Over the past few weeks it seems Amsterdam has become my second home, which I'm certainly not complaining about! I'm getting to know my way around better and better each time I go. First I went for my photography course, which is going great. Right now it is only myself and one other student so I'm learning a lot. A few days later I went to Amsterdam again to meet with the daughter of a Voorhout Rotarian. She is also into photography and we had a lot of fun in the city together.. After Amsterdam we returned to her house in Voorhout to have a delicious dinner with Cees and his wife.
A few days later I went again to visit with Fiona, from Kamloops West Rotary. I had a great dinner with her and two of her friends who were all in town for a concert. So nice to see and visit with a familiar Kamloops face! She brought along a few things for me from Kamloops.. including a nice Christmas card from Dona and the rest of Kamloops West. AND my awesome snowboarding helmet to bring to the Swiss Alps :)

I also went a few weeks ago to the Sounds concert with my third host father and sister (again, Amsterdam). They are also taking me to a PAUL McCARTNEY concert on December 9th!! Pretty excited to say the least... The family is great, I'm definitely looking forward to living with them in March!

Gayle, a friend who I used to swim synchro with, came to Amsterdam and we were able to meet up and go to museum night together. Yes, I realize that sounds extremely nerdy but it turned out to be such a cool night. About 42 museums throughout the city are open until 2am showing their exhibits as well as special performances and shows. We mainly went to photography museums which I of course thoroughly enjoyed :) We stayed the night at her very nice aunt's house who coincidentally is a Rotarian.

Aside from Amsterdam excursions I was also in the Hague for a Rotary weekend with the other exchange students. We had a Sinterklaas party, stayed with a host family and did some touring around the city. Overall it was a very fun and well-organized weekend. My favorite place was visiting the Peace Palace which is where the International Court of Justice is. I returned to the Hague a few days later to do synchro with the team there. It was so nice to swim again and I can't wait to return.

I also went to Haarlem with Jos, from Rotary Voorhout, and his wife to see the Teyler's museum which is the oldest museum in the Netherlands.

Right now is an exciting time in the Netherlands as Sinterklaas has arrived! I went to Leiden with Martine and her family to see him arrive by boat in Leiden. There is a parade in each city to celebrate his arrival.

  The story is that Sinterklaas lives in Spain and he arrives in Holland a few weeks before his birthday (December 6th). He is like Saint Nicholas but dressed as a bishop. While he is in Holland he watches the children to see if they are behaving or not. His helper is Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) who is similar to Santa's elves I suppose. He is said to be black because he climbs through chimneys to deliver presents. Children can leave there shoes by the fireplace and sing a song for Sinterklaas and if they're lucky there will be a small present for them in the morning.

Sinterklaas, kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje,

Breng wat in mijn laarsje,

Dank je Sinterklaasje.

Saint Nic'las, my dear one,

Put something in my shoe,

Something in my stocking,

Thank you, Saint Nich-o-las!

Finally, most families celebrate with more presents and festivities on the eve of his birthday, December 5th. It has been lots of fun being with the little girls during this time! We will celebrate it this weekend at Dieteke's parents house.

Last Friday I was taken to a Sinterklaas party where I got to dress up like Zwarte. I guess it might be a little strange for kids to hear the helper of Sinterklaas speak in an accent or with horrible Dutch, but they luckily didn't seem to notice! I guess they were too busy devouring handfuls and handfuls of lekker pepernoten. Tomorrow, I have another Sinterklaas party with Rotary Sassenheim where I'll get to do it all again. :)

Another nice Dutch tradition I've experienced is St. Maarten which is similar to Halloween in a few ways. Younger kids walk around with lanterns door-to-door and sing a song for some candy. I think it's a lot nicer than Halloween because it doesn't involve all of the evil, scary stuff.. but just as fun for the kids. Again, I'm very lucky I have cute little sisters so I could have experienced this..

I'll be switching host families on December 15th.. I guess I'm not to sure how I feel about it yet. Certainly can't complain since I will be leaving for Switzerland a few days after with the Tromps!... but leaving the Goedkoop family will be very hard..  I'm lucky to have all three of my families in one small area so I can always go visit.
Just last week I had to write a report on my exchange for the Fall Rotex Round-Up. I can't even describe how hard it is to describe 3 amazing months on just one page. I know I've said this before... but I seriously have the most supportive and amazing host clubs, counsellor, and host families any exchange student could ever ask for. I just love this cheese covered country.. Certainly couldn't ask for anything more!