"Ik ben dankbaar" means I'm grateful. Why? Because yesterday I'm officially 1 month here and many things happened this great month! Before I tell you my story here, I have to say sorry if my English is so bad. Hehehe...
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| Between Maasmechelen and Netherlands, there is a river and look at that! That's Netherlands ;) |
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| Way to Aachen and Maastricht |
My house is very nice! My house is located near to town hall (Although near to town hall, there are horses near my house guys haha -_-). My house has two floors, all the rooms in second floor is for me. I have bedroom, studying room, bathroom and toilet there. It also has large garden and all of stuffs here are worked with technology. I mean like to open the gate, there is a code to open it or there is a washing machine for dishes, glasses, etc.
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| My house from the garden |
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| In front of my house |
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| The town hall from my house |
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| The town hall |
In my first week, the school had not started. So, Bompa introduced me to all people here. Btw, I think he is very famous here because many people know him. Yeah, not only him but all Colson family. I'm proud to be the part of this family. Hahaha... In this week, I also met his family, especially his children's family. He has 3 children:
The first is Jan. He lives in Maasmechelen. We often go to his house. Jan has 2 children, 1 boy and 1 girl. They study in high school now, but not same as my school. They are very nice to me. Sometimes we chat in Dutch, it's very helpful to me to learn this language! :') His son, Tibo likes playing tennis. He even ever played abroad. Actually I never saw tennis match and I thought it was boring. But, there was a day he had tennis match and Bompa brought me there. And my thought is very wrong! Tennis is very awesome! His daughter is Marieke. Marie likes riding horse and I still don't know more about her because she's still shy to me. Maybe because of my good looking face. Hahahah... I'm joking!
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| Me and Tibo |
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| Me and Marie |
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| With Jan's family |
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| First time watch tennis match and how proud I am, that's Tibooooo!!!! |
The second is An. An lives in Genk. She has 2 daughters and they are very beautiful! I forget their names and I don't really know about them. But I know, her first daughter is still shy to me as Marieke and her second daughter really likes selfie. Hahaha... She is really typical of me. When she came to my house, she always takes selfie hahaha...
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| An's daughters |
The third is Tom. Tom lives in Rekem, not really far from my house and we also often go to his house. Bompa really loves his grandchildren, that's why we often go to his children's houses. Tom has 1 cute son. His son really likes watching Boomba, it's a cartoon. Btw, Tom and his wife really look like my parents in Indonesia. I mean like his wife is very beautiful as my mother, his wife can cook, Tom and his wife also studied law in university as my parents, and I really like discussing with Tom as I do with my dad. Tom always asks about my life here, same as my father who likes asking how is my day everyday.
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| He is so cute, isn't he? |
In the second week, I went to school! My school, De Helix is really awesome guys! I like the building although sometimes I lost there because it's too big. The school field is also very large. This month, we do run for sport class and it is so tired because of the school field! My first day was really good. I went with Evelien, she introduced me to my classmate. I join the 5HW, in Indonesia it's like the 2nd grade of social science. My friends are nice and funny! I have a friend, Nathan, he guided me to walk around the school. He told me evrything about this school and he introduced me to his friends in the other class. It makes me easier to make many friends. Thank you Nathan! In the first day, we did "team building" with our homeroom teacher, it's like an activity that aimed to know each other. In the second day, we started the school normally. Oh yeah, if you want to enter the school, you must have a key. It's a key to know your absence and to buy food/drink in the school. My school is indeed awesome!
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| In front of my school |
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| My school from the back |
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| The key |
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| Homeroom teacher |
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| After team building |
On Saturday, I and Nathan went to scouts. The scouts is cool! I met many people there. The scouts is divided into some groups, depend on the age. In my age group, they made raft and they went to a lake that is near to the basecamp of the scouts. They played there. Unfortunately, I didn't bring another clothes, so I didn't join them.
On Saturday in the third week, I went to Blotevoetenpad, it's an activity from my AFS chapter, MIL. We did walk without shoes, only with your feet. The place was really amazing!!!
On Saturday in the fourth week, I went to KSJ, it's a group like scouts. They are also cool! And again, I met new people here. This group is smaller but very awesome! They are very friendly and funny! We went to volleyball competition. It's a compettion for all groups like scouts or KSJ in Maasmechelen and around it. Actually I never play volleyball, so before they played in the competition, they taught me how to play it. It's really cool! I must be able to play it before I go back to Indonesia. Oh yeah, in the competition, KSJ is the 12th winner. Hahaha... I know it's bad but it's not real competition guys, it's just for fun and I like to be like that! Go KSJ!
Oh yeah, about the language. Actually my Bompa almost cannot speak English well. So, he always speaks Duch to me. Everyday I open the dictionary that was given by him on the first time we met. I try to understand what he said and talk with Dutch. In the first week, it's really hard :') When I told something in English, he didn't understand and so did I when he told something in Dutch to me. But day by day, I start to understand what he said. And do you know, he really wants me to be able speak Dutch well in November! Oh my God -_- He always asks me to watch news every evening and asks me to speak in Dutch to everyone. If he hears I speak English to someone, he will says, "Hey, Nederlands praten ya!" which means "Hey, talk in Dutch ya!" -_- Oh ya, here every Wednesday and Friday I always go to Hasselt for Dutch lesson from AFS. I always go by bus and I really like the trip from Maasmechelen to Hasselt because I will pass Albertkanaal, it's very beautiful! Oh ya, now I know why people here are always on time and seems individualist. Let me give an example from my experience. So, on last Friday, after I had Dutch lesson, I wanted to go back to Maasmechelen. But before I went to the station, I talked too long with my friends. I knew that my bus will arrive at the station soon but I still talked. In my mind, "Ah, it's not problem, there are still many buses to my city!" which typical of Indonesians' mind. After I arrived at the station with my friends, my bus had gone and in fact I had to wait 1 hour more for the bus while actually I have an appointment to have dinner together with my family and do you know what? The bus of my friends had not arrived at the station when we arrived there. When the bus arrived, they left me alone. So, in conclusion I must be on time here and don't care about other people when we talk about the bus!
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| My dictionaries |
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| Albertkanaal! |
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| Waiting for the bus |
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| If you want to stop in the next halte, press the blue button ;) |
Oh ya, there's also I want to talk about. So, last year, there was a student from Indonesia in my chapter, her name is Sarah. The volunteers here say that she was really good! She was an active girl and she almost can speak all Dutch words. It's really a challenge for me that my Dutch must be like hers or maybe better than. So, you, Kak Sarah, I'll beat you! Hahahaha...
