seventh stop: Wageningen, The Netherlands

When we arrived, we didn’t do much other than getting used to our neighbourhood again. Two days went by and we had to rent a bike so I could go to my school and collect my textbooks. Once we did, we rode to my school which was about half an hour away, which seems really close, but it’s a bit further than you think. Especially when you make several miss turns. We got to my school and of course, it was empty, but it felt bigger and more intimidating than when we came here last time. While collecting my textbooks, we met my mentor and English teacher who was very nice, and she showed me where to go the next day. At that point, I wasn’t that nervous until I got home and started to think of the worst-case scenario. For example, what if I fell off the bike path and got run over by a car or that everyone would think I was a weirdo because of my “Australian accent’’. Thankfully, it was the complete opposite.

Nearly every kid rides a bike to school so I had to too. Surprisingly it was quite a pleasant ride even with all my textbooks. When I first arrived at the classroom, I was not being myself. I was being very awkward and reserved which felt a bit odd, but during the first break I got to know everyone outside a classroom setting. I found out the class always sat together, which I think is really cute. They were super sweet and to say the least they liked my ‘’accent’’. I have no idea what they’re talking about! They were all really kind to me and seemed like an amazing group of people to be around.

I was in a bilingual class meaning the kids are Dutch, but they were learning to speak English. Some of them only started to properly learn English one year ago and they were all so good at it already. The classes were not at all what I expected. All the classes were very laid back until the teacher started talking about grading. At the school I go to (I don’t know if everywhere in the Netherlands is like this) if you don’t get a specific amount of points you don’t progress to the next year. That’s a bit crazy, but I guess it makes the students work harder. We had 2 classes cancelled so we had 2 free periods or lessons. We were exchanging stories and they thought some of the things we do in Australia are weird because they don’t do it or the other way around. Even the school bell times were way different than ours in Sydney. Here they start school at 8:20 am and finish, at the latest, at 2:25. Sometimes they even start at 9:05 and end, at the earliest, 11:00. How lucky! When the teacher is unavailable, they have a free period. No substitute. They get a free lesson. Our two last periods got cancelled so we got to go home at 11:40. When I got home I had to do a little bit of homework, thankfully not that much, but I got it done. For the first time ever I was excited to go to school the next day. One of my biggest fear was not fitting in because the kids in this class have been together for a year already but a very special thanks to Lieske, Niels, Daan, Noor and many others for making me feel welcome on my first day of school. You’re all too kind.  

On the bike ride to school, I wasn’t being that observant because I was busy overthinking and I didn’t notice all the nature we are surrounded with. On my ride home I noticed all the trees and greenery.  There was even a small lake. On my way to school! How cool is that? Our neighbourhood in Wageningen is also very pretty and is even surrounded by a star-shaped moat. We live near the city centre where there are very cute and petite cafes. You can, illegally, ride your bike around the city and look at it all. I went to bed jittering that night excited for the next couple of days of fun. 

The next day of school was a bit more school-ly. You know? We started doing textbook work, which isn’t that bad, and that’s what will be going to be in our tests. It was the second day of school and they were already talking about tests. All the kids in my class are very smart but the second day? It was very overwhelming, but whatever floats your boat. After about a week here I started to like it more and more. My dad managed to pull some strings and we will be staying here until mid-November. Meaning this is 5 moons across Europe. My friends back home were not too happy to hear this but they told me to enjoy my time here and make the most of it because it will go by in a breeze.