Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

Being in America around the (28th) 29th and 30th of April feels weird. Back in the Netherlands they are celebrating the Queen's birthday and are crowning our new King. It's weird to miss it. It's not that I really wanted to be there. I like it here, and I'm pretty sure that my Sunday & Monday were better than most people their days.

Sunday, 28th of April.

I slept till 10. I had breakfast, Greek yoghurt and a cinnamon-roll. Half an hour later I had second breakfast. Just because I can! Bacon, scrambled eggs and red potatoes. Around 11 Jasper and I skyped again. It was lovely to hear his voice and I can't wait to see him on Saturday. I do have to punish him for being rude. Saying: 'now I'm going to do something fun again..' Thanks mate! If you read this, brace yourself! Anyhow, I'l continue. After getting fully dressed Hattie and Scott drove me to Bellis Fair, the shopping mall. I waited a bit for Tina over there and then we went shopping. She finally found her long dress! I'm really glad for her. She even found a long skirt. I am, of course, a little bit of a shop-a-holic, so I got a dress, shorts and a t-shirt. And we're still not done with shopping! Going back on Wednesday, just because we can.
At 03:19 we took the bus to Downtown. Femke, Leanne and their host Sara would pick us up at the station. They had done some really nice stuff Downtown, they went to the piano-race (teams first pushing a piano downhill and then as fast as possible uphill again), they went for a hike, did groceries shopping and they saw a little market. That's the number one reason why they were so late to pick us up. I didn't really mind, because the weather was great. When they arrived we noticed that there wouldn't be a spot left for Mirjan. We send her a message and she notified that her host mother would bring her.
At the house Leanne and Femke gave us a tour. They have a beautiful house near Lake Padden. It's amazing. All made from wood (Sara's husband is carpenter) and so lovely. After catching up we made dinner, spaghetti, sauce and salad, and had a delicious dessert: chocolate fondue with strawberries (and apples and bananas). We did this because we saw as well in New York as in Seattle a shop called Godiva. This shop sells 6 strawberries covered in chocolate for 42 dollars. No I'm not lying. 42 dollars. It's insane! So we came up with the idea to make our own. They were really good. After more talking and making jokes we did the dishes and went to the cinema-room, and still: not lying! They have a ginormous screen and beamer downstairs where we watched Sweeney Todd, whilst seated in big-ass chairs. It was a great day!

Monday, 29th of April, Queens-night!

We had a day of today. I really wanted to go to Bellingham High, but unfortunately it wasn't possible (to find out later that I could have gone because one of my classmates didn't go..). I worked on my homework. I read the booklets that we got from teachers during the presentations that we've seen. I underlined difficult words and wrote them down in my wordfile. Yes wordfile, because they think it's funny to make you come up with 150/200 new words in less than 4 weeks. What's even more unfair is that it's exactly the same amount as for those who left for 5 months. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I've almost got 150, so I good. Around 7 everybody was back again and we had dinner. Hattie and Michelle went to the store to get the ingredients to make smores (marshmallows, chocolate, cookie-like-crackers), the reason why is that we were having a bonfire. I invited Femke, Tina, Leanne and Mirjan to come to my place. Around 8 I had shown them all around the house and we were taking turns on the water-bike. Everybody had lots of fun and Scott took the jet ski for a ride. Of course, all of us had to be on it as well, and yes, we did. I went first and I even drove it! It was really cool. Wind in your hair, adrenaline rush, a beautiful view! After me Femke, Tina and Mirjan went. Leanne was last and she's a natural! It was amazing to see her making turns like a pro.
After having played enough in the water we sat down by the fire and made smores, or just ate warmed up marshmallows. I had an enjoyable night! I'm glad I have such friends as these people. We even made plans for a vacation on Terschelling, where Leanne lives as well as making a cooking-group!
After 10 everyone was gone and I sat outside with Hattie, Scott and Michelle talking and eating. Then I took a quick shower and went to bed: slept a lot because I needed all my energy for Mount Baker!

Tuesday, 30th of April, Queens/Kingsday.

Woke up early and had a healthy breakfast: home-made bread pastries and fruit. I grabbed my stuff for the mountain trip and Michelle dropped me off. I spent an hour working in the library on my wordfile. I'm afraid that I'll never finish it. There are some much more words to add that I really don't know.

