Last Wednesday

Wednesday 24th of March

I woke up at 6:45am! I first thought that it was 7:45am so I was already busy getting out of bed. Then I saw on my mobile that it was 6:45am and I was so happy. I got back into bed and staid in there for another hour. At 7:45am I took a hot shower and got dressed. I didn't put on my suit like usual, because I was going with Pieter-Bas to London today. We met with each other and then we went to registration. When we walked through the Sixth Form House some people really stared at us and the matron thought that it was Mufti Day again. I thought this was really funny. Our tutor, Mrs. Wakefield, told us at registration that it was better to wait for another hour because then the train tickets would be a lot cheaper. So we waited in Pieter-Bas' room for a while. At 9:05am we went to the train station.

We went to London Waterloo. The trip took only 45 minutes. Here we bought some tickets for the metro to Oxford Circus. To get there we needed to use the Bakerloo line. We began our trip in London with walking through Oxford Street. We saw a lot of nice stores and we wanted to buy some things. Unfortunately everything was really expensive so we didn't buy anything after all. We had a lot of time in London so we decided to sit in a Starbucks. We both ordered a Frappucino. I originally thought just like most people that only girls drink this, but it tastes really good. That's why I don't really matter anymore. The waiter looked really strange at us when we ordered, I think he still believes that Frappucinos are for girls. After we sat for a while in the Starbucks we left and walked further along Oxford Street.

We then used Pieter-Bas' map to know how to get to Piccadilly Circus. When we were on our way to Piccadilly Circus we went by the Abercrombie & Fitch. When we were there with our parents it was very busy, but now there was absolutely no one. We decided to have lunch here because we were getting really hungry. At the entrance of the McDonald's some Belgium students were having an argument. This was so funny to hear. I ordered six chicken nuggets and French fries with a medium cola. Pieter-Bas even ordered nine chicken nuggets. He has eaten so much here that I really can't understand that he doesn't gain any weight. After the meal we went to Covent Garden.

On our way this woman came up to me and kept asking me for money. She said that it was for the poor children, but I knew that she was lying and would keep it herself. Nevertheless I gave some change. When we arrived at Covent Garden I recognized it immediately. We could also see some street performers. We decided to watch one doing his grand finale. He was about to do the nail sandwich. He would lie on his back on a bed of nails and one was placed on top of him. Then a Belgium guy stood on top of it. He laid there for twenty seconds, which was a new record for him. Pieter-Bas and I gave him some money then because he really deserved it. We then walked to the centre of Covent Garden. It was really busy here but we were still able to buy an Arsenal scarf. We bought the same one which would be a fantastic souvenir to our trip. After we went to a store called HMS we set off to go to the Thames. We passed by another street performer on our way. He was juggling with knifes on a six feet high unicycle.

When we arrived at the Thames Pieter-Bas could recognize some things he had seen two years ago. We crossed the Thames and then walked towards the Millennium Bridge. We had a terrific view here. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings over here and off course the Tower Bridge. When we were walking here we recalled some memories about our trip to London in the second grade. After standing on this bridge for a while we went back to search the Imperial War Museum.

It took a really long time to get there, but we found it anyway. We spend about an hour in this museum. The main focus was to show the technical developments and social life after the war. They showed a lot of movies here, and you could hear some speeches of the world leaders of that time, and we saw a lot of uniforms and weapons that were used during the Second World War. There even were some paintings about the Second World War. Some movies were made by soldiers. You could see how the soldiers lived and even when they were attacked. There were also movies which showed civilians rebuilding their houses and just helping each other out. In the sound fragments you could hear Hitler giving one of his first speeches. You could also hear a speech that was given by Stalin to the soldiers. The weapons were really impressive to see and some of them we recognized from the video game Call of Duty. It was really helpful for us to visit this museum because our ANT project is about the technical developments of war. After our visit to the museum we decided to go back to Reed's.

We walked back to Waterloo station, this was about 15:20pm. We arrived just in time to take the 15:33pm train back to Oxshott. To make sure that it wouldn't take three trains to get back to Oxshott like when we were in London with our parents we had first went by the helpdesk. We heard exactly where and when to be to go back straight away. We were really relieved to hear that we could get back with only one train. We did have enough time however to buy some chicken nuggets and a medium cola. We took this with us onto the train and then began our trip back to Oxshott. It took 45 minutes again to get back and then we walked back for ten minutes to Reed's. We met with some Rijnlands students here and then walked back to the Sixth Form House. We grabbed our hockey sticks and then went to the hockey pitch. We played some hockey here for about an hour. Then we walked back and changed clothes. The Rijnlands students had already left by then. We played some games until the bell rang at 17:05pm.

We had spaghetti bolognaise as dinner. This was really delicious and I was quite hungry, even though I had eaten a lot of McDonald's that day. Pieter-Bas and I talked a bit about our day and also about our stay here at Reed's. I find it really amazing that we are going back already. I don't really want to go yet, like I said before. But I am really looking forward to see my family and friends again.

After dinner I made my blog. It took me a lot of time to make it. To relax a bit after this I played some games. Pieter-Bas called me after a while to watch Desperate Housewives with him and some other students. During one of the commercial breaks Pieter-Bas really wanted to order a cab to get to Gatwick Airport this Friday. I called but I had some real problems with the connection. We tried to call again downstairs. I had no connection there as well. We did see the ending of Desperate Housewives then. It was really weird and I didn't really understand it. Then Pieter-Bas called from his own room. Now it did work. He had his phone on speaker mode so we more or less called together. After a lot of struggling with understanding each other we did manage to arrange a cab for Friday. This was about 23:15pm and we both went to bed after.

In bed I thought about leaving Reed's. I really don't know what to think about it. I want to go back to see everybody once again. I want to stay because this is just such a wonderful school. With a happy feeling about seeing my family and friends in just two days I fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Last Tuesday

Tuesday 23rd of March

I got out of bed at 7:40am. I immediately went to the shower and I really hoped that it was still hot. Luckily for me it was. When I was in my room I thought about the Rijnlands students that were coming today. I was really looking to this. I then went to registration at 8:15am like every single school day. Pieter-Bas and I read a lot of articles about Ajax and other important football events. We did this for about half an hour and then went to our first lesson.

Pieter-Bas and I went to religious study. We began the lesson with highlighting texts in our textbooks. We highlight almost all the texts in the book, so I don't really see the point of doing this. The texts were about getting divorced. The Roman Catholic Church has, to my opinion, a really strange view about this. They think you can't get divorced at all. After a lot of highlighting we watched a documentary. It was about 'the most hated family' of America. This family believed that America was doomed because it tolerates homosexuals. The leader was a grandpa, but all the work was done by his daughter. This mother was so fanatic with this idea that she brainwashed all her children to think the same. These children were then used to spread the word around the school. They don't have any friends at school as result. The older girls never had had boyfriends because they had no time because of their protests and meetings. The family even protested at the funeral of a war veteran. They had signs which said: 'Thank God for dead soldiers'. This was awful to read and the reason they used this line was because they fought for a nation which tolerates homosexuals. This was awful to see and a lot of people driving by were really angry about this and they had every right to this. Some of them just flipped them off and other ones called them names. There was so much hate at this protest, and I just can't believe this family. All the members are just as fanatic as the mother. I really think they are crazy. When the bell rang Pieter-Bas, Charlotte and I thanked our teacher because this was the last lesson she would give to us.

I used the short break to eat a KitKat and play some hockey. I do this every single short break but it never gets boring. I didn't even want to go to the lesson when the bell rang for a change.

I then went to chemistry. We did a practical the entire lesson which lasted for two periods. We needed to mix a lot of chemicals which would give some very interesting results. I teamed up with a student who I think didn't take the experiment that serious. We mixed a lot of chemicals, which I think weren't meant to be mixed together. A lot of colour changes happened and a lot of gas was produced. We plugged the test tube so no gasses could escape because some of them were in fact toxic. The cork however just pooped off and a cloud of smoke came out of the test tube. An amazing stench came out of it and we just fled to another part of the classroom. This happened again so we needed to flee again. Then the teacher said that chlorine gas was made. This gas was used during the First World War to kill people so he wasn't that happy about it. He also noticed that ammonia, also a toxic gas, was produced. He wasn't so happy about this but he could also laugh about this. We mixed a lot of other stuff and we just hoped that we didn't create something lethal. After the lesson I thanked my teacher because this was the last chemistry lesson he taught me. He asked me if I had learnt something and if I had enjoyed the lessons. I answered that I really loved the lessons and said goodbye.

After chemistry I had one period of music tech. We got some books at the beginning of the lesson. We revised everything class had done throughout the year. Most of it was completely new to me so I just sat there. There were a lot of pictures in this book of guitar players which had exact the same guitar like I have. This was really fun to see. The teacher knew as well that this wasn't the most enjoyable lesson for me, but I didn't really mind. He then promised me that the next lesson would be more fun. Unfortunately I won't be there the next lesson because I am going to London then. At the end I asked him if Mr. Carnegie was in because I still wanted to thank him. He told me to wait for a while, so I went back to the Sixth Form House. I played some games here because I needed to wait for Pieter-Bas before going to lunch.

We ate a Panini as lunch. Unfortunately there was no ham & cheese Panini anymore. I just ate a cheese & onion Panini instead. Pieter-Bas and I ate quite fast because we needed to be at 13:00pm at the Shell building to give a tour to the Rijnlands students. When we put away our trays we saw Mrs. de Wolf. It was a bit strange to see a familiar face again besides Pieter-Bas, Charlotte and Anneloes. We needed to go to the Shell building so we could assemble the children. When we got there the students were already gathered in a room. I recognized some of them and it was really funny to see them here at Reed's. We then needed to give a tour to some children. Pieter-Bas and I needed to give a tour to four girls. I really liked giving the tour, mostly because they were really interested in Reed's. They were already talking about going here when they are in the fourth grade. They needed to be at the music department at 13:45pm so we had quite some time. We showed them a lot of the school and they were really impressed by it. At the music department we met with the other students and we talked about how it was to be here. They were really impressed and really enthusiastic so I really had a great time with them. It must be one of the highlights of my stay here. They were about to have a music lesson, on half of the class was given a lesson by Mr. Carnegie. Before going back to the Sixth Form House I thanked him for the lessons. He was really nice to me and I knew that I will really miss his lessons.

