Thursday, 16th December, everything must come to an end

We weren't able to sleep in for very long because we had a long journey ahead of us. After having my LAST English breakfast in Great-Britain we drove to Holland. We arrived at Jelmer's house around 16:00. I had something to drink and greeted the rest of the family. After about 15 minutes I was driven home by Jelmer's father. When I arrived home I saw my mum in the kitchen, so she saw me arriving. I greeted her and thanked Jelmer's father for driving me home. And there I stood, finally home, after a great six weeks.

Wednesday, 15th December, saying goodbye

I was a bit sad because we had to leave Reed's and all the new people we met here. Luckily the day itself wasn't sad at all, so I was able to forget the sad feelings a bit. I was also anxious to see my parents and friends at home of course. The lessons lasted until lunch and we had some good opportunities to say goodbye to students and teachers. After lunch Jelmer's father came to pick us up. The problem was though that I had my 'Secret Santa' at 15:00. Luckily it was no problem at all and I was able to go there. We gave each other the presents we bought and headed to a party. This party was organized by two tutors, so there were about 15 children and 2 teachers. We played a game that we also play in Holland on a very young age: 'de stoelendans'. The students weren't very happy about the choice of the teachers but they were more than willing to play along. After the party I said goodbye to all the people at the party and my tutor. My tutor group also gave me a card with their best wishes, the card was designed and hand-made by my tutor. Afterwards I headed to 'the Close' and we drove to the hotel where we were to stay the night.

Monday and Tuesday, 13-14 December, last two normal days at Reed's

On these two days Steve was planning to attend some theatrical performances at his school, which lasted until 20:30, this gave me the opportunity to spend most of the day at Reed's. On Monday we worked really hard at D&T, trying to finish our pool table in time. We also had our Christmas lunch at Reed's. As desert we had, of course, some Christmas pudding. I didn't really like it (like most foreign people). After school we worked a bit longer on our pool table and hung around a bit at the Sixth-form house. I got picked up at 20:45. On Tuesday we worked on our pool table, but it didn't seem like we would have enough time to finish it at Reed's. That evening there was a Christmas dinner planned for the boarders. I was very happy that Mr. Balls approached me earlier that week and asked if I wanted to join the boarders with their dinner, so that evening I did. The dinner was about the same as lunch, but we were allowed to get more than one portion (some people were very glad about this). I got picked up again around the same time.

Weekend, 11-12 December, last weekend in Great-Britain

On Saturday I had to buy a present for 'Secret Santa', this is about the same as our Saint Nickolas where you buy gifts for one other person. This was a tutor group activity, so almost no-one at the school did this every year. I left for Guildford to see Jelmer there around noon. We walked around a bit, had some lunch and I bought my present. I bought some kind of upper-arm muscle trainer. I haven't seen anything like it in the Netherlands and it seemed like a great present. On Sunday there was a Christmas service organized at the Guildford Cathedral. It lasted for about an hour and contained many carols and speeches. The Cathedral was very big and located next to the university. After the service I headed back to family Roy´s house with Steve and Daniel, who also attended the service.

Part 2 week, 9-10 December, nothing much

The last part of the week were two quiet days. We had no exams during these two day, so we were able to enjoy our last Thursday and Friday at Reed's. Although I think that Jelmer enjoyed himself more than I did. I think this because Jelmer, as he is a boarder, was able to go ice-skating and watch movies in the evenings. I was not able to these things. At school we made some very good progress with our DT-project. After Thursday and Friday we only need to make some finishing touches. We are waiting for the base (the coloured layer of fabric on the pool table) and we are planning to do some final sanding and coating on Monday and Tuesday.