First Day of School

The foreign exchange students joined school a week late. Luckily for me though, the other American exchange student and one other Dutch kid that I knew had the exact same schedule as me, so it wasn't hard to find a familiar face.

Biking to school was easy, though while I did get caught in the rain I'm accepting that this will probably be a common theme in my life this year. None of the exchange students have books yet, so we couldn't do anything in class besides sit there and try to read out assignments as best we could. The only class taught in English is English, so hopefully that will motivate some fast learning. For the most part the other students are talking in English, though I've been encouraging them to speak Dutch to help me.

I brought jolly ranchers to school, so I was very popular during free time when everyone wanted to try American candy. 

Here's a link to the school's website if you want to check it out. The Dutch school system is a lot different than ours in America.

I also had my first Kung-Fu class today. I'm very fortunate that the husband of my exchange student coordinator teaches Kung-Fu, and was willing to take me under his wing. He just wanted to show me the art to see if I'd like it, and I'm already pretty confident that I'll take it up. I'm very excited for the opportunity to try a new martial art after six years of Karate. I knew that Kung-Fu would be a lot different than Karate, but I still expected them to be more similar than what I got tonight. The two styles are infinitely different, but I felt that having a background in martial arts was helpful regardless. The motions in the style are very slight and relaxed, it's quite graceful and quick. Most of the students bike to class, because this is The Netherlands. It was also raining very hard today, because this is The Netherlands. These two things combined meant that only two other students showed up to class today, so the mood was very relaxed. Especially, I think, since there was a newbie in the group who couldn't even speak the language. 

It was a very fun experience. I think I did well for my first day, and my thighs are sore so that must mean I did something right. The other guys said I did pretty good, and they laughed when I would run to make sure I was at the back of the line and not accidentally in the middle (in marital arts you often line up by rank, so I would be in the back seeing as it was my first lesson). They thought it was cool that I already knew where I was supposed to stand. I should be going again next week, but there is also a volunteer session to cook dinner for a group of Syrian refugees. Hopefully I can do both, and if not then my second Kung-Fu lesson will just have to wait another week.

I really did enjoy myself though. Tomorrow I start my second day of school. It'll be raining all day, so I'm sure to get wet. Still though, I'm in a good mood from Kung-Fu and more ready than ever to see where the year takes me. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Week Home

Last night marked my first week home after my year abroad. Coming home was a unique experience. I procrastinated leaving and cried when the plane lifted off in Schipol. I cried again when the plane landed in Rochester, but from happiness. Seeing the Rochester skyline pop up just made me so happy. I cried from sadness to be leaving home, and from happiness to be coming back to it. I won't lie, the first couple days back felt weird. Everything felt so separate from my exchange year and that was difficult to get my head around. My body was running on autopilot. Just muscle memory. Despite using English quite frequently abroad, it was still a shock to my system having everything being in English. Speaking it didn't feel that weird (though I did accidentally slip into Dutch once or twice), but only hearing, seeing, and reading English was strange. It almost felt like my year abroad didn't happen at all. I spent a lot of time with my family this week, which was really im...
Read more
Today was a wonderful day, but also a really difficult day for me. I went to school in the morning to see my friends, return my books, and hand in my locker key. My last school day is Wednesday but I had to return everything today. Then I went home where a group of friends (exchange and dutch) came over to hang out, relax, gossip, etc. At the end of the day I had to say goodbye early to one of my closest friends here. I tear up just thinking about it. She’s going on a trip tomorrow and won’t be able to go with me to the airport to say goodbye. We hugged for a really long time without letting go. She is also an exchange student, so we promised each other we’d meet in the middle of our countries. Or maybe I’d go to her. She’s been with me in Lelystad the whole year. We were even volunteers at the same grade school. She became such a good, genuine friend of mine and I can’t believe I’ve already said goodbye to her. I know we will see each other again but it is still so hard. I know the f...
Read more

Monthly Report 10: May

Image
I will still skiing in the French Alps when May began. When I got home I was greeted by three lovely new editions to our family: three baby chicks. Though still un-named they've been a delightful additional presence in the house.  As you all should know this month was also Mother's Day, which they also celebrate here. I was blessed with a double-mother's day! I helped my eldest host brother make my host mom a special breakfast. Then the two of us went off on a girls day to an orchid garden. The orchid garden had far more than just orchids however, and also had monkeys, flamingos, lemurs, giant catfish, a butterfly garden, and a parrot sanctuary. It was a wonderful little day. And, of course, I got to make a long phone will the momma #1, the amazed and blessed woman I could never replace. The orchid garden wasn't the only little trip I made this month. My host mom enjoys traveling and is always enthusiastic about taking me to new places. Early in the month...
Read more