My family in France

I am Manon Jousset and I’ve family living in France. That’s because my father is French, so I am French too. It’s great that I go to France so often! But sometimes I don’t like it. Because every time we go to France, it takes eight hours to get there! But when we are arrived it’s worth it! In the summer the weather is beautiful, my grandparents have a very large garden so I can do lots of things. But if I go (for example) with Christmas to France it can be very cold! Sometimes it snows, but this year there was only rain, rain and rain. That’s very boring, because I don’t know what to do there! When the weather is not good enough to go outside I’m bored! They have a video-player, but I saw all the movies already a couple of times! So then I help my grandmother with things or I play a game with her, for example rummicub. And I have a little brother of 11 years old, but he’s always playing on his gameboy, so I can’t do something with him. But if the weather is beautiful I like to be over there, because my grandparents live in a very big house with a large garden! But it’s also good for my French at school, because now I have good notes, because I know already lots of French words! My conclusion is: I enjoy it to have family living in France, and it is very handy for school of course!! But I miss my family when I am at home, because then they are so far away from me!

Let's go for the animals on our planet

Our website is about how our human actions have consequenses for the animals on our planet. When we think about environmental pollution, we think about how we humans are confronted with the mistakes we make with our environtment. But nobody seems to realise that it also has desastrous consequences for the animals, except for the foundations like Greenpeace and WWF. Leaking oil ships, the melting pole and the cutting down of habitat are things that threaten the wildlife on our planet. Read all of it on our website: http://www.partypeeps2000.com/members/environment.aspx

If you share our concerns, please push the comment button and write down your reaction!!

See you!!

Kawati and Marleen

We are concerned about the environment

As an assignment for geography, we (Arian, Stephan and Sophie, T3A, Hofstad Lyceum) made a website about the environment. On our website there is information about electricity and the environment, non-renewable and renewable resources, oil and the environment and new technology of the oil industry. You can also find answers on the questions "Why are we concerned about the environment?", "Who cares for the environment?", "Why does wildlife need protection?" and "Why does Antarctica need protection?" The link to our website is http://www.environmental-concerns.websitemaker.nl/environment .

Speed skating is fun!!

Speed skating is a very Dutch sport, because Dutch people have been doing it for more than 2000 years! It all started with the first people in the Netherlands. When it was winter, they wanted to catch fish on a lake. But how could they get to the middle of the lake? In the summer they had boats, but you can’t use boats if everything is frozen. So they started to walk on the ice, but that didn’t work (they fell down every time). So they putted a few bones of stags under their shoes and they tried to skate. That is how the people of Holland started skating! Now, people don’t skate anymore for fish, because we’ve got the supermarkets for that.

Every year, there are tournaments of speed skating, for men and women. Usually you skate on a circuit which is 400 meters long. It’s always going like this: 100 meter straight, 100 meter bend, 100 meter straight, 100 meter bend. After that you skated 1 lap (400m). There are different distances for men and women.

But not only the Netherlands take part in the championships. Also many other countries like Norway, Japan, China, Germany, France, Italy, the United States, Canada etc. Just watch TV and you will see it.

I have been doing it for 5 years now, and I like it very much. At school there’s also an ice-skating team, and I am in it. We’re skating games against other schools! A few weeks ago we had a regional tournament in Haarlem. We skated as fast as we could and my team (4 people) became second and now we are nominated for the Dutch Championship! There were also 4 other teams from my school which go to the DC!! We are we good in ice-skating, aren’t we?
Koen Kleiberg, T1A

Captain Arie Evegroen, a Dutch hero!

