Last weekend Rene and I went on a golf trip with some of the other teachers from my school. We got a ride down there on Saturday morning with my boss, John, and his wife Christine. On the way there we stopped off at Waterloo (it was really close to where we went), and saw the fields were Napoleon was defeated. The golf club itself was absolutely beautiful, the weather was gorgeous, and the hotel/golf club was an old farm house. Click here to see their website- they have better pictures than we took!
In the afternoon we had a golf lesson, since Rene and I have no idea how to play golf. We thought there would be more people there who wanted to get away for the weekend and wanted to take advantage of the school paying for most of the trip! However, it turned out that only one woman signed up for the class, and that wasn't even until after she had arrived! So Rene, Caroline, and I got a private golf lesson with a Belgian guy named . . . well, we're not really sure. I thought his name was Guillaume, but it wasn't! His real name was too hard to remember or pronounce, though, so we just referred to him as Guillaume for the rest of the weekend!!
We had a lot of fun learning how to stand, hold the golf club (it's like holding a baby chicken, Guillaume said, and you can't squeeze the chick to death!), swing (don't try to hurt the ball!), and putt. Turns out I'm a pretty good putter, but a terrible swinger, and Rene is good at sending the ball far but awful at putting! In any case, we had a mini competition putting, and then went to the 3-par 5-hole course to try out our golf swings. We were really quite awful, to be honest, but after we did the course a second time, we started to get a little better!
We met up with all the real golfers after their 18 holes for drinks on the golf club terrace, and then went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner. Boy, was dinner interesting! The food was nice, and everyone got to pick out prizes for their teams coming in first, second, etc. They even asked us who came in first, second, and third in the putting competition and on the 3-par course, and it turned out that I had won! Amazing, I know, but even though Rene could get to the green a lot faster than me, I'd catch up because he'd be putting back and forth across the hole! And I got the best prize of the night- a tin plate that has all the names of the "best improved golfer" (the person who wins the competitions in the clinic) from the past three years. The plate is getting my name engraved on it as we speak, and then John wants to hang it up in the music department office because he won it three years ago and is ecstatic that another music teacher has won it! Of course, I have to give it back next year, but I still think it's the best prize!
The really interesting part of the evening was when everyone started singing old English folk songs! It got a bit rowdy in there (never thought teachers could be so raucous), and it went pretty late, so when they moved from the dining room to the bar Rene and I decided it was time for bed!
The next morning we got up early to head to Boxmeer because Rene's family reunion was on Sunday. John drove us to the train station and 4.5 hours and four trains later we were in Boxmeer. The family reunion was interesting- I was sooooooo tired from the traveling and the golf that I wasn't a very good girl and didn't make much of an effort meet all of Rene's cousins. A couple of them talked to me for a bit, but for the most part I just hid outside with Rene and his parents to avoid all the awkward silence and staring at each other. Next year I promise to do a better job learning who everyone is and talking to them. And hopefully by then I won't be so self-conscious about speaking in Dutch. I still get really nervous talking to anyone other than Rene!
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