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

First day at school!!!

Monday morning, I woke up at around half six (6:30 in England). Sam and his father have to leave earlier because Sam is following an education at another school (because all his friends went to this school), and Sam’s father works at another school. I was still tired because I was really excited the night before, and slept at one o’clock. In England, people eat a lot of cereals as breakfast instead of bread in the Netherlands! So, instead of bread, I ate lovely cornflakes! I wished Sam and his father a good day, and started to pack some books for today’s first lessons! My schedule for today was: Period 1 and 2 chemistry, period 3,4,5,6 free, period 7,8,9 history. Beth told the night before she would be cooking the fifth and sixth period and asked if I would like to join their cooking group which I actually (and yes I’m a boy) wanted! 10 minutes after Sam and his father had left, Finley ran down-stairs and we watched some tv together. Mrs Webster woke up too but it took quite a while before Beth came downstairs. Mrs Webster told me that she always has breakfast in her bedroom, and that she needs some time to do her hair. At around half eight (8:30), Beth walked and I followed (I had no idea where to go) to LOGS (Lewes Old Grammar School). Beth had her first periods in another building than I had, so she went in-side building 1 and I walked on to building 2. I knew how to get to the library myself, so some seconds later, I was all alone in the library. A sixth former (year 12) saw a new student which had no idea what to do, so asked the student (me) if I needed any help. I told her that I am the Dutch exchange student and that I was waiting for our mentor. She immediately called some other six formers, around ten, who introduced themselves. After ten seconds, I probably forgot all their names, and now after one week school, I still don’t know all their names. However, it was nice that those students were interested in me and I didn’t feel lonely anymore. At around ten to nine, Ms Rosin arrived in the library and asked me if I had any idea where Manon and Sanny were. She took me with me and we walked to the sixth-formers chill-room. She explained that every morning at nine o’clock and every afternoon at two o’clock all students had to go to one classroom for registration. My registration mentor, Mrs Charlie, was already sitting in our registration classroom. Manon and Sanny arrived at ten past nine, so ten minutes late, which is, I think, a very good first impression :p. Mrs Charlie is pregnant! Lots of students make fun of this, but she thinks the jokes are funny too. At around thirteen past nine, we were sent off to go to our very first lessons in Lewes. My first course was chemistry with Sanny. The teacher, the host mother of Sanny and Manon, already knew us which made us feel a bit more comfortable. It was pretty weird, because we are around two years behind (because the students are two years older) with chemistry but after a ten-minute revision, Sanny and I quite understood where the teacher was talking about. Chemistry was heaps of fun, because the group of students, around ten, were all really nice and talked during the lesson, sorry Mrs Lowden, a lot with us. During small break, I met another twenty/twenty-five students, but I stayed in the sixth-form chill-room. I tried to talk to as many students as possible, also during the 3^rd and 4^th period. One of the students, Kumar, guided us through the school and introduced us to many students. The 5^th and 6^th period, I went off for cooking!!!! Beth had already shown me the room where we would be cooking those two periods. I was going to make dinner for tonight and made spaghetti Bolognese. Mrs Webster had given me the ingredients the night before, so I could immediately start. Beth made with a friend of her brownies and onion pie, for tonight’s dinner too. It went actually pretty well, and during cooking, I had lots of time left to talk with Beth and her friend, Freya. When my Bolognese sauce was finished, I helped Beth with her onion pie because she had to peel lots of onions, which make you cry! So after Beth and I had peeled all onions, both of us were crying :p. After cooking, which I really enjoyed, we had big break, so I went into the lunch room and had lunch, for free(!!!). I don’t want to be mean, but hot lunch is so much better than one sandwich in the Netherlands. Some guys, who apparently knew me, sat next to me and started a conversation. I met another large group of students. I really enjoyed break, but eventually had to leave for registration. Registration was fine, we all had to say a funny fact about ourselves. I told them that I was born with two spoons around my head, which is true!!!! Next course, 7^th + 8^th +9^th , was history. However, the teacher arrived and told Manon and I that they were going to check a test. So we could leave -___- So, my first day at school, I only had lessons the first two periods and the fifth and sixth period cooking. What a easy, long, free day. In the three periods, I walked through the school and tried to meet as much students as possible. After school, I wished everyone a nice day and walked with Beth and one of her ‘many’ friends home. The whole day, I had worn elegant/tidy shoes, so my feet really hurt at the end of the day. I had two blisters -__-. During school, I had seen that most of the boys, and girls wore normal sneakers to school, so the rest of the week I wore sneakers to school. That afternoon, I talked a lot with my host family and played a lot of games with Fin, aaaand at night, I had great dinner (thanks to Beth and …), aaaaaaaaaaand went to a play in the school with Sanny and Manon. We met Ms de Wolf too. She walked just like me a bit weird because whe had lots of blisters too, by the tour she had made. The actors of the play were mostly young students of       the school. It was great!! The actors acted professionally, and the story was funny. We met Kumar too, who was helping the actors backstage. I really enjoyed the play and the nicest thing was that I understood everything! Those who aren’t sure if their children should do TTO, THEY SHOULD!!!!!!!  Manon, Sanny and I walked home, and I started to work on my blog. Family Webster goes to bed pretty early, somewhere between ten and half ten, so the last hour, I was looking for friends on facebook. My first day at school was GREAT!!! And the next few days it would become even better!!!  

