On Thursday morning all of us slept in.
When I was little and we were in Sweden I always used to wake up at six thirty or so and then I'd run into my grandparents room and crawl into their bed. They would always be awake already, and then at seven or so my grandpa and I would go downstairs and he would let me drink coffee.
Well, I'm not really sure what happened to us, but they're not awake at 6:30 anymore, and I'm definitely not awake at 6:30 anymore. So, coffee drinking is officially moved to after breakfast.
I love huge American breakfasts with french toast, pancakes, muffins, bacon, eggs, and hash browns. I also love Dutch breakfasts with bread with chocolate sprinkles, or nutella. And I really love Swedish breakfasts. I always eat yogurt with musli, and my grandpa puts out all these different kinds of bread with three different kinds of sausages, and caviar (the cheap kind, which is the only good kind). He puts piece of bread after piece of bread into the toaster and pours new orange juice every two minutes. Every time in Sweden breakfast is the same, my grandma always has to drink her orange juice, and we eat the same kind of bread, and the same kind of tea, and the same kind of musli.
After our long breakfast on Thursday, Milja and I drove with Mormor to Vallingby, which isn't very far from Spanga where they live. Mormor went home after a little while and then Milja and I walked around for a pretty long time and then back home in the snow. There was so much snow on the ground, and so much snow coming down on us. I finally got all of the snow that I had been wanting. Mormor had bought a prinsess tarta for us in Vallingby. Prinsess tarta is only the best thing you can ever eat. It's my number one favorite food. Ever. The frosting is made of marsipan, and there's a marsipan rose. And underneath the marsipan is this fluffy white layered cake with whipped cream and sometimes jam in between. The rest of Thursday was a relaxing day, reading, playing cards, talking. Of course Thursday in Sweden also means pea soup and pancakes for dinner. I was pretty full on Thursday night.
On Friday, Milja and I took the train into Stockholm. I found the way without any problems, because it turns out the train system in Sweden, which I remembered as being pretty complicated is way less complicated than the train system in the Netherlands. We met my aunt Karin at the big ring in the Central Station and then we walked to Riksdagen where my other aunt Anna, works. Anna and Karin are always so familiar to me. When I see them it never feels like it's been a year or two years since the last time we saw each other. That was really the nicest thing about being in Sweden... being with people who I've known for my whole life. They were the first family I'd seen in four months. Anna gave us a tour of Riksdagen (the parliament building of Sweden) and then we all went and ate lunch together. Anna had to go back to work, but Karin, Milja, and I walked around for a while. Then Karin went home and Milja and I walked around some more. After we ate dinner on Friday I went shopping again... with Maja, a friend from Spooner who lives in Sweden but was an exchange student with us for a year. Of course we talked about everyone in Spooner which was nice, because no one else really understands how important the little gossip from Spooner is.
Saturday was the official preparation for Christmas day. Karin and my cousins Pia and Sandra came over pretty early in the morning. We were all ready to help bake gingerbread houses, but Mormor had her own ideas about how she wanted to do it. Milja and Karin went out walking, and Pia and Sandra and I sat in the living room playing cards and eating candy. Later on there was a little bit of a discussion over how much candy we actually had aten. When we started the bowl was full, and later that night Mormor discovered that the bowl was almost empty. The thing is, that we really only did eat half of the bowl. So nobody knows what happened to the rest of the candy. Later in the afternoon Anna came with Goran, Frida, and Linn. Two years is always a long time, but it seemed extra long when it came to Frida and Linn. The last time I'd seen them they were still just little girls, and sure, they still are little girls, but they were little girls who seemed a lot older. We played outside, and decorated the Christmas tree, and then all of us ate dinner together. Chili and Morfar's homemade bread.
Sunday I got to see Johanna! It was only a year since the last time I saw her, but I haven't been the best at keeping in touch so seeing her was long overdue. Milja and I took the train together into Stockholm. Then Milja went to the Museum of Modern Art, and Johanna and I went shopping. First we sat in a coffee shop for a while, because the stores still weren't open. We drank hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows and ate muffins, and exchanged presents. At 3 o'clock Milja and I had to be back at my grandparents house so Johanna and I didn't have very long, but it was something. Hopefully it won't be another year before we see each other again.
