Castricum: Rotex Weekend

Here are a few pictures I took while in Castricum, Netherlands with the other exchange students. We did things like make our own cheese, we tried smoked eel (which is delicious), played games and just had fun. It got boring sometimes, but in the end the weekends always turn out to be great!

Wie Ben Jij, English Translation

Here is the English translation for Wie ben jij? This is a literal translation so it does not match with the rythm of the song!

My name is Jan
I am born in the Netherlands

My name is Herman
My last name is Van Doorn

I am Hassan
I am born in Africa

I come from Iran


(CHORUS)
Who are you?
What is your name?
Where do you live?
Where do you come from?

Who are you?
What is your name?
Where do you live?
Where do you come from?

I am Arman
I am born in Asia

Mrs. Van Dam
My first name that is Hannelore

I live in Amsterdam
I was also born there

Peter is my name


(CHORUS)
Who are you?
What is your name?
Where do you live?
Where do you come from?

Wie Ben Jij?

This is a very simple Dutch song and one of the first that I learned in The Netherlands. It uses very simple Dutch. You should be able to figure out what they are saying. If you don't than you can look at the english translation posted. The Dutch lyrics are under the video. Enjoy!



Dutch Lyrics:

Mijn naam is Jan
Ik ben in Nederland geboren

Ik heet Herman
Mijn achternaam die is Van Doorn

Ik ben Hassan
Ik ben in Afrika geboren

Ik kom uit Iran
Aangenaam

(CHORUS)
Wie ben Jij?
Wat is je naam?
Waar woon jij?
Waar kom jij vandaan?

Wie ben Jij?
Wat is je naam?
Waar woon jij?
Waar kom jij vandaan?

Ik ben Arman
Ik ben in Azie geboren

Mevrouw Van Dam
Mijn voornaam die is Hannelore

In Amsterdam woon ik
Daar ben ik ook geboren

Peter is mijn naam
Aangenaam

(CHORUS)
Wie ben jij?
Wat is je naam?
Waar woon jij?
Waar kom jij vandaan?

My School- Schedules

School here in the Netherlands is rather different than back in the States. The school I attend here is called Gymnasium Felisenum. There are about 700 students that go there. It is a little smaller than what I am used to. I am placed in the fourth grade here, which sounds strange since I would be in the 11th grade back home. The courses I take are History, Math, Geography, French, Drawing, Economics, English, and Gym. That is a rather small schedule and I only have 22 hours of school in a week. To me the scheduling is one of the biggest differences. At my school back home everyone starts school at the same time 8:00 am. We have a homeroom then go to our classes, with only one break, being lunch. Then we are all done with our classes at 3:10 pm. We also have 7 periods in a day and we have the same classes everyday at the same time.
At my school here in the Netherlands almost everyone's schedules could be different. You can choose your own classes once you are in the fouth grade I believe. Here people start with classes at different times of the day and end at different times of the day. Some days people may only have 2-3 classes and other days they might have 7-8. There are 8 class periods at school here. With my schedule I start at 8:30 am on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, but on Wednesday I don't have my first class until 11:15 am!! Then sometimes in your schedule you have a period with no class at all so you can just hang out in the school or you can leave the school and do something. I was really not used to this sort of system when I first came here. There are also 3 breaks during the day that everyone has. One in the morning, noon, and afternoon. The longest is 20 minutes. These are the times that you can eat since almost everyone brings there own food. The school dosent't have a typical cafeteria like schools in the United States. It just has a little cantina where you can buy a sandwich or drink.
Hopefully this helps you understand about my school here. At least the schedule.
I personally think that it is better in America. I think because first that is what I'm used to, but also because I think that all of the breaks during the day are useless. At first I think most kids would like them, but after a while they get boring and they just make the day longer.

Wintersport 2

I haven't updated lately, but I've been rather busy. Last week there was a vakantie (vacation). I talked about going on wintersport with my host family before and learning to ski. My school was also going on a wintersport so I thought it would be good to go again. There were 51 students all together that went. They were just from the 3rd and 4th classes. We went to Austria in a town called Maria Alm. It was really nice. We stayed in a hotel with rooms that fit 8 so I got to know the kids in my grade pretty well. I'm in the 4th grade here. (I'll explain the school system later). Since it is nearing spring there wasn't snow everywhere though.. Because of that, the first day of skiing sucked. It was mostly just ice and piles of the fake snow everywhere. Everybody was falling that day. It snowed the 2nd and 3rd days which made it so much better! It was only my second week of skiing, but I have already fallen in love with the sport. We did more than just skiing though. We did Apres ski 2 nights. Another night we went to s ski show, which was just the ski instuctors doing different skiing patters and tricks coming down the slope. It was pretty impressive. We also did night skiing and went to a really nice swimming pool another night. There were multiple pools there with heated water and a water slide. There were also pools outside that you could go to. I never saw anything like it before. I was pretty sad to leave Austria again. I think it is the best country that I have been to so far! I wish I could still be skiing too!! All in all it was a great and fun week and it gave me a chance to get to know the kids better and for them to get to know me better. I think it was the best week of my exchange year.

My Town

I arrived in the Netherlands on August 16, 2010. So I've been here for over 5 months now. During my year here I'll be living with 3 different host families. They all live in the same general area, but are actually in 3 different towns. I'm already living with my second host family in IJmuiden. My first family was in Velsen-Zuid and my last family is in Velserbroek. IJmuiden is the largest of the three. It's in the province of North Holland. IJmuiden is a fishing and sailing town and is located next to the North Sea. Unlike most towns in the USA, there are no big stores like Wal-Mart, where you can get everything at once, but there are smaller stores that are specialized in what they sell, like vegetables or meat. There are regular grocery stores too. The most popular one here is called Albert Heijn. One of the largest clothing stores here is H&M. That's just a little bit for now. I will tell more about it later.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is a small country located in North-west Europe. It's bordered by Germany, Belgium, and the North Sea. My state of Pennsylvania in the United States is more than twice as big as the Netherlands. The main language is Dutch. The government is a constitutional monarchy and as of now they are governed by Queen Beatrix. The capital is Amsterdam. Other big cities are Utrecht, Rotterdam, and The Hague. Most people associate windmills, cheese, tulips, and clogs to the country. Then when it comes to Amsterdam most people I know only think of the sex and drugs in the city, but there really is more.