Daycare

I can honestly say that this group has been one of the most welcoming work experience places I've ever been, and it made me feel at home pretty much from the start.

Maybe it helps that the very first day I arrived, the notice board greeted me with this:

There's four ladies working shifts in this group: Margriet, Colinda, Franka and Annemiek. Margriet was also my personal mentor/instructor during the five weeks, and I couldn't have asked for a kinder, more helpful instructor for a work period where you're living and working in an unfamiliar, foreign environment. Though that doesn't mean that the other three were any worse off - I would say all four were very friendly and easily approachable, and I never felt like I was an outsider, which is quite an achievement considering sometimes even in Finnish learning work environments you never quite feel like you're fully part of the team. Even staff from other groups were always ready for some chit-chat or kind words!

But to observe some differences (and similarities) between Dutch and Finnish nursery schedules, here's a good example of the Daycare group's regular activities.

In Finland, if children come to the nursery early enough, they get breakfast: quite often some variety of porridge. In here it was always juice and different fruits (selection would vary a bit every day), and served somewhat later - generally speaking, every child who meant to arrive to the daycare before 1 p.m should have arrived by 9:30. After fruit time, there would be time to play inside. There were two toilets for the kids to use, but most still wear nappies - however, since there was only one nappy changing station, nappies had to get checked and changed one at a time.

Since I did my work practice between April and May, which in Netherlands meant that spring was in full bloom, the children would also spend a lot of time outside (I'll make a separate post showcasing the garden). Still, even in case of bad weather, the room had lots of different toys and activities to keep the children interested. During the 5 weeks I was there, a lot of the kids were really keen on playing and looking after baby dolls, as well as using the little kitchen.

Around 11:30 a.m, it would be lunch time. I recall this was actually one of the biggest surprises for me on my first day of work - neither kids nor adults have warm meals, lunch is always a sandwich. Maybe occasionally some soup to accompany it, but mostly just bread, butter, and a variety of possible toppings kids could choose from: ham, chicken, various cheeses, jam, peanut butter... I did get used to it fairly fast, but in Finland, you are used to kids always getting warm meals.

In many Finnish nurseries, kids go to sleep straight after lunch - in here they had a little longer to play before it was time to sleep. But the rule of thumb was that most kids who would go to sleep would be in their beds around 1 p.m, although seeing how some only arrived to the daycare at 1 p.m, there might be a slight delay.

                                                                    (guest starring in the picture: Margriet)

Much like in Finland, the bedroom was a separate little room from the area where the kids would play. But I found the beds themselves quite interesting, and perhaps a sign of how much younger some of the kids in the nurseries are in comparison to Finland. Most Finnish nurseries have either bunk beds or camping beds which are easy to set up and clean away. In here, you have what I can only describe as bunk cribs.

And perhaps because this sort of bed was very secure and kids couldn't get out of them without adult's help, there was actually no need for an adult to stay in the bedroom. In Finland, I'm pretty sure there is always someone in the room supervising the kids when it's nap time.

The kids would generally wake up sometime between 2 and 3 p.m, most of the time on their own, but at latest everyone would be awake at 3:30 when it was time for the crackers and tea - similar to the snack you get in Finnish daycares, but once again, served a bit earlier in Finland. Albeit in Finland, the snack tends to be different every day - here, it was always crackers, although the kids could choose different topping for it, similar to the sandwiches. The kids also all drank a little cup of tea, which I feel Finnish kids might not really get behind, but I guess the kids get used to it.

(A lot of parents in Finland put their kids to sleep outside in buggies, and sometimes the same happens in nurseries - but I've yet to see Finnish nurseries have these sort of little huts where even slightly bigger kids can sleep during nap time. I thought they were actually pretty genius; you just have to keep an eye on them so you know when the kids wake up.)

A lot of times, if the weather was decent, we'd start going outside as soon as kids were finished with the crackers and had been to the toilet (or had their nappy checked). Some would get picked up before 5 p.m, a few would literally only get picked a few minutes before the closing time.

In summary: Some things were different than Finnish nursery traditions, but not SO different that you'd feel fully mystified by it.

SKSG DoReMi

Now, to talk a little bit about my workplace in Netherlands.

To start, SKSG means Stichting Kinderopvang Stad Groningen, which basically means "Childcare Foundation City of Groningen". While they're not the only childcare providers in Groningen, they do have over 60 locations to choose from, and they have over 100 years of experience.

                                                             front entrance of the facility

SKSG DoReMi has several Dutch speaking groups, but in addition they have one English-speaking group called "Daycare" (or the Cookie Monster group). Daycare group offers care for children between the ages of 8 weeks to 4 years, some of whom have fully Dutch parents, but many have one or two parents who do not speak Dutch as their first language - some don't speak Dutch at all. And same applies to the kids. The daycare is open Monday to Friday, from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. My regular work week was Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri, working from 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m.

                                     the break area where most of the staff would spend their 30 minute break on

In Finland, kids go to preschool the year they turn six, and begin in schools when they turn seven. In Netherlands, the system is quite different. Preschool programmes, in Dutch or in English, are offered for 3-year-olds. Pre-school, at least the one that was coordinating with the Daycare group, offered education on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and/or Friday mornings from 8:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m. Many of the kids would go to pre-school in the morning and come to the daycare after 1 p.m. In principle, childcare ends when children turn 4, because that is when primary school begins. Quite a difference from the Finnish system.

