Since all my essays were due the first part of term my blog has been somewhat neglected. So bare with me, because I have about 4 posts to get through to get to the present! First things first however: Holland.
I hadn't been in the Netherlands for New Year for about 4 or 5 years, so I did everything Dutch that is imaginable. First up: 'sjoelen'. This is a very traditional old Dutch game which my family plays each year on December 31. I can't really explain how it works - just check out the photos. We have years and years of records of this game being played anyway.
(Durham's part of my family traditions too now.)
(1995)
Next: baking 'oliebollen'. I'd never actually made them myself before! My grandfather is the grand master of baking oliebollen. They're basically deep-fried balls of dough? But that description doesn't really do them justice. I don't like unhealthy foods so much usually; McDonalds makes me queasy. Yet when the whole village smells of oliebollen... mmm.
All right, New Years. I don't usually go out to celebrate this. Particularly not in Holland, as everyone still smokes in the pubs here (whether they're allowed to or not) and I generally dislike running into people from the past in my village, especially when they're drunk. We do get very cool fireworks here though. Much, much more than in Sweden, probably due to population density. So I watch some comedy on the television with my parents, we have champagne, and we look at the sky. That's all, but it's cool.
Aha, then Michaela came to visit! I was probably the worst host ever as I was working myself to death trying to make my work's deadline. (Oh which was later moved by a month by the way so it was really not necessary to lose my ability to speak and eat soup for a week damnthem.) I showed her around the village a bit though - the architecture we've got is quite special, and as far as Dutch villages go it's pretty artistic and historical. We showed her Alkmaar, she went to Amsterdam. We also got her to ride her bike. Typical foreign guest scene: 'of course I can ride a bike' [...] * bikes into a wall / bushes / my dad * (the last, in Michaela's case). To do her some justice though: she did better than most our guests.
Finally we also went to the beach. The smell there, of the forest and the water and the dunes - that's just amazing.