In the night of 31 January and 1 February 1953 an important event took place in Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel. The radio warned for a storm wit hurricane strength.
The water stood exactly under the vertex of the Groenedijk. The waves were attacking the dike. Nobody realised at that moment that a terrible disaster was going on in the polders of Zuid Holland and Zeeland. On that night of 31 January the people of Nieuwerkerk were partying and went to a dance event. On that dance event some people faced the mayor with the storm and the high water in the river Ijssel, that was directly connected to the sea. They kept everybody in the dancing room. This proved be later to be good thing, as soon after turned out that the official dike army was not able to reinforce the dike. Out of the guests the mayor recruited his own dike army and people for the catering. Fortunately among the guests there was also a captain with his wife and daughter. All of a sudden a message came that the dike started to break. The mayor ordered the captain (Arie Evegroen) to navigate his ship into the widening hole. And so he did. Although his ship was damaged heavily, he came out himself well. With the help of the dike armies the dike could be repaired and millions of Dutchmen living in the polders of Zuid Holland were safe. So this meeting appeared later on to become the rescue for many many South-Dutchmen. I think these people did a great job and that Arie Evegroen was a real hero! I also want to say that I like to write for this blog! Jamie van der Steen, T2A

A multicultural neighbourhood: Schilderswijk

There are a lot of cultures in Holland, especially in The Hague. The Hague has got a really multicultural society. In our city there are many different neighbourhoods. On of those neighbourhoods is called the Schilderswijk. This neighbourhood is one of the poorest in the Netherlands. It was built in the 19th century; it hasn’t developed that well since then, because of its poverty. Schilderswijk has got 32.000 inhabitants. Most of the inhabitants in Schilderswijk (87%) aren’t from Dutch origin. They are mostly are from Turkey, Surinam and Morocco. The neighbourhood Schilderswijk has an area of 149 hectometres [squared]. It may be a poor neighbourhood, but that doesn’t mean that there doesn’t happen anything special there. There are festivals held there like Ha-Schi-Ba (Haagse-Schilderwijk-Bazar). This festival is meant for everyone, so you can experience the feeling of belonging together: everyone is equal.
Our opinion about the Schilderswijk:
The Schilderswijk has got a very bad name, because it is a very poor neighbourhood. It looks bad, which makes the inhabitants look like very aggressive people. There also aren’t that many Dutch people, which causes discrimination. The government has to solve these kinds of problems quickly!
Sahir Kassem and Joshua Susanto, T2A.http://www.hofvanwouw.nl/Geloveninschilderswijk.jpg (picture)

Hofstad Lyceum Open House 2007

The open day at our school is a yearly routine and also this year we had many 8th graders from the primary schools coming over to our school to get a taste and to see if they like it. We had many stands with an exhibition of the objects of that particular subject. It included geography, maths, French, Dutch and other subject such as art and biology were demonstrated in the classrooms. We (Jacqueline and Stephanie) were assisting in the biology classroom and the art room. We are also students at Hofstad Lyceum and we enjoyed the Open Day very much.. As first year students we want to make sure that next year students will feel al at home at our school Hofstad lyceum. Many schools now have an open day in Holland and we guess that is the same in other countries. Please tell us if you assisted too in your school. What did you have to do? We are very curious! We enjoy helping the first year students very much we think it is fun and exiting to meet the new kids that hopefully will like this school as much as we do. We have done about half a year at this school now and we had many new experiences (but also much more homework!!).
Stephanie and Jacqueline from the Hofstad Lyceum in The Hague, the Netherlands

The flood of 1953 in Zeeland

The disaster was from 31 of January to the 1 of February. There was already for 24 hours a heavy storm from the North West, the most dangerous direction for our country. The seawater was very high that night and it was blown into the estuaries of Zeeland. It was a bit heavy, but they were thinking it was normal because the sea level was always higher in that time of the year. But when everybody was sleeping the dikes broke. The water came into the polders and dike after dike broke. The islands Duivenland, Goeree Overvlakkee, Tholen, Biesbosch en St. Philipsland were completely inundated. The islands Voorne Putten and the Hoekse Waarde were almost completely flooded. South Beveland and Walcheren were only partly flooded. More than 1800 people drowned in the ice cold water. In total 49.000 houses and farms were destroyed. Between the 100.000 and the 110.000 people had to be evacuated. That people had to stay somewhere else e.g. in schools and churches. Some babies were born that night, but because people had to sleep in schools babies were born there. For the farmers it was bad too as it lasted two years before anything could grow again on the salty fields. Now we told about the humans, but 201.000 animals died too. We hope it will never happen again, it sounds so terrible…..
Iris and Richelle T1B

