Last weekend: Bye Lewes, I will come back.

Saturday was my last day in Lewes L. In the afternoon, at twelve, my parents arrived in Lewes. My father was watching some paintings in a gallery. I was waiting in front of the school and saw my mother in front of the gallery. I took them to the Whyte’s house. We had lunch at the house. Carrie had made Caesar Salad which was great!! It was really nice. Carrie and my mother really wanted to meet each other, and they were talking all the time about me which was quite embarrassing. Peter wasn’t there because he had to photograph one of the princesses in a stadium. However, Jack was there and he studies physics, so my father was talking a lot with him :p. Just before we left, I played one single game of billiard. After many ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ we left Lewes L. We drove for about a few hours and arrived in Rye. Carrie had recommended Rye to my parents. We had a walk around, and I was quite in a sad mood… Reason?? ;) We found a lovely, old English (duhhh!!) hotel where we had great dinner!! I showed them lots of my pictures. We were all tired so slept quite early.

Sunday we drove back to the Netherlands through the tunnel. When arrived, I was quite happy to see my brothers and dog again, but was missing all the students of LOGS. We immediately had to leave cause two of my aunts were celebrating their birthdays.

Lewes is probably one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. I thank Mr Blewitt and Ms Rosin  one more time for allowing us to stay that long at LOGS and help us with all the problems/questions we had. I want to thank Ms de Wolf for organizing everything, and allowing us to stay the sixth week. Mr Leuiken for allowing us as well, and if he hadn’t known Mr Blewitt, we wouldn’t have been in Lewes!!!  The host parents for allowing to be part of a family. I had a great time with you. And of course, all the amazing students of LOGS for making me have the best time of my life. The teachers: Mr Walton, Mr Wakefield, Mrs Lawdon, Ms Taylor, Mrs Ticehurst for making me enjoy the lessons and learning a lot about the subjects in English!

I had a wonderful, great, exciting, and interesting time and will never forget those six weeks!!!

Picture 1: Tired in a hotel
Picture 2: Saturday morning...
Picture 3: The Whytes with my parents and I

Last week in Lewes :(: Everything has an end.

I went to school with the feelings that it was impossible I had already stayed in Lewes for five weeks. I was really unhappy because I knew this was my last week. However, each event ends sometime, so I shouldn’t be unhappy but enjoy my last week as much as possible! With this attitude I started my last week in ‘AMAZING’ LOGS. Manon, Sanny and I were already discussing about a goodbye party. I heard from some friends that a party at the Downs was great. So I discussed with Sanny and Manon to do it there. However, when they asked their host parents, they got the reply they weren’t allowed to go there because there are some high cliffs close to it… You know people will get sad when you leave, but we don’t want friends to commit suicides ;). My host parents didn’t like the idea as well and said that they didn’t expect many students to be allowed after all the stories of Maia’s party.  During the week, I had to move two times from room. The first one was Tuesday because Grandma had left and I could move into my ‘own’ room again. However, Friday, the mother of Peter (father) visited the family, so I had to move into Louis’ room again. This week, I made lots of pictures of lessons: with teacher after the lesson, and during the lesson. However, we weren’t able to spent all our afternoons enjoying and making pictures because we needed to study for our anw exam as well. However, Ms de Wolf, of course we really enjoyed studying for your test too ;)!

Monday I started to ‘feel’ that the a-level exams were coming closer and closer. People start to do work during their free periods, and during the lessons, teachers are driving the students crazy with comments like: ‘Only a month left’…. During history, Mr Walton asked the students if they wanted to come over to school during the holiday to practice some ‘twelve mark and twenty four mark questions’. The students, surprisingly, agreed! Sanny told me she had bought the English flags as well, so that we were able to get them signed by all students and teachers during the week. We were going to get them signed on Thursday and Friday. Monday evening, I played billiard with Jack.

Tuesday, discussions, discussions, and three Dutch exchange students getting irritated by each other.. One person wants to do this, and the others say no… ‘and it goes on and on and on’. After lots of discussions and plans, I came up with the idea to have a small picnic at the Paddock, the grass fields behind the school, and go to Brighton that night to have fish and chips at Brighton beach! Many students would love to do that, but my co-exchange students thought it would be messed up to try to get all the students in the train to Brighton -__-… Another plan messed up. However, they liked the idea to have a picnic at the Paddock immediately after school. So the plans for Friday changed completely, and it was just going to be a small picnic at the Paddock, Yippee….

Wednesday, I took pictures of history and Ict. Hahah, the three of us during the ICT lesson look so smart in the picture… I realized that I had only two days left. Weather was amazing!!! We had sun for over three weeks already, so we had really brought the standard good spring weather from the Netherlands. Students started to work more and more, so they could enjoy their holidays more. Next week, they would have a three week Eastern/May holiday. The RLW should do the same ;)!! After school, I found out that Jack had invited some of his friends to come by. He already has holidays. They were firing a target with the airgun. I asked if I could join their match, and I beat all of them XD! This was the second time I had ever shot with an airgun and I shot three out of four times, eight out of ten points.  Wednesday night, I was talking with Anya, good friend, on Facebook. I was telling her about all my messed up ideas of a party, and I told her that I thought nobody would be coming Friday to the picnic. She was doing some history homework… So really wanted to help me instead of doing work :p! We created an event on facebook and invited 150 friends. It looked great, and this is probably the reason why such a large amount of students came by Friday. Thank you veryyyyy much ANYA!!!! (I don’t think you will read this ;)!!)

Thursday, most of my friends signed my flag. We drove students and teachers crazy with questions like: Could you sign my flag? or May I make a picture of the class? Lots of students told me that they might come by the next day, so I still wasn’t expecting many students. I made the last plans for the party and tried to force as much students as possible to come to the picnic/party. Some students were already going on holidays next day, so I had to say goodbye to a small amount of students. Many hugs and a few kisses, and a sad feeling inside. During a few free periods, we bought some chocolate for Mr Blewitt. When home, I found out that Jack had one of his friends (girl) staying the night at the house. I had to move to Louis’ again.

