Amy
Renes is living 5.5 kilometers from school in Holland, and she
pedals a bike back and forth every day.
In my teenager mind, school is not a place; it is a life process. Eat, breathe, and go to school. You make friends at school, feign consciousness during class, and spend nights studying. After family and church, school is at the heart of life. I guess that means I have just had a heart transplant.
Heart transplant is overly drastic, but as I round off my first month in the Netherlands, I continue to make adjustments in my new school. New is definitely the word of the year. This new school is Ulenhofcollege, the place where I will spend the greater part of the year, learning alongside other Dutch students of Doetinchem.
Amy
Renes is living 5.5 kilometers from school in Holland, and she
pedals a bike back and forth every day.
There was plenty to be done after my arrival and plenty for me to learn about my new schooling. Picking a school was on top of the to-do list. Doetinchem is a large city of forty-thousand, with three schools. My parents had already had contact with each one, asking about their ability to take a new student. Ulenhof, a school with a Protestant background, was willing to take me.
The first time I saw my school, my host mom and I went for a meeting with some teachers. After a twenty-minute, labyrinth-worthy bike ride, we pulled in from the street. The first look at my school. I saw a few cars and an entire parking lot of bikes. Out of the eight hundred students of my school, almost all of them ride bikes.
At the time, I could not believe that none of my classmates had a car, when so many of my classmates in Sioux Center depended on cars. My host parents explained this difference to me; in Europe, cars are expensive, and though it is easy to complain about gas prices in the U.S., European gas prices are even higher.
After seeing the parking lot, I had more things to learn about my school. The building did not seem to stray far from a scholarly appearance with tan brick walls. I was, however, surprised to see that my school was a three-story building. This is probably because space is so valuable in the Netherlands; buildings go up instead of out.
Once inside the school, I barely had time to notice all the places I would become so familiar with later. After being whisked into an office across the campus, we sat down with some teachers, I tried to listen to some Dutch, and then I explained which classes I wanted to take.
It was time to fall back on my lesson about the Dutch school system. A few days before my host sister had explained the school system to me. The system is completely different from the American system so the explanation took a lot of time and a complex diagram. In short, children of about twelve leave primary school to go on to their secondary education. For the first few years, students will take the same basic classes and then decide their further course of schooling. They must make a choice among three options, which lead to different types of colleges or universities. The first path takes the least number of years and is mostly for vocational studies. The next two take more time and are designed for higher education.
Amy
Renes is attending Ulenhof College in Doetinchem, Netherlands. The
words under the school name literally translate to Protestant
Christian Community.
Because job decisions are made so early, students take classes that follow very specific tracks. Thinking of my interests in math and science, I told the teachers at my meeting I would prefer those types of classes.
On my first day of school, I received a schedule with plenty of science and math. I saw chemistry, biology, general science, physics, and math. It shocked me to see a schedule with classes I might take in four years of high school, rather than all in one.
Along with my science classes, I will be taking Dutch, English, music, religion, and gym. It will be plenty to handle through the year, especially considering I need to learn a language at the same time.
With everything I still need to learn, there is one thing I can keep thinking; it will come. I have a lot to learn, but I also have plenty of people who are willing to teach me. The teachers and students of Ulenhof and my host family have already been extremely helpful. As for me, I just need to be patient. In time, I will learn Dutch, make friends, figure out my schedule, and do more class work. As for eating and breathing, I think I can find some time after class.