Where has the sun gone?

One of the things I've noticed here in Holland is the lack of sun. Not just because of all the clouds, but also because of sunset/sunrise times. At the moment the sun is rising around 8:30AM and setting at 4:30PM. Compare this to where I'm from in Canada, where the sun is still rising at 7:30AM, and setting at 4:30PM. With 15 days left until the 21st, I'm curious how much more day time will be without sun. It's a bit depressing... especially since when the sun is up, it's usually covered by clouds. Why did I come here again? And not to Spain or Italy?

Hyvää Joulua!

On Sunday I went to the Finnish market with some friends. One of whom was Finnish. This was very important for me, because I thought the Danish Market was that much more interesting, because I was there with a Dane, who told me what was good and bad. The Norwegian market was not as interesting because there were no Norwegians to give me guidance. So, I met Marjo(Finnish girl) the previous tuesday, and the first thing I said to her on finding out that she was Finnish, was: Wanna go to the Finnish market with me? Fortunately she was agreable.
There was quite a large selection in the Market to choose from, from food to books to handicrafts. I was most interested in food. Here's the Finnish Seaman's Church, which is where the market was:

Inside the supermarket part, they had quite a selection of chocolates and liquorice.

Marjo bought us some karjalanpiirakka. A very funny sounding word, when you say it, it's important to really emphasize the end: karjalanpiira-KA. Anyways, it was rice wrapped in some kind of pastry with scrambled egg on top. A unique but tasty food.
Next was some glogi and joulutorttu. As I already told my Danish friend, the Finnish Glogi was much better than the Danish Glogg. Sorry... The joulutorttu was also quite delicious.

We also bought some different kinds of liquorice. Yummy!

Overall, I've decided I approve of Finnish food. However, another Finnish friend of mine told me that she had never heard of anyone ever eating all these foods together at the same time...

Day 171-173: Dag Sinterklaas!

This past weekend was the annual Sinterklaas CS meeting in Rotterdam. This was the 3rd year it's been held, all in Rotterdam. It was a fun and grueling weekend. Friday night we started off with some dinner in a restaurent before we moved over to a bar for some fast-paced speed dating. Just to remind us, that CouchSurfing is not a dating site... We were given out random questions to ask our dates. Anything from, 'When was the last time you cried?' to "Have you ever cheated on your partner, and did you confess?'. Then depending on the answer they gave, you had to write or draw something on a piece of paper that was taped to their back. Now everyone knows that I like Elvis, and that apparently i'm a californian raisin and will prune... Some people got quite shocking things written on their back. Just ask the kutwijf... ;)
Saturday we headed out in groups on different activities. My group went on a picture quest. We had to do interesting things like imitating certain statues, or asking a random person to pose for a picture with their bike. It was fun, but damn cold. The hot chocolate we got ourselves at the end, definitely restored things to right. After dinner at a nice Turkish restaurent(and this was decent turkish food not the stuff you find on every corner here in Rotterdam), we went to de Unie for a big party. Zwarte Pieten arrived and showered us with pepernoten, and than the big man himself arrived, Sinterklaas. He directed his helpers(slaves?) to carry some off to Spain, and the rest he distributed presents too. I got some nice Polish chocolates, that I shared out, and didn't last the night. The party didn't go very late, but it was still lots of fun. I conducted a language poll, which I'll talk about later, and also went for a swim in the pile of jackets. Sunday we got up very late and went and said our goodbyes. A great weekend!
Although, I did learn that it seems cigarette smoke is leaking into my room from below, making some parts a bit smelly... :( Fortunately, I don't seem to have a strong enough nose to detect it.
Here's the Couchsurfing band rocking out:
All lined up waiting for Sinterklaas!

The big guy himself! Apparently he's been climbing through some chimney's as well... I never did figure out whether the girl was supposed to be his wife or daughter...

During our picture quest tour, the German dude decided to climb onto a boat.

Speedating!

Dag Sinterklaas!