterklass to come to the church, everyone sang songs (about Sinterklass) and the Svarte Pieten gave out more papernotas. Then (suspensful music)... Sinterklass came! He was extremely tall, and his beard was may more real than Santa Claus. The most exciting thing about all of this was that all of the kids who were in the church actually believe that Sinterklass is real. Which, actually, how can you really blame them? I mean, he was there. He came in the church, and so did all of his helpers. It's not that hard to believe. Once Sinterklass came to the church, we sang some more songs or "litjes," and Sinterklass talked for a little bit. The whole thing was nice and exciting, and made me glad that I get to be here for Christmas.
Who knows, maybe Sinterklass will even come to Spooner next year. All I need is a white beard and a red costume!
The main part of the presentation was a slideshow of "Top 10 Moments" which was the best moments throughout the year. They showed video and pictures of all the athletes winning races, or finishing at the top of national races. It was definitely inspiring watching the same athletes that I get to train with sometimes beat people from all over Europe. It makes me want to run faster!
After the presentation, Milja and Anita drove me to Alkmaar, where there was a party going on for two of the exchange students from our region. They invited 25 exchange students from all over, and then we all slept at different people's houses who lived in Alkmaar. By the time I got there on Friday night, the party was already over, but it was still nice just being with the other exchange students there. There were four of us at Andria's house (a girl from Indonesia). Antea was there (remember?!), Sara from Belgium, Lauren from Minnesota, and me. It's not that we did anything particularly exciting on Friday night, but it was nice just because we all relate to each other so well. Every time anyone would say anything, everyone else would be like, "hey, me too!" It's a good feeling that there's other people going through the same type of thing that you're going through, whether it's good or bad.
Saturday morning, we started out walking at about 10:30 to meet at one of the boy's houses whose birthday it was. After we'd walked for about fifteen minutes, we realized that it was going to be another half hour to walk, and that we could actually take a bus. So, we took the bus. All of the exchange students who were in Alkmaar for the weekend met at Francesco's house (from Italy) and from there we walked to an ice skating rink. The ice skating rink actually was two rinks, one that was like a track (only made of ice) where everyone was speed skating, and then another rink. Really, I wanted to speed skate, because it made me think of skiing, and winter, and Wisconsin, and... you get the picture. I wanted to speed skate! But everyone else was using the normal skates on the normal rink, so I went with that too. The regular skates made me feel like I was at home too, and it was fun watching everyone who came from places with no ice skating rinks try to do it.
We were at the ice skating rink for a really long time, and at about four in the afternoon we all went back to Francesco's house again and ate cake. After that, the plan was for everyone to take the train about ten minutes to Rafael's house (from Venezuela, who also had a birthday) and eat and have a party there. But, we had already told Andria's host parents that we were going to eat dinner with them, so we went back to her house (again with the bus). Antea and I basically stood in the kitchen and watched while Andria made an Indonesian dish for dinner. It was spicy chicken with rice, and of course it tasted amazing. Then, she told us that they usually would eat it for breakfast, though for us it was definitely a dinner meal.
Once we had eaten, we did go back to Rafael's house with the train for the party. There were lots of us there, but it didn't go until very late because everyone still had to take the train back.
All right. Sunday morning Milja drove ("Milja drove" is going to become a very popular frase I think... it happens a lot, usually involving bringing me somewhere) back to Alkmaar to pick up Antea and me. We knew Sunday was going to be an exciting day because.... Sinterklass was coming to Akersloot! Whatever you do, don't get Sinterklass confused with Santa Claus. They do look kind of the same (except Sinterklass was waaaay taller), but Sinterklaas brings presents on December 5th, which is his birthday. Also, Sinterklass doesn't have elf helpers, he has lots of other helpers called Svarte Piet. The obvious question is, why was Sinterklass coming to Akersloot on November 15th, if he doesn't bring presents until December 5th? To be honest, I don't really know. I do know he lives in Spain, so maybe he just wants to rest for a while after his long journey on the boat.
