Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas world!

This won't be a particularly long post because not so much has happened these past few weeks. I had my birthday on the 10th and officially became an adult. It didn't feel so special even though its a big number, I sort of felt 18 before I was on paper. It was a great birthday with lots of awesome birthday wishes from my family and friends in The Netherlands and in New Zealand. Thank you to everyone who wised me well! Luckily it was the last day of classes at school for the year so it was a pretty cruisey day!

I had my second test week at school, it went pretty well and I understood A LOT more of the tests (which are in Dutch) than I did first time around, so I'm pretty happy. The Dutch has definitely improved I think (despite all my friends correcting my word order all the time...Thank guys <3 ).

Today is Christmas Day! A few people have asked me what Christmas is like over here. From what I have seen so far, its pretty similar to NZ except it is a bit colder, 13 degrees instead of a swim worthy 25 ish. However it is meant to be about 3-4 odd degrees at this time of year so this is a very warm Christmas for the people in Den Haag! But it is still very much a family time and lots of food and it is very nice :)

This time of the year is also a bit sad for me as I know I have 5 weeks left of my 5 month adventure of a lifetime. I know leaving this amazing country will be hard because I am very much at home here, but it'll be good to see everyone from my New Zealand life again. Bittersweet will be a word I'll use lots these next few weeks to describe the emotions I am having now. But I am glad I have 1 and a bit months left to make amazing memories and have a lot of fun with some of the most amazing people I've ever met. I will honestly miss a lot of people and I hope I'll be able to come back soon and see you all! <3

I hope every one is having a great holiday and making the most of it! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone :) Also, pictures!

1. Church in Delft
2. Me and my host brother out for my birthday dinner (note, I am eating a Kiwi Fruit, NOT a Kiwi ;) )
3. View of the outside of the upper house of the Dutch Parliament
4. A little lake in a park close to where I live

Sinterklaas came to town

Hello world!

These last 3 weeks a lot has happened. My school moved to a new building, I went to Kinderdijk with my family, went to Almere with some exchange students and Sinterklass came to town!

Starting with Kinderdijk, it is the biggest tourist trap in The Netherlands (I think). It's where you go to see a few thing the Dutch are famous for, windmills (19 of them), dikes and tulips in the spring (probably). It was really amazing to see how some Dutch people use to live. One of the mills we went in to and I was really astounded to learn that 15 people lived inside that mill. For a place which really wasn't that big, it would have been a pretty cramped life!It does make me glad to live in the 21st century. Picture below



Now for the last 2 or so years, my school here has been building a new building (so basically a new school as it is a one building school) and last week we had our first day in the new building! Everyone was excited to move as the 'temporary' building wasn't designed to be a school and was a bit small for 700 students. I wasn't as pumped however so I was a bit lost on all the hype, but I can understand now as this new building is really big and I think it is pretty nice compared to the old place which was a bit worse for wear after 2 years of students in it. In saying that, the bell in the new school is VERY loud and the inside is VERY white and has a slight 'office/hospital' feel to it. But apart from that, I think everyone is happy to have moved! Photos below. I'll add some more later



Almere was an excursion that I went on with other exchange students (from my organization) who live in Den Haag, Gouda and from a few other towns surrounding the near The Hauge (which I don't know the names of. My Dutch geography is still a work in progress). What we did was something that wasn't very active but still quite enjoyable. We went outside this artsy place to a nature park of sorts. There we all picked a plant and then took it inside to paint. I actually took this seriously and tried to make a good image of the plant I had. Below is the photo, the only thing which I think that went bad to a degree was the was the stem. But I had a great day and it was good to see lots of people again!



On the 5th of December, Sinterklaas came to my home to bring presents (similar to Santa Claus but Sinterklaas is the original). Sadly we didn't get to see him, but he has a lot of houses to go to ;) ! This is a tradition which many Dutch families celebrate and I found it really gezellig and leuk to experience! It didn't feel like presents are the highlight of the day (which I sort of feel is a big bit about x mas in NZ) but rather for the story behind Sinterklaas's coming to the Netherlands from Spain and the troubles he and the Zwarte Piet have before the 5th and the family atmosphere at home make it really enjoyable and mean a lot more to the people involved. However, maybe that is because I am growing up. Regardless, I really enjoyed that bit of the Dutch culture! The Sint gave me chocolate, and a few Dutch souvenirs which I found really nice!


Coming up next week I have another test week at school! Every exam/test over here really matter for students and I can feel the stress some people have when it comes to the ones coming up. It was noticeable last time we had a week like this as well but I didn't understand it as much. But I understand it a lot better now so I don't take it personally (some people seem to get more edgy as well around this time but I can completely get it). While these don't tests don't matter for me as my grades don't count for anything, I have the self given challenge of getting better marks this time round than last time. Which will hopefully tell me if I have improved my dutch or not! (I think it has improved a lot).

Anyway that is all for now. This will be my last post while I am 17 years old as this Thursday is my 18th birthday. If I am honest, I'm not completely hyped for this one (even though it is a big number both here and in NZ)...I'm not sure why but I hope it is a great day anyway!

But that isn't so important :) Tot later!