Monthly Report 7: February

The shortest month of the year went by reasonably quickly. Today, the last day, is the only day we got any snow. A February without snow is a bit weird for me, but I've taken advantage of the mild weather. 

I made my host family chili for the super bowl, because my family makes it every year. I was home alone all day while I made it, and it felt pretty sad not having the usual game festivities. On Monday however, I was greeted by the Canadian exchange student (who has become quite a good friend of mine), who was very excited about the game. We watched the highlights together, and it felt a bit like home.

In another instance of bringing American food to Dutchies, I was invited to a Mac and Cheese party as the official American representative. I ended up really taking the wheel, and the Mac and Cheese was very delicious (if I do say so myself). 

The second week of February began Carnaval, the Dutch equivalent to Mardi Gras. The holidays celebrate basically the same thing, a big celebration before the beginning of Lent. Since this is a Catholic holiday it is only celebrated in the Catholic cities of the Netherlands, which are primarily in the south (just like the U.S., the Netherlands also has a 'bible belt'). The celebrations begin on different days depending on which city you go to. With test week approaching, not too many Dutch kids were willing to travel to celebrate (Lelystad is in a northern, non-catholic, non-celebrating city). I traveled with three of the other Lelystad exchange students on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday to Maastricht, one of the most southern Dutch cities and the home of the largest Carnaval celebrations. We stayed the night, and returned with the train on Monday. Though celebrations began on Saturday, the opening parade was Sunday. 

Carnaval is a costume holiday, and the closer we got to Maastricht during our 3 hour train ride, the more crazy outfits we saw. To the point where by the end of the trip, one of the marching bands for the opening parade boarded our already-packed train car. They played for us during the last half hour of the trip.

The costumes don't have to be specific characters. Maastricht is in the most southern province: Limburg. Limburg's flag is yellow, green, and red. Many of the costumes revolved around those colors. The costumes were incredibly elaborate, and I was very impressed. 

More than a few of them would have been considered too racially-insensitive to wear in the US. There were many, many elaborate Native American costumes (that made a lot of sense, "Indiaan" -the Dutch word for Native American- parties and costumes are still popular here among small children. obviously Europe doesn't have a Native American population to receive commentary from). But there were a couple costumes that I could only label as "Jamaican/black person". Poorly applied brown paint with maybe an afro or Jamaican flag shirt. Not even Rastafarians, just black people. The black population in the Netherlands is not insignificant, so I thought the costume choice was pretty weird. It's also possible that it's something that you wouldn't see in Amsterdam, or maybe just that Dutch people aren't as sensitive about that. I saw way more Asian-theme costumes though, many with an Olympic theme. Lots of black eyeliner used to mimic slanted eyes, little black bob wigs, red circles on white cheeks, straw hats, etc. I am not saying that any of the people with those costumes are bad people, just that I don't think they'd get very far wearing those costumes on American streets. 

It was also interesting to notice that most uniform-based costumes (SWAT -which was very popular-, police, soldier, astronaut) were all based off of the American model. I even saw a couple Uncle Sams and some suits with the print of the American flag (I see the design of the US flag used in clothing more frequently here than in NYS). 

us with the host family that took us in for the weekend

distant shot of some leeks

one of the hand made carts

For the most part though, costumes were elaborate and considerate of the cold weather. The entire celebration is outside, and not much is organised by the city besides the parade and porta-potties. Streets are closed off and bars sell beer out the windows, turning the city into one giant, absolutely packed, club. We were staying with another Rotary exchange student in the city, and he was able to show us Maastricht a bit before it turned into a party scene. Different groups of people would make their own themed party carts, loudly playing their own music and carting around snacks for themselves. People would crowd around these carts, or around some of the public deejay stations, to listen to music and dance. Carnaval has its own genre of music, which all kind of sounds the same but is fun and bouncy. 

It was really amazing to see so many people doing so much work of their own to make sure that they had a fun time. 

burger stand. text reads "they are the best burgers, the best. better than all others, losers"

you can't really tell here, but this cart was dressed up as a giant chicken, including flapping wings

Apparently people will party from the start of Carnaval to the end. We didn't stay that long. We were delayed leaving by three hours though, when someone was hit by train. Not a good weekend for everyone. We used the extra time to see more of Maastricht. Their close proximity to Belgium (15 minutes by bike) means that Maastricht has some amazing waffles. 

Carnaval, and Maastricht in general, is definitely a must see for the Netherlands. The week after I met with a local newspaper rep for an interview about my time here so far. It was a bit funny because he wasn't sure what my Dutch level was, so he kept switching between the languages. I notice that people, especially adults, do that a lot. They'll ask if they can speak Dutch with you, you'll say yes, and then they continue in English to say "Oh! That's really cool. So how long have you been here then?". It's pretty funny, though I do admit I get annoyed when people I've known for six months will come up to me and begin to speak in English. Of course I'm not fluent, and maybe I'll need to ask for a word or two, but there is no reason not to be speaking fully in Dutch. I don't think it's possible to get a fully immersive experience here, but that's alright.

For the last day before winter break I went to the grade school. They were having a sort of costume-talent show. It was cute to see all the kids dressing up, and everyone supported each other even though the acts totally sucked. 

My plans for break are spread out. I celebrated a couple family birthdays, and this weekend I'm going to Germany on a mini-ski vacation with my host family. The highlightof break so far was the 2pm-2am Lord of the Rings extended edition movie marathon that I took part in. I've always wanted to do that. That was last night, when the smallest layer of snow began to fall. I got to bike back in it, which was very lovely under an almost-full moon. Lelystad is almost completely dead at night, so everything was quiet and calm. The smaller canals had frozen over and were covered with white snow. The larger canals and harbors were black and reflecting the moon. I think the mystical soundtrack from the movies really stayed with me during that bike ride. 

Tomorrow, the first day of March, I'm spending the day in Amsterdam. On Friday we leave for our skiing weekend, and we return on Sunday. 

During the break I was assigned a book report that I must complete, all in Dutch. My book is the Dutch translation of John Green's "Turtles All the Way Down" (a nice, easy reading level for me). I keep google translate by me for the book, but I don't need it too much. I was happy that reading the book wasn't too difficult, but of course now I have to write the report (5-7 paragraphs, a breeze in English). We will just have to see how that goes. Meanwhile I've noticed that it is a bit harder now for me to spell English words, and to remember some words, which is a bit funny. I think that'll correct itself once I start school in the US again. I have officially secured college housing. All in all a rather successful month.