Merry Christmas :)

Time always seems to fly at the end of the year. Only a few more days 'til Christmas and before you know it, it's 2006!! Crazy times...

Well, what's new... I'm finally done with Sinterklaas and eating way too many pepernoten :) Only since last week really, because, although we had planned to have Sinterklaas 6 December, me and my roommates ended up having it the 13th. That was heaps of fun, everybody had done a really good job on the surprises and poems :) Everybody obviously seems to think I've got something with Australia this year (I wonder why.. ;) ) as Loes made me a kangaroo-pillow, which was really cute :) It was an awesome night, but Karlijn had some sad news that night too... She had found a new place to live, so she's moving out. We're going to have interviews tonight to pick a new room mate. Exciting times :)

Sinterklaas might be gone though, but Santa Claus has taken his place. We've fully decorated our living room in Christmas style :) We put up a christmastree and stuff. Lydia, Loes and I had so much fun doing it :) We're planning on a complete make-over of our living room anyway... Tomorrow we'll paint some of the walls and we're going to throw out everything we've got in our living room now and put in a bigger dining table very soon too, so we can finally all eat without being squashed :) Should be awesome :) We're also going to have our Christmas dinner tomorrow, which is also Karlijn's goodbye dinner. I think it's going to be heaps of fun though :)

I've finally got holidays :) Had a big exam last Thursday night, which went okay :) After the exam (6.30 pm!!), I went home, quickly had dinner, and then got ready for going out :) I had to be in the city by 9 to meet up with Madelein and Alex, because we were going to a sneaknight in Utrecht. The sneaknight was just awesome :) First, they had this bigband playing and then a music trio and they were both very good. Next was a really funny little movie and then came this guy, "the singing vegetableman" with his guitar singing all kinds of songs about vegetables. So funny!! :D At the end there was some cabaret as well, which was funny too. So it was a very culturally responsible, but most of all fun night. Coming out of the sneak-night, Alex, Madelein and I went to Tivoli through the rain and met up with Roos and Quinten and Maarten there. Tivoli was fun as always :) Then came the time to go home, and it was raining so bad!! So I came home totally soaked and cold, so I was only in bed by 5 when I had finally warmed up a bit again. Two and a half hours later, my alarm clock went off again, because I had to go to class. My last class before the holidays :) It was useless as ever, but over earlier than expected, so I was really happy :) Holidays at last :) Friday afternoon I caught up with my friend Susan and we had some hot chocolat and I showed her my place. That was really good, and we also caught up on the latest gossip about our mutual friends, which is always good to know :)

Stayed in Utrecht for the weekend and haven't done much at all. I put up heaps of photos on my wall, so it's not so empty anymore :) Looks really coowl now :)

And yesterday I went to the beach with Maarten :) I was so excited :) I just love the beach and hadn't been there in ages!! And it's only about 1 1/2 hours from Utrecht, so we went to the beach. It was awesome :) We were just walking on the beach and through the dunes and I absolutely loved it. We went back via The Hague, where (I'm very ashamed...) I had never actually been as far as I can remember. So Maarten, who's very politically engaged, insisted on showing me the parliamentary buildings in The Hague. Just like the many Japanese tourists that were there, I took a touristy photo in front of it as you can see below, haha. So then we went back to Utrecht and we had plans on making lasagna at Maarten's place, but I ended up feeling really sick all of a sudden when we got out of the train, so instead I went to bed as soon as I got home :( But now I'm fine again :) And the beach was still awesome :)

Anyway, a very merry Christmas to all of you :) I'm hoping for a white Christmas, but it doesn't look like we'll have one this year. Even less chance you'll be having a white Christmas though :P But have a good one anyway :) Love Carine