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.