Sinterklaas fest and the past few days

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In between all my travels and day trips, I've actually been going to school, believe it or not! 😊

This past Saturday, I met up with Nina for a weekly coffee break. We decided to try out a new cafe called Le Monde (means "The World" in French). The place was quieter and more like a restaurant than a bar/cafe. We both just had a cappucino and the bill came out to 3.30 euros. I only had a 20 euro bill and so I gave it to the waiter guy and Nina gave me some change. The waiter returned with my change and left. I looked down at my change: one 20 euro bill, one 10 euro bill, and a 1 euro coin... I'm so confused! I stare down at the change trying to figure out what happened. I guess the waiter thought the 20 bill was a 5 euro bill since they're similar in color (blue/grey). So Nina and I got 2 cappucinos for free and I also gained 11 euros! Sweeet!

This has never happened to me before and I thought about telling the guy about his mistake. Then I realized this must be payback for all my good karma. =)

Plus, I had to buy Janne a gift for Sinterklaas on Tuesday. The five of us plus Jasper decided to do a "Secret Santa/Sinterklaas" gift exchange. Luckily I got Janne because I wanted to buy her a present anyway and also it's much easier to buy girls gifts. Nina and I did the weekly visit to H&M (man, I will miss this store so much) and I bought Janne 3 pairs of really warm and cute socks with monkey faces at the toes.

Yesterday- Tuesday

Happy Sinterklaas. Unlike Christmas, yesterday was a normal working day for everybody. I met up with Wiebke at her house and we chatted and enjoyed making coffee from her brand new 7 euro coffee machine.

The rest of the day was so useless and I really didn't make use of my time very well (what else is new?).

That evening we all got together downstairs to exchange the gifts. Instead of just handing it to the person, Jasper had dice and each person had to go around and try to roll a 6. If you did, then you choose a present, read the name on it and hand it to the person. This was really cool and kind of made the whole thing last a bit longer. Janne really really liked her socks and put them on right away. I love seeing the face of the person as they open up a gift.

Along with the gift, the Sinterklaas tradition is to write a poem for the other person. I unfortunately couldn't understand the other's poems as they read them outloud - mine was pretty cheesy for Janne. The gift I got was from Arjan - he got me a box of Kruidnoten which is a particular thing to give for Sinterklass. They're quarter-sized crunchy cookies that I think are similar to gingerbread snaps or something. He also gave me a cute plush keychain of a horse.

Today

I have my last class today at the university. It's quite crazy to think how little class I actually had. For my user support class there were 10 classes and I missed 2 (one when I was in Hannover and the other when I was in Italy). The multicultural class only met 8 times and I missed one class. So in the whole 4 months of studying I officially only had 18 classes and went to 15...this really is my vacation. Although I barely had class there was a lot of side studying and work to do on my own.

I still have to work on the big paper for my multicultural communication class. It's due on January 1st, so I'll probably be working on it over the Christmas vacation. As for the user support class, I have to pick a day to do the one-on-one oral exam with the professor. I think the only time I'll have is next week, which means I have to go crazy and study like mad. My presentation with Andra in the multicultural class is next Thursday the 14th.

Before I know it, I'll be home in Seattle and getting used to taking the bus everywhere instead of my bike, buying 2 weeks worth of groceries at a time instead of buying food for one dinner, dressing like the typical Seattlite in fleece and carrying my nalgene around instead of dressing up a bit nicer and wearing sweats only at home.

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One more thing to add to this blog:

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DAYS 

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HOURS 

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MINS 

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SECS

Until Myia is in Paris!!

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