Right when Milja and I got back to Mormor and Morfar's house, Anna and her family came again. I had no idea, but Mormor had made a Christmas dinner just like we always have in Sweden at Christmas, and everybody had brought presents. So, I got my Christmas in Sweden even though I'm back in Holland now for when it's really Christmas. Of course, it was hard to say goodbye when Anna and her family had to leave. We couldn't just say "Bye, see you later." It had to be, "Bye. See you..." Because of course none of us know when we're going to see each other again.
On Monday, Milja and I had to take the plane back, and we had to say goodbye again, this time to my Grandma and Grandpa. I take after my dad a little bit I think... I hate saying goodbye, and maybe I don't always do it that well. Still no crisis though...
And now, we're back safe and sound in Holland on Christmas Eve. It did take a really, reeeeaallly long time to get back to Akersloot with trains because all of Holland was in chaos from the ten centimeters of snow that they'd gotten (if even). But, we made it. My excuses for how newsy and dry this blog is, but I could write for hours and never be able to do justice to what it was like in Sweden. The snow was beautiful, Christmas felt just like all those times we've celebrated it before, and I got to see my family. Every time I leave Sweden I always realize a little bit more what I'm missing there, and how sad it is that half my family lives across the ocean. I guess I'm stuck with missing places from now on. Sweden, Holland, or Wisconsin: I can't be in all three places at once.
Merry Christmas! To everyone in Sweden, and in Holland, in Missouri, California, and Wisconsin. And everywhere else too!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Plan B
Since I'm already in Europe, it seems like a natural thing that I would want to visit the half of my family who also lives in Europe. I mean, just about all the countries in Europe are so close together that you can travel between them in only a few hours. Right?
A couple months or so ago, Milja and I decided that we would go to Sweden for a few days before Christmas. We booked our tickets with Ryan Air, a cheap flight company that flies between big cities in Europe. The only downside to our 35 euro a piece tickets were that we had to pay an extra seventy euros for the luggage and that we had to fly from Eindhoven airport to Skavsta airport. This meant that first we had to take a train for an hour and a half to get to Eindhoven and then once we got to Sweden we had to take a bus for an hour and a half to get to Stockholm. But, we figured that it was worth it, because in the end it was still a lot cheaper than flying with one of the major flight companies.
Trains really aren't that expensive, and they go really fast, so getting to Eindhoven wasn't really a problem. Until, half an hour into our train ride, they made an announcement that the train rails to one of the most central train stations in the Netherlands was broken. This basically made it impossible to get to Eindhoven with the train.
Right away after they said this Milja looks at me and goes, "We might not get there. Are you going to cry?" I sat there (not crying) well Milja called a million different people and talked to all the other people on the train trying to figure out what we were going to do. For some reason we had to take a train first from Amsterdam to another train station. On the way to this station we met a younger couple who was also going to Sweden on our same flight, and we decided to all take a taxi together to Eindhoven. At the next train station we found a taxi driver who thought he could get us to Eindhoven in time for our 3:30 flight. Of course, I really had to go to the bathroom. So while everyone else waited in the taxi, I ran back into the train station. But, I didn't have the fifty cents it took to go to the bathroom, so I ran back to the taxi, put on a brave face, and decided I would just have to hold it.
We had a pretty good taxi driver. He drove super fast (you don't want to know), and dodged most of the traffic jams. Everything was going well, and we were starting to think that we might actually make the flight. After about 45 minutes in the taxi, though, I was really suffering from the brave decision I'd made earlier. The taxi driver helped me out. "I have to go to the bathroom too," he said, and within five minutes we were pulled over. I sprinted into the gas station and sprinted back out, and we were on our way again. By this time it was starting to seem like we were definitely going to make the flight. We had plenty of time and we were still gaining extra. Then we got to Eindhoven.
After the first wrong turn it was still okay, we had enough time. Even after the second turn it was still all right. After the third wrong turn I was starting to get a little bit of a nervous feeling in my stomach again. After the fourth wrong turn, and realizing that the GPS just wasn't going to work, Milja suggested that we ask someone the way. We had one lucky moment, and the first person we asked actually knew the way there. When we finally got there the taxi driver parked illegally and we all ran out of the car and into the airport. Luckily the gate wasn't closed yet, and we made it in, we even had to wait in line for a little while before we got on the plane. There weren't any major incidents on the plane, just a minor moment when a woman had an asthma attack and they had to call for a doctor, but it seemed like she was okay in the end. When we went to pay for our tickets for the bus to Stockholm, Milja's credit card wouldn't work, and we didn't have any Swedish kroner's yet, but we paid the younger couple that we'd travelled with back in Euros and they bought us a bus ticket. Then we got on the bus and saw that that Milja's blackberry needed a pincode to turn back on, which she had never used before. And what a surprise, so did my cell phone. Eventually I remembered the pincode to my cell phone and managed to turn it on and send text messages to everyone asking for help with Milja's pincode. We managed to call my grandma and grandpa though, so that they could come get us.