Friday was finally the goodbye picnic. During the school day, more flag signing, and more goodbyes. During the big break, we bought flowers for Ms Rosin and Mr Blewitt, wrote the letters for them, and during the seventh period, we gave the presents, flowers and cards to them. We are always allowed to come back, and we made the plan to come back for the end summer party of the school. Sanny wanted to stay at school the last two periods!? So Manon and I went with Jack and his girlfriend (she actually isn’t, but I know they like each other ;)) to one of the big supermarkets. Jack drove us there in his amazing car. We got some food and drinks and went as quickly as possible back to the Paddock because we didn’t have much time left. We arrived and found out that about fifty/eighty students had come!!!!!  It was awesome!! I really hadn’t expected that many people to come by and say goodbye. Almost all my friends were there. It was sunny again so with lots of food, but a small amount of drinks we spent about three/four hours at the Paddock. A girl signed my face as well with ‘I love cock’ instead of ‘I love Girl’s name) which was quite embarrassing but still funny XP! I enjoyed so much and after the party, I was sooo sad L. That night, I spent whole day at Facebook to say the people who hadn’t come goodbye and was having a bad time all alone!

Lewes was GREAT!!!     

Picture 1: History

Picture 2: Chemistry

Picture 3: Psychology

Picture 4: Aren't we gorgious with Louis.
Picture 5: Part of Paddock chillers
Picture 6: Big part of Paddock chillers!

Last weekend without parents: Glyndbourne

This weekend is my last weekend without parents L. I really enjoyed my last weekend!! Saturday, Louis and his mum were practicing all day in Glyndbourne for the show on Sunday. Willem was coming to Lewes, and some other students told me that they might come to Lewes as well. Willem arrived at about two/three o’clock. We first walked through Lewes, but there isn’t much to do in town, so we decided to go to Brighton. So, after a short walk through town, we took the train to Brighton. In Brighton we went to the pier (again). However, there is so much to do there, that you won’t get bored, even when you go there for the fourth time in six weeks. I couldn’t stay that long, because I had to study for an Anw Exam next Monday. So after having played lots of games, sport activities, lunch and some drinks, Willem and I headed back for the train station. Willem was staying with a friend in Brighton, so I was going back all alone. I had quite a weird train trip :P… I won’t tell why ;)!!

Sunday was the day many students of LOGS and of course the three Dutch exchange students had waited for: Glyndbourne. We left around twelve o’clock and Theo and I drove with his brother in the most amazing car I have probably ever sat in. It was really cool because the roof was open, we put the volume much too loud, and were all wearing a suit with sun glasses XD. When we arrived at Glyndbourne, I saw one huge building, looking like the Globe theatre in London. We weren’t allowed to enter yet, but were first going to have lunch at the grass fields near the building. In England, picnics are quite common. Many families have picnics instead of for example going to the beach or other events. Carrie came by to have lunch quickly, and I asked if I could come inside with her to meet the students doing the show. I was allowed to go inside and met all my friends and lots of other students of LOGS who were all really worried… Anya and Clara showed me the podium and I found out the building was MASSIVE. I think there is place for about one thousand people ;)! I found it really brave that all those students were playing music, acting, or singing in such a HUGE building. The show started and it was GREAT!!!!!! The performances were of such a great quality! The acts were funny, dancing skills were amazing, and most of the students sang great as well! I think I’ve never seen such a great show in the Netherlands. I found it so brave and excellent because the students were acting great shows while having one thousand people watching them… After the show, I immediately ran to the change rooms and congratulated all the amazing students. Jack needed to get some medicines in Brighton so I decided to drive with him to Brighton, of course including all the music and no roof :P. It was great!! We enjoyed a beautiful sun set le driving really hard along the coasts/beaches. Jack decided to pick up his medicines next day so we just drove through Brighton back home. We were both really cold when returned. At night we had a lovely meal, and I studied hard for my test next day.

My last weekend without parents was amazing!! With many thanks to Jack, his car, Glindbourne, and all the amazing LOGS students who proved their acting/dancing/singing skills are amazing!!!

Picture one: Brighton Pier

Picture two: 4 handsome guys having lunch in front of Glyndbourne

Picture three: Glyndbourne

Picture four:  Beautiful sun set, and I seriously took it!!!

Week 5: Glindbourne is driving students mental :-)

Holy shit (sorry for swearing), this is my fifth week in Lewes o_o. I’ve been here for over a month! It sounds so long, but I enjoy so much which makes the weeks pass so fast. Week five, my fifth week, and the last week of the Reeds’ students. I wonder if they enjoy/enjoyed that much as I do/did!? This week I started off with a Greek test which was quite easy. I was glad I didn’t have to do it the week before because I was quite busy with tests the week before. In small break I showed the strawberries, when Liz wasn't there yet, and one of her friends got quite mental and sprinted away to get Liz ;)… They loved them, so I was happy as well ;). After many hugs and quite a few strawberries with chocolate, I needed to go to my next lesson so was forced to leave the girls L. I told Louis I was going to stay with him the last one and a half week, and that I would move to him next Thursday. In big break I needed to take some money out of my account, because I spent too much money at the pier.            

