Dutch class on pause; We drown our sorrows in coffee

There was no Dutch class last Monday because Paul was ill. Wednesday, he emailed again to say that there would be no Dutch class on Thursday. And yesterday, we received an email saying that he will not be teaching ACC 099 "for the time being".

A moment ago we received an email from the Academic Affairs Council saying that the head of the Academic Core department is currently looking for a replacement; there should be one by Monday, but possibly by Friday.

Hopefully it will be a good teacher, and not an easy teacher, and hopefully he/she will at least be funny like Paul was - because sometimes, if it weren't for his humor, I would have died of boredom.

Two weeks without Dutch class is not an effective way to learn a language!

On Sunday, when I went out for coffee, I was disappointed in my linguistic abilities because the waiter forgot my order and I didn't understand when he came back to ask again. He responded by looking confused and almost offended. I also realized how much I would love to work in a cafe again. I know it would be hard to work and study at the same time. But I could work 6-8 hours on Saturday and Wednesday, easily. I love working like that. Mostly, though, I would like to talk to people who aren't in the 18-24 age range. I realize that at home, I only have 3 or 4 good friends who fall into that age group. Most of the people I talk to are my parents, my parents' friends, regulars at Costello's Travel Caffe, and, when I worked there, at Mio Gelato. The people I worked with were often older. In addition, there are so many children on Northeast 8th avenue! Here, there are none that I ever talk to.

RA is like its own little world. People I know here are people from RA; few people know Middelburgers who aren't RA students, and few RA students are actually from Middelburg (although I know of several from Goes, which is only 10 minutes away). RA is getting attention in the press right now as "kindergarden for rich kids", because it's trying to get it's accreditation. Nobody likes this new label, but I find it especially annoying as money seems to be going faster than ever for me and many of my foreign friends, and we feel anything but "rich".

Today, instead of Dutch, Dilyana (Bulgaria), Eva (Hong Kong), and I went to the St. John's Coffee Shop. We had tostis and apple cake and I had dark, unsweetened Arabian coffee with Mocha whipped cream on top. Laura ran into us there by chance with her student for a day, Roxanne, so we all sat and talked and gossipped and explained things to Roxanne, and speculated about what would happen with Dutch class.

And even though I have now received the email from the Academic Affairs Council, I am still irritated. I hate living somewhere and not being able to speak the language. I am perhaps too impatient... but I have already been in Middelburg for a total of 5 months. I know I am not submerged in the language, but it is still annoying to think that if I was, I would be relatively proficient by now.