The END!

Dear everyone,
My exchange has come to an end. Saturday  I returned to the Netherlands by plane and was picked up by my parents and sunday we celebrated my brother Mante's thirteenth birthday. I have mixed feelings about returning to the Netherlands. On the one hand I've enjoyed my exchange so much that I already miss my friends in Reeds and my host-family. On the other hand I was becoming a bit homesick...  
Anyway, it is time to conclude and I would like to do that with the last couple of pictures.
I hope you've enjoyed my blog!

My Final Days at Reeds

My exchange to Reeds has nearly come to an end. As you have all read in my blog, I've really enjoyed it here. The weather throughout my whole exchange has been beautiful, the courses have been interesting and I've made a lot of new friends. This week, VWO TTO 2 have been visiting Reeds and I, like the other Dutch speaking students and exchange students, had to give them a tour. Thus I showed them around school campus, including the music department, the library and the CCF headquarters. It's quite weird how you're being showed around the school in the beginning and in 5 weeks you're showing others around the school.
Comparing Reeds and Rijnlandslyceum Wassenaar, there are certain aspects that I really like about Reeds. I really like the broad curriculum of subjects, including certain subjects that you can't do in the Netherlands, such as psychology, philosophy and music technology. I also like the warm school lunch and the sixth form house (I think we should have these at our school too). Furthermore, I think it is an excellent idea to do sports, music and other activities (such as CCF) at school, as it brings the students closer together, because apart from participating together in courses they're also participating together in sports, music and other after-school activities as a team. Finally, I think it's a good idea to divide the school into houses and have weekly house meetings, as the house competition and all the awards given out bring more excitement into the weekly school routine and they encourage the students to try harder and participate more actively in everything that's happening in school.
Of course, there are also some aspects that I like about Rijnlandslyceum Wassenaar. For one thing, I like the fact that my house is so close to school. I can leave my house at a quarter past 8 (or later, depending on when my first lessons start), instead of a quarter past 7, and I am back at a half past 3, instead of a quarter past 6. What I also like is that you only have to come to school for your lessons. Thus, you can come to school later, such as at 10 past 9, or leave earlier, or go home in between your courses. Finally, I think it is a good thing that, when we narrow down in our fourth year, we have a choice of eight or nine subjects, which gives you a broader spectrum and more study options when you go to university.

There will probably be one or two more blog(s). I hope you are all following them with enthusiasm.
I'll see you next week.

my birthday 10/03/12

Last weekend, it was my birthday and of course, we threw a birthday party. My parents came over all the way from the Netherlands and we went to an Italian restaurant in Esher, Woking. The food there was delicious, varying from  stuffed squid to grilled sea bass. Of course, I also got presents. I got a towel with my name on it from my brothers and some magazines to read from my parents. More presents, including the 'big present' from my parents, will follow back in Wassenaar. Coming to that, my exchange has nearly come to an end: only one more week! I have mixed feelings about my return. I have become very fond of England and I would like to stay there for a bit longer. On the other hand, I miss my family, my friends and the beautiful beach of Wassenaarse Slag. I must say goodbye to this blog for now: I'm very busy studying for the upcoming exam period next week, just as my class mates are probably doing right now too.

Cheers!

CCF Weekend

Last weekend I had my CCF weekend. We assembled at Reeds with our uniforms, backpacks, and ration packs in order to take the bus to the scarcely populated hills in Surrey. When we got there, we set up our bashas,  a tent composed of two sheets fastened between two trees through means of a bungee cord and some tent pegs, and cooked our food (rations that you had to boil yourself on a small fire). After that, we, the cadets of section one, went on a patrol. Every time someone passed, we had to lie flat one the floor and try not to be seen. After that, we had to spy on actual paratroopers and try to gain enemy intel. When  the 'mission' was completed, we returned to camp and went to sleep. Luckily, I somehow got out of sentry duty, so I didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night. Unluckily, sleeping on the bare ground proved more difficult than I could have imagined.
Thus I woke up after approximately two hours of sleep. To make things worse, it was pouring with rain. To make things even worse, two tent pegs were missing on the side of my tent, so I woke up next to a puddle of water with my sleeping bag completely soaked. When I went outside to cook my food, I discovered that apart from my sleeping bag being soaked, my beret, my shoes and my backpack were completely soaked too.
It continued raining throughout the whole day, making everyone fairly miserable. Soon my hands were so cold that I couldn't bring my thumb and my annularly  together anymore. When we were about to do a section attack and we had to load the blanks into our rifles, I kept dropping the magazine and the rounds because of my frozen hands, which was quite embarrassing. During the section attack, we had to walk in different formations, such as staggering and arrowhead, and when we spotted an enemy, we had to 'pepperpot', which meant that the section was divided into two groups and the two groups took turns covering and sprinting forward. Unfortunately, as the whole terrain was covered in slippery mud, I fell several times and at the end, I was covered in mud till my waist.
After the section attack, we went on another patrol, this time evading enemy patrols and travelling from camp to camp in order to gain intel. This took us about four hours and during those four hours, it didn't stop one second with raining. Every time we spotted an enemy patrol, we had to lie flat on our belly, making us even more muddy. Despite our best efforts, we still were caught thrice. Of course, we couldn't walk on the road, because we would be seen immediately. Instead, we had to walk through the forest, cross rivers (resulting in an inch of water at the bottom of my shoes) and walk through marshes that reminded me of Lord of the Rings. When we completed the patrol, it had just begun hailing and we all suffered from the first stages of hypothermia, but fortunately, we were driven to a shelter by minivan. When we had arrived at the shelter, the hail had turned into sleet and   the group leaders decided to stay in the shelter until the weather got bearable again. However, it didn't, as the sleet turned to snow, and the group leaders decided to call the trip of for that day and drive us all home, so we could dry our clothes and have a shower and a good night's sleep.
The next day, we went for another day of CCF, but now the weather was dry. Now that it was dry, I really enjoyed it and to make things even better, we got a special treat in the form of a flight with a lynx helicopter. Thus we were divided in groups of five and had to sign permission forms, after we had a brief run through the helicopter and the helmet that was customary to wear during the flight. The flight with the helicopter was absolutely amazing. I had a wonderful view of the world beneath me and sometimes the helicopter was so tilted that I was actually looking down on the ground 200 metres below me.
After the helicopter, we did another section attack and even a platoon attack, which involved several sections marching and taking out enemies at different locations. Now that it was dry, the section and platoon attacks were good fun. Soon after this, we were driven back to school and after cleaning the guns, which proved a lot of work, we were free to go. The CCF trip had now officially come to an end.

