Hi,

Welcome to my blog. I'm Ramon van Aert, fifteen years old and I live in a small town on a small island in the Netherlands: Maasdam. Because it's so small (1200 villagers), some people, especially friends of mine, believe it just doesn't exist. This is the place where I will write down what I've been doing the whole day. I don't think strangers like you are interested in my life, but when you want to read something about a boy from the Netherlands, you are at the right place! :)

9-6-2014:
Tomorrow my blog has to be finished. I have to have written 4000 words during this school year (2013-2014). In the beginning of the school year (september 2013) I thought of ways to make me think of writing on this blog. I wanted to avoid that I would not reach the 4000 words at the end of the school year, so I didn't want to start to late. I wanted to start early. Too early, I discovered. When you want to start early with something, you constantly think:' I will do it tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow, or the day after that day), I have no sense now and the deadline is still very far away.' This is the way I did it too (, unfortunately). But now, the day before my blog has to be finished, I'm desperately close to 4000 words. I'm at 3939  words now. I believe, when I have finished this paragraph, I will be far over 4000 words. At least, I hope so. I didn't expect it, but I sometimes I enjoyed writing on this blog.

8-6-2014:
Today is the men's final of Roland Garros. It's Rafael Nadal (from Spain) versus Novak Djokovic (from Serbia). I think the winner will be Rafael Nadal. He is not just for nothing called the 'King of clay'. To me, he is the best tennis player of the world at the moment. That is confirmed by the fact that he is the worlds number one right now. An incredible fact about Rafael Nadal is that he won 8 of the last 9 Roland Garros tournaments. This means that he has just lost one match at Roland Garros in the last 9 years. Only one match in 9 years. This means that he has won 66 matches and lost just one single match. The match he lost was in 2009 against Robin Söderling (from Sweden) in the fourth round of the tournament. Can you even imagine this? You're qualified for a tournament and when you have to play a match, you actually already know what is going to happen. Because you actually already know that you are going to win it. Rafael Nadal has to play well, if he wants to win. Of course he has to, but just trying to perform well is actually not an issue for him anymore. He can almost be sure that he is going to win the match. And he doesn't care if he plays against a qualifier or against Novak Djokovic, because he knows he is much better. 66 matches won and only 1 lost. Incredible. For these reasons, I think Rafael Nadal is the best tennis player of the world at the moment.

Report of the match:
4.00 pm : Novak Djokovic wins the first set with 6-3. He broke Rafael Nadal once (in the eighth game of the set). Djokovic leads with 1 set to 0.
5.05 pm : Rafael Nadal wins the second set with 7-5. He broke Novak Djokovic twice (in the sixth and the twelfth game of the set). Novak Djokovic broke back once, so in fact, Rafael Nadal had just one break and so he won the set with 7-5. It's 1-1 in sets now.
Rafael Nadal just doesn't stop. He started playing very well in the second set and he continues doing that. It's 4-1 for Rafa in the third set. Actually, it's not only Nadal who plays well and deserves the points, but Djokovic is making more mistakes during this set. He started playing worse in the second set and this set he didn't start well too. Maybe he saves his energy for the fourth (and maybe fifth) set. Then he can start again and maybe win the set, because this one is as good as lost, actually.
5.50 pm : Rafael Nadal wins the third set with 6-2. Novak Djokovic is playing very bad. There are way too much errors in his play. If he still wants to win the match, he needs to focus very quickly. Otherwise, Nadal will keep going. Then he wins the fourth set and it's all over. I hope Nadal will win the match, but when you don't have a preference for one of the players, it should be nice if Djokovic wins the fourth set. The player who wins the fifth set, will be the champion of Roland Garros.
6.45 pm : Rafael Nadal wins the match! He wins Roland Garros! He wins this tournament for the ninth time in ten years! Unbelievable! He played such a good match! He deserved to win today, because he was much better than Novak Djokovic. Although Nadal won the match (today), I have respect for Djokovic. He started fighting for the match in the beginning of the fourth set. He didn't make many errors anymore and started playing better, but he still didn't play better than Nadal today. I think, Nadal played so well and made such beautiful points that no one could have beaten him today. Even when there were two Djokovic' on the other side of the net, Nadal would have won the match. He just played so incredibly well. Respect to Rafa!