Around 09:20 I met up with the rest and we got into the van. We drove for quite a while and around 11:15 we were on the mountain. Which isn't even really Mount Baker. Liars. We went for a short hike, which in my opinion should have lasted much longer, and then we got in the van again. We drove to a nice spot to go sledding. Saskia and Johanna brought sleds (Scott couldn't find one for me) and we took turns. First we had to go uphill of course, which is pretty difficult when you're 1.60 metres and sank in the snow until your ribs. I had to be rescued for a few times. People also thought it was fun to take pictures of me (I have to admit, it sort of was). Finally after hours, days, weeks! (a few minutes) we had a nice spot and started making a path with the sled. Frank and Eelko started and they made a nice clear way. Eventually it was my turn (hooray!) and it went pretty fast! But it was fun. I also tried to take the other sled, which was a blue disc. It didn't really worked, only for half a meter and then it would stop. Ulli thought it would be a great idea to push me. Which obviously wasn't a good idea. I made a few somersaults and got back on my feet again. It was a good day though. Of course there were snow-fights, snow-mans were being made and even snow-angels. We had a good day and the weather was great.
On the drive back we stopped at the Nooksack waterfall. It was gorgeous! We had lunch by the river and we stopped to hug trees. Yes, we did.

Around 4:20 we were back again and everybody went home. I got my WCC sweater (Whatcom Community College: the school) in green and I gave my honest opinion about Eelko and Josse fitting them on. Pretty much everybody has got one of them now, which is awesome.

Tomorrow will be the first of May and we're having presentations. That we need to give. Wait, whut? Yes, about our MP. But they already let us now that it would be more of a talk in general. Bo-ring.
From 5 - 8 we have our 'farewell dinner', which sounds depressing but should be fun.
Between those two activities I'll go to the mall again and see a film with Tina in cinema, they're only 4 dollars, so it would be a shame not to go.

It's been a while.

Blog update: Wednesday, April 24 till Sunday, April 28.

It's been a while since I updated my blog. The reason for this is simple: I just didn't have enough time. There is so much to do! We've got the program of course and you want to spend time with your classmates as well as with your host family. But not only that, we've also got a bunch of homework. Today is a free day, so I figured that it was a good time to do an update.

Wednesday, April 24.

A day at school. Plus an extra class. At 9:00 our class started. We had a presentation about baseball from Guy Smith, he is an referee at the lower league and he used to be a catcher. He gave us a complete explanation about how baseball works, were it came from, what the rules are, background information about players, he sure knew a lot. He made Frank were the catcher suit and they threw some balls and batted a bit. We even sang (as a preparation for Saturday) the song that they always sing around the 7th inning. The song is called 'take me out to the ball game'. We didn't sang the complete song, because they only do one verse of the song:

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

I really liked singing it! At the end of his presentation we even got our own baseball, one that they use in the league.

After a 10 minute break we had our second presentation. History of the Pacific Northwest by Mary Habermann. It was about the Native Americans. She picked a few highlights from history. She first came to the point how we actually should call them. Native Americans, first nations, Indians? Then Rachel said that our book said Amerindians and if that term was correct. Mary thought that a term like that is most likely to be used by anthropologists. She came to the conclusion that it is best to give them the name of their nation or tribe, if you know it.She continued the presentation with some photographs. All of them were taken by Curtis in the late 1800's. This man photographed all kinds of tribes and ceremonies, if he hadn't done that at the time, there would have been only a few images of real Native Americans. She showed some more pictures and explained something about the background of it. One of the pictures had a Native American on a horse hunting for buffalo. She explained that the image was incorrect, because they never used horses to hunt buffalo. Horses came in the early 1700's to America, together with the Spanish. This is also how wild horses came into existence; some of them broke loose. She continued with information about one of the most important sources from nature. Cedar trees. They make everything from the trees. Canoes, clothing, tools, basketry, houses etc.
She told us many more things. She gave information about Potlatches, early explorers, Mt. Baker, Ealy Europeans.  Unfortunately, I couldn't be there until the end, because I had another class: British Literature.

Today the lesson was a bit different then other lessons, because they had a big assignment. But first, a student did a talk again. This talk was even shorter than the ones before. Barely 2 minutes. She started off with how stupid everybody was and than talked about a handkerchief, I did not see the link and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Then Amy explained the handkerchief more, because not even her own students got it. In the play, the handkerchief is addressed as a person. It's woven with magic intended. The father of Desdemona is sure that's the reason why his daughter fell in love with Othello: witchcraft. This is one of the questions that Shakespeare was interested in. Does witchcraft exists? In Othello it sounds like it does, bu in other plays (e.g. Macbeth) it's exactly the opposite. Shakespeare raises questions that he does not answer. Then Amy explained one of the most important words in the play, honesty. In modern times it means a) straightforward of conduct and b) strict adherence to the facts. But back in Shakespeare's time, it meant much more. 1) female chastity, 2) respectable, 3) moral virtue, 4) freedom from disgrace, 5) OED (dictionary) says that it can mean worthy, but it's often used in a patronizing way to an inferior. In other words: insulting.
She also gave another example that words now mean different things than they used to be in the 16th and 17th century. Shakespeare's play 'much ado about nothing' was actually a slang word for female genitalia. That certainly raises a different light on the play. After this little lecture, the students had to work on their assignments. They had to work in groups of 2 or 3 and make an additional skit to the play. They have to perform it on Friday and it could be about whatever they wanted as long as they stayed true to the characters. They could make a decision about using Shakespeare's language or modern English. Example: make a scene in which Othello tells Desdemona about one of his adventures  Go thick with the 'swooning'. It looked like a fun assignment and the students were allowed to go out, which most of them did. Because of this I could do my interview with Amy for my MP sooner than I thought. We had a good talk and she really helped me out a lot. She could answer all my questions  even with better results than I expected. We've been talking for more than an hour. Even after the interview we kept talking. Around 1:20 I got out of the classroom and had a break in the sun with the group. We enjoyed the weather a lot.

