Lions and squirrels

Tuesday the weather was great. Hannah had to go on a search for jeans and decided not to drag me along with her, so I had some "me-time". I went to Tarrytown to get some fruit and a pencil-sharpener. On my way there I saw a lot of squirrels, I could have made a documentary about them. Apparently the squirrels in America seem to think it perfectly natural to walk on electricity wires. When i arrived at Mrs. Greens I realized I had found fruit heaven. I bought some dried peaches and watermelon and bananas and kiwis. I returned home and went to the gym, a place where I've been spending quite some time this week. I mostly slept on Wednesday. Thursday was the day, that I went to the Lion King (the musical of course) on Broadway! A big yellow American school bus picked us up at school and brought us to the theater. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I assure you it was fantastic. The costumes itself were tiny works of art. Of course the musical started with Rafiki on the pride rock with Simba on display. They all sung 'The circle of life' and suddenly there came animals walking down the aisle (people in costumes of course). An elephant, birds, antelopes, giraffes, monkeys, etc. The story was exactly the same as that of the movie and I knew every song. I absolutely loved the performance of Scar (he is my favorite Disney villain after all). It wasn't the same actor as the one from the movie, but they sounded awfully familiar. The hyenas were absolutely hilarious and so were Timon and Pumba. Mufassa's death was also pretty sad, but I couldn't see Scar (unfortunately). The final scenes were absolutely amazing. They even included my favorite lines from the movie. "Let me tell you my little secret, I killed Mufassa." The last performance of the circle of life was very touching. Because, come on, it's a song that was created to make people cry (I didn't, though), but it still got to me. I'm still a little overwhelmed so I can't think of anything to tell you. But if you find yourself somewhere where they are performing the Lion King, go watch it. That's an order. Hugs and kisses.

Yours truly,

Let's raise the roof!

So Thursday I didn't do anything special. We had class 'till 12:20 and after that Hannah and I pretty much just sat in the sun and read books. Which was relaxing and fun. Friday, however was an entirely different story. Not that it wasn't fun, it just wasn't as tranquil as Thursday. After our classes had ended, we decided to see if we could get into "The Rooftop Lounge". We didn't have very high hopes, since you have to be 21 to get into most clubs. Nonetheless, we did succeed, due to the fact that some guys here at EF had made a deal with a promoter. (This means that the promoter will get you into the club, for a certain price, and in exchange you tell all your friends about this amazing club. Pretty smart, ey). So we managed to get a taxi (it wasn't easy because almost everyone on campus wanted to go) and drove to Manhattan. That might sound easy, but apparently it isn't when you're a Hispanic taxi driver. The guy didn't even know where Manhattan was. Luckily Natalia was with us and she could speak Spanish with him. Eventually we arrived at the club and we got in! They didn't even give my ID a second glance, even though I'm only eighteen. The party was awesome, so much better than parties in Doetinchem (sorry 22-24). It indeed was a Rooftop lounge, because we were in a f-ing penthouse. How cool is that. We had free drinks and the music was great. The view was amazing, because you could see the tall buildings of New York. It's funny how there weren't any stars, because of all the light from the city. We had arrived at the lounge around midnight and stayed until a quarter to four. That was when we started to get hungry (our dinner was at 17:30). Thus we set out to find some food. Of course, being party goers we couldn't settle for anything other than burgers. There I was, eating a cheeseburger, in Manhattan, at 4:15. We finished our meals (and immediately regretted it) and went to find our taxi again. Charles, Nicolas and Lucky decided it was a good idea to play American football on the sidewalk in the middle of NYC and Nicolas almost died, because the ball rolled onto the street. *sigh* boys will be boys. We found our way back to the club and for some reason we weren't surprised when our taxi-driver was nowhere to be seen. After an angry phone-call from Natalia, our taxi came rolling around the corner. We all got in and immediately fell asleep. We arrived on campus at six in the morning and fell flat on our beds (not easy when you're in the top bed). The following morning, as can be expected, we were zombies. We decided to stay home and just do mind numbing tasks. Therefor I went to do my laundry. It was quite the experience, but luckily everything turned out O.K. On Sunday we went to Soho and I was pleasantly surprised when they spelled my name right at Starbucks. We just walked around for a bit and went on a quest for jeans for Hannah. We failed miserably, because Hannah is tall and very thin. Eventually I bought a new bag, because my new one was broken (screw you century 21!) and a shirt. By that time we were hungry (that's my secret, I'm always hungry) and went in search for food. We ate at the Rockefeller center and went to Central Park. We managed to sit there for half an hour, before we freaked out because of the staggering amount of rats that were walking around. Seriously, brr. Today I had my first new SPIN classes. The first one was Drama and it was quite O.K. The second class was American Youth in film and it was AMAZING! I saw world's most awesome movie ever. For those of you that want to know what movie I'm talking about: it was "Primal Fear". It's about a teenage guy that is accused of murdering the Archbishop of Chicago. There is a lot of hard evidence against him (he's was caught flying the crime scene covered in blood and his prints are all over the place). Lawyer Martin Vail loves publicity and decides to take the case. Aaron (the alleged murderer) turns out to be a sweet and utterly innocent looking guy. He even has a stutter! Normally Vail doesn't care about whether his clients are innocent or not, but this time he is convinced that Aaron is innocent. Therefore he decides to plead not guilty. Eventually Vail finds out that Aaron is suffering from DID (disassociative identity disorder) which results in a split personality. However Vail cannot plea "not guilty for reason of insanity" because you can't change your plea mid-trail. Vail tries everything and eventually wins the case. It might sound like I spoiled the movie, but I didn't because the best part is the very last scene. Of course I'm not going to tell you about it, because you should see it for yourself. Wow, this was a long post. Hope you enjoyed it.

