On Skating

It would appear that the significant prodding from my mother I referred to in my last entry has not let up with another month gone by in which I haven't seen her. Apparently I haven't been updating my blog enough, which granted would be an accurate statement if I was sure people actually read this.

For those who are, if you're out there, I hope it wasn't overly distressing not to hear from me, as I probably would have posted something along the lines of "Today I went to school. Then I practiced violin. Then I did homework. Then I drank a cup of tea. Then I went to bed, and then I got up at the ungodly early hour of 8 (haha IHS early-starters) then I....). 

Fallen asleep yet? I thought so.

That said, my life is at least sort of interesting, though not particularly dramatic. I'm very happy, crazy as ever, but enjoying my time in the Netherlands. My host family is insane (jij ook Lida) but awesome. 

It's been really cold here lately; last Friday it snowed, and it's stuck for the last four days. It hasn't been over freezing either, so the canals are frozen enough to go skating on. Sunday I went ice-skating for the first time in years, and I have to say, skating on a canal, with sheep watching you in a field nearby, and snow everywhere is a thousand times more fun than skating in a rink and listening to really bad music. I've completely lost any skill I had at one point, and struggle to turn corners (I can't cross over at speeds over 1 mile per hour), but it's amazing. And I still haven't fallen, which is pretty impressive considering. 

The only downside of the weather is that the train schedule's been completely ruined- tonight I should have gone to Amsterdam to circus, but the trains had too many issues, and Amsterdam's not somewhere you want to be stuck in at 11 pm, beautiful city or not. 

Life's pretty normal otherwise, school's school, violin's violin. I took a large Dutch test a few weeks ago, which was required by AFS. Friday I got my results, and am in the top 3- originally I was told I was first, but at least one girl (Sarah, who's awesome) got a higher score than me. I'm not particularly distressed though, because I still did very well, and AFS will pay for the IB Dutch test for me, assuming I can take it being 15.

That's pretty much it. My writing skills today are minimal, as you can probably tell, but I figured I'd write something before I forget to. 

Irene