When we finally got to Stockholm from the bus they were right there waiting for us. We went home with them in the car and ate keish for dinner. Their house smelled just like Sweden always smells, and there was snow all over the ground outside. And, I got to sleep in the same bed I always sleep in there.
More to come...
A couple months or so ago, Milja and I decided that we would go to Sweden for a few days before Christmas. We booked our tickets with Ryan Air, a cheap flight company that flies between big cities in Europe. The only downside to our 35 euro a piece tickets were that we had to pay an extra seventy euros for the luggage and that we had to fly from Eindhoven airport to Skavsta airport. This meant that first we had to take a train for an hour and a half to get to Eindhoven and then once we got to Sweden we had to take a bus for an hour and a half to get to Stockholm. But, we figured that it was worth it, because in the end it was still a lot cheaper than flying with one of the major flight companies.
Trains really aren't that expensive, and they go really fast, so getting to Eindhoven wasn't really a problem. Until, half an hour into our train ride, they made an announcement that the train rails to one of the most central train stations in the Netherlands was broken. This basically made it impossible to get to Eindhoven with the train.
Right away after they said this Milja looks at me and goes, "We might not get there. Are you going to cry?" I sat there (not crying) well Milja called a million different people and talked to all the other people on the train trying to figure out what we were going to do. For some reason we had to take a train first from Amsterdam to another train station. On the way to this station we met a younger couple who was also going to Sweden on our same flight, and we decided to all take a taxi together to Eindhoven. At the next train station we found a taxi driver who thought he could get us to Eindhoven in time for our 3:30 flight. Of course, I really had to go to the bathroom. So while everyone else waited in the taxi, I ran back into the train station. But, I didn't have the fifty cents it took to go to the bathroom, so I ran back to the taxi, put on a brave face, and decided I would just have to hold it.
We had a pretty good taxi driver. He drove super fast (you don't want to know), and dodged most of the traffic jams. Everything was going well, and we were starting to think that we might actually make the flight. After about 45 minutes in the taxi, though, I was really suffering from the brave decision I'd made earlier. The taxi driver helped me out. "I have to go to the bathroom too," he said, and within five minutes we were pulled over. I sprinted into the gas station and sprinted back out, and we were on our way again. By this time it was starting to seem like we were definitely going to make the flight. We had plenty of time and we were still gaining extra. Then we got to Eindhoven.
After the first wrong turn it was still okay, we had enough time. Even after the second turn it was still all right. After the third wrong turn I was starting to get a little bit of a nervous feeling in my stomach again. After the fourth wrong turn, and realizing that the GPS just wasn't going to work, Milja suggested that we ask someone the way. We had one lucky moment, and the first person we asked actually knew the way there. When we finally got there the taxi driver parked illegally and we all ran out of the car and into the airport. Luckily the gate wasn't closed yet, and we made it in, we even had to wait in line for a little while before we got on the plane. There weren't any major incidents on the plane, just a minor moment when a woman had an asthma attack and they had to call for a doctor, but it seemed like she was okay in the end. When we went to pay for our tickets for the bus to Stockholm, Milja's credit card wouldn't work, and we didn't have any Swedish kroner's yet, but we paid the younger couple that we'd travelled with back in Euros and they bought us a bus ticket. Then we got on the bus and saw that that Milja's blackberry needed a pincode to turn back on, which she had never used before. And what a surprise, so did my cell phone. Eventually I remembered the pincode to my cell phone and managed to turn it on and send text messages to everyone asking for help with Milja's pincode. We managed to call my grandma and grandpa though, so that they could come get us.
When we finally got to Stockholm from the bus they were right there waiting for us. We went home with them in the car and ate keish for dinner. Their house smelled just like Sweden always smells, and there was snow all over the ground outside. And, I got to sleep in the same bed I always sleep in there.
More to come...
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piets
Happy belated Sinterklaas.