Picture 1: My bedroom with my clothes everywhere (I’m just a boy) and my own television J (which I only used when watching a movie with Sam

Picture 2: Some fellow sixth-graders in the sixth-graders chill-room

I've no idea how to change locations of pictures so they are a bit mixed up!!

Last day with parents!!

When I woke up, Sunday the 19th, I realized that it was going to be my last day with my mother. We had breakfast and I ordered a full SCOTTISH breakfast. The waiter immediately corrected me and told me they only had a full ENGLISH breakfast! It took me a while to pack up all my stuff, and because we had made an appointment with Manon, Sanny and her mother, so my mother was nagging a bit. We met them at Lewes’ castle. While the mothers were off to a café to have caffee, Manon, Sanny and I were walking around and investigating Lewes. We walked through the main street and market street, which can be seen as a long 'Langstraat' in Wassenaar. We saw a little market, where lots of 'useless' products were sold! We didn't buy anything at all, but it was fun seeing all those people on such a small place. We weren't able to stay away for long, so after around ten minutes, we went back to our parents to have something to drink. We drank some fruit drinks and had some shortbread. When we were finished, we’d to pick up our luggage from the hotel and we walked on to the school. Just when we arrived at the school, Mr Robert Blewitt, the headmaster, opened the door and let us in. We were brought to the library, where we could wait for some minutes. We knew we were early so we still had to wait for some minutes before the others would arrive. I think around two minutes later, Mrs Rosa arrived, who is the mentor of the sixth form or twelfth year, which we are in. Some minutes later, Ms de Wolf, Sanny, her mother, and Manon arrived. We first had to fill in some documents about health problems and etc. I found it pretty cool to have a well in the building of a school. We first had to fill in some documents about health problems and etc. We got our ‘empty’ schedules, and I enjoyed seeing it. I’ll follow the next five/six weeks: history, psychology, chemistry and ICT. Mrs Rosa and Mr Blewitt started to laugh both when I told them that I had chosen ICT because I would be following ICT with ONE other boy. So I was looking forward to meet this teacher!!! I found out that most days, I only had 4 or 5 periods and when the headmaster told us that the first lesson starts at 9:15, I knew these five/six weeks were going to be great! However, each advantage has its disadvantage, the headmaster told us that you have to be at school at 9 o’clock to have registration and that the last period ends at five past four. This wasn’t a problem, but he told us too that YOU’VE TO STAY AT SCHOOL UNTIL THE LAST PERIODS ARE FINISHED, even when you have no periods at all…. This was a problem because my schedule says that I only the first four periods on Mondays. Another pretty weird fact was that the sixth form or twelfth year only had 38 people in it which is a big difference with the sixth year in the RLW. It was also pretty weird that for the next five/six weeks, I would be following lessons with kids two years older than me. After I had asked about fifty questions, the Headmaster took us with him and gave a little tour through the school. We found out the school is split up into two buildings, both having a large number of classrooms. He showed us classrooms built for history, art, German and even psychology (which isn’t a subject in the RLW). There are also special labs for chemistry and physics. We talked a bit about the village, and asked if he knew the restaurant, my mother and I had passed the Saturday before, in which a serious traffic jam of people were waiting for a table. The headmaster told us that the owner of the restaurant is the father of one of the students of the school, and asked us if we would like to have lunch there. Of course (busy = good restaurant) we did and the headmaster called the owner of the restaurant and reserved a table for us. We had to be back at four o’clock to meet the teachers we would be staying with for the next week. We walked to the restaurant which was busy again. We asked for our table and we could immediately go in the front of the queue, which made some people really angry. Lunch was great! Salads and hamburgers, sandwiches and drinks. Manon, Sanny and I enjoyed the last hour with parents a lot. We walked back to the school. However, when we arrived at the side-way to the train station, we had to say our parents for the last time good-bye. One last kiss and one last hug, time to leave family for five/six weeks!! Manon, Sanny, Ms de Wolf and I walked back to school. When we arrived, Mr Blewitt asked how lunch was and after we replied: ‘It was great’, took me with him to family Webster. It took five minutes to get to my one-week host family by car so it takes around fifteen minutes by foot. Mrs Webster was cleaning the car when I arrived. She greeted me and took me in-side with her. Mr Webster was watching rugby with his two sons: Finley, also called fin (7) and Sam (12). Finley immediately wanted to show the house, but Mrs Webster wanted me to meet everyone first. She called ‘Beth’ and fifteen-year old daughter Beth came out of her room down-stairs. I was a bit nervous (as well I’m now telling you this), because I hadn’t expected to be put in a family with a girl my age. I’m not sure but I think I stuttered a bit the first time I saw her (which is quite shameful). She was doing homework, likewise Sam started to do when I arrived. Mrs Webster told me that she and her husband are both PE-teachers. She wanted to finish cleaning the car, and I could investigate the house and take my luggage out of my bags. I immediately started to play a game with Fin: Uno. When we played for around five minutes, Mrs Webster asked if I wanted to go somewhere, and I replied that I wanted to explore the hills. So, five minutes later, Fin, Mrs Webster and I were walking in the hills. We had a great view on Lewes. When we were walking up the hills, we met up the husband of the family Manon and Sanny are staying in. They have a dog named Teddy, which is really nice and walked with us the rest of the ‘long’ trip. When we arrived back home, Mrs Webster told me that we were having dinner with the family of Manon and Sanny. We walked to the other family, only two/three minutes, and had delicious dinner. Christine, mother family Manon and Sanny, and my chemistry teacher, had made some delicious sort of pancakes filled with vegetables and meat. It was great. What I liked most, was that their English was easy to understand! We had some real British strong tea. We said goodbye and walked back home. My first afternoon/evening in a host family was GREAT!!!!!         

