Hello all,
This is going to be a very quick update because I have to leave soon for my orientation which is half way across the country, but know that I have survived my first week of school with my dignity intact, ignoring the fact that I keep thinking doors are locked when they're actually push not pull. But my general well-being is good, I haven't had any slushies thrown on me a la Glee, and if my dignity is not necessarily as shiny and new as it was a few weeks ago, I'd say it's simply lightly stressed, rather like my jeans. And this metephor is going nowhere (http://writing.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977171896), so moving on.
Everyone's nice at school, hopefully I'll make some friends sometime in the next few months. The classes are hard in that there's a lot of Dutch to read, but the actual subject matter I've already covered for a good deal of them, not sure if that's good or bad in the long run. I got switched into math B (not D alas, but it's better than A), and I could do the math while sleeping, so that's less great. Overall the teachers are really nice, and I've been too busy doing things like my history homework to fret over certain material being too easy in essence, since I have the language barrier blocking me from being able to do anything with coherence and articulation.
One interesting thing about the school is that they don't have substitute teachers. So if you have a teacher sick, you don't have class. They have a giant schedule in tiny writing that they update everyday that tells you these things- unfortunately it took me a few days to figure out how to read it but I think I'm good now.
There are two other exchange students at my school, one from Belgium for three months, and one from Australia for a semester. The girl from Belgium is also with AFS, so we're going to the orientation together today.
I realize that this update is not so much carefully folded, compressed, and shrink-wrapped but more scrawled out and stuffed in a metaphorical envelope, but for now it'll have to do.
I'm doing well, still adjusting, but enjoying the experience.
Love to all, and Jeff (or Emily) you should respond to my message! For those of you who start school in Eugene today, I wish you luck.
Irene
Friday, September 9, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Settling In and Other Such Nonsense
Hello all,
This is going to be a shorter update for the combined reasons of time and the fact that this last week was a lot less crazy than my first. I had a witty introduction in my head last night, but it seems to have slipped away in the last 15 hours, so alas and alack, you'll have to bear with my monotonous thought process sans humor. Or not read at all, which would be an excusable thing to do.
I feel like my first week of life here was a lot of really great moments with small dips every once and a while. This week definitely felt more stable and normal- I'm starting to feel like I'm really living here, and though Eugene will of course always be a very big part of me, I don't feel like I'm straddling a continent and an ocean with one foot in both places. If any of you have seen my middle splits, you'd know how painful that would be.
Speaking of splits, I have managed to keep up with conditioning, at least somewhat, for silks, which is good.Not as much as I could be doing, but anything helps. Aerial-wise, I called a circus in Amsterdam on Tuesday, and after a confusing conversation where they thought I wanted to work there, it turns out they don't have any classes that I can take. But they referred me to another circus, which I'll call next week. I'm still hoping, but there are always other options if that doesn't work. On a somewhat similar note, I have a trial violin lesson tomorrow.
School starts tomorrow, or at least I pick up my text books and go talk to my mentor (who's also the English teacher). We (the mentor-group) have a meeting once a week, rather like House at RMS, for those of you who would know. I also had a meeting at the school on Friday, and I'm going to try the schedule they gave me for the week, and then make any necessary adjustments. They also took my math textbook and notebook from me, so I've been having a little bit of separation anxiety from them. But I'm not on an exchange because I thought it would be easy. That's what they mean by the challenges you face, right? Math textbook separation anxiety?
Okay, maybe not. Speaking of separation "issues," I'm making my family quesadillas tonight, which is exciting. I made the beans already, then I'll re-fry them and make salsa and guacamole too, I hope it's yummy. Soon I hope to make yumm sauce too, among other things- my parents forwarded me recipes so all I really need to do now is to locate the right ingredients (chocolate chips!), and I can't find measuring spoons as of now, which will be an issue for some things. They have a two cup measuring cup, so hopefully that will be good enough for everything else.
As school is starting next week, I'm sure I'll have an overwhelming list of interesting things to tell you all, definitely more interesting than the above gobbledigook. I have an AFS orientation all next weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything, but if not I'll put one up the next week for sure.
