We celebrated Sinterklaas last week - a Dutch tradition similar to Christmas. I find it rather odd to be celebrating it, being used to Christmas and all. Unlike the magical and jolly Santa, Sinterklaas (or St. Nicholas) was an actual bishop once upon a time. His benevolence is what makes him remembered, and on Dec 5th the Dutch celebrates him by putting together a night of feasting on cinammon-based traditional sweets and cakes, exchanging presents and making good-natured fun of each other.
Which is precisely what we did.
The jokes we made were racist to say the least, politically incorrect, ignorant and downright offensive. Which is peculiar, given the fact that most of us were strangers prior to that night. I was invited by a friend of mine, so I did not know most of the people she invited. It was amazing how we immediately show what kind of a retard we all are - perhaps that's why the ice melted that fast, we were bonded by our retardness. It was a wonderful experience to celebrate Sinterklaas with you, the benevolent, jolly and loud retards.
Now - check out what I made. I have to warn you, even I felt abit pathetic as I spend the whole day crafting them. I woke up with a slight hangover, a reminder of the previous night's gala where 2 of my awesome friends swooped Oscars for their Rotterdam Tube Your World video! Them lovely ladies are Team 2 ;) I also love the video made by Team 5 and 16.
Back to the Cookie Decorating Session - I was honestly and unexpectedly enjoying myself, sitting next to the window and drawing on my cookies. I drew some of the things that I think best are best associated with Sinterklaas, namely the Zwarte Piet (black piet, the guy with a feather on his head. Indonesians would recognize him as Santa's helper who will put you in a sack to be enslaved back in North Pole! The beauty of cultural hybrid), Sint and his infamous red hat and of course PRESENTS! At times I got a little bit too creative and start making up my own, like this Jollie-Piet, Bono-Piet and Sponge-Piet with his jellyfish helper.
I know, at one point I felt like I'm looking at myself in pity.
Which brings me to my second point - sugar impedes hangovers.
The next day, I was bbm-ing with my little brother back home only to realize he aint so little no more. We would make the usual random, pointless, utterly ridiculous comments at first, before I asked him whether he is still considering upon studying abroad for his highschool next year. He said no, because he's loving his junior high years and the friends that he made too much. I commented, but how if the new friends that you will make is way better? Wont you regret the decision to stay?
To my surprise, he simply answered: "Well, it's an equal 50-50 chance. That's a 50% chance of me being better off here, which is not enough incentive to move". I was surprised by this simple, somewhat intelligent answer. I would never expect this from him, knowing him for 15yrs now. It dawned upon me how much older he's grown since I've left home. Next year he's entering highschool! I remember some years ago I was in highschool, and he was just this little snotty kid in primary school.
Time sure flies, I wrote to him. Uhuh, he said with his usual indifference.