Every Day Life

Hi guys! It's been forever, I'm so sorry. I accidentally broke my laptop-charger and had to order a new one, which is why I haven't been able to use my laptop for three weeks and why I haven't updated in so long and which is my this will be such a long post with lots and lots of pictures :)

The last few weeks have been stuffed: I'm always busy doing something.

We have had lots of field hockey related things to do and are nearing the end of season. We have had practice four times a week, have had lifting once a week and have had about two games a week. Usually, we get dinner just before or after practice with the team. We've been doing great as a team: we're entering the NCAA tournament in about a week, and will be playing our first tournament game against Kenyon. Luckily, I'm getting more and more used to the hour-long bus rides to the games. The team has had multiple get togethers with the fans (family and friends;) and often hangs out and goes out together: we are, after all, a big group of friends.

My courses have been fine and I'm glad that the midterms are over. I only have 12 hours of classes a week, but that doesn't mean that I'm not busy: every hour of class will leave you with two hours of homework. I'm big on procrastinating, and am making a bad habit out of taking naps in between classes and practice, so I often end up doing my homework until after midnight. This is probably the reason that I nap so often.

One of the things that I love most about Wittenberg is that there is always something to do. These past few weeks I've been to comedians, have watched many sports games, have had pizza-tastings and have witnessed many activities, such as the zombie-games in my own dorm. I especially love watching sports games: the sports atmosphere in America is amazing and it's fun to do with friends. Today, for example, was Alex (another international) his last soccer game for Wittenberg. Obviously a lot of internationals went to the game together. It was fun cheering the team on, eating snacks and freaking the other audience members out by speaking in different languages.

Last week, we had a four-day break better known as fall break. I really needed the break and it was great to leave campus for a bit. I spent the first day having a game, doing some grocery shopping and going out. Since most people (except for some of the athletes and internationals) left campus to visit their families and friends, campus was kind of empty and there weren't a lot of parties. The soccer team and the field hockey team (what was left of it that is) teamed up and had a party together, which was lots of fun. Just like most parties I hung out a bit and played some drinking games. And I once again ended up streaking…

The second day, I spent with Sarah and Sam, two of my friends. We went to Easton, a shopping area in Colombus, and had lots of fun. We all ended up buying a lot of new clothes, we ended up going to the movies (we went to Guardians of the Galaxy, which I found a pretty funny movie) and we ended up doing some more shopping in Springfield, after which we had dinner at Chipotle. I tend to go to Chipotles a lot…

I spent the third day with Sally, my host family. We went to The Greens, a shopping area closer to Springfield, and did some clothes-shopping there. I had my first frozen yoghurt and I can promise you that I'm getting more this year. After shopping at The Greens, we went to Columbus and did some shopping at stores like Target, which has become my favorite store. Dinner was amazing: we went to this steak-house that had better food than I had ever expected to eat in a not-overpriced American restaurant. 

The last day of fall break, the team had practice again. I ended up spending the day doing homework, playing field hockey and sleeping.

This weekend was homecoming weekend. Campus was unbelievably full - alumnus and their families, friends and families of current students and townies (people from Springfield who have nothing to do with Wittenberg) were everywhere. We had our homecoming game (a Football game), which we won, there were even more events than usually and there were even more parties than usually. I wasn't allowed to drink (we're in dry-season at the moment because we're entering the tournament, which means that we aren't allowed to drink any alcohol) but had a blast anyways: I think I've been to at least five different parties, and each one of them was fun.

I've been talking to my family on Skype at least once a week and I do miss them a lot. They are great though and always know how to crack me up. I'm glad that all is well back home. My dad has been helping me choosing my subjects for next semester (I'm planning on doing community service, following psychology, microbiology and calculus) and is helping me make a plan for next year. I didn't realize that I already had to start thinking about this: time flies! I feel like I only arrived yesterday, but I'm already at one fourth of my year. Time really goes fast when you're having a great time.

Dinner with the team

Family gathering with the team

Classroom session with the team

A bus ride to a game - I usually end up spending the entire time chatting, napping, listening to music and playing games on my phone

Getting ready for a game!