At the Sixth Form House Pieter-Bas and I worked on our ANT project. We haven't made a lot of progress yet because we just don't have a lot of time for it. Most of the time here we have a lesson, or we learn for a test or are just keeping up with the other homework. We especially spend a lot of time to our blogs. At 16:00pm we decided to go to the hockey pitch to watch the Rijnlands students play hockey. We watched for about a minute and then played some football. Pieter-Bas and I began to play on our nice shoes, but this wasn't really working. Luckily Pieter-Bas went to his room so I could ask him to bring my Air Maxi's as well. We played football for about an hour. We saw the Rijnlands students leave and short after that we stopped playing football as well.

We changed our clothes and then waited for dinner to take place. The bell rang at 17:55pm and Pieter-Bas and I went right away to dinner. I ate Pita bread with lamb meat and French fries. It tasted really well, so it didn't take long for me to finish dinner.

During prep time I worked on my blog. When I finished this I decided to stay in the computer room and play some games. I also send some e-mails. After a while Pieter-Bas and I ordered a pizza with Eric and Nerash. Domino's has this special offer called 'Two for Tuesday'. You only have to pay for one pizza and you get two. Pieter-Bas and I shared a large pepperoni pizza. It was really delicious but it doesn't taste as good as a genuine Johnny's pizza. After eating the pizza I continued with sending some e-mails and playing games. I couldn't play for a long time because I had been busy with my blog for quite some time and we needed to go to our rooms at 22:45pm.

When I got into bed I thought about the trip to London Pieter-Bas and I were going to make the next day. I thought about what we were going to see in the Imperial Museum and if this could help us make our ANT project. I was also just hoping that everything would go according to plan. Before I fell asleep I also thought about the tour we had given that day. It just went so well and it was so much fun to do. My final thought was about going back to Holland. I actually don't want to go back yet because I enjoy it so much here. Oh well, it is not like I have the possibility to stay. I was a bit sad about this when I finally fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Last Monday

Monday 22nd of March

I woke up at 7:40am and went to the shower. My week began good as I could have a hot shower. I stood in it for a while which almost resulted in me being late. When I then returned to my room I rushed into my suit. When I was putting on my suit I thought about my school day because I need to start thanking teachers for my lessons here. I don't really want to do this because I want to stay here longer. When the bell rang I met with Pieter-Bas and we walked together to registration.

Because we had the general assembly, we didn't stay long at the registration. We went almost immediately to the assembly hall. As usual it began with Mr. Clapp talking to the sixth form. He named the activities that were going to take place. I knew that the Rijnlands students were coming that week and I was really looking forward to that. A lot of this was about the preparations the students needed to make before the Easter holiday. He ended his talk by saying to us what we would need to do during general studies. We needed to go to the lecture room because we would have a presentation here. After this the rest of the school came in. The Headmaster began with a prayer. It was about love which you receive from the people around you. It was about seeking help when you need it. The Headmaster wanted to emphasize this so that students would ask their teachers when they need help. After the prayer the Headmaster talked about the inspection. Reed's made an excellent impression towards the inspectors. The Headmaster complimented us for our behaviour, especially those who were interview by the inspectors. The Headmaster was proud of us and said that we need to behave like this in April as well because even more inspectors will visit the school. Pieter-Bas and I aren't here in April so we don't have to worry about this. He was also very proud of the actors of Sweeney Todd. He had loved it as well when he saw the musical Friday. After this the Headmaster handed out some trophies. The trophies were for the houses of Reed's. My house Mullens had won the first prize and although I have only been here for four weeks, I was really proud of Mullens. A lot of commendations and prizes were then awarded to some students. It were a lot of prizes and I was really impressed by this. This shows once again what the level of education of Reed's is. After all these prizes the students talked about the sports results. Although we had played two matches with the second team, only the match of Saturday was mentioned. We had lost this match 3-1 and we had won the other match 2-9 so I was a bit surprised that they didn't mention this game. A lot of other sports results were mentioned, even golf. I didn't even know that Reed's had golf matches with other schools. When the meeting ended I went to music tech, my first lesson.

I had my music lesson from Mr. Carnegie. This was the last lesson he would give to me so I was continuously thinking about how I could thank him at the end of the lesson. During the lesson we did a sort of revision of all the reggae styles we had talked about. That's why we listened to all sorts of styles of reggae. Mr. Carnegie made a lot of jokes again during the lesson, I really enjoyed it. Because the lesson was so much fun time seemed to fly. When the bell rang I wanted to thank Mr. Carnegie, but he was in a real hurry. I didn't really get the chance so I will stop by another day to thank him after all.

The short break began which I used to eat a KitKat. I played hockey in my room during the rest of the break. I did think about the afternoon because Pieter-Bas and I had made plans to go to Surbiton. We wanted to buy some more cola and sweets for our last week. We also wanted to go to the McDonald's. I also used my short break to learn my biology for the last time. I thought I really knew it so I wasn't worried at all when the bell rang.

I then went to my chemistry lesson. We needed to make a lot of notes during the lesson. I could barely read the PowerPoint my teacher had made so it took me a really long time to copy everything onto a piece of paper. This is also why I couldn't copy everything. The worst problem was that I didn't understand the notes. At the end of the lesson he said that we were going to do a practical the next day which I was really looking forward to. This would be the last lesson I have from this teacher. I was very happy about this because this meant that he wouldn't give me anymore notes. I still wanted to understand everything though so I wanted to ask my teacher if he could explain it once again to me, but he was in a hurry as well. That's why I had no choice other than going to the Shell building where I needed to make my biology SW.

Normally I would have religious study during this period, but Charlotte, Pieter-Bas and I didn't have to come because the other students needed to make an essay during the lesson. This gave me the perfect opportunity to make my biology SW. I went to the Shell building to meet Mrs. Lams. On my way I saw Pieter-Bas who had just made his physics test. He said that it was impossible and that he knew that he had failed. He also said that I should quickly begin with my test because it is really long. I quickly went inside and began with my test. It wasn't too difficult because I had learnt really well. It was a long test indeed so it kept me busy for a very long time. In the meanwhile Mrs. Lams went to lunch and I needed to give it to her there. When I was finished I went to the lunch room to hand it in, but I needed to pass a lot of people who were in the queue for their lunch. They all thought that I was just going in front of them for lunch so they didn't want me to pass. They all began blocking my path and saying that I was really rude. When I explained it to them and they saw me not getting lunch they were all really quiet and I think a bit ashamed of their actions. I gave my test to Mrs. Lams and then went to the Sixth Form House where Pieter-Bas was waiting for me.

When I met with him he told me that he needed to go to an extra meeting about his hockey tournament. I then waited for him in the computer room. I was constantly checking the time because I didn't want to be late for the general study presentations. At 13:25pm we needed to be in the lecture room and Pieter-Bas and I went to lunch at 13:15pm. We were really late and we needed to wait in a queue as well. We ate our pasta with tomato sauce as fast as we could so we would still be on time. We entered the lecture room at 13:28pm but the presentations hadn't started yet so we were well on time.

The presentations were about a Gap-Year. When you have a Gap-Year you decide to wait for one year after school before going to university. There were three former Reed's students who gave a presentation. Two of them talked about their Gap-Year working at IBM. They had a PowerPoint, but there was something wrong with it so you couldn't read the texts they had. I was paying a lot of attention, but it just sounded a bit boring what they had done during their Gap-Year. However, after a while they did mention that they had earned 15.000 pounds whilst they worked there. They also said that you could work at very flexible times. This made the presentation a lot more interesting. A downside of their presentation was that they were reading most of the time instead of really giving a presentation about what they had done. After a while I completely lost my focus. Then the third student began to talk. He had done something completely different. He had first saved a lot of money and worked really hard for it and then went to travel by himself. He told us that he went to New-Zeeland, Australia, South-Africa, Zimbabwe and many more countries. He told a really amazing story and he had experienced a lot. He had been bungee jumping in New-Zeeland, water skiing in Australia and he did a lot of charity work in Africa. With this charity work he had been teaching young children. He was a bit shocked though because children were still caned there when they made a mistake. He had even climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. There were also some awful experiences he had endured. He had been mugged in Africa. He lost only 40 pounds, while he had his flight information, money and passport in his backpack. Another awful thing that happened was that he needed to go to a hospital because he had malaria. He told us that it was really serious and he was lucky to survive it. What made his presentation a lot more interesting than the other one was that he really talked to us instead of reading and he showed some photo’s he had made on his journey. This was a really cool story to hear what really made me think about having a Gap-Year.

After the presentation my school day was over. I went back to my room, but then I discovered that I had forgotten my chemistry book and my file in Mrs. Lams' office. So I went back to the Shell building. Mrs. Lams told me that she had given my books to Rick, a Dutch boarder. I speak quite often to Rick so I knew for sure that I would have my books back this day. When I went back to the Sixth Form House I decided to work on a computer. I wanted to finish my blog, but it was very busy in the computer room and I couldn't focus at all. That's why I just played another game of Bubble. At 15:00pm I went to my room to change into my casual clothing. I waited on my room for Pieter-Bas. Whilst I was waiting I translated some more from my Latin texts. At 15:40pm Pieter-Bas came in and we went to the train station.

