Transcrição do blog do forum dos pais do School At Sea

Living with the Dutch as a foreigner is quite an experience. Living with 40 people who speak a different language is actually a challenge. Learning Dutch is, without a doubt, one of my goals for this project.

“Wakker worden!” is the first step in the Dutch life – wake up.

“Goedemorgen”, “hoe gaat het”, “dankjewel”, “wacht”, “lekker!”, “slaap lekker” are some of the words and expressions that I hear (and understand) during the day.

Day after day, a new word is added to my brain dictionary.

After almost a month of being on board, I can understand some basic words and expressions.

Everyone is very nice and, everyday, they teach me new words and things about the Dutch culture. For example – Sinterklaas, something that I had never heard about. This year I’m going to celebrate, for the first time, (and at sea!), Sinterklaas. I’m going to eat pepernoten and chocolade letters!

However, for a few moments during the day, I really feel like wanting to hear some Portuguese, like wanting things to be easier.

But then, I think: School at Sea is a challenge itself. Not knowing Dutch is, indeed, hard, but I really think that it is a very good reward to, after these six months, being able to tell my Portuguese friends some Dutch words (maybe even being able to have a conversation, in Dutch, with my friends from The Netherlands!) and having a better idea of how it is like to live in another country.

I’m really looking forward to keep working on my Dutch!

Tot ziens!

Blue Ju

(fotografia retirada da página do FB do Regina Maris)