Netherlands Erasmus 2016: "Adulting" and Touring

Week 5 (22/02/16 - 28/02/16)

In my last post I wrote about how this is becoming an easier process as the weeks go on, I take that back. This is only an easy process when you have an idea of what you would like to say. Yes, every day I am living in a different country and experiencing a different life to home but when you just have another standard week like the one before where you wake up, survive and then go to sleep again it's hard to pinpoint the aspects of the week worth sharing.

I've found over the last 5 weeks a phrase I regularly utter to myself is, "I don't want to adult today". Yes I am 21 years old and technically an adult but over my 21 years of life I think I've maybe cooked myself a maximum of 10 meals which didn't involve Super Noodles, sandwiches or cereal. I've never even turned on a washing machine never mind actually completed a wash and quite pathetically I've never really been in charge of my own money. But now that's all changed and it's been a steep and bumpy learning curve. I'm doing weekly shops and cooking for myself every night, I'm budgeting and paying my own rent and as of yesterday I have successfully completed 3 washes without changing anything's colour or shrinking anything to an unwearable size (a mistake my mother would still make on occasion). Although these may seem like trivial tasks to other accomplished adults I still find these to be stressful and exhausting and I have a new found respect for all the adults of the world who have been doing this for much longer than I have.

Classes took an interesting turn this week. "Dutch Multicultural Society" became very anthropology based and we discussed mental programming and the idea of taboo categories in different cultures. "Innovative Dutch School Systems" was much of the same as we learnt about the other 2 educational reformers we will be focusing on, Maria Montessori (1870-1952) and Helen Parkhurst (1887-1973). Within "International Baccalaureate" we continued our work on backward planning and began our learning on how to create a rubric which I can see will be a very useful skill when teaching in regards to assessment. I blundered my way through another "Dutch Language and Culture" lesson and finally we did our first excursion out of the classroom for "Places of Memory" which involved a walking tour of Leeuwarden, this probably being the highlight of my week. We missed the tour of the Leeuwarden on the first day of the induction week as we were still travelling however I imagine it wouldn't have contained the same locations or knowledge of the culture and place that our tutor was able to offer us. He made it very clear that Leeuwarden and Friesland is extremely multi-cultural and has for many centuries (with a few hiccups along the way) encouraged religious freedom.

Next week is spring break which means lazing around and hopefully a trip or two, but I'll write about that next time.