Yours truly,

I hate Mondays

I hate Mondays, especially when I have class from 8:45 until 17:00. We had SPIN classes (SPIN stands for special interest). Only there was nothing special OR interesting about these classes. We spent an entire hour on reading just one text, because there were FCE students in our class too. FCE is the lowest level in Cambridge, by the way. Our teacher was nice enough, but she wasn't as cool as Kristina. After our reading SPIN we had a writing SPIN that was equally boring. However, I talked to the people at the Academics office and they were fine with me changing my SPIN classes. Keyth (the woman that's in charge of the Cambridge program) came to talk to me and she said that I could do whatever I wanted as long as I knew what I was doing. I said I did and she said that she immediately believed me. I'll have other SPIN classes next week, the first one is about American slang and the second one is about American movies. I'm really happy about that and I think it will be fun, but challenging and that's exactly what I wanted. Yesterday Hannah and I only had class until 12:20 hence we went to Manhattan (again). We didn't go shopping, though, because after our recent shopping sprees, we really didn't want to spend that much money. The weather was OK and we walked to Central Park. Our original plan was to go to Strawberry Fields (*forever*), but we didn't know where to find it. In the end we settled for just strolling through the park. We met a hippie, that tried to sell us poetry and told us that we all come from the same tree of life (just different branches). For some reason Americans know that we're foreigners, because they always seem to sniff us out. The very first question people ask you when they start talking to you is : "Hi, how are you? Where are you from?". And we're just like: "Our English isn't that bad, is it?" We went to the Apple store as well and it was crazy. Here in America Apple is like a religion. All hail Master Jobs.  As a book lover, I know how hard it is to find other book lovers, for nowadays almost no one likes to read. You can probably imagine how thrilled I was, when I found out Hannah was a fellow book lover. We even like the same books! We went to Barnes & Nobles a.k.a "Reader's Paradise" to get some books. It was the biggest bookstore I have ever seen. There was an entire floor dedicated to young adult books and an entire aisle to fantasy books. Obviously I almost drooled when I walked in and Hannah had to practically drag me out of there. In the end I only bought one book (a hardcover for just 20 dollars!). By that time it was almost half past six and we really wanted some food. We had vowed not to eat fast food, so we went looking for a Chinese or Thai restaurant. Unfortunately finding one in Manhattan is incredibly hard. Eventually we decided to go back to Tarrytown to eat there, because they have a really awesome Chinese restaurant here. We had a lot of fun and we're glad that we get along so well. Today I slept 'till 10:30, owing to the fact that I had class at 13:15. Our classes were fun, we had to write a story about Britney Spears and told ghost-stories, much to Hannah's dismay. (She believes in ghosts and was absolutely terrified). We're going on a field trip in October. We're going to visit real American haunted houses and I'm really exited. Hannah isn't though. Oh and FYI I did my laundry yesterday and I went to the gym. I feel so responsible right know. You know you love me!

