The Lord Bless You and Keep You

This is one of the songs that our school's choir will sing in our wedding service. They'll sing it a little slower, though. I think this version is a little fast.
Long live YouTube!

It's over!

This is a little video of me, singing Van Jonge Leu en Oale Groond (what do you think, Janneke?). It's the leader theme to a popular tv series here in the Netherlands.

I'm pretty proud of my exam. I passed, my grade was 6.5 out of 10. That doesn't seem very high (5.5 is passing) but that's ok. I agreed with the comments the jury made. After I "messed up" (ie played some wrong notes) I got a little tense and found it hard to relax and let the music flow. And that could be heard. But the jury also said that they could hear I had made a lot of progress in four years. When I started the conservatory I was terrified to play in front of musical people, and the slightest wrong note could make me panic (not exaggerated!). Now, I started a piano piece but noticed it was a little too dark. So I stopped and asked the light technician to give me some more light, and then started over. And that went well!
Considering the fact that three months ago I still slept about sixteen hours a day, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. And I'm so glad this is over!! Now all I have to worry about (college wise) is my thesis and 2 small assignments and then June 29 will be my graduation date!

Very close

Monday the 21st is the date of my final practical exam. I've been very worried and stressed about it, but now I'm pretty confident. Monday night we had the dress rehearsal and last night was the last walk through. It didn't go very well yet, but that's why they were rehearsal. The teacher that guides me told me he was confident and he thought it was a good exam. My piano teacher told me she had never heard me play like I did in four years, and she had never expected me to come this far! Boy was I flattered... And I know I'll pass, otherwise my teacher would have told me to cancel the exam.
Even though I've had sleepless nights and worries, today was a stress free day. M and I worked in the garden. I planted tomatoes, peppers and zinnias that I had sown eight weeks ago. I sowed radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, leeks and planted potatoes. I've noticed before that working in the garden soothes me. I think I'll be ok. It's only an exam, it's not the end of the world...
(And those of you that have been following me closely know that it's a big step for me to say this!)

Green

You Are Mint Green

Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well. Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations. You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life. Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!

What Color Green Are You?

Little update

Because M was paged by the fire department, and other than the depressingly awful Euro-vision Song contest there's nothing good on TV, here's a small update on the life of Nicolien...

- I'm counting down to my practical exam. Monday 21 May at 19:00 (OK, 7 PM) my final musical exam will take place. I'm horribly nervous and practicing every day. The day after tomorrow I have my last regular rehearsal and Wednesday will be the dress rehearsal. Thank goodness we'll have 2 days off because of Ascension Day, so I'll have some time to relax (or totally stress out) before the big day.

- June 1st is the due date of my thesis. I only have 20 pages so far (need about 3 times that amount) and I'm not satisfied at all so far, so there's loads of work to be done. But when? Oh, that's right, I had a long weekend to relax. I guess I'll have to use that. And the nine days after my practical exam as well.

- I mailed out our wedding invitations today. That was 110 envelopes that had to be addressed, as well as 110 cards that had to be folded. Why did we choose such a complicated invitation? Because it was pretty. We have the second meeting with the minister on Tuesday.

- I took 2 days off school this week because of the stress level in my mind and body. I could tell I was getting unusually tired again and anything could make me cry. That's why I went to my assistant principal and told him how I felt. When he asked me how he could help, I told him 2 days of sleep would do me good. So he gave me 2 days off! Too nice for words. I did sleep, but I also worked for my exam. It was some good catch-up time.

Well, so much for playing catch-up with you. Lots of other interesting things happened, but I don't feel like typing too much. It's time for a glass of white wine and some chips (I know that's not a sophisticated combination but it does taste good). If I don't write a lot the coming weeks, the above post must have explained why.

I wish I was a chicken

Despite the wonderful summery weather, my head has been pretty stormy lately. So many things have been going on, and it's hard to keep track of everything. The short version:
This week I had to go to my college town 4 nights. Monday and Tuesday three of my friends had their final music exams, Wednesday I started rehearsals for my own exam (which is scheduled for 21 May) and last night I went to a friend's house for dinner and help on some exam arrangements. Of course I played the piano (almost) every day to prepare for my exam, and did voice exercises.

On top of that, we also met with the priest, set up an appointment to meet with the minister, picked out and ordered our wedding invitations, picked out rings and flowers and did some other random wedding prep work.

Just so we wouldn't get bored, we also gathered paper work for the mortgage company (unbelievable how much stuff you need to sign and copy). Oh and of course I had my last practical day for my thesis, and did a bunch of reading and writing.

I think I remember teaching school too, and doing housework.

I remind myself that in a month from now, my practical exam and most other stressful things will be over. After that it's just preparing for the wedding and enjoying the summer. But so many things have to be done before that... Please think of me and forgive me if I don't write as often as I usally do!
And yes, I still schedule nap times and lay-out-in-sun times and try to enjoy them without thinking too much of the things I have yet to do.
I wish I was one of my chickens, then all I had to do was eat, sleep, drink and make an occasional egg...

