Well, it sounds like we basically did exactly what you do for your mac n cheese...I guess we're just not homemade mac n cheese people. We did a roux, added milk and cream (there is no distinction between creams here...it's all just cream.) Then we put in 2 cups of cheddar, 2 cups of gruyere, 1 cup of emmantaler, and 1 cup of gouda. (those were the kinds I could get here) Once it was all mixed and creamy, we added the pasta, then put half in the baking dish, sprinkled the last 2 cups of the cheese mixture over, then added the other half of the pasta/cheese sauce, and we did do a bread crumb with parmesan on top, and baked it. But it just doesn't have a good flavor and it was still really pasty rather than smooth and creamy. So I guess we just aren't homemade mac n cheese people. My husband and my son won't touch mac n cheese in any form anyway. But we were really disappointed because it took us SOOOOO long to grate all that cheese, and make the sauce all creamy before adding in the cheese....we spent almost an hour on prep time with two of us, before it even went into the oven. And then we didn't like it. Oh well....at least now we know, and we will just have to see if we can order some online. There's a company where you can order and they'll import it here. And my best friend is supposedly sending us some. But we tried. My daughter feels bad because she thinks she did something wrong. She made the roux, and added the cream and stuff, and she asked me "Is this what it's supposed to look like??" I said yes, and then we had to turn down the heat so it wouldn't scald before I got all the cheese mixed and she thinks maybe she scalded it before we got it onto the lower heat. I'm sure she didn't do anything wrong...it's just we can't get American cheese here, and what we get just isn't what we like.
Our school goes into July. Last year, our last school day was July 19th. This year, it's the 17th. That's why they still have vacation now. They are talking about opening schools back up, but some are pushing for high schools to stay closed longer because high school kids tend to cover more area. They come from farther away, they get together with friends and hang out, they sometimes have projects for which they have to leave the schoolgrounds. So they are more likely to spread the virus. There's a press conference with the PM every Tuesday and they are supposed to announce at tomorrow's what the plan is for opening things back up.
The vaccination went well. We had an hour window in which to show up. We were there about 10 minutes early, there was no one else there, so we were in, out, and on our way back home before her official window opened. We're only about 7 minutes by bike away from where they were doing the vaccinations. She said it didn't really hurt, and so far she's fine. But they only have to have 1....you mentioned a first round, but the only one my daughter had 2 rounds of was the HPV. This one was for meningitis, and that was her last vaccine, so now she's done!
One thing about schools over here is that it's all the standards, and that's it. Nothing alternative. Like, I remember when I was in high school, my school was tiny, so we also only had the classic subjects, but the high school in the next town over had things like Psychology, philosophy, or they had poetry for an English credit, and I think sports may have been considered a PE. Ours weren't. We had the classic Math, Science, English, social Studies, but it was a set class for each year and there was no variation. The only exception was that if you were in advanced math, you skipped 8th grade math and went directly to Algebra in 8th grade, then geometry in 9th, Algebra II in 10th, Trigonometry/Pre calc in 11th, and Calculus as a senior. So you just moved everything up a year and then did Calc as a senior, and some seniors had "bonehead math" which was the basics like percentages and word problems. There were only 5 of us in my Calc class, I was the only girl, and 2 of the boys were not even from our school. One was an exchange student and the other was bused in from the next town over to reduce their overcrowding problem. So we really didn't have anything special. And here, it's all the classic subjects. My daughter, as an 8th grader, has Physics, Math, English, German, French, Dutch, Religion and culture, Geography, History, Art, Music, PE, Research and Design Technology.....I think there's maybe one more. Next year she has all that plus biology and economics, I think? and chemistry. But PE is the standard PE stuff...no dance, and since there are no school sports, none of that counts. DD is a clutz like me, so PE is not her friend. But research and writing, that she's really good at, so the theoretical side of PE is much easier. She was SO happy with her A!
