First Day At School

When I heard that I would start on 3 October which was today in my Dutch Language course, I felt anxious what would be happened on that day. Monique introduced me to my  teacher so it would not be hard for me to find my class. She also told me that my teacher, Brunhilde would give us an exam which made me more afraid not to pass it coz I still had hard time to understand dutch. So I started to study the book which Monique gave to me and tried to finish it before that day. But I didn't make it! Because I was so busy this past few days. I just only have time to study during night but last friday night, I couldn't coz we had our training in Badminton Club together with Dennis' father. Then, this last weekend, we went to Vlissingen for the birthday celebration of my niece and nephew. I was planning to bring with me the book but I forgot it. But still, I had no time to study there coz we were all busy for two days. When we were going back here in Almere, I asked Dennis to practice me in Dutch while he was driving to home. I knew that I couldn't study at home when we arrived due to sleepiness and tiredness on that day.

At 6.30am, Dennis woke up and prepared to go to work. But before he left, he kissed and hugged me which made me feel awake. I'm still a little bit sleepy on that moment thus, I asked Dennis to set alarm again at 7.30am. When the alarm rang, I stood up and went downstairs to have my coffee and breakfast. Then, I prepared my things and took a shower.

At 8:28am, I just walked going to the bus stop and I'm lucky that when I arrived there, the bus was also arriving there. It took 17-2O minutes travel with the bus and 5 minutes walk going to the building of TTif Company. I started to feel nervous when I'm walking near to the building.When I went upstairs of that building, the first person I saw was Monique. We greeted to each other and told me to wait for Brunhilde. While waiting for my teacher, I talked to a woman who was sitting beside me. She can't speak English but can speak in Dutch and Portuguese. But still I could understand her when she spoke to me in Dutch and tried to answer as much as I could speak little Dutch to her. She could understand little too in English. Then, Brunhilde came and brought me to their class. She asked my name again and if I already had the book. When we entered the room, the nervous I felt a while ago was gone and I just felt happy and excited on that time. Brunhilde introduced me to the class then she distributed the exam to each one of us. I didn't have hard time in answering all the exercises. I just noticed that the exam was little easy for me and I'm little bit confused why others had difficulty in answering and reading the questions like the Turk woman who was sitting on my right side. She asked few times to me what would she do on the exercises. She didn't understand and speak English. When I told her the right answer, still she did the wrong one. She could speak well good in Dutch but it was difficult for her to read and write in Dutch. And also, I just observed to others that they were slow in reading. So I found out that we had different capability in learning. Others can easily learn while others have hard time to acquire the knowledge.

After that, we checked all our answers and had a break for 15 minutes wherein we could go to the toilet or drink tea/coffee. Next, we went to the Computer room where we could do more exercises tru some Language sites or programs on the computer. I sat beside the seat of an African woman. She could speak in English and Dutch but slow to follow and read the lessons that's why I tried to help her and explained the instructions. Our teacher, Brunhilde was walking around the room to check if we were doing right and when she saw my answers, she said, "Heel goed!". I felt great when I heard that. Afterwards, I am done with my exercise and asked Brunhilde if I could go home. She allowed me to go home early and told me if I could wait for her outside the room before I leave. She would talk to me some matters. So I went first to the toilet and went in their office. I saw Brunhilde was already there. She told me that I did great today and had good knowledge in Dutch grammar. She also told me that I am fast learner compare to her other old students who were slow. Thus, she would give me an exam for A1 level next Monday. If ever I would get a good score on that exam, they would transfer me into another class which was more high level than Brunhilde's class (A0-A1 level). So I'm hopping that I can make it and finish my course as soon as possible. I will do my best to learn Dutch quickly so I can communicate well with them in Dutch and find a good job here in The Netherlands. Wish me Luck! :)