Saturday, February 13, 2010
International Fair and the start of Carnaval
Alright, well I promised to write about the international fair. It was wonderful. All week at school we had international week. Each class chooses a different country to represent, learns about it and then presents about it to the rest of the school. Our class made a video all about what we learned and South Africa. You can see it on our class website as well as some pictures from the fair. I have shared them on the blog. Anyway, the on Saturday all the families of our school come together to teach others about their home country, share travel info, traditions and the best part... food. YUM. So there are many booths set up and each country of our school is represented. Some examples were: Iceland, Greece, Poland, America, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa, Isreal, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, Austria, Austrailia, France, and many more. Of course all our students wanted us to try food from their country so we were really full when we were done :). About half way through the day there was a performance and there were songs, dances, and other acts to represent something of the countries that were there. My favorite was some of the Indian kids (who have also lived in Michigan :) ) danced to a song from Slumdog Millionaire. They were all in their traditional dress and it was so beautiful. We walked around some more after the performance and met up with my teaching partner Suzanne and her husband Mathew. We then went out for drinks with them after the fair and it was nice just to chat. Suzanne has three weeks left and then she's off on her materinity leave.
This week was another crazy week of school because it's Carnaval here. We experienced it first on Thursday, dressing up with our kids at school. I also linked the wesite to the blog. The kids looked great and I wore a blue wig :) courtesy of Suzanne. Then, yesterday we had a professional development day and at 5:00 had cultural time and as a staff all went for drinks and dinner in town. It is already really crazy here. Someone said it will be like living inside a night club for a week. All the bars/restaurants have their tables pulled out and no chairs so they can cram more people in and people overflow into the streets even. There's lots of singing of old fashioned Omm Paa Paa songs as Catherine calls it. And lots of clinking of beer glass/mugs. We had dinner at a nice Greek restaurant and by 10;00 Matt and I were exhausted and ready to go home. Even now I can hear the beat of the music playing somewhere nearby and I wonder how we will be able to sleep tonight? I asked my friend Joey what the average person spends on Carnaval and he said about 300 euro, just for food and beer. It offically lasts from Sunday to Tuesday but everyone started drinking last night. Everything is decorated with red, yellow, and green, along with lots of clowns and confetti. The best part, which I can't wait for, is supposed to be the parades. People all belong to a float group and they start working on the float and costumes in October. Some of the things we have seen already are SO beautiful. Our friend Audrey is in a group that walks in a "Light Parade" which we hope to see tomorrow night. Sometimes, it's like we live in Epcot Center at Disney World. So far no plans to go away but we'll see what Tuesday brings. I am off to brave the grocery store since things will be crazy for like the next two days.
Oh and let me tell you, we are offically Dutch now since we rode our bikes to school three days this week.....IN THE SNOW!!!!!
Tot ziens.
This week was another crazy week of school because it's Carnaval here. We experienced it first on Thursday, dressing up with our kids at school. I also linked the wesite to the blog. The kids looked great and I wore a blue wig :) courtesy of Suzanne. Then, yesterday we had a professional development day and at 5:00 had cultural time and as a staff all went for drinks and dinner in town. It is already really crazy here. Someone said it will be like living inside a night club for a week. All the bars/restaurants have their tables pulled out and no chairs so they can cram more people in and people overflow into the streets even. There's lots of singing of old fashioned Omm Paa Paa songs as Catherine calls it. And lots of clinking of beer glass/mugs. We had dinner at a nice Greek restaurant and by 10;00 Matt and I were exhausted and ready to go home. Even now I can hear the beat of the music playing somewhere nearby and I wonder how we will be able to sleep tonight? I asked my friend Joey what the average person spends on Carnaval and he said about 300 euro, just for food and beer. It offically lasts from Sunday to Tuesday but everyone started drinking last night. Everything is decorated with red, yellow, and green, along with lots of clowns and confetti. The best part, which I can't wait for, is supposed to be the parades. People all belong to a float group and they start working on the float and costumes in October. Some of the things we have seen already are SO beautiful. Our friend Audrey is in a group that walks in a "Light Parade" which we hope to see tomorrow night. Sometimes, it's like we live in Epcot Center at Disney World. So far no plans to go away but we'll see what Tuesday brings. I am off to brave the grocery store since things will be crazy for like the next two days.
Oh and let me tell you, we are offically Dutch now since we rode our bikes to school three days this week.....IN THE SNOW!!!!!
Tot ziens.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Ice is not our friend!! The weather here is crazy!!! We had inside recess for the first time today because they playground was TOO ICY to play on, that's a bit weird.
On a happy note, we've made some new friends who are our age. Matt and Sarah are two missionairies here from the states. They just meet each other here and are friends, working with an older couple here. They are seeing what the need is and hope to start a church. We met them at our church and then invited them over for dinner the next day. :) It was a total God thing. I was just telling Matt at church how I wasn't good at making friends and as I was saying this, he was walking towards them and saying hi. Then next thing I knew I was inviting them to dinner. We are excited to see where these friendships will go and how they will fit into our church or we in their church. We are also excited because are going to help start/lead a worship team at our church. We are going to A.dam on Saturday for a worship conference with some people from our church. Yes, I volunteered to get up early. Ugggg..
School continues to improve and we are all getting excited because Carnaval (equvivalent of Mardi Gras) is coming up the week of the 15th. For Dutch people this means loud music, parties in the streets, and beer. Even better for us....a week off!! We are looking at going to a spa hotel somewhere to really relax for a few days and hope to spend a few days with our good friends Suzanne and Mathew before they become parents for the first time in April.
Have no fear... I did teach my kids about Groundhog's Day today and read a cute book I have. Thanks to my wonderful mother, I also have Valentine's decorations up in my classroom and did find some candy hearts with sayings on them here so we can do a candy heart graph. I also read some books in January on MLK Jr. They're learning :) and me too. I'll write about International Week and the amazingness of it next time.... till then!!!
Grace and Peace.
On a happy note, we've made some new friends who are our age. Matt and Sarah are two missionairies here from the states. They just meet each other here and are friends, working with an older couple here. They are seeing what the need is and hope to start a church. We met them at our church and then invited them over for dinner the next day. :) It was a total God thing. I was just telling Matt at church how I wasn't good at making friends and as I was saying this, he was walking towards them and saying hi. Then next thing I knew I was inviting them to dinner. We are excited to see where these friendships will go and how they will fit into our church or we in their church. We are also excited because are going to help start/lead a worship team at our church. We are going to A.dam on Saturday for a worship conference with some people from our church. Yes, I volunteered to get up early. Ugggg..
School continues to improve and we are all getting excited because Carnaval (equvivalent of Mardi Gras) is coming up the week of the 15th. For Dutch people this means loud music, parties in the streets, and beer. Even better for us....a week off!! We are looking at going to a spa hotel somewhere to really relax for a few days and hope to spend a few days with our good friends Suzanne and Mathew before they become parents for the first time in April.
Have no fear... I did teach my kids about Groundhog's Day today and read a cute book I have. Thanks to my wonderful mother, I also have Valentine's decorations up in my classroom and did find some candy hearts with sayings on them here so we can do a candy heart graph. I also read some books in January on MLK Jr. They're learning :) and me too. I'll write about International Week and the amazingness of it next time.... till then!!!
Grace and Peace.
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