'Tis the Season

Hello again everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and the New Year in style! Things in my neck of the woods have gotten pretty busy with the holidays and since the weather had been unseasonably warm and rainy if feels more like September than December around here. Sometimes I must admit the days go by so quickly that I am terrified that one day I will miss one all together!

Anywho, the Dutch have their own form of Halloween in early November called St. Martin's Day. Local children go "trick-or-treating" in their neighborhood and although they don't dress in costume, they come knocking on the door with tiny paper lanterns and sing songs to receive thier treats. It is quite adorable, even I must say.

And of course no one here celebrates Thanksgiving but that is an unimportant detail..... Why miss an excuse to bake yummy food and get together with lovely people?! Nonsense! SO I made a chicken (A turkey has NO hope of fitting in my oven!), mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie, rounded up Gerben and our two roommates and we had a little feast just the four of us. It was the first time we had EVER all eaten together and I thought it was really nice! The very next day I was invited to another "Thanksgiving" at a firends house. It was pot-luck style and everyone brought something from where ever they come from. With 13 of us, there was plenty of food to go around and although there was no traditional Thanksgiving food, Dutch, Russian, Southern Chinese, Norwegian, Itailan and German food all made for an interesting combination. It was definatly one for the books! Thanks Dania for letting us celebrate together in you adorable apartment! It was great!

Just after Thanksgiving, the Dutch also celebrate their own version of Christmas called Sinterklaas on December 5th. It is similar to a Christmas celebration but with lots and lots of marzepan! There is a traditonal gifting game that goes along with the celebration and of course what's a holiday without the treats that go along side! I was fortunate enoguh this year to be invited to 2 Sinterklass celebrations! The first was with my fellow voluteers at the Humanitas organization and the second with Gerben's family at his sister Aafke's house in a nearby city. On both occasions we had a really nice time and just enjoyed being together. 

Outside the holidays (Yes! I DO, do other things!) it has been busy as well. My Chinese class has come to an end and next semester I will take an HSK 4 prepcourse and participate in the HSK exam in March. For those of you that don't know, HSK is the Chiese language profincey test equivalant to the English TOEFL exam. I took the HSK 4 last year and failed by 1 point (ahhhhh so lame!!) so I am looking forward to having my vengence! Also my Dutch courses are continuing as normal and although I still morify Gerben with my accent and bad grammar, I think I am improving....slowly....haha 

And speaking of learning things slowly, my faithful dance partner Raouf and I are moving on to the next level of Salsa Dance after the New Year. We may be a bit uncoordinated and not so smooth, but my goodness do we ALWAYS had a good time. Thanks Raouf for putting up constantly with my too left feet! You're the best! :D

AND of course I am avidly working on my thesis! Oh yeah, that's why I am over here right?! Research is going well and I must say no one is more suprised than me, but I am actually really enjoying it! I spend 3 days a week at my internship doing communications reserch for my thesis client in the Nursing Faculty of my university. I don't get paid, BUT I have my own work space, wonderful/knowledgeable collegues, flexible timetables and my name is even on the office door. So snazzy! :) So far everything is going well with a percieved finishing and graduation date of late May. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...... (Hopefully you've all seen Finding Nemo....).

For now I am off to the USA again. This time to California to spend time with some of the pople I love for Christmas. It will be a short trip as I will be back with Gerben and Charlie for the New Year. 

It is the first Christmas without Neil and it is so odd not to have him on my gift list. I feel the hole more insensly these days and more and more realize what it means to lose a whole person, its a lot. You lose your traditions with them and who you were with them. You lose how they made you feel and I think about that a lot these days. Happy Christmas little brother, no REI card for you so my love and prayers will have to do.

Please have a safe and joyus holiday everyone and if you have time please send me an email to tell me all about it. I would love to hear from you all. Take care and Ill see you next year!! xoxoxo