At 2:30 we had a presentation by Ben Kohn, about the American Road Trip.
The Road Trip is a very specific, mythological creation he said. Driving a car is  a big part of American life. You have to use it to move yourself from one part to another. Being on the Road is crossing boarders. You can't see while looking at someones car, what his religion is, his sexual-orientation, his political preferences. It gives freedom. He also mentioned that literature, songs, screenplays, movies all dealt with it. Of course, he gave examples. He talked about Into The Wild, Easy Rider, The Swimmer (story), a bunch of books like: Roughing it, Life on the Mississippi, On the Road, Black Like Me, Travels with Charley, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and many more. Then he switched to songs. Ramblin' Round - Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' On My Mind - Robert Johnson, King of the Road - Roger Miller, Wide Open Road - Johnny Cash, Diamonds on My Windshield - Tom Waits, On the Road Again - Willie Nelson and Down the Highway by Bob Dylan. He also let us listen to the song and told us what it was about in general. That was pretty much the complete presentation and in the end we saw some scenes of Easy Rider as well.

Thursday, April 25.

The Whatcom Museum of History and Art was on our program today. Margo Larabee told us a lot about the Native Americans. We already knew something (lectures at the NHL and presentations at Whatcom), but she still managed to tell something new. She told us more about the ceremonies and masks, what they stand for. She also knew lots of legends and stories that they used during ceremonies and scaring their children (so that they would not wander in the woods and get lost). It was really interesting and we could even were masks as well. It looked horrible though.
We only spend an hour and a half at the museum. It's only a bit bigger than my room in Leeuwarden, so you can imagine that it was not that big. When we got out we searched for a place to eat lunch. We had man pies. No, there were no man in it, but it certainly was delicious. It's a pastry filled with potatoes, carrots and meat; lamb, beef or chicken. I had the daily special which was filled with red pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, chicken, cheese and potatoes. It was good! Then we walked around Downtown and I bough new shoes (hurray!) and a t-shirt (again, hurray!). I was surprised that I could use my debit card. In most of the stores it doesn't work, but this was really convenient. Then everyone went on their own way towards home. Mirjan, Tina and I waited at the bus station, I had to go to Whatcom because Michelle would give me a ride home. At school I did some homework and then I went to Michelle, together we drove home.

For dinner we had Sushi at a Japanese restaurant in Bellingham. It was one of Lauren's last day before she went back to New Orleans. For dessert, Hattie, Lauren and I went to get frozen yogurt. Green Tea flavor, really good!

Friday, April 26

We went to the Lummi Reservation, it was really interesting  We saw their way of life and Dave Oreiro, our guide, explained pretty much everything to us. He told us about the canoe racing, about how their past life was, the problems that they face right now in the reservation and about the plans that they're making. We had a tour in a van and saw his house, his old house, the schools, library, the ocean, fishing spots, day-care, court, tribe-house, like I said before: pretty much everything.

After our trip we went back to Whatcom Community College, spend some time in the library to work on our projects and homework. Then Mirjan, Tina and me went to the Mall. We only strolled around for a bit and I bought a nice little gift.

After dinner Lauren, Michelle and I went to eat cake at a little cafe called '..... bliss'. I don't remember the first word anymore, but it sure was good! We had a good talk. Something that really struck me was that there were a lot of guys. It looks like that guys don't bother doing cute girly stuff. I mean, we saw them at Creativitea, painting pottery, eating scones and drinking tea and here at the cafe (which was pink!) they ate cake and drank tea as well. I find it funny to see big guys being very feminine.

