technical difficulties

Here's the deal friends, I do my blog writing on the bus ride into school each morning which means that you're going to be a day behind on my life. And as much as I'd like to think you all are absolutely hanging on my every word, I think you'll live. This means that all of my writing is trapped on my phone - yes, I do the majority of my blogging in the "Notes" app on my phone, my thumbs are sore at the end of it, but you guys are worth it - until my phone gets wifi and I can email the writing to myself. As of right now, little iPhone is being a complete DIVA and won't connect to the wifi. So I have stories for you from this week, but I'm just lazy enough that I refuse to retype it. As soon as I can get my phone to quit being a problem child, you'll have stories from the past few days. Hang tight in the meantime and know that I'm fighting a foot cramp just so that I can finish this post for you (and I don't want to get out of bed because it's really cold).  

Sneak peak for what's ahead: my student is a bammer, I meet a Syrian, and decide that it's really time I learned Dutch. 

foreigner first world problems:

Not having any of the normal technology. I'm a pretty loyal Apple user, and like most schools, Marnix is solidly PC. Which is all well and fine, I don't really care what kind of computer people use. The issue arises as I am constantly needing to borrow other people's technology so I can show my classes PowerPoints/videos/print worksheets/etc because my little mac can't be hooked up to the projectors and won't run the grades system. And, an extra excellent perk of being only fluent in non-native tongues, working things like copiers and computers has become whole lot of "well, this looks right-ish" (i.e. everything is in Dutch). This morning as I tried to patch in my flashdrive to one of the teacher's computers, while the screen was being projected up on the overhead. I was yammering on about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while trying to figure out what buttons to push and I hear a little voice from the back, "um, miss? I wouldn't have done that if I were you..." aaaand that was the point in the day where I gave up on trying to figure out the computer for myself and just had students do it for me.

Also, I got to be the big scary teacher today with T4, they got a stern talking to for their use of Dutch in class (they're really not supposed to) and the class volume. Boy did I ever feel like a big fat faker, trying to discipline kids who I barely have a few years on. That's student teaching for ya, I suppose.

sunday stories from the monday busstop

As the title of this post alludes, I wrote this yesterday in transit, but didn't get the chance to actually post it. So imagine all of this happening twenty-four hours ago and you'll be all caught up...

I woke this fine morn to realize that my month of being an "I'm going to kick caffeine" monstrosity had been for naught. I should mention, in my correspondence with my Dutch supervising teacher, I had been warned that I might want to kick my caffeine habit because the coffee at Marnix wasn't very good. So, given that my crippling addiction had gotten a little out of hand, I spent Christmas break as a complete terror, irritable with caffeine withdrawals. The headaches stopped soon after Christmas, and I was proud to say I no longer needed coffee to start the day. Well, in the wake of jet lag, I tried the so called "garbage coffee" at school and quickly discovered that I've been drinking "garbage coffee" all of college. Unrefined American taste buds for the win, again. It probably goes without saying that it was a slippery slope from there... 
So, back to the present, it didn't take long to realize that the splitting headache I had throbbing behind my right eye was just a side effect of my weekend caffeine come down. Luckily I didn't have to push through the pain very long. Walking around with a pocket full of US dollars hasn't been doing me a great deal of good - who would've guessed?? So this morning I made the trek to Arnhem, the closest train station with a currency exchange. I spent the majority of my bus ride eavesdropping on a pair speaking in English, the girl was Dutch but I believe the boy was a Scot or Brit. I debated the whole time whether or not I should say something, but felt awkward and decided they were probably on a date. As much as I love playing "the blocker - third wheel extraordinaire" I decided to let them be. When I arrived at the station it was still a little early to go do my transaction, but I did happen to find an old friend of mine: Starbucks. I popped in, made a fool of myself trying to use my chip card and flusteredly (yep, I did just make that word up. It seemed most appropriate), used cash instead, and sat down to enjoy my grande latte and muffin. My plan was to people watch until, of all the tables that were open, the oddest couple dropped into the table next to mine (conveniently blocking the window). She was small, black and fairly cute. He was tall, dressed like a Roswell-ian hoodrat, had more hair on his neck than I have ever seen on a young-ish man, and seemed to have trouble with opening his eyes all the way. Needless to say I was very perplexed at the match. I did some (probably not so) sly people watching until they started being really PDA canoodle-y. Like, really? It's Sunday morning. Enough of that nonsense. So I focused my attention on the copy of Stormbreaker downloaded to my phone as I nursed my soup bowl sized coffee. Turns out, in Europe, a grande size coffee actually means grande sized, not just "barely bigger than small".
After I watched my new friend, Hairy, spit something into the dregs of his coffee and I had finished off my own, I walked down to the currency exchange where I had, in my infinite wisdom and understanding of the Dutch language, accidentally reserved 160 US dollars for myself instead of 160 dollars worth of euros. whoops. But the lady behind the desk was very understanding and we got it straightened out, no harm, no foul.

