Our music department in high school was horrible. My freshman year, they were really trying to kill the music department, so they had hired someone who wasn't really qualified to teach choir, got a REALLY bad band teacher who was constantly telling us how we were all losers who would never amount to anything and our parents should be ashamed of us, and he wished he was back in his last job, etc...That was the one time my mom let me quit something. Band was zero hour, so I didn't need to take anything in its place in order to quit, so she didn't make me finish the year. But I guess at the last concert he yelled at the parents about how awful all of them were, and the parents should be ashamed, and these kids were worthless, etc. And then it was either the year BEFORE that, or the year AFTER that, that the band teacher got fired. She physically choked a student and then when they started investigating, they found a bunch of booze hidden in her office and such, so she was drinking on the job. The girl she choked was a friend of mine, and her mom was a subsitute teacher and happened to be in the school the day it happened. I wasn't in band that year. When the really good teacher quit, I didn't take band the next year. Then I tried it again my freshman year when we got the guy who told us we were losers. So I quit and never went back. But I guess this woman had told the kids not to put their instruments to their mouths yet, and one of the girls did it anyway, and she accidentally made a noise when she laughed, and the teacher thought it was my friend and went into a rage and actually choked her. The girl who had actually made the noise tried to stand up for her and say it was her, but the teacher didn't believe it. My friend was in tears and the other girl went and got the mom, who happened to be teaching that day, and my friend actually had finger marks on her neck. So the woman got fired, and then they found all the booze. But my freshman year, they had tried to manipulate the schedule to ensure most kids couldn't fit music into their schedules. There were only 5 people in choir. They put choir at the same time as some major class that was required. They tried to do that again my senior year...or at least they tried to keep me from being able to take choir. They put it at the same time as Calculus. But Calculus wasn't required. I had to take a math class, but I was in the advanced math program in which I took everything a year earlier and then senior year, I took Calc, but there was also Math Applications, which we called "bonehead math". It was stuff like calculating sales tax, multiplying fractions, doing basic story problems like "If the price of Peanuts is $3.50 a pound, and Walnuts are $4.50 a pound and you buy 1/2 pound of peanuts, and 1/4 pound of walnuts, how much do you pay in total?" I could have passed that in my sleep. And they put Physics at the same time as something else....I don't remember what, but there was also a bonehead science class senior year. Physics was also considered and advanced program class. So I coud have taken both the easy classes and met my requirements. They told me I couldn't do that, I had to take Calc and Physics, but we knew that wasn't true. There were 4 of us in Calculus and none of us could take the elective we wanted because they were all at the same time as Calc. So we told the school that they'd better change the schedule or there wouldn't be a calculus class at all. They insisted it was impossible to change, so the four of us looked at the schedule, figured out that if the other math teacher was willing to teach Calc, and the one teacher was willing to teach Algebra, and they switched their planning hours, that freed up all our electives. So we asked the teachers, and they agreed, and it was fixed within 15 minutes. The principal and the counselor were livid. They had only been trying to kill music, but the only way to do that was by keeping all the advanced students from taking their electives, and all of us were willing to give up the advanced classes if they refused to change the schedule....so either they did what we wanted, or they had no advanced students, which would make them look really bad. So they had to do it. My high school was really bad and the principal and the counselor were very much corrupt. I have SOOOOO many stories of stuff they pulled. But anyway, the music program was just awful because they were trying desperately to kill it, so they hired inept and abusive teachers, manipulated the schedule so that fewer kids could take band or choir, limited the budget so much that we couldn't really do anything....it was pretty bad.
They got three people arrested for the fire in Arnhem. You can see how much damage there was in this video right at the beginning.
And then I took this yesterday when I went there to take A to an open house type thing at a college there. I don't know what to call it....it was like....he got to go to the classes that students in that field (embedded systems) take in a day, as though he was a student there. Just to see what it's like, what the classes are like, meet some students and ask questions, etc. So then he can decide if he maybe wants to do that. He really enjoyed it, and he thinks he likes it better than he liked the VWO open houses we did in January and February, which makes me happy, because I wasn't sure I liked that option for him. I think this is better. He's still undecided and wants to look into more things, but he is pretty sure he doesn't want to do the VWO route, so that's good. (VWO is the highest level of school. Once you finish HAVO like he did, you can stream into VWO and then go on to university after that. But you can ALSO go to a junior college, get a lower level degree and THEN go to University if you want to, and there's a different mentality at a junior college than there is at a high school. He fits in better with adults than with high school students.) Anyway, while he was doing that, I went into town and went shopping because E needed some specific marker pens to write on test tubes and such and we were having problems finding them. Arnhem is a bigger city, so I knew I had a better chance of finding them there, and I did. And while I was there, I went ahead and walked over to see the damage. It's really sad, because almost ALL of our favorites, the reasons we go shopping in Arnhem, are in this block. The book store, the chocolate store, the Indian and Pakistani street food that intruduced us to Indian food, The Mexican restaurant, The Tapas restaurant....they are all closed now because of smoke and water damage, and also because they are in the buildings surrounding the one that burned, and the structure is unstable. They haven't even been able to let anyone in to even assess the damage, let alone fix it. This is where the SoLow was, it was also one of our favorites....it's a discounter that has everything from hair accessories to kitchen supplies, to party decorations, to halloween costumes, games, novelty items. It's just a really fun store. Thankfully, we have one in the town where we live, but this one that burned down was an XXL version, meaning they had a larger assortiment. Next to it was an Etos, which is basically like a CVS, I think....shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, over-the-counter meds, make-up, etc..., and then the Body Shop was there, too. The Dutch chain went bankrupt, so that store was closing anyway, but now I guess it closed sooner than expected. You can see the facades look fine, but as you can see from the video I posted above, there's nothing left of the inside of the buildings. They tore down the Solow because that was the worst one and it was dangerous, but even the shops across the street are closed off because they are worried that these structures could still fall. No one knows how long it will be before they can get someone in to decide what to do and to let the surrounding businesses get assessments and repairs.
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This one is from the side. I took it yesterday as well. You can see the chocolate shop on the right there, taped off just outside the barricade. And behind that is a sign with an ice cream cone and it says Trio. That's the Indian and Pakistani street food place. In the summer, they also serve ice cream, and then when it gets cooler, it's just the streetfood and bubble tea. And it's hard to see, but on the left, the first thing is Hijman Omgerijmed, and that's actually on a corner. There's another street behind that. That's the bookstore that's closed, and then there is the street, probably more of an alleyway really behind that. But because the fire was so close, all those buildings have smoke and water damage. They had to soak all the buildings to keep the fire from spreading across the streets. So everything in the block with the Solow is completely burned out....the facades are there, but there's nothing but ash behind them, and anything across the streets or alleyways is damaged, and also in danger if the one block collapses, so they can't open. Then beyond the Solow was a frozen yogurt place....that place was pretty new, too. And then the Etos, and then a Falafal place that had just barely opened, and then I think it might be the cross street with the restaurants. So all those places are behind barriers until they know more about the stability of the structure and what needs to be done. It was all historical buildings, too. I'm pretty sure that the Body Shop, the Yoyo (frozen yogurt), the Etos....I'm pretty sure that whole block is destroyed. That's what was in the drone footage. Not sure about the Falafal place, but I THINK it's probably gone, too. There might have even been one more thing next to it, I'm not sure. And then there were apartments above all those stores. I think they said 7-10 stores and 25-30 apartments that were completely destroyed.
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lol Keep the door closed and locked. Definitely look back at things you used to love doing before you got married and had kids and go back to that. I only read for my husband and myself and I am more accurate when I read cards for him. I think I struggle with being objective I read for myself.