Congratulations, ER - You're Now in High School!

On June 11 in the evening, ER graduated from 8th grade. To be more precise in ASH terminology, she promoted from 8th grade to 9th grade. You see, when a school goes from K-1 (or pre-K) to 12th grade, a student does not officially "graduate" until senior year and leaving to college. Before that, they just change wings in the school at educational transitions.

Still, it is a major accomplishment to leave behind middle school and enter high school. Especially when one does it in a foreign country, away from dear friends and a beloved school, and in a secular setting. ER found her niche in classes and in the arts - music, drama and drawing. She made friends. She learned to ride a bike and can't wait to commute to school next year on two wheels. She's traveled to Morocco, Aberdeen and Switzerland. Hiked up mountains, dipped her toes in the North Atlantic, played in an international honor band, sang with an international choir. She is reknown for her art work. Language arts was her favorite class, algebra her least. She transferred role playing from the computer to the Role Playing Games Club every Friday in the school library.

She is also respected as a person of convictions who is not afraid to stand up for herself. She keeps at the task even as she struggles. She cares deeply about injustice and wants to correct it. She holds her own in a discussion. She is in the process of retraining her friends as to proper language in her presence (aka slapping them on the arm when they swear.)

The ceremony was lovely. The exercises were in the school's theater. Since there were 90 students, tickets were limited to three per graduate. The theater was packed. The girls looked lovely in their dressers and there really high heels. Many of the boys were in suits - a few suits were complimented by white tennis shoes. The girls always look older, almost ready for college. The boys look like they are dressing up in their fathers' clothes.

The Master & Mistress of Ceremonies (Gustaaf van Oosterom and Verane Gross) and the two giving speeches (Shreya Chatterjee and David Kelly) were selected by the class. All four performed to expectations giving a few laughs along the way. The comic timing of the speech deliverers was impeccable. Two teachers presented the annual 8th grade retrospective slide show complete with appropriate music. It began with a scene from Frankenstein cutting to the math teacher's head being unwrapped (as it lay on an Algebra textbook) and the teacher coming up slowly saying "Homeworkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk....homeworkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk." They made a point of featuring every student in both posed and candid shots. The laughter coming from the 8th grade section showed that they had hit the right tone. The slide show was especially poignant because after 30 years teaching, the beloved science teacher, half of the powerpoint team, was retiring.

All 90 of them received their diplomas with grace and poise. And none of the girls tottered on their heels! It was a pleasure to clap and wish them well.

After the ceremony, parents and family left so that the now high school freshmen could have their party, dance the night away and eat food (note= do not eat 'heathy' mushroom pizza. Your mouth will burn).

Congratulations, ER. You have grown into your own person, developed your talents and found a niche. Although your certificate says promotion on it, we know you have graduated to a new role in life, a new chapter in your adventure. We pray for you all of God's blessings and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to get your through. We love you very much!

JA Lost in The Hague - And It Wasn't Her Fault!

Whenever JA takes the bus for the first time by herself, she has an adventure. The first time she went up to ASH by herself and had to transfer buses, the first bus missed the second by a minute and she had to wait 30 for the next one. However, she got to help an English family who was visiting Holland on vacation. That was the day of her placement tests for english, math and french. So she was late. The first time she took the bus home from ASH after a flute lesson, she had an adventure. Before her flute lesson, she had her favorite juice drink that cost a euro ninety. On the bus, she found out that the ride cost a euro in addition to four strippen to get home because it was rush hour. She was short 30 cents. The bus driver refused to do an extra strippen tradeoff. Finally, a young (freshman) knight in armor, Robert L., came to her rescue with a euro coin.

Today, she went to the main library downtown in The Hague. And she had an adventure.

Bus 18 is just two blocks from our house. Very convenient. It runs every 15 minutes during non-rush hour and very 10 minutes during rush hour. The stop after Centraal Station is a block from the main library.

JA had CDs and music due tomorrow. She decided to go today. Since ER was having friends, JA chose to go down by herself. She checked her time, left the house around 3:34 pm, just as ER and her friends were getting home. A block away from the stop, the 3:37 bus pulled up. Fortunately there were a half dozen people getting on. She ran a half block to the bus. Right before boarding, she tripped, having her hands land inside the bus on the ground with dropping her wallet, loosing her shoe under the step and then retrieved it. She told the driver she was going to Centraal Station. It's easier that way then saying the stop's exact name. She stood up the whole trip.

The bus reached Centraal Station. All but three or so left the bus. JA thought that was kind of weird but it made sense because a lot had suitcases, so it was presumed they were going to Schipol. The bus pulled out and JA sat down for a bit. She pressed the button to stop and then stood up again. The bus kept going. She didn't know where the bus was going at all - it seemed to pass the stop, but then it seemed to be going a whole different route. JA thought that she was going to end up at the end of the line - Risjwik de Schilp. Finally the driver spoke over the intercom, "Hollands-Spoor, " and he stopped the bus. JA exited with one other person. She had no idea where she was. There wasn't a normal Bus 18 stop. It was the 26/28 bus stop!!

So what does she do? Pull out her trusty cell phone (found after almost 3 months but that's another story) and called ...... The Mom. ER or one of her guests picked up the phone and made JA think she had the wrong number. ER passed the phone to Mom when JA, with panic in her voice, "This is important." She saw a Clingendael bus drive past which the doors actually opened but she didn't trust it.

The Mom tries not to panic since the daughter already is. She calmly talks to her as she walks downstairs to find her magnifying glasses and the map. Found, she walks back upstairs for some quiet (rather noisy with 11 young teens in the room.) The Mom finds Hollands-Spoor on the map and starts giving directions.

First step: "Where are you?"

