School

So a few days ago I got a lovely little letter in the mail! It was a note from the dean of the high school I'll be going to in Holland, plus a packet of brochures and things. It was wonderful to ge to see what the school is about, even if all of the information is in Dutch and I can only understand a few words... anyway. The school is called Twickel (hee). It's quite large, with campuses in a few of the surrounding towns, but I'll be going to the one in the city of Hengelo, which is a 20 minute bike ride from my home in Borne. The Hengelo campus is known for its sports programs and its art classes, which I am very excited for. I'll be enrolled in normal courses like math, writing, science, P.E. etc. and hopefully a photography or ceramics class or something. Those credits will carry over to my Alaskan high school as pass-or-fails, which basically means if I pass the class (even if it's a D-) then it doesn't affect my GPA back home. nifty! This is excellent because I'm going to be spending most of my time figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing, let alone how to actually accomplish the work. 

The grade level system in the Netherlands is a bit different than it is in America. Instead of everyone going to school kindergarten though twelfth grade, once a student reaches high school they get to choose what to study. Vocational-type schools are for people preparing to enter the workforce (as I understand). The other choice, HAVO schools, are for those who want to persue higher education - university, grad school etc. Twickel is a HAVO school, so there will be more diverse classes to choose from. 

Overall I'm really, really excited. It's kind of odd getting to know all of this so soon because generally with AFS a student might not even have a family until days before they leave, much less know what school they're going to.  It does leave even more to worry about, though. At Homer High, we've always had really nice exchange students. Vicki, Oscar, and Panda last year and Nick, Mob, and Siina this year have been great to have around. However, there always seems to be a boundary between exchange students and permanent ones. I can totally understand that, because they tend to stick together. But I really want to be engaged at my new school, and not feel like an outsider to the best of my ability... maybe it's asking for too much, but we'll see! I think that improving my Dutch skills will end up making all the difference. 

If you want to check out my school site, here's the link. It's all in Dutch but if you go to the link on the left-hand bar that says 'Fotoreportages' there are some links to online photo albums showing students on field trips and stuff...  

http://www.sgtwickel.nl/website/index.php?ModuleSet=2