Amphibious vehicles

I will tell about AAV (Amphibious Assault Vehicle). There are several names for AAV’s but I think this is the right one. The AAV is a vehicle that in a lot of NATO countries is used by the Navy. These vehicles can both sail and ride .I have chosen the AAV because the older types (the DUKW, nickname “Duck”) were used in 1953 during the flood in Holland. They were left in Holland in 1945 by the American and Canadian forces, that liberated our country from the Nazis. These amphibious vehicles, by that time in the hands of private owners, were very useful, as they were the first to arrive in the inundated areas. They were able to reach isolated villages and farms that were not accessible by boats nor cars or trucks. That’s why they saved so many people. The AAV was designed and built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.The length is 7.94m, the width is 3.27m, the height are 3.26m and weight are 22.8 tonnes.. Their speed is 64 km/h on land and in water 13 km/h. There are 3 types of the AAV: 1. AAVP-7A1 (Personnel) 2. AAVC-7A1 (Command) 3. AAVR-7A1 (Recovery). If you are also interested in amphibious vehicles, please let me know! I think they are wonderful machines!!
By Guilian.

Note from the editor: the upper photo was sent in by Fina Verbeek's dad. It is a German AAV and the Nazis wanted to use these machines to invade our country in case the Dutch goverment had inundated the country to prevent the ennemy from coming in (The so called Waterlinie)Thanks, Mr Verbeek!

Our geography lessons are cool

Each geography lesson starts with an agenda that my teacher writes on the board. The first thing there is the rule of 8XS, which means:

1. When Senior
2. Speaks
3. Students are
4. Silent
5. When a Student
6. Speaks (e.g answering or speeching)
7. the other Students are
8. Silent.
Then we talk about our homework. Our teacher asks us questions about our homework; if we do it right we get a + and if we get it wrong (which means we didn’t do our homework properly) and we get a -. A “plus” = 0,1 extra for on our next major test, a “minus” = we lose a +. We also get a – if we don’t concentrate in classroom. The third thing we have on our agenda is reading and answering a few questions in our book. Next on the agenda is that we watch something on the TV about geography in Dutch for 5 minutes and take notes in English. After our notes our teacher asks what is it about, and we have to explain that for a +. My geography teacher is fond of offering us criss cross puzzles (as a small quiz, we get a mark for). I like geography a lot and I also like my class. Bye, Alexandra

Carnival 2007 in Holland

This year I am going to join the carnival party in Noord-Brabant on 17, 18, 19 and 20 February . Unlike The Hague carnival is a big party over there with people who are dressed in fancy clothes. Many people will come to see this festival in the Southern (Roman Catholic) part of our country. There is always a Prince or Princess, not really a member of the Dutch Royal Family, but just everyday persons. They are chosen by the special community of carnival. The lord major will give them the ”key” of the city. How are they chosen? I don’t know... That is a pity. When the festival is starts many huge floats shows their beautiful decorations. The people of Noord-Brabant work very hard for the decorations on the vehicles. The owner of the vehicle takes place on his throne of the vehicle and scatters confetti over the crowd, who is acclaiming at the side. There is always much live music and it is certainly a big festival in the Roman Catholic provinces like Noord- Brabant and Limburg. You should really go there!! Like me, Revin van Alwijk

Rules for writers (reminder)

If you want your writing to be published in this site, these are the rules:

- 200 words maximum (in English)

- you must be a bilingual student of grade 1 or 2 of Hofstad Lyceum

- the subject must be related to geography, sociology, politics or economy (use newspapers and news sites); contributions about daily life (school life and private interests included) are also most welcome, as long as the information is interesting for students in other countries!

- write about your own neighbourhood, city, region or country. Or about European integration.

- always add your own opinion in a couple of words

- finish off your contribution by giving your name and age

- send your contributions to Hans Smit (editor): SMT@hofstadlyceum.nl (as an attachment to your email)

- one or two pictures may be added, but must be sent to me as a seperate (JPG)attachment!!!!!