After that little adventure, I headed back to Renkum. My host family had offered to take me to Doorwerth Castle so we all piled in the car and wove through neighborhoods and farmland until a large castle lay before us. wowzers. I can't recount many of the details concerning the history of this structure because the tour was in Dutch, but I can say that it was a piece of history far older than anything America has to offer. We explored room to room, stopping to watch the actors dressed up in traditional Middle Age garb and try on some knights armor for ourselves. Once we had covered the castle's interior, we meandered a little around the castle grounds and took in the vast amount of greenery surrounding the grounds. 

Doorwerth Castle 

In front of the castle 

Janne and I get ready for a joust

Afterward we headed back home for homework and lesson planning. It rained pretty intensely from around 17:00 on, bringing in the colder weather. Apparently we're supposed to get snow this week. yay?

nobody cried, nobody died

It’s Friday night in Holland, and I’m curled up with my space heater. Yep, seems about right. I’m not even upset about it – it has been a long stinking week. A great week, but a long one.

I picked up my first round of lessons with T4 this week. “Monologues, Soliloquies, and Asides” on Wednesday, “Present Perfect Tense” today. Nobody cried and nobody died. And what I lack in comprehensive knowledge of English grammatical rules, I make up for in enthusiasm. But for the sake of my sanity and the students, I’ll be doing less grammar and more literature from here on out. It’s nerve racking to have your expertise put on the line like that, but I really like it. After school on Wednesday we had the second round of MarnixTalks, a speech competition for the upper form students where they create a speech about anything, then present it (in English) to a panel of judges. I stuck around to hear the speeches and help with set up/break down. We enjoyed a dinner cooked by my host teacher’s husband - who is an amazing chef, by the way. I could've eaten the whole pan of creme brulee by myself. Let me tell you, they do things a little differently in Dutch schools than we do in American schools. Around half past five, we all gathered around the staff room tables, which had been pushed together to create one big community table. Bowls of soup and salad went round, followed by offers of “red or white?” My dinner mates were thoroughly tickled when I regaled them with tales of a teacher friend who could not to return to school on a half day to get some grading done because she had drank a small a margarita with lunch. There's been a bottle of wine sitting in the staff room's fridge ever since, and it makes me giggle every time I see it, because I'm obviously twelve years old. One of the biggest cultural adjustments has been how lax Dutch society is. Walking to the bus station this week I passed by one of the little smoke huts – glass enclosures where people can go to smoke when there’s nasty weather – nearby the bus terminals. As I passed by I detected a hint of something a little more… fragrant… than a cigarette. A smell I had really only encountered by my high school's art basement and in fraternity houses, if you catch my drift. For a split second, I was aghast. Here? In public?? Aaaand then I remembered that I’m in Holland.

Other than that, things have been pretty uneventful. I’ve been trying [you like that present perfect continuous tense?] to become as immersed in Marnix as I can. This morning I sat on the judges panel for the Junior Speaking Competition and got to hear a handful of T2 and T3 students talk about their take on culture. We heard everything from women’s rights to sports to initiation rituals. It was amazing to see the effort and ability of these kids. I wish we could’ve sent them all to the next round. After that I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for my lesson (i.e. double and triple checking my activities in between cutting up with the other teachers in the teacher’s lounge). After school, I spent about twenty minutes wandering around the small town of Ede. Just checking out all the store fronts and whatnot when I stumbled across this gem:

I’m not really sure why I found it so funny, probably because that’s a whole fish she’s lowering into her mouth. mmmm.

As the students taking oral exams next week, I’m taking on a pretty full load of classes for the teachers who will be proctoring the exams, so this weekend will be filled with lesson planning. In fact, I’m about to have a pretty hot date with my main squeeze, Charlie Bucket (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for you non-literary people who might have been deluded into thinking I have an active love life) so that I can do some guilt free exploration tomorrow.

I’ll leave you with this, I have a week off for spring break in February and am a little overwhelmed with possibilities. I’ve been leaning toward seeing Greece (Athens or Sparta) and Rome – I’ve spent many an afternoon with my nose in Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology”, much to the ridicule of my English major peers. But I don’t know, with (almost literally) the whole world at my fingertips – where should I go? Suggestions? 