Tuesday, at night there was going to be a football match between Chelsea and Manchester City. Jake supports Chelsea and was looking forward to this match. That morning, Mrs Power had to work, so we had to go to school by bus which means we had to wake up even earlier. The bus leaves at about eight o’clock, so at a quarter to seven, all of us were in our suits, with tired faces ;). Glindbourne was coming up, next Sunday, and the students, most of all students, were practicing and having rehearsals. So during the breaks, most of year 10 and year 11 students were practicing. In the afternoon, I went with some guys to café Nero, and took the bus back home. At night, we watched the football match. Chelsea lost, so Jake was in a bad mood :p…

Wednesday, we played my last hockey match in Lewes. School day was normal. Mr Blewitt came to tell me that I would be staying with the Whytes another one and a half week. I had already asked Louis, so he or his mother must have asked Mr Blewitt. We heard that the team we were going to play with wasn’t able to play the match… However, we really wanted to play hockey, so Sam, one of the students of year thirteen, who organizes all the hockey matches, asked year thirteen, twelve and good hockey players from years below to join us and play a match. We split up the players who had come and created two hockey teams. The match was amazing. It was great weather, maybe a bit too hot, but I enjoyed the running. We were picked up by Mrs Power, got something to drink in a little shop, and went ‘sweaty’ home... All of us wanted to have a shower as fast as possible ;). We were quite tired so went to bed quite early. Next day, I was going to move to the Whyte’s again.

Thursday, the last time I had to swap families. The students of my year went off to an university, to get some information about different universities and studies. Sanny, Manon, and I stayed at school all day. Tests, blog, and other schoolwork were the most important things we did that day :p! However, year thirteen was still there, and while the year twelve students were gone, we changed the whole common room. It was quite funny and especially the reactions of the students when they arrived… Ms Rosin liked it, so we were allowed to leave the room this way.

Friday was already the last day of week five. I watched some of the students practicing for Glindbourne. It looked already quite cool. However, I didn’t expect such a great show as I was going to see next Sunday! Most of them were starting to feel worried, because they only had a few days left. I was starting to worry a bit because I only had one weekend and one school week left. Because Louis and lots of other friends would be practicing for Glindbourne the next day, I made plans with Willem to go out next day. Louis wasn’t worried, because he told me he almost didn’t have to do anything at Glindbourne. Friday was fine, a bit boring without all my lunch friends (who were practicing for Glindbourne) but a great day to finish some more schoolwork.

Picture 1: Morning registration (look to our faces and you will understand why 'morning' registration Picture 2: A serious ICT lesson                                                                                                                             Picture 3: Time for a Dutch exam

Weekend at the Powers

Saturday at the Powers was quite boring. I slept much too long and after I woke up, I did homework, worked on my blog and was online all day on Facebook. It was actually quite nice to have such an easy day. At night we ordered Indian food which was great and spicy! I watched football with Jake all night but went quite early to bed, because next day I was going to Brighton.

Sunday, we all went to Brighton. Jake went with his parents for shopping and Bessie and I went to the pier. We made use of some attractions including the dance game with the arrows in which you see arrows on a screen and you have to use your feet to press arrows in front, on both sides next to you, and behind you. It was quite embarrassing… Some people were watching us which made it all more exciting. Bessie called Lucy because Lucy and Manon were also in Brighton. When they arrived at the pier, we made use of a few more attractions including a kind of a rollercoaster. ‘In a rollercoaster with some yelling girls’…. I had promised Liz, that I was going to make some real strawberries with chocolate. So, in Brighton, I bought some chocolate bars and some strawberries and that night I cooked the chocolate, dipped the strawberries in the hot chocolate and put them into the fridge. I got some help of Jake and his father!! At night, we watched a movie and a kind of an English detective series which my mother would have loved ;).

From the weekends up until now, it’s clear that Brighton is the most popular town to visit, one week later I would go to Brighton again.

Picture 1: In a rollercoaster with some yelling girls. From left to right: Jop, Bessie, Lucy, Manon

Week four, sjerious kissing, weird pictures

Week 4 was week B again. Less periods than week A so more time for schoolwork and blog     -__-. However, I haven’t worked on my blog a lot like you can see, because it’s now week six and I still have to start with week 4. Luckily, I made some notes so I don’t have to remember everything I did. I had a great weekend ;) in which I actually kissed a girl on Maia’s party. So, first day back at school, lots of people asked me and Bessie (who kissed a guy) about it… Louis’ father was also enjoying that I had kissed, cause he said all the time: ten minutes of Sjerious kissing. Sjerious because of my Dutch accent :P. Luckily the girl I had kissed followed schooling at another school, because otherwise we would have gotten mental by all the questions :P. However, school was fine. That afternoon, Louis went to gym, and I went home to study for my German test, and the first test sent to England… It took quite some time to revise all words, sentences and grammar but it was fine. That night we had Shepherd’s pie which is a typical English dish.

Next day, first test at LOGS’. Ms Rosin asked me after Registration which periods I wanted to make the test. So, after small break, I joined up with Ms Rosin who took my test with me and brought me to a room of 1.5 by two metres… So, quite small but great, because you aren’t interrupted for about an hour. The test went fine and I really would like to know my grade, but it’s still not put on the school site. That night, I skyped with some friends (English) and met a boy named Joseph who had been  a student of LOGS for a long time, but had moved after year eleven. Quite a big amount of students leave after year eleven to finish their A-levels at another school. Those A-levels could be compared with the exams at the end of secondary school in the Netherlands. Joe, Joseph, had moved to Spain to finish schooling there. Willem told me that all those guys play a game together and talk with each other while playing the game. Joe said that he had a second account and asked me if I wanted to have it, so we are able to have contact when I’m back to Holland.

Wednesday, when I got in, I saw some unhappy faces. The students had gotten their results for their exams they took some months ago. I found out that some students had seriously messed up… Another unhappy fact was: Liz (one of my friends) was ill. That night, I talked with her on Facebook and asked her some questions. She told me what her favorite animals, color and food was. With the help of Louis, we made some pictures of me and used paint to put me for example for a zoo with a tiger and kangaroo in my arms and a police officer behind me, so showing me stealing some animals from a zoo. It was quite funny, and I spent whole night doing it. Another important thing I realized that day, was that I’ve brought good weather with me from the Netherlands. I think I only have had one day with storm and some days a bit cloudy.