Yours truly,

Playing catch up...

So, I have quite some catching up to do. I'll start by telling you about Thursday, which was, as you may know, 9/11. Our classes finished at twelve, so Hannah, Celine, Annie, Marlien and I decided to go to ground zero. We were on our way to the train station, when we saw an EF taxi. The taxi-driver offered us a ride for a mere ten dollars. (This was much cheaper than a peak ticket). We arrived at ground zero around three 'o clock. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in until six. We went to Starbucks to deal with our disappointment. I drank a really good smoothie and we decided to go to Century 21. Century 21 is a store where you can buy designer clothing (and other stuff) for a very low price. It was Heaven. We spent most of our time just browsing (because $100 is still very expensive for a bag). But I eventually found a bag a really liked that was just $38. Hannah bought a Michael Kors belt and Marlien bought a cute pouch. After the three (!) hours we had spent in the store we decided to go back to ground zero. It was all very impressive, but it was also very beautiful. People had put roses, stones or other flowers on the victim's names. After half an hour we went back, because we wanted to be back at school in time. When we arrived at school, there was no food left, so we went to eat some Chinese food. (It was awesome!). Friday was pretty boring, except for the fact that I found out that I was in an even higher level than CAE. My level was CPE, which is the highest level there is. That posed a problem, because I am the only one that is on this level, and thus they won't be able to teach me on that level. They're probably gonna put me in a CAE class and give me extra assignments to challenge me. They are already calling me the master of English on campus. Saturday I went to the mall with Linda (German), Louise (German), Henriette (Danish), Lolla (Italian) and Anna (German). It was fun, but I didn't buy much. Except for some shoes, socks and clothes-hangers. We ate at TGI Fridays. It was a typical American diner, so of course I ate a cheese burger. When I came back I had my first case of homesickness, but luckily it passed fairly quickly. Today I went to the same mall again, but this time I did buy stuff. I bought a shirt, hand-cream, headbands, eye-liner, eye-pencil, a tile for my laundry, washing powder, a sports-band for my iPod and shampoo. We ate cheesecake at the "cheesecake factory" (Gee, such an original name). It was really good, but halfway through I was so full I couldn't eat another bite. When after a misunderstanding with our taxi-driver ("wait, what do you mean your EF campus is in Tarrytown") we arrived home. It was very cold outside so instead of sitting on the steps in front of our building, what we normally do, we went to see a movie in Ritahall. (It was the Avengers for those of you that want to know). So that was me playing catch up. I miss you guys, but I also love it here.