My pet bird Jojo

I want to tell you something about my pet bird Jojo, because it is a very special bird! It is a mynah (in Dutch we call it a “beo”) Jojo can imitate sounds very well, like voices, telephone ring tones, whistles, slithering fences and much more. If you read this, you would probably think it is some sort of parrot, but it isn’t. Jojo and the other mynahs are family of the sparrow. They live in Asia (mostly Indonesia). They eat fruit & little bugs and live in the Tropical jungle. It is expensive to buy a mynah in Europe, but on the other hand, you will have a great friend… Before Jojo we already have one mynah, and my father two, they were called Benito and Calimero. A mynah has to fly at least once in two days (in the room), so does Jojo. Jojo has many, many adventures outside the cage… He is very curious so he likes to bite in every thing that looks exiting. Jojo is a real explorer and his favourite item is my money pocket. Very often he grabs twenty euro and escapes with it to! Then he shows it proudly to us. He is very naughty, but also the sweetest mynah ever! Do you have a nice pet like Jojo? Please tell me!!!!!!!!!! Greetz, Fina

All about soccer

Hello world!! I have chosen for this sport, because I play football myself. Let me explain about soccer. Football is one of the most popular ball sport of the world and so it is in Holland. The best people are playing for 90 minutes and there are 11 players in the field. From both clubs, of course. You need footballshoes, a shirt, a football short and long socks. You must play it with your head, body and your feet, but a goalkeeper can take the ball with his hands only in the sixteen meter area.If the keeper is in the five meter area and a player is going to made a duel than it’s a freekick for the goalkeeper.The modern game was codified in England following the formation of the Football Association, whose 1863 Laws of the game created the foundations for the way the sport is played today. Football is governed internationally by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). A player can get yellow and red if you make a normal tackle but on the legs or something than it’s yellow and if you make a very hard tackle it’s red, but if you get 2 times yellow than it’s red. I like football very much, because I play it every week.
Greets from Alvin van Reeuwijk, Hofstad Lyceum, T1A

Our beautiful Waddenzee

The word wad comes from the Latin word vadum. The Waddensea (Shallow Waters) is the living area of many sea animals such as fish, seals and even birds that come to eat food. The Waddensea is found in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The Waddensea is also a great recreation place where you can walk when the sea is at its lowest point. Because you’re not allowed to go wad walking(what this walking is called) by yourself you obviously have to go guide there is a special Centrum for walking in the Wadloopcentrum in Pieterburen. In some places you are not allowed to walk any more because they are protected. The mainly reason the Waddensea is protected is of the amount of the so called “blackspots” that cause the oxygen level to decrease and killing many animals. What is also very bad for the environment is the drilling on earth gas. Also important in de Waddensea are the mudflats(wetlands that form when mud is deposited by the tides or rivers, sea and oceans) where many animals live or are gathering food. However, because the rising of the sealevel it is changing the places for some specific animals to live in.
Our opinions of the Waddensea: we think that the government should look better after the environment including the Waddensea. If you start small maybe that is all you need to make the world a better place including animals and people.

Stephanie and Jacqueline

Super storm slashes Holland!

There was a big storm yesterday. It lashed Europe including Holland. It was such a bad storm that schools had to be closed. It killed 28 people in Europe. And 8 of them in Holland. It was a long time that we did not see such a storm. Windows got broken, trees were falling down. Dozens of trucks capsized on the roads, causing enormous traffic jams. All trains had to be taken out of service and the Red Cross had to find sleeping places for thousands of travellers, who could not get home. This kind of wind (11 Beaufort with blasts up to 130 km/h!!)) is very dangerous for our society. My personal opinion about this is that we have to look out. Stay at home for your own safety, do not let small children go outside. Trucks should be forbidden to drive in such a hurricane. In my neighbourhood an old tree fell down. Luckily nothing happened. I wrote this paper to let people know about the storm. A lot of people did not understand that it was a real hazard until they saw the consequences on TV!Bejna Top, T2A

