So, my first work week started on 9th of April. My workplace for the next five weeks: SKSG DoReMi, and more specifically the English-speaking daycare group. From the very first day, I got a pretty good feeling from everything: the coworkers, the children, and the facility itself. It was actually somewhat surprising - I've left some Finnish workplaces feeling a lot more shell shocked at the end of the first day. Perhaps the Dutch friendliness applies here as well.
However, due to extremely back luck, I also ended up getting sick that week, and as such my first work week only lasted two days. ... an easy and gentle start, I suppose, but I was genuinely disappointed about it at the time.
I'll be sure to write more about the daycare in another blog entry, but for now I'll make a few notes about my Wednesday visit to Drachten and ROC Friese Poort.
On Wednesday morning, I found myself leaving the house very early, first to catch a bus to the railway station, and from there on a quick train ride to Zuidhorn, where I met Hennie, a teacher at ROC Friese Poort who coordinated my foreign exchange with Heli from SDO. Hennie then drove us to the Drachten campus where the adult students have their lessons. I was warmly welcomed, too!
It started with Hennie showing me the campus - it wasn't too big of a building, but it felt nice and cozy. Then I took part in Hennie's lesson and gave a short presentation to her Dutch students: a little bit about Finnish culture and food, as the topic of the lesson was food. It seemed to go fairly well, although I made sure to have some Finnish chocolate on me I could use as bribes.
After that I was given the opportunity to follow a Dutch lesson - students practicing medical skills for an upcoming exam, such as giving injections, measuring blood sugar levels and so on. Skills you might need on certain professions, and really, probably useful things to know in any case. Obviously as most of the conversations were in Dutch, these was a lot I didn't quite get, but the teacher (I've unfortunately forgotten her name, but rest assured she was really nice) did try her best to translate here and there, and especially whenever I asked about something. I think some of the students were a bit shy about using English, they didn't say much more than a few words to me, but some actually seemed interested in having short conversations, which I really appreciated.
And whenever I would go to the staff room with Hennie, all the other teachers were incredibly friendly as well. I don't recall if they mentioned whether they've had many foreign students visiting them in the past, so I don't know if everyone was so friendly because having a foreign student there was a novelty, or whether it's just because Dutch really are really kind and polite. Maybe both.
But after midday, when the lessons were done, Hennie had official business in Groningen, so I was able to catch a ride back home with her. Probably better for me - as much as I like exploring areas outside the city as well, I have to say the train tickets aren't always the cheapest.
Ps: On Friday, I was almost shocked when for the first time ever since I arrived to Netherlands, my question "Spreek je Engels?" was met with "Nee" at a local Chinese restaurant. Luckily I survived the situation thanks to knowing exactly two words of Dutch (kip en rijst, chicken and rice) and by having another customer help a little with translations.
I am trying my best to learn a little bit of Dutch using Duolingo, but it's a slow process.
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