41!

41 dagen in Belgie! weird..i thought it was 40..hmm..did i miscount somewhere along the way? maybe! anyways! let's just say it was day 41. a very cold rainy day on the other side of the pond :( very chilly ride to school, but i thought it would warm up later..but no! it started raining instead! so after a long day of language classes, lunch at the coffee shop, and afternoon real school..i got to bike home in the super cold rain! it was exciting, trust me. as if i didn't have a cold already..hmm. i had english class in real school this afternoon, and we read two of Shakespeare's sonnets..BORING! i'm sorry but why are you teaching kids that don't know the past tense of HAVE, SEEN, WEAR, etc...SHAKESPEARE!?!?! students who start sentences with "And"..use ridiculous synonyms for common words like "nice"..don't need to know Shakespeare. clearly there are other priorities they should tackle first, but whatever. i sympathized with the class when they had to analyze each line and find the real meaning of the poems..tough stuff even for an english speaker! after that we had a break like usual (one in the morning and one in the afternoon..for like 10 minutes..) and we stood outside in the rain, haha! tomorrow i will definitely wear my new jacket..so i am not freezing! after the break we had science where i ACTUALLY PARTICIPATED! can you believe it? every day in science i have been just sitting there doing other homework or sleeping..but not today! we had a lab where we looked at plant cells and skin cells under a microscope. then we had to draw and label a picture, and then answer a couple questions about it. even after barely knowing the language and not paying attention in class, i was able to answer the questions and label it all on my own. i am not kidding you, this is like 6th grade science. in cell biology at BHS we had to know at least 20 parts of each cell AND their functions...and know them by heart. here there was a word bank and we had to label only THREE parts on each cell. ridiculous? but just think..their level of music is above and beyond high school level..clearly university level..but their other classes are much lower..its nuts! its hard to imagine that as a 14-15 year old Belgian kid i would have to choose a subject to follow that i will also study in not only high school but university. it just seems too young to make that call! what happens when you graduate and decide instead of music you want to study something that involves a lot of science? you have to work 100 times harder than everyone who already studied science in high school..and i guess i'm just not sure if that is the right way to approach education...but who am i to judge? it is both a good thing and a bad thing to choose a direction in high school. it helps you if you stick with what you originally chose, but if you switch you're basically "screwed" for lack of a better word. complicated right? anyways so i came home..and did about an hours worth of dutch homework! i wrote 15 sentences about what people like and don't like to do. i feel my language is improving quickly and i hope it continues..or i hope it actually is improving and i don't just feel like it is. tonight we had what i would call pork chops for dinner...along with a puree of potatoes and spinach. it was pretty good! and now i am really tired. i must mention that i packed a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (sandwiches being the hot dog buns...with pb&j on them) and then my class decided to go out to lunch. so i politely ordered a bowl of soup and ended up eating the sandwiches and like half of the soup..the soup was so good though! seemed like something my host mom would make..it had celery and peas in it..yumm. all the soup in this country is so good! my host mom made another great pot of soup too..and i had some before dinner...just cant get enough soup when your throat hurts, i'm telling ya! anyways i think that is all about today..i am really tired and still need to go shower so thank you for reading and i will blog again tomorrow!