Rollercoasters

Well then, it would appear that I haven't updated in more than a month. Yes, there is a reason for this. Even a sort of good one. Looking back at one of my first entries, I believe I mentioned how I wanted this rollercoaster of a year to be kiddy, non rickety, and certainly without any upsidedown parts sort of ride.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

What happened, pray tell? Very long story short, I moved host families two weeks ago. Perhaps this warrants some explication. I guess the best way to say it is that we didn't click as people- I was very different than them, and very different than what they expected as a host family. Communication could have been better, on my end and theirs, but what's done is done. To be frank, my first three and a half months here weren't that good, in fact they kind of sucked, which I didn't tell you all because I didn't realize it myself. I didn't have anything else to compare it with, so I chalked it up to culture shock and homesickness. It was only when I went to the homes of some of the other students that I saw how much better it could be, and now looking back that I see the whole picture, or at least a wider view than before.

Those months, and most especially the last week I was there were as a general rule not that great, and definitely not something that I'd choose to repeat. But they're also not something I'd choose to delete. I learned a lot about myself that I wouldn't have in better situations, and was forced to reexamine a lot of things I had taken for granted, and appreciate others, certainly to mature as a person. And now that I'm out of it, and I see what I had been missing, how caged I was, and how the lines of communication were broken, I'm that much more appreciative of it all now.

So I moved families. Then what, you may ask? Basically, two fridays ago, I left, spent one night at one volunteer's place, then Saturday came back to grab my stuff, then through monday stayed with another volunteer, which we thought was going to be for a few weeks. However, monday AFS had contact with a family in the same town I stayed in first (the AFS volunteers are a train ride away), who had a foreign exchange student in September (planned for three months) who had to go home due to family issues home. They said I could stay temporarily with them, which would be better since then I wouldn't have to take the train to school and such.

Emotional roller coaster still rickety, I packed back up my stuff and came back and settled down here, temporarily in theory, while AFS tried to find me a long term one. And they did, just not the way that was expected, as last week Wednesday my temporary host family decided I could stay for the year, if I wanted to. Which I did of course, because they're awesome

And that's where I am now, a billion times happier. I'm currently sick (not that surprising given the chaos of the last few weeks), but getting better, much much better. I'm in a host family of nine including me, five daughters, one son, and two parental units. Four of the daughters are still home, two are my age. Almost everyone plays instruments, so Mackenzie and co. has dubbed them the Von Trapps. I told them this, and now they're calling themselves as such. They feel like family, more so already than my first one ever could have, and I'm immensely happy.

In other news, I've finally started taking circus lessons in Amsterdam! Tomorrow's my second class. I've lost a lot, but less than anticipated.

More to follow this,

Irene