Saturday, April 27

Going to Seattle and see the game! Around 11:00 AM we were in Seattle. Henry, our tour-guide-van-driver showed us around for a bit. Then everyone took the monorail to the center and walked to the market and the gumwall. I've already seen all these places, but I didn't mind. After that everybody went their own way. The girls went shopping. First we went to the Dr. Martens store, just because we can and then to Anthropology. The best store ever! Femke, Mirjan, Tina and I were there for a loooong time. After 20 minutes the rest was fed up and left, which was okay because in the end we'd been there for an hour and a half, almost two. Everyone bought something nice. Femke had dresses, Mirjan almost a complete wardrobe, Tina a shirt and I also had a dress (again). We walked back to the mall (near the monorail) and spend some time over there. We went into various stores and I bought a gift for my mother (yes, mom, for you! Be curious, be very curious!). We ate a slice of pizza there and had a drink. We all went  to the restroom, which pretty much scared the shit out of us. They had very low stalls. You could look at people sitting on the toilet. It was kind of disgusting. After our little adventure we took the monorail back to Seattle Center, had a coffee/tea at the convention hall (Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival!) and walked to the van to go to the game.
The complete day went swimmingly until... we arrived at the stadium and Henry told us he forgot the tickets.. No worries though, all went well. He managed to contact some people and we could still go.
I really loved the game! They had good music during the breaks and the game and you just stayed active even though you just sat. The food was good, nice atmosphere and we just had loads of fun. Of course, the Mariners won (Seattle team) and we sang the song we learned on Wednesday. It was amazing. If I ever have the opportunity to go again, I'd definitely would.
Around 11:30 I arrived home, finding the house pretty much empty. Everyone went to bed already and I only found Hattie sleeping on the couch (again). I turned of the TV and went to bed as well.

Sunday, April 28

A free day. I ate breakfast and 30 minutes later second breakfast, just because I can. Delicious cinnamon rolls. Then I skyped with Jasper, whilst eating bacon. After almost an hour Hattie and Scott dropped me off at the mall. I waited for Tina over there to go shopping (again). She finally found the long dress she wanted to have as well as a nice skirt. I'm quite a shop-a-holic so I bought a dress (yes.. again), shorts and a t-shirt. And I'm still not finished shopping there! There are at least 3 stores that I still want to see. After spending some hours there we took the bus Downtown were we would be picked up by Femke, Leanne and her host. I took a while, but they found us. Mirjan was dropped of buy Kristine at Femke's and Leanne's host family's house (maybe I should say houses..) and we spend our time over there talking, having fun, making dinner and watching a film, Sweeney Todd.
It was a good day. On Monday, they're all coming to me and we'll have a bonfire, maybe even go into the hottub ;)

The-coolest-day-ever!

Tuesday, April 23.

At 8 AM I sat down in the library and started working on my homework. It was quite busy with the photo challenge when it was time to get to the meeting point. Ullie was a late, so we left around 9:45 instead of 9:30. We had a day full of nature to look forward to. We went to Mt. Erie, Rosario Beach, Whidbey Island, Deception Pass and some other scenic areas like Ford Casey. It was really beautiful. All of it.
We started at Mt. Erie. The road to get on top of the mountain was pretty steep. Quite dangerous as well. You could see the cliffs very well and Ullie is not the most trustworthy driver. I am pretty sure he almost hit a tree. After spending some time on top of the mountain, taking hundreds of pictures and group pictures, we continued our journey. The second spot we went to was Deception Pass. It is a bridge across the water. You can walk on it or go under it to enjoy a nice scenery as well. The bridge was wobbly and when a truck came I had to grab something to keep standing. I loved the water, it was a nice blueish green, or greenish blue, you get the point. Someone made a remark that it looked like The Caribbean, but then with trees that don't belong there. I found the whirlpools awesome as well. I liked the swirls that they made. We spend a lot of time there, but still, when we had to leave I didn't feel like going. It was a magnificent scenery, the weather was good and I probably could have fallen asleep in the warm sun. There also were some funny trees around Deception Pass. It looked like they were shaved! At the other end of the bridge we had to get in the cars again. Teachers in front and the students following like little ducks. I was at the end of the line and enjoyed the scenery a bit more. Some people in front of me did the same. Of course we lost track of the rest of the group and continued walking. Eventually Eelko came running towards us: 'YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAAAAHAAAY'. So we went back. Going up. Pretty steep. I was out of breath when we where at the cars again. I sincerely apologized because I really didn't know they went up already (we had to walk a bit under the bridge). The journey continued and we went towards the beach. It was gorgeous! The sea was a nice cold blue. I loved the contrast with the snowy peaks of the mountains, the water and the sun. Again, I could have stayed here for hours. Wind in your hair, good conversations or reading a book.
The plan was to get a lunch somewhere else so we hopped in the van and drove off. The place the Ullie wanted to eat was closed. Good planning! Almost everyone had a packer lunch so we went to Ford Casey to eat over there. Only Rachel didn't had lunch so Ullie shared his. Ford Casey was cool. Nice view of the mountain chains, the sea, the shore, flora and fauna. I liked it. After spending an hour of chilling and relaxing we went back to Bellingham. We stopped on the way at a supermarket for some food. Rachel didn't had enough for lunch and some others wanted to do some shopping as well. Saskia, Willeke and I went to get Frozen Yogurt (yum!). When we were in Bellingham, Ullie dropped everyone off at Downtown station, except for Leanne, Fiona and me. We had to go to school because our families would pick us up. Ullie had to go for gas, so we got there pretty late (I'm not sure if I like this guy). Michelle was off at 5 and we where there around 5:20. I send her a text because I was sure she left to pick up Hattie from school. Sara, Leanne's and Femke's host mother was still at school and called Michelle for me. She was willing to bring me home. We first stopped at Costco's on our way. It's a huge, ginormous, giant-like supermarket. It looks like a big Ikea. But without furniture. They do have flat-screens, tents, kayaks, giant cartons of milk, huge peanut butter jars, big packages of Oreos. It was insane. There were people who bought 50 cartons on milk. I was joking that they bath in it. Turns out they actually do. Welcome to America & Canada.
Sara dropped me off at the beginning of our street. I was sure that Sara wouldn't be able to turn there all the way down. It turned out I was right. The lane was packed with cars. Three from the North's, one from Keanan and one from Tristan (Hattie's boyfriend). We talked a bit and had a nice dinner. The kids were up for having breakfast as dinner (eggs, bacon and pancakes). I just had roast & rice. Really spicy, but really good!
Tomorrow will be a long day. Four classes again. 3 Presentations organized by Whatcom and NHL and 1 that I really love to follow: British Literature!

