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 ;)