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!
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