Thursday was my last day with the Whytes, I thought. Peter took me to the golf pitches at the hills next to Lewes. You had a great view on the town. They wanted to show this view on  Lewes before I would leave them. I was going to stay with the Powers. Jake and Bessie Power are in my year, so are two years older. The school day was normal, but we skipped psychology again because they were making a test. In the lunch break I went into village with some friends and had lunch at café Nero. It’s quite expensive in this restaurant and really different than the free lunch at school. However, I think lunch at school is just as good as, and actually even better than lunch at restaurants. In the fifth and sixth period, I made a mathematics D test, which was, I thought, much too hard. I might have missed something at the RLW but I was only able to make three of five exercises without problems. After school, Mrs Power picked Jake, Lucy, Manon and I up from school and brought Lucy and Manon to Lucy’s house, which already took half an hour, and drove on for another five minutes to the Power’s house. So, quite different than the other host families. However, it was in the middle of nowhere, but an awesome location! They got one really cute dog, quite different than Zorro (my dog) but really cute. Bessie had stayed in town cause that night, there was a parents evening with children about the results of their exams. At night, I was brought to Lucy’s to do some work there while Jake, Bessie and their parents were at the parents evening. I had to study for a Greek test, however wasn’t able to study everything because of multiple reasons: lack of concentration and Lucy's cat on my books while studying... I had dinner at Lucy’s which was nice!! I was picked up at around half nine.

Friday morning, I found out that Mrs Power picks up the Hughes girls and Manon every morning. However, normally, at Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have to take the bus to school. In the morning I asked Ms Rosin in which periods I had to make my test. She replied, that she said it would be better if I made it Monday the week after! I didn’t really care, because I was still able to study a bit for my Greek exam. A long day with many periods, but I still enjoyed it. I heard some rumors about the concert called Glyndebourne. Sanny, Manon and I were also going there. Mr Blewitt had ‘free’ tickets (again) for us. We get so much for free in LOGS. At night I watched some movies with Bessie, one was really weird, and we had dinner in front of the tv!

Picture 1: View, on a cloudy day, on Lewes.

Picture 2: One of the pictures created for 'ill' Lizz

Picture 3: Cat on my Greek work

Picture 4: Little room where we make our tests!

Party weekend

Saturday, was party night! In the morning, at around eleven o’clock, Mrs Whyte drove us to Brighton. On our way we had a great view on the football stadium of Brighton. That afternoon, a match was going to be played in this stadium. Brighton against another club (??). Louis and Rory were first going to give me a tour through Brighton. We first went to the Brighton pier. This pier is much different than the piers in the Netherlands. It looks like the pier of the Hague, however, it is covered with an attraction park. There is a ‘Scary Hotel’, an ice bar (even when it’s not summer -__-), a small casino, computer games, and a lot more! We played with some of the sportive attractions which was quite fun. We left the pier and walked into town. They toured me through the gardens of the palaces, with a great view on the palaces! Those were beautiful. The queen sometimes stays some days in those palaces. We walked on, and passed a really busy street which is very narrow and has lots of shops. Louis went into one of the shops. They sell lots of stuff in this shop including yoyos, diabolos, and skateboards. He knows the shop’s owner and talked to him for some minutes. We left the shop and had to walk quickly to the train station, because the train was going to leave in some minutes. When we arrived at the station, we found out that the football match was going to start in about fifteen minutes. We were in Brighton, and the match was between Fc Brighton and another club… So, all the fans were going by train to the football station. Everywhere, police men with dogs could be found. We were in the middle of the queue with lots of fans singing loudly. It was actually quite cool! We talked with some fans during our train trip. It was funny, because when all fans left the train in the station next to the stadium, there was nobody left in the train… Louis saw some friend, and smashed on the window. A police officer saw this and thought Louis wanted to break out of the train. He knocked on the window and looked angrily at Louis ;)! We returned in Lewes, and went to the paddock which is the grass field behind the school and in front of Louis’ house. We met with some friends of Louis from another school. At around four o’clock, we went by train to Brighton again. We met with some people in a graveyard. I went with some friends to McDonalds to have ‘cheap’ dinner and at around seven o’clock we went by bus to Maia’s (-------------) AMAZING party. Music, trampoline, drinks, and girls J. I don’t know any word which can describe the party! I don’t think I should tell much about the party… We were picked up at halve eleven (23:30).

The next day was a study day. We had big lunch which many British families have at Sundays. Families will have a big warm lunch, but only have a snack for dinner. I studied till about five o’clock. At five we left to go to the cinema. Louis, his two brothers and I wanted to go to John Carter. The parents wanted to go to an ‘older people movie’. They called it that way aswell. We would meet after the movie in a café in Brighton because the parents’ movie finished earlier than ours. We drove back without doors…??? They have those doors which automatically close or open, so we drove home with the doors open XP.     

Picture 1: View from Brighton pier at Brighton Ferris

Picture 2: Palaces of queen, paddock

Picture 3: driving with doors open XP

Week 3, first week at Whyte's

The third Monday in Lewes started in Ben’s. However, that afternoon I was going to move to my third host family. It was a long day again. In the afternoon I got lunch from one of the many sandwich bars called castle. Manon and I skipped history, because they were discussing an exam, and studied for our own history test. That afternoon, I left school and went with Louis to his house, around two/three minutes away from school J. The third host family, and the third host family in Lewes J. Louis has one brother and a cat. He loves yoyos. He has an air gun, which we used to shoot some bins. I had never shot an air gun before, but the first time I shot, I immediately shot an egg. During dinner, I found out that Lewes has a population of about 16 000 people. Lewes was probably built on the location of a Roman settlement. I forgot the name -__-. Lewes is located in the county East Sussex, and it’s located about seven miles of Brighton. At night we watched a movie in which the main character was acted Sasha Baron-Cohen, The star of Borat and Bruno. We drunk much too strong tea, haha I’m really in England, but with some sugar its fine.