Getting ready for our second game against Earlham - it's save to say that we spent most of the time doing things that are not related to field hockey. At all. 

Studying at Post with some friends

What my desk usually looks like

The sororities and fraternities are going through the informal process of getting new members at the moment, and are having lots of charity events. Posters of these events can be found anywhere on campus.

Homecoming weekend!

One of the homecoming parties - this one was in the blue house, also known as the Fiji's house (a fraternity)

The international picnic! Internationals from all years and their host families got together and had a picnic near a lake. I chatted with many internationals, some that I knew before and some that I met that very day, we played frisbee, soccer and ate great food. Even though it was really cold, I had a great day.

Squirrels - they're everywhere.

Alex his last soccer game for Wittenberg! 

A lot of the internationals came to Alex his game to cheer him on for the last time. We lost, but had lots of fun anyways.

I for some reason eat a lot of Chipotle at the moment.

I love you mom and dad :)

So… This week, I held a snake for the first time. Honestly it was great - Carl was cute, soft and cute.

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Wittenberg Field Hockey Tigers

Being a Field Hockey Tiger for Wittenberg University is amazing. The team is great, we're like one big family. We meet up quite often, having four practices of 2,5 each and two games a week, and often have study tables or parties with each other. We meet up an hour/ half an hour before practice to get dressed and chat, dance and sing the hour away. After practice, we all take a quick shower and get dinner together. If you need help with one of your subjects, there's always an upperclassmen that's there to help you. If you need to go to the store, there's always someone willing to drive you there. I love my teammates. The coaches and sports doctors are great too, they're always there to help you, give individual practices, tips, etc. and are so nice. Even though season is really intense, it's lots of fun too. Here is a preview of a(n away) game day.

Game day

Departure - If we're having an away game, we meet up about half an hour before we're supposed to depart. We get a bag that we fill with our uniforms, shoes, mouthguard, shampoo etc. and make sure that our Tiger Buddies get the packages we prepared for them, without finding out that who their Tiger Buddy is. When we have everything we need, we bring our stuff to the bus and get to our seats, taking our own Tiger Buddy package, schoolbag, a blanket and a pillow with. The drive, whether it is one or four hours away, is filled with doing homework, watching movies, listening to music, chatting, and sleeping.

Two hours before - Everyone is in the locker room, getting dressed, seeing the sports doctors, re-reading the report on the team we're about to play against. We listen to music with the volume turned all the way up, dancing an getting pumped up for the game. Fifteen minutes before we're supposed to walk to the field, we all exchange our individual goals and pump each other up a bit more.

An hour before - Time to start with our warmup. We walk to the field in pairs of two, usually in our practice jersey while carrying our game jersey and stick. We do our usual routine, which consists of running, one vs. ones, the "W"-shaped offense drill, a four vs. four attack/ defense drill, corners and tip-ins. 

The game - We switch our practice jerseys for our game jerseys and line up in order of our numbers. In two long lines, both teams walk up to the middle of the field and spread out into one long line of players and coaches. The game commentator gives some information about the game and starts with voicing both start-ups: every player that starts the game gets named, once again in order of our numbers, and gets a round of applause from both the other players and the audience. After voicing both start-ups, everyone is asked to take of their heads, face the American flag and sing with the national anthem (players put their right hand on the right shoulder of the player in front of them). After this, both teams do a quick yell and it's time for the game to begin.

During the game, the players that are not in the field support their team by cheering them up and acting as if they are assistant coached. When a player on the field switches with someone who's on the bench, the commentator let's the audience know who switched for who. When someone scores, the commentator lets the audience know who scored. When someone gets a penalty corner, the commentator will let you know. Everyone can see the competing teams, remaining time, the score etc. on the score board, and the entire game is videotaped.

It's quite an experience.

Team dinner in the CDR

Team Roster - The Wittenberg Field Hockey Team 2014-2015

The Wittenberg Field Hockey Freshmen of Class 2018

Bus ride with the team / With Carlijn, the other Dutchie on the team

 Wittenberg vs. Oberlin(I'm #18)

Wittenberg vs. Oberlin (I'm #18)

Getting ready for a party with some teammates

Field Hockey Roster

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Fun Fact Friday!