At the train station we only needed to wait for four minutes before the train arrived. It took about ten minutes to get to Surbiton. We immediately bought our tickets for the train back so we could save some time. The latest train that was possible for us to get onto left at 17:28pm, so we had a lot of time. The first thing we did there was going to the McDonald's. We both ordered some chicken nuggets, which were like always really delicious. However, the main reason why we went to Surbiton was to buy some sweets and cola for our last week. We went to the same super market we went to the other time we were in Surbiton. Because we had been there before we knew exactly where to search. It didn't take a long time before we had found everything we wanted. Pieter-Bas then said that we could also take an earlier train. We decided to do this so we arrived at Reed's at 17:30pm. I waited for dinner in my room. At 17:55pm I met with Pieter-Bas again and we went to dinner. I wasn't hungry after the McDonald's at all so I wasn't looking forward to it. We ate some noodles for dinner, but it didn't taste nice at all. I left most of it on my plate and then went back to the Sixth Form house.

During prep time I wanted to finish my blog, but first I went to my room to get my IPod. On my way to my room I heard some voices on Pieter-Bas' room. When I entered the room I saw Jack lying on Pieter-Bas' bed. He told us about a homosexual guy who stayed here at Reed's. He also wanted to know a lot about Dutch girls. After a while Thom came in as well, and after a while another guy, whose name I don't know. For some reason Pieter-Bas' room was turned into a meeting point. We just sat there and we talked a lot. It was really nice. They especially wanted to know what the Dutch girls are like. At 19:00pm we needed to do some work so everybody left. I then got my IPod and went to the computer room. I finished my blog and went to my room again. I finished my first Latin text here. The rest of the evening I listened to music and texted with Robert.

At 23:00pm I decided to go to bed. I thought about the next day because some Rijnlands students are coming by. I didn't know exactly who were coming, I just needed to wait and see. Then I wandered if I needed to change my sheets again. To find this out I just needed to wait and see as well. It didn't take long before I was asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Last Sunday

Sunday 21st of March

I wanted to wake up at 10:00am so I could do a lot of my homework. Unfortunately I overslept and got out of bed at 11:00am. I began my day with a long hot shower. Since I was already later out of bed than I wanted I decided to have a very relaxing day. After my shower I made some physics homework. A lot of my physics homework needed to be made in the workbook. I don't have this workbook with me so I couldn't do this. I made as much questions I could without my workbook, but this were only a few. That's why I was very soon finished with this.

At 11:30am the match RKC Waalwijk vs. Ajax began. I listened to it on the radio whilst making my blog on the computer. Ajax missed a lot of their players due to suspensions as a result of yellow cards. It began with a goal for Ajax made by Siem de Jong. This player is getting more and more important for Ajax. Then suddenly they made an equalizer. The ball was touched by Pantellic, an Ajax player so it was an own goal. It remained like this until the first half had ended. Suarez did make a goal in the first half, but it didn't count because he was offside. The commentators said that he actually wasn't offside so I was really angry then. Some yellow cards were given by the referee during the first half. At the beginning of the second half Suarez made his 28th goal in the Eredivisie. The score was 1-2 and from that moment I knew that we were going to win. After a long time of no goals, Ajax scored again. Actually it was an own goal of RKC Waalwijk. A ball was shot by Enoh against RKC players who then kicked it into the own goal. Only a few minutes later a RKC player got another yellow card which resulted in a red card and being sent off the pitch. Ajax was from that moment secured of the second position in the Eredivisie. At the end of the game Ajax scored two more goals. The 1-4 was made by Suarez, and it was his 29th goal in the Eredivisie. Just two minutes later Rommedahl scored the 1-5 which was the final score of the game.

I hadn't finished my blog by then because I also played some Bubble. I think I have this slight addiction to it, but I will get rid of it. I only don't know when. After the match I listened to some more music on the radio and finished my blog. After this I went back to my room to do some Latin homework. I need to translate some texts, but I don't have all my books here so it is quite difficult.

At 17:30pm Pieter-Bas came in. He was wearing a complete Reed's tracksuit. Unfortunately he needed to give everything back again. We decided to meet each other for dinner. For dinner I ate sausages with vegetables. We also had some chips besides it instead of bread. The meal tasted really good. Pieter-Bas and I sat a really long time at dinner because we had a great time. We talked a lot about his hockey tournament and about what I had done during the weekend. His story was much more interesting than mine. I didn't go to lunch that day, I don't really know why. Because of this I was really hungry because I had only eaten chips and KitKats that day. I think there was even no lunch today because I didn't see any boarders going to the lunch room that day.

After dinner I went back to my room. I didn't have to make my blog anymore so I could translate my Latin during prep time. Unfortunately we needed to go to an extra chapel service. I thought that we didn't have to wear our suits, but then Pieter-Bas rushed into my room and said that we did have. We only had a few more minutes before it would start so I quickly changed. When we got there we noticed that there were also a lot of parents. We also got a program book which said that we needed to sing a lot of hymns that service. It was no usual chapel service because the reverend began to read out loud several stories with two boys beside him who read out loud with him. Some other students would come forward and read some stories to us as well. All of the stories were about Jesus being betrayed by Judas and him being crucified. We needed to sing a lot of songs during this service and Pieter-Bas sang really badly on purpose. This was really funny, but I needed to act as if nothing was going on. This was really hard to do. The choir also sang a lot and one of my music tech teachers was the choirmaster. It sounded really good and I enjoyed it, normally I don't like choir music at all. When we had prayed together at the ending of the service we needed to sit a bit longer whilst the parents left the chapel. We were registered and told that the rooms six to twenty needed to be completely empty at the end of the week because they were going to be for let, or rent. Pieter-Bas and I both needed to do this already so this was no problem for us. After this message we were allowed to go back to the Sixth Form House.

I translated some more Latin texts and at about 22:00pm I began with studying my biology because I need to make a SW the next day. I studied my biology till 23:00pm. I completely understood it then so I wasn't really worried about making it the next day. When I was in bed I thought about my day, because it was so boring compared to other days. That is also why this piece is really short. I then thought about Ajax because that was really something to be happy about. They are now in the second position, but it is still possible to overtake the first position from FC Twente. Ajax really deserves to win the Eredivisie, especially when you see the statistics. Twente wins a lot of times with only one goal, whilst Ajax wins a lot of times with three or four goals. After thinking about how it would be if Ajax wins the Eredivisie and the KNVB trophy I fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Last Saturday

Saturday 20th of March

I woke up at 9:00am because I needed to assemble for my hockey match at 9:30am. I wanted to stay in bed, but that was impossible. After a shower, which was finally hot again, and getting dressed into my hockey outfit I went to the pick-up point.

Some more people were waiting here for our coach. I then noticed that there were two girls playing with us instead of one. I had seen the other girl play hockey at a training once and she wasn't that good, to be honest. That was why I thought that we were short on players. After waiting for ten minutes our coach came in and said that we were going with a bus instead of a mini-bus, because this was cheaper. We were with ten players and our coach and we sat in a bus which offers space for 50 people. Our goalie would meet us at the other school so we did have eleven players.

It took about half an hour to get there. In the bus I heard that we needed to play against very good players. When I heard this I was really looking forward to be at Reed's again. When we got to the school I saw that it was a grammar and computing school. This made it really hard for me to believe that they were good at hockey. It was raining so I wasn't looking forward to play the game.

First we did a warming-up. We did some running on this really muddy and disgusting field. When I was done with running my tracksuit was covered in mud. We did some stretching as well and then we went to the field. We did some shooting exercised and we heard our position. I was going to play as left midfielder. I usually don't play this position, but there was nothing I could do about it. When we stood in a circle with the team I heard that it was the last match of the season. For some upper six formers it was their last match for Reed's. There was a certain amount of pressure on our shoulders, so we really needed to play at our best.

When the match started you could see instantly that they were the better side. It didn't take too long before they made a goal. Out of nowhere we had an attack and we scored. The goal was a tap in from the girl I didn't expect too much from. It was her first contact with the ball, but nevertheless it was a goal. We kept defending the entire first half. There were no more goals made during the first half so the score was 1-1 when the break began.

Our coach told us that he was really proud of us and that we played so well. He even thought that we could win this match. We all really wanted to win so we were really motivated. Our coach told us to try to block their passes. Unfortunately this was easier said than done.

The second half didn't begin well at all. A defender made a very bad pass which ended up in the stick of an opponent at the top of the circle. After playing some balls into the keeper the ball went in anyway. The score was 2-1, but we all still believed in the match. I needed to defend this guy which was so fast. I couldn't keep up with him and he kept playing the ball into my feet. After a while they had a short corner. They already had a lot of short corners that match, but suddenly one guy swept it up into the right corner. It couldn't be stopped by the keeper because it really was an amazing ball. We kept defending the entire second half and we weren't able to create any more chances.

After the game our coach still wanted to say that he was proud of us. He enjoyed watching this match, even though we had lost. He said that he could see us really doing our best and that we didn't give up at all. At the end he thanked us and said that he had enjoyed being our coach this season. This was a really nice thing to say.

We quickly went back to school because we didn't want to stay there in the rain any longer. The drive back was really dreadful, just because of my clothes. They were wet from the rain and the sweat and they were covered in mud. When we got back at Reed's I quickly went to my room and then to the shower. I stood in it for quite a while. After eating some chips and a KitKat I went downstairs to the computer room. I needed to make two pieces for my blog that day so I knew that I would spend a lot of time behind the computer that day.

I began with my piece about Thursday. I had written some things on a paper the night before so I still remembered everything. After a long time making this piece I played some games on the Internet. I played Bubble which is quite an addictive game. After playing this for a long time I went back to my room. I didn't have any lunch so I was really hungry. I ate another bag of chips and then started to make some more maths homework. I made a lot of it until 18:00pm, and then I could finally go to dinner.

We ate chicken with sausages and French fries as dinner. It was really delicious and exactly what I needed after such a long day without a proper meal. I sat next to Toby so that was quite nice. After a while we went back to the Sixth Form House and he asked me to pay Monopoly. This wasn't Monopoly the board game, but a game on the Xbox. We played this for a while, but then it became a bit boring. We then went downstairs to the computer room. I still needed to make my piece about Friday. Unfortunately I couldn't focus really well. I listened to the game PSV-FC Twente which ended in a 1-1 draw. This meant that if Ajax would defeat RKC Waalwijk the next day, they would take over PSV's position on the 2nd place of the Eredivisie. I also played some Bubble so it took a really long time for me to finish my blog.