After waiting, and waiting, and waiting Sinterklaas finally came! He did already come to Akersloot one time, but that time was just to say hi (or something). He didn't actually have presents with him. Last Saturday though, he came with presents. But, first Thursday.
I went to school... not very exciting. Then I had running practice as usual at the fitness center with strength training circuits. After the strength we always run, which we did in the rain. Did I mention that it rains a lot here? I remember when I was little, like fifth grade or something when the school didn't actually make us where snowpants anymore, but my mom did. Every day we would have this huge argument about whether or not I had to wear snowpants. Finally she decided that if it was colder than 20 degrees I had to wear snowpants, but then it always ended up being a huge discussion about whether I had to wear them or not when it was 18 degrees. I'm pretty sure this went on at least two or three winters long. The point of this story is that the issue at home was snow pants. The issue here is rain pants. Rain pants are in many ways similar to snow pants: 1) they come in horrible gray and black colors 2) they make you look fat 3) they are extremely high waisted 4) you absolutely do not want to be seen in them by anyone you know. I would say that about half the days when I bike to school it's raining, or at least drizzling a little bit, and if Milja's home she always asks me if I want to wear my rain pants and I always say no. Which means that every single one of those days I end up at school in soaking wet pants. So Thursday... it was raining, and I thought of the rain pants because I actually wore them for the first time on Thursday.
After getting rained on at practice, which isn't actually bad, it's nice to run in the rain, I went out with Taiana. I know... it was Thursday night! Usually she doesn't go out on Thursday nights, but it was "Old School Break" at the bar we went to, which means that they played only old music. Also, because the next weekend was Sinterklaas, all of the bar men were dressed up as Zwarte Piets, and there was one dressed up as Sinterklaas. Luckily, it wasn't raining on our way to the bar, or on the way home, so we stayed dry.
Friday morning (after going out) I got up at six to go to Anita's school in Amsterdam again. Fridays at my school aren't that important anyway... what happened at Anita's school on Friday was definitely important. Sinterklaas is celebrated in the Netherlands on December 5th. Friday was December 4th, which meant the day that Sinterklaas came to all of the schools. You can easily compare Sinterklaas to Santa Claus. I mean the name sounds the same, they look kind of the same, and every Dutch person will happily tell you the story about how Sinterklaas was stolen by Coca Cola and is now used in America as Santa Claus. The idea is the same too... a jolly man that brings presents. But, let me tell you, it's completely different. The kids absolutely, completely, believe that Sinterklaas is real. And it's not just a handful of kids that believe, it's practically every single one. Naturally then, when they see Sinterklaas walking towards them on their school playground they are going to go absolutely insane. They did. It was like in a movie, all of the kids screamed and charged him. There was music everywhere, and the Zwarte Piets were running around throwing papernotas and candy to everyone and all over the ground. After Sinterklaas came to the playground where everyone was waiting, all of the kids had to go back inside. This was the hard part. First they got to see Sinterklaas, and now they had to go back to the classroom and wait for him to come to them. For two hours. Anita handled it well though. She turned the Sinterklaas music up really loud, spread candy and papernotas all over the tables, and let the kids just play. When Sinterklaas finally came to our class they all had to sit in a circle, and the Zwarte Piets and Sinterklaas handed out presents to all of the kids.
I'm still not completely convinced if it's morally right to make the kids in the whole country believe that Sinterklaas is real when he actually isn't. But it's definitely a lot of fun, so maybe it's worth how completely devastated they're going to be when they finally find out he's not real.
The kids all went home around noon, and Anita and I were left with a classroom that had crushed papernoten, toys, and wrappers everywhere. We ate lunch first and then started with cleaning up. I finally had the floor all nice and swept up, and then the Zwarte Piets came by. Sinterklaas was still in the school with all of his Zwarte Piets because he had to visit all of the older kids too, and on their way to the gym they saw that our classroom was clean. Of course we ended up with papernoten all over the floor again. And again, and again, and again. Finally at the end of the day everything was clean for the last time, and then we had to decorate for Christmas. All the teachers took down the Sinterklaas decorations and started hanging Christmas things in the hall. I sat in Anita's classroom in a daze of absolute exhaustion and wrapped white paper around old toilet paper rolls to hang in the hallway (remember kindergarten? You use all sorts of cool things!). The evening ended with all of the teachers drinking beer with Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Piets, which was nice too.