Friday 19th till Monday 22nd: a lovely weekend

Friday 19th.

Today was quite a short day according to the program. Only one presentation. So I followed another extra class. I went to British Literature again taught by Amy Amendt-Raduege. I really like the teacher and the subject is nice too.

Today she started with a different question of the day: 'What is your favourite kind of ice-cream?' She checks the absence list in a unique way. It something that I see myself doing as well. Then she continues the lesson, she hands out a quiz that the students have to take in 10 minutes. The questions are about Macbeth and some are about the new play that they're reading: Othello. Even I could answer some questions, so I felt pretty knowledgeable. When all the students are done they hand in the quizzes. Amy continues the lesson: she's informing them about their assignments  Unfortunately  she didn't bring the right paper, so she could only tell them what they're going to do in general. They have to write an academic thesis essay, approximately 5 pages long about something they really struck, enlightened, made them wonder etc., about the play (Macbeth). She also gave a form that tells the students how to cite drama in a correct way.

She talks a bit about the teachers she had who gave her these kind of assignments as well. She's hilarious. After her little talk it's time for a student to do a talk again about a piece of the play. The new topic is about Othello, so the student talked about that and let us hear a song that she thought fitted perfectly with the play (Mumford & Sons: white blank page). She explained a few points, while being barely audible. She didn't turn or stopped the music, so I didn't get what she was saying. In less than 5 minutes she was done (3 minute song). The teacher takes over again and makes a bridge between Macbeth and Othello and then discusses the major themes with us. For example: jealousy. Jealousy is probably the most important theme. Because almost everybody in the play is jealous of something or someone. Also appearance vs. reality, guilt vs. innocence, reputation, pride, magic, birth and light vs. dark are themes. She explains every theme in dept, some more than others because they seem to be more important. She talks about the characters as well, in a really funny way. At one point she's like: 'be honest girls, who wouldn't want to have a man like Othello? Nice body, good looks, talks in poetry, strong, good with a sword. I had to laugh quite hard. Our class ended to soon. I made an appointment with her for an interview on Wednesday for my MP. She's even going to re-read the books that I'm writing about. It's so nice that she puts that kind of work and effort in my, even though I'm not own of her students.

At 1:30 till 2:30 PM we had a presentation about the World at Whatcom - International Student Panel Presentation in Cascade Hall, Room 105.

There were 8 foreign students. They came from Saudi-Arabia, China, Japan, Mexico, Korea, Colombia and Iran. It was really nice to meet and talk to them. They had lots of interesting things to say and asked good questions. Of course, this was visa versa. We asked them questions too and told them about ourselves. They told about how they learned English, what they found the easiest and the hardest whilst learning English, what the first thing was that was really different, we asked about their high-schools, their homes, background etc. The guy, Koichi, from Japan hasn't spoken a word Japanese since he has been in America. He came here two years ago. I was really impressed! His English was really, really good.

Saturday, April 20.

