The Heat

Finally, Summer has come to the Netherlands! Earlier this week it was hot and sticky - in the 80s. The last few days have parted ways with the humidity, it has been perfectly sunny, and we have a three day weekend! What could be better? The strange thing is they don't use screens in this country...but they do have mosquitos and other bugs. Nothing like the UP, but it does necessitate a mosquito net at night and watching movies can get annoying. Apparently as the climate is changing and winters are not so strong, they have many more more mosquitoes here in recent years.

School went pretty well this week. On Thursday the students had a track and field day. I helped out with things, but getting to and from the field was a bit of a mess. Naturally, we used bikes for transportation and some students do not have well-maintained rides. As we set off as a group (I was escorting one class of 12-13 year olds with the help of an older student) I had my assistant lead the way while I held up the rear. Straight away a chain fell off, so the whole group waits. A few minutes later, right before a busy intersection, history repeats itself. The rest of the group didn't notice right away though, so they were waiting out of sight around a couple corners. The four of us checked the map and proceeded to get lost. Sure would be nice if they went with the grid system here...

After 15 minutes of cycling through fields, we made the distress call and someone came to rescue us. We made it to the sport fields in one piece and the events went really well. After they were finished, one boy in my class mentioned that is bike was unridable. I didn't believe him, but it turns out the whole crank assembly was shot. Normally what happens in this case is this boy would hop a ride on the rack of one of his classmate's bikes. Sounds perfectly safe, right? We tried this, but the first bike had a flat tire, the second had a weak rack, and the third was too new. By now the rest of the class was heading back and I told this poor boy he was going to have to stay with the gym teachers and arrange a different mode of transport. We tried to catch up to the group, but as one of the students was familiar with the area, I said he could lead the way, and we ended up taking a short cut. Again, the group waited for us. Ooops.

Friday the students had a free day so we were able to get some planning done for next year. This was a welcome reprieve! Saturday and today have been quite productive around the house - starting on the bar, reorganizing storage space, trimming bushes, etc. It is so nice to get this stuff out of the way! Tomorrow we will head to the Dutch equivalent of the Home Depot to spend lots of money on new tools. I can't wait!