So… I meant to post this on friday, to make it a legitimate fun fact friday, but I totally forgot.. My bad! I've been busy. We had a stay over in Indiana last week, which means that we had two away games in a row and stayed over in a hotel. Then on monday, I went to the movies with Maria and Riley. The cinema was in a super sketchy neighborhood so I was really on edge, and the movie (If I Stay) was so depressing and beautiful that we cried for half the movie and came out all teary eyed and red nosed. The week went by in blur and I had my first Witt Wednesday (wednesday is the biggest party day at Witt). I went to a fraternity party and had a blast: I met a lot of nice new people who kept introducing me to others ("Guys, come here, one of the Dutchies is here!!"). Then this saturday, we had another stay over, in Ohio this time, and won twice :)

Anyways: since we have fun fact fridays every week (everyone shares fun facts with each other), I decided to do a fun fact friday about Wittenberg! So here are some fun facts about Witt.. 

• We wear our dorm keys as bracelets. We attach a (rubber) band to our keys so that we can wear them, because honestly, everyone loses their keys. All the time. One of my teammates had to get her lock replaced twice already because she lost hers. 
• We have puppies and kittens all over campus. The puppies are part of a project on Wittenberg, where students help raise guide dogs. We have the most adorable labradors walking around and everyone loves them. The students love the kittens, that are actually homeless, as well. Some of them have been adopted already, but the ones that haven't been yet aren't having a hard time either. Students buy them water bowls and cat food all the time and everyone loves petting them. The faculty members are not necessarily as happy about it as the students are.
• In the CDR (the cafeteria), there is this huge ass piano that people like playing on. This means that there are almost always students making live music while you're having dinner, which is so nice.
• Student-Athletes are super easy to spot. You can recognize them so easily. A lot of them just wear sports clothes, all day, almost every day. If they're wearing normal clothes, you can recognize them because they carry around their water bottle everywhere (we have to, because we have to stay hydrated and stuff) and because they have the worst and the weirdest tan lines. 
• There is always something to do. There is always a comedian, a play, a fair, a party, a game or something going on. We have over a hundred clubs that organize fun things to do all the time. You want to go to a museum? Big chance that the history is going on a trip somewhere this week. You want to climb mountains and see caves? There's a cave club for that. Want to participate in martial arts, an acapella group or play quidditch? Just find their club. There is literally always something to do, so you'll never get bored.
• Pillow pets are hot. They're the cutest things and everyone has them. It's basically a pillow and a stuffed animal in one, and they're the best. You can buy a turtle, dog, bee, bear, unicorn.. I've seen it all. And I'm buying one as soon as I get off campus again.
• The biggest, most popular and most fun tradition that we have on Wittenberg, is streaking. Everyone has to streak down the Hollow at least one during their four years on Wittenberg. The Hollow is this hill on campus, that leads to the Synod Hall, which is next to the police office on campus. You get rid of your clothes on top of the Hollow, run down naked, touch the doors of the Synod Hall with your naked butt, and run back up the hill again to get dressed. A lot of people enjoy the rush so much that they take it a step higher and make a goal out of streaking through all of the buildings on campus before they graduate as well, which I think is hilarious. Me and Carlijn couldn't ignore a tradition like this and made sure to be one of the first of our year. (Those red chairs on the Hallow are so cute and they're everywhere on campus. People learn, hang out and sleep in those chairs all of the time. They make our campus even prettier and more fun.)

I miss you guys!

The key to my dorm can also be worn as a necklace

The cutest puppies ever (next to Yess of course)

Lunch with the team - Look out for those tan lines!

A comedian - I ended up with my mouth being duct taped

Pillow Pets

The Hollow

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First week of classes!

