Day One

Status report: I'm a little overwhelmed, but good.
Lots of new things thrown at me all at one time, but that's just the nature of the beast. I started this morning at the delightful before dawn hour of 6:30 so that I could catch the 7:12 bus into Ede. A very alert 45 minute bus ride later, I made my way out of the station and toward Marnix so that I could meet with my first cooperating teacher. She greeted me in the main hallway of the upper form building and began introducing me to all the faculty in sight. It was a whirlwind of names and faces and handshakes as she showed me the Janitor's office (or what we would call the main office) and the teacher's room for the upper school, then whisked across the street to be introduced to some more names and faces in the lower school. My cheeks were just starting to grow sore from the smiling and "nice to meet you's" as the first bell rang. I sat in on five classes, mostly students in grades 2 and 3 (the Dutch equivalent of 7th and 8th grade), one period of 6IB, all of which were the TTO (bilingual) students except for one period with regular 2. All of the teachers are very engaging and friendly, they've been happy to accommodate for my Auburn requirements which has been nice. We've just started scratching the surface of what I'll be doing, but from the sound of it they're prepared to let me take the reins pretty quickly. Also, they all speak impeccable English which is a miracle in itself because I sound like a fool when I try to imitate Dutch pronunciation.
I am also very fortunate because Marnix recently added an American teacher to the staff who teaches social studies. It was nice to hear a familiar accent, even though it's only been forty-eight hours. She's been especially great with warning me about the nuances of Dutch culture coming from an American perspective and helped me get my OV-chipkaart (like a Dutch oyster card) set up. I hate that this barely scratches the surface of what my day entailed, but my eyes are drooping and I can tell that my writing isn't terribly engaging I think it's best to sign off for tonight. I'll write in more detail later on.