One more blog entry before I depart for the promise land of Ireland and London? Certainly.
This week was the shortest week ever-- Dutch class on Monday, internship until noon on Tuesday, and 45 minutes of teaching on Wednesday. Even though it was "short," there was a lot to get done... and still is before I leave tomorrow (like booking a way home from London on Monday... oops).
As I mentioned in my last blog, Monday marked the beginning of the Celebrations project. Well, today I found out my country for it! Don't tell my kids though; they're supposed to think I have no idea what country we're doing. I bet you're all a bit curious. Well, we'll be taking a mental vacation to the country of Australia! If my desires to see the world never included Australia before, I think I can rest assured they will after this project. We'll be learning so much about their country, culture, etc, I don't think I'll be able to say no. Unfortunately, after the beat down my bank account has endured this semester and will endure next spring, I think Australia will have to be added to my travel plans with my soul mate. Hopefully I'm able to find a man with the skinny genes and a pocket full of cash and a sense of adventure and the desire to see the world with a charismatic character such as myself (pray for me).
Tuesday Katrina and I spent the morning traveling to Groningen via train, walking to Gomarus, and then observing our kids give their presentations on persecution they've been slaving over since the beginning of March. Remember that project? No? Well, here's a little refresher: we split the class into 12 pairs, giving each pair a country with Christians suffering from persecution to study, write a reflection, and prepare a poster and small presentation about. It was so great to see all the work the kids put into the project (and Katrina and I put into planning it) come to life with the presentations. You could really tell it got the kids thinking on a deeper level about persecution and compassion and our responsibility as fellow Christians for those suffering abroad. After the presentations, some of the girls in the class told us how much they loved the set up of presentations, having 4 times to present to smaller groups instead of just 1 big presentation. What a great encouragement for us! On the train ride back we began grading the presentations. What a process! We got about half way done though, and even graded according to "Dutch standards," something quite a bit different for us.
The rest of Tuesday was spent working on some homework for my individual study back home, eating pancakes with LaRae, our special guest from America, and a few of their friends from Dordt and Canada and stuff, a birthday party for one of the other girls on SPICE, and a night in the Joffer. Good news: they still love me there.
Today I taught the kids at my internship in Zwolle a lesson on the different theres/yours/its, a lesson I used previously in America. Here's the thing: last week they finished so early, so I knew I had to have a plan B for this week. I was right. The kids were done so early, so I gave them plan B. Surprise: they also finished that early. So, on to plan C... wait a second, I don't have a plan C. Thinking on your feet is crucial to being a good teacher, and that I did. Because this is the class that is working on the Celebrations project, I decided to get some feedback from them about what they expect from this project-- things they're excited for, nervous about, have questions about, etc. You're welcome teachers at VDC for the favor I just did you.
After that, I met up with Kaitlyn to bake some superbowl brownies and then dye my hair: goodbye blonde! Two of our host brothers came over for me and LaRae's cooking tonight... so that was fun. Then we talked details about our trip to Paris with them in a few weeks, which will probably be a bit more fun than the food we cooked for them, especially with our "free candy" van. Other than that, it's been a pretty relaxing day-- printing tickets last minute, planning our swim route home from London, and packing everything green in sight.
Because my creative brain was spent on Plan C for my students and packing my green wardrobe for Ireland, this is about all the blogging I can handle. So, tot en klein dags. Yes, I know that's wrong, but I'm sure you can figure out what it means. If not, I'm trying to say "See you in a few days..." unless I manage to get myself arrested for harassing the queen of England's swans.
Dag!
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