Grades, a Cemetery and the Netherlands

First, I would like to remind anyone reading this that I am an exchange student. That being said, I would also like to remind anyone that I am also already finished with school and my grades this year literally mean nothing. That's not to say I am not trying to do my best in school, but it is incredibly hard when I am trying to learn a language and then am handed a test.

Quite hard.

So my grades aren't exactly the best. In fact, I am not even sure what to think exactly of what I have received. I am not sure what is normal, but I do know that getting more letters than actual numbers is not!

 

I am trying at least! Starting this Tuesday I will be attending French class with the 3rd year students, equivalent of 9th graders. Their classes cover more of the structure of the French language and will greatly help me in my French learning.

Today was Armistice Day, or Veterans Day in the United States, and is the celebration of the end of World War II. I had a day off, and it was spent working on French translation for English class and the other half traipsing about the countryside of Belgium, and out of it.

My host father took Kaela and me to the village where he had grown up and where his family still owned a cow farm. But before we went there we stopped at an American cemetery and memorial.

 

It was interesting for me, to see all those white crosses and to think of the lives that had been laid down to protect others. It was a solemn place, and there were many other American soldiers and civilians there. It was very interesting, and I appreciated the stop there on such a day.

 

(Rose laid on the grave of a soldier from PA)

 

After that we headed to the farm and took a walk out into the countryside... and right into the Netherlands. That's right, from Belgium to the Netherlands with only a little monument marking the separate countries.

 

I live in Pennsylvania which is a pretty large state, and you have to drive outside the state in order to cross over into Canada, and from where I live that would take hours. Here, the drive was about half an hour and we just walked right over into the Netherlands without so much as a pause. At first I did not even realize we had crossed country borders.

Bizzare.