Everyday life

Time surely does fly by and after almost two months of living together, my fellow flatmates and I decided that we might have a nice floor dinner. On Thursday morning Arthur, Cheryl and I went to the West Mart open market to pick up some fresh ingredients. We decided to make some chicken stirfy fajitas and Arthur would make one of his fabulous pasta dishes. It was a lot of fun picking out our fresh ingredients and we had all 16 of our flatmates sign up for the dinner. Everybody contributed financially to help cover the cost of all the grocieries. I think we might try to make these floor dinners a regular thing. One of our goals was to pick up new things for people to try. Cheryl, Arthur and I decided to buy some spicy gouda cheese for the fajitas and it turned out to be delicious.Once we started making dinner, everybody pitched in an the kitchen was alive. The meal was very good and everybody enjoyed themselves. We started to think how sad it would be when we all part ways in June (tear) .

Switching topics here, I have received numerous 'comments' shall we say from certain family members about my lack of discussion on school work. Although I will admit that sometimes I forget I am here to study, I have decided to write something about my school and work load for those of you (Dad/Grandma) that seem to think I might not be concentrating enough on that area.

Tilburg is well known for its law, business and economics programs. Each of these faculties sort of run their own lecture and exams schedules so there is no central office that coordinates these things as in Waterloo. Most exchange students here are registered into a faculty but I am here as a general exchange student so I take courses from different faculties.

Right now I am four courses and my fifth course will start in April as a three week intensive lecture series on the politics of Islam. So on Tuesdays at 2:45 I attend my Dutch level 2 course until 5:15. This class has only about 10 students so there is a great atmosphere and you don't have to be shy to make mistakes. Right now, I find I am probably one of the most behind students because almost all of the other students can already speak fluent Dutch. I am quite good at understanding Dutch by reading it or if people speak slowly, but I still need to work on forming the right responses. To pass this course, the entire grade is dependent on your mark in the final exam.

At the exact same time as my Dutch class, my International Communication course takes place. After attending the first lecture, our professor knows that Danni and I will be going to our Dutch class so I keep up with this course by following the lecture slides online and doing the readings on my own. I have already completed the required presentation and received a mark of 8.8 out of 10. One mark was given for the use of the English language so I hope I aced that section or I am in trouble.

On Wednesdays, I go to my Economic Sociology class at 10:45. So far I find this class quite boring but it counts towards one of my degree requirements so I will push through it. To pass this course I just have to pass the final exam. Then at 2:45 on Wednesdays, I go to my Dutch Culture class. This class is extremely interesting as we learn about the history, geography, and culture of the Dutch people. One of our assignments is to partner up and do a presentation on a significant museum, landmark or international heritage site. On Monday, Melissa and I will be going to the Kinderdijk, a United Nations proclaimed heritage site where several windmills can be viewed.

So as you may have noticed I have a five day weekend. This allows for a lot of free time, I mean, studying time. For those of you who may be worried (Dad/Grandma) have no fear because I am getting my work done. I will just mention that the grades I receive here at Tilburg will only count in my UW degree as a 'credit received' so my average will stay the same as long as I pass my classes. This is not to say that I won't put as much effort into getting good grades (Dad/Grandma) but I just wanted to erase any fears some of you had about whether or not I was actually doing work.