Once again, we were up and at it early to visit the BS Amby school in Maastricht. After a briefing with the principal of the school we were free to roam the school in pairs. I spend a good portion of my time in the gymnasium playing ball with the kids. It was awesome for me because I got to run around and have fun with these kids even though we could not verbally communicate (they usually learn English by fifth grade). There was one kid in particular that just was talking away in Dutch to me and although I couldn't understand a word he said, he just kept on talking like we were the best of friends. I noticed that the kids had a lot more freedom in the gym and the teachers did not mind us playing with the kids at all; in fact, they encouraged it. I'm not sure this would be the case in the US, especially these days. Amby seemed like a typical primary school and the inside was beautiful. I think it was recently renovated.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful as we were leaving very early for Paris the next day.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Wednesday, January 9th
Ahhhhh, finally caught up to today.
We visited what is called PABO, a teaching college slightly north of Maastricht. We were given an overview of the school's philosophy by a lady named Ingrid who showed us around the building. It was certainly not a sprawling campus like Maryland, but rather one huge building that was very modern inside.
The first class we visited was a drama class that was surprisingly fun. He had some Dutch students pair up with us to do some improv exercises with the focus on how to teach drama to kids. The activities ended up being really enjoyable and the Dutch students were once again great at English. After drama, our group split up into two and some went to a Math class and some went to Music. I lucked out at got Music - much better than arithmetic. That was also great and I'm not even exaggerating about this. In music, we were tasked with taking a simple song and teach it to the class as if they were small children. Naturally, my group had a song about potty training and I used my few years of subpar piano playing to accompany the class in "Little Tommy Tinker." The album is coming out next month featuring Dana Hansen on the claves.
We left the school just a few hours ago and we are just relaxing back at the hotel right now and we are going into the city tonight. I am eager to see what the rest of the trip has in store for me.
We visited what is called PABO, a teaching college slightly north of Maastricht. We were given an overview of the school's philosophy by a lady named Ingrid who showed us around the building. It was certainly not a sprawling campus like Maryland, but rather one huge building that was very modern inside.
The first class we visited was a drama class that was surprisingly fun. He had some Dutch students pair up with us to do some improv exercises with the focus on how to teach drama to kids. The activities ended up being really enjoyable and the Dutch students were once again great at English. After drama, our group split up into two and some went to a Math class and some went to Music. I lucked out at got Music - much better than arithmetic. That was also great and I'm not even exaggerating about this. In music, we were tasked with taking a simple song and teach it to the class as if they were small children. Naturally, my group had a song about potty training and I used my few years of subpar piano playing to accompany the class in "Little Tommy Tinker." The album is coming out next month featuring Dana Hansen on the claves.
We left the school just a few hours ago and we are just relaxing back at the hotel right now and we are going into the city tonight. I am eager to see what the rest of the trip has in store for me.
Tuesday, January 8th
We had a 7:30 wake up call for breakfast before checking out of the Botel and leaving for the Derde Dalton Basisschool, a primary school pictured above. It was in the very southeast of the city and it is traditionally one of the better performing schools in Amsterdam. The principal of the school was named Mario and he was quite the personality. He was very candid and relaxed with us. The coolest part of the trip was the fact that we were lead around the school by 12 year old Dutch students who all spoke flawless or nearly flawless English. Most of these kids know four languages by the time they're in high school and, frankly, I'm jealous. The foreign language education system in the US is very flawed, but it is impossible to truly learn a language when you cannot easily immerse yourself in it due to the geography. In Europe, students can easily travel and because of that, outside influences are much easier integrated.
After the primary school, we quickly got our luggage from the Botel and bussed from the north, Amsterdam, to the south, Maastricht. I would have loved to see the country as we drove through, but in typical Danny fashion, I fell asleep for almost the whole ride.
Our hotel, as I mentioned before, is incredible. Here's the view of the grand entrance from my room:
And this is the crest above the fireplace in my room as it was the tower of the castle back in the day:
There was an awesome formal dinner last night with four courses, each better than the last. I am definitely not hating being here. The boys did some local exploring last night and we found a bar who served a beer called Brand Dark that honestly tasted like Coke. It was a very low alcohol content, but man, was it good. We met some locals on their Tuesday night darts league and then we just hung out at the hotel because we had another school to visit in the morning.
Monday, January 7th
We woke up early for breakfast on the 7th before heading out to seemingly the only restaurant on on our side of the harbor, Kantine. We had a lecture from Rene in their upstairs meeting room where we learned about the Dutch education system and an overview of Dutch culture. The piece of information that stuck out the most to me from the lecture was the weight placed on the CITO test that students take after their eighth grade year. It essentially determines their future for the rest of their academic lives at a young age. While the American SAT is very important, it is merely a chunk of the whole picture, not 90 percent.
After the lecture, we went downstairs for lunch and I did my best to finish off all of the smoked salmon sandwiches at Kantine.
We left for the ferry to take us to Central Station and eventually the Anne Frank House. While the museum was not big in size, it had an enormous impact on me because I am the grandson of two holocaust survivors. You could read the words from Anne's journal and physically see the bookcase that she was referring to or the room she was in. It took us about an hour to walk through and I am really glad I went; if I didn't, I would have regretted it.