                                                                                    Be awesome!

The facility was very pleasant to work in. Every colleague was very nice to me, and while it wasn't maybe the largest building, it didn't feel overcrowded either. The group sizes felt much smaller than in many Finnish daycares - our group had 17 kids altogether, but as far as I recall, a maximum of 12 of them were ever present at any given time, and often in the mornings it was significantly less.

Every group has their own room, but occasionally the kids would also be allowed to play in the hallway, especially in the mornings. But since I generally started my workdays at 9 a.m, the kids would have already been split into their own groups by that point. And perhaps because we were the only English-speaking group in the facility, you could see the kids often grouping together even when they were among kids from the other groups. Even if they weren't technically playing together, you'd still notice that they'd often be around each other, which I thought was quite sweet, and showed that there was already good team spirit even though some of the kids were very young.

And here you see the entrance to the Daycare group, and the bags where the kids would leave their outdoor clothes. But for clarity's sake, I think I'll make a different blog entry about the Daycare group + room.

Biking trip and King's Day

On 24th, I had the Wednesday off again, but I didn't really feel like doing anything super special. I decided to take advantage of the bike, and explore the areas and parks nearby Beijum. And I wasn't disappointed.

Biking is a wonderful way to discover locations you didn't even know about and would not have been able to see if you just went by on public transport. For example, quite spontaneously I managed to find one of the traditional Dutch sights, a windmill!

Although it seems I finished my bike tour just on time; it started thundering at the end of it, and it rained while I was getting some groceries from Aldi. Luckily I made it home dry.

27th was what Dutch call Koningsdag, aka King's Day. A national holiday on the current king's birthday. The weather was lousy, which probably affected the party mood a little bit, but I did eventually go to town to see what I could find.

Anster turned out to be: flags, mainly. Lots of flags.

There were also a good number of people out and about. Mainly the festivities seemed to involve music: there was a bandstand at the Vismarkt market square, and some DJs playing music outside certain cafes, bars and restaurant. Sometimes the streets got so crowded it was hard to get past.

But I appreciate having been around for these cultural events and holidays as well. Shows you a bit broader view of the Dutch life.

Easter

In Finland, it's fairly common for at least one parent to stay and look after the baby until they're closer to being 1-year-olds; as such, we don't see quite so many small babies in our nurseries. Maternity leave might end after three months, but the parental leave usually means that before the child is 9 months, they won't be taken to a nursery. ... in comparison, many Dutch women return to work after the end of statutory maternity leave: 10-12 weeks after the baby is born. Because of that, Netherlands has plenty of baby groups in nurseries.

The daycare group didn't have anyone THAT tiny, I think the newest baby we had was at least 4 months old already, but to someone who hasn't looked after babies all that much, it could be a bit daunting at times. Of course I was always surrounded by professionals, but I kept on thinking "gosh, SO tiny" whenever I was holding the smaller ones. I think it was pretty obvious to everyone around me as well that I didn't have a lot of experience with babies. I suppose if I did more work with the smallest of kids, I'd get used to and better at it in time.

On Good Friday, I was originally scheduled for a full day at work, but I switched it to a half-day instead: I had been told there was going to be a big flower market in town, and I wanted to see it.

All I can really say was that the streets were INCREDIBLY full of tourists (and some locals too, one assumes) so all in all it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been. The flowers were pretty, though.

Easter weekend was a long one, three full days off, and I made my mission to actually look around Groningen and the sights it had to offer - be the typical tourist.

Possibly THE sight to see in Groningen: Martinitoren, the bell tower of Martinikerk. You can even climb the 97 meter tower for some lovely views, but I decided to go for my own walk tour first and save the climbing for another day.

The city was so nice and quiet on Easter Sunday and Monday as well, a stark contrast to Friday's flower market madness. And the local university? A touch fancier than the University of Oulu, which has (lovingly, I swear) been referred to as an abandoned cement factory reclaimed by students.

One of the best places I visited on my tourist tour was Prinsentuin, a renaissance style garden, not yet in full bloom, but very lovely to look at all the same.

Then, it was pretty easy to get back to work on Tuesday - a lot of kids were still on holiday, we only had seven kids in the group at max throughout the day. A lot of schools, same with the preschool, were closed for two whole weeks in fact, so the whole period saw a lot less kids in nursery on average as well.

Leeuwarden

On 15th and 16th at work, the Easter mood was already in full speed. The kids had an Easter hunt for some chocolate eggs hidden in the garden, and we painted some bunny whiskers on for everyone. I later on proceeded to go to a supermarket, having completely forgot I was still having facepaint on. Hope it amused some of my fellow shoppers.

On Wednesday I first did a half-day at work (normally I'd have Wednesdays off, but I wanted to do a half-day on Friday, so...), so I could meet Hennie at a city called Leeuwarden around 15. It's the capital of Friesland, much like Groningen is the capital of the province Groningen. Leeuwarden was also the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018, and you could still see some signs of that.

