Kerstgala!

Finally, Kerstvakantie is here! Meaning that Christmas is less than four days away, New Years is soon...and that I can sleep in every day! After school, in celebration of having our last school day in 2012, Beau, Maartje, Pascale and I went to Fiona's house and watched Sex and the City (the movie)! Het was erg gezellig.

   Wednesday was the Kerstgala! My school (Wolfert Lyceum) rented out Sarbone again, the same club in Rotterdam that the Halloween party was held at. Beforehand, I got ready at Beau's house with Pascale, Fiona, Maartje and Beau. From about five in the afternoon until ten, we  were all putting on makeup, painting our nails, doing our hair, dressing, taking pictures, etc.

The party was SO much fun. Similar to "Winterball" in America, all the girls wore formal dresses and had their hair all done up, and many guys wore suits or a nice shirt. For the first hour that we were there, it was very crowded, until at 11:30pm the younger classes had to leave. After those few hundred kids (or so it seemed) left, it was a lot more spacious! The whole night was one to remember, I didn't want it to come to an end at two! However, going back to Beau's house for the night was fun, and funny...we must have stayed up until 3:30 or 4 just talking and laughing. School didn't start until 11am for us the next day though! Nonetheless I was still exhausted the next morning, but luckily I only had three classes for the day.

I'm really looking forward to this Christmas break! I have so many things to look forward to...

-Christmas, of course! Katharina (my older host sister) and her sister from Germany will also be spending Christmas here, which I think will be great! Communication with her sister might be tricky however...I speak no German, she speaks no Dutch- but some English! So we'll so how that goes. Both Christmas evening and the next evening we have 5-course meals, two of those courses I must help prepare! Looking forward to it all...and the exchange of presents with the whole family too! I think it will be a very cheerful, family oriented 24 hours! I'm interested to see just quite how it's celebrated here. So far, I think I like the Sinterklaas gift exchange better, so much more thoughtful. But we shall see!

-New Years Eve! Katharina will also come, along with close family friends. We'll play games, eat good food, set off fireworks and such! Then at midnight I will go with Fiona, Beau, Pascale and Maartje to a big party in my town. Spending the night at Pascale's afterwards!

-The New Years Dive! The next morning we'll go to a popular beach in Den Hague (Scheveningen), and jump into the freezing water along with over 10,000 other people!

-Alaine; on January 2nd, I will go to Amsterdam to meet up with Alaine Miller, a friend from Homer who has been studying in Germany and is traveling to Amsterdam for a few days with friends!

-Skating in Amsterdam! On January 6th, I will go to Amsterdam again to go skating on the canals with other AFSers in my region.

-Shopping; at some point I hope to hit the after-Christmas sales (:

Unfortunately I also have a bit of work to do...I must write a 500 word essay (in Dutch) for my Nederlands class, describing the difference in school systems from here and back home. For maatschipijleer I must write an essay describing the difference in political structure/elections between Holland and America. For IB Engels I must also complete a writing task regarding a book we've recently read...and I'll have to study for my math test! Hopefully I'll have time to fit all of this is...

For now though, SLEEP!

-Molly

Deventer, Sinterklaas, shopping!

A few weekends ago I visited Marlo, in Deventer! It was so interesting to see how a different family in Holland functions, as opposed to my own here! Her Host Family lives right in the center of Deventer, meaning if you walk outside the building you see the bars, restaurants, shopping, etc., and on Saturday looking out her living room window I could see Deventer's market! I think her location is very...convenient. Especially when going out! Deventer itself was such a cute old town, with the "gezellig" feeling of a small town, when in reality it isn't one.

Friday night Marlo and I went out to one of Deventer's local bars, and it was so great catching up with her! Many, well most, of the feelings, experiences, frustrations, realizations that we've both been going through here on exchange seem almost the same. So that was nice, to be able to relate to each other. Saturday we went out to breakfast at Bagels&Beans, and spent the rest of the day shopping and wandering the streets of Deventer. Later we went with her host family to go pick out which puppy they are going to adopt! So that was definitely a highlight as well. The whole weekend was a blast! Loved seeing a totally different part of Holland as well.

Two weeks ago I went to Papendrecht to a house of one of the AFS volunteer's, with all the other AFS kids in my region! Here we had a Sinterklaas celebration of our own, where we exchanged cadeaus, gedichten, and surprises! I got Belgian Hot Chocolate, a make-up bag, lip gloss and a bracelet in my surprise. My surprise was of course, an Igloo! I had to do the same for an AFSer (we knew in advance to whom we had to make something for) and I got Erica, a girl from Italy. So I made a typical Dutch house, filled with Spaghetti noodles! This was my attempt at combining cultures...she had to dig for her cadeau (present), which were owl earrings and a chocolate letter. The picture on the left here is of Erica with the surprise I made her, next to Isa (who made the igloo for me)! The photo below is of everyone together, with a Zwarte Piet (black pete)!

