Kerstdaag

Merry Christmas! Here in Maastricht, there was definitely a festive spirit in the air. We spent Sunday night at the Kerstmarkt in Aachen, Germany, buying those last minute gifts, and of course, some 1/2 meter brotwursts and mushroom stuffed potatoes. Dana also tryed

deperately to buy some nice table linens, but we would not allow it. We kept stalling for time so she couldn't go back to the booth to make her purchase and she couldn't understand why we were so mean. As it turns out, Michelle had already bought her the exact same linens, and they were waiting for her under the Christmas tree!

On Christmas eve night, we went to midnight mass at the St. Servaas Basilica. They had a full choir and orchestra to sing all the hymns for us that night. Apparently the choir has been doing this for 300 years, as of 2008.

Christmas morning was, as per usual, a whirlwind of unwrapping, coffee drinking, and clothing modeling. We then spent the rest of our time watching movies, and preparing dinner. Mike and I fixed up Michelle's bike, and then he and Dana took a quick ride around town.

That night we had what was probably the most expensive ham we'll ever eat. We also took advantage of an important polish custom, and passed around the Christmas wafer (Thanks mom!) (see photos).

Yes, so Merry Christmas! I wish you all could be here with us!

Hoe is het weer?

Another day, another exciting experience in the Netherlands. The last few days the Berny's and I ventured up to Amsterdam via train to meet with Michelle, and then got to play tourist in Holland's biggest and most well know city.

We saw some important sites, mainly the Anne Frank Huis, and took a pretty sweet canal tour on a boat.


We also enjoyed the decadent parts of Amsterdam that everyone talks about. This included tasting and drinking lots of liquors at a place called Wynand Focking, with flavors like Aardbei (strawberry) Sinaasappel, (orange) and Appeltaart (apple pie). They were wonderful.





We also took a trip through the red light district, which, while very seedy, was not nearly as unsafe and dirty as one might imagine. We weren't able to take too many photos there, because in many parts they aren't allowed.
<-(this one isn't the red light districht, but the Rijksmuseum) The next morning we woke up to a wintry surprise. Well, maybe not so much a surprise, as we were freezing our back sides off the night before, but things sure looked a lot prettier the next morning.


We then took a train to Delft and stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast about a 20 min walk out side of town. The landscape was the most amazingly winter-like that I have been in for years.

We walked around town, and found a closed Delft pottery factory so we decided to return to a different one the next day. On our way we played on a frozen lake, but only momentarily. The ice began to crack loudly. It sounded like an explosion under the ice. We vacated immediately.

From there we took a train back through Eindhoven and to Maastricht. On our way home there was a stunning sunset over a cool windmill. But that's more of a Holland thing, not a Limburg thing :)

Home alone

Michelle is spending the next few days off the mainland in Birmingham, England to run some experiments with her supervisor from the states who is out visiting, so I have the house all to myself. I've been spending most of my time getting things ready for our guests who will be arriving tomorrow. In case you haven't heard, Michelle parents, Mike and Dana, are coming for Christmas! And just in time for them to see, our tree is all decorated!

So how have I been spending all this time without Michelle? Well, nothing too exciting. I'm currently trying to co-ordinate a multinational operation to get some papers I need to solidify my residency here in the Netherlands. It involves me arranging the paperwork by phone here from Maastricht, so my mom can pick them up in Portland, after calling Michelle in England to get permission to have access to one of her forms, and then bringing them to Salem for an official stamp, after which they will find their way here to Eindhoven, and the IND or Dutch immigration office. If you think you're confused, let me tell you this is just the most recent hoop for me to jump through to stay here for a year! And of course this is after teaching 3 English lessons to some business people in Taiwan... The world is indeed shrinking...

So I celebrated with what the Dutch consider a "Big American" Pizza, and some nice Dutch beer. Maybe a movie will be in the cards too...

Here's to hoping the Berny's listened to my pleas, and brought our little angel with. Goedennacht.

----------------------------------------------------------------->>>>

Fietsen

One of the biggest activities here in Maastricht, and in all of the Netherlands is biking. So I thought I'd share a little about the places Michelle and I go on our "Fietsen."

There are countless bike paths all over the region, and it is possible to travel from Maastricht, to Belgium, to Germany and to pretty much any city in the Netherlands by bike. The picture to the right is a photo of one of the many map points that show you what trails you can take where. This one happens to be in Belgium.