A Conversation After School

student A: "Americans have all these weird rules about their flags. Like you can't burn them."

student B: "Then how do you keep warm?"

me: "From the fire within your chest, fueled by freedom."

thank goodness they laughed. 

Nothing More Dear to My Heart

Today passed with no grand adventure of any sorts. I followed T2t around today so that I could get a feel for the average day in the life of a student. You know what I don't miss? Being a student. I learned a good bit from the classes taught in English, but trying to keep up with Maths in Dutch was a little beyond my capabilities. Dus......... yeah (that's the one Dutch phrase I've learned that's stuck... my language acquisition skills need work... it's means "so" in the context of an awkward silence... also, I've probably spelled it wrong, I've only been here a week, cut me some slack)

On to more pressing things:
1) I heard a teacher use the sassiest phrase I have ever heard in my whole life today and think it bears repeating. One of the T2t girls was being disruptive and this teacher looked at her with a glare that could have frozen Hitler in his tracks and said very calmly,
                 "If you continue to disrupt my class, disrupt your afternoon"
Then went back to teaching like nothing ever happened.

2) In that same class the teacher expressed her concern that meat packaging companies in the States were using mice in their meat. I hope I wasn't lying when I said that the FDA is trying to crack down on that. 'MURICA

3) Here I will speak about something that I have grown to admire about the Dutch. It is a habit that I've been working to cultivate in myself because I'm so impressed with the skill. Now, if you haven't figured out that I'm real big on food, you must be a new reader, because well, I have no qualms about sharing my love for food and the art of eating. So it really should come to no surprise that the quality in which the Dutch have most captured my heart is food related.
Based on my observations, at each meal, a true Dutchman will grasp his/her fork and knife - one in each hand - and wield the instruments with the most ambidextrous of talent, scraping every morsel of food from the plate with amazing precision. It involves a fair amount of metal meeting porcelain screeches, but the dexterity in which they are able to glean every edible element off the plate circumvents any ear discomfort.  Not only do they manage not to waste anything, they also perform this at speeds unlike I've ever seen. Normally I'm always the first one done with my meal, but man, these people put my speed eating to the test. My goodness, one minute the food is there and the next minute it's gone. Amazing, absolutely amazing. Finally, a people after my own heart.

Blue Monday

The Dutch call today “Blue Monday” because it’s far enough away from Christmas to no longer be exciting, right around now people start giving up on their New Years resolution, and the weather is quite dismal. I shouldn’t laugh that it falls on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. I shouldn’t laugh that it falls on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. I shouldn’t laugh that it falls on the same day as Martin Luther King Day.

This morning started off… well, let’s just say I was riding the struggle bus. I awoke before everyone, who had later starts to their morning. All was well and good as I got ready, packed my lunch and so on. Then came time to go catch the bus. Now, I have a key to the house and can let myself in and out, no problem. But, attached between the house and the garage is a wrought iron gate. Most mornings, I am not the first one to leave, so the gate is unlocked. But this morning I found the deadbolt drawn. Using my key to the back door, I jostled the lock a little with no avail. Glancing at my watch, I feared missing my bus and lost all sense of propriety. I lowered my teacher bag over the gate, stuck my piece of toast into my coat pocket, and proceeded to climb the fence of my own home. I probably looked like the world’s worst burglar, vaulting over the spikes in my teacher pants (this is all before the sun had even come up). Delightful. I did miss my bus, but managed to catch the next one and got to school with plenty of time.

This is my first week of really having an idea what’s going on and being able to work with the kids, so I team taught in T1 and T2 during the morning. We had a fun question and answer session with the classes, where the students could ask me anything about myself and/or American culture, then worked on practicing Present Perfect tenses. I was given a group of advanced learners to work with and their teacher just told me to have them write a story using present perfect, so, I showed them a picture of me feeding a giraffe from a few summers ago and told them to let their imaginations do the rest of the work. The kids got really into it. I don't believe many giraffes gallop wild through the tulip fields of Holland so they thought it was really cool that I got to feed one. 

 Later in the afternoon one of my supervising teachers and I started doing someconcrete lesson planning for the upcoming weeks. Starting next week, I’ll be taking over large portions of class time. I found out that I’ll be reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the T1 class which I’m really excited about. Naturally, because I’m a fatty who sorely misses her junk food, on my way home from school I went to the supermarket and bought a big Dutch chocolate bar so that I could appropriately read about Charlie’s grand adventures. I’ll be following T2 all day tomorrow so that I can get a better feel for the overarching academic experience. These days it’s almost like I’m a real teacher or something…