A Month of Getting into Rhythm

Hello to everyone reading this,

Sorry for the lack of a post in the last month, but I've had what seems like nothing that is way out of the ordinary. But I find that to be a good thing now, because it means life is becoming normal here, as if I were not on vacation, just living life here and making all that I can of it.

Running takes up a lot of my time right now, I have either five or six days a week depending on whether or not I have a race or not. It isn't quite as intense of training as I plan to have when I get back to the U.S. but it's really fun and with great people. Many days here are spent on the Track, which I'm not used to as a cross country runner, but it allows for diverse training schedules, and that for me includes shot put right now, cause why not? That's one of the things that never seems to happen in America, where you're put into categories, and don't ever deviate away from that. It's also nice here to have practice in the forest consistently. The races here are also very different here with small regional competitions and also national competitions that replace our early season invitationals and late season geographically structured meets that range from Conference to Nationals.

Current top 5 after 4 races for Junioren B

So far, all of my classes are going really well! My favorite days tend to be Thursdays and Fridays, not only because they are the shortest school days and they lead to the weekend, but also I have gym class which is one of the best classes no matter if I'm in the U.S. or here in the Netherlands. Today for instance, we had kickboxing which was super cool and allowed for a welcome change to the volleyball we had been playing off and on for a month. Also something that I've done for the first time in gym class was trampoline jumping which was also fun. Some of the classes here are frustrating for me, usually because I understand many of the words but a lot of the times, not the big points that are made and tests are also very hard with many of them containing large reading sections that make up the biggest part of the points given. While these classes are often frustrating, all of the people here make them worth it, and the lessons are helping me learn Dutch faster than I could without them.

Some of the best, most interesting people ever

We had the first language test of the year with all of the exchange students in Amersfoort which went really well I think, the speaking felt really natural and the reading was also good, the only difficulty for me and actually most of the other exchange students was the writing, but that will improve when I begin writing a lot more for school. It was great to see how much everyone improved their Dutch over the past three months, some of us arrived speaking no Dutch, and others with also very little, but most of us now can communicate with each other through Dutch and not English as it began. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay too long after the test because I had a race the next morning, but as always when we all hangout- it was a good time.

The Cold Evening in Amersfoort

Thankfully the homesickness that most exchange students have hasn't kicked yet for me. I mean, yes I miss all of the people back home. But it just seems like a silly thing to worry about when am in a wonderful place that I can only stay for a year. After this year I must return, so why fret away this amazing year with worries of the what's to come. But with that said, I do miss everyone and even some silly things like Taco Bell and Smash Burger and dad's barbecues.

Like I said, there weren't too many specific events that stuck out, but if you have and questions about what's going on while I'm here, you can leave comments, and I'll happily answer them.

Til next time, I miss all of you and enjoy winter!



-August-

Exchangeception- One half of an exchange in an exchange

Hi all, 

Wow I'm writing a post a week and a half after the last one, impressive right? Well this last week went so fast and had so many memories that I don't want to miss any of the important details. 

The Italians were on the bus the whole day of Saturday but when we first met them, they were somehow still full of energy. We decided last minute to go out to the center of Deurne to see if we could find something to do with the other Italian/Dutch pairs. But by the time we had very little time left so we decide to go home to sleep. 

We had the club championship for athletics on Sunday which Andrea sadly had to sit through, there was a little bit of a disappointment in the 800m in my opinion but instead I performed very well in the 100m and Shotput (surprising for a cross country runner). This meant that I was second place overall. That night we went out to a pannekoeken restaurant to show Andrea typical Dutch food. After dinner, we went to watch the Juventus v. AC Milan with other exchangers and luckily Juventus won.

Javelin Throwing

Andrea's first 'Pannekoek' 

Monday was a day in both school and the town of Griendtsveen. We went on a hike through the Peel and then we stopped for lunch in the town. It was very nice to talk to many of the Italians and that day was the start of some cool friendships. That night we just hungout in the center of Deurne and talked.

The big day of the week was Tuesday which was when we went to Amsterdam. The worst part was waking up early in the morning to get on the bus for two hours, but at least I slept most of the way there. Unfortunately we didn't get to take a group picture at the IAMsterdam sign because we were to late and had to go to the Van Gogh museum. Maybe because we were all tired, or maybe because we are teenagers, we became bored very quickly in both the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house. The rest of the day was spent touring Amsterdam and showing the Italians as much as we could including the Dam, the Red Light District and Kalverstraat, while walking into every shoe store we could find. Then the bus ride back and nice sleep rounded out the day of fun.

The Dam in Amsterdam with Sergio

Wednesday was a short day at school of making cards for the families followed by making a funny video with our small group. It took many takes, but the bloopers turned out just as good, if not better than the video itself. We then went home and Andrea made Spaghetti for us which was very good! Then we rested until we went to The Ocean, the local disco. We had lots of fun with all of the Italians and even the Spanish students came too, although they were young and not as fun as the Italians. The music here is so nice, it's easy to dance to (although people don't always dance in discos) and when a good song like 'Year of Summer' or 'Talk Dirty' comes on you can feel the whole disco become energized and everyone is having a good time. We came home at 12:30 because we had to be at school the next morning to go to Maastricht but the three and a half hours were satisfactory.