I think of everyone back home often, but am enjoying life here as well.
Irene
P.S. So maybe I lied about this being short, because it ended up being rather longish. On a scale of quantity verses quality... Let's not go there shall we? I blame the immersion experience entirely.
This is going to be a shorter update for the combined reasons of time and the fact that this last week was a lot less crazy than my first. I had a witty introduction in my head last night, but it seems to have slipped away in the last 15 hours, so alas and alack, you'll have to bear with my monotonous thought process sans humor. Or not read at all, which would be an excusable thing to do.
I feel like my first week of life here was a lot of really great moments with small dips every once and a while. This week definitely felt more stable and normal- I'm starting to feel like I'm really living here, and though Eugene will of course always be a very big part of me, I don't feel like I'm straddling a continent and an ocean with one foot in both places. If any of you have seen my middle splits, you'd know how painful that would be.
Speaking of splits, I have managed to keep up with conditioning, at least somewhat, for silks, which is good.Not as much as I could be doing, but anything helps. Aerial-wise, I called a circus in Amsterdam on Tuesday, and after a confusing conversation where they thought I wanted to work there, it turns out they don't have any classes that I can take. But they referred me to another circus, which I'll call next week. I'm still hoping, but there are always other options if that doesn't work. On a somewhat similar note, I have a trial violin lesson tomorrow.
School starts tomorrow, or at least I pick up my text books and go talk to my mentor (who's also the English teacher). We (the mentor-group) have a meeting once a week, rather like House at RMS, for those of you who would know. I also had a meeting at the school on Friday, and I'm going to try the schedule they gave me for the week, and then make any necessary adjustments. They also took my math textbook and notebook from me, so I've been having a little bit of separation anxiety from them. But I'm not on an exchange because I thought it would be easy. That's what they mean by the challenges you face, right? Math textbook separation anxiety?
Okay, maybe not. Speaking of separation "issues," I'm making my family quesadillas tonight, which is exciting. I made the beans already, then I'll re-fry them and make salsa and guacamole too, I hope it's yummy. Soon I hope to make yumm sauce too, among other things- my parents forwarded me recipes so all I really need to do now is to locate the right ingredients (chocolate chips!), and I can't find measuring spoons as of now, which will be an issue for some things. They have a two cup measuring cup, so hopefully that will be good enough for everything else.
As school is starting next week, I'm sure I'll have an overwhelming list of interesting things to tell you all, definitely more interesting than the above gobbledigook. I have an AFS orientation all next weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything, but if not I'll put one up the next week for sure.
I think of everyone back home often, but am enjoying life here as well.
Irene
P.S. So maybe I lied about this being short, because it ended up being rather longish. On a scale of quantity verses quality... Let's not go there shall we? I blame the immersion experience entirely.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Many Meetings
Hello all,
As might be expected for a first week abroad, so much has happened that there's no way I'll be able to summarize all of it. I'll try, however, to capture at least some of it in words. So here's my week, compressed, shrink-wrapped, and ready to read at your convenience.
Every year, all of the small villages in the Netherlands, or at least this region, have what are called kermis-pronounced kairamiss, which is a party-festival for the entire village (which are super, super tiny, as in a single street sometimes). One of the villages surrounding the town I'm in had there´s this weekend, and on Friday night everyone plays a card game called Klaverjassen. My host brother Thomas invited me, so I spent a good portion of the week learning how to play, with Truus and Piet, and also with Thomas' friends. Friday night we went to the kermis, and managed to not get last place.
Cards aside, I did a lot of running around, seeing new things and such- Thomas and Peter both gave me tours of different parts of the town, on Tuesday Truus and I went to the beach where Siemon works, and on Thursday Thomas and I went to Amsterdam to get papers filed, then walked around the touristy part which was fun. Friday was the kermis, and then yesterday night Siemon's friends came over, so I met them. Everyone's been really welcoming and helpful, despite the fact that I can´t actually remember their names. Or pronounce them.
