(This is me eating at one of my favorite pubs in Bournemouth--60 Million Postcards)
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
It has reached the month and a half mark and I only have four more weeks left of my internship before I head back to the United States. Hopefully I can try and take French classes this week while also doing office work. The trip with the students was quite long and I was really tired by the end of it especially. Lately I am not sure what to say about work and life here so far. It has been pretty good and everything the only thing is that I wish I could Skype more with family and friends.
(Here is a picture from Thursday. We all had fun ice skating. Inge, Me, and Allegra stopped to get a picture by Lorens.)
Monday, July 25th, 2011
So I am at the office for one week in Brussels and in about 5 days I will be heading back to Bournemouth. It is weird to be back here after being away for about a month. Surprisingly, as tired and directionally challenged as I am, I was able to find my way back home last night. I was really happy that I was able to get back without any problems. Right now it is difficult to tell exactly what my responsibilities are except for keeping up the company blog and then the scrapbook. There are some people that I won't ever see again after this week at the office. It is weird how quickly everything is going by and I want to make sure that I document everything despite the fact that my camera isn't working.
(Here is Inge, Allegra, me, and Lorens playing mini golf).
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
This is my last Tuesday in the office and today I feel a lot less homesick than yesterday. Yesterday I think being tired and everything was getting to me. This morning I found out that I scored A22 on the French exam that I took yesterday. This means that my level is better than zero knowledge or lower intermediate. If I do a bit better than I can be average with my French by the end of my stay here :) Sometimes I get a bit discouraged but in those moments I try to remember the words of friends or family who inspire me. Tonight I am going to see the movie the Tree of Life with Nieves. It looks like a good movie and the filming of it is quite beautiful.
We ended up not going to the movie after all because Nieve's friend Carla was too busy with different things that day, but it turned out to be okay because I was exhausted after work later that day.
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Today I am at work and thinking about once again the passage of time and how being here has influenced the way that I think about the world. Being back in Brussels has been an interesting experience and as has navigating my way through the city. Not sure exactly what to work on but I think that it will be blogging, working on gap year information, and probably checking my e-mails.
There is a lot so far that I have discovered about Gap Years and the Langues Vivantes company that I didn't understand before. Today I learned that we provide the opportunity for students to take a Gap Year in Bournemouth. It is interesting to note that with our company students can go on a Gap Year as young as 16 years of age. For the most part, students are ages 16-19 when they complete a Gap Year.
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Tonight I am going to make something for Inge's good-bye lunch tomorrow at the office. It will be her last day at the office along with my last day at the office, but I haven't been here as long as she has been. In fact, I have been in Bournemouth already longer than the office and in only two days or less I should be headed back to Bournemouth with a few more colleagues. Lately, for some odd reason I have felt extremely tired and barely able to make it out of bed. Maybe it is simply the change of scenery that makes me a bit more tired than usual.
So today I worked on some PowerPoint presentations about Gap Years and it took me awhile to get all of the slides down to a smaller size for the texts. Being at my laptop all day has been a different experience for me because I am so used to running around Bournemouth by now :) Every once in awhile it can be a bit difficult to focus but lately I have been listening to some music as I type out documents which is nice.
Tonight I am going to try and come up with something typically American as the effort is what counts the most I think. Personally I hope that it turns out alright and doesn't turn into one massive pan of undercooked chicken.
Friday, July 29th, 2011
(This is a picture taken by Yusuke, one of the interns from Japan. It is a plate with dishes from each person from different countries in the office. Wietske-Holland-Meatballs/Yusuke-Japan-Sushi/Snezana-France-Camembert & Saucisson/Nieves-Spain-Spanish Omlet, Anne-France-Quiche Lorraine)
Today we are going to prepare to go back to Bournemouth tomorrow morning and have a good-bye office lunch for Inge. It is funny how the time has passed by here as it seems that a week has already gone by me again. I haven't ever been so good at good-byes. My grandmother used to say, "It's not good-bye, it's so long until we meet again, whether that be in another life or here on Earth." That is how I have tried to view my time here and if anyone would like a postcard in the near future I will be happy to send it to them. Sometimes I retreat when I know that the end of something is near because it makes me sad to leave. I am working on remaining open though especially to everyone who has helped me grow in this experience. Not everyone has the chance to travel in the way that I have this past month and half and work in two different countries. Somehow I will be forever grateful to everyone here and also to everyone who has helped me make it to this point.