The past week was my first day of classes, and what a (busy) week it was. The last days before classes, we all had our own OA groups to get to know some of the other freshmen and to learn a bit more about Wittenberg. There were a lot of fun activities on campus, under which the Casino Night and the Wittlympics. Casino Night was lots of fun: I turn out to suck at most gambling games, but still had a blast. At the end of the night, Carlijn and I decided that we wanted to be one of the first freshmen to do the Wittenberg tradition: we went streaking on the hollow. We almost got caught. It was so fun.

The Wittlympics were great: all dorms went to the Gymnasium in one color (New Hall was red) to compete against each other in the Wittlympics. The teams/ dorms played dodgeball, mini golf, sudoku and lots of other sports against each other. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone had a great time. 

Just before classes started was the first American Football Game: Red vs. White (Wittenberg against Wittenberg). It was fun to go to and I was amazed by the amount of people in the audience. I was even more amazed by the amount of injuries these fellows have already: American Football really is a rough sport.

The day before classes (sunday) was the day that I had my first college party: the team went out to celebrate the end of pre-season and the beginning of the year. It was fun to play beerpong, chesting and lots of other drinking games that I've never heard of before. I didn't feel like drinking and am of course not allowed to drink because of my age, so I actually drank sprite instead of alcohol.

That's when the first week of classes actually started. We had four practices and two games, on top of our actual schoolwork;) I have English, French and Chemistry on mondays, wednesdays and fridays (I changed biology into French) and Public Speaking on tuesdays and thursdays. It sounds like less work than it is: every hour of class equals one to two hours of homework. The classes are fun though, especially Public Speaking. It's a difficult and challenging subject, but that's what makes it more fun. 

Sometime during this week, Car and I met up with Sally (our host family) and went to see her house. She lives in an adorable house in an adorable neighborhood. It was, at least in my eyes, a typical American home which only added to its charm. Another extra: she only lives a mile (1,6km) from campus.

During this week, the university had organized an activities fair: all clubs, fraternities and sororities had their own stands and were trying to recruit new members. In the mean time, there was a giant outside barbecue. The atmosphere was, once again, amazing. It was so cool to learn about the sororities, different majors their clubs, male and female acapella groups (Yes! They actually have those, I'm so amazed. It felt like Pitch Perfect all over. It was great.) and the clubs that's main purpose was to do community work and raise money for charities.

On friday, we had our first official game. We got to see our away-games uniforms, went to Washington & Jefferson by bus (W&J is located in Pennsylvania, it took us three and a half hours to get there) and… sadly lost. We played an amazing game though, I'm proud of the team. Saturday, we had another practice (we have four a week) and had a team dinner at Post, a restaurant on campus, after which we went to a Volleyball game to cheer on some of our fellow student-athletes: I loved it. It was so fun to be in the audience of one of our universities games and cheer "Tiger up Witt Tiger up" with the rest of the audience. Our women's volleyball team won:)

Whenever I had time during this week, I would Skype with my family and friends. I love talking to you guys, you're the best. It's nice to know how everyone is doing back home and to hear stories about your new classes, studies and universities. Keep me updated!

The Wittlympics

White vs. Red Football game

First college party with the team!

Sally her adorable house

The interests fair

You're basically eating frozen water, it's gross

On our way to an away game!

Getting ready for our first game against W&J

Volleyball - We won

Skype with some of my besties :)

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Pre-Season & New Student Day

My roommate, Rayika, arrived last sunday. I'm so happy that she came in early as well (she's an international student from India) because the room is now less empty and lonely and she's the nicest girl. She also brought lots of food, which I think is great. I also met the other new international students: they are so nice. There are girls from Japan, there is a girl from France, Russia, India (Rayika), somewhere in Africa, a boy from Switzerland (Alex, who is also in my OA group), a boy from South-Africa, India, Ecuador and many others from different countries. There are three other Dutchies: Carlijn, who is practically my neighbor and is also in the hockey team, Anne and Marisha.

I met my host family last tuesday. Since me and Carlijn have very few time and get along really well, we decided to 'share' our host family. She is such a nice woman. Her name is Sally and she's a professor and chairwoman at Wittenberg University. She lives close to campus, loves sports (she'll watch most of our games, how sweet!) and already invited us over for breaks. Everyone is so open and friendly and inviting here! I think I've already had four invitations for the breaks, and I haven't even met my classmates yet. The freshmen (there are 500 or 600 of them!) moved in yesterday, so I'm sure I'll meet lots of them in the following days.