Yours truly,

Let's get down to business

Yep, today was my first official day of school. Of course, lucky that I am, I had my first class at 8:30. It was an iLab class, so we just had to work independently on our computer. I had some vocabulary and grammar exercise. After that I had to listen to a fragment and repeat the sentence that I had heard. Unfortunately I had a really sucky microphone, so half of the time I had to repeat the sentence like five times, before I could continue. The class ended at 9:50 and I didn't have class until 1:15, so after I had tidied my room, me and my neighbor decided to go to lunch. So I had lunch with a bunch of Mexicans that all spoke in rapid-fire Spanish. It was funny though, because Sofia (my neighbor) and I were convinced that Ramone, who kept eating pizza and ice-cream, was going to return to Mexico as a ball of fat. When lunch was finished I met up with Hannah and we went to our next class. It was another iLab class, but this one was different because we would just make practice Cambridge exams. It was pretty boring, but luckily enough we only have it once a week. The class after that was great, though. Our teacher, Kristina (with a "K") is really great. She introduced herself by saying: "Hi, I'm Kristina. You can call me Kriss, K-dawg, K, Sugar-bun, whatever you want, but do not call me Madame, because that's old and I'm not old. Do not call me teacher either, because that's my job, not my name. And most certainly DO NOT call me Tina, because my arch-nemesis in high-school was called Tina." She is awesome, because she is a typical sassy afro-american. So that's it for today! I'll upload a picture of my homework, so you guys know I'm actually doing stuff.

Yours truly,

Hello Manhattan!

So apparently my "Welcome NY tour" was yesterday, but I didn't know that so I missed it. There was no time for weeping, though, because Hannah and I decided to go to Manhattan on our own. So we went to eat breakfast at 8:30 and where finished at 9:00, so we went outside to wait for the shuttle bus. Unfortunately the bus didn't ride after 8:30, so we took a cab to the train station and from there we got on the train to Grand Central. Let me tell you one thing, man is it hot on those platforms. Of course, being extremely unprepared, we didn't have a map. We asked for one at the information desk, but they gave us a map of the subway system *sigh*.  We decided that it couldn't be that hard to get to Times Square and started walking, it was a shame we were walking the wrong way though. We discovered that when we had already walked like three blocks *sigh again*. We turned around and passed the very beautiful big library and went inside. We didn't get to see any books, because most of the library was closed. Eventually we got to Times Square and we came across the biggest toy store I have ever seen in my entire existence. They even had a giant ferris wheel inside, it was crazy. I also saw Homer Simpson and Micky Mouse in real life! By that time it was lunchtime and we went to Shake Shack to eat some food. When you're in America you need to eat curly fries, so I got cheese fries and Hannah got fries and a burger. Cheese and fries might not sound like a great combo, but it was actually really delicious. When we finished our food, it was time to go back. We quickly stopped by a store, so Hannah could buy the world's tiniest hair dryer (no kidding!). Back on campus there was no time to rest, because we needed to take a pre-test. I scored, surprise, surprise, very well and got into the C1.1 level (it's the proficiency level, so it's the highest). I have class at 8:30 tomorrow and it's the only class I don't have with Hannah. Oh and mom, I bought some raspberries and dried melon, so don't worry about me getting the necessary vitamins. Love you!

Yours truly,

New York, New York

Endings are hard, but beginnings are easy. After a teary farewel at Schiphol, I was on my way to NY! On my way to Frankfurt I saw the prettiest clouds I'd ever seen in my entire life. It was like we were floating through huge cotton balls. Luckily Lufthansa didn't ruin it by serving kartoffelsalat, I didn't see a kartoffel the entire trip. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I had to race to my next flight. I was the last passenger to enter the plane, but I made it. When I had apologized to the entire plane, I sat down next to a German guy, who had been an exchange student in Michigan the year before. Coincidence? There is no such thing. The flight to the States was long qnd draining and when I finally got off the plane, I had to waitfor TWO hours at the pasport control! Luckily I found my suitcase and I sprinted after the pink EF shirt I saw slowly disappearing. We were crammed in a van made for eight passengers, but we managed to get eleven people in there. But everything was worth it because we got to see the skyline of New York, plus we had the fun experience of driving im America. Laws, what laws? I have to very nice roomies, Hanna (germany) and Alejandra (mexico) and now I am going to sleep or else I'll die.

Yours truly,