(This is the cheesecake with Speculos crust that Inge made. Lorens wrote her name in whipped cream on it :)
Saturday, July 30th, 2011
So yesterday was one of the craziest days I have had in a long time. Everyone was pretty stressed out and it is a good thing no one completely lost their cool because we had 67 students on board plus four of us Group Leaders and in fact the word crazy doesn't even begin to describe the 'adventure' we had...
Here is what went wrong that Lorens, Tifany, Inge, and I compiled:
-Drunk guy in Brussels thought he could get on bus
-No trailer--suitcases were put on seats
-45 minute wait in Thieu for the trailer (some of us debated it might have been 1 1/2 hours)
-Accident 10 minutes away from Theiu
-Police won't let the bus go
-New bus with trailer from Belgium
-3 hours waiting on Frethain car park in Calais (4:30 for students coming from Paris)
-Klarissa (me) being held for her US Citzenship (20 min wait....)
-Klarissa has to take her luggage and will be asked more questions
-Guy from ferry refusing to let us go on 6:20 pm ferry, have to wait until 7:30 pm
-7:25 PM Klarissa is set FREE!
-Ferry departure delay altogether: 5 1/2 hours
-Stinky suitcase/suitcase in toilet
-Crying bus driver
-Not working toilets
-Tifany waited 4 hours in Moss
Positive:
No worries on the ferry ride over
We had an excellent group of students that had EVERY right to complain and they didn't
Klarissa (me) did make it to the bus 5 mins before everyone was leaving to board the ferry
All of our colleagues made a concerted effort to stay calm and worked together really well as a team
Our bus driver though she had a bit of a well deserved melt down, was competant in all respects and dealt with all of these situations quite well
When we finally arrived to Bournemouth all of the students were able to get to their proper destinations
When we arrived in Bournemouth at close to 2 am, all of the other Group Leaders were awake and helping us to the best of their abilities with such great attitudes and team work
There was food at the house from the other Group Leaders and enough beds for everyone
We can all laugh about this experience now
In the future I can tell this to my Grandchildren and to my Great Grandchildren :)
Sunday, July 31st, 2011
Today was a long day with the students as I woke up at about 8:30 am and took 4 kids to Oxford and then rode with them in a taxi to their host families. All of the students were cooperative and pretty quiet this morning as they didn't get a lot of sleep last night. It was a three hour bus ride to Oxford, and I made sure that they stopped at a grocery store to buy some food for the long journey before we headed to the bus. It took one hour in the taxi to take all of the students to their destinations but all of them had warm and welcoming host families awaiting them when they came in which made me smile. When I got back to the bus station I had an hour to myself before the bus ride back to Bournemouth so I bought a sandwich, Diet Coke, and an apple and sat down for awhile in the sun before heading over to the bus. On the bus I journaled more and thought about the events that have happened to me here in Europe along with everything in my life that has lead me to this place and to these wonderful people who are my teachers here. Tomorrow I will get the chance to wake up a little bit later because each day this week one of us will sleep in as we only need two group leaders a day at each of the two schools, ETC and Westbourne Academy. Luckily the weather is getting nicer here and tonight all of us Group Leaders for the week: Kate, Lorens, Inge, Tifany, and I went to the oldest pub in Bournemouth to get drinks and discuss the weekly activities and plans for the schools tomorrow and transportation for the students.
(Kate, Tifany, and I in the Group Leader Navigator Boat. It was purple and sparkly too :) quite V.I.P. I would say :)
(Our silly faces at Christchurch)
(Students on this week :)
Monday, August 1st, 2011
So today I felt very confused about directions even though I have been here longer than the other Group Leaders in Bournemouth. We went to Christchurch today and I was the one that was being relied upon for the information on how to get there. Everything turned out okay in the end, but even though we took the right bus and everything we stopped at a different area and it took longer to walk to the church than expected because Mondays are market days and the street I was used to walking on was filled with people selling different items. Let's just say that even though climbing the rocks and riding in sail boats was fun it was a bit of an off day for me. Even though I tried to communicate pretty well I worried that my colleagues were a bit angry with me for not remembering exactly where to go and for having trouble telling the students how to behave as well. Even though I have grown a lot and I am a way better Group Leader than I was before it is still difficult because I barely know the same level of French as my colleagues and I don't speak Dutch at all either. So when students are confused about directions or they have a question that they need to ask me in French because they don't understand how to phrase it in English I don't know what they are talking about. When my colleagues speak in French I listen and sometimes still have to ask questions to understand them. Even though all of my colleagues are wonderful to work with and nice people there are days like today where I feel very left out and incompetent. It is in these moments that I take a break and try to tell myself that everything will be fine and that I just need to relax. Usually this stepping back from the situation works and at the end of the day after we all returned home and I took a nap I felt a bit better about the events of today.