The Actors: Jay-Jay, Ramzi, Me, Loone, Maud, Ludovico, Giovanni, Andrea, Christian and Domenico

Maastricht is also an hour drive at least, so we again slept on the bus, but once we got there we walked around the Zonneburg caves which were limestone mines that helped build Maastricht and also churches across Northern Europe. The tour was in english, so at least I followed it. Still, the history wasn't quite as interesting as one could've hoped but the rest of the day was better. We spent some of the day at the McDonalds eating Stroopwafel McFlurry's and the rest of the day walking around Maastricht. Then we went to the Albert Heijn to buy Dutch foods to bring back to their families like stroopwafels, drop and hagelslag. Mattia, one of the Italians, even bought Skittles because you can't find them in Italy.

We were bored making cards 

Friday was the day that we toured Deurne with the group and saw all that we hadn't seen, but that wasn't much. We sat in the center of Deurne and drank Chocomel with a few of the Italians for an hour, then each ate a Frikandel which are basically heaven from Deurne. We then toured the Church that rises of the town and took some nice pictures of the town from above. Then we had a going away party at the school where we watched all of the videos (our's was the best) and the Italians gave their cards to the families. The night finished with a party at the Ocean and many memories.

The view from the Church

The Ocean for ASP :)

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to all of the Italians on Saturday morning very early. It was a sad moment, but it's good to know that in six months we'll be there with them and in the mean time we will keep in touch. 

I have more I could say about but I think I'll save them for stories to tell once I come back to the US of A next summer. 

Til next time, 

August

It's been too long!

Hello all of you beautiful people,

Life here in the Netherlands is surreal and I can't believe I have been here for almost two months already. The time here flies by and I just realized that it has been close to a month since I've written to all of you. Many of the details of this month are very fuzzy so I don't know if I'll remember it all but I'll give it a shot. 

The class structure here is way different from the U.S. but I really like it. Overall here, I follow Natuurkunde (physics), Scheikunde (chemistry), Biologie, Wiskunde B (maths), Nederlands, Spaans, Lichamelijke Opvoeding (Gym), CKV (a culture class), Informatica (computer programing), ANW (general science) currently. When I become comfortable with Dutch, I will also follow Engels and Maatschappijleer (sociology). Each day I only follow five or six of the twelve classes with each classes only twice or three times a week. 

Besides school and learning dutch, I've been taking up a lot of my time with running for the local athletics club. We run three times a week on the track, and soon we will begin running on trails in the forest in preparation for the upcoming Cross-Country running season that I have been looking forward to. There will be races all across the provences of Noord-Brabant and Limburg. This past Sunday, my athletics club and I went to the National Relay Championships in Amstelveen. My 4x800 relay team raced well and I myself ran a very fast first 600 but then died at the end of the race. The next race I'll be running in will be the club championship on Sunday which will include the 100m, 150m, 800m, Shotput, Javelin, Long Jump and High Jump.

Also this weekend starts my autumn vacation, which will begin with an Italian coming to live with my family, and will end with a random, unplanned adventure. The Italian, Andrea, will spend the week in a group of Italians and Nederlanders and even me, the American. No other group will have that! We will spend the week visiting Groote Peel (a national park), Amsterdam, Maastricht and the ever wonderful town of Deurne! Then I will go to Italy in March/April to visit all of them in Busto Arsizio where we will visit Milan, Venice and Lago Maggiore.

I've been making friends here from YFU, school and athletics and hopefully I will continue meeting new amazing friends to last forever. So far the people have been so much more than I could have ever protected, they are all helpful and friendly and just overall cool people! We have been to the YFU headquarters for my host brother who I am happy to say will be coming to the U.S. next year on exchange, we don't know yet where he will be placed but I know for sure that he will have a brilliant year there in 2014! 

It's never to late to think about hosting with YFU, there are always students who are in need of a family and want to live as a part of your family. I have been so lucky to have been placed with a great host family and I think that every student deserves a permanent family to make their exchange year the best it can be. If you need more time to think about it, you can host for the 2014-2015 school year. I encourage you all to check it out! https://www.yfu.org/host-families

Hope you all have amazing times, whatever you're doing with your life right now. All of my friends in high school in the U.S. don't stress out too much about school. Everyone else, be glad you don't have to stress out about school!

Tot zo,

August

Cisco, our future guide dog.

Eindhoven, School and Oostende

Hello all,

Long time no write, and so there is so much that I need to cover.

School has begun and already feels like a routine. But unlike school back in the US, the school day doesn't always begin or finish at the same time. Like on Wednesdays, I have the first two hours free, but I have class until the eighth hour, which ends at 4. School on the first day was really intimidating at first, but friends were quickly made and they made me feel like I was just another of their friends. Well kind of... many people have many questions that I'm happy to answer. The teachers are all helpful but really want my Dutch to improve enough for me to be able to understand without all of the explanations.