26-5-2014:
It's a very long time since I last wrote something on my blog. I just didn't know what to write or I just thought 'well, I will do it later', but I didn't. Actually, I did it, but much later than I had expected. But now I have a few things I can tell you something about. Firstly, my favourite football club Feyenoord ended the season with a second place. Ajax has become the champion (for the fourth time in a row). Overall, Alax was the best team this season, so I think they deserve this championship. Congratulations!
Secondly I want to tell you something about the school trip I've made last week. I went to Berlin, together with 46 other students and three teachers. Everyone who learns French in the fourth year of our school, went to Paris. Everyone who learns German in the fourth year of our school, went to Berlin. And last but not least, everyone who doesn't learn one of those languages, went to London. I went to Berlin, because I learn the German language. It was a very nice trip. Monday morning, we left Dordrecht at 8.30 am. Actually, we left Dordrecht at 9.00 am, because a girl forgot her passport. It was a long travel to Berlin. 11 (!) hours in the bus. To pass the time, we played some (card) games and we also slept a lot. I think sleeping is the best way of travelling. You actually fall asleep and when you wake up, you reached your destination. Great, isn't it?
When we arrived around 7 pm in Berlin, we ate something in our hotel. For us, the hotel was good enough. It wasn't a very luxurious hotel, but the rooms were clean and pretty new. The only thing we didn't like, was that the rooms were very small for five people. After we had had dinner, we made a walk through the area of the hotel and then we went to bed. The hotel was situated in a suburb of Berlin. It took fifteen minutes to reach the centre of the city (by bus). The area of our hotel was very basic, actually. Just a few shops (two supermarkets and a chinese restaurant). There were many typical GDR (German Democratic Republic or East Germany) houses. These houses were quickly built, to house many people. By the devastations caused by World War II there weren't enough houses. Straight, concrete buildings. Usually four floors. A few hundred metres from our hotel was the old Stasigefängnis Hohenschönhausen. We visited it Wednesday. The end of the first day has come. Around 0.30 am we went to bed, after we had been socializing the whole evening. After dinner, we got back to our room around 8 pm. Then we unpacked our luggage and we went to another room. The room of friends of us.
Our first day in Berlin has come! We had to wake up at 7.00 o'clock (and just believe me, that's very early, when you go to bed around 0.30 am...). We had breakfast around 7.30 am and around 8.30 am we left the hotel to discover the city by bus. In the morning, we had a sightseeing tour to explore the city and in the afternoon, we got some leisure. The bus brought us to the city centre, where we had 4 (!) hours to do whatever we wanted. Great! David, Damian, Duncan and I decided to go to the Potsdamer platz, an important public square in the centre of Berlin (with a lot of shops and restaurants). There we bought some presents for our families and after that, we went to a restaurant to drink something. The weather was nice and this afternoon was one of the greatest things of the whole journey. Sitting in the sun on a terrace at one of the most beautiful and busy squares of Berlin, with some drinks, some friends. Do you want something more? We all enjoyed this afternoon pretty much! :)
Around 7 pm we arrived at the world clock, a huge clock at the Potsdamer Platz where you can check the time in other cities all over the world. When everyone arrived, we walked to a restaurant in the centre of Berlin. We got very nice food (mixed vegetables, salted potatoes and a nice piece of meat) and when we were all done, we went back to the hotel by tram. In the hotel we got some leisure again. We did, what we actually did every evening; socializing. This time we stayed inside, because we were very tired. We walked a lot that day and it was still very hot, so we didn't want to go outside again. We went to the room of some friends of us to play some card games and watch some tv together. The German football club HSV played that evening. David and I love football, so we watched that match. Around 11.30 pm, we went back to our own room. Our friends already slept , so we needed to be very quiet. Unfortunately, we weren't quiet enough and they all woke up. Firstly, they were a bit angry, because they were frightened by the fact of two strange men in their room around 11.30 pm, but when they discovered the strange men were David and I, we all couldn't stop laughing for minutes and everyone was awake (again) :p
The rest of the week we visited several museums ( for example the 'Jüdisches Museum' and 'Das Neues Museum'). We also visited the Jewish Monument in the centre of Berlin and we visited the neighbouring city Potsdam. There we visited 'Schloss Sanssouci', which means 'without worries' and 'Das Neues Palais'. After the cultural part of the day, which I described earlier, the bus brought us to the city centre, where we got some more spare time. We bought ourselves some delicious icecreams. We deserved it, after a long walk (especially in the sun) through the beautiful gardens of 'Schloss Sanssouci'. That day the temperature was around 32 degrees Celsius. Pretty hot! We got back to the bus around 6.30 pm. The bus brought us back to the centre of Berlin. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in the party area of Berlin. After dinner, I played some football with some friends in the park in front of the restaurant.
Last night, no one fell asleep very fast, so actually almost everyone decided to go to other rooms to talk about the journey with their friends. When I'm writing this, I want to go back actually.

