Finally! Real, live students!

Slacking off on blogging has been way too easy lately. I apologize.

Monday, that seems so long ago! Well, I had Dutch class, and that's about it. We have our first test in our next lesson... yikes! Learning a new language is seriously so hard. My children are all going to be bilingual the second they start talking. I can kind of translate written Dutch, but the second a real, live Dutch person starts talking to me, I freeze up and forget that I even know any words in their language. So the test should be pretty interesting... other than Dutch class, not a lot happens on Mondays. Oh, but I did manage to almost get hit by a car. It would be funny if a block later I hadn't seen a man in the middle of the street, out cold, surrounded by passing people and police officers because he had been hit by a car on his bike. That got me thinking: does this happen a lot? Also, the fact that people weren't moving for the ambulance and police vehicles was shocking and horrible. Every time I see a car coming towards me now, my heart skips a few beats and I assume the worst. Things I miss about America: the assurance that I will not get struck by a vehicle while I'm biking... because I never bike.

Yesterday (Tuesday), Katrina and I did our internship. Evidently field trips get cancelled for Valentine's Day in this country and get rescheduled to days of other students' internships. Luckily the people at Gomarus love Katrina and I so much they were more than willing to let us come on Tuesday instead of Thursday so we could attend the field trip as well. I was picked up by my carpool date, picked up Katrina at the train station, and made our way to Groningen.
We arrived at Gomarus only to find out that our mentor teacher was sick. Again, because they love us so much there, they were flexible enough to make room for us elsewhere around the school. And lucky for us, this involved real, live students-- not just watching them, but interacting with them! Tuesday was the preliminary round of a junior speaking contest for the ESL (TTO) students in grades 2 and 3 (8th and 9th). The topic for the speeches was the future. The students could choose to do whatever they wanted with this topic, but many of them focused on what the future will be like-- technology, not worrying about the future, etc. However, a few had different ideas. One boy has dreams to travel the world and save the animals-- one of the most passionate speeches I have ever heard. Another girl dreams to get rid of using paper all the way around. Katrina and I spent our day helping students with their diction, grammar, and practicing their speeches. It was so much fun! At first the students didn't want a thing to do with us. They would ask any one in the room besides us for help, but by the time lunch rolled around, students were coming to us for everything. It was a great way to see some of the students' personalities, interests, and also the variety of English-speaking skills. Some of them are excellent English speakers. Others, not so much. Some of them had great English-writing, but their speaking ability was lacking. It was really quite interesting but also inspirational. These kids are so motivated to excel in the same programs, and yet they are so diverse in their interests and abilities.

I have already picked favorites, sadly: purple shirt kid. He was quite the charmer and the crack up. His personality just screamed This got Katrina and me thinking: what if we suggested a one act? We could incorporate it into the English class, and we think this would be a great way for students to practice their English in a different, less stressful (and boring) environment. Ideas like this get me so excited about this opportunity and the opportunities I'll have in the future. I can't wait to have a classroom of my own and enact stuff like this on my own.

Today was a pretty chill day-- watched the Bachelor, cooked dinner for the family (baked lemon pasta with chicken), went to Dutch Culture and Society class, ate dinner with the family, finished scholarship applications, and now I'm blogging before bed. And now I'm done with that, so off to bed I go!