Smiling underneath =)

First of all, Merry Christmas!!

Well well, another month, another bunch of happenings. I’ll try to keep it as short as possible, seeing as this time of year is already as busy as it is. Anyway, well December so far has been my month of rail tripping around the country to do my interviews for my thesis, of seeing friends I hadn't seen in a while, and of course of (getting ready for) the usual December festivities :) One of those festivities takes us back all the way to the start of December: Sinterklaas (Dutch 'Santa'). My first Sinterklaas celebration was with my fam in Hengelo, which was a great night. Heaps of nice presents and everyone had put a lot of effort and creativity into the traditional surprises and Sinterklaas poems. That’s always the highlight of the night as far as I’m concerned: to see what everyone thought of for the surprises and the slightly cheeky but always funny poems for everyone :) My second Sinterklaas celebration was a few days later in Utrecht with my past and present housemates. Also a very good night with the girls!! Again the creativity and the poems… Some photos of both nights are below, just to give you a bit of an idea!!

Like I said I’ve also been going all around the country this month to do my interviews for my thesis. I’ve become an expert in finding things to do and making myself comfortable on a train. Especially on the long 2 ½ hour journeys up north to Groningen and back – twice on the same day – I had a lot of time on my hands. Usually they were filled with listening to Hamish & Andy podcasts of them roadtripping around Australia and therefore awkward glances from my fellow train travellers around me who were wondering why I was laughing :) Funny stuff… I also caught up with my good friend Yves-Sean in Groningen and stayed the night at his place one night, which was very nice. Hadn’t seen him in way too long, so we had some catching up to do :) Was really good seeing him again.

Doing the interviews is really interesting by the way. I’ve been enjoying hearing other returnees’ stories (my thesis is on returned exchange students and the problems they encounter and why) and learning from other people’s experiences. It’s sometimes a bit confronting too though, coz I recognise lots of different bits and pieces of my own experience in all these very different stories, which can also make it quite tiring. But I’m loving it all the same. Unfortunately the tiredness caught up on me the weekend before last and my immune system was suffering badly, so with the temperatures outside dropping to around 0-5 degrees I came down with a really bad cold. Just the weekend I had decided to stay at my own place in Utrecht instead of going to my parents’ place… But luckily two of my housemates were staying in Utrecht as well that weekend (one of them kindly remarked at some point I looked like I hadn’t slept in two days, and to be honest, that’s kind of how I felt too…) and their TLC plus a lot of sleep and a lot of vitamin C in the shape of oranges and kiwi-fruits helped heaps to get better quickly. And a massive McLeod’s Daughters marathon, haha. It’s all I could bring myself to do: lie in my bed and watch that series :) Gotta love it :)

Then last week was a really good week for me, coz I got to catch up with a few good friends I hadn’t seen or talked to in too long. Like coffee with my friend Roselyn, home-made dinner with my friend Coen, skype with my friend Kyle and like I mentioned before, spending some time with my friend Yves in Groningen. Plus my housemates and I finally got organised enough to go out in Utrecht together again, which we hadn’t done in ages. It was good times, I was smiling underneath all week :) And so far it seems to be that this week is a continuation of that good vibe of last week!! I don’t know, maybe it’s the holiday season working its magic, haha, but I’m loving it at the moment. My mum and I set up our Christmas tree this weekend, which is always something I love doing. It’s just one of those things… And then yesterday I went back to Utrecht for one night, coz I had to return my voice-recorder I had been using to record my interviews before Christmas. It’s strange walking through a near-empty uni with only the sound of your footsteps reverberating against the walls instead of the usual sounds of busy chatter from students. Felt like I was trespassing almost, haha. But anyway, luckily I could combine my short but inevitable trip to Utrecht with going to the movie Australia with my friend Coen Tuesday night. I loved it. The story-line was a huge cliché, but seeing the views of the outback and hearing that Aussie accent and that over the top Australian-ness of it all in some parts of the movie… I could not wipe the smile off my face for most of it because of those things :) And I was in good company, coz I’m pretty sure Coen was smiling about pretty much the very same things (Correct me if I’m wrong…) Definitely good times.

Talked to my Aussie fam this morning for Christmas, which was absolutely great and then I made my way over to my sister’s place and we drove back to Hengelo with the three of us (Renske, Paul and me) from there. So now I’m back at my parents’ place again to celebrate Christmas with the fam. Christmas Day at home and then Boxing Day at my auntie’s with all of my dad’s side of the family, which is a group of about 25-30 people I think. Should be good.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas too with the ones you love around you. Enjoy this special time of the year with all its festivities and have a good one :)
With love and a Christmas hug, Carine
xoxo