Our Vancouver day. We had nice weather and everything went fine at the border (as well in Canada as America). There was no plan for the trip so Tina and I discussed our plans in the bus. My host family said that Stanley Park was worth the visit as well as Robson Street. So we both went there. The rest of the group followed us, but we lost them somewhere in the park (they were walking like grannies). After eating our lunch in Stanley Park Tina and I went to Robson Street. It's a lovely and lively street with nice shops and delicious Asian (and other sorts of) food. Then we decided to take a stroll in Chinatown. We kind of chose the wrong neighborhood because we saw tramps, hobo's and prostitutes everywhere. So we hastily left. We went through Gastown (begging of Vancouver) saw the steam-clock (only a few left in the world!) and drank some coffee and tea at the Starbucks. Time was running out, we had to be back at Canada Place (where we were dropped off) at 5:30. We were perfectly on time. Only the bus wasn't and all the Asian people either. Luckily there was a convention going on at Canada Place so we had our entertainment. People were dressed up as characters from mangas, animes, comic books, movies etc. At 6 PM we hopped on the bus and went back. At 8 PM we were at Whatcom and I got picked up by my host family. I was pretty worn-out so I went to bed early.

 

Sunday, April 21.

A free day. Tina and I made some plans to hang out on Sunday. I first skyped with Jasper around 11 AM. Then I had breakfast/lunch and got dropped off at Tina's place. She showed me around the house and we had a nice cup of Earl Grey Tea (I feel kind of old saying that). The kids had French class so we went to Fairhaven so that I could pick up my stuff from Creativitea. Of course I also brought Michelle's and Hattie's pottery with me. It turned out beautiful. The colors are vividly and look amazing. Then we walked around Fairhaven a bit more and went into a bookstore. I bought a gift for Michelle, because her birthday is on Monday. She loves birds so I bought a happy birthday card with a hummingbird as well as a bookmarker. Also with a hummingbird. Then we went downtown and checked the surroundings. We had been there before but now we really had time to do whatever we want. We drank some coffee and tea (pineapple green tea, yum!) at Wood's coffee (best there is!) and then we went to Whatcom Creek. I got a new picture for my photo challenge and it was taken over there. We had already been there so it was pretty easy to find. Ullie didn't liked that Rachel gave me that picture, but Rachel was all like: 'she's had a hard time with the float-plane  She can do an easy one now'. So I really appreciated that. We strolled down some more around Downtown and than to the bus home again, because we had pizza at 6 PM, home-made, can't get any better. They were de-lic-ious! We also  had spinach salad, but that wasn't really my thing. I am not a big fan of raw spinach. After dinner Tina and I walked the dog, Daisy. We went walking to the begging of Fairhaven along the water and saw a beautiful sunset. When we got back, Mirjan was home as well. She spend her Sunday in Vancouver, going to the ice-hockey game and getting back by train. She had a great time. Around 9:45 PM my hosts picked my up and at home we watched a film: Safety Not Guaranteed. I really enjoyed it. There were lots of awkward scenes in it and that made it a good one. Hattie came home from soccer around 11:30 PM. She had a game in Spokane, which is a 6 hour drive (so she spend 12 hours in a car!). Insane that people drive so far for only a soccer game. Around 11:50 we all went to bed.


Monday, April 22.

A-ma-zing weather! Sunny and it felt like Summer had arrived. I loved it. I congratulated Michelle with her birthday and gave her the gift. I think she really liked it! She didn't expected it in the first place, because the look on her face told me that she was really surprised.

At 10:00 we had to be at Sehome High School. Michelle dropped me off at Whatcom around 9:30. Together with Ullie, Eelko, Josse and Fiona I got in the van. The rest came to Sehome by public transport or walked. We met up with Kevin Johnson and got a student-partner from Sehome. My buddy was Alina. I really liked her, she was funny and we had a blast. She took me on a tour around the school. It's an amazing school. Nice, big classrooms (negative point: big classes as well; around 35 students) and every teacher has it's own classroom. Exactly the way I think it should be, because then you can really make a classroom your own. I like that. The students do as well. They love their classrooms and they're fond of their teachers as well. I had Physics class, Yoga class and Poetry. Physics was horrible. I had no idea what Mr. Tony (teacher) was talking about. He also placed me in a group with two other boys and make a concept map about sound and waves. I was pretty useless to them. We had lunch at Diego's (Mexican) and then went to Yoga. It was insane. They had a different teacher than usual and she requested all kind of weird moves. Most of the time it looked like you were pooping in a weird way. Poetry was the exact opposite. It was really nice! I liked the teacher, he's witty and explained the poems very well. He never gave the correct answers  but led students towards them. Then around 2:15 there were some pictures taken of us and our buddies. Not every one was on the picture though. We were spread all around the school because we had buddies that took different classes. Then I started to search for Michelle, because I told them to pick me up around 2 PM. I finally found them around 2:25 PM. We went to Happy Nails to get a pedicure. It was my first time ever and it was horrifying. I don't mind people massaging my feet but it tickled so, so, so badly! And the girl had long, pointy nails. So it hurted a bit as well. I do have nice toe-nails now. Plus point. Then we went home. I started on my homework an tonight we're eating fondue. Jummmm!