I've been continuing to attack my Dutch, with both my giant book thing from AFS (which is annoyingly formulated but still helpful), and of course just by listening. Peter has also been helping me learn the names of household objects- I've got most of the kitchen stuff and utensils down now, except the articles are impossible to remember- unlike french there is no rule..
That's about all, I've also been doing a good deal of math so that if they ask me to do anything at school I won't have forgotten it all, plus I can't get Calculus here (probably). I've also been playing violin, as per usual. I'm trying out two different violin teachers in a few weeks, one in town, and another that's a ways by train, so hopefully one of them will work out.
Friday I have a meeting at the school, I'm in a subject track that isn't geared for math people, so hopefully I can worm my way into the mathy-sciency one. They have all had 3 years of what they call chemistry here already, so the school says I can't, but I have a feeling I might have actually already done a lot of it- my host brother gave me some example problems and it was no issue. Of course there's the language barrier, but that will go away as the year progresses. We'll see, it's all up in the air right now.
Anyways, I´ll keep you all posted on what´s happening.
I´m doing well, hope you all are too.
Irene
As might be expected for a first week abroad, so much has happened that there's no way I'll be able to summarize all of it. I'll try, however, to capture at least some of it in words. So here's my week, compressed, shrink-wrapped, and ready to read at your convenience.
Every year, all of the small villages in the Netherlands, or at least this region, have what are called kermis-pronounced kairamiss, which is a party-festival for the entire village (which are super, super tiny, as in a single street sometimes). One of the villages surrounding the town I'm in had there´s this weekend, and on Friday night everyone plays a card game called Klaverjassen. My host brother Thomas invited me, so I spent a good portion of the week learning how to play, with Truus and Piet, and also with Thomas' friends. Friday night we went to the kermis, and managed to not get last place.
Cards aside, I did a lot of running around, seeing new things and such- Thomas and Peter both gave me tours of different parts of the town, on Tuesday Truus and I went to the beach where Siemon works, and on Thursday Thomas and I went to Amsterdam to get papers filed, then walked around the touristy part which was fun. Friday was the kermis, and then yesterday night Siemon's friends came over, so I met them. Everyone's been really welcoming and helpful, despite the fact that I can´t actually remember their names. Or pronounce them.
I've been continuing to attack my Dutch, with both my giant book thing from AFS (which is annoyingly formulated but still helpful), and of course just by listening. Peter has also been helping me learn the names of household objects- I've got most of the kitchen stuff and utensils down now, except the articles are impossible to remember- unlike french there is no rule..
That's about all, I've also been doing a good deal of math so that if they ask me to do anything at school I won't have forgotten it all, plus I can't get Calculus here (probably). I've also been playing violin, as per usual. I'm trying out two different violin teachers in a few weeks, one in town, and another that's a ways by train, so hopefully one of them will work out.
Friday I have a meeting at the school, I'm in a subject track that isn't geared for math people, so hopefully I can worm my way into the mathy-sciency one. They have all had 3 years of what they call chemistry here already, so the school says I can't, but I have a feeling I might have actually already done a lot of it- my host brother gave me some example problems and it was no issue. Of course there's the language barrier, but that will go away as the year progresses. We'll see, it's all up in the air right now.
Anyways, I´ll keep you all posted on what´s happening.
I´m doing well, hope you all are too.
Irene
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Concerning Comments
Hi everyone,
Just a quick post concerning commenting, which I think people have been having issues with.
You do need either a google account or a livejournal, wordpress, typepad, or some others. If you have one of these, click on that one on the scroll down bar by the comment as' part. It will ask you to log in, then it will post your comment. If you do not have one of these, by no means are you required to get one, but if you want, I'd recommend getting a google account, since they are useful. Simply go to gmail.com, click on the 'create an account' button, and fill in the required information, then you should be good to go!
I hope this helps. While I don't have time to individually respond to everyone, I appreciate your comments, and am having a good time over here. I'll have an actual post up this weekend.
And unfortunately I was a tad hasty in saying I can do silks, there are some time conflicts and such, so we'll see. I'm crossing my fingers, but worst comes to worst I'll just have to do lots and lots of conditioning at home.