Next day was a normal school day. After school I waited with one of my friends, George. George came back to Louis’ house with me. Louis and I had to babysit that night so at about six o’clock we left the house and walked to their house. Many Logs students babysit some families. In the Netherlands more students should do the same because it’s earning money for doing nothing. It was fun, but quite hard to get them in bed. The parents had told us that we had to babysit till eight o’clock. However they returned at ten o’clock! 

Wednesday was a typical English day, cause it was raining all day! When you walked outside, you immediately became totally wet, and you were blown away by the much too strong wind. I haven’t had days like this, actually, I have had great weather the first three weeks! I think it was close to a storm. That afternoon I heard about the party Maia, one of my friends, had organized for the three of us! Of course, I was pleased, and I would have been pleased even more when I had known what was going to happen at the party ;). The weather stayed bad all day. In the afternoon, Louis and I went to one of the big supermarkets and bought some cans which we could shoot and make explode. At night, I skyped with some friends from Holland and from England.

Next day, year nine went to Ypres (Yper) for a school trip. My history teacher and psychology teacher were both part of the staff on this trip so psychology was canceled. More and more free periods… meaning more and more schoolwork finished!! That night, Louis and I had to babysit again. We got chips from a snack bar which was quite good. In England, most chips are mixed with vinegar and salt which make the chips taste much better! Tip for Dutch snack bars ;). We were quite late, so we had to run with the chips to the babysit family. We stayed till ten o’clock and watched a movie!

Friday, I normally have history and psychology, but because both teachers were part of the staff on the Ypres trip, all periods were canceled -__-. I survived the day at school (because you have to go to school even if you have all day off) with homework, talking about Maia’s party, and computer games with Willem (Reminder: Co-ICT student and probably best friend). That afternoon, Louis went to gym and I went for a run through town. I met some co-students in town and in area and had a short talk with some of them. That night, I made myself ready for the SUPER, big, heavy, anything, party of Maia.

Picture 1: Map of England. Small red dot in bottom of map expresses Lewes.
Picture 2: Fun with Anya in history!
Picture 3: Mess... I'm still a boy :p

Sport/study weekend

Weekend two without parents was quite fun. I watched Ben’s hockey match. He doesn’t play for the Lewes hockey club but for hockey club East Grinstead, which delivers the team of Sussex. Sussex is one of the British counties. Lewes is located in this county as well. One different thing between Dutch and English hockey teams is that the teams are mixed. In England, you have boy/girl teams and teams for men/women. The boy/girl teams are usually the same age. The teams for men/women differ from boys the age of fifteen/sixteen and men the age of thirty! Normally, boys play in boy teams till the age of thirteen/fourteen and then join a men team. You don’t play in a-, b-, c- teams, like in the Netherlands, but in men and women one, two, three…, eight, etc. The hockey club is serious in the middle of nowhere! It is in the middle of a forest with no villages or big cities around it. Another ‘weird’ English habit is that most of the  hockey teams first start with a training before they play a match. I don’t get that, because Ben told me that you lose lots of energy in this training. This makes you tired during the match… That’s just stupid!!! –__– After Ben’s match, who plays for men two, the first men team played an important match against another county. We went inside to get lunch, and the first thing I noticed was a huge television with lots of ‘older’ people watching a football match (on a hockey club XP): Liverpool against Manchester. Lots of English people worship Robin van Persie. He is top scorer of England and plays fair game. Lunch was nice! At home, I skyped for the first time with my family and enjoyed my last weekend at Ben’s.

I slept pretty long next day, till around twelve o’clock… Ben went off to visit his girlfriend, and I went into village. I walked through the village and met some friends. I didn’t stay long in the village, because the next school week, I would have a VERYYY busy week.           

Schoolweek at Griggs' with much classes and an accident

In LOGS, you follow a two-week schedule: week A, and week B. During a year, your schedule will hardly change, but the periods you follow the courses are different in the two weeks. Our first week in LOGS was week A, and my second week, this week is week B. I had my first breakfast with family- The Griggs family, and I realized that their breakfast mostly consisted of cornflakes. So, in England, they don’t eat bread, sometimes toast, they don’t eat a full English/Scottish breakfast ;) but they eat cornflakes.  Monday, I started off with ICT instead of chemistry last week. We were talking about a movie which Willem and I really wanted to watch. I heard that there actually is another student named Pip, but she is in year thirteen, which is the last year, and sometimes joins our lessons. In the first week, I had not seen her! If we would finish homework for the next lesson, ‘we might be able to watch that movie, guys’. Homework was easy and not much. We finished it the small break before the ICT lesson on Wednesday so we were able to watch the movie. After ICT on Monday, we had chemistry with a different teacher. We have two different teachers for chemistry, both females. In week A we’ve Mrs Lowden, the host family mother of Sanny and Manon, on Monday and Tuesday and in week B on Tuesday. In week A, we’ve Ms Taylor on Thursday and in week B on Monday and Thursday. So, we had Ms Taylor that Monday. We discuss two different subjects with the two chemistry teachers. I found out that lots of students have different teachers for one course. I think the stuff we discuss with Ms Taylor is easier than the stuff we discuss with Mrs Lowden. It was a fine lesson, but lots of students were missing and I didn’t and still don’t know why. The rest of the school day I was free, and I used this time to work on my blog. After school, I walked back home with Ben, and the rest of the afternoon and at night, I worked, played poker with Ben on facebook, watched some movies, and played some x-box so was a nice afternoon/night.

