Second Day of School

So today was not so bad. My classmates were more friendly today...I had people to sit with in classes and at lunch. Today's issue, though, is schoolbooks. The system in Holland is very different from the US system. In the US, the school has a collection of books that are given out to the students each year and returned at the end of the year. The only time an American student has to pay for a book is when it gets lost or destroyed. (Some classes, like PHYSICS gah, "strongly recommend" that students purchase review books for test prep, but even then there are special low prices through the school.) Overall, books are not too much of an issue in the United States. None of this is true in Holland, however. Here the students BUY their textbooks each year, and the textbooks themselves are different...not thick hardbound tomes like many US books, but thinner, often soft-bound booklets. My French textbook is like a magazine. What is the problem here, one might ask? They are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. This magazine French book? €37.95. Insane! I calculated out the total cost of my schoolbooks, and it is €500, no joke. AFS (me exchange organisation) is supposed to pay for schoolbooks, but Julia and I called them today and they said we have to buy the books ourselves first and then send AFS the invoice. That means that I have to lay down €500. Arghhhhh. I also have to buy a graphing calculator for €85 that AFS refuses to cover. I do not understand this, but whatever.

How do Dutch parents afford sending their children to school?!