Welcome in Lewes

Friday night, party night at Sanny's. Sanny and I organized a little farewell-party to say goodbye to all our friends! Past twelve, I arrived home to have a four-and-a-half hours sleep. At five o'clock, I was woken up (which cost my father a lot of effort). My father, three brothers, two friends and our dog drove away to our house in Bellwald, Switzerland. It was weird to see them drive away without you sitting or sleeping in the car and realising that they will be skiing in the next 24 hours! However, ten minutes later, I was off to Lewes!!! We took the plane to London Gatwick. The funny thing that we met Philip Lee and his father who even took the same plane! However, Philip will be staying five weeks at Reeds' and I will stay at Lewes. At Schiphol, we had a little breakfast and bought some magazines for in the airplane. My last glance at Holland was around quarter past nine, now realising that I will be gone the length of a summer holiday! Luckily, we had no problems with people locking themselves up in the toilet and telling they have bombs with them! So, we had a normal flight to London Gatwick. When we arrived, we bought one retour and one single train ticket. We managed to reach the train just in time! The train trip was a bit frustrating, because the train would split up in two trains in the station before Lewes, so it took a while to find out in which wagon we had to sit. I had to take all HEAVY, thanks to all teachers of the Rlw, luggage three times from one wagon to another! We arrived in Lewes, but didn't realize this! Luckily, my mother saw just in time the name of the station which was, of course, Lewes! I just arrived at my residence for the next five/six weeks! The thing I immediately saw, was that Lewes is one of those old English towns. The train station isn't as modern as we know in the Netherlands. The landscape is amazing! On all sides of Lewes are hills, and those aren't a few metres high, but have some serious heights! We walked through town to our hotel close to the main street, the Pelham House. The room wasn't cleaned yet, so we weren't able to enter our hotel room. We left my baggage at the hotel and walked through town. We first went looking for the school which wasn't that hard to find. The school is located in the main street, which could be compared with 'de Langstraat' in Wassenaar. I think most of town's habitants, and especially the 50+ could be found in this street. Lewes, old grammer school, isn't as big as the RLW and especially not as big as Reeds'. The school is split up in two schools with two different locations. I guess, but don't know, that one school is compared to a primary school and the other building is compared to a secondary school. The school was completely closed and we couldn't even take a glance on the inside of the building which was a bit disappointing. We climbed the stairs to the castle, which is on the top of the hill, Lewes is located on. There we saw some men playing a kind of game with balls. One of the men told us that this game had been played in Lewes since 1753, and that those men were the last generation playing this game. He didn't explain the rules but told me that it is called: 'Balls'.
It looks a bit like 'Jeux de boules'. We walked on and had a great view on the surroundings around us. I think, here I realized the first time that I was going to stay in this village for the next five/six week and it worried me a little. We still had to buy some toilet products like deo d'orant and shampoo, so we looked for some shops. We went in-side a Tabletop Sale. Here, people make their own products and sell them! Everything could be found, from food to toys for babies and etc. In another shop, we found the products I still needed. We were both still a bit tired, so we went back to the hotel at around three o'clock. And here I am, in the hotel, working on my blog! I'm excited at what will happen tomorrow, during my tour through the school and my stay at a teacher's place. I'm excited for the next six weeks, and still feel a bit worried!

Picture 1: LOGS (Lewes Old Grammar School)
Picture 2: Balls
Picture 3: Tabletop Sale