Hennie showed me a few places around the city, and we booked a canal cruise. Before the cruise, though, we had time for some afternoon tea. Hennie took me to Brownies & DownieS - a lovely cafe with the idea of offering work and training for people with intellectual disabilities, a concept which I would gladly welcome into Finland as well.

We also visited Museum de Grutterswinkel, which was both a little museum and an old-timey shop, just like it might have been 50 years ago.

Afterwards, we had the canal city tour. When the cities are largely made of canals, you do see a lot if you're on a boat. The guide only spoke Dutch during the tour, but tourists were handed out information sheets in English (German would have also been available, I believe) which had the details of most of the points of interest.

After the tour was over, we were getting a bit hungry, and I wanted to try something that was very Dutch. That's how I was introduced to krokette, which I can only describe as meat stew that has been covered in breadcrumbs and then deep-fried.

After that, it was time to drive back towards Groningen - although we stopped briefly at Drachten to take a look at the new school campus for younger students.

It did look nice, new and modern indeed - I'm sure younger students appreciate it greatly.

We even managed to have a quick peek inside!

But not for too long, as the building was empty and even the cleaner was leaving. And it was getting late anyways, so good time to head home.

Cultural exchange and biking

On Saturday 13th, I met Rija, a Dutch adult student who's planning on doing Erasmus+ training exchange in Finland later in the year. We got matched by Hennie, who figured we could use the opportunity and learn a bit about each other's cultures.

Rija came to Groningen and, as I was still fairly new to the city, was kind enough to work as a tourist guide of sorts, even though it wasn't a city she'd ever lived in or anything like that. Still, she introduced me to a few local sights, knew a really good spot for some hot drinks, and showed me an easy, affordable dining place.

Who is Uncle Loeks and why is his horse famous? I never fully understood. Perhaps it's better left a mystery.

Regardless, we had a good talk, Rija was just as friendly as most Dutch people are, and I managed not to completely ruin the image of Finland for her - but I like to think I gave her some tips to avoid potential culture shock. Finns aren't always the easiest bunch for strangers to approach. Not that I think Rija will have any problems.

2,5 hours went by quite fast, and as we said our goodbyes at the station, we tentatively agreed on meeting up another time, this time on her hometown.

For Sunday, I had only one clear agenda: get myself a bike.

As Netherlands is a biking country and I'm no stranger to biking in Finland, it seemed like a fairly obvious conclusion that I ought to get myself a bike. Basically it's faster to travel from home to work on a bike than it is on a bus, and renting yourself a bike in Groningen isn't too difficult. There are several companies, but I opted with Swapfiets, because they had their website conveniently in English, and offered a basic bike with 16.50 euros per month. The bike has served me well enough, but it does feel a bit heavy to me - I wonder if the "Deluxe" bike (19.50 euros per month) had felt lighter. Still, I was heavily warned about just how many bikes get stolen in Groningen every day, and you have to pay less deductible for the regular bikes in case of theft.

So on Sunday, I went to the local "swapstore" and got myself a Dutch bike.

Now, a few words about biking in the Netherlands, and about Dutch bikers.

I always maintain that the Dutch are some of the nicest, kindest people I've ever had the pleasure of being around.

This does not apply to the bikers. 

The bikers are fast, aggressive, and would probably just yell at you if you had a heart attack in the middle of the morning commute to work.

Obviously, not ALL bikers. But I've had three people yell at me in Dutch for biking crimes I apparently committed, sometimes without knowing what the crimes were. Was I too slow? Didn't signal enough? Hesitated at a turn? Well, since they were all so very helpful and yelling at me in a language I don't speak, I'll never know for sure. In hindsight I always tell myself I should have yelled back in Finnish for maximum confusion.

I was told that it's the student bikers you need to look out for. So far, the most vicious bikers I've had the joy of encountering have always been middle aged or elderly men or women, so not sure if I agree with the others on that one.

Still, after some trial and error, I think I've mostly managed to master the ways of biking. A few tips:

- Do not be biking on the pavement where the pedestrians walk. Bikes either go on the side of the car roads or, in many cases, there is a separate biking lane. You will often notice the specific red paths. Sometimes they are one direction only, sometimes they go both ways.

- Hand signal when and where you're turning. I think I've become so paranoid about Dutch bikers appearing out of thin air and screaming at me that I'm using the hand signals even when I'm 95% sure there is no one cycling within 50 meters of me.

- Pay attention to the "shark teeth", aka the white triangles painted on the roads: if the triangle is pointing at you, it's your duty to stop and let cars and other bikers pass. And obviously if the triangle is pointing at someone else, they have to do the same for you.

- Bad news for future travelers relying on Google Maps to get you somewhere, though - apparently starting in July of 2019, using your cell phone while cycling can get you a fine. This can make your first few trips somewhere REALLY difficult, or just really slow.

All in all, I am happy with my decision to rent a bike for four weeks, as it does allow you to explore places in a very different manner from public transport. But it does take a while to get used to.

First week

(yes, I know, I'm writing these blog entries incredibly late. I blame this on being chronically late for everything.)

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.