At 23:00pm we needed to go to our rooms. I decided to make some more maths home work. At 24:00pm I decided to go to bed. I thought about what I was going to do the next day because I still really need to do a lot of work. It didn't take long before I fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Friday, Week Four

Friday 19th of March

At 7:35am I went to the shower. I was really hoping for a hot shower, but fortune wasn't on my side. It was once again very cold. In my room when I was putting on my suit I thought about my stay here. Only one more week and I will go back to Holland. I really have mixed feelings about this. On one side I want to go back to see everyone again and just sleep in my own room again. On the other hand school is here much more relaxed and I have also made some new friends here. I also thought about what I was going to do this weekend because I can't do anything with Pieter-Bas. When I was ready I went to Pieter-Bas' room to go to registration. He was already changed into his hockey outfit because he would leave at 9:00pm. At registration Pieter-Bas and I heard about our reports. I couldn't really hear what she said but I did hear was that I had a 1 for effort in all my classes. The rest of the time of registration I just surfed on the Internet. I did try to buy a ticket for Sweeney Todd but I couldn't do this.

After registration I wished Pieter-Bas good luck and we said goodbye. I then went to music tech. I didn't really know what to expect because Sweeney Todd had taken place the night before. At the beginning I was alone with Andy and the teacher. They talked about Sweeney Todd and what went wrong. After a while Ria came in. We were only with three of the six students. I didn't really know why the others didn't show up. We also talked about the GCSE's, tests for the lower formers, they make here. We actually didn't do anything this lesson other than talking.

I had two free periods after this. I first tried again to buy a ticket, but it really was impossible to buy one over the Internet. I used the rest of my time to study my physics. I had been learning physics for a long time so I couldn't focus myself any more. That's why I also played some hockey on my room and I ate a KitKat. After just studying physics for two periods and the short break I went to religious study.

We were allowed to do the work we want to so I brought my physics book. Because Pieter-Bas wasn't there Charlotte sat next to me. We just talked during the two periods of religious study. We both should've been working, but we just couldn't. We had some really interesting conversations so time really seemed to fly by.

I asked Charlotte to have an early lunch together because otherwise I had to sit on my own. We first went to the Sixth Form House to wait for Anneloes. Then we went with the three of us to lunch. It was Friday so we had a hamburger with French fries as lunch. The perfect lunch. We talked a lot again so we had a really nice lunch. The rest of the lunch time I used to revise my physics for the last time because after the lunch I needed to make the VP.

When the bell rang I went to the Shell building because I would meet here with Mrs. Lams. She gave me my physics VP which was quite difficult. There was just one question which counted for a fifth of the entire VP which was just impossible. The rest of the questions went pretty well, but this one question I just didn't know how to answer it. When I was about half way Charlotte came in because she needed to make a test for CKV. After a while Anneloes came in as well to make the CKV test. I stared at this question for another half an hour. I was getting sick of this staring so then I just filled something in hoping for the best. I sat in that room for about ten minutes after finishing my test. I read the NRC about the political crisis in Holland. We didn't know a lot about it at all because there is nothing about it in the British newspapers. When Charlotte and Anneloes were finished with their tests I went back to the Sixth Form House. I did ask Mrs. Lams if it was still possible for me to go to Sweeney Todd. She asked the stage director if he could help me. He asked me to meet him in ten minutes at the pick-up point. I waited there for him and then we went to see Mr. Balls. Mr. Balls said that he had a ticket for me, but that I needed to ask Mr. Clapp if he could bring me to the Epsom Playhouse. I waited in the computer room of the Sixth Form House with Charlotte and Anneloes. After a while Mr. Clapp walked by so I could ask him if he could bring me. He said that I would need to be at the pick-up point at 18:10pm so I needed to go to dinner early. I was really happy that I could still go to Sweeney Todd.

I didn't spend my time till dinner so good. I still needed to make my blog about Thursday, but I just spend my time till dinner talking with Charlotte, who needed to wait till 17:15pm to be picked, and playing videogames. I thought that I could finish it after Sweeney Todd so I wasn't really panicking.

At 17:55pm I went to dinner. The only other person there was Kevin, the little Chinese boy with whom I watched The Matrix. We ate pasta which was pretty nice. We talked a bit about sports and football because he wore a Chelsea-shirt. After a while Howard and his brother Brian came to sit with us. When they joined us they immediately began to talk Chinese. I couldn't understand a single bit of it so I was really bored after a while. I ate as fast as I could so I could go to the pick-up point. I was quite on time and I saw that Jason and Eric were waiting there as well. Mr. Clapp picked us up after fifteen minutes and we went on our way to the Epsom Playhouse. We arrived there after driving for about half an hour.

When we got there I searched for Mr. Balls because he had my ticket, but I couldn't find him. I bought a coke and then walked with Jason and Eric around the theatre because they were searching for someone. Suddenly we met with a giant group of Reed's students and we all walked back to the theatre. I waited with Jason, Eric and two girls for Mr. Balls here who showed up after fifteen minutes. He gave us some tickets and we immediately went to the auditorium. We had tickets for the second last row, but we discovered that we were given tickets from last night. We got new tickets from Mr. Balls which were in the centre of the theatre. We then discovered that we sat in the wrong seats and we could go even further to the front. We ended up in the second row! We had better tickets than the Headmaster! We could even see the orchestra sitting under the stage.

The show started when we sat down. It immediately began with some singing. It was really cool to hear the entire orchestra playing and some students singing. It began with a sort of introduction. They began to talk about a barber with a beautiful wife and a young daughter. Unfortunately the local judge fancied his wife and sent the barber to Australia. He then seduced the wife and became the daughter's guardian. This barber, Benjamin Barker, escaped from Australia and returned to London with Anthony Hope, a sailor. The student who played the sailor was Laurence with whom I have music tech. They sang a lot together which sounded really nice. When he returns to London he lives on with the name Sweeney Todd. The first person they meet was this really old woman who was begging for money. When he gets back he meets with Ms. Lovett, a woman with a pie store. When I took a closer look at her I noticed that it was Millie from my religious study class. He had his workplace above her little shop. The first time we met with Ms. Lovett she began to sing about her pies. She said in her song that it were the worst meat pies of London, this was probably because she used cats for the meat. She recognizes him and is very happy. The first thing he asked was where his wife was. She told him that she had killed herself. He then tells her about his plan to take revenge on the judge and she gives him his old razor back. They then went to the streets where they challenged this Italian guy with some sort of special elixir. The challenge was about whom could give the nicest shave and Beadle, the judge's right hand, needed to decide who had won. Beadle was played by Gassy, a real Arsenal Fan and boarder. Sweeney Todd won and announced that he would be working above Mrs. Lovett’s store. When they return the Italian guy is waiting for him along with his accomplice. The Italian guy was his former assistant and now blackmails Sweeney. He wants to have half of his profits and when he said this he was killed by Sweeney, his first victim. His accomplice a little boy called Toby ate some of the pies and really loved them. From that moment on he worked in the pie store. When Ms. Lovett discovered the body she asked Sweeney what to do with it. She then comes with the idea of using the meat for her pies. At the same time Anthony meets with Johanna, Sweeney's daughter and is instantly in love. They sing a song together until he is chased away by the judge. He goes to Sweeney Todd to tell him about Johanna. After their encounter the judge says that he will marry Johanna. She doesn't want this at all and Beadle says to the judge that he should have a shave and sends him to Sweeney. They also sing a song together which was really funny because Beadle needed to shout at a very high tone at a moment and everybody laughed. Sweeney Todd wants to cut his throat with his razor but first gives him a proper shave. They also sing together. The moment he wants to kill him Anthony comes in and says that he wants to take Johanna with him and leave London. The judge is angry about this that he says that he would never come back to Sweeney anymore. Sweeney Todd is then really angry and chases Anthony away. He sings another song and that was the end of the first half.

During the break I asked Mr. Clapp if he could explain the story line a bit more to me because some things I couldn't understand because they talked really fast. I also spoke to Chris. He was playing in the orchestra. I complimented him and he said to me that the second half was even more fun. I went quickly back to my seat when the second half was about to begin because I didn't want to miss a thing.

You could see Sweeney Todd killing a lot of innocent men. He had a new chair which would drop the bodies directly into the basement where they were put into the meat grinder. Ms. Lovett was wearing a really nice dress which meant that she had big profits. She kept singing that she wanted to marry Sweeney Todd, but he didn't want that. The old woman kept returning on stage but was continuously chased away. Suddenly Anthony rushes in and says that he knows where the judge kept Johanna. He had put her into an Asylum. Sweeney said that Anthony could get her out if we went there as a wig maker, because they sold the hair of the patients. They made a ginger joke there, that it was less worth than other colours of hair. Everybody found this hilariously and I laughed as well even though I am called a ginger at home. Anthony rescues Johanna out of the Asylum and takes her to Sweeney. What he didn't know was that Sweeney had sent a letter to the judge to wait for his daughter in his workplace. The letter was brought to the judge by Toby. When he returns he tells Ms. Lovett that he doesn't trust Sweeney. They then sing a song together. She says to him that he could work in the basement from that moment on, making the pies. She locks him in there and while he is there he discovers that human bodies are used for the pies. Then Beadle came in because he wanted to check the furnaces because they spread a disgusting smell over the city. Ms. Lovett said that Sweeney had the key so he needed to wait. He sang a song for her while he waited which was really funny. When Sweeney returns he first offers to give him a free shave. Off course he cuts his throat and drops him into the basement. Then Sweeney went with Ms. Lovett into the basement to search for Toby. At the same time Anthony came into the workplace with Johanna and asked her to wait there. She heard Sweeney coming up the stairs so she then hides in a large chest in the room. He prepares himself for the judge when the old lady enters the room. He could hear the judge coming up the stairs so quickly cut her throat and dropped her into the basement. After shaving and killing the judge he went to the basement. Johanna climbed out of the chest but Sweeney returns for his razor. Johanna was wearing man's clothes and Sweeney didn't recognize her. He quickly went down to the basement because Ms. Lovett shouted but he wanted to kill Johanna first. He needed to leave her but told her to forget what just happened. In the basement he saw that Ms. Lovett wanted to get rid of the woman's body quickly. Then he saw that the old woman was Lucy, his wife. He said to Ms. Lovett that it didn't matter and they start to dance. Out of nowhere he cuts her throat and bends over Lucy's body. Then Toby picks up his knife and kills Sweeney in front of the police and Johanna and Anthony. This was the end of the play. I applauded like everyone else as hard as I could because I absolutely loved it. The performance was fantastic and the music phenomenal. I was really happy that I went to Sweeney Todd. In the foyer I needed to wait a few minutes before returning to Reed's with Mr. Clapp. I then recognized the judge and the old lady. The judge was Tim, a boarder, and the old lady was Celina, with whom I have music tech. I was really amazed when I saw this because I didn't know that they could do something like this. Then I went back with a few people from the orchestra, Eric and Jason, and Mr Clapp with his family back to Reed's.

