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