Tuesday, I started off with two periods free. However, we have to register in the morning before the lessons so you can’t stay longer in your bed L. We had a Dutch registration, and we showed ‘Rinus: Met Romana op de scooter’ which the English students really enjoyed :P. After small break, I had psychology which was fine. We were talking about the study with the cars hitting/smashing in each other. We found out that another important question was ‘Did you see broken glass during the car crashes?’. The result was again that the people who were asked the question with the verb hit in it had not seen any broken glass, and most of the people who were asked the question with the verb crash had ‘of course’ seen broken glass. Actually, there wasn’t any broken glass at all. We had to write down a lot during the lessons, so, because of the many lessons psychology, I have got lots of notes. The fifth, sixth, and seventh period I was free. In lunch break, lots of students in our year go to a sandwich bar called Castle. The sandwiches are great and the prices are low! A lunch of one sandwich and one bottle of coke only  costs two pounds. Eight and Ninth I had chemistry which was fine. Kumar had asked me if I wanted to come with them into the village, but I had to join the staff in a netball competition so I wasn’t able to come with them. That was too bad because I really wanted to come with them. The girl’s school-team was going to play a match too but luckily on the hockey club, so I could watch them too. I met Amy and walked with her to the hockey club. She plays for the girl’s school-team too. However, there wasn’t anybody there in her team so there wasn’t a match at all. Also, there were enough staff and students to play the netball matches, so I didn’t have to play at all… I watched some of the games, had respect for some of the girls who were playing like Jemima, a friend too. After I watched some games, I walked back to Ben’s. It was quite funny, because I met the guys with who I could have gone into town if I hadn’t joined the netball teams. It was easy to see that Kumar had already drunk some alcohol ;). He was almost ‘killed’ by a bus, like he said a few times. I said goodbye and wished Kumar good luck to get home and with the student-killing bus. I walked back home, and arrived at around 6 o’clock. I had dinner, had a shower, watched a movie with Ben and just enjoyed from my free afternoon and night.

Wednesday wasn’t a special day. I had history and ICT and again five periods off. In ICT we watched a movie, and in history we discussed some 12 and 24 mark questions. In history, the students have to read a piece of text between five to seven pages long. When they have read the text, they have to do two exam questions about the text they have read. One question is a 12 mark question and the other question is a 24 mark question. You probably understand that the maximum point you can get in those questions are 12 and 24 marks/points. It is easy to see that the students are working hard to improve ‘their answers on exam questions’skills. In my free periods I was bored, because I didn’t feel like making my homework and writing my blog. So I watched some guys playing a cool game on their laptops called Amnesia. Willem offered to install it on my laptop too, and of course I wanted that. It is a ‘scary’ game. You’re walking in a castle with zombies and other scary stuff. The students play this all the time. I love my laptop!! I’ll probably take him to school in the Netherlands too, if it is allowed. It is so useful because you can do a lot of work during your free periods and if you are bored, you can play some ‘useful’ games too. After lessons, I went home and talked and played poker the whole day with people on facebook. I didn’t do a lot with Ben because his girlfriend stayed that Wednesday with us and I gave them a bit privacy.

Thursday, school again, and a full program. All courses on one day with one free period after big break. Finally not free the whole day, but you neither become happy by having lessons till five past four. Thursday is in both weeks the fullest day of lessons. My program for Thursday in week B is 1+2   History, small break, 3+4 chemistry, 5+6 Psychology, big break, 7^th period free, 8+9 ICT. However, Willem moved his ICT periods, in the beginning of the year, to the third and fourth period, so I would have ICT lessons in my own. The ICT teacher didn’t care, and said ‘It’s useless to have ICT lessons at the end of a day, all alone’. So I don’t have to come to the ICT lessons on Thursday in week B. In the afternoon, I had my first hockey training! It started at six o’clock and finished at seven. It was quite cool. I already knew some boys of the team, for example Sam Webster. However, I wasn’t only playing with boys his age ;). We started with a warming up, did one exercise, and played a little match. In the warming up, we had to shoot on goal, and I bet with the trainer that I would score two of the two times. If I would lose, I had to run three rounds around the field. I missed one of the goals, so I sprinted three times around the field which was quite nice, because I hadn’t sported for ages. We lost the match with 1-0 which was pretty stupid, because it was just a lucky shot! When I returned home, I got a message from my mother that Manon had had a car accident. Fortunately, she was fine and I didn’t have to worry. However, I still was a bit worried but I got to sleep pretty fast.

Friday, everybody was worried and interested in Manon’s stories. She came to school a bit later, and Sanny and I had to look after her. Tim (the boy she was staying with) wasn’t in the car during the accident so he was at school all day. He told me and many others that a police car was chasing another car and accidently smashed into their car. Manon immediately climbed out of the car and ran away. The grandparents had to be taken out of the car. Manon was brought to a hospital and the others were fine. She arrived at school at around ten/eleven o’clock. She was still in a shock! After school I went home, talked with some people on facebook, watched a movie with Ben, did some homework and worked on my blog. I probably drank three or four bottles of a very addictive drink. I have forgotten the name but it’s a fruit drink of apple and raspberry. 

Picture 1 : bedroom 2

Picture 2 : Lewes view from castle

Picture 3 : psychology lesson, biggest group of my courses (only nine students ;))

Sport weekend at the Websters

Saturday morning I woke up, had breakfast and went with Mrs Webster and Finley to the hockey club to watch some hockey matches. I was going to watch the hockey match of Beth, Gabbie, Daisy and Amy. The team played really good and they won with three/four against one. After this match, Sanny played with ladies two. They played pretty good. However, around fifteen minutes after the break, Sanny was sent of because she 'had tackled' another player -__-. Great first impression!!  They lost which was a disappointment because they played pretty good! During the break of Beth's match, Fin and I ran over the field and passed a ball to each other. O my god, Finley has soooo much energy!! He is seven and he ran the whole field around six/seven times. We were both tired so we went off to have a drink. And of course, Beth scored a goal while I was having a drink with Fin -__-. During the match of Sanny, Fin wanted to find ‘some’ big sticks… And when you look for sticks with a boy his age, you are not looking for one or two sticks, he expects you to find ten/eleven sticks… Every minute, Fin ran to me to tell he had found another big stick, 'even bigger than the other sticks'. That's why I was only able to watch small parts of the match. However, Fin is cute so every time he called me, I walked with him to check his new sticks! When we returned home, Beth went off for dancing, and I started doing some homework. I checked facebook and found out that the concert that night was canceled L. Some other boys had asked me if I wanted to bowl with them. They had sent me a message that afternoon, while I was watching hockey, that we would meet at four o’clock. However, when I returned  from hockey, it was exactly four o’clock, so I had missed that too  -__-. However, I still enjoyed my afternoon with homework and movies! At night I watch another movie with Ben but I have forgotten the title! So saterday was fine. However, it was a pity that both events were canceled.

