of interviews and postings

So, to make sure Im a real person and not somesort of bad (and expensive) practical joke I went to meet a AFS representative.

We took this chance to ask questions and to basicly get more of a feel of what was going to happen.

We have some information that undoubtly is very intresting to the parents, that there will be other AFS'ers there, that Ill get a counsler I can go to if need be and things like that.
Again, undoubtly very good to know for the concerned parents but for a kid thats going Yankee-way it is just white noise next to the omenous presence of the following fact, it is really happening!

We talked, and apperently made a sufficient impression.
We handed her our homework, like good pupils.
And like pupils, we didnt do it right (nothing much, just had to get a signature under a translation).

Now we play the waiting game, Im not likely to hear any of the details, the state Im going to, let alone the place or about the people Ill go to untill the end of this schoolyear.

Ill say it again out of pure amazement, it is really happening, surreal man!


Je Mantrai (damn right I know french)

School buisness

To go to America you must not only be able to prove your not a headace-patient, but also that your teachers and other school personell dont hate your guts.

In order to do this, you must get your English teacher to fill in a from about your english skills, this is all very open to opinion and therefore he is at no risk.

I had to write a essay too, in english, expect a full version of it online later, problem is that is has to be given in handwriting, but also readable, wich in my case is mutually exclusive.

So one of the AFS employees told me I could just let someone else write it, aslong as it was me typing the original draft, so thats a horror out of the way.

I got the school counselor (closest name I could find, Decaan in dutch) to fill in another form, social skills, intelectual skills, things like that (luckely modesty wasn't one of them).

But its not all form filling and opinion-gathering, actually it is mostly, sofar everything, but next Monday me, the parents and a representative of AFS will meet in a undisclosed location, somewhere inside the Doeksen ferry terminal.

Untill then, sleep is what lays ahead of me.

Lang leve de koninging, hoezee!

welcome, and first steps

Welcome one welcome all.

My name is Maarten Schroders, currently 17 years of age and living on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands.
I am currently in the planning fase of spending one year studing in the US of A, with the aid of the AFS ( http://www.afs.org/afs_or/home ) and my loving parents (who will be paying for my little trip) I hope to gain life expierience, new insights, cool things like that

I created this blog with my own two hands, and a laptop, to give you, yes you insight into this life journey, do with it whatever you want.
As you may or may not have noticed, this is in English, not in Dutch, if you havent noticed please rub out your eyes, begin reading again and this time, pay attention.
The reason I do this is so I can practise my english a bit more and because Im planning on giving the link to here to some of my penpals, who in general know little to no dutch.


sofar, I went to the doctor for some information, they dont let just anyone in!
They havent asked me if I have Aids, or the swine flu, but they do want to know if I had the measels and headaches, priorities I guess.
The doctor didnt have a list of what injections I got and when, so we have to call someone else for that, I did get this other test though, not sure what, you get some stuff injected and if it goes red after a few days, your screwed.

The med story will have a tail, but I also placed a order for my first passport.

In the NL you have to carry around some form of identification, like a small plastic ID pass, people make a huge fuzz out of that, dont know why.
Thing is, in order to travel outside of the EU I must have a passport, not just a small ID pass, but a passport is more expensive, more likly to get stolen and harder to carry around (its so big and heavy) so that was a dillema, buy a ID pass now and deal with the whole passport thing later or buy a passport now.

If we bought the ID pass, itd mean we pay for 5 years but only use it for less then 1, and itd mean wed have to deal with the passport thing later and its always better to get that stuff done early, because of the stressfactor right before the trip.
If however we bougth the passport, wed have the risk of losing it, wich would be a very big load of crap for yours truly and prementiond loving parents.

We decided to buy both, this way I can use the ID for everyday use, like if the police suspects me of murder, I can ID myself! And the Passport wil be kept at home for safekeeping.

Sofar my first post, hurray! Ill form the blog later, for now this will do.

Voor Volk en Vaderland!

update* the medication info is in!