Overall, our trip to Berlin was awesome! The ambiance was great! I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed the trip. Good hotel, nice trips, a 'holiday' with friends! It actually just felt like a holiday! Strange? No, just as it belongs to be when you go abroad with your school! Awesome!

1-4-2014
Hi! I've been very busy today. I've made two tests this morning. Bye!

28-1-2014
Hello. Here I am again! I have to write something here, but I do absolutely not know what. Today hasn't been a very special day with a lot of excitement or something...
I've had two tests today. Physics and Latin. They both weren't very easy, so I think I do not have a very good mark. Actually, this isn't a big problem for me, because my marks are pretty good till now.

25-1-2014:
Im frustrated. Very frustrated. Last wednesday Ajax beat Feyenoord at a "KNVB-beker" match. The score was 3-1, but Feyenoord played pretty well, so I had a lot of confidence for the match of today. Feyenoord played against ADO Den Haag; not a very good team and the number last in the Dutch "Eredivisie", the highest competition for professional soccer in the Netherlands. Guess what?
Yes. Feyenoord lost the match against ADO. They played bad, very bad. Probably, this match was the worst one of the last three months. ADO scored twice in the first half. Feyenoord didn't score, but they played better than ADO (they still played very bad actually, but better than ADO). In the second half, Feyenoord played better again and they scored two goals. They scored in the 67th and the 73th minute. Unfortunately, ADO scored two minutes later. Feyenoord didn't have the power to repair this. So, unless their good performance, Feyenoord didn't win the match.
Before this match, they were 4th in the Dutch "Eredivisie". Their competitors must still play, but I think they will easily get a few points. It's just frustrating that Feyenoord didn't win this match (and others too), because they often play well but still lose the match. In this way, they will (unfortunately) not be the champions at the end of the season.


21-1-2014
A new week has started. I'm not very busy this week, but next week I've got to do a lot of things. Tuesday I will be having two tests. Two tests of Latin. It sounds horrible, but actually it's pretty nice, because I just have to learn one time instead of two. Thursday I will be having one test of physics. I'm not very good at physics, so I've got to learn a lot to get a good mark. After the test we will immediately go to Rotterdam. We will go by train. We go to Rotterdam, because the teachers of biology have organised a trip to Blijdorp. Blijdorp is a big zoo in Rotterdam. There are a lot of nice animals and the zoo has it's own "Oceanium"; a large fish tank with a lot of sharks and other dangerous, special fishes. They also have a very nice playground, designed for children. This trip is going to be very nice!

14-1-2014
Today was a normal day at school. Boring as always. I gave a German presentation during the 3th hour together with David and Roderick. David and I prepared well, but Roderick didn't learn anything of his whole (prepared ?) text. he started reading and talking and in less than two seconds the teacher told him to stop. He could only continue our presentation if he stopped reading from his paper. It was an easy choice for him, because he wouldn't let his problem destroy our whole presentation. So he continued our presentation without his paper. David and I had learnt much better so it was an easy task for us. We both got a 7.5 and we were pretty pleased. Unfortunately, Roderick got a very bad mark. Our teacher, mr. van Beek, didn't exactly know his mark, but he just knew that it won't be higher than a 4.

7-1-2014
Guess what??? Yes. It's true. I forgot to write on my blog. But I am back. Again.
I've had a very nice holiday. At Christmas Eve I got a lot of nice presents and with New Year we had some very nice fireworks. Now school has begun. Start crying! A lot.

3-12-2013
Hand in hand, kameraden. Hand in hand voor Feyenoord 1. Geen woorden maar daden. Leve Feyenoord 1 !!!
This is a small part of the most famous song of my favourite soccer club: Feyenoord. They played a great match last sunday and beated PSV with clear marks:
Feyenoord-PSV : 3-1
Adam Maher scored a beuatiful goal in the 22th minute. He is a great player and just 20 years old. He deserves a big transfer when he continues this way of playing. I think, he plays for a big Premier League-club next season. Liverpool should be a good club for him, I think. Back to the match.
In the 44th minute the other big talent on the field showed his qualities. Jean-Paul Boetius is his name. Great player too. The same as Adam Maher, he is considered to be one of the biggest European talents nowadays. Boetius is just 19 years old. I think he should have to wait a few years before moving to a bigger club, because of his age and experiences.
Half-time arrived and the players rested a bit. They just haven't played for ten minutes, when Feyenoord scored the second goal. Graziano Pelle, thé big player and great striker of Feyenoord, scored a penalty.