"By Haagse Hogeschool. And MegaStores."

"Don't go towards Mega stores. Read me one of the street signs."

We can't read Dutch street signs - only spell them. She spells one out. The Mom finds it on the map. Okay, now how to orient her?

"Face Hollands-Spoor"

"What?"

"Face the train tracks. Do you see train tracks?"

"No. There's water here too."

(silent "Aargh" and prayer raised.)

"Oh, yeah, now I see."

(Thank you guardian angel). Okay, take the street and go to your right. Tell me what street you come to.

JA walks, talking to me the whole time. She comes to a new street, spells the name. YES! That's where she's suppose to be.

"Now, go to your left towards the train tracks."

"Okay, I'm walking. I'm going into a tunnel. Oh, the wind!" The wind also made it hard to hear her on her cell phone.

"That's good. You're suppose to."

"There's a sign that says Centrum."

"Good. Go in that direction."

"It says 2 kilometers!"

"You won't be walking that long. Keep looking for signs to Centrum. Or Stadhuis or Bibliotheek."

We went on like that for awhile. JA trying to read signs and spell them out. Came to one fork. "Right or left?" "Left." That took her over a canal. "Okay, turn left so that the canal is on your left side and buildings on your right." "Okay."

This stretch was the scary part. As JA was trying to read and spell signs to me, someone made fun of her. She was scared. She kept moving. She said a prayer and the ones who were bothering her seemed to disappear. The weird thing was that he said, "I'll see you at the library." JA froze when she head that. She then realized it was a similar man who creeped her out the last time she was at the library. For some reason, JA thinks that it was a trick placed by the Devil, but thanks to be God, he went away. (Thank you again, guardian angel.)

Finally, she got to the intersection where she was suppose to get off the bus. The streets were starting to look familiar. A block away was the library. She had made it. She was thirsty but wanted to do the library work first. The whole operation took 38 minutes, or rather 37 minutes and 38 seconds on the cell phone ... which in all due respect was unbelievable, not having a map in front of her, being given directions over the phone, and MA and JA spending five minutes or so trying to figure out where she was.

At the library, nothing seemed to be right. She couldn't find the piece of music that Tami, her flute teacher, had sent her down to look for. Second of all, she could not find a CD that had the piece she was looking for. She ends up checking out CDs of Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Peer Gynt, Handel's Flute Sonatas, and The Magic Flute. The three operas are complete. Not bad of a borrow for only five euros! (about $7.89) Not bad for, if she bought them individually, would have cost her $127.41!

When she was done, she went to the grocery store to pick up something to drink. Then called The Mom for the way home.

"Okay, how do I get to Centraal Station?"

"Is your back to Albert Heijn?"

"Yeah."

"Don't cross any street. Make a right and walk down like you're walking away from the library."

"Okay."

At the next intersection, "I'm seeing a Burger King."

"Don't cross the street. Make a right turn. You'll pass the American Bookstore in a little bit." And she did. And a subway. And where we had dinner the first weekend we were in The Hague. She and I talked on the way. She didn't ask for any more directions. She knew where she was because she remembered going that way when she went with Dad back to Centraal Station the last time she went to the library.

She made it to Centraal Station, got on the bus and came home, never more relieved to open the front door around 7:00 pm. She had an adventure and got home safe.

Alert: Blog Correction & Switzerland Project

One of my faithful readers brought a glaring error to my attention concerning one of the posts we wrote on Morocco.

ER wants everyone to know that she made SECOND chair of the trumpet section, not third chair. The number three refers to the fact that the first three chairs were all girls. The change has been made to that post for subsequent readers.

ER also wanted you to know that she survived the Project 8 trip to Switzerland. After exams are over and she gets her pictures back (we used disposable water proof cameras just in case of lots of rain) she will put up text and pictures for a personal account of what happened. In the meantime, here is a brief synopsis of her trip.

Sunday, May 25 - arrive at school at 5:45 am along with her other classmates (and their sleepy parents) - about 90 in the class. climb onto the noisy bus (girls). The stinky bus had boys. 14 hour bus ride to Leysin, Switzerland with bathroom breaks and dinner at McDonald's in Switzerland. Carry suitcase up 9 flights of stairs to room on 3rd floor of hotel. Good practice for mountain climbing.

Monday, May 26 - up and out early packing lunch for the road. Group is lead by Seal, an awesome Irish counselor. Team building activities in the morning. Mountain biking in the afternoon - most dangerous part of the trip because of rocks in the road. Just got away with a few scratches, and sat out the most dangerous part.

Tuesday, May 27 - Rafting in the morning for the group. ER chose to sit out, did some shopping with her math teacher and helped to take care of the teacher for her group who was sick. Afternoon was high ropes and saving herself from a couple harrowing experiences, but also a lot of fun. Evening camp fire and skits.

Wednesday, May 28 - In the morning, living with nature where they had to build a shelter with minimal materials. They had a small tarp and rope. Afternoon rock climbing which was the best part of the whole week. Climbing on real rocks was easier then practicing on the rock climbing wall at school. Evening disco dance where the counslers, students and teachers went crazy.

Thursday, May 29 - All day hike up the mountain. The chalet elevation was 1440 meters. They went up paths to reach an elevation at the summit of 1980 meters. Found snow along the way and had a two hour snowball fight. Did the hike in record time (2 hours 45 minutes). After dinner, got on the bus at 7:30 pm for the all night bus ride home.

Friday, May 30 - Arrived back at school and was picked up by the mother at about 9:30 am. Went home, took a nap, made it at 3:50 pm to the last Role Play Game (RPG) Club for the year. Adreneline pumps up so able to get on computer and connect with friend in Virginia. Finally crashes.

Details to follow.