Easy Breezy Bellingham

Monday, April 15.The very first day at Whatcom Community College. Together with Michelle we dropped Hattie off at Bellingham High School and went towards WCC. We were there around eightyish. Michelle showed me a bit around the College and then showed me the Library. Where Sarah, a co-worker, had dropped of a student of my class, Femke. We sat there for quite a while talking about our weekends and showed each other pictures of our place. Willeke joined soon afterwards. We talked a bit more and then Ullie came looking for us. He remembered us where we needed to go for our orientation. 5 minutes later we were on our way to Cascade Hall. The rest of the group was already there, except for a few. They all took the bus. Which is practically impossible for me. I have to walk 15 to 20 minutes to the bus stop, then get on a bus downtown, to catch a bus that goes to station near WCC.
But, to continue my story: we saw the rest of the class there and Ullie and Rachel talked about the program, asked about our Master Projects and discussed it a bit. Then we continued with our College Campus Tour. Ullie told us everything about the buildings. They’re named after either a person or a mountain (e.g. Heiner Center > person, Baker Hall > mountain; Mount Baker). It was really interesting. He told us also about the history and the students that go to WCC. After our Campus tour we got a library tour at Heiner Center. Their library is neatly organized. Everyone can come there. It doesn’t matter if you’re from another college or have a card from another library. We had a short break afterwards and the plan was that we get our Student I.D. cards. But, unfortunately, that didn’t work. The system was a bit messed up. So we had to wait.

After another little break we had our first lesson! Geography of Whatcom County. The presentation was given by Jim Hollingsworth. A nice elderly man that’s always in shorts. Except for Valentine, because then he wears pink pants. Oh, and on Halloween he wears a dress. Funny guy!
He gave us a map of Mount Baker and a prospectus with lots of information about the mountain, the weather etc. He talked about pretty much everything. The first settlers in America, the salmon in Whatcom County, about David Thompson, about the Indians, about WII, about Lynden (a very ‘Dutch’ place), about Seattle, Mt. Vernon even about the bicycle club! But somehow, he managed to link all of it to the Geography. It was really interesting. At 4:00 we had a Welcome Reception at the LDC Board Room which is in the Main Building. We were welcomed by the head of the program. Some host-parents were there as well. We introduced ourselves, talked about  the Master Projects (again) and had O.J. and cookies! It was a nice meeting. It ended earlier than excepted so I waited 15 minutes until Michelle was done with work. Together picked up Hattie, drove home and then Michelle dropped (after a quick dinner) Hattie of at soccer practice. She’s quite the busy girl.

I went to bed earlier because I was dead-tired. I slept that evening as a log.

Tuesday, April 16.

A lovely day woke Bellingham up. The sun was shining, it was warm, and everybody was happy en nice to each other. We had the Bellingham Walking Tour. We met at the cafeteria at Syre Student Center at WCC around 9:30. We hopped into the van and some students in Rachel’s Chevrolet (she got upgraded). We drove towards the Whatcom Creek and had an amazing walk over there. Ullie explained that the salmon were helped to grow and expanded here (there are not so many left of them). We saw unknown plants and enjoyed the sound of a waterfall. It was superb. The water was incredibly clean. We continued our walk into town. We saw the City Hall and some nice graffiti. Turned out to be, that the graffiti was one of the pictures of Mirjan’s photo challenge. She was overjoyed! Then Rachel bought us some real American doughnuts from Rocket Doughnuts. I had a really sweet one, covered in icing and clotted strawberry jam on the inside. I had a bite of Tina’s as well. I had the feeling
that my teeth died a bit. I tasted like gumballs. Horribly sweet. We continued our little tour and got back to the van over the other side of the creek. Tina found her photo challenge at the other side of the creek. It was a cute totem pole. We hopped in the van and drove to the harbor. That’s were Femke found her photo. It was really funny to see how happy everyone got from finding the places that were in their pictures. We enjoyed the view of the harbor and the great weather. We were ready to sit down and relax. But… Ullie shook us up and we had to hop in the van, again. This time driving toward the Bellingham Cruise Terminal. It was amazing. We had a clear view of the mountains. I took some magnificent pictures.
Note: I still don’t know why it was called a Bellingham Walking Tour. We sat more in the van than that we were outside of it.

