First real day off

Today we had a day off school. There are two scheduled, both are Wednesdays. It's a much needed break.

I decided to schedule a meeting with Marten. Marten came in and took half the class for speaking exercises. Then he offered to speak with people individually. His approach is very gentle and is very supportive. Marten is one of those total academic/teacher types. In the three days I've seen him I think he's worn the same tan jeans and light blue polo every day. Maybe he's one of those Albert Einstein types with two weeks worth of the same outfit. We spoke for an hour and a half. Strange that the more I speak the more naturally words are coming. Such a strange feeling.

I feel like I've gotten past one hurdle - being able to form sentences and express simple ideas - only to find myself in a much larger space with much bigger challenges. Now I have to talk to other people and now I have to make the subject match the verb. I thought I was doing it, but Marten pointed out several times that I wasn't and said that I need to speak with F for an hour or so each day working specifically on that.

My friend Karen's sister, Lorraine, used to refer to that as the "She be's and the He be's," As in "She be a very nice girl." I so don't want to sound like that in Dutch.

Today I read the text in our textbook. It's about economics and Marx and Adam Smith. I have so many words to learn. I think Evaline is going to be a total stickler about right and wrong answers. And some of the words we're supposed to learn are not that practical. I must get back to work. Tons to do. And I promised F I'd be ready for a movie and dinner out this evening - since I have "all day" to do my homework. Somehow that idea works in theory better than it works in practice.