Woke up, did the usual routine. As I was leaving the house, Matthias told me to text him if the kids at school didn't want to play with me. Anne-Laure climbed behind the curtain to wave to me from the window. Took the tram / walked to school. Went to geology, then economy, nothing special. Talked to some friends. Ate an orange.
Then I went to gym, which was actually pretty fun today. We played dodgeball, then soccer, and then.... well....
We had to jump over a mat. I mean, four people held this thick gymnastic mat straight up, and the rest of us had to get a running start, jump, grab the top, then hoist ourselves over it and land on the mats on the ground. I was just thinking, "Oh no, I'll never make it over that!!" But when it was my turn, I thought, "Okay, it's now or never!" I started running, gained some speed, and when I was almost to the the mat, someone shouted, "JUMP!" So I jumped. Face first, into the mat, with my arms over my head. I looked like a pannenkoek. Everyone laughed, but not in a mean way. I think it just looked sort of... well, hilarious. Tried again. Didn't make it.
Anyways, I got back in line to attempt another time, and this time I did make it! Sort of. Well, I made it to the mats on the other side, anyways. But when I jumped and hoisted myself, the people holding it lost their grip and it all sort of fell down. Nice...
One of the boys told the mat holders to tilt it the long way, and a few kids actually made it over. I was pretty impressed, but not exactly inspired to try it myself.
Ate a sandwich. At lunch I was told that there would be a student demonstration on a nearby field that I had always thought was just abandoned. The demonstration was at 2:00pm, so I had to ask my English teacher if I could leave. She told me that I shouldn't be asking to leave school for a protest, because that's what you're supposed to do for a protest. But she made me and the other kids stay, just to explain that if we left, we'd miss a chance to raise our grade, but that it was our choice. Since I've received nothing but A's in English class, I decided to leave.
I followed a couple of boys to the field, and when they saw me they said,
"Emily, YOU'RE going to the demonstration???"
Me:"Yes."
Them: "Why?"
Me: "For fun."
Boy 1: "We just said we were going so that we could go home from school. Just go home. Sit on the couch and eat chips."
Me: "....Huh?"
Boy 1: "This protest isn't going to be a fun thing. There are going to be three kinds of people there: those who really are against the 3,000 euro cost for spending an extra year at university, those who just go for fun, and those who just want to screw around. There are going to be policemen there, too."
Me: "Why policemen?"
Boy 1: "In case the crowd gets out of hand. Don't you know about these things? It happens all the time. People get hurt at protests."
Me: "By the police?"
Boy 1: "Yeah, sometimes. I mean, they have sticks with them, to hit people. Say, if someone has a gun or something. But, well, probably nobody will have a gun here."
Me: "So is this.... dangerous?"
Boy 1: "Yeah, it's pretty dangerous. I mean, say someone tries to run away, and then a stampede happens and people get trampled."
Boy 2: "Well jeez, don't scare her..."
*Field comes into view, along with parked police cars and an ambulance*
Boy 1: "See, I told you. There's already an ambulance. So this is your last chance to walk away."
*They walk towards the crowd on the field, even though they told me they were going home, which I found strange.*
Me: *Seriously considers leaving. Sees two girls from school heading towards crowds. Follows them.*
Me: "Hey!"
Girls: "Hey!"
Me: "Is this dangerous?"
Girls: "No."
Me: "Why is there an ambulance?"
Girls: "Well, look at how many people there are. If something happens, they're already here."
Me: "Boy 1 said it was dangerous."
*We walk over to some other kids from school. The Boys 1 and 2 are there.*
Girls: "Boy 1, what have you been telling her???"
Boy 1: "Uhhh..."
Teacher: "Emily, never listen to Boy 1."
Me: "Okay."
*Girls pull me deeper into crowd.*
Some guy on the stage taught us a song that went something like this:
"3,000 euros, is that really necessary?
Here are students standing in the cold.
Hey, policemen, take a look at yourselves,
It's a new 2011."
People weren't so happy when some guy who supported the student costs came out to talk. Imagine thousands and thousands of Dutch people droning, "blaaaaah blaaaaaaaah blaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh" and doing the hand motion, too, while he talked.
GIFSoup
It was pretty fun there on that not-so-abandoned field. There were people from all over the country there, young and old, with huge signs, whistles, bullhorns, and a couple of people had sparklers with them. There was a giant stage and also enormous screens so everyone could see what was going on. I did hear an ambulance siren at one point, but saw no stampede and no policemen with sticks.
However, I did see the police take down a guy as I was walking back to Central Station. He was doing something weird though... I'm not sure what, but I could see he wasn't acting normal. The police just kind of grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. I wanted to get out of there, so I ducked down to get past some people and ended up getting elbowed in the head. But I got home fine.
Did some grocery shopping. This is one of the many "Hamster Weeks" at the Albert Heijn, so 50 items are 2 for 1. Carla told me to buy some herring, because she knows how much I love it. Today marks the first and last time I buy it from there. It just wasn't very fun to eat. Full of bones... ouch.
My toe hurts. It has for like, a week or something.
Sooo anyways, after putting the food away I went to my room, started writing this post, got interrupted by the door bell, went down both flights of stairs, opened the door, took the package, went back up, wrote some more, got interrupted again, went back downstairs, opened the door, let my host family in, then told them I'd be right back. So now I have to go back.
Tot ziens,
Emily
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