Antea and I walked to the lake by Akersloot with Danique, a friend from school. It was raining, but that wasn't really a surprise. At the lake there were tons and tons of little kids with their families watching and waiting for Sinterklass to come. He came across the lake by Akersloot with a boat, and with all his helpers in the boat with him. The helpers all came through the crowd and gave out papernotas, and candy, and talked to the little kids. Then Sinterklass got in a horse-drawn carriage and rode through the town while all the rest of us went to the church. While we were waiting for Sinterklass to come to the church, everyone sang songs (about Sinterklass) and the Svarte Pieten gave out more papernotas. Then (suspensful music)... Sinterklass came! He was extremely tall, and his beard was may more real than Santa Claus. The most exciting thing about all of this was that all of the kids who were in the church actually believe that Sinterklass is real. Which, actually, how can you really blame them? I mean, he was there. He came in the church, and so did all of his helpers. It's not that hard to believe. Once Sinterklass came to the church, we sang some more songs or "litjes," and Sinterklass talked for a little bit. The whole thing was nice and exciting, and made me glad that I get to be here for Christmas.
Who knows, maybe Sinterklass will even come to Spooner next year. All I need is a white beard and a red costume!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Dear Mom
I would like to dedicate this post to my loving mother, who I am not going to forget even though I'm going to be gone for another eight months, so she doesn't need to worry. Also, I would like to point out that I really DID write her an e-mail a few days ago, but I don't know where it went. That's cyberspace for you!
Now. On to the other, less important, things.
Proefwerkweek: One of four weeks during the Dutch school year where all of the students have to study super hard, get extremely stressed out, and take tons of tests which then count for basically their entire quarter grade. Except me, I didn't have to do that.
Last week was proefwerkweek here, and yes, I did do a couple of the tests, but not very many, and I wasn't very stressed out about any of them. I decided before the test week with my mentor at the school that the tests I was going to take were Spanish, Math, Science, English, and Dutch. This meant that I had to go to school for three hours on Monday, two hours on Wednesday, and two hours on Friday. I studied for the spanish test and science test a little bit. Science, did not go very well. Spanish went very well, English went very well (duh, I would hope!), and Math went fairly well.
Since I didn't have to go to school on Tuesday and Thursday I went back to the primary school in Amsterdam to help Milja's friend again. Remember, I went there earlier in the year too? It's nice to have somewhere to go when I don't have school, because otherwise I know I would just be sitting bored at home. But, I have to say, I have no plans to become a teacher when I grow up. First of all, the kids don't listen to me at all. I don't know if this has more to do with the fact that what I actually can say in Dutch comes out in an extremely heavy accent or the fact that I'm just not not their teacher. Second of all... well, there's not much else to say. Just that I know I would never ever want to be a teacher!
One of the days when I was at the school, Anita (Milja's friend) had to leave the classroom for a while for a meeting or something, and the school was really short staffed so I was alone with the kids. I wasn't supposed to teach a lesson or anything- just keep things under control while they played at their different stations. The first five minutes went great. The next ten minutes were all right. Then they realized that they were alone with me, and all hell broke loose. There were three boys in the "playing house" corner, but they were not playing any normal kind of house. Somehow their game evolved into running around the entire classroom, rolling on the floor, and tackling each other. There was a group of girls in the middle of the room building a block tower which was great- it was probably about five feet tall- until it got crashed by the boys playing "house" and ended up all over the entire classroom. The table of kids that had been coloring did well for a lot longer than the rest of them, but somehow a sort of conflict broke out and half the kids ended up with their drawings ripped in half. My favorite table was the table of kids I had been helping to make paper lanterns, and they lasted for quite a while, but then spread throughout the classroom. I did have a few kids on my side who felt bad for my lack of control. They helped me out by running around and trying to grab other kids to put them in the time out chair, and by clapping their hands and yelling as loud as possible.
This absolute chaos went on for a while, but finally, after two of the kids had fallen and hurt themselves and the noise had gotten extremely loud, one of the teachers walking past outside noticed what a complete disaster I had going on in the classroom and came in and helped me. Of course, the kids listened to him right away, all he had to do was walk in and raise an eyebrow. By that time my face was completely flushed and I was all stressed and panicked. He pretty much saved my life.
I make it sound horrible with the little kids, but actually it's not bad most of the time. They say funny things, and are really cute sometimes. So the next time that I could be sitting at home watching tv because I don't have to go to school, I'll go back there again. Plus, next time I have to babysit two kids for an hour, I won't complain.
