week 2

Well, here it is week two with the kids and we are in our third day of full school days.

It is at this lovely time that two things have happened. The first is that The Surliest Group of Road Pavers ever have decided that this is the only week they can pave the long country road out to our school, so we get to sit in enormous long lines of parents and their kids trying to get to school. Today I saw kids running up in line to cars that were closer, and I even saw a mom letting her child pee on the side of the road. We were waiting so long, and were so heartbreakingly close to the school (literally a stone's throw away) that I thought all of us were going to pull that classic video moment (a la R.E.M) where we all just get out of our cars and start walking.

As it happened, when the line of cars finally started moving, the two construction Boss Men were deep in some kind of argument, so many people came into the school talking about the numerous and colorful explitives our kids were hearing as they slowly rode past. Emma and I were listening to "of Montreal" so didn't hear the fight but couldn't miss the cat calls coming from the workers as we and other moms and kids drove by in the line. Yay.

The second fabulous thing to happen is that the air conditioning in the school is broken. It's like 100 degrees this week and so all of us are cooking like Grandma's brisket in my room, waiting to die as we plow through the finer points of how to write reports on sea creatures. Last night, because of the heat throughout the day, I got in bed and my feet were swollen to what felt like twice their normal size, which is really charming.

Through all of this though, I get more excited about my students. They are probably the sweetest bunch of kids I've ever worked with, and once they pull their heads out of the summer haze, I think they are going to do some serious learning this year.

School

So, I'm back at school with a brand new crop of fourth graders. They are so cute and fresh, attentive and waiting for me to show them what's next. As a teacher of elementary school students, I always marvel at the first few days which are like the honeymoon period, that time when everyone is at their best and does what they are asked. My room is always really clean during this time, and this year it was filled with beautiful vases of flowers on every table.

So, I'm past the first few days now, and the honeymoon, while not over with one big fight and someone sleeping on the couch, is slowly ending nevertheless. Yesterday, I had a student tell me that she couldn't write because she was an only child. Today, it's about 100 degrees outside, and our air conditioning isn't quite working very well. I was in the middle of talking about how great California is and about to do this really fun lesson on watersheds, when a kid just yells out in the most whiny voice imaginable, "I'm hot."

Everything stopped in the room, and the kids all looked really nervous. I slowly turned from the whiteboard where I was about to draw my famous cross section of the state. I then explained to him, ticking off my ailments on one hand, that yes, I was also hot, thirsty, hungry and probably had to go to the bathroom as well, but that those things are not things that one just yells out in the middle of class. I think I made him cry and I have to call his mother tonight and explain (in the nicest way possible, and let's face it I'm sure she's heard it before) that this is just one example of other exasperating traits this child displays, but also apologize for hurting his feelings.

It's hard, because I was not at my best in that moment, that's true enough, but I do think that kids should know by the time they are in fourth grade that they can't just yell whatever they want out in the middle of class. Also, shouldn't they not have to go to the bathroom every frickin five minutes? I don't remember that being an issue last year, but this year it's like everyone has these super tiny useless bladders. It makes me crazy.

Anyway, yeah, the honeymoon is over. The good news is that now we can start to really get to know each other, with the bad and good, and that is my favorite part.

We were happy in Holland, where this photo was taken with good ol' iphoto. Now we're home and I'm at work, which is hardly as wonderful as being away, but it's nice to have money, especially since I underestimated the impact of spending so many euros on my bank account!

almost over

Wow, after such a long rash of writing, it seems I fell off the wagon for a few days. I've been travelling around a lot I guess.
It's been beautiful here, and we went to Brugge in Belgium (no talk of Mini Me, please) on Saturday and I found that the food OUTSIDE of the Netherlands is freaking fabulous.
We have had a string of great days since then, including bike rides in the region, going to the big giant flower market in Almsmeer yesterday and visiting a town that was put together specifically for fools like us to bring on home anything Dutch, including clogs, cheese and windmills all in one place, so convenient!
We leave here on Sunday, and tomorrow I have to start getting things together for the whole return home thing. It's good though, because I don't have any burning desire to visit any more old towns, see any more old clocks or old canals or old cafes or old anything. Nope, now, it's just me and a big red and white striped lifering I'm throwing out to my summer, hoping to enjoy a few days of mellowing out and living on my own time before I get home and immediately have to start at school with meetings and getting fingerprinted for the new district, meet the new teachers and watch this year's posturing begin, blah blah.

It already started via email. Someone (a teacher returning after a 4 year hiatus) did one of his favorite things, which is email an article for us to ponder about THE ARTS IN EDUCATION in the New York Times. He had a typo in the message portion of the email, and over here we made bets as to which other teacher on my staff would pick it up and publicly point and laugh at said typo via the ever lovely "reply all" feature. It was who we expected, and while I felt good, like I hadn't lost it regarding figuring out who's who in the "I'm the best one!" contest that rages on at my school, I also had the distinct sensation of wishing to go to bed for the next six months, thus avoiding the inevitable stream of inanity that will be the staff meetings and other miscellaneous jive headed my way courtesy of these people.