Irene
Just a quick post concerning commenting, which I think people have been having issues with.
You do need either a google account or a livejournal, wordpress, typepad, or some others. If you have one of these, click on that one on the scroll down bar by the comment as' part. It will ask you to log in, then it will post your comment. If you do not have one of these, by no means are you required to get one, but if you want, I'd recommend getting a google account, since they are useful. Simply go to gmail.com, click on the 'create an account' button, and fill in the required information, then you should be good to go!
I hope this helps. While I don't have time to individually respond to everyone, I appreciate your comments, and am having a good time over here. I'll have an actual post up this weekend.
And unfortunately I was a tad hasty in saying I can do silks, there are some time conflicts and such, so we'll see. I'm crossing my fingers, but worst comes to worst I'll just have to do lots and lots of conditioning at home.
Irene
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Out the Door
Hello all,
I'm using a strange keyboard (meaning it's shaped weird, but the keys aren't in different spots), so you're going to have to excuse any eminent typos. I do proof, but I'm also time-limited.
So! What to say.
I left on the 16th, almost a week ago, but have only been in the Netherlands since Friday afternoon due to an orientation in NY that was more waiting than orienting, but was really fun because I got to meet everyone going to Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. There were eight of us going to the Netherlands, two more are coming later because they haven't been placed in families yet. Norway had a ton of people, but Iceland only two, they limit the number of people who can apply. But it was fun, and the flight long, especially because it was delayed. But now I'm hear, and it's amazing.
AFS describes exchanges as roller coasters in one of their many many metaphors, so right now I would be at the very top of one. I'm hoping my ride is one of those nice kiddy ones (the non-rickety type, mind you), and so far, that's what it seems like. My host family is awesome, and very helpful. Yesterday my host brother Peter showed me around the town; how to get to school and also around the centrum, or town center. It's a beautiful, beautiful city. He also showed me the best ice cream shop, which is either a very good thing or a very bad thing. I have a giant packet of Dutch from AFS, and my host mom Truus has been working on it with me every day, which is very kind of her. Also, today, her and I biked around town and the out skirting villages, which was incredible. It is in every way European, with more bikes than cars, and I saw a bunch of swans in the canal by the road. And a couple of foals and horses, munching on grass. It was very warm today, but in other parts of the Netherlands there are thunderstorms, so we're lucky.
As you may have surmised from above, I now have a bike. There was a drawing based on your zip code for bikes here, and my bike is a result of said drawing, so I didn't have to pay for it. It doesn't have hand brakes, just the back-pedaling sort, so that will take time to get used to.
Some other good news is that I will maybe be able to do silks while here- my host family found a town somewhat close to us that has classes, so I'll try it out, maybe next week.
Other than that, I don't have much to say except I'm having a great time, and my Dutch is progressing, if slowly.
Love to all,
Irene
I'm using a strange keyboard (meaning it's shaped weird, but the keys aren't in different spots), so you're going to have to excuse any eminent typos. I do proof, but I'm also time-limited.
So! What to say.
I left on the 16th, almost a week ago, but have only been in the Netherlands since Friday afternoon due to an orientation in NY that was more waiting than orienting, but was really fun because I got to meet everyone going to Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. There were eight of us going to the Netherlands, two more are coming later because they haven't been placed in families yet. Norway had a ton of people, but Iceland only two, they limit the number of people who can apply. But it was fun, and the flight long, especially because it was delayed. But now I'm hear, and it's amazing.
AFS describes exchanges as roller coasters in one of their many many metaphors, so right now I would be at the very top of one. I'm hoping my ride is one of those nice kiddy ones (the non-rickety type, mind you), and so far, that's what it seems like. My host family is awesome, and very helpful. Yesterday my host brother Peter showed me around the town; how to get to school and also around the centrum, or town center. It's a beautiful, beautiful city. He also showed me the best ice cream shop, which is either a very good thing or a very bad thing. I have a giant packet of Dutch from AFS, and my host mom Truus has been working on it with me every day, which is very kind of her. Also, today, her and I biked around town and the out skirting villages, which was incredible. It is in every way European, with more bikes than cars, and I saw a bunch of swans in the canal by the road. And a couple of foals and horses, munching on grass. It was very warm today, but in other parts of the Netherlands there are thunderstorms, so we're lucky.
