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 ;))