Heh heh, Dutch school IS odd. Very amusing, though. The Christian-ness of my school in particular can produce some rather funny moments, but the two events I am about to relate could have happened in any Dutch school. That's what's so amusing about them, actually.
Event number one: this week my French teacher spent two of our three class hours talking about wine. The first of these two hours was spent talking (for absolutely NO reason, or at least not one known to me) about Beaujolais Nouveau, and the second was a class discussion about the students' favorite types of wine. And it was totally serious. In America a discussion of this sort would have an air of SCANDAL: ZOMG the children are imbibing, what ever shall we do?! Here, though, the drinking age is sixteen, so the students in the fifth class (mine) are old enough to purchase their own beer and wine. Insanity.
So yes, second example of strange happenings in Dutch school. Today during the morning break (a 10-minute break between the second and third class hours), everyone spontaneously went outside. I had no idea what was going on and didn't much care to be shoved about by eleven-year-old boys, so I stayed inside reading 1984. The ending buzzer went off, so I started off up the stairs to my Dutch class on the fourth floor. Halfway up I ran into three girls from my class coming back down, and they told me that Dutch class was cancelled. How random. I went back to the Atrium to wait out another period, and I saw that everyone was still out in front of the school building. I asked a random passer-by what on earth was going on, and he said that the students were protesting the ninth hour...I guess they only want to have eight hours in a day? COMPLETELY incomprehensible to me; Streek only HAS eight hours to begin with, so they have no reason to complain. I guess they were showing solidarity with Marnix, though. (Marnix is another high school in another part of Ede.) The crowd--several hundred strong, possibly more than 1000, as 1500 people attend Streek in my building and there was hardly anyone left inside--marched off to Marnix to...I don't know. Something. Anyway, they marched off and left very few people at school. My physics class took place in the fourth hour, but in the middle of the hour it was announced that all classes were cancelled for reasons of safety, and all students and teachers could leave. For reasons of SAFETY?! What on earth do they think is going to happen? Ridiculous, that's what I have to say about that. Nice for me, though, as Friday is usually my longest day but today was done at 11:30. Sweeeeet.
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2 comments:
Hey there lizz. Im roy, im 19 yo and i live in boxmeer, a town about 25 kilometers to the south of nijmegen. Im in 6th grade of vwo (thats highschool i suppose you've figured that out so far ;) ), and i saw your blogprofile. Quite randomly came across it actually, for i was looking for a good picture with pepernoten on it (i used yours btw, hope you dont mind. It was the best i could find :P)but thats not what i wanted to say. Your story about sinterklaas got my attention and also did the vin(wine)-talk-in-class and protests story. Indeed you've ended up in a strange place here, but if you'd want to i could clearify certain aspects of sinterklaas or whatever you'd want me to. Or you wouldnt want me to, in that case i wont bother you ;P just thought i would offer you some perspective backup from another part of the netherlands.
Enjoy the holidays, cya
Hi Roy. Yeah I know where Boxmeer is, actually, and I have a couple friends who go to school there. You may or may not know them.
Obviously you and gewe have differing opinions about pepernoten. :-P
Nice of you to offer your services, as it were. =]
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