At 23:00pm I returned to my room. I send some texts to Pieter-Bas and Robert and then went to bed. I thought about what I had seen and especially heard that evening. I sort of played the musical over in my head and some of the songs melodies were really stuck in my head. I realized that this may had been one of the best choices I had made during my stay here at Reed's because this was so much better than an evening making homework. After a while I fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Thursday, Week Four

Thursday 18th of March

At 7:40am I went to the shower. It was a cold shower again. Nevertheless I stood in it for a while and then went to my room. I was a bit tired but I knew that I had short day today. I got dressed quickly and then went to registration. On my way I talked with Pieter-Bas about going to London this weekend, because we both really wanted to go there another time. Also because we think that we can do some more research for our ANT project there. At registration I checked my mail and then we went to chapel service.

The reverend stood at the door at the chapel. It is quite funny because we always nod to each other, to sort of say hello. We do this always, even during lunch. I think this is really amusing. When everybody was seated we began the day with singing a song. I thought it was a really shocking song because it said that we should suffer and that God will reign one day. Nobody really participated in singing this song, because it sounded really softly and you could also see only a few people singing. The chapel service was a bit different than usual. There were no students who talked about something and there was no movie. Instead the reverend himself told a story. The story was about an ugly and poor city, the children had never even seen a tree. This city was bombed one day which left a bomb site in the centre of the city. The city kept it this way to honour those people who died in the attack. Suddenly, whilst nobody noticed it, there was a plant growing there. This grew and grew until it was a giant sun flower. At the beginning the citizens loved it and honoured it. Then the sunflower was so bright yellow that it began to glow. Because of this glowing the citizens saw how ugly their city was. One day they formed an angry mob and all went to the bomb site. They kicked the flower until it was completely flat and covered in dirt again. Normal life returned in the city, until the next spring. The citizens had spread the flower's seeds all across the bombsite without knowing it. In the spring the entire bomb site was covered in sun flowers. This was the end of the story as well as the end of the chapel service.

I then went to music tech. No one was there however because they were all rehearsing for Sweeney Todd. I decided to go into the computer room and work on my song. I had two periods of music tech so I had a lot of time. There was only one problem: I got stuck with my song. I had no idea how to improve or to make it longer. I tried a lot of things the first period, without any result. When my second period began Tim came in. He has a Dutch nationality without ever living in Holland. He can speak Dutch, but sometimes switches to English if he can't find the right word. He was re-making a song from Duffy. He only needed to do the guitar part before he was finished. I had heard a lot of times that he is an amazing guitar player and that he is going to America after Reed's to study at the Boston Music College, a very prestigious education. So he grabbed his guitar, a 2000 pound 60's Stratocaster the coolest thing I had ever seen, plugged it into the computer and started playing. It sounded AMAZING! To see him play like that really encourages me to play more at home, which I will certainly do. The second period I mostly spent looking and listening to him. I couldn't keep my eyes off. After a lot of playing he wanted to hear what I had. I told him that I hadn't played a single piece myself. After hearing this he wanted to hear it even more. I was really nervous about what he would think of it. He actually liked it and said that it was really nice. I was pretty full of myself after hearing this. When the bell rang I went back to the Sixth Form House.

I spent my short break like almost every short break here. I ate a KitKat, put on a vest and played some hockey. I don't really mind these short breaks anymore because I now know what to do. Being bored to death isn't a part anymore.

After this I went with Pieter-Bas to religious study. We watched a documentary during religious study. It was about miracles and proving them. The woman who reported was a former top-model. She told about her panic attacks and that she was 'cured' of them by crystals. I immediately thought that she had lost it. The reporter wanted to proof miracles to people and especially those performed by shamans. She went to Nepal because a young autistic child who wouldn't stop screaming and didn't make contact at all was cured there. The woman went to different shamans, one of them used eggs to discover what is wrong with you. She needed to bring the eggs herself and told everybody that it were good eggs and that she had talked to them. From that moment on I was really thinking that she had lost it. She didn't believe the egg-shaman because he said that she had something bad in her, but she said that she felt just fine. She went to see monks after this. She was really impressed by this and me as well. Not because of her but just because of what you could see in the temples. This made me thought about my holiday to Bali last year. The head monk said that you could cure pretty much anything just by meditating. I really find this hard to believe because I don't think at all that the mind is able to do that. After the temple she went to a shaman who had connections with the Dalai Lama. She is known in Nepal as 'Mom'. The shaman told that she suffered of anxiety. The reverend stopped the documentary to ask us how many people in the world suffer of anxiety. We came to an agreement that everybody suffers from anxiety. We continued watching the documentary, but I didn't believe Mom at all anymore. Mom hit her with a broom and said that she was cured. This was fake! She then went to the mountains to spend a night with shamans. The shamans would be controlled by the spirits that night what would enhance their powers. The shamans would hit the drums when they are controlled, but first they needed to sacrifice a chicken to the spirits. They then all began to drum. The entire night long! After this she returned back to Britain. She told that she had missed her plane because she needed to go to the hospital. She was diagnosed with salmonella, which meant that the egg-shaman was right. In Britain she visited a person who said that she was cured by a miracle. A woman was diagnosed with cancer and only had two more months to live. She went to some spiritual healers in Britain in an act of despair. After a lot of sessions of curing she went back to the hospital. The doctors couldn't find any cancer anymore in her body. I don't know how this is possible, but I don't believe the answer is spiritual. The reporter then showed a lot of movies of a British 'shaman'. He made diagnoses and operated on people without any medical education. He just cut into people without really knowing what he was doing. I think it is just crazy to visit this man to be cured. At the end she talked with the parents of the autistic boy which she had told about in the beginning. They believe that the shaman's didn't cure their son but being with horses, because they rode on horses to the shaman. There was another autistic boy who had similar problems. They let him ride horse and immediately showed improvements. This was the only thing I believed in the documentary because I know there is also a sort procedure that people with Down's syndrome swim with dolphins and show improvements instantly. This was the ending of the documentary as well as our lesson. It was indeed a very long documentary. The reverend said that Charlotte, Pieter-Bas and I could do some work of our own during the lesson tomorrow and that the other students could finish an essay they need to write. This would give me the perfect opportunity to learn some physics because I need to make a VP tomorrow.

After religious I had my last lesson of the day: chemistry. We needed to make a lot of notes and a lot of questions. It was about the same subject as the day before, but I still didn't understand it. We also needed to make a model of a molecule. This was pretty easy actually because my molecule was written on the board. I could just copy it and turn it into a model. I was finished fairly quickly with this, but I needed to make some more questions after this. My teacher then talked about tests and processes to discover if it was a primary, secondary or tertiary molecule. I had no idea she was talking about. I was really happy that it was a one period lesson.

My day was finished after this. Pieter-Bas had no lesson the sixth period as well so we could go to lunch early. I had pasta bolognaise as lunch which was really delicious. Pieter-Bas had something completely different, but I was happy with my pasta. We were finished with the lunch very early. The rest of our free time we used to play games, which was much fun. Suddenly Mr. Wallis came to us and asked if he could speak to Pieter-Bas. They came back after a while and Pieter-Bas said that he would be out the entire weekend. He was asked to play with the first team in a tournament in Bath. I was happy for him, but it did mean that we couldn't go to London this weekend. Pieter-Bas felt really bad towards me because we had discussed this a long time before. To ask if he could still go with me to London he said that it was impossible and said that I should just find someone else to go with. I really hate him for saying that because it was supposed to be fun to go together. We just sat there discussing if there was a possibility to still go there until we needed to go to registration. At registration we decided to go to the school shop together because I wanted to buy some things. We went back to our rooms to get some money and Pieter-Bas gave me half of his noodles to me to make it up with me. He insisted me to take it and I was pretty happy with this. We then went to the school shop. I bought some hockey socks for my brothers and a tie which has the Reed's logo and the Rijnlands logo on it. It was pretty weird to see the Rijnlands logo on it. Pieter-Bas also bought this tie, against his will however. We went back again and I started to make my blog. I finished this after and then went to sit on my room studying my physics.

I learned till dinner. I was really hungry so I was really happy when the bell rang. When I got to the dining hall I was even happier. This was because we had pepperoni pizza and curly fries as dinner. I ate it so fast that Pieter-Bas was halfway when I was finished. We had sponge cake as dessert. We both had two pieces just because it was so delicious. I was completely stuffed when I returned to the Sixth Form House.

