by Laura Callaghan, seems to capture what I've been up to (minus the bear, plus some mosquitoes) Nog maar negen daagjes!
Het wordt steeds vreemder om hier te zijn, omdat ik in minder dan twee weken thuis zal zijn.
Hier wordt het nu superdruk, met veel toetsen/assignments/dinners/festivities, dus hopelijk zullen jullie mijn lack of emails begrijpen. Aan het begin werd mij verteld dat MUWCI uit drie 's'en bestond ; slapen, studeren en socialisen. Daarvan lukt het nooit om meer dan twee te doen, waardoor de meesten met een ernstig slaapgebrek rondlopen (je herkent het aan de kleine, rode oogjes, grumpy expression, slumped shoulders en rommelige kleding).
This weekend was MUWCIfest, as well as Christmas Cookie baking, Sinterklaas and the continuous Secret Santa thing we've got going on campus. As one of only four active Dutch members of the community, it meant that we had quite a few poems to write and traditions to explain. It worked out quite well, with the National Committee sending us massive sacks of pepernoten, taai taai, schuimpjes, banketstaven and chocolade letters (amazing. really.) which just about fed the 200+ community, of which most left out their shoes on Sunday night (Sinterklaas shifted his celebration to Sunday here, due to MUWCIfest and the fact that he had a nine hour flight from Holland to India to get).
We also got the Caf(eteria) to cook a 'Dutch' dinner, which was interesting, considering that India doesn't really have much in the way of bacon, or meat at all really. They made mashed potato and carrot with pork sauce (the Indian variation on hutspot) as well as pancakes with watery applemousse and chocolate sauce, pasta (we couldn't think of much Dutch food they'd be able to make), brown bread and veg biriyani (not quite so Dutch but alright). Everyone seemed to like it, though, which is good (:
With a small group of people we also did surprises, which actually worked out quite well. That afternoon, I'd also taught a couple of people how to make speculaas, so although there was no:
snow
cold
very few Dutch
real Pieten
etc
there was some sense of Sinterklaas.
Acting as Pieten, we ran around very early on Monday morning, filling shoes (or not, in the case of one greedy house that had left all their shoes out with a rather rude note informing us to 'FILL EM UP') and picking up nice notes to Sinterklaas (or Sinta Claus, or Sintaklast).
Anyhows, I've got another lesson to go to, so hopefully I'll get round to more updates about Exeat and campus soon!
x
