You know you're a student when . . .

* You consider your sock supply (as a female student, anyway);
* On entering most any sort of store, you're drawn to the school supplies;
* Your weekend is free of errands, having had the time to do them during the week;
* You haven't carried a purse in months;
* You own an etui (case for pencils, pens and essential highlighter);
* Most women's shoes make you laugh;
* You haven't taken a taxi since you left Washington, D.C. (except on Day 1, from the airport, when your two bags each exceeded the weight limit, and there was no question of being able to hoist them onto the train at Schiphol, and then getting them to the realty office to collect your house keys);
* You arrange your office supplies at home;
* You wouldn't dream of missing a homework deadline;
* You attempt reading your Dutch newspaper ("De Volkskrant") and are excited when a familiar verb appears, even moreso if it's in this week's vocabulary list; and
* You wax philosophical about all manner of things, having the energy and time to think about things.

I do think that university is wasted on most young. Having an adult perspective is a wonderful thing. Being able to talk a little about Rembrandt with my art history teacher (whose Ph.D. topic was the Haarlem art market in the 17th century) was satisfying. I asked her if it were known why he painted so many self-portraits. We chat about a variety of things.

My faculty (4.5 of them; the .5 refers to a course that lectures on different aspects of life in Holland each week, so a different speaker each week) so far is a treat. My art history teacher also teaches the writing and grammar class. She lives in The Hague, writes a lot of book reviews and speaks the best English (British). She's a sweetie who brooks no nonsense. Tuesday's grammar teacher (MA) coordinates the whole Dutch Studies program, so has her finger on the pulse of everything. She's younger, taller, very slim, hip, has two small daughters, takes biking holidays (like biking to Provence, complete with camping gear and towing two small children behind the bikes, with her partner, who writes and designs forms; interesting man, from his web site, anyway). "Partner" here includes anyone who co-habits, be they M, F, S, G, B, T or anything else. Marriage seems to be the exception rather than the rule. And even married people seem not to wear rings, often. BIG change from the 70s, when I lived here before. We have no classes Wednesdays, but will have something next term. Thursday's language analysis class is taught by a delightful woman (Ph.D.) who's one of the national authorities on grammar theory; she wrote our class book. I felt fairly confident of my grammatical knowledge and understanding of theory, but in Dutch, things can be completely different, so often English grammar almost hinders. This class has several students who are categorized as "instreamers", meaning that they've entered the degree program more or less at the second year, but take some first-year courses. At first, I wanted to be in this group, but would not have survived. They do the work of the second years, as well as three of our courses. They include a Norwegian, Hungarian, Spaniard, and three ladies from what used to be Yugoslavia. I cannot keep the new names straight (Slovenia, Slovakia, and one more). Their native languages are fairly different from each other. One is blonde and pink, one brunette and olive-skinned, and one fair and brunette. The silent male Hungarian ("Norbert") is the best of the instreamers. Friday's "Speaking and Listening" teacher is our only male this semester, a charming man who makes us laugh, tow the line and is the only one who corrects our accent and verbal syntax. In my view, the first-year program needs a lot more of this (I should mention it). His Ph.D. concerned 19th century Dutch literature. Friday afternoon's "Introduction to Dutch Studies" lecture topics have included:

* How do they manage to live below sea level?
* Do Dutch words exist (history of Dutch vocabulary)
* Second language acquisition research (very interesting; my particular case -- no use at all of Dutch for a 30-year period, but it sprang back, fluently, is the opposite of what's called "fossilization", or language ability that freezes at a certain age and stays at the level of the freeze)
* Dutch literature (oddly, there was very little, over the ages)
* Are the Dutch Calvinists?
* How did the Netherlands become multicultural?

Not all of these has been compelling, but it's also been a nice introduction to the other faculty. This class's students includes a large number of transfer students, Dutch-semester-abroad students and others and is given in English. The only consistent error I've noticed is the use of "to learn" for both teaching and learning, which is a common Dutch bloop in English.

Next Friday, the faculty is giving a holiday party, supplying the drinks. We students (probably over 30 of us) are to bring a national winter holiday dish, and I've no idea what's American any more. That and my oven having no fixed temperature rules out baked goods. Maybe the salmon mousse, if it can stay chilled.

Off to this week's vocabulary, "Politics" and "New Media". The thought of having learned over 2,000 new words (not that I've retained all of them) in 3.5 months is amazing. Very hard to believe.