United States > Netherlands 17/18

It was a mostly quiet month, but filled with the holidays. I've already mentioned Sinterklaas a bit in my Sint Voor Elk Kind post, but that focused mainly on the role of Zwarte Pieten. Sinterklaas is a Christmas-like holiday specifically for children. Sinterklaas sails over from his home in Spain on his steamboat in late November. He returns to Spain for his birthday (December 6th). Families can celebrate Sinterklaas anytime while Sinterklaas is in The Netherlands (usually the weekend before he leaves, as you do not get off work or school for the holiday). The holiday is celebrated when kids but their shoes (filled with an apple or carrot for Sinterklaas's horse) in front of the fireplace. During the night Zwarte Piet slides down the chimney and puts the gifts in the shoe.  Traditionally the gifts for Sinterklaas are very small. I got to celebrate the holiday with my first host family. We met up with the extended family on a Sunday morning. It really felt like Christmas (e...

Today the exchange students volunteered at a very special Sinterklaas event where they bring together all of the poor children in Lelystad that can't afford to celebrate Sinterklaas on their own. The children are greeted by a fleet of Zwarte Pieten that hand out candy and cookies, they have a concert of Sinterklaas songs, and are lastly visited by Sinterklaas and given a gift. I got to be a Zwarte Piet! I have to admit I was relived to be asked to be one of the Zwarte Piet without a fully black face. The parents had requested that a few of the volunteers not be completely black, and I was one of the only people that didn't know any of the attending kids (the kids can't recognize an uncle or neighbor if their entire face is painted, but they will recognize them if its only a few stripes of soot). The kids really love the Zwarte Pieten and so many asked me for hugs (and lots and lots of parents asked me for photos). The fully black faces seem off-putting to me, like a cl...

I've just finished my third full month in The Netherlands. In a week I'll be switching to a new host family in Lelystad. I am sure I'll do a lot of great things with them, and I hope with them we can start trying to only speak Dutch at home (though I am sure it'll be taxing at first). I am at the point in dutch where I can have small conversations, but often have to add in English words. And the longer the conversation goes the higher the percentage of English becomes as well. Even though I get frustrated and wished I was learning faster, I think realistically I am doing fairly well. I think (I hope) in the next few months that my Dutch will drastically improve. And I have been speaking more Dutch in general. At school a few kids will only speak to me in Dutch (though some still only in English) and most are generous enough to entertain a slowly moving mostly bad Dutch/partial English conversations.  I started off the month with a popular 16+ event at a local c...