Sunday, I woke up at around ten o’clock. Mrs Webster told me, that that night I would move to family Grigg’s house. I had met Ben the Friday before. Not earlier because he was off to a geography  trip in Whales. So I packed my stuff and I had to hurry a bit because that afternoon, I would go to the cinema, to the movie ‘Woman in Black’ with some friends: Daisy, Amy, Florence. It took a while, because I had to find all my stuff hidden everywhere in the room, even on some pretty weird places. Beth had stayed the night with a friend, Sam was off to football with his dad, Fin was off to a friend, Mrs Webster was gone too, so I was all alone working and working. Some guys asked me if it was a serious exchange or another way of suicide: by homework!?  At around one o’clock, I took the bus from the prison (haha, I am not a prisoner ;)), close to family Webster's house, to Uckfield. I hadn’t met Florence before so I didn’t know her when she walked inside the same bus at another stop. She hadn't met me before too, so we didn't sit together. It was kind of embarrassing when I walked out of the bus and met up with Daisy and some seconds later I found out that Florence was the other girl we were going with to the cinema. We walked to the small cinema, in Uckfield called a film house, and paid for our tickets and popcorn and coce. I was the only one who took popcorn and a coce which was kind of embarrassing too. However, they helped me getting rid of the food. The movie was quite SCARY!!!!! The movie wasn’t that scary but the girls were screaming all the time which made me scared… Sometimes you really wanted to scream but most of the time I was laughing because of the girls! When the movie was finished, the four of us all wanted to leave the cinema as quickly as possible! We went to the McDonalds to eat and drink our fears away. I had to drink and eat my food quickly because the bus was leaving in only a few minutes… Luckily, the McDonald’s was close to the bus station so I only had to run for about 1 minute. I said good-bye and left  the McDonald’s. When I returned home, Mrs Webster brought me to my second host family: Family Griggs. I had already met Ben but he was the only familiar person! Mrs Webster drove me to their house which was only a two/three minutes drive. They live almost exactly as far from the school as family Webster. I was welcomed by a dog named Oscar. He’s still a pup and is really hyper. He jumps and wants to play all the time. Family Griggs consists of a dog, two boys, and of course one mother and a father. Ben’s brother is named Max. I first took all my sh*t out of my heavy bags, and when I was ready, we had dinner. I had already seen on facebook that Ben has a girlfriend and there was one girl staying with us so I thought the girl, Zoë, was Ben’s girlfriend and I gave them some privacy. However, when she left, I found out that she was just a friend who lived close to their house and with who Ben normally walks to school. Dinner was great: Shepherd’s pie. After dinner, Ben and I played some games on Ben’s x-box and he explained me how to play poker on facebook. I didn’t go to bed too late because next day, I would have school again!

Picture 1: Hockey matches

Picture 2: Woman in black

Picture 3: Someone doesn't want me to leave, cat of family Webster

First schoolweek

Tuesday, I woke up just like the day before. I had a shower and had breakfast, some minutes later I went off with Beth to school. My first course, which I had been looking forward for a long time, was Ict. I follow Ict with only one student named Willem. He’s a nice guy and had already told some things about the course and teacher. The first lesson (double period, so 1 hour and 10 minutes) Ict, we found lots of differences between courses and schools in England and in the Netherlands. Last week, England had holiday, and before the holiday, Willem had made an exam. It was great for me, because now we would start with a new chapter. The next few lessons we will be talking about jobs Ict-employee can have and which requirements the employee needs. These periods we didn’t do a lot but it was fine! When lesson was finished, I went to atrium to have a warm breakfast/lunch. I met another great amount of people, most of them years beneath us (but my age) and lots of friends of Beth. After the break, we had our first lesson psychology.  It was the first lesson and only lesson with Manon and Sanny. We revised again what the other students had done before the holiday. We were talking about studies, the researchers, the location of studies (field, lab), and reasons to investigate those studies. So, it could be compared with the anw pta about diseases. We had to write down a lot but it was quite fun! After psychology I had three periods free, with a big break in between. And in big break, I met another great number of students. Some girls asked me if I could come along to watch the girl school team play hockey. Sanny was going to play and Manon and I would be watching. However, Sanny and I first had two periods chemistry. However, we had to leave earlier because the girls would leave at half three (15:30) so almost three quarters of an hour earlier. I didn’t care (of course). So, after only one period of chemistry, instead of two, Sanny and I left chemistry. We walked out-side and Mrs Webster, coach and driver of sport bus, was waiting for us to take the girl school team and cheerleader (I) with her. It was a short ride, and I was sitting next to Gabbie, who told a lot about the school team and hockey, etc. She is a nice girl!! We arrived and I, still having blisters, run like a monkey over the field because it was the first time since five/six months I played on a pitch out-side. Both teams made themselves ready, and some minutes later, the match started. I knew already lots of girls of the team, and there weren’t any other boys to feel ashamed, so I acted as a cheerleader and made some ‘funny’ (girls liked it J) dances and statements! My dances and statements helped because they won with 13-0! However, I was (:p) disappointed because they could have won with 30-0!!! We drove back and Mrs Webster dropped me close to the school. Beth, Sanny and Manon had hockey training and I had to walk home!  When I arrived, I had dinner, and watched a movie with Sam: the Inbetweeners. It is a funny teenager movie and a well-known English series too. It was quite funny but Sam told me that the series is even funnier! Mrs Webster and Beth arrived during the movie and I went to bed at around half eleven.

