You’ll never guess what I did today people!

I socialized!

Outside of class!

For an extended period of time…AND I got phone numbers!

Today was my final exam for level 3.  There can be two outcomes and whether or not I pass will basically determine the month of May for me.  If I do pass (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease) then I have almost the entire month of May to do as I please.  A whole month of no class.  My student working papers are already in the process of, well, being processed and I have a volunteer opportunity lined up at the Poezenboot, a combination houseboat/cat sanctuary for abandoned or abused cats and kittens.  All I have to do is pass and I’ll have some more options available to me, some things that I enjoy doing, rather than waking up every day and going to class.  I’d say that learning another language is fun (at times it really is) but the speed and intensity combined with the circumstances if I don’t pass make what I’m doing right now more difficult and stressful than fun and informative.  So let’s all cross our collective fingers and hope that I did well on my exam today because if I fail I have to repeat the level.

Yeah, how many big hairy goatballs does that suck?
Well, I dunno, but even one big hairy goatball is too much for most people’s tastes.

If this second outcome occurs it means I’ll be spending the month of May repeating level 3 and taking the exam again on May 27th.  Working will be difficult and limited.  Volunteering will be almost impossible because they need help in the mornings, not the afternoons.  I’ll be trapped inside a classroom during one of my favorite times of the year.  Grades will be posted at 10 am on Monday…I really hope I passed.

Aherm, but allow me to rerail this train wreck.

After I finished the exam I stepped out into the hall and almost turned to leave when the Brazilian guy caught my eye.  He had finished first and was waiting for other people to emerge from the classroom.  I headed over and while we were discussing the test more and more people came over and joined the conversation.  They were all people that I’ve been in class with since level 1 and after a while we decided to go play some pool at the pool hall down the block.  Normally I would have politely declined and headed home right away but it’s a beautiful day, we were all smiling and talking and having such a good time, that I got swept up in the whole “ooh look, people want to talk and do stuff together in a big group…I remember this..I think it’s called ‘hanging out’, yeah that’s it…I used to do this once upon a time” atmosphere and went along with all the guys to play pool.

And this is the truly beautiful and unique thing about my language class (or any language class that does the same thing I suppose); there were about eight of us all there: from the United States, France, Malawi, the Congo, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Turkmenistan.  We were all playing pool, laughing, joking talking, having drinks and enjoying the day together.  None of us from the same place or the same culture.  The oldest was 28, the youngest 18.  We were every different shade possible.  We have so little in common aside from one goal: learning Dutch.  But it is bringing us all together in such a wonderful way.

If you would have told me last April that in one year’s time I would be living in Belgium, learning Dutch and hanging out with a bunch of guys from Africa, South America and Eurasia in a pool hall I would have kindly patted you on the head, given you the number to the nearest rehab center and told you to just say no to crack.

But look at me.

That’s exactly where I am and exactly what I’m doing.

And it feels fantastic.