On Saturday our family spent the day in Breda, a town about an hour away from Akersloot. We went there early in the afternoon to look at a school Taiana might want to go to after she graduates. It was a small school for the study of "leisure management," which was interesting to see, especially since a lot of the studies are international and done in English. After we went to the school we walked around in the city for a while. We shopped for a little bit, and then stopped at a cafe. In the evening we drove back to Amsterdam and ate out. Going out to eat is completely different here than at home. It's not a go-there-and-eat-as-fast-as-you-can-then-leave type of deal. The first time we went out to eat here, we probably sat at the restaurant for three hours. This time wasn't as long, but we did sit there for probably close to two hours. We ate a first course, a main course, and then dessert, with quite a bit of time in between. The whole atmosphere of the restuarant was nice with everyone talking quitely, and long tables with lots of candles. The food was delicious. And of course the company was perfect.
There is a holiday here on November 11th called Sinter Marta. Think Halloween, but instead of costumes all the kids carry paper lanterns with lights inside that they've made in school. Also, there's a lot less teenagers running around with pillowcases and knocking down all of the little kids. Yesterday I walked with our neighbor Marijka, her daughter Pip, and a group of other moms and kids around the town for Sinter Marta. Instead of "trick-or-treat" the kids sing songs at people's doorsteps. There's sort of a rule that they can never ring the doorbell, because if they have to ring it, that means they haven't been singing loud enough for the people inside to hear them. We walked for about two hours, from the time that it was dark, and all of the kids got so much candy. There's another Dutch thing for me to add to my list.
Taking tests, teaching, trick-or-treating (not really), eating out... it's been a full week. Busy is good for me, it keeps me happy. Which by the way, I am... happy. Even with all the people and things I have to miss, I still am really happy that I came here, and that I have a long time left to be here.
Now. On to the other, less important, things.
Proefwerkweek: One of four weeks during the Dutch school year where all of the students have to study super hard, get extremely stressed out, and take tons of tests which then count for basically their entire quarter grade. Except me, I didn't have to do that.
Last week was proefwerkweek here, and yes, I did do a couple of the tests, but not very many, and I wasn't very stressed out about any of them. I decided before the test week with my mentor at the school that the tests I was going to take were Spanish, Math, Science, English, and Dutch. This meant that I had to go to school for three hours on Monday, two hours on Wednesday, and two hours on Friday. I studied for the spanish test and science test a little bit. Science, did not go very well. Spanish went very well, English went very well (duh, I would hope!), and Math went fairly well.
Since I didn't have to go to school on Tuesday and Thursday I went back to the primary school in Amsterdam to help Milja's friend again. Remember, I went there earlier in the year too? It's nice to have somewhere to go when I don't have school, because otherwise I know I would just be sitting bored at home. But, I have to say, I have no plans to become a teacher when I grow up. First of all, the kids don't listen to me at all. I don't know if this has more to do with the fact that what I actually can say in Dutch comes out in an extremely heavy accent or the fact that I'm just not not their teacher. Second of all... well, there's not much else to say. Just that I know I would never ever want to be a teacher!
One of the days when I was at the school, Anita (Milja's friend) had to leave the classroom for a while for a meeting or something, and the school was really short staffed so I was alone with the kids. I wasn't supposed to teach a lesson or anything- just keep things under control while they played at their different stations. The first five minutes went great. The next ten minutes were all right. Then they realized that they were alone with me, and all hell broke loose. There were three boys in the "playing house" corner, but they were not playing any normal kind of house. Somehow their game evolved into running around the entire classroom, rolling on the floor, and tackling each other. There was a group of girls in the middle of the room building a block tower which was great- it was probably about five feet tall- until it got crashed by the boys playing "house" and ended up all over the entire classroom. The table of kids that had been coloring did well for a lot longer than the rest of them, but somehow a sort of conflict broke out and half the kids ended up with their drawings ripped in half. My favorite table was the table of kids I had been helping to make paper lanterns, and they lasted for quite a while, but then spread throughout the classroom. I did have a few kids on my side who felt bad for my lack of control. They helped me out by running around and trying to grab other kids to put them in the time out chair, and by clapping their hands and yelling as loud as possible.