The inundations of 1953

1953, almost 54 years ago…….During the night of January 31th till the morning of February 1st 175.000 hectares of land changed into 175.000 hectares of sea. A super storm, combined with extreme high tide put big parts of Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, West-Vlaanderen and Noord-Brabant under water. Two villages totally vanished: Capelle on Schouwen-Duiveland and Schuring on Hoeksche Waard. Also on the island of Texel there were casualties, 6 in total which one was killed when he tried to warn the local farmers. All together more than 1600 people died as well as thousands of animals. It was the biggest disaster in The Netherlands after the Second World War. Though I didn’t live in the time of the flood disaster I am a bit afraid for this to happen again because I live next to the coast where in 1953 this inundation happened. But fortunately nowadays we have modern techniques to protect ourselves from floods and we have very strong dikes. Every year we have a memorial day where we remind the people who died in 1953 in that horrible night of January 31. By Nor el Saouaf, T2A

New temperature record

During our geography lesson, we talked about the temperature record of January in our country. Peter went outside to measure the temperature with a thermometer and registrated some 14 degrees Celsius, which is abnormally warm fro this time of the year. Jip went to the Media-centre to research more information about the hottest day of January, but she couldn’t find anything that’s why we are doing it instead of her. We couldn’t really find an exact reason for the warm temperature but we think it’s because of the greenhouse effect that affects the climate. The first temperature measuring was in 1901 in De Bilt (near Utrecht). With an average of 8.8 degrees 2007 takes the lead of the temperature record. The last record was in 1921 with an average temperature of 8.2 degrees. Our opinion about this warm temperature is: people are ruining the environment; they must be more concerned about it, because if we don’t change, terrible things will happen in this world.

Joshua Susanto & Sahir Kassem, T2a

Three Wise Men Present for Asturian Friends

During our geography lessons our teacher, Mr. Smit , used a miniature house to teach us about scale. This little house was in fact a florist shop in Dicken's style, nicely illuminated and supplied with a musical box. As flowers are typical for Holland and Dickens could be associated with our bilingual lessons, we decided to send the house to our bilingual friends from IES Cuenca del Nalón. Fortunately our teacher went together with his wife to Asturias during the Christmas break, so he could hand it over to one of their teachers, Ms. Pilar Cuello Alonso. We realize that Spanish kids, unlike us, get their presents on January 5th, celebrating the arrival of the Three Wise Men, so this present with all our names on it will hopefully be on time or just a little bit late. We really thanks the students of our Spanish partnerschool for their contributions to our site and we look forward to meeting you many times again!! And if you would like to come over to Holland, we will arrange a homestay for you! As well as an interesting programme, among others to many more miniature buildings in Madurodam! !Hasta luego! Anna van Dijk (I made the pictures)

Happy New Year!!

The Hofstadgeographers and their editor Geo Stork wish our visitors all over the world a sound, prosperous and peaceful 2007! We hope to meeting you frequently in this blogsite! Keep us informed about your life and the things you are interested in. Please react on our contributions. Why not start a blogsite with your class so as we can react on your issues?! It is very, very easy and gives a lot of fun!! Greetings from The Hague, Holland.

Are you a game addict?

Then there is a gaming clinic now, opened by Keith Baker!Mr. Baker has opened a clinic in Amsterdam which helps addicts who have been under drugs or other things and he also helps game addicts from now on. When you come in you see a dog with just one eye (who has been tortured in youth) and then Keith Baker himself comes in and he draws a circle on a blackboard with arms and legs. He divides it in school, entertainment and family/friends. And he asks you what you do most at the moment. If you’re a true addict you’ll see that the whole circle is entertainment (gaming). Now the treatment will be things like paintball and going to the pub asking girls out on a date. He does so because he says that all the fun stuff you didn’t do in real life you must do here. Now the treatment isn’t cheap; it costs 500 euros a day! And since it’s not government funded you’ll have to pay yourself and as the treatment will last about 6 months that is a lot of cash. But when it’s done you can’t play any games at all which I think is pretty weird. But he says that people who can’t resist alcohol shouldn’t drink either.
Personally I think it’s a bit hard pushed to stop gaming
Jille Niang (13) T1B