The principal welcomes us to the conference room where there is tea and coffee waiting for us. OH and these dutch cookies that are kinda like gingerbread with sliced almonds? I'm not sure but it is so hospitable that they welcomed us with anything. I felt very comfortable in this school. I learned that most of the young children will not understand English, which is upsetting because when we went into the classrooms they can't really communicate with us. The Dalton school is based off of the education theory by Helen Parkhurst, which was neat to hear about. In this school teachers are able to make choices and need self-reliance from the students an also cooperation. This school may be nontraditional, but it's still funded by the government, which is amazing to hear. A school comparable in the US would cost a TON of money! One difference I noticed that this principal mentioned was that substitute teachers need to be arranged long before they will be absent and then need to send out a letter to the students' parents. I find this to be completely insane because teachers should have the ability to cancel last minute when sick. Apparently, the parents in this school community are very demanding and hold the school to high expectations.
Then we went on a tour of the school. I remember one of the tour guides spoke four languages. It was so amazing!! :] The pair of tour guides were students in the school so it was interesting to get their own opinion of the school. We saw the classrooms, the gym, the art room, and the library. When we went into the classrooms the kids weren't phased by our presence at all, which was incredible to see. They barely noticed us! During the tour we saw a dutch poster about Autism and ADHD, which described the typical behaviors of each disorder. I think this is amazing to keep these disorders open to the students to see so they can understand them a little more. It seems like in the US that the students get labelled with disorders but are not explained to the student population as a whole. It was interesting to compare this elementary school to mine as a child. It was much more dynamic, colorful, and fun than what I can remember from my experience.
We left the school and got ready to leave Amsterdam and move on to Maastricht! I was excited but also nervous because I've heard that Maastricht may not have a lot to do. We are staying in a castle and is called the Teaching Hotel and is run by a nearby university, to prepared students for running a hotel. I saw some pictures of the rooms and they seem out of control! The designers of the rooms are pure CRAZY! I'm sure I'll feel like a princess in the castle because I pretend I am a princess lots of time. On the bus I did some of my journal and then when I went to take a nap at 2:15pm….we were at a rest stop in Holland that had AMAZING food. We were allowed to buy as much as we wanted to…let's just say we all looked like fat Americans! haha I was SO full. I had a banana yogurt small smoothie, a cup of chicken soup, and a salad filled with yummy veggies like carrots, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and croutons. YUM I had a piece of bread. DARN, I've been doing pretty well with eating healthy! ;) Overall, I was quite impressed by the rest stop food! YUM! Can this restaurant please come to the rest stops off of 95!!! It would make the drive from NY to MD a million times better! It was better than Panera Bread and I do love their food! As soon as I returned to the bus I went to bed for an little over 2 hours and we woke up at Maastricht! I felt SO lost and confused…but the hotel was AMAZING!!! It's a gorgeous castle with rooms that were UNREAL! We took a tour before dinner and it was great seeing everyone's bedroom. I am living with Amy again and we got this rustic cabin looking room with soft beds. I let Amy get the big King size bed because she's been having a rough time and also because she moves around a lot in her sleep.
After the exploring of the rooms, we had a sit down dinner at the hotel. WOW a four course meal after that rather large lunch. AHHH this trip is killing my diet. I decided to sit next to Emilie D. and ordered the vegetarian meal because the original meal had raw beef and two seafood dishes. I had tomato and mozzarella, pear potato soup, cucumber and veggies, and for the main dish it was pasta with veggies and then an egg and potato thing. There were many more details but of course I couldn't remember all that stuff, but what I can remember is the delicious dessert!! :D It had ice cream, vanilla, and chocolate moose, and this chocolate treat. It was to die for…once again, my poor diet! ;) It was nice talking to Emilie, Dana, and Matt- I got to learn about other people on the trip for the 2 and a half hour dinner. I ate so much today, that I am shocked I am not sick. Oh well!
After dinner, I went back and wanted to die from all the delicious food. Christina and Anna came over and were all having a wonderful time!! We are a fun group and we can be ourselves with one another. Emily and Annie came over and Emily was SO drunk, she was so touchy and funny. She told me that I am such a "nice girl" and that she loves my hair and I look like a "soccer mom." haha I couldn't believe that comment because I love my hair but I am not holding anything against her. Christina and Anna left to straighten their hair and Emily, Annie, and of course Amy stayed and chatted. We actually spoke about god and I learned a lot about all of them! It was super nice, because I like all of the girls and all the boys I know!! :D The girls left around 1:30am, so much for going to bed early…haha The days sure start early and end late. Can't wait to explore Maastricht tomorrow!!
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