This absolute chaos went on for a while, but finally, after two of the kids had fallen and hurt themselves and the noise had gotten extremely loud, one of the teachers walking past outside noticed what a complete disaster I had going on in the classroom and came in and helped me. Of course, the kids listened to him right away, all he had to do was walk in and raise an eyebrow. By that time my face was completely flushed and I was all stressed and panicked. He pretty much saved my life.
I make it sound horrible with the little kids, but actually it's not bad most of the time. They say funny things, and are really cute sometimes. So the next time that I could be sitting at home watching tv because I don't have to go to school, I'll go back there again. Plus, next time I have to babysit two kids for an hour, I won't complain.
On Saturday our family spent the day in Breda, a town about an hour away from Akersloot. We went there early in the afternoon to look at a school Taiana might want to go to after she graduates. It was a small school for the study of "leisure management," which was interesting to see, especially since a lot of the studies are international and done in English. After we went to the school we walked around in the city for a while. We shopped for a little bit, and then stopped at a cafe. In the evening we drove back to Amsterdam and ate out. Going out to eat is completely different here than at home. It's not a go-there-and-eat-as-fast-as-you-can-then-leave type of deal. The first time we went out to eat here, we probably sat at the restaurant for three hours. This time wasn't as long, but we did sit there for probably close to two hours. We ate a first course, a main course, and then dessert, with quite a bit of time in between. The whole atmosphere of the restuarant was nice with everyone talking quitely, and long tables with lots of candles. The food was delicious. And of course the company was perfect.
There is a holiday here on November 11th called Sinter Marta. Think Halloween, but instead of costumes all the kids carry paper lanterns with lights inside that they've made in school. Also, there's a lot less teenagers running around with pillowcases and knocking down all of the little kids. Yesterday I walked with our neighbor Marijka, her daughter Pip, and a group of other moms and kids around the town for Sinter Marta. Instead of "trick-or-treat" the kids sing songs at people's doorsteps. There's sort of a rule that they can never ring the doorbell, because if they have to ring it, that means they haven't been singing loud enough for the people inside to hear them. We walked for about two hours, from the time that it was dark, and all of the kids got so much candy. There's another Dutch thing for me to add to my list.
Taking tests, teaching, trick-or-treating (not really), eating out... it's been a full week. Busy is good for me, it keeps me happy. Which by the way, I am... happy. Even with all the people and things I have to miss, I still am really happy that I came here, and that I have a long time left to be here.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
What's In and What's Out
In:
- snail mail
- skinny jeans
- crime shows
- brussel sprouts
- Dutch
- sheep and cows
- coffee and tea
- paper lanterns
- worm funerals
- missing your parents
- skating
- waving through the window
- Nike
- running in the rain
- rain
- wind
- hyves.nl
- TDR
- swine flu
- Thanksgiving
- vacation
- reflectors
Out:
- too many potatoes
- spandex under shorts
- tans
- American football
- cheerleaders
- homesickness
- Halloween
- bathtubs
- being cold
- Christmas Eve
- wet butts
- frizzy hair
- "crisis month"
- snow : (
- slow warm ups
- desert past 8:00
- walking
- having your drivers license
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Dutch Runners Run Fast
The first good thing about the race I did today is that I remembered everything I needed to remember. To be honest, I didn't have a bib number yet, so there was no possibility of forgetting that. But still, I didn't forget anything.
At the race, their was frighteningly few people. I never like races with few people. I would way rather do a race with tons of people and not place as high, than do a race with few people and risk finishing last. I was a little bit excited for this one though because it was actually a real "cross-country" race. Also, the weather was the best running weather with lots of leaves everywhere. And it smelled like fall. I love the smell of fall.
We ran the course once through before the race, and it was the perfect race course. There were leaves all over the path, a tiny part with sand, bridges over water, and one steep hill. We had to run the lap twice, and in total the race was 3.1 kilometers, so about two miles.