Pre-season is tough (I'm so sore) and the fact that I have the New (both normal and International) Student Days only makes it more exhausting. For example, yesterday (thursday), I had to wake up at 4.45 AM, be in the training room (to see the sports doctor, I probably strained my hamstring) at 5.15 AM and be on the field at 6.00 AM. After two hours of practice (we always wear an uniform at practice), we had breakfast, a one hour break and a pool workout (which is harder than it looks) at 10.30 AM. We had lunch at 11.30 AM, the New Student Days program from 1.00 PM to 4.00 PM, practice from 4.00 PM to 6.00 PM (freshmen came in late) and dinner with the team at 6.30 PM. After dinner, it was just the New Student Program: we had a meeting with our RA's at 8.00 PM and went to the hypnotist from 9.30 PM to 11.30 PM. Just a normal day in pre-season you guys, but don't get me wrong: it's a lot of fun too. We've had lots of fun at team dinners, bonfires and the hypnotist and everyone is so nice: the team really is like a family already.

The hypnotist was the coolest thing: so many people were actually hypnotized and doing the weirdest things! I didn't believe in hypnotism before, but I sure do now. I was hypnotized for about two minutes, after which some people in the audience got me out of my concentration by laughing at me and the other teammates that were in a 'trance'. It was the weirdest thing: everything went blurry and white, after which I felt like I was surrounded by fog and couldn't really see anymore. That's when I was brought out of my concentration, so I hadn't followed any of the tasks the hypnotist gave us yet. It felt so good. 

My practice uniform! #18

Campfire with the team

Some really long speech

The hypnotist - The coolest thing ever

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Springfield: Wittenberg University!

Last tuesday, I moved in to my dorm room. My roommate won't arrive until tomorrow (sunday). The dorm room is in New Hall, which is the newest (and nicest) hall of them all. My mom and sister helped me unpack my stuff and we went to get some last things at Walmart. When my room was ready and I was 'moved in', the three of us went to a deli not too far off campus to meet the Field Hockey team. I met a lot of new people and everybody was so nice: I got super excited to be part of the team (or family as they call themselves). 

The day after move-in-day, the team had paperwork day. We had breakfast at 7.30 AM in the CDR (the campus cafeteria), which is 50 steps from my dorm which is great. We spent the rest of the day going over papers, signing them, getting health-checks, doing some health tests and of course getting to know each other better. We also got to see our locker room, lockers and uniforms: they are awesome.

Today was the first day of practice. We had to get up at 5 AM and be at Hyper (the athletic center) at 6 AM to get our two miles run: we had to run two hilly miles (3,2km) in less than 16 minutes (which I did not make at all, it took me 17 minutes something). One girl pooped her pants and another peed in her pants (both are the cutest and nicest but of course athletic girls) and I almost peed mine too: I had to stop walking for a while to keep it in. So yeah, it was hard.

We had breakfast, a reading discussion and a one hour break. I took a quick shower and met up with my mom and sister for the last time in a really long time. My mom had to cry when we had to say goodbye, but that was only because she loves me so much. I love you mom and Juul!

After I said my goodbyes, the team went on a hike. The hike was really pretty and we went shopping in a hippie kind of street afterwards, so that was cool. After the hike we had a one and a half hour break in which I went to Target to get some spandex shorts and flip-flops. Then the real deal began: we had a two hour turf practice on the Football Field (BTW There are over a hundred football players, while you only have 11 players in the field. All hundred something had training before we did, and it looked awful: so many people got injured and vomited and stuff. I guess they need a lot of back-up players for a sport this tough.) 

I was already tired and sore, so I was exhausted after turf practice. Even though we've only had one day of pre-season, I can already tell that it's going to be tough, exhausting, tiring and painful, but fun.

My dorm room - Still a bit empty

The CDR (cafeteria)

The Field Hockey Lockerroom

Hiking with the team in Yellow Springs

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