This month was really nice and it was very quick. I did alot of things. I went to see my rotary club. They had their meeting at a farm and it was really cool. I could see my school from the farm. I go to school on the outskirts of the city and the farm was in the coutry. After we visitng the farm we went to dinner at a really nice restaurant. On wed I'm going to another rotary meeting as well. I'm not making my presentation just yet. I want to do it right. I just don't think my vocabulary is big enough yet. This meeting I am just going to introduce myself formally and attend a regular meeting.

 I've been in school. I went home sick twice. I picked up a sorta flu. For 2 days my muscles hurt really bad and I had a fever. Jose took care of me.

 I've gone out a couple of times like Dutch teenagers do. We go to pubs and to discos and dance. The first time I went with Felice ,my host sister. I've also gone with Anna Banana. Anna Banana came to see me for the weekend from Ermelo. She arrived Sat at 12 and she left Sun at 4. It was really great to see my friend again. She lives in a village so its totally different from here. We talked like no tommorrow and I showed her the city. We went out on Saturday night and we went to see the Flinestones on Sunday at the movies. Its not with subtitles but with different voices. I understood most of it. I think it was good for our dutch. I have read a chapter book and I'm reading this other one. Its called Kukel. Its a book for someone who is 9 or so. Jose and I read it together and its really great for my vocabulary. I always learn new words that way. I read a chapter a day. We've just begun writing reflections on what we've read. Its really good for my writing skills. Right now thats my weakest point of the Dutch language. I am now holding conversations and sometimes I find myself thinking in dutch. I want to say something and it just comes out. Its really cool. I think its because my family has made it very easy for me to learn dutch by not talking to me in English. I talk to the other kids at school in Dutch.

I went on another rotary event. We went mudding in Groningen. The dutch call it wadlopen. This is very dutch thing to do. Its caused by the change in the tides. When the tide is low the sea bottom is visibile and you can walk on it with guides. Host brothers and host sisters were also invited. Felice and I went. Anke couldn't imagine walking through mud. The thought horrified her and Bart was to busy with Nancy. Felice is a geology major at the University of Utrecht and she found it cool as she had already done it. I can't wait for the pictures to come back. I loved being up to mud past my ankes and you got stuck in it. You feel and got all dirty. It was great. It was fun with all the other exchange students. We got to catch up on our lives. Most of them though school was boring and pointless. I like it for the most part. 

I've bonded with my host family. I'm not looking forward to moving. Its just kinda scary for me. The idea is getting better settled in my stomach though.

 This week is PTA week. Its exam week. For my general science class the test was translatted for me or else I wouldn't have finished it. I had to spend this past weekend translating from Dutch to English the questions. Next PTA I want to take them in Dutch. This time, my family and I thought it would be crazy to do that. I can't write in Dutch very well. Not all of my exams are going to be in English. The ones that arnt I'm allowed to use a dictionary.

 This next weekend, I'm going to Haarlem. There the exchange students are having an exchange student weekend organized by ROTEX. I'm thinking about going to Utrecht on Friday so I can go with Anna to Haarlem from Utrecht. I will crash at Felices place and meet Anna when she comes from Ermelo in Utrecht. I'm not sure about it yet though. Plus it saves me like 2 hours of sleep. If I leave from Maastricht and I go to Haarlem in the same day, I have to leave at 6:30am to get there by 10am. In Utrecht I have to leave at 9 am. The train systems great. You can go anywhere with it.  

Tot de einde van October, Until the end of October, 

Corinne

 Nederland