Too busy

Sorry folks, I'm too busy to blog actively at the moment. I'm studying and working and I'm still tired too... I'll catch up soon, I promise!

Proud

Inspired by Ashleigh at Stitched in Holland, I took this picture. Call me crazy, old-fashioned, weird or silly, but looking at this just fills my housewifey heart with pride and joy.
Can't wait to sleep between the air-dried sheets!

My fireman

When I drove home from work yesterday, I noticed big black clouds of smoke coming from a campsite close to our town. I thought of M: he would probably be paged because it was a fire in our municipality. As I got to our house and parked our car, M came running to me. "Can you take me to the fire? I missed the truck, I was too late." So off I went, with him.

At this campsite (which is also sort of a trailer court, because most people there have a trailer that they use as a weekend house) one of the trailers had caught fire. The person in the trailer had started to cook food, but then fell asleep. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt but as you can see the trailer was totally ruined.

M jumped out of the car and I helped him put on his suit. He ran off but asked me to wait, so I parked the car and waited. Because I had recently bought a new cell phone with a pretty good camera, I decided this was a good moment to give it a try. It was interesting to see him work (isn't he a cool fireman?) and to see what all happened. Because of the long Easter weekend, lots of people were at the campsite and they all came and watched. It was an interesting crowd of people.

If you're interested in all the pictures, click here and click on "view as slideshow".

Small town

The town I live in is a small town. There are about 2000 of us so it's a pretty close-knit community. Of course my M is involved in both the fire department as well as the shooting guild so we know a lot of people. But the people we don't know, are usually friendly too. We try to contribute to the community.
This afternoon I was studying in my back yard (I had to enjoy this sunny 19 degree (70F) day) when I heard the girl next door cry. She's 9 and considers herself a big girl, so when she cries something is wrong. I heard her talk to an adult voice and say: "but Mommy said she'd be home, and I have the key but she bolted the door and now I can't get in!". The adult said: "Why don't you use my cell phone to call your mother and ask her what time she'll be home". I decided to walk over and see if my assistance was required. She was on the phone and said: "Mommy, Nicolien is home, I'll go over to her house and wait for you" which of course was ok. So I took her home, gave her some lemonade and a cookie and listened to her story of her day. And by the time she was cheered up her mom was home.

Today I took a walk after dinner. The weather was still awesome (I didn't even need a jacket!) and the days are getting longer and longer, so I decided to get some exercise. I walked on the dykes by the river and enjoyed the view. I heard lots and lots of birds sing. I noticed that tulips are popping up in many gardens, and some are already in bloom. The narcissi are everywhere (there's hardly a garden without them) and everything seems to be sprouting and budding.
I had such a good time during my walk! People walked their dogs, their children or - in my case - themselves. And almost everyone I encountered greeted me. Some didn't, but that was ok too. When I got home I decided that I love living in this town. And I love the fact that it's spring again.

Mmm

I love Quizgalaxy.com. But this one was weird:

Nicolien -- [adjective]: Visually addictive 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Egg salad

After my last -pretty heavy- post (thanks for your comments!) it's time for something a little lighter. I thought a recipe would be in place, since M had his birthday on Wednesday and we're having a party for him tonight. I celebrated my birthday with a recipe too.
This is one of the snacks I'll be serving.

M's birthday egg salad
You will need:
- 5 hard boiled eggs
- a minced onion
- pepper, salt, curry powder
- a little ketchup (about a teaspoon)
- mayonaise
- a tablespoon of yogurt
- a tablespoon of sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis)

Boy, this recipe is easy this time. Cut eggs up and throw together with the onion. Add everything else to taste. Easy and great!

Boy/girl

Even though I sometimes consider myself a pretty experienced teacher (is that ok after 3 1/2 years?) something happened a few weeks ago that I had never seen before, and won't easily forget.

In one of my wonderful second year groups, one of the girls announced that she is no longer a girl, but wants to be a boy. She had had thoughts about becoming a boy ever since she was seven years old (she now is 14) and had made the decision to change her name and appearance.
I had already heard some gossip about this, but decided not to pay too much attention to it. After all, if it was true, her mentor would inform me. And so she did. Two weeks ago we were informed that Anna (name changed of course) was to change her name to William. The teachers were asked to call her that and pay attention to her (or his?) wish to be approached as a boy. So no more "Hurry up young lady, get your book and start to work!" but rather: "Hurry up, get your book and start to work!".

Even though this situation seems weird, I'm already used to it. The kids in her class are handling this wonderfully and this has really calmed her down. Her behavior had been going through the roof lately, right before she made her announcement. Thank goodness she's in a wonderful class (I know I already said this but I love them). Any other second year group would have picked on her horribly. Not this group. They say things like: "Hey Billy, come on!", "Look Miss M, this is my brother" (for some reason 13 year olds like refer to each other as siblings when they get along well).

Isn't this an interesting situation?

Cats

Isn't this a too cute picture of my cats?

