Monthly Report 6: January

February 01, 2018

I would say that this month was generally slow moving, but a lot of great things happened. New Year's feels like so long ago. I am happy to be tonsillitis-free once again. The month started with a lot of Rotary New Year's dinners, which varied in their likable-ness and formality. During these dinners we were promoting the charity Shelterbox, which provides housing and basic survival supplies to victims of natural disasters. All of the exchange students were finding sponsors for a charity swim, where sponsors would pledge a certain amount of money per lap. The swim "marathon" was the first weekend of January. All of the exchange students met about an hour or so south of Lelystad (some of them had to take the train for 3 hours to get there) to swim some laps and do a few water games. It was a nice event but I was a bit nervous. They don't really have lifeguards in the Netherlands. So you basically had 50 teenagers all in a pool (which, by the way, had such a high ledge that you couldn't really hold on in the deep end), all being told not to stop and to keep going. When someone stopped an adult would come up to them and (trying to be encouraging) would be like "What are you doing?! Keep going!". And not all of the exchange students had very high swimming capabilities (and no one was really asked or tested). The only time I ever had to grab someone in a pool (that wasn't a toddler anyway) was at an exchange student event like this in the US. And there were definitely some doggy-paddle moments.

But obviously everyone was fine and after about an hour of swimming they sent us home. It might be interesting for the Americans to know that the dressing room was gender-neutral, with smaller gendered stalls within so you change either as a group or alone. There were only showers for the purpose of rinsing off.

I introduced some of my Dutch friends to American pancakes (great reviews) and to dipping your fries in your milkshake (poor reviews). I guess you can't win them all. On another culinary note, I was very happy to learn that sweet popcorn is just as popular as salted popcorn. You can even buy it in the movie theater (which I did when I watched Star Wars: Last Jedi. I had an entire Star Wars marathon with a friend from school, I insisted we go in order of release though (only because he is a fan of the prequels, if you can imagine such a thing). I also got to see the Dutch production of On Your Feet! with my host mom and eldest host sister. I definitely missed going to the theatre so that was nice. Though I did think it was weird watching a show whose theme focused on Cuban culture, and what it means to be American, being performed both in Dutch and in a very Dutch way. But it wasn't so serious a musical so I don't think it really mattered either way, it was just interesting.

Anyway, break ended and I returned to school, which is going well. Of course I was only at school for one week before I took a long weekend to see my mom in Copenhagen (there is already a blog post about that). And the weekend after that was the Lady Gaga concert (see previous blog post). So even if the month feels like it was long it was really full of a lot of great things. I am doing well with the language, and basically only speaking Dutch at school (unless another student forgets). And of course whenever I am speaking Dutch I also have to use some English, and my grammar is far from perfect.

I am also narrowing down on my Dutch bucket list. The exchange students are probably going to stop volunteering at the grade school in the end of February (approval pending) and I am hoping to use that extra time to take advantage of my 40% travel discount and free museum access. Last week school was cancelled less than two hours into the day when the school lost water pressure (which means there would be no water if there was a fire). I used the day to see the nearby city of Zwolle. Last weekend I was also able to see the Netherland's Open Air museum in Arnhem. It goes through the history of Dutch living and has reconstructed houses for each period. It was really cool to see, plus we saw a giant bunny. Always nice.

So I'd say things are going pretty well overall. I am still doing Kung-Fu, which I enjoy greatly, and I'm trying to pick up a second art class at school. Next week is Carnaval (like the Dutch Mardi Gras) and I plan on going to that. Otherwise my February is pretty open. Here's to Groundhogs and Super Bowls!