That night, the whole group, all 15 of us, did some exploring. We covered what seemed like all of Amsterdam even though it clearly was not. We successfully navigated the bus system and found a few good places to consume a moderate amount of 18 and over adult beverages. Don't worry Nana, it is legal here.
We made the last boat back to the Botel but we had to sprint at one point to get there. Once again, we had an early morning ahead of us.
After the lecture, we went downstairs for lunch and I did my best to finish off all of the smoked salmon sandwiches at Kantine.
We left for the ferry to take us to Central Station and eventually the Anne Frank House. While the museum was not big in size, it had an enormous impact on me because I am the grandson of two holocaust survivors. You could read the words from Anne's journal and physically see the bookcase that she was referring to or the room she was in. It took us about an hour to walk through and I am really glad I went; if I didn't, I would have regretted it.
That night, the whole group, all 15 of us, did some exploring. We covered what seemed like all of Amsterdam even though it clearly was not. We successfully navigated the bus system and found a few good places to consume a moderate amount of 18 and over adult beverages. Don't worry Nana, it is legal here.
We made the last boat back to the Botel but we had to sprint at one point to get there. Once again, we had an early morning ahead of us.
Sunday, January 6th
We landed in Amsterdam around 8 AM on the 6th but we must have taxied over 20 minutes to the gate. I intended to sleep for most of the seven-hour flight but only managed one hour, of course. So we landed and gathered then left for the train that would take us to the ferry across Amsterdam Harbor to our boat hotel aka Botel. It amazes me how many forms of transportation you can take here in such a short period of time. We walk, ride ferrys, take buses and take the train systems in Amsterdam and Maastricht. Watching the amount of bikes, scooters and motorcycles get off these ferrys in Amsterdam is a show in and of itself.
We quickly checked in at the Botel and left for the Canal tour that gave us a huge overview of the city. It was awesome even though I was unbelievably tired. I got a bunch of cool photos from that one.
After the tour we were starving and our guide/teacher Rene just sort of stumbled across a place called PastaBar that he had never been to and it was great. Either I was starving or it was one of the best Hawaiian pizzas I've ever had. We went on a city walk at that point and Rene took us to many of the main attractions such as the "I AMSTERDAM" sign and the Shopping District (don't worry we walked through the Red Light District later. Honestly, it was nothing special).
That night we all attempted to stay up to watch football. We ate at the hotel bar but between the lack of quality links and my lack of sleep in over a day, I crashed, of course. I can't say I was upset with the results the next morning. We had an early morning the next day and I was glad to get over 10 hours.
We quickly checked in at the Botel and left for the Canal tour that gave us a huge overview of the city. It was awesome even though I was unbelievably tired. I got a bunch of cool photos from that one.
After the tour we were starving and our guide/teacher Rene just sort of stumbled across a place called PastaBar that he had never been to and it was great. Either I was starving or it was one of the best Hawaiian pizzas I've ever had. We went on a city walk at that point and Rene took us to many of the main attractions such as the "I AMSTERDAM" sign and the Shopping District (don't worry we walked through the Red Light District later. Honestly, it was nothing special).
That night we all attempted to stay up to watch football. We ate at the hotel bar but between the lack of quality links and my lack of sleep in over a day, I crashed, of course. I can't say I was upset with the results the next morning. We had an early morning the next day and I was glad to get over 10 hours.
Sorry this has taken so long...
Hi all,
Sorry it's taken me this long to get my blog started but I have been without internet for the past two-ish days in Maastricht. For some reason, my very green room does not have any access (the only such room in the place). I am staying at a beautiful castle run by hospitality students at a nearby college called Chateau Bethlehem. The cool thing is that each room in the hotel is totally different. There's a room with a full kitchen, a room that it covered in blackboards so you can write on the walls and a room with a swing and hammock in it. My friend from freshman year, David Clark, and I are staying in the aptly named "Green Room:"
Sorry it's taken me this long to get my blog started but I have been without internet for the past two-ish days in Maastricht. For some reason, my very green room does not have any access (the only such room in the place). I am staying at a beautiful castle run by hospitality students at a nearby college called Chateau Bethlehem. The cool thing is that each room in the hotel is totally different. There's a room with a full kitchen, a room that it covered in blackboards so you can write on the walls and a room with a swing and hammock in it. My friend from freshman year, David Clark, and I are staying in the aptly named "Green Room:"
This study abroad trip is through the School of Education and we are comparing and contrasting the Dutch, German and Belgian education systems to that of the US. After taking an education policy history class this past semester, I gained more of an appreciation for educational history and theory, so this trip intrigued me ... the location wasn't too bad either.
I am here with my fraternity brothers David Weiner, Dana Hansen and Tom Sless, as well as David Clark and Tom's friend Matt Ellis. Everyone on the trip seems to get along just fine and I've really enjoyed meeting everyone else here. Over the next two weeks, I will be in Maastrict, which is in the south of Holland, Paris this weekend, Aachen, Germany and Brussels.
I am going to make a different blog entry for each day, starting with Sunday the 6th. Hope you all enjoy!
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