The other weekend we took a route south that brought us up a very rare big hill. (Rare in the fact that most of the country is completely flat). We were able to check out some old forts overlooking the city, and some beautifully eerie, fall like landscape.

(we called this one the civil war field...)

We also found an entrance to the famed Maastricht underground,

But as you can see, it was locked, so we didn't go in :(

So bike riding is definitely the way to go here. If you do come visit (did I mention you should?) then I recommend getting in bike riding shape before hand :)

It's beginning to look alot like...

It's Sinterklaas's birthday today, and I guess even the fact that Michelle and I aren't Dutch doesn't keep his magic away. First of all, we finally heard from Michelle's parent's this morning after what I hear was quite a nasty storm. Hopefully soon my family will get phone/power back too!

Then, I was hired by an online English teaching firm! So I'll be giving instruction via web cam to people in Asia hoping to learn English. And just after learning about that, company in Aachen Germany said they were interested in seeing my resumé, because they too have need for English teachers. So I suppose I'll be adding teacher to the list of job's I've held now. Who would have thunk?

So in order to celebrate, I decided it was time to make things around here look more like Christmas, so I bought a tree! But here they don't cut them down... they leave them in the container, roots and all, so they don't have to go away each year. Of course, Lord knows what Michelle and I are going to do with a tree for the rest of the year, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So happy holidays to all! It looks like Christmas might come twice this year :)

Oh, and I almost forgot, Michelle actually got a literal Sinterklaas present in the form of a chocolate message. Apparently he must visit the hospital each year :)

Sinterklaas

Every year there is the same debate; how can Santa possibly deliver all those toys to all those houses in one night? Most people say "that's impossible! Blah blah laws of physics this, and science that." Well, the answer is quite simple: He doesn't deliver them to every country on the same night.

Here in the Netherlands, Santa (or Sinterklaas as he is called) arrived two weeks ago, via steamboat in northern Holland, and has worked his way around the country since. Tonight, on the eve of his birthday (Dec. 6th) he will visit all the boys and girls of the Netherlands, and fill their shoes with Candies or perhaps leave a cadeautje (small present).

There is a bit of controversy about his helpers that he brings when he comes to the Netherlands. I imagine that since his elves are busy preparing for Christmas in few weeks, (when he'll visit the US, UK, Germany, Russia and Scandinavian countries); he instead brings "Zwarte Piet."

Now Zwarte Piet used to be an Ethiopian slave, until Sinterklaas bought him his freedom, so now Piet is pumped, and has agreed to help Sinterklaas every year here in The Netherlands (and neighboring countries, Belgium and Luxemburg). If a child is bad, rather than coal, piet puts the kid in a burlap sack and brings them to Spain (and you think you had it rough with coal...). The controversy is that according to Dutch tradition, Zwart piet is black skinned, "as a symbol of the demon that has to perform good deeds." So those here who dress up in tribute to zwarte piet...well, the photos speak for themselves.

But I'm assured by many that there is nothing racist about it........

Anyhow, as far and Michelle and I are concerned, we'll probably save our presents for Christmas as usual (Santa has a knack for finding us Americans on Christmas day, even if we live abroad). But we'll still celebrate tomorrow night with a sinterklaas party down by the train station.

And for those of you Santa doubters out there, remember two things; first, he doesn't do all his work around the world on Christmas Eve... he breaks it up so it's more manageable. And second, he doesn't have to visit everyone's house in the world... just those who still believe in him ;)

Prettige verjaardag van Sinterklaas!

Winterland!

Apparently Maastricht is a very rich city, because it seems every week there is something new in the vrijtof square. One week there was a carnival, another week a huge stage with music, and beer tents. Well, for the past couple weeks, they've been constructing an entire village in the square, and it finally opened Saturday. Naturally we had to check it out.

So in this relatively tight space, they managed to put up 3 different cafes with lots of seating, dozens of snack and beer booths, a super fun slide, a ferris wheel, a carousel, shopping, and a big ol' ice skating rink!

So we enjoyed what I consider the first night of winter (1st of December) in the square. We didn't quite get to do everything, but no matter, it'll be around till the 3rd day of next year :)

Apparently I skate so fast, the camera can't keep track...Michelle did a lot better than these photo's indicate :)