Tales from Dutch class

So, I wanted to expand a little bit more on my Dutch class. We have a very diverse class, which always makes for interesting stories. There is one other American girl, who is 20 and  here for a semester abroad. We have people from India, Indoneisa, Thailand, Nepal, Singapore, France, Nigeria, Somalia, Jordan, and Iraq. There is also one person from a country I had never heard of.  The first day of class, we went around and siad who we were, where we were from and why we were taking the class. When this classmate said where he was from, I was sure that maybe I just didnt' understand because of his accent. But then later, the teacher passed out a piece of paper with all of our nationalities on it and I still didn't recognize the country!!  Eritrea anybody?? Has anyone heard of that? Apparently it's a small country in the horn of Africa. See, I had already learned something new!! Everyone is really nice, although I have had a problem with a girl who sits a few seats away, who talks incessantly. I mean, she is talking when the teacher is talking, giving all the answers, reading outloud when someone else is reading, etc. I thought I was going to go crazy that first week. She is married to a Dutchman so she already has a good understanding of Dutch, hence her answering everything. It was really touch and go there for awhile but now that we are getting to harder things, she has quieted down considerably.
A few highlights of my class so far have included the following:

1. I made chocolate chip cookies for the entire class the other day. They were a big hit! You can't go wrong with cookies.
2. That same day, I fell out of my chair and onto the floor during class. Yes, it is true. We have rolling chairs and I was sitting on the edge of it and I leaned forward to hand someone something and it rolled back, I fell down and also knocked someone's coffee over. My shoulder is still sore. That was not a good day for me.
3. We were discussing family tree's, in an attempt to learn the Dutch names of different family members. The teacher appeared like he was done discussing the tree but had not talked about the words for step-people. So I asked him about it and was reminded that divorce is not as prevalent in other parts of the world. I don't think half the class understood what a step-sibling was and possibly thought that my mom had two husbands. 4. Sometimes the teacher will defer to me and the American girl to confirm English phrases. For example, he might be trying to compare something in Dutch with English and he'll say, "In English you would say this.." I feel not so good". Uhh...actually no, we don't say that in English. Sometimes we'll correct him, other times we just nod our head sheepishly.

Overall, it's a fun class with a good group of people. It is very frustrating at times and I'd be lying if I said tears never welled up in frustration but I do feel like I'm learning and I feel like I'm making progress! Now I just need some friends to practice with!!