I used prep time as well as the rest of the evening to study for my physics test. I wasn't so happy about this test because I needed to miss Skins for it. I sat the entire evening on my room, except for 22:00pm. There were muffins again and I was very hungry again. Skins also began then but I just had to learn my physics. At 23:00pm I had enough of physics and went to bed. In bed I revised my physics once again in my head to make sure that I completely understood everything. Learning the entire night made very tired so it didn't take long before I fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Wednesday, Week Four

Wednesday 17th of March

My day began at 7:40am. My throat was really sore and I didn't feel so well so my day didn't begin well. The shower was cold that morning which made everything even worse. I really hate having a cold shower but I am getting used to it now. I stood in the shower for a while and then went to my room to change into my suit. For some reason I couldn't tie my tie. After doing it over and over for lots of time it went finally right. Did took quite some time so really needed to hurry up then. I just finished changing when the bell rang. Then Pieter-Bas came to my room to pick me up for registration.

At registration I quickly made some improvements to my piece about Tuesday and then went to the house meeting. At the house meeting it was a lot busier than usual. This was because of some French students who were visiting the school. Luckily Pieter-Bas and I had found a seat on time so we didn't have to sit on the floor. Our head of the house, Mr. Balls, began the meeting with showing the Ten Commandments. We should've searched them on the Internet but he knew that most of the students hadn't done this. Without paying too much attention to this he started naming the students who had the best results and who had most improved. He also named the tutor group in which the students had done the most effort. Our tutor wasn't even in the top five. He then began to talk about a lot of sport events. They were really important because he said that the sport results of this week will decide who wins the 'Emerson Cup', a competition between schools. He also talked about the 24 hour football day that will take place Friday the 26th of March, the day that we return back to Holland. At the end he asked everybody once again to buy tickets for Sweeney Todd. When we walked out of the lecture theatre Mr. Balls showed us a movie in which a little boy sings about making big changes. This was really important for Mr. Balls and he asked us to think about this and try to make changes as well.

I then went to chemistry. We talked about alcohols and ketones. We also talked about oxidation and reduction which we had discussed with our other teacher yesterday. This was a really difficult lesson and I understood almost nothing. I was looking at my neighbour's work all the time, but I still didn't understand it. I then asked him if he could explain it to me, but I still didn't understand it. When the teacher asked us to make some questions I just wrote the answers literally from the book without understanding what the sentence meant. It was a one period lesson so it didn't take too long luckily. When the bell rang I immediately gathered my books and I was the first one out of the classroom. I immediately rushed to the music department so I wouldn't have to think about chemistry anymore.

Nobody from my class was at the music department because they were all busy rehearsing for Sweeney Todd. This gave a really good opportunity to me to work on my song. There was one teacher though who didn't quite trust me. She wouldn't leave me alone and she wanted me to do some work 'my teacher had left me to do'. This was not for me to do but she really thought it was. After a long conversation convincing her that I could just work on my song and even talk some Dutch to let her know that I was an exchange student I was finally allowed to work on the computer. When I started up Logic Pro I accidentally pressed some keys. I don't know which it was but now I could alter the volume of a sound in every way I want it to. I can let it start softly, make it gradually louder and end it softly again. I had been searching for a way to do his ever since I started making my song. Now it is a lot easier to mix sounds. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time but at least I have discovered this.

I had the short break and two free periods after my music tech period. During the short break I put on a sweater, ate a KitKat and I played some hockey. When the bell rang everybody went out of the computer room so I could easily work there. I used this time to work on my blog. I did listen to music as well and read some news articles on the Internet. That's why I didn't make too much progress with my blog during this time. This was not a very clever action because I need to study for a physics VP as well and this takes a lot of time. After just having fun for two periods I went to the music department again. I had two periods of music tech which I could perfectly use to work on my song.

When I got in the computer room I noticed that the computer which I use for my song was already taken. It was used Jason, a guy who plays in the second team like me. I asked him how long he would still use the computer. He said that he would be busy with it for another twenty minutes. I went to the hallway then to see if I could do something else for the time being. Then suddenly a teacher came to me and asked if I would have a lesson from Mr. Jenkins. This was the case and he immediately went to the computer room and sent everybody out of it. This was really strange because I was the only one there and I didn't mind it all if they sat there and I needed to wait for the computer. I felt quite guilty then because they were all sent away because of me, but at least I could continue working on my song. I made a lot of progress then, especially because I could now alter the volume exactly like I want it to be. After working on my song for two periods my song is one minute long. This may sound less, but it is in fact really a lot. I spent a lot of time in it already, but it is just really hard if you don't know the program so well and you don't play an instrument. I mean I do play guitar, but I don't play it so good so I have almost no instrumental experience. When the bell rang I quickly went to Pieter-Bas' room to pick him up for lunch.

At the dining hall we needed to wait again before we were allowed to enter. I then realized that this was because of the inspectors. I didn't see or hear about them all day long so I completely forgot about them. We had some roast for lunch. 'Luckily' we also had some potato besides it. We sat in the lunch room for quite some time because we were just having a good time. We went back to our rooms at 13:30pm to get changed because we were playing a hockey match that afternoon. We changed quickly and then went to registration. We then grabbed the rest of our hockey equipment from our rooms and went to the assembly point.

When we were with the complete team in the bus we were with twelve players. This didn't really bother me because some of them were from the third team. The drive didn't take that long. I think it was an about half an hour drive. When we got there we immediately noticed that the school wasn't as nice as Reed's at all. We began with a warming up which went pretty well. I was then told by my coach that I would still begin the match as central forward instead of bench warmer. I was very happy about this because I had this feeling that everything would go all right that day. We began the match with a quick lead with a really strange goal. I scored the second goal. We were with the two of us against the goalie. Joe, the other forward, passed the ball to me so I could finish it. The pass went into my feet so I had a big problem controlling the ball. I then tipped it too far in front of me so I almost needed to dive to hit the ball right. The ball went in anyway and we were two goals ahead. Then they made an own goal but still counted for some reason. Pieter-Bas scored our fourth goal, it was a pretty nice goal because he made a solo and then finished it. They scored then out of a short corner, they were with everybody in the circle because it was the final action of the first half. The second half was a lot messier. We scored a lot of times again and they scored as well. I made two goals in the second half. One was a bit like the first goal but I almost stood in front of the goal when I had the ball. I did take the ball because otherwise it hadn't gone into the goal, so I didn't steal his goal. I pushed it in up high from about a metre away. My third goal was also from quite close by. It was a failed short corner and the ball ended up by me. I pushed it with my backhand past the goalie into the goal. There was a line stop who touched the ball, but not enough to keep it out. Then a teammate had a yellow card, but it didn't really matter anymore. They scored once but they knew that they were humiliated. The game ended in a victory for Reed's: 2-9.

We ate some pasta after the game but it didn't taste good at all, it was very watery. I left most of it on my plate, just like the rest of the team. The lemonade was tasteful so we all drank a lot of it. We left the school very soon after the game and went on our way back to Reed's. At 17:00pm we arrived at Reed's and everybody, except Pieter-Bas and me went home. We took a shower and changed into our casual clothing. The half hour I needed to wait for dinner I used to stare at my to-do list. I thought of how I could finish it all in the time I have left. It had probably been better if I used the time to actually work. At 18:00pm the bell rang and we could go to dinner.

We ate sausages with mashed potato as dinner. The sausages tasted really nice and the mashed potato with gravy as well. I didn't mind the potato because it tasted a lot better than the pasta we ate at the other school. We were really soon with dinner because there wasn't a lot to eat. Pieter-Bas and I played some Bomberman till registration. After registration I went to the computer room quickly to finish my blog. I needed to do a lot about it so it was 20:30pm when I finished it. There was Champions League football that night, but Pieter-Bas said that it wasn't so interesting to watch. I played games and watched movies on YouTube till 22:00pm. Then I went to my room and studied my physics. I studies till 23:00pm and then went to bed.

It was really hot in my room again. I couldn't take it anymore so I started messing with the little two windows I have. Then I suddenly found a new way to open them further so more fresh air could get into my room. I noticed the difference immediately. I spent some time in bed thinking about my physics. Some things were really incomprehensible and didn't make sense. After talking for a really long time about this I finally fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Tuesday, Week Four

Tuesday 16th of March

I woke up at 7:25am, but got out of bed at 7:45am. I have never been this late here at Reed's. I didn't feel so good because I had a terrible runny nose and teary eyes, probably just a cold. But I have to go to school, I mean like you can't stay in bed when you are at a school like Reed's. So I just went to the shower like I always do. It was really late so it was no surprise that I had a cold shower. I didn't hear anyone say that we needed to change our sheets like last week. I thought this was quite strange but I did have some more time now to get dressed. When I was on my room I quickly put on my suit and went to registration. I didn't want to be late at all since my tutor had asked us to be on time.

At registration we needed to fill in some questions. The questions were about our opinion about the lessons. We needed to fill in how well we participated and how prepared we were. We also needed to fill in how the quality is of our homework and tests. At the end we needed to give comments about the lessons, if we enjoyed them or if they were boring. Then we also needed to tell how we behave during the lessons and which sports we do. This luckily didn't take too long so Pieter-Bas and I had some time to visit some Internet sites.

After registration I went with Pieter-Bas to religious study. I thought I had a chemistry lesson the first two periods so I didn't have my religious study book. So I went to the lesson without my book, and I thought I was going to be in big trouble because of the inspectors. Fortunately I wasn't the only one and my teacher allowed us just to share books. She began the lesson with a warning. If an inspector came in she would just grab someone's book and give it to him. She also didn't want us to interrupt her at all when an inspector comes in. After she said this we started to watch a movie. The movie was about the religious action 'silver ring thing'. This encourages celibacy among teens. All the movies we watch during the lesson are all about STI's and teen pregnancies. This shows how big of a problem this is in Britain. After the movie we needed to highlight some more texts from the book. But since I didn't have my book, I could only read along in my neighbour's book. It was pretty relaxing, to be honest because they read through these texts really fast and I never know what to highlight. When the lesson ended no inspector had came by and we were all pretty happy about it.

