Sinterklaas Has Returned to Spain

I'm still here.  Zwarte Piet didn't (pretend to) kick me or stuff me into his sack and take me back to Spain with him.  I wasn't that bad, apparently. Oh well, there's always next year!  ;-)

I had something of an exhaustingly awesome weekend.  Friday probably contained something scholarly, but the real point of the day was our Sinterklaas Game Night.  The usual Game Night crowd showed up, and we piled presents on the table and played a dice game to see who won what.  The game lasted forever, but no one seemed to mind.  In the end I got the most presents!  They were all candy, so I shared quite happily.  :-)

Afterwards we all played pool, as we usually do.  It was yet another great night of playing with my friends.  Jan and I walked home, because he nearly killed himself in a soccer game, and I was dizzy anyway.  Probably from all the sugar!  I didn't get to sleep until 4am!

Saturday I slept until noon! Then I went to the market to get some sewing supplies.  I wasn't in a particularly great mood because it was cold, and sort of dark, and I'm just so tired of wet coldness and a sky that starts growing dark at 3pm.  I was sort of thinking to myself, "Do I really want to do this?  Do I really want to stay another year to do a masters that I'm sort of unsure of?  I need a sign, I need to figure this out."  No sooner had I started to dwell on this, but what did I see?   A rainbow!  A beautiful, brightly shining rainbow that no one else seemed to notice!  Ok, Universe, I'll hang in there!  :-)

I spent my afternoon in the library, reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman.  (I'll review this amazing book over at The Nook soon.)  It was so pleasant to sit in the window, with my back against the warm heater, reading, and sometimes watching the people climb to the Burcht in the cold rain.  A tiny little girl started peering at me through the books, and she giggled in the most amazingly baby-ish giggle ever, and toddled around the shelf and shouted "Boo!" at me, and then climbed up beside me and started chattering in Dutch about how warm the heater was and how cold it was outside.  Hahahaha.  So amazingly cute!  :-D

Around 8 I headed over to Herengracht for another Sinterklaas celebration.  My fourth, actually.  :-)  Julia, her boyfriend Gerry, Ilaria, and I made all sorts of awesome food.  Gerry brought a Spätzle maker with him from Germany, so we made a huuuuuuge pot full of Käsespätzle!  Sooo good!  Ilaria made a fritata, which is like a Spanish tortilla, which is like a potato omelet.  Again, tasty.  Silvia and Jason arrived, bringing with them some curried tofu and couscous and a home made apple tart!  Don't forget the salad.  Ah, we had so much amazing food!  Janos came too and brought with him some Hungarian dessert wine that went almost too well with the tart.  

After a few bottles of wine (between 7 people) and entirely too much food, we talked and talked and talked, and were all surprised when it was suddenly 1am.  Another great evening!

Yesterday Jason, Silvia, Julia and Gerry and I sat at Coffee Star and worked on various projects.  Jason worked on his music, I worked on my novel, and Silvia worked on a paper.  Julia and Gerry just stopped by for some coffee, and moved on.  Janos showed up about 30 min before the place closed.  When it did, we packed up and headed to a restaurant on the Nieuwe Rijn for some more tea and talking.  

Janos suggested we watch a movie, so (after much debate) we chose 3:10 to Yuma, and went to Silva and Jason's place to watch it.  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the movie!  Really great film!  :-)  Midnight snuck past us all again, and Janos and I finally left.  I couldn't sleep to save my life, so I wrote a poem, and drank some chamomile tea.

Phew.  I need another weekend to recover from my weekend!