Holiday celebration with Mar's family

12/3/22

Last Saturday, my host Mom Mar and I went to her mom's house and we celebrated Sinterklaas with the family. It was Mar, her mom, Mar's sister, Mar's sister's husband, and Mar's sister's daughter. The Netherlands v USA world cup game started right when we got there, so of course, we watched that. Jon, Mar's sister's husband, was really into the game. Apparently, soccer is the most popular sport in the Netherlands. Dad says that Netherlands is the best soccer team to have never won a World Cup. But, as you probably saw, the Netherlands won. After the first goal they scored, the sports announcer said "Eat your heart out, Captain America!" That was funny. Also, their fans dress up crazy. All in orange and all in festive costumes. When the weather is nicer and the Dutch play well, people hang orange decorations across the street. I think that's so cute cause that means they had to have planned that with their neighbors.

*how some Duch people decorate the streets

Then, we had dinner. Mar's mom made Indonesian food, and it was so so good. She made chicken skewers, another chicken dish that was like sweet and sour chicken, Indonesian fried rice, fried bananas and apples, a green bean dish, pickled cucumbers that were not pickles, and grilled pineapples with a savory sauce covered in it. We also ate shrimp chips with it that tasted like puffy air but they were really good. They also had sauce that they warned me was super spicy, but it was in fact, not spicy at all. Like genuinely, no spice.

We then moved to the living room and did Sinterklaas. Their family does "suprise" for Sinterklaas which is a little hard to explain, so I'll try my best. Basically, it's Secret Santa and they randomly get one person and get them a gift. But then, they wrap that gift in a fake gift that is something that the person getting the gift likes or wanted to get this year. They also make poems for each other about the past year and the gifts that they got the other person.

Mar got her sister and she bought her eyebrow gