The Boarding-House

Hi everyone, 

How are you guys doing? I am doing fine! Well…I have had a sore throat and an ugly cough for more than two weeks now, so that’s not super-duper chill… but hey I am experiencing a typical Australian illness, another exchange experience right? ;-)

Today I want to talk about the boarding-house with you. Since Wednesday the 30^th of January I am attending boarding-house of PLC (the school) instead of staying with a host family. I love the boarding-house! Here are a few things I really like about my boarding life. 

The girls

The first thing that is definitely my favourite of all things is living with so many amazing girls. They are true angels. They are all so nice to me. They call me Freddie, some even Frankie (not sure if I’m too happy with that, but they say I look like a Frankie so I just let it be hahaha) and seriously they help Freddie out with a lot of stuff. Some examples: Freddie uses the toaster during lunch time without knowing she’s not allowed to  they switch it off really quick just before Mrs Turner (head of boarding-house) walks in. Freddie is getting yelled at for wearing a purple bag instead of the green one  they quickly explain that Freddie is an exchange student before she even has to say one word herself. As I said angels. Guardian angels. 

The food

The second thing I really like about the boarding-house is the food. Okay, if the girls in the boarding-house read this, they will laugh at me so hard. They have told me about how bad the food was last year and even created an Instagram account for it and showed me pictures. Let’s just say that I am happy that I came this year instead of last year. They have a new chef and I would say she is a good one. In the morning I can choose from yoghurt, bread, fruits and eggs. During recess there are really nice snacks that vary per day that we as boarders can pick up from the dining room. During lunch we get to choose between a warm meal or a sandwich which you can put together yourself, also in the dining room. After school we can pick up another snack. During diner there is a different meal every night. I’ve not had the same meal twice since I have arrived so I can confidently say that there is a lot of variation in meals. By the way, the desserts are to die forrr!

The diners

Talking about diner, this is probably my third favourite thing about the boarding house. Although I don’t really like the fact that we are having a seating plan since I think it would be more enriching if you could talk to with different people every night, diner is still so much fun every night. I have really nice conversations with the girls at my table and we all have very different cultures (Chinese, Australian, American, Dutch, the list goes on and on and on). The best diners are the special themed ones. We have had two of those so far; a Chinese diner on Chinese New Year and a Valentine’s diner on Valentine’s day. During the Chinese diner we ate Chinese food (wow surprising) and on Valentine’s day we ate a lot of pink food and we had a pink drink. Both nights also had a dress-code: on Chinese New Year’s night everyone had to wear something red or gold. On Valentine’s day everyone had to wear something pink or just something that had to do with love in general. The saying “Go big or go home!” is well-known here and everyone dressed very extra (for the older readers: over the top, dramatic) for the special occasions and so did I but you probably already expected that, I mean you know me: I even over-dress for a Tuesday at school ;-)… 

The rules

Putting rules as my next favourite thing in this list probably seems a bit strange. Teens hate rules, am I right? I first also needed to get used to them. However, now I think a lot of rules are really beneficial for my health. Here are the most important rules in the boarding-house: 1) At 7:00 am you get waked up by a staff member (you don’t set an alarm yourself), 2) by 7:30 you have to be down at breakfast every school day (this is a race against the clock, I really have to learn to shower quicker hahaha), 3) by 8:10 you have to leave the boarding-house and you are not allowed to return upstairs until 15:05, 4) at 18:00 you have to be down for diner (at diner you have certain privileges as you get older), 5) at 22:15 I have to hand in my phone to a staff member (the time depends on which your year group you’re in), and at 22:30 they put the lights off and you have to go to bed (this time also depends on your year group). I can imagine that some rules sound like unlikeable to you. I am not going to lie to you, if a staff member gets mad at me for being down at breakfast at 7:32 I need a quick second to calm myself, but off course this is a sort of school rule not and not an overwrought family member. However, as I said I really believe these rules (apart from the “taking my phone away”-rule, this one makes me feel very childish and as if they don’t trust me. I mean, I am so tired at night that I definitely prioritize my sleep above everything else) especially the last one are really good for me. I always stay up late because I am a bit of a workaholic and I am never done with everything I wanted to do that day but now I am forced to go to bed at a certain time and I hope I can keep up with this routine once I return to the Netherlands. Also, I really improved my time management in the morning. As I said I love long warm showers and I always take my time when it comes to my skin-care (thank god I never wear any make-up hahaha) but now I have learned to take shorter “long warm showers” and I do the biggest part of my skin-care routine after breakfast.

The independence

The following thing that I really like about the boarding-house is the independence. This is not going to be a shocking one to my family. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and I spend a lot of time with them but I always talk about how I dream about living by myself and having my own place. One of the biggest compliments someone could give me is, “Wow, you’re so independent!” Eeehm, no one ever said that to me so I thought I would just throw it out on the internet, in case you want an opening sentence to start a conversation with me or something, here you are hahaha (I think there are too many “hahaha’s“ in this one post already. I promise I am going to stop laughing at my own phrases now). But back to the point; apart from cooking I have to do everything myself. I am not saying that I never washed my clothes before but I definitely improved my skills. A benefit for my mom! 

The staff-members

My sixth favourite thing about the boarding house is the staff. The head of the boarding house is as I’ve said Mrs. Turner. She is the perfect lady for the job. All the girls listen to her really well. Then you have two sub-heads who alternate each other. Let’s say that I have had some conflicts with one of them. Well, not real conflicts, it was more like me in my head thinking, “Why did you choose this job when you get annoyed by teenagers so quickly? Can we even do something right in your eyes?” But those are the stories I rather tell my friends than putting them on my blog. I mean, what if this lady follows my blog. It could be. Very small chance, but it could be. Apart from that you have four gap-girls; two for the juniors and two for the seniors. These girls are younger. The gap-girls for the juniors are just two years older than me and feel more like friends than real staff-members which I think is really nice. Something that I learned doing better here is to ask things to staff/adults. At home I always try to avoid contact with staff at my school at all times. It has come to a point where at the beginning of the school year I gave my locker pass to the janitor because my locker didn’t work and I still haven’t asked if the locker works now and if I can get the pass back.. I know this is the part where you are all really disappointed in my social skills. But, but… no worries I am improving myself here in Australia. I don’t really have an option but to ask staff-members things since they are sort of my parents now; if I have a sore throat, I have to ask them for medicines. If I don’t know how to turn the dryer on, I have to ask them. If I want to spend the afternoon somewhere else than at school, I have to ask them. So I am more comfortable asking authorities for favours now. Yeah great Frederique, you go girl, amazing! Great story! I know. 

The prep-time

Then last but not least… Prep-time! I hear you thinking, “Frederique, what the hell is prep-time? Are you going to a sports camp or something?” No, prep-time basically means “homework time”. All the boarders have to go to the library after diner and study there from 18:45 to 21:00. Unless you did “early prep” from 17:00-18:00, then you are allowed to leave at 20:30. Off course, I have to catch up with all the school work I am missing from my school in the Netherlands and I even have to do a couple of tests here so prep-time is great for that since it is often a bit disquiet in the boarding-house (what do you expect living with fifty girls in one house, hahaha). During prep-time I can concentrate very well and it is stimulating to be surrounded by a lot of other girls who also work on their schoolwork. 

These were all my favourite things about the boarding-house. Most probably there are more things that are going to pop up in my head later this day but these are my main seven things. During the weekends, I still go to Alyssa’s house and do a lot of fun activities with her family and Phoebe which I will write about some time later.

I am going to enjoy some more time in the boarding-house now! I hope you liked reading this post and I will speak to you very soon!

With love,

Frederique