There was a good half hour after we ran the warm up where I was just kind of standing around, warming up for a few minutes, wondering if I should take my warm up clothes off, and standing around some more. All the confidence that I usually have from familiarity: knowing the runners I'm racing against, knowing the course, knowing the routine, knowing the people watching, and knowing about how I should place was gone.
Right before the race everyone was putting their running spikes on and someone asked me why I wasn't running in spikes.
"Um...." I say. "My spikes are under my bed. In Wisconsin." So I missed my spikes in this race. Who knows, maybe if I would have had them I could have run two and a half minutes faster and won the entire race. We'll go with that!
The beginning of the race was extremely hectic. Everybody stood in this huge clump of people and when the gun went off you just had to push to try and get out of the clump. I ended up finishing in 13:15, which I was pretty happy with. But, I placed 8th out of 11 runners, which I wasn't very happy with. The girl who one ran it in 10:58, and a girl from our team placed third, she also ran a crazy fast time.
And picture this; when we were cooling down afterwards, we ran past a pond with three swans in it. Right then all three of the swans started flying away at the same time. We saw them from behind, and their wing spans were huge, and they were all flying perfectly next to each other over the lake, with water spraying up all around them.
At home, right after I got out of the shower Antea (from Switzerland, remember?!) called me to talk about plans for a few weekends from now, and we ended up talking for an hour or so. She had lots of news from the trip that AFS went on to Berlin while I was in Paris. Then we talked about everything else important, and some things not important. But get this: the entire conversation was in Dutch!
The rest of the afternoon Taiana and I sat at the table and did homework. She was studying really hard for the test week this coming week, and I was studying a little bit, but not very actively. It was dark early and outside it was pouring rain and windy, so it was cozy inside.
Right now the couch, and tea, and the show called "Farmer Seeks Wife" are calling my name. Really, what could be better on a pitch black, stormy, Sunday night?
Tot laater!
At the race, their was frighteningly few people. I never like races with few people. I would way rather do a race with tons of people and not place as high, than do a race with few people and risk finishing last. I was a little bit excited for this one though because it was actually a real "cross-country" race. Also, the weather was the best running weather with lots of leaves everywhere. And it smelled like fall. I love the smell of fall.
We ran the course once through before the race, and it was the perfect race course. There were leaves all over the path, a tiny part with sand, bridges over water, and one steep hill. We had to run the lap twice, and in total the race was 3.1 kilometers, so about two miles.
There was a good half hour after we ran the warm up where I was just kind of standing around, warming up for a few minutes, wondering if I should take my warm up clothes off, and standing around some more. All the confidence that I usually have from familiarity: knowing the runners I'm racing against, knowing the course, knowing the routine, knowing the people watching, and knowing about how I should place was gone.
Right before the race everyone was putting their running spikes on and someone asked me why I wasn't running in spikes.
"Um...." I say. "My spikes are under my bed. In Wisconsin." So I missed my spikes in this race. Who knows, maybe if I would have had them I could have run two and a half minutes faster and won the entire race. We'll go with that!
The beginning of the race was extremely hectic. Everybody stood in this huge clump of people and when the gun went off you just had to push to try and get out of the clump. I ended up finishing in 13:15, which I was pretty happy with. But, I placed 8th out of 11 runners, which I wasn't very happy with. The girl who one ran it in 10:58, and a girl from our team placed third, she also ran a crazy fast time.
And picture this; when we were cooling down afterwards, we ran past a pond with three swans in it. Right then all three of the swans started flying away at the same time. We saw them from behind, and their wing spans were huge, and they were all flying perfectly next to each other over the lake, with water spraying up all around them.
At home, right after I got out of the shower Antea (from Switzerland, remember?!) called me to talk about plans for a few weekends from now, and we ended up talking for an hour or so. She had lots of news from the trip that AFS went on to Berlin while I was in Paris. Then we talked about everything else important, and some things not important. But get this: the entire conversation was in Dutch!
The rest of the afternoon Taiana and I sat at the table and did homework. She was studying really hard for the test week this coming week, and I was studying a little bit, but not very actively. It was dark early and outside it was pouring rain and windy, so it was cozy inside.
Right now the couch, and tea, and the show called "Farmer Seeks Wife" are calling my name. Really, what could be better on a pitch black, stormy, Sunday night?
Tot laater!
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