We drove quickly to Lynden (the ‘Dutch’ city of Washington) and we had lunch over there at Dutch Mothers. The restaurant looked… horrible.. old-fashioned. But the people were nice. They served pancakes. Only Saskia chose a pancake. It was BIG. And it didn’t tasted like a pancake at all, but she still ate it. All the servings were huge and practically nobody finished their plate. We walked around the restaurant/store a bit more and noticed that we could buy ‘De Ruijter’. It was nice to see something that reminded you of home. They overdid it a bit with the wooden shoes (klompen) though. Outside we saw a Dutch Bakery, a Dutch Shop (also selling ‘De Ruijter’), Windmills, Tuplips and even a post office that said ‘Postkantoor’. At the Dutch Shop they had the flags of our Counties. It was really neat! The thing that wasn’t so cool over there were the Sinterklaas Christmas Decoration. I mean, really?
Of course, Ullie made us hop in the van pretty soon after lunch. We sang a lot in the van and eventually Ullie turned off the music: ‘No singing along in my van!’. But he enjoyed it anyway. We drove to the Fragrance Garden and a sort of lake/swamp/forest next to it. It was beautiful. It’s been a long time seen I saw something so gorgeous. We went up the tower and saw Mount Baker completely. The clouds were gone and everyone behaved like mad tourists. I could smell the Fragrance Garden even up there. They had thyme, lavender and many more plants. Then we walked into the lake/swamp/forest. It’s hard to explain. It was a sort of swamp where trees and plants grow. Wooden planks were our bridge (it was only 40 centimetres of water though) and it ended in a lake with hundreds, maybe thousands of water lilies. It reminded me a bit of the Hoorsnemeer and Frieseveen in Groningen. It was a sort of combination of this. I loved the cattails as well. The sounds that the rustle of the cattails created was magically. Mirjan and I enjoyed it for several minutes (and almost lost the group). We were all sad to go at the end. Some wanted to stay longer and enjoy the surroundings, the weather, the people around them, but.. and you guessed it.. we had to go in the van again! (hooray!). We drove to school and I did some homework there until Michelle was free again and drove us home.

Wednesday, April 17.

It was a loooong day. We had two presentations arranged by the NHL and WCC. But I and some other students decided to take extra classes. At eight the Psychology class started. It was thought by Carol. She’s the host of Josse. So there was no problem at all to be in her class. It was a very interesting class about the cognitive psychology (of the brain). Then we had a break and we went to Woodlands’ to have some coffee and tea. We stayed there for quite a while and then our second class started. Which was though by Amy. It was British-Literature. They did Shakespeare – Macbeth. It was amazing! All the six of us enjoyed it. It was so good. The teacher really know what she was talking about and the students as well. They all read the play and had it with them all the time. Every year they do a big author. This year was Shakespeare, last year was Jane Austen and next year will be Tolkien (I think I might just stay here, haha). It was superb!

The following lessons/presentations where arranged by WCC. The first was The Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning.  Which sounds really interesting, but was given by a crazy guy. He talked about women wombs belonging to the state, that you’re not really free, you only live to die. To sum up, which may not sound nice, a bunch of shit. Few liked the class and after an hour or so I just stared out the window. A guy climbing a tree picking up a bird’s nest was way more interesting. He talked all the way through our break and our next presentation started later. We were all kind of grumpy. Which was a shame because the next guy had lots of cool things to say. He gave Interesting Aspects of the geology of the Pacific Northwest. He talked about Mount Baker, that it’s a volcano. He talked about the peaks and summits, the tectonic etc., it was really, really nice!

So a very long day of four classes. Some better than the other, but all were amazing, great, superb, awesome and very good compared to our third class. I still have a headache from the guy.

Thursday, April 18.

I still have a headache from the third class. Serious. Today was a better day. Sort of. We went to Skagit County Public Defenders Office. We learned about the U.S. justice system and attended a courtroom hearing. The introduction to the justice system was interesting. We learned about bailers, defenders, prosecutors, death penalty, how a normal day is for an attorney, the judge, jury, guilty, not guilty. It was a good talk. The courtroom hearing.. a bit less interesting. Everybody was just talking and the ‘prisoners’ were barely in the room. Most left at 2 minutes because they just informed each other again: the trial is on the 5^th of June, and other things like that.
We had lunch at a brewery. Of course, they served to much food. I did ate it all though.
Then Ullie drove us to an outletmall. Which we were all looking forward to! But it kind of sucked. Not really my kind of shops, it wasn’t really an outlet and well.. yeah.

Now, Lauren just got home: the oldest daughter of Scott and Michelle. She surprised her mom for her birthday. It was so adorable to see. Tears were shed, lots of hugging. So much love!