The past week has been a lot better than my first week here.
Last Sunday evening the school celebrated the Chinese New Year; the event is organised every year by the many Chinese pupils that board at the school. For Chinese New Year the Chinese pupils cook for all the boarders and staff and afterwards they host a series of games. The food was really good, although I don't recommend biting down on a whole star anise...

This week has been the week before half-term break, and it was quite noticable. Most pupils were really tired and done with school, so hopefully they'll be completly re-energised when they get back. I've worked on some planners for the pupils that I'll be working with, alongside the EAL teachers. I'm staying at the school during the break, so that will give me a chance to plan ahead for the rest of spring term. One of the teachers has started this school year and she's quite organised, something I'm very happy with as the other teacher is a bit frazzled from time to time. She's been helping me a bit with my planning and she understands the need for me to teach whole classes, so she's letting me teach one on Friday afternoons after half-term.

One skill that I'll definitely pick up on during this half year is the skill to differentiate between pupils and to be able to give personal help to pupils who need it. I expect to grow on that aspect of teaching.

Last Thursday the boarders had a Valentine's dinner and dance. At 7pm all the boarders came to the dining hall, all dressed up and at each table there were places set for couples, so everyone had a sort of date. Me and my other house mates sat at one table together.
After the dinner there was a sort of disco, which turned out to be so much more fun than I'd expected.
Where Dutch boys are usually apprehensive to dancing, these boys went absolutely crazy and showed their best moves. It was hilarious to see some of them go, but in my eyes they couldn't look stupid, as they were obviously having so much fun.

The guys who live in my house (both called Daniel) were very excited to dance as well and it's made me very excited for when we can all go out during one of the exeat weekends.

I've been working a fair bit on my personal goal of losing some weight as well. I'm trying to go to the gym 4 days per week and the trainer, Jo, has also given me a long list of things I can eat every meal. I'm really going to try my hardest to keep at it so you can see a whole different Naomi when I return.

During the coming week I'll be staying home alone in Bronte house. On Saturday I've already spend one day in Norwich, getting another book and some CDs that I really wanted to have. I'm probably going there again on Tuesday or Wednesday to go see Deadpool in the cinema :)

During the rest of the week I'll work on planning lessons, my research and other Windyhome stuff. I've already booked my trip for Easter Break. I'll be going to London for 4 days, then I'll pick up my parents from the airport for a long weekend in Southwold and then I'll join them back home in the Netherlands for 3 days.
When I'm in London I want to visit museums and hopefully go to the theatre.