Day 13 of the 25 Days of Amanda's Birthday

Day 13 is, of course, my actual birthday. It started at 7:30 am when Carl, Pete, and Kate pounded on my door bearing gifts. They sang to me in two languages. That's never happened before.

I was working all day, but Carien came back from her trip around 3:00 and I went off to get ready for the ball. I ended up just wearing the black dress I brought with me from home. I didn't think it would be formal enough, but it was better than buying a new one.

Ruud picked me up earlier than expected, but I was ready to go. We got on the bus with all the other ball-goers and traveled an hour and a half to the caves near Maastricht, where the event was held. We were there by 7:30, but dinner wasn't ready until almost nine.

By the way. There were a great many dresses more formal than mine, more "prom-like" which was what I expected -- but there were also a few like mine, and even so, I didn't feel out of place in the least. So, good news.

We ate, we drank wine, we sort of danced but there were a lot of people and not a lot of room. The band was nice -- I'm told they're one of the best cover bands in the Netherlands. Ruud's sister Lieke was with us, as well, and I met a lot of Ruud's friends. One of them was in New York a few weeks ago running the marathon. Another had spent a year in Minnesota -- his English was perfect.

We got home at 5:00 am. I'm still tired. I'm too old for this.

Happy Thanksgiving, belated.

We had a thanksgiving celebration here, though we had to do it a day early since Carien was leaving on a trip on Thursday. Carien's parents and sister were here, Megan came up from Maastricht, and Ruud came over after he got off work. Poor kid was pretty nervous, having never before celebrated thanksgiving. Do we give gifts? Do we sing? Do we have to talk about what we're thankful for? Nope. We just eat.

The highlight was that I made a pecan pie. I had never made one before, but it was awesome. My awesome pecan pie. It was super-dark, since we couldn't find corn syrup and I had to use a butterscotch syrup of similar consistency. I even nailed the crust. Perfection. Awesome.

Sinterklaas! Sinterklaas! en natuurlijk Zwarte Piet!

On Tuesday afternoon, we took the kids out of school and journeyed to Helmond to visit Sinterklaas at the castle.

We waited in line for about an hour, during which many of the Zwarte Pieten entertained us with juggling, bicycling, dancing, jumping rope, climbing, etc.





We also admired Americo, the horse on which Sinterklaas rode into town.



Once inside, we were led through several rooms by the Zwarte Pieten. There was the bedroom where the Zwarte Pieten sleep. We woke one of them up, poor fellow. He was the housemaster, and he showed us all the keys he's responsible for.



He led us into the dining room where he chastised two of the Pieten for playing a game while they should have been working.

We were led into the kitchen, where three Zwarte Pieten were hard at work making pepernoten -- bite-sized gingerbread cookies.



We saw the classroom, where Professor Piet was teaching a class of unruly Piets -- one of whom got in such trouble he had to leave the room.



Then we saw the man himself. He talked to all the kids and gave them each a little bag of pepernoten and other candy.

Voetbal en verjaardag.

Also on Saturday, Ruud and I went to a soccer game -- Eindhoven's PSV against Rotterdam's Excelsior. PSV won 4-0, which isn't unusual, I guess. They are consistently one of the best teams in the country. They have more money than a lot of the other teams, so they can hire better players. Simple as that. It was a great time -- I'd been wanting to go to a game for a while. Even better was that I got to use Ruud's dad's season ticket.

Then we went to Ruud's mother's birthday celebration in Helmond. There were many people there, about half of whom I had met in Germany, so it felt like home. Three people told me how they had looked up South Dakota on Google Earth.

6-8 Black Men

Read the David Sedaris chapter of that title, and you'll have a pretty good idea about this Sinterklaas holiday.

On Saturday, Sinterklaas, who looks much like Santa Claus but certainly is not, arrived in Holland. He took the boat from Spain with his many Zwarte Piets (translation: Black Piet), where he and his helpers, the Zwarte Piets, live all year. This event was televised. Live.

But the journey wasn't without its troubles. First, Sinterklaas landed in the wrong port. Then Zwarte Piet lost the big book with all the names of the children in the Netherlands. Carl cried.

Every night around 5:30, from now until December 5, we get a 30-minute televised update on Sinterklaas and the missing book.

Sinterklaas will be visiting all the towns in the Netherlands between now and the actual holiday (often many towns at the same time!), talking to the kids and gathering wish lists. On Tuesday we're going to the castle in Helmond, where he is staying for the next couple of weeks.

Knockin' 'em down.

I made it to Antwerp on Friday. They have the Rubens museum there, so I was a happy, happy art-museum goer. Other than that, I didn't do much -- shopped, admired diamonds, had lunch. The waiter offered to show me around Antwerp that night. Generous of him, hmm?

Instead, I went back to Ruud's and we made dinner. We were going to go to the national park (they have wild boars there! wild boars!) on Saturday, but it was raining so we chickened out. Biking around the wilderness isn't so much fun when you're soaked. So we went to Breda and watched Borat.

I have to find a dress. Only two weeks until the formal event.

There will always be a list.

Yes, there's a lot I still want to do. And it's really hard to find the motivation when it's cold outside. Biking to and from the train station and getting lost in large cities isn't so pleasant when it's freezing and you forgot your gloves.

So I put Antwerp off for today. Thought about going. It's just really cold. But the opportunities to do so are shrinking. I just thought about the amount of time I have left in terms of weeks. Yikes. Unless.....well.

Good things are coming. The 25 Days of Amanda's Birthday, for starters. A gala with Ruud. Sinterklaas. Rotterdam, Antwerp, and the national park, when I get around to them. Jack and Joel and a three-week (maybe four-week?) trip. Only two weeks for them. We start in Berlin on Christmas Day.

On the Go.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm half-panicked at the thought of everything I still want to do and the very little time left in which to do it. Unless...well, who knows.

Last weekend was spent largely in Tilburg and Den Bosch with the fellow, eating nice dinners and defending my tennis abilities. Tomorrow there will be a movie, and I rather hope it's Little Miss Sunshine or The Departed. Other recommendations?

Then came Halloween. We celebrated in grand style, even though the Netherlands does not observe the holiday. I had the kids trick-or-treating upstairs as I rushed from room to room to answer the doors, and we had bat wings and eyeballs for dinner.

Thursday I went to Maastricht to catch up with Megan, who has been studying there since late August. I spent the night; we went to the World Press Photo exhibit which is currently displayed in Maastricht and to the Bonnefantenmuseum, a contemporary art gallery. We had a fantastic time there. It's definitely a good idea to take a buddy with you to a contemporary art museum. It quadruples the fun.