The whole celebration was so much fun, we ate lots of papernoten (specific mini-cookies eaten around Sinterklaas) and Speculaas treats.
The actual date of Sinterklaas was yesterday, December 5th. What is Sinterklaas anyways? Well, I hadn't heard of it either before I came here....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas
that sums it up quite well. For my Host family, weeks before Sinterklaas names are drawn. This year, I drew Renee. This means that I had to buy a present for her (cadeau), craft a surprise that contained the present, and write a gedicht (poem "from" Sinterklaas, which often teases a bit, and hints at the cadeau and surprise). The surprise, cadeau and gedicht must be personal also. Every family member wrote a 'wish-list' to help "Sinterklaas" get them a cadeau. So I looked at Renee's list, which contained certain art kits, books, etc. For her surprise, I crafted a Clothing Store because she wants to have own of her own when she's older.

Above is her surprise I made (I stole a few of her Barbie's clothes and accessories...). The large green box is her actual cadeau wrapped. I bought her a Paint-By-Numbers kit, with an orange cat pawing in a fish bowl. We have an orange cat here named Falkor, who is always doing this at home...so it was sort of an inside joke!

Here is the gedicht I wrote her:
Lieve Renee,

Elke dag Sinterklaas dacht wat hij zou moeten krijgen voor Renee
eindelijk kwam hij met het perfecte idee...

Maar ben je al een goed meisje elke dag?
met jongens je hebt verdacht gedrag...

Sinterklaas denkt nog steeds dat je leuk geweest zijn!
en hij herinnert u wilt uw eigen kledinglijn!

Met dit idee weet hij precies wat te leveren aan,
en Zwarte Piet helpt hem met zijn baan.

Je cadeau komt me bekend voor...
het deed Sinterklaas denken aan Falkor!

Heel veel groetjes,
Sint en Piet

The gedicht must rhyme (AA,BB format) which was SO HARD for me. It must have taken me hours. The basic translation is:
Dear Renee,
Every day Sinterklaas thought what he should get for Renee
finally he came up with the perfect idea ...
But have you been a good girl every day?
with boys you have suspicious behavior ...
Sinterklaas still thinks you have been nice!
and he remembers you want your own clothing line!
With this idea he knows exactly what to create,
and Black Peter helps him with his job.
Your might gift look familiar ...
it reminded Sinterklaas of Falkor!
Many greetings,
Sint and Piet

So, it hints at her surprise as well as her cadeau. It also pokes a little fun, because lately at school she's been a little too wrapped up with boys!
Last night we exchanged surprises and Katharina came over.

The whole night was gezellig. Marijke had me, and I had to dig through some pretty nasty consistancies for my cadeautjes! My surprise(s)! Inside each tub was a cadeau! I got cute slier earrings, a 2013 Agenda planner, a bike seat cover (which was much needed in all of this rainy weather!) and a chocolate letter (M of course). The clinique tub was filled with yellow, sticky hair gel that I had to dig through! The Max Factor tub was filled with crushed papernoten (cookie crumbs basically) to look like eye shadow, that I had to dig through....and the pink tub was filled with yogurt (to look like nail polish!) that I had to dig through also! It was so funny though.

Sinterklaas also came to Wolfert Lyceum on Wednesday, and there was lots of singing, humiliation for some, and papernoten involved...I enjoyed it though!

In two weeks (the 19th I believe) is the Kerstgala, where once again the school rents out a club in Rotterdam for a party! Only this time, as opposed to the Halloween party, it's formal! So last Sunday a few friends from school and I went shopping in Rotterdam (: the theme of the party is Las Vegas, so I bought super glamorous heels to match the dress I have (from one of last years school dances).
Shopping was really fun, I met up with Nhu, Bien and Ella!

Anyways, the Christmas party is the next exciting thing coming up for me! It falls on a wednesday, and then that friday is our last day of school! For New Years eve, my friends and I bought tickets to this biiiig party Bergschenhoek throws! So stoked. The following morning we are going to do the "Holland Dive" or something...in other words, jumping in the freezing ocean in the morning?! It'll be a long 24-hours...but fun no doubt!

-Molly Bowen