During the short break which followed I did absolutely nothing again. I just put on a sweater again and sat behind my text. I then started to think about what I was going to do the rest of the day. The break ended quite soon and we all went to our next lesson. When we left the Sixth Form House Pieter-Bas noticed a note which was attached to the door. It said that we were going to play a match with the second team the next day. When I counted the names I noticed that there were eleven of them. This meant that I would play an entire match for sure. It also said that I was playing as one of the two central forwards. I was really happy when I read this and couldn't wait for it.

My next lesson was chemistry. Like religious study it began with a warning about the inspectors. It was almost the same like it was at religious study: act like the teacher wants you to and be prepared to lose your book to the inspector. Then the teacher began his lesson about oxidation and reduction. Oxidation is the process in which molecules lose electrons and reduction is the process in which molecules gain electrons. It was a lot of talking during the lesson which was a bit boring because it was the same material over and over again. Also because I didn't sleep so well I was really tired after a while. We then did a practical which was fun to see. The teacher said that it would be very important for the students to know, because this practical show the process of oxidation and reduction. You begin with a colourless solution. When you add a very clear orange solution it turns green. When you add a purple solution it remains colourless. If this was the case then these processes take place. We also watched a movie about these processes. However, a part of the movie we had already seen, this was shown to us by our other chemistry teacher. The lesson ended and everybody was relieved again that an inspector hadn't visited our lesson.

I then went to my last lesson of the day: music tech. I hoped to continue my work on my song again. Unfortunately it was a theory lesson again. The lesson began with a warning again about inspectors coming in unannounced. Apparently the rest of the class had heard this already a lot of times this morning because they were finishing my teacher's sentences. After this had been said we talked about gates and convertors. These are devices which can alter the sound. I couldn't answer a single question and they were using all these music tech terms which I didn't understand at all. I more or less just stared to my teacher because I had no idea he was talking about. Sometimes the other students had a question wrong and my teacher just started acting really weird, this made the lesson a lot more fun. My teacher then also made fun of the students, I enjoyed this a lot as well. At the end of the lesson my teacher told me that he wouldn't be there the next day, just like all the other students because of Sweeney Todd. I would be the only one in tomorrow. He said that I can just continue working on my song then. I was really happy to hear this because I really need the time to finish it before I leave Reed's. After this lesson my school day was over.

Pieter-Bas and I had planned to make some more maths homework today. I needed to wait for Pieter-Bas though because he still had a lesson. I used the 35 minutes to work on my blog. I also read the latest news on the Internet so I didn't make too much of my blog. Then after the bell had rung I met with Pieter-Bas and we went to lunch together. We needed to wait for a very long time because we weren't allowed to go in front like usual. Probably because of the inspectors. After waiting for a few minutes we could finally get some lunch. We had chicken curry as lunch. We had already eaten this before here at Reed's, but I didn't really mind it. We also ate some potato along. I think this is unbelievable, they eat potato along with everything. We have eaten potato every single day here.

After lunch we went to registration and then we needed to start making our maths homework. I really didn't want to do this but I have to. Pieter-Bas was a lot faster making this. I was getting really nervous because of this, I don't really know why. That's why I decided to work on my own room after a while. At 16:00pm Pieter-Bas came into my room because we had also planned to go to the gym. I quickly took off my suit and put on my sport clothes whilst Pieter-Bas waited for me in the hallway. At the gym we did a good work-out. As usual Pieter-Bas did more, but I don't really mind. I began with some running. After running Pieter-Bas and I lifted some weights. We also did some sit-ups and push-ups. We stayed for about an hour in the gym. We were completely exhausted when we returned to the Sixth Form House.

At the Sixth Form House I took a shower and changed into some clean clothes. The half hour I needed to wait I used to make some more maths questions. At 18:00pm I went to Pieter-Bas' room and we went together to dinner. We had a Panini as dinner. Unfortunately there were no more ham and cheese Panini’s so we had one with sausage. We also had some fries with it, but in this case I didn't matter to eat some more potato.

During prep time I finished my blog. This was about 20:00pm, but we weren't allowed to watch television yet. We needed to wait for another half hour. I decided to make some more maths and studied physics a bit. Then at 20:30pm I went downstairs. The football match Chelsea-Inter Milan was on TV. The game had begun at 19:45pm but I could still watch the second half. Sneijder played fantastic. It was really fun to see and Pieter-Bas and I kept saying that he was Dutch. The other guys who were watching the match got really irritated after a while. They were all against Chelsea, just like Pieter-Bas and me, so we were all really happy when Inter scored. It was a good goal with an amazing assist of Wesley Sneijder. The match ended in a 0-1 defeat for Chelsea and Inter advances in the Champions League. Wonderful!

After the match I checked my e-mail and then went upstairs to my room. I quickly got into bed because I didn't feel so well. It took a really long time to fall asleep because I kept sniffing for a while. I did think about the hockey match I was going to play the next day. I was really looking forward to it because I knew that I was going to play a lot. I also thought about my stay here. It is just going so fast. I'll be back in Holland before you know it. After quite some time I finally fell asleep.

Cheers, Sander

Monday, Week Four

Monday 15th of March

I woke up at 6:30am! I don't know why but I keep waking up way before my alarm is set. I didn't want to get out of bed yet and although I could get out of bed at 7:00am to have breakfast I decided not to. I kept lying in bed till 7:40am. Then I went to the bathroom to have a shower, a hot shower. I stood in it for quite a while like last week to prolong my weekend for a bit. It felt quite strange to wear a suit again after a weekend walking in your jumpsuit. I then met with Pieter-Bas, who wasn't looking forward to having lessons as well, and we went to registration.

At registration Mrs. Wakefield, our tutor talked to us about the inspectors before going to the general assembly. She more or less demanded us to be on time the next day because she thought that the inspectors would check all the tutor groups. Then we needed to go to the general assembly.

First as usual Mr. Clapp talked to us about the test results that people could come to visit him if they have any worries. He then said that there were some French students coming to school for the week. He asked us to help them out whenever we see them having any problems. He also mentioned the musical Sweeney Todd, and that we all should go buy tickets. Pieter-Bas and I are probably going to the musical as well. We feel we have to do it. Then some other forms and the Headmaster entered the assembly hall. The headmaster began with a prayer which was about suffering. It stated that a person needs to suffer in its life to understand true happiness. I thought for a while about that payer and came to the realization that this made pretty much sense. 'The Clarinet Choir' played a song after the prayer. They played a song which' name I can't remember, but I recognized the melody. Some other students as well who began to hum the melody along. After the song a student read a description of the city Jerusalem. This was because of the oncoming Easter. It wasn't a cheerful description at all. After the reading the Headmaster began to hand out some awards. There were some really prestigious ones. Some students who were only thirteen could go to a university for summer school about chemistry. They are practically secured of a place in that university when they finish school. The general assembly was a bit longer than usual because the Headmaster said some more things about the inspectors. He said that Reed's had been waiting for this inspection for six years. This meant that Reed's had requested to be inspected. The Headmaster wants this to improve Reed's reputation even more. Giving a final warning about showing good behaviour in front of the inspectors tomorrow the general assembly ended.

I went to my music tech lesson quickly so I wouldn't miss anything. We listened to some more reggae music. My teacher loves this music so much that he started to dance a bit. He danced really funny and he made the entire class laugh. He then searched a picture of a bear on Google. He enlarged this picture across the entire computer monitor. He then asked us if it looked like Andy. We all thought it did. This was one of the funniest lessons I had so far. The lesson just consisted out of laughing and listening to reggae music for me and the others needed to make questions. My perfect lesson!

The short break was useless like always. I decided to put on a sweater because it was rather cold outside and I had absolutely nothing to during the break. When the bell rang I quickly went to the lesson just so I had something to do.

The lesson was chemistry. We needed to make some questions about reversible reactions. I had already made eight pages of notes once as homework so I understood absolutely everything. That's why I didn't have too much problems with making the questions. The teacher then did a practical to show a reversible reaction. He had hydrated copper which he first heated with a Bunsen burner. It was first blue but when you heat it the water vaporizes and it turns white again. When it was completely white the teacher added water to it. It turned blue again and a lot of heat was released. The same amount of heat which was first provided by the Bunsen burner. He told us that he had a teacher who would put the white powder on a student's hand and then add water. The student would then burn his hand and go home again with his hand covered in blisters. This was funny to hear, but I was quite happy that he didn't do it like his teacher.

After chemistry I went to my religious study lesson. We needed to do a lot of highlighting again like usual. We talked about some articles that had appeared in the newspapers. One article was about a 'Facebook rapist and murderer'. Apparently a man had made a Facebook account which he used to come in contact with young girls. He had arranged a meeting with a girl whom he then raped and murdered. This was really sickening to hear. We also watched a movie about a guy who possibly had a STI. He went to a medical clinic to check it out because he had intercourse with multiple women in a really short amount of time. There was also a woman in the movie that went to the fertility clinic. She had Chlamydia when she was young but she didn't know it. She wanted to check out if she was still able to get a baby, because she really wanted to. The main subject of this movie was STI's. Britain has the highest amount of STI's and teen pregnancies in Europe and wants to make people more aware of this by using this movie. The rest of the lesson we highlighted some more texts in the book.

Pieter-Bas and I then went to lunch. We ate this minced meat with potatoes. We are both really getting sick of all the potatoes they eat here. They combine it with everything: meat, pizza, bread and even rice. I didn't like the meat. I think it was one of the worst meals I had here so far. I still ate it however because I was just so hungry. I could even hear my stomach growling. When we had finished our plates we quickly needed to go. We needed to go to the general study lesson in the lecture room, but I had no idea what the subject was today.