Wednesday morning I started off with psychology in which we discussed one of the studies. In break I had hot food again (for freeJ). I made some new friends, which became really my friends: George, Harvey, and Louis with who I would be staying two weeks too. Also today, I had most of the hours free. It became a bit boring, because most students were following courses and I had nothing ‘interesting’ to do! However, there are always people chilling in the twelfth year chill room so I talked with some guys and watched a part of a movie. That day, I had history too and this time, we had to stay in the lesson. During our history lessons, we were sitting in a room next to builders working on the school building, and they made lots of noise which made it quite hard to understand the teacher. We could leave earlier too, because of the noise. That afternoon, guys had asked me if I wanted to play with them in the twelfth year school team, and I, still hurt by blisters, joined them in the afternoon and walked for the first time to the hockey club (the match of the girl school team was in another village). I tried to put on my hockey shoes, but my feet immediately started to hurt again. So, I played the first match in my normal sneakers. It was really cold, and I played sweeper (laatste man) so I was really cold. I was able to run but still run pretty weird -__-. We played against, mostly, boys and most of them were around the twenty years old. So we were all really young in comparison with the boys. However, we won with three/four – one. So we played pretty good! Mrs Webster was one of the referees, so I got a ride back home. I took a shower and we had dinner. That night, I watched Kill Bill volume 1 with Sam.

Thursday, I started with two periods free. In small break, I was invited to go to the movie at Friday with Beth, to go bowling with George and Louis, to go to a concert with Harvey, Amber and some other girls, and to go to Woman in Black at Sunday with Daisy and some friends of her. After small break, I had Ict which was quite an interesting lesson, because we didn’t stay in a class room but went to a church where the writer of the book Dragon gold would tell something about her book and to be a writer. We had to put on the laptop, take a beamer with us and put the writer’s powerpoint presentation on the beamer. The rest of the two periods, we could listen to the writer, but Willem teached me how to put on a tie and I was finally able to put on a tie myself!! When the writer was finished with her talk, Willem and I took all the stuff with us back to school.  After Ict, we would have had psychology, but the lesson was canceled so today too, I had only two periods and seven periods free… The last three periods, period 7,8,9, I was free again. However, I had to be at school till half four, because that night, we would go to an university, and follow a mini-lesson astronomy with the physics class and me (I don’t do physics here, but wanted to follow a mini-lesson). Those tree periods I started with work for next week. It was quite boring but fine, because I won’t have to do much in the last few weeks. When school was finished, Sanny and I walked with Kumar (our personal guide J) to a snack-bar where we had dinner. At ten to five, we went to the station to meet the physics teacher and take the train to the university. We had to walk around ten minutes from the station to the university. It was getting quite cold and I had forgotten to take my coat or sweater with me  -__-. We arrived at the university, and were taken in-side by one of the teachers of the university. He had a little powerpoint presentation ready about the stars and planets (Venus, Jupiter and maybe even some others) which we would be able to see. We walked out-side and a big electric telescope. It was quite cool, because you can choose between planets in a planet list, and if you choose one, the telescope starts to move and aim at the planet you have chosen. You could see the moon pretty good, and the phases of Venus were visible too. However, it was getting colder and colder… After around one and a halve hour, we were able to make pictures of the planets through the telescope. With many thanks to Will, Will and I made lots of pictures and some are pretty good like you can see. It took quite a long time before we went in-side again, and I was really cold -__- . We thanked the teacher and walked back to the train. When arrived, I had another dinner at Christine’s house (host mother Sanny and Manon). When finally arrived at home at around nine o’clock/ nine thirty, Mrs Webster told me that it was too late to watch another movie with Sam, so for Kill Bill volume 2 I had to wait till the next day.

Friday, my last school day of my first school week, I started off with psychology. We watched 15 car accidents, 2 cars hitting each other. We had to guess at which speed the two cars hit each other. We all got a paper with the question on it, but none of us realized that the verb in the questions was different: hit, bump, affect, etc. The conclusion was that the students with the verbs causing the most dramatic consequences guessed higher speeds than the students with verbs causing less dramatic consequences. This was the study we would be discussing for several weeks. So, psychology was fun. After psychology, I had two periods off and after those periods, I had Ict. We talked about the requirements someone working with/in Ict should have. It was quite fun, because after every five minutes of talking about the requirements, we talked about differences in school systems and etc. After Ict, big break in which I heard that the concert for next Saturday was canceled L. However, that afternoon I would go to the movie with Beth so I didn’t really care. After big break, history (triple periods K). However, it was a nice and interesting lesson. We talked about exam questions, and we had to give grades to answers from other students. We tried to find differences and similarities between our grading and the grading of the exam teachers. It were three LONG periods but they were interesting so fine. When school was finished, I met Beth and walked home with her and one of her friends. When we arrived home, we found out that both of us had forgotten our keys and when Sam, who after ten minutes arrived, also had forgotten his keys, we had to call Mrs Webster to open the door -__- . During our stay around the house, Sam and I played basketball and got some food from the shop only one minute away from their house. When we checked the time of the movie, we found out that the movie would already start in ten minutes and we would never be able to get to Brighton (location cinema) and buy tickets… So, movie was canceled too L! I did care but didn’t too, because I really wanted to go, but now I still had some time with my host family, because next Sunday, I would leave and move over to my second host family. I arranged with Beth we would go to the cinema the next week! That night, I watched Kill Bill volume 2 with Sam and drank a lot of coce!!! My first week in LOGS was INTERESTING + FUNNY + A LOT OF PEOPLE MEET WEEK + EXCITING + GREAT + FUNNY + MANY HOURS FREE WEEK!!!!

Picture 1: Registration time

Picture 2: Moon (made by Will)

Picture 3: Telescope

Picture 4: Struggle with tie