As you may have surmised from above, I now have a bike. There was a drawing based on your zip code for bikes here, and my bike is a result of said drawing, so I didn't have to pay for it. It doesn't have hand brakes, just the back-pedaling sort, so that will take time to get used to.
Some other good news is that I will maybe be able to do silks while here- my host family found a town somewhat close to us that has classes, so I'll try it out, maybe next week.
Other than that, I don't have much to say except I'm having a great time, and my Dutch is progressing, if slowly.
Love to all,
Irene
Monday, August 15, 2011
Almost there!
Hallo,
It's the night before I leave, and I am almost finished packing- meaning I have another load of laundry drying downstairs, and all of my toiletries, and maybe to say 'almost finished' is stretching it a bit. "Will be finished by tomorrow" is a better way to put it, I suppose. Good news though: so far I'm under the abysmal weight limit, hopefully it will remain that way after I put in my winter coat. Knocks on wood.
I have had a fantastic last weekend in the US, as I was able to a good portion of the people I wanted to see before I left on Saturday. My virtual twin Mackenzie returned from her six-week sojourn in England on Sunday, so we've spent most of our waking hours together, and surprisingly haven't broken anything or maimed anyone on accident.
All in all, my stomach butterflies/elephants aside, I'm ready to leave tomorrow, and I fly in to the Netherlands in a few days after a national orientation and a good deal of waiting around that I'd rather not think about.
Tot ziens,
Irene
It's the night before I leave, and I am almost finished packing- meaning I have another load of laundry drying downstairs, and all of my toiletries, and maybe to say 'almost finished' is stretching it a bit. "Will be finished by tomorrow" is a better way to put it, I suppose. Good news though: so far I'm under the abysmal weight limit, hopefully it will remain that way after I put in my winter coat. Knocks on wood.
I have had a fantastic last weekend in the US, as I was able to a good portion of the people I wanted to see before I left on Saturday. My virtual twin Mackenzie returned from her six-week sojourn in England on Sunday, so we've spent most of our waking hours together, and surprisingly haven't broken anything or maimed anyone on accident.
All in all, my stomach butterflies/elephants aside, I'm ready to leave tomorrow, and I fly in to the Netherlands in a few days after a national orientation and a good deal of waiting around that I'd rather not think about.
Tot ziens,
Irene
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Preparations and Anticipations
Hoi iedereen,
Granted, this is a terrible metaphor as (most) of my friends and family have never done aerial acrobatics, and I don't actually know of any drops that start out with you hanging by your ankles. Oh well, at least I haven't quoted Tolkien yet.
Today being the 7th of August, I leave in approximately 9 days. My suitcase is somewhat packed, and I have some weight left- hopefully enough that I won't have to wear my heavy winter coat on the plane. I'm not all the way ready, but it's starting to feel more and more like it.
Last week I got back from an excellent visit to my family in California, where I had a great time, though the train ride back got mixed reviews, as I was placed next to a man who reeked of cigarettes for the second half. But I survived to live the tale, so no worries!
I also said goodbye to my amazing cousin Zane (he's ten), who was going down to California directly after me to visit said relatives. I'm not sure who said that the packing is the hardest part of leaving, but I say that goodbyes are worse. I'm going to miss him a lot, but there's always email, and we spent an excellent evening running around shooting each other with imaginary guns before he left.
Next week is, among other things, my last week of circus class before I leave, which will also be hard. But for all of the things I'm already anticipating I'll miss and will loose by being away, there's going to be so much more that I'm going to gain, I think, and that's what's really important.
Also, my host family has a bike for me when I get there, which means I don't have to buy one. Hooray for money saved!
I hope to see many of you who are reading this in the following week, thank you to all (well, all three of you) for the comments!
And on that note; Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak. For those of you who don't know what I mean, I suggest reading Harry Potter approximately eight times. Or twelve if you feel like it. :-)
Dag,
Irene
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