28-10-2013
It's a long time ago, when I last wrote something on my blog. But I am back! Back of being lost (for 26 days) ! :p
Today was one of the last days of this holiday, according to the normal holiday schedule of my school. Wednesday will be my first day at school after such a nice holiday. I've been looking forward to this Wednesday, because we (the students of the Johan De Witt-Gymnasium) will be seeing the "new" building of our school. A lot of workers have been rebuilding the building for about three years and by now the building should be ready to be used as a school again. From the outside it looks great, but how does it look inside? No one knows.
Unfortunately, my diary is full of tests for the last two days of this week. Thursday I will be having a Biology test about chapter 1 and 2, a German test about a lot of words (10 (!) pages) and a math test. Friday I will be having an English test about the first two chapters of the book. So unfortunately, I'm very busy the last days of my holiday.
Around 5 pm my mother called me to come and look what she had for me on her computer. I was very surprised, because I hadn't done something wrong or anything else, so I didn't know what was going to happen. She said to me that mr. de Hoon (an employee of my school) had sent an email to us. I read the email and I was so unbelievably happy, because in the email I read that our school wasn't totally ready to be used again. The finishing touch lasted two days longer than expected before. Now I will be having an introduction on the coming Friday (instead of Wednesday) and all my tests are cancelled! I'm so unbelievably happy! :)
So my holday lasts two days longer and all my tests are cancelled. A lot of thanks to the construction workers and good night everybody! :)

2-10-2013
Today was another boring school day. We had gymnastics the first two hours. Exciting! Pfff... Tomorrow we will be having a test of physics. I don't like this chapter. It's about speed and distance and other boring stuff I am not interested in...

15-9-2013
This week was a very strange week for me. Firstly, yesterday was my birthday. 15 years already! Life flies by. My parents surprised me. They bought me one of the greatest things in the world. They bought me a Feyenoord outfit. Feyenoord is my favorite soccer club of the Netherlands. I was (and I am still) very pleased with it. Secondly, the veterinarian discovered that my cat was having kidney cancer. We were all shocked. This discovery was on Monday the 9th of September. Our cat finally died on Wednesday the 11th of September. Rest in peace, Floey. We will never forget you !

8-9-2013
Yesterday evening Sven, David and I had our birthday party. It was a very nice party. All our friend celebrated our birthday with us. Very nice. We had a huge party tent, speakers (and so, we had nice music) and some wonderful disco lights. It was just a very nice party. The day before the party, David and his mom went to the supermarket to buy alle the food and drinks for our party. They bought more than enough. Some hamburgers, chips, cola, jillz, some cheese and sausages. I think half of what we bought was left, but we didn't care much. Our party was awesome! When all our friends had arrived, we started the barbecue. Together, we ate something and after that, we celebrated our birthday. We played some games, we danced, some crazy friends of us discovered the trampoline (they jumped on it the whole evening and probably slept on it). Actually, that evening and night we did too much to describe (I forgot a lot actually). Our friends bought us some very nice presents. Some girls bought us some juwelry, for example. I got a very nice silver bracelet. I don't wear it often actually, because I just don't like jewelry. The only thing I wear is a watch. I wear my watch every day, because I think it is very useful. I do absolutely not understand why people like some bling bling around their neck, their wrists and in (!) their ears. In fact, it's really strange. There's shot a hole in your ear and then you can put some silver or gold in it. Nice?! I don't like all this bling bling. It has no function, so why do you wear it? The only thing juwelry does, is being extremely expensive. Golden earrings of 300 euros? If you want to wear it, it's ok for me. I don't care actually. But you will never see me buying something, which is useless in my eyes, for 300 euros. Now I'm finished with my case against jewelry. I hope I was not too unkind... Bye!

4-9-2013
Today was the first day of school after a long, but nice holiday. We (me, my parents and my little sister) went to Italy for three weeks. We stood on a campsite situated on a beautiful hill in Tuscany. Every morning my father and I walked to the bakery not far from our mobile home to take some delicious Italian bread. But sometimes I just did not have the motivation to get out of my bed, because I hadn't slept well or something. Then my sister went to the bakery with my father. When we were finished with our breakfast, we immediately went to the swimming pool. Around 1 pm we went back to our mobile home to eat some delicious Italian food. In the afternoon we often visited small medieval villages, but sometimes very big modern cities too. Back to reality......

Today it was kind of weird to go into a classroom with a whole different class. Every hour new classmates. Every hour a "new" class actually. The students in the fourth year, including me, need to get used to this new situation.