Pierre and I in Eindhoven... KFC!

I got lucky with making friends because I was invited to a party on the first friday night, by a friend who thought I might want to meet more people better than in school. Speaking of friends, that same weekend, the five exchange students from YFU that live in my area decided to take a day trip to Eindhoven which is no more than a half an hour train ride from any of our houses. We thought there would be plenty to do because its a big city and usually shops are open in big cities, but sadly we were mistaken and so our sunday consisted of walking, KFC and McDonalds. It was great to see the four of them, its so crazy that we live so close but are from countries so far from each other. Just around Eindhoven, we have two Belgians, a German, an Uruguayan and just your average American.

All the other exchange students

Since the last blog post, I have joined an Athletics club, which keeps me busy on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and leaves me tired and ready to sleep each night. It's not quite as intense as cross country back home, but it keeps me busy and in shape. When I get back into shape, I think I'll begin running everyday again, but right now, I don't have the fitness to do it. As for other sports, I'll have to decide later whether I have the time and the energy for them, for now, I focus on Nederlands.

My family here has an apartment in a seaside city called Oostende in Belgium. We spent a wonderful two days there, and happened to see the World Championships of Roller Speed Skating. Besides watching Roller Speed Skating, we went to the beach and got beaten by the wind, we went shopping at European stores, and we played Midget Golf. The thing about stores here in Europe is that all of the stores have clothes that fit me. That never happens in the US! Oh and if you were wondering about midget gold, well I am too, apparently that's what people here call mini-golf. But again, I ate food that is really bad in the US, Pizza Hut! Except it wasn't bad and wasn't even that unhealthy.

Sadly this week we will have to say goodbye to my host sister, Yvette. She will also be having an internship in Scotland and will learn to enjoy the rain even more than she does here in the Netherlands. Good luck!

My school has a week during the 4th grade called 'werkweek' where you get to travel to a different country with your class. The options I could have chosen were city trips to London or Berlin, an outdoor adventure in België or you could participate in an exchange with Italië or Spanje. I chose to exchange and go to Italië in the spring, and in october, they will come to Deurne and one will stay with my family.

A Picture from Facebook worth sharing

More information will come about all my adventures which will include an exchange student meeting in Eindhoven, school in a strange language and maybe even a picture of our dog Cisco biting my face last weekend. Feel free to leave questions or witty comments.

Tot ziens,

August

Finally Here

Waar is de WC?,

Wow it has been only a week but it seems like so much more. I have met many new, amazing people in this small space of time. There is a long story to be told, so you must be forewarned. The journey begins with goodbyes and ends with hellos, but there will always be hellos to be made so this is not irregular.

I left Minnesota on Saturday the ninth of August with only a suitcase and a backpack, fearing the unknown. During the day that I spent in either airports or planes, I had a lot of time to think about life but not as deeply as it may sound. I was routed through Chicago first where I met a German who was headed for Iowa, but I only had to wait for an hour to go to Washington DC. I got my last Five Guys burger and then met the other American- Madison, to get on the plane. To shorten a long story, I slept no more than 45 minutes and it turns out that some people don't think that Minnesota is the best state, who knew?

Meeting my host family was a scary experience at first thought, but seeing them for the first time was the perfect interaction, "Hi", "Hallo", "Let's go home, you can sleep." I made it until we made it home and then I crashed and my plans of avoiding jetlag went down the drain. After my sleep was over, we had to get ready for a barbecue/camping trip to the backyard. The barbecue was really fun but when it came time to sleep, it began to pour and the tent turned out to be not exactly waterproof but it was still fun!

Orientation was an unknown in coming but it turned out to be both helpful for my dutch and for meeting all the other exchange students. At first, everyone was timid and only stuck to the people they already knew but it blossomed into a great time. We would wake up and eat breakfast and then learn dutch/dutch customs with coffee breaks, lunch breaks, sport breaks and even regular breaks. At night it became the time to meet friends, dance and if old enough, drink. Today was the day we went home, and I really didn't want to leave all of the new friends, but I also missed my host family.

Well school starts Tuesday, which I am looking forward to, so I can meet some dutch people who are my age.

Taken by Kokoro Tanaka

Tot ziens,

August

The Beginning

As this is my first post of what should be many on this blog, I should introduce myself. My name is August and I am five days away from beginning the journey of a lifetime. On August 9, I will be saying my goodbyes to my family and boarding a plane to get to the Netherlands and more specifically, a small town in Noord Braband called Deurne. This blog will function as a way for me to share pictures, stories and memories of my exchange year and to try to keep in touch with everyone back in America, so feel free to comment and ask questions.

So far, I have had two going away parties where I have said many goodbyes so far, but there are so many left to say. The packing has started as well as the scrambling to get everything done before I leave and it hasn't set in yet that I am leaving so soon. While all of my classmates going to school here in America are worrying about who will be in there classes, but that is not possible for me, I'm just excited for the adventure and the friendships and even the struggles. 

More posts will come in the future with more memories and pictures, and less background info.

The Cousins

-August-