Saturday at 4:00 the entire family came to Oma and Opa's house (remember that Oma and Opa is Grandma and Grandpa?). There were fifteen of us all together, and only one true believer left. Joleen is nine, and at the beginning of the holiday season no one really knew if she still believed in Sinterklaas, but then decided that she did. So, everything was hush hush, and we had to be oh-so-careful not to say anything that could make her suspicious. It still wasn't quite dark at 4:00, so everyone sat together eating papernoten, spekulaars, and chocolate until it was dark. Then, when it was dark everyone all of a sudden started singing all of the Sinterklaas songs. I had heard some of them at the school on Friday, but most of them I couldn't really sing a long with (mostly I just hummed... and listened).
Are you ready for the next part?......
All of a sudden there came a knock on the door. Joleen ran to the door followed by the rest of us. After a desperate struggle to get the door open, in which Opa finally had to come help, we saw that there was no one there. "Check upstairs!" someone yelled. We all sprinted up the dangerously steep stairs, and began frantically searching all of the rooms. Finally Joleen opened the door to Opa and Oma's bedroom. She shrieked loudly and we all ran over to look. On the bed was a gigantic pile of presents, and there was candy strewn all throughout the room. The window stood wide open.
So, Sinterklaas did come to us, but we missed seeing him. Everyone helped bring the presents downstairs, and then Taiana gave them out one at a time. After two hours or so we were barely halfway done, so we all ate dinner. Then there were more presents. Around ten or so all of the presents were done, and Sinterklaas was over. The way that it worked with presents was that each person had been sent a name in the mail a month before Sinterklaas. We had to buy a present for the person whose name we got, and write a poem to go with it. I didn't write my poem alone, Oma helped me, but in the end I had one. Besides that, all of the adults bought presents for all of children. The poems were really fun... I think we'll bring that to Christmas in Spooner next year. I wish I could write them here, but they're in Dutch, so it wouldn't make sense to very many people.'
My time on the library computer is running out, and it's almost time for another training at the fitness center, so this post is done for today. I promise there's more to come though... I wish I could just dictate out of my head. I could spend hours writing every night, and still never be able to explain everything that happens here.
Sweden is coming up next Wednesday. And then no more school until after New Years. I'll be in the Netherlands in 2010!
After waiting, and waiting, and waiting Sinterklaas finally came! He did already come to Akersloot one time, but that time was just to say hi (or something). He didn't actually have presents with him. Last Saturday though, he came with presents. But, first Thursday.
I went to school... not very exciting. Then I had running practice as usual at the fitness center with strength training circuits. After the strength we always run, which we did in the rain. Did I mention that it rains a lot here? I remember when I was little, like fifth grade or something when the school didn't actually make us where snowpants anymore, but my mom did. Every day we would have this huge argument about whether or not I had to wear snowpants. Finally she decided that if it was colder than 20 degrees I had to wear snowpants, but then it always ended up being a huge discussion about whether I had to wear them or not when it was 18 degrees. I'm pretty sure this went on at least two or three winters long. The point of this story is that the issue at home was snow pants. The issue here is rain pants. Rain pants are in many ways similar to snow pants: 1) they come in horrible gray and black colors 2) they make you look fat 3) they are extremely high waisted 4) you absolutely do not want to be seen in them by anyone you know. I would say that about half the days when I bike to school it's raining, or at least drizzling a little bit, and if Milja's home she always asks me if I want to wear my rain pants and I always say no. Which means that every single one of those days I end up at school in soaking wet pants. So Thursday... it was raining, and I thought of the rain pants because I actually wore them for the first time on Thursday.
After getting rained on at practice, which isn't actually bad, it's nice to run in the rain, I went out with Taiana. I know... it was Thursday night! Usually she doesn't go out on Thursday nights, but it was "Old School Break" at the bar we went to, which means that they played only old music. Also, because the next weekend was Sinterklaas, all of the bar men were dressed up as Zwarte Piets, and there was one dressed up as Sinterklaas. Luckily, it wasn't raining on our way to the bar, or on the way home, so we stayed dry.
