Hellooooooooo Lewes!

Dear everyone,

After months and months of waiting, lots of 'see you in 5 weeks' and way too much packing stress, it was finally time to leave for a 5-week exchange to Lewes. Saturday afternoon, 5pm, Manon, my mother and I were finally heading to the airport to fly to Gatwick Airport from where we would take the train to Lewes. 

Around 8.15 pm (local time), we arrived at Lewes Train station, a very cute and tiny station which made me even more curious to the rest of Lewes!

We took a cab to the bed and breakfast where we would stay for our very first night in Lewes and after some trouble finding Garden Cottages we quickly got settled down and went into town for a quick dinner. Despite the three of us were very tired, we decided to have a nice walk along High Street (Lewes' main street). We passed many stores and cafes and were amazed by the cuteness of the village! When we got to Lewes Old Grammar School, also known as 'our soon-to-be school', we went back to Garden Cottages to have some sleep. We decided to wake up at 8 so we could be downstairs for breakfast at 8.45.

Sunday morning, at 8 o'clock (.......) my alarm went off. At around 8.20 (.......) I decided to get out of bed and while opening my suitcase, Manon woke up, looked at her phone and told me: "you know it's 7.20?" Not realizing she was saying 7.20 and thinking what she meant to say was "why. is. it. so. late. and. didn't. you. wake. me.?", I told her: "Yes, I know, sorry. You better get used to it, I'm always late" and quickly hurried to the bathroom, to come out 15 minutes later, feeling so dumb, asking Manon who obviously was still in bed: "Manon, is it seriously 7.35?!?!?!" I'm pretty sure you already know the answer, but just in case someone doesn't expect me to be so stupid, it was: "YES! HAHAHA" aiaiai, I forgot to change the time on my phone -___- (I did the moment I found out though J). After an hour of waiting, we had our first real English breakfast with eggs, sausages, bacon, tomato, toast and mushrooms. It was absolutely delicious!

After breakfast, around 9.45, we went to High street where we met up with Jop and his mother. While the two mothers went to have coffee at Caffee Nero, Jop, Manon and I randomly walked around for a while. We found a very cute market where they sold lots of different things, from second-hand televisions to eatable bones for dogs.

At 12 o’clock, we had an appointment with Mr. Blewitt, headmaster of Lewes Old Grammar School and Ms. Rosit, head of 12^th grade. They are both very nice and enthusiastic! Ms. De wolf came to LOGS as well. After introducing, they showed us around the incredibly cute and cozy school. LOGS is only a small school and the part of the school we go to, including senior school and sixth form only has about 350 students. Apparently, our year only has 38 students! I’m pretty sure everyone knows everyone! J

After a tour around the school and Mr. Blewitt showed us where to go tomorrow morning, I had lunch at Bill’s together with Ms. De Wolf, Jop and his mother, Manon and my mother.

After lunch, Jop and I had to say our final goodbyes to our moms and we went back to school from where Mr. Blewitt brought us to our first host family. For the first 6 days of our stay, Manon and I stay together at the house of Christine and her family. Christine and her husband Dominic have 4 children, 3 daughters and 1 son. The son and 2 daughters already moved out and the third daughter Rose still lives at home. Christine is chemistry teacher at LOGS and she will be my chemistry teacher as well!

Tonight, Jop and his host family and Ms. Rosin came over to have dinner with us. It was very nice and we had a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we will have our first school day at LOGS! All my Dutch friends and family have holiday this week, but I don’t care at all and I am incredibly excited for school!!!!!!! I seriously can’t remember the last time I was so excited for school and it sounds very, very weird, but….. it’s true! :D

Tomorrow, exchange will officially start and I will finally experience what I’ve dreamed about for so many times J

Xxxx <3