These are some pictures of me and the helicopter (unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the helicopter).

Finally: pictures!

Hello Everyone, here are the the long awaited pictures. I'll take you through them one by one. The top two pictures are made during music technology. The top one shows an imac with the mixing program logic tech. As you can see, it is very complicated. The second pictures shows the actual mixing table with the stereo behind it. The third picture is made during chapel. You can see everyone sitting on benches and at the back you can clearly see the organ. The fourth picture is a picture of me in my CCF uniform, including the beret.  The next four pictures are all taken in or outside sixth form house. As you can see, it is very cosy there. The next two pictures are taken outside schoolbuildings. On the first one you can see the main building, on the second one you can see the music department. Finally, the last picture. This picture is also taken during music technology and it shows a picture of me and my fellow music technology classmates. The one standing next to me is Alex, who is also doing CCF and has become a good friend of mine. The one standing next to Alex is Dan, who is a fan of pink floyd and also a friend of mine. I'll continue with the two at the front The one to the right is Mack and he travels home on the same school-bus as I. The other one I don't know by name, as he is not always in music technology. I know the composition of the pictures isn't brilliant, but alas, I can't get it any better than this.

More pictures are following!        

     

A Week has Passed

Hello everyone,

My first schoolweek at Reeds has come to an end. I have just started to settle in. I can find most of my classrooms by now and I have made a couple of new friends. I am also getting involved in schoolactivities by now, as I have joined the orchestra (I play the clarinet) and the senior clarinet ensemble. Furthermore, I will take clarinet lessons at school. Switching from music to sport; for the games every wednesday, I did swimming. Personaly, I thought the swimming was mental. Would you believe me if I told you that the warming up was forty laps of twenty five metres? The swimming pool is also much more chlory here than the Sterrenbad in Wassenaar: when I came out my eyes were burning and I basically looked like a vampire (except the long, white, pointy teeth). Next time I'm going to wear goggles! Last but certainly not least of my recent after-school activities: CCF(don't ask me what it stands for, because I don't know either). As you'll probably have no idea what CCF is, let me explain it to you. CCF is basically a youth cadette force of Reeds. So you walk around in uniform, learn how to fire a gun, and sometimes you go camping with your CCF buddies. Sorry folks, the description is a bit vague, but I can't describe it any better than this so you'll just have to stick to this description. Anyway, I am getting involved in quite a lot of after- (or before-) school activities and I am certainly enjoying it here. Halas, it's time to conclude for now, thus: I am enjoying it here and I hope everyone has had a nice holiday and no one has broken something because of a nasty fall on skis.

Pictures are following!

My first day at Reeds

Dear everyone,

I have just started my first day at Reeds and it is awesome! It is totally different from Rijnlandslyceum Wassenaar. For one thing, the school grounds are enormous. I got a tour when I arrived and it felt like I would never be able to find my way around here. Furthermore, there are not a lot of girls here: they only start Reeds in sixth form. Also, you go to school by bus (I had to wake up at six thirty), you have a warm lunch served at school and the school days are much longer. Anyway, I love it here: the kids are kind, the subjects are interesting, with music technology as my absolute favourite, and the teachers are enthousiastic. The thing that I love best about Reeds , apart from the kindness of everyone, is that the children have a house of their own, one house for form one till five and one house for sixth form, both lower (the form which I am staying in) and upper sixth, where they can hang out with each other and relax.
Before Reeds, I have already enjoyed a couple of days in England with my family. I was brought by car, together with my massive pile of luggage, on Friday and we hired a bed and breakfast in Shear, which is a villlage in the hills of Surrey. There we had dinner in a traditional English pub. The next day, we went for the full English breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and baked beans and of course, we went to London, were we saw the London Eye, the Big Ben and a couple of other famous buildings. We even went into an actual M&M shop! On sunday, we had the tour around Reeds, which I have already mentioned in the beginning of this post, and my parents dropped me of at my guest's family house, who are really nice. Unfortunately my blogging activities for today are about to come to an end. I promise to keep everybody up to date and I wish everyone in the Netherlands a very nice holiday!