F's English lessons

March 27

Well, I have been busy with unpacking for the last two weeks. Believe me, it is not finished yet. The moving company came to pick up the empty boxes today. What a relief. I made a small mountain of empty boxes just by the front door to remind myself that I should go on unpacking. It worked OK, but I am very tired and totally sick of seeing boxes. The house is still a mess but most of the boxes are empty and gone. The lady who will come tomorrow for the cleaning will not help, I have to go on to make this place a nice house. But there is hope!


By the way, did you know that OK, came from war times. OK meant O(zero) K(illed). It meant your army came home with no causalities. I have no idea if it is true, I just read it somewhere.

Lets go back to our story:

F is learning English:
F started with her English lessons. She gets private lessons as a part of the expat package. I have to add that our relocation agent, Martha arranged it for us. P and I were eligible to have language lessons, but not F. A very nice, very calm lady, Barbara, teaches F English. F makes everyday a big bag of toys ready. She puts on nice clothes - for school.... She is really excited about it. At the end of the lessons, she doesn't want to leave.

The lessons are an hour or an hour and a half long. Barbara is playing games with F. She repeats basic English words over en over again. It looks easy but she tries to keep her focused and interested the whole time.

At the end of the first day I asked F what they did and what she had learned. She looked at me a little sad, maybe confused: 'but I still can't speak English'. She expected to speak English after the first lesson and she was disappointed that it did not happen. I realize I failed to 'manage her expectations' if I may say it in consultant words.

No! Snow again:
Last week, we had a couple of nice days. The snow was almost totally melted. We went out with thin coats, without scarfs. Birds appeared in the garden. I thought the summer was on its way. Last Friday, I woke up to see that the winter was back again. It snowed a whole day, leaving maybe 40cm of snow on the ground. P had to shovel the driveway again. The next day, Saturday was Easter. We were planning to go to the 'Easter egg hunt' of the Dutch Club. P did everything to not to go. He didn't want to drive our new car in such a weather, with all the salt on the streets... But of course, we went. Unfortunately, we got lost, arrived 1,5 hours late and the kids missed the most of the fun stuff....

How are the kids reacting to the relocation:
A lot of people are asking how the kids are reacting to relocation. A is doing good. She enjoys playing with F though she can play alone very nicely as well. She likes climbing on everything and jumps down - nothing to do with relocation obviously! She jumped yesterday from a dining table chair. That thing is at the height of her shoulders! She says 'no' sometimes in English. I think she enjoys being with me and her sister. The only thing she misses is playing outside. The weather didn't let us go out often. She will enjoy the summer. She is eating good, sleeping good and very enjoyable. (knock on the wood!)

F has sleeping problems. She was never a good sleeper but now she really has difficulties falling asleep. She misses playing with other kids. She says the nicest thing is to play with me, but I just can't play with her the whole day. Last week, she started playing alone a little bit more. She uses her imagination and plays that she is Cinderella or some other princess. I like to see that she learns to enjoy herself. I was very good at that at her age. But I had very often no one to play with, being the youngest of the family and I don't want this situation to go on for much longer. She needs friends. She actually told me today that she likes the English lessons a lot, but it would have been nicer if there were other kids.... Well, that hurts. She also said she misses her classmates back at home and Daniel and Eva, her best friends. She asked me if we may once go back, so that she can play with Eva. OK, it is obvious that she needs some support. This is my next task after unpacking!

And how about P? Anybody interested to hear about him? I am sure you are: He is working hard, as hard as I was working before(ha ha) and on top of that he has to travel a lot. He is actually falling asleep on the couch quite often. He gets up everyday around six o'clock, starts working around seven and comes home around six. He has a lot of responsibility and therefore stress. I sometimes feel bad about it, especially because I am not working outside the house, but that's how it is. One thing I know, if he had to stay couple of days in a row with the kids and do all the work in and around the house, he would get crazy. Maybe it is my excuse to make myself feel better.... I think he likes coming to a more restful home. Dinner is ready, shopping is done (nothing new, I mostly did it!), kids are happy to see him and want to play with him. I think he will feel less tired when we are settled down and have more routines.

I will tell about myself another time, nobody's asking right! I am getting tired of this post, I will stop. Cheers!