The Dutch just seem to drink when that happens. Perhaps I'll get a flask. For my desk.

I have really loved this time in the Netherlands, and if you ever come here, you have to come to Utrecht, where we stayed. It really is such a great town.
One thing for all you Californians though. If you ever stop appreciating the bounty of non fried, fresh organic and lovely food available in our beautiful state to you for relatively no effort on your part, you should kick your own ass.
Seriously, if I ever see another french fry, I may throw up, which is weird, because I love french fries. I just don't want them to be my only food source. I can't wait to get home and find me some tofu, or wait. Sushi. Yeah, I can't wait for sushi.

Not so bad...

It was aptly pointed out, by one of my favorite friends, that the home exchange sounds worse and worse. He even went so far as using the quote, "you get what you pay for." It makes me realize that I have painted a rather negative picture of the whole scenario. While it's true that the house doesn't fit our original vision of the sparkling clean ultra modern Dutch home, and we see many of those as we walk around and glance in windows, the very fact that we have a place to come back to at the end of the day and cook relatively inexpensive meals in is what makes it possible for this frugal family to travel. Let's be honest, folks, the exchange rate totally sucks, at something like $1.40 to 1 Euro.

For what we do, and the choices we already have to make regarding money within this vacation, I wouldn't want to have to worry about the cost of lodging as well as other things. An example: we went to Amsterdam's Artis zoo today and it cost the equivalent of 80 USD. If we were staying at some hotel, we wouldn't have even considered doing that. As it was, I was completely reluctant to go in because I was super angry that it cost that much, but Emma really wanted to go because she thinks working with animals is her "calling" so she likes to visit zoos. (no comment on zoos in general from me, I have to bite my tongue so as not to be a dream squelcher) It was good that we went because they did have a lot of different animals there that we had never seen in person before, and they also had some funny things, like a raccoon enclosure, which was just ridiculous. But, my point is, we wouldn't have gone at all if we had to spend money on lodging. One could argue for hostels, but then if you're gonna stay at a hostel, why not just do a home exchange?

So, for all the unique challenges the house presents, it offers lots of bonuses too. There are plenty of rooms for us to hang out in, there are places to be away from each other when appropriate, and best of all it is situated in a city that I frankly prefer over Amsterdam. If I had it to do over again I would do another exchange. The Dutch are absolutely loving our house, by the way, even with all our animal friends, sweltering heat and that Sierra Nevada foothills red dirt.

Some random things

Okay, the most lame thing about this home exchange is the laundry situation. Today, I was in desperate straits, needing to wash some sheets and do another load of stuff that I wear as basics. I had already put this laundry off through the weekend, wanting to give others in the house (we share laundry facilities with 4 other households) that time to do their laundry, thinking that we would have hours and hours to do this during the week. I was wrong. It's not just that lots of people are using the machines, because that would actually be okay, if the system was efficient, but it isn't. No, instead what happens is I go down the stairs, (extremely steep stairs leading to where our "pet" rat lives I have no doubt) and find that someone's stuff is in some stage of washing in the washing machine. Oh well, I think to myself, I'll just come back in an hour or so. So I do, and now the dryer is full, but of someone else's laundry entirely, which backs up the other load in the washer I saw earlier, and now there is yet another load of new laundry in the washer.

So far, my manners have kept me from taking things out and folding them. but after waiting 9 hours today before finally washing my sheets in the machine, I reached in the dryer and started taking things out. The problem was, the clothes weren't even dry at all! So, to recap now, I have my sheets hanging in various stations throughout the house. It's 11:00 p.m. and I'm tired but the corners of the sheets are all wet, so I can't put them on my bed yet. I have no hope of getting a piece of any dryer action now, because in the time I was wandering around finding various things to hang my sheets on, four more mysterious loads of laundry were done and are waiting for the dryer that apparently doesn't work. Tomorrow I may start throwing people's clothing into the canal.

Even when I did get to the washing machine earlier today, however, I think I resembled a chimp trying to understand a new object in its habitat, because all the instructions and buttons you push are in Dutch, and none of the temperature/time settings make any sense to me. So I looked around at the machine, walked all around it, scratched my head, pushed the button marked duur and watched the door open, exclaimed with glee and did it again.

On a non laundry note, Emma and I had fun today. We went to a bakery, got amazing snacks and talked about her upcoming 5th grade year and just hung out, watching people. I also got to feel like a well kept lady for a bit, and we got gelato and walked along the canal. I'm really starting to like it here, now that I have places I go that feel good and comfortable to me.

Tomorrow is Rob's birthday. We are going to Amsterdam to meet with the parents of the woman who we did the exchange with. These people are much older, having gone through both world wars, which is no small feat because they were Jews in Holland. I look forward to asking them questions and visiting. Too bad I don't have any clean clothes, as I'm sure these folks are going to be old skool.