My week

In the past week:
- the weather was awesome;

- we finalized our mortgage;
- I went from teaching 9 hours a week to teaching 12 hours (almost back at my regular 15);
- we spent the week-end to my grandpa's who lives by the North Sea, because he turned 94;
- I graded lots of papers;
- I took some more walks by the river and took some more pictures of the high water level;
- I worked in the garden for the first time this year (and how lovely it was to be outside again);
- I did lots of laundry (which was all dried outside, oh how I love the smell of air-dried clothes);
- I actually cleaned my house (hadn't been done in too long).

I'm sure you will now understand why I haven't been online much! I've been doing so many things, while trying to keep in mind that I'm still sick and need to rest. So I've also carefully scheduled nap times and reading times, which works well for me.
Spring is in the air and I love it!

Energy

My blogging frequency has gone down (again). I've been going back to work half days, and it turns out to cost a lot of energy. After teaching 3 periods I usually go home and sleep for at least an hour, sometimes two. I do love going back to work, though. All my music classes changed, because of the second semester. I have some new groups and a few that I know from last year. They're all pretty enthusiastic, and the one that I had last period on Friday topped it all. It's a second year group (eighth grade), which hasn't been my favorite year to teach so far. Usually the first years are so much easier excited and they seem to express their enjoyment more. But this group is an exception. Monday I met them on the stairs, and they said: "Miss M! Music on Friday, we can't wait!". Thursday I saw them and some said: "we're looking forward to tomorrow Miss". Well, so was I.

When they walked into my room Friday, it was like they had never left, even though the last time I taught them was in June. I gave them some info on the 2nd year curriculum, and then a boy asked: "can we sing now?". So we did some warm-ups and I taught them a song. That was all I had prepared for the day, but the period was only half over when we were done! I was able to squeeze in some glockenspiel playing too, combining what I usually do in 2 lessons, into one. That was a wonderful way to end the week and start the week-end, believe me!

Yesterday, M and I went on a bike ride. The weather was lovely and we covered 15 km (9.3 m). I was tired, but it was fun. We live close to a river, it was beautiful to see the water level. It's risen a lot because we (and Germany)'ve had so much rain lately. The trees have wet feet and it was lovely to see the sun reflect in all that water.

Doesn't this picture look like one of those standard desktop wallpaper backgrounds? It's not, M took it with his phone. The Dolomites are beautiful...

Dolomites

A few skiing statistics.... (sorry, no photos yet. We only took 8 on the digital camera and they didn't turn out very well. We'll have to check some of the other's photos and have them send them to us).Thanks to the amazing people at http://www.dolomitisuperski.com/ who keep track of everything you do with your skipass...
- I skied 179 km in 8 days. That's 111 miles for all you Americans.

- I took 97 skilifts.
- I covered a total of 29369 m of height difference. That would be 32118 yards.
- I lost my clip-on sunglasses twice while getting in a chairlift, but got them back both times.
- I gained 2 kg, or 4.4 lbs. But muscle is heavier than fat, right?

So much for the statistics. We had an awesome week. Both the busrides went fantastic, the skiing was great (good snow and lots of sunshine, which did turn the snow rather soft in the afternoons). I didn't fall too many times and I was able to ski until about 13:30 every day, after which I would eat lunch and slowly ski back to the hotel. Then I'd take a shower and a good long nap. I felt really good and people at work told me yesterday that I look a lot better than two weeks ago. But that's probably the tan, too.We were with a group of 21 people, so we had lots of fun at dinner and playing games at nights.That's the short version. I really need to iron and do some school stuff now. But I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for too long...

Bye bye

I'm gone skiing. I'll be back in a week or so!

Work, study and vacation

You may have noticed that my blogging frequency has gone down. That's a good sign: it means that I am spending more time on work and study.

I went back to teaching Dutch to a group of eigth graders of the lowest level (vmbo). It definitely costs a lot of energy, because it's a really noisy group. But they're nice kids and we'll get used to each other quickly I'm sure.Next week we have our spring break and M and I are going skiing in the Italian Dolomites (Southern part of the Alps), together with lots of family members. We're really looking forward to that! I'm sure that some outdoor exercise, combined with amazing Italian food will do me good. I hope to look better than I did last year. But if it snows like it did last year, I'll look just like this again! :)

I've also picked up my studying again. I'm working on my thesis. The main question I'm trying to answer is: "What extra skills does a music teacher in vmbo need, as opposed to a music teacher in havo/vwo?". (click here for an explanation of vmbo/havo/vwo) The reason for that is that I seem to be the only person who enjoys to work with the lowest level kids. Most graduated music teachers start in job like that, but move up to higher levels as soon as they get the chance. I think that is because they weren't properly prepared in college. That's why I will be teaching a group of third year college students, as a part of the practical part of my thesis. And the dean has so much faith in me that the students that take my class will actually be awarded credits, how cool is that?

All in all, I'm back to a busy life. Although I must say that the study discipline I used to have, isn't really back yet. Take now, for instance. I went to the computer to start typing on my thesis (I already have 2 pages) and now I'm blogging again...