Friday morning (after going out) I got up at six to go to Anita's school in Amsterdam again. Fridays at my school aren't that important anyway... what happened at Anita's school on Friday was definitely important. Sinterklaas is celebrated in the Netherlands on December 5th. Friday was December 4th, which meant the day that Sinterklaas came to all of the schools. You can easily compare Sinterklaas to Santa Claus. I mean the name sounds the same, they look kind of the same, and every Dutch person will happily tell you the story about how Sinterklaas was stolen by Coca Cola and is now used in America as Santa Claus. The idea is the same too... a jolly man that brings presents. But, let me tell you, it's completely different. The kids absolutely, completely, believe that Sinterklaas is real. And it's not just a handful of kids that believe, it's practically every single one. Naturally then, when they see Sinterklaas walking towards them on their school playground they are going to go absolutely insane. They did. It was like in a movie, all of the kids screamed and charged him. There was music everywhere, and the Zwarte Piets were running around throwing papernotas and candy to everyone and all over the ground. After Sinterklaas came to the playground where everyone was waiting, all of the kids had to go back inside. This was the hard part. First they got to see Sinterklaas, and now they had to go back to the classroom and wait for him to come to them. For two hours. Anita handled it well though. She turned the Sinterklaas music up really loud, spread candy and papernotas all over the tables, and let the kids just play. When Sinterklaas finally came to our class they all had to sit in a circle, and the Zwarte Piets and Sinterklaas handed out presents to all of the kids.
I'm still not completely convinced if it's morally right to make the kids in the whole country believe that Sinterklaas is real when he actually isn't. But it's definitely a lot of fun, so maybe it's worth how completely devastated they're going to be when they finally find out he's not real.
The kids all went home around noon, and Anita and I were left with a classroom that had crushed papernoten, toys, and wrappers everywhere. We ate lunch first and then started with cleaning up. I finally had the floor all nice and swept up, and then the Zwarte Piets came by. Sinterklaas was still in the school with all of his Zwarte Piets because he had to visit all of the older kids too, and on their way to the gym they saw that our classroom was clean. Of course we ended up with papernoten all over the floor again. And again, and again, and again. Finally at the end of the day everything was clean for the last time, and then we had to decorate for Christmas. All the teachers took down the Sinterklaas decorations and started hanging Christmas things in the hall. I sat in Anita's classroom in a daze of absolute exhaustion and wrapped white paper around old toilet paper rolls to hang in the hallway (remember kindergarten? You use all sorts of cool things!). The evening ended with all of the teachers drinking beer with Sinterklaas and the Zwarte Piets, which was nice too.
Saturday at 4:00 the entire family came to Oma and Opa's house (remember that Oma and Opa is Grandma and Grandpa?). There were fifteen of us all together, and only one true believer left. Joleen is nine, and at the beginning of the holiday season no one really knew if she still believed in Sinterklaas, but then decided that she did. So, everything was hush hush, and we had to be oh-so-careful not to say anything that could make her suspicious. It still wasn't quite dark at 4:00, so everyone sat together eating papernoten, spekulaars, and chocolate until it was dark. Then, when it was dark everyone all of a sudden started singing all of the Sinterklaas songs. I had heard some of them at the school on Friday, but most of them I couldn't really sing a long with (mostly I just hummed... and listened).
Are you ready for the next part?......
All of a sudden there came a knock on the door. Joleen ran to the door followed by the rest of us. After a desperate struggle to get the door open, in which Opa finally had to come help, we saw that there was no one there. "Check upstairs!" someone yelled. We all sprinted up the dangerously steep stairs, and began frantically searching all of the rooms. Finally Joleen opened the door to Opa and Oma's bedroom. She shrieked loudly and we all ran over to look. On the bed was a gigantic pile of presents, and there was candy strewn all throughout the room. The window stood wide open.
So, Sinterklaas did come to us, but we missed seeing him. Everyone helped bring the presents downstairs, and then Taiana gave them out one at a time. After two hours or so we were barely halfway done, so we all ate dinner. Then there were more presents. Around ten or so all of the presents were done, and Sinterklaas was over. The way that it worked with presents was that each person had been sent a name in the mail a month before Sinterklaas. We had to buy a present for the person whose name we got, and write a poem to go with it. I didn't write my poem alone, Oma helped me, but in the end I had one. Besides that, all of the adults bought presents for all of children. The poems were really fun... I think we'll bring that to Christmas in Spooner next year. I wish I could write them here, but they're in Dutch, so it wouldn't make sense to very many people.'
My time on the library computer is running out, and it's almost time for another training at the fitness center, so this post is done for today. I promise there's more to come though... I wish I could just dictate out of my head. I could spend hours writing every night, and still never be able to explain everything that happens here.
Sweden is coming up next Wednesday. And then no more school until after New Years. I'll be in the Netherlands in 2010!
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