(A kid named Jonas gave me the nickname Yankee earlier that day at beach games in the park, so when we went to bowling I posed for this picture like this with my Western-ish style hat).
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
After a long day of two activities I am sitting down to write about what we did today. Today Inge, Kate, Tifany, Lorens, and I went to play beach games with the students but the problem was that there want' enoug space on the beach so we had to take a different route up a long zig zag trail to the park above where we could all play games and have the students eat snacks and socialize. We organized a dodgeball game, played frisbee, and volleyball and had a great deal of fun with the students. Later in the evening we took the kids out to bowling at Bowlplex and one of the students actually scored 152, which is a pretty impressive bowling score! All of us Group Leaders were quite tired at the end of the day as we had about 50 students show up for the second activity today and about 30 for the first one. All in all we had a wonderful day and it was a lot better than yesterday as the sun was shining and we all got to know each other better by talking and competing and walking over to the park. By the time that we went to bowling the students were bonded even more with one another as they were talking together and posing for group photos.
(Beach of Bournemouth)
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
After going to do the Photo Treasure Hunt today we had the kids go to disco. We hardly had anyone show up to activities today and so it was a rather easy day. For the photo hunt we only had 9 kids show up out of 58 on our list so there must have been something going on in town today. We gave all of the kids nonalcoholic beverages and the winning team also had the chance to choose an ice cream. While the students were at the disco tonight (it was V Club this time) us Group Leaders (Inge, Lorens, Kate, Tifany, and I) went to a restaurant after getting drinks at 60 Million Post Cards (fun pub with of course, postcards) that was rather nice. Even though I had already eaten dinner at the Capital Residence at the Arts University, I still had a beets and parsnip soup. It wasn't really my taste but it was a rather lovely restaurant and it was a good time for all of us to sit down and relax.
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Yesterday we had a high turn out rate of 55 students plus us Group Leaders show up for Laser Games. It was a great day of competition and comradery with the students as they all wanted to win the game and it was rainy outside so no one went to the beach instead of showing up to activities. Yesterday all of us Group Leaders went to 60 Million Postcards again and I tried a Shroomhooloomi Burger which is a mushroom burger with grilled haloomi cheese in the middle. It is a wonderful vegetarian concoction and even though I am not a vegetarian I loved it. We also had the chance to do some shopping and make plans for the next day for ice skating and eating lunch in a pub with the sudents in The Moon in the Square.
(Here is the epic 60 Million Postcards :)
Friday, August 5th, 2011
We are going to ice skating and lunch in a pub today with the students. I am so excited to go ice skating as it was pretty fun two weeks ago when we went last. We took the kids to lunch in a pub today and they rather liked it as they had the chance to choose between fish and chips, chicken burgers, or beef burgers. We also had a lot of people show up to ice skating today which we didn't expect because there were many kids that said they might got ot the beach instead due to the unexpectedly nice weather we had.
Today was our colleague, Kate's birthday party as her birthday is technically tomorrow but pretty much all of us are going to go our separate ways pretty soon. Inge is going back to Holland to take her last exams to graduate on Monday, Lorens and Kate are done with their internships in a few weeks, Tifany will stay in Brussels at the office, and I am returning to the United States in about two weeks. Time has flown by here fast and it is neat to do something nice for Kate as she well deserves it.
Saturday, August 6th, 2011
Today Inge and I had to get up pretty early to go to London with 40 students and another Group Leader from ETC, Fabio with three of his students. There was another bus worth of other students as well but we weren't leading them through the city today. As it turned out most of the students wanted to go shopping and didn't do much of a tour but in the end they all showed up at the right meeting point by the Parliament Building so everything was okay. Originally Inge and I had planned during the free time period after the tour to go to Abercrombie & Fitch to take a picture with a half naked male model :) but the line was too long so we went to another store instead, I think that it was called Sting. Either way it was a pretty good day and we only had a little of rain. It was Inge's last day in Bournemouth and the last time I will get to see her before she heads off to Holland to finish her final exams so I said goodbye in my own way by talking with her and asking her about her future plans. It seems that people can have positive affects on each other in small ways sometimes and I am glad that I have met Inge along with everyone else here that I may or may not ever see again--Tifany, Kate, Lorens, Rebecca, and everyone at the office in Brussels.
Photos from: Klarissa Meinholtz
Yusuke Asakura
Inge Brinkman
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