S-anta-inter-claus-klaas

Leuven Stadhuis with Christmas decorations

Leah, Me, and Tayla

Liam, Matt, and Me

Matt singing at Karaoke - what I believe was something by Miley Cyrus

Some of the Belgians singing a Dutch Christmas Carol

Matt and Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas calling out his Zwarte Piets

Sinterklaas' visit

‘Ello puppets! This shall hopefully be my shortest blog yet, as I did very little last week, and I have a slew of stories from this past weekend to tell you about. My week last week primarily consisted of two Christmas parties and a Dutch final.

With the bitterly cold winter setting in upon us, at some points reaching – 3 degrees Celsius (what that is in American I have no idea – ignorance intended). Even simple tasks such as riding our bikes or walking to class have become chores as the cold cuts through the air stinging any part of our skin that is unfortunately exposed – hands and cheeks are the most commonly punished. However, with the cold has come the Christmas season, and that has been a much welcomed addition.

As the Christmas season inches closer every day, the Huis has prepared accordingly. Our common room has been transformed into a Christmas living room – complete with paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, an Evergreen tree decorated in ornaments and lights, and wrapping paper hung over all the walls. In addition, each of the unit kitchens has been decorated with lights and wreaths and whatever else helps bring the Christmas spirit abroad.

The first bit of our celebrations came when we celebrated the Belgian Sinterklaas holiday, sponsored by the Belgians in our huis. On December 5th, we all left our shoes out in the halls with a note to Sinterklaas, a carrot stick and a beer. We awoke in the morning to shoes full of all sorts of candy and quick eats. Then on the night of the 6th, we all met in the common room for Sinterklaas’ visit. Sinterklaas brought with him a giant book (essentially a naughty and nice list) where he proceeded to call up members of the house and then call them out on various misdeeds that have been performed over the course of the first five months. In the typical Belgian tradition, good children are rewarded with presents and candy - whilst bad children are taken away in Sinterklaas' bag.

Fortunately for the huis, Sinterklaas didn't have nearly enough room in his bag for everyone. However, he did provide a bit of embarressment as everything from smoking in the house, to boys wearing pink, to loud party throwers, to song singers were called in front of Sinterklaas to first be embarrassed and then be given something sweet. Matt was called out for singing “Be Prepared” from the Lion King too often – which of course he proceeded to sing for the group after he was called up, which wouldn’t have been so bad except he made me be the hyena background singers, of which I surprisingly didn’t miss a beat (I didn’t realize that him listening to that song nonstop would actually have lead to me memorizing it).

After the Belgians showed us what Christmas means to the children of Belgium, the American students returned the favor by throwing our own Christmas party – featuring a familiar Santa Claus, yours truly. Last Wednesday, we all gathered to celebrate the Christmas holiday American style, I – with a pillow under my shirt – donned the Santa Claus outfit and took some requests from some of the people in the huis for Christmas presents. In addition, we also exchanged Secret Santa gifts at the party.

At the Thanksgiving dinner, we were all assigned a Secret Santa partner, with the intention of leaving notes and small presents throughout the past couple of weeks to help everyone feel a little more at home during the holiday season. My Secret Santa (one of the Belgians, Anke) spoiled me pretty good leaving me notes, candy, and beer around just about every corner. Then for my Christmas gift gave me a Belgian “Vriendenboekje” or “Friend Book” – a book full of questions for my friends to answer about their relationships with me. She took it around to most of the members of the house and had them fill in a section. For the Americans that meant testing their Dutch skills, and for the other Europeans, such as the Slovak Hero Martin for example, that meant just writing whatever they felt like. The end result was an awesome Christmas present full of memories, stories, and jokes that I will cherish.

However, despite the Christmas cheer, and just to show you that life here isn’t all play and no work, our two Christmas celebrations, were divided by a Dutch Final for all the Americans. Last weekend most of the Americans didn’t travel as we took time to make sure we passed the Dutch exam. The final was easier than most of us anticipated (knock on wood) and hopefully nobody will be repeating the course.

The final highlight of the past week was when we celebrated being finished with Dutch by going out to a Karaoke Bar after the final. We were joined by several of the internationals and a really fun time was had by all. Tot Ziens Nederlands!

Well that was my past week – within the next couple of days I hope to have up my blog about my trip to Genova and Milan!