We needed to be at the general study lesson 13:30pm. The lesson was actually a presentation which was about alcohol. The woman who spoke talked about the many, many consequences of drinking too much alcohol. She had experienced a lot of dreadful things, all resulting from drinking too much alcohol. She lost multiple friends in car accidents. She worked in a company for ten years to achieve what she wanted. She lost her job to alcohol when she had finally achieved this. She told us that she began drinking in private whereas it started at parties. She had experienced multiple occasions that she woke up in a puddle of vomit and blood and didn't remember what she had done. It was quite horrifying to hear this. She even ended up in an institution where she was told that if she continued this life she would die in two weeks or she would never drink ever again and live on. She also talked about how many units of alcohol somebody can drink in a week. She asked someone to pour one unit according to him in a glass. Then she showed an actual unit which was about a third of what the student had poured. Then she showed some newspaper articles about students and children dying as result of drinking. At the end the teachers went out of the room and she asked the students about their experiences with alcohol. Some had really amazing stories. When the presentation ended she gave some folders to us. They had some really daunting facts written in them.

My school day was ended after this presentation. I used the time to make my blog. When I finished this I did some chemistry homework in my room. I continued doing this till dinner. I made a lot of progress then so I was really satisfied.

As dinner we ate noodles with spring rolls and vegetables. This didn't taste good at all. I wasn't that hungry so I wasn't really desperate to eat something. That's why I ate almost nothing at dinner. Pieter-Bas didn't like it as well and he started to play with his food. It was disgusting what he did.

I used prep time as well as the rest of the evening to make some more chemistry homework. I also learned some physics because Pieter-Bas and I need to make a VP Friday. I did get hungry after a while. Luckily I still had some chips and KitKat on my room which I could eat. At 23:00pm I was really tired because learning physics was really boring to be honest about it. So it didn't take long at all for me to fall asleep. I did think a bit about next morning. I wondered if I needed to hand in my sheets and pillowcases again. The only way to find out was going to sleep till the next morning.

Cheers, Sander

Third Week, Sunday

Sunday 14th of March

Pieter-Bas and I needed to wake up early to play a hockey match. We had set our alarms for 9:00am. For some reason I woke up really early again, at like 7:00am. It was really difficult to fall asleep again because it was so hot in my room. I have two very small windows, but they don't let in any fresh air and I can't turn down the radiator. At 9:00am I got out of bed and went to the shower. I did first check if Pieter-Bas was awake because he told me that he thought he was going to oversleep. We then started to get dressed into our hockey uniform. Like yesterday I quickly ate a muffin, I still had one left from the lounge room, when a teacher came into my room. It was the same teacher who stood in my room yesterday. He asked me if I was going to play the hockey match, but he wanted to know much rather if Pieter-Bas was going to play.

We then went to the hockey pitch. Pieter-Bas and I did some passing to warm up, but we didn't know exactly who we were playing against. We heard that we were going to play against some former Reed's students. There would be two different matches at the same moment because both sides had a first and second team. I was told to play with the second team. After some more passing and shooting at goal we assembled with the team before the match. Here I saw that Pieter-Bas was going to play with us instead of the first team. I then noticed that we were exactly with eleven players so I couldn't start on the bench for a change.

When the match began it was really weird because our opponents were really old, and they didn't even have a goalie. During the match Pieter-Bas passed a lot of balls to me. This was really nice of him. Now I could finally touch the ball because all the other games I have played they didn't really pass to me. Probably because I am very young compared to them and aren't really as outstanding like Pieter-Bas. We were continuously attacking, but then out of nowhere they made a goal. This was just unbelievable because they were so bad. The rest of the first half we kept attacking and creating chances but we couldn't score. Then just before the first half was over I scored. It wasn't a nice goal at all because it rolled in very slowly in the corner of the goal. I believe that they could stop the ball, but they were too tired to run for it.

During the rest our coach, who played along with us, told us that we really needed to win this match. He even told us to be less like gentlemen and just hit the ball a bit harder and a bit higher in the goal. I thought this was quite funny, but the rest took this really serious.

During the second half it turned out to be a very nice match. They scored the 2-1, again completely out of nowhere. From that moment Pieter-Bas couldn't take it anymore so he decided to do it himself. He made an amazing solo across the entire pitch and then lobbed the ball over the sticks of the two 'goalies'. These guys just stood on the goal line the entire match. The game score was then 2-2. Then a short corner was scored by our team so we had a 3-2 advantage. However the game wasn't decided yet. A defender made an own goal which brought the score back to a draw: 3-3. Our coach didn't want us to draw against these 'oldies' at all. He made a solo, just like Pieter-Bas and scored the final goal of the match. The game ended in 4-3 to our advantage Pieter-Bas and I had finally won a match at Reed's.

After the game Pieter-Bas and I waited for the lunch to start. Unfortunately there was no lunch, and no one had told us. We then took a shower and I ate some of my chips. After my shower I made some chemistry homework. This kept me busy for a very long time. At 15:30pm Pieter-Bas picked me up from my room. He said that Ajax-PSV was about to begin. We listened to the match on the radio. During the match I also worked a bit on my blog. Every time Ajax scored we cheered very loudly and everyone was startled when they heard us. They thought we were listening to music and were reading some articles on the Internet, so that was really strange. The match ended in a 4-1 victory so we were really happy. Ajax is only one more point behind PSV in the Eredivisie. However, because of PSV's goal they prevented Ajax from breaking a club record.

After the match we waited for half an hour and then went to dinner. We ate some roast, but I didn't really like it. Next to the roast we had, you can guess it, potato. We didn't spend a lot of time there. We did speak to a girl there who was half-Dutch. This was funny to discover, especially because Pieter-Bas had made fun about her laugh. Her friends couldn't speak Dutch so Pieter-Bas and I kept making comments about them. I have seldom enjoyed dinner here this much, despite the food.

During prep I finished my blog. This didn't take long because I hadn't done a lot on Saturday and I had worked during the match Ajax-PSV. This was about 19:15pm and I decided to use the rest of my evening to do some more chemistry homework. I made some real progress so although it wasn't a really fun night, I am satisfied about it. I also learned for a biology SW because there was a test scheduled on my planner for the next day.

At 23:00pm I decided to get into bed. In bed I thought about my stay here. I realized again that I really love it here. I luckily still have two weeks here. I also thought about my friends. Especially about Gaius because I had heard that he had been hit in the face at a party. I really hope he is OK. Then I fell asleep after revising my biology for the last time to make sure that I absolutely understand everything.

Cheers, Sander

Third Week, Saturday

Saturday 13th of March

I didn't have to get up too early, so I didn't. I set my alarm at 11:00am but I woke up a lot of times before my alarm went. It began at 7:00am. The next four hours I have only slept for about two hours. At about 8:45am a teacher suddenly stood in my room and asked where Pieter-Bas' room was. I didn't pay too much attention to this, told him where it was and fell back asleep again. At 11:00am I got out of bed and prepared myself for the hockey match I needed to play.

Before I walked to the assembly point Pieter-Bas walked in and told me that he had already played a match. This was so strange to hear because I just got out of bed. I then continued with getting dressed into my hockey outfit. I quickly ate a muffin I got from the lounge room the day before, and went to the assembly point. This was about 11:45am. I saw some guys sitting there from whom I knew that they were good. They were also doing a lot of tricks and things which was really cool to see. When I thought that we were complete I heard that there were more players coming. We were with a lot of guys in the end so I expected that I wouldn't play a lot. However our captain wasn't there yet. Mr. Wallis was our coach and he said to us that he didn't want to wait anymore. He began counting down the minutes that we were still going to wait for him. The moment he said that we would only wait for one more minute, he arrived. Once we were with the complete team in the bus there were even more guys than I first thought. I then just thought about getting it all finished so I could do whatever I want for the rest of the day.

After an hour of sitting in the bus we arrived at Kingston Grammar school. Somebody had told me that Kingston was really close by so I wasn't really prepared for this. I couldn't wait to get out of the bus when we finally arrived at the school. The first thing I noticed at this school was that they had a plaque which showed who had won the hockey cup between schools. The plaque had the name of Kingston Grammar School engraved into many times. They had won this cup five years running. Now that is impressive! We did a short warming up and then the match began. As expected, I began on the bench. Almost immediately Kingston made a goal, this was no good beginning of the match. After a few minutes I could come off the bench and into the field. They scored quite soon when I came in, I hadn't even touched the ball. The rest of the first half no goals were made. After a few minutes into the second half I needed to get off the field again. I wasn't so happy about my game, because I know I could've played better. We scored one goal, but they scored twice so the match ended in 4-1 in our disadvantage. We quickly grabbed some chips, KitKat, and a Capri-Sun which the school had arranged for us and went on our way back to Reed's.

At reed's everybody went home, but not me. I went to the Sixth Form House and met with Pieter-Bas again. I first took a shower and got dressed into my own jumpsuit again. Then I went downstairs to the computer room. Here I watched some videos on YouTube and sent some e-mails. Then before I knew it dinner began. I was really looking forward to it because I had eaten almost nothing the entire day. We ate some marinated chicken with potatoes. We eat so much potato here, it is really beginning to irritate me. I think Pieter-Bas and I have almost eaten a kilo of potatoes during our stay here.

After dinner Pieter-Bas worked on our ANT project. Whilst he was busy I finished my blog. I promised him that I would do some work for our project during the week, because I think that we need to divide the work equally. After me finishing my blog and Pieter-Bas with finishing with his piece, we went to the lounge room to watch some television. We were very lucky because the movie Role Models had just started. This movie was about these two guys who needed to do community service. They needed to spend 150 hours with problem children. One boy was cursing all the time and the other one lived in this fantasy world. I really loved the movie because it was so funny. I just can't explain the movie, you have to see it for yourself. After this movie we watched Troy. I think everyone has seen this movie and knows the storyline. I have seen this movie a lot of times but I didn't mind to see it again. The one problem was that other students were talking in Chinese during the entire movie and they talked quite loudly. After a while some of them went to bed so we could watch the movie properly, like we wanted to. The movie ended at about 1:00am and Pieter-Bas and I needed to play hockey very early the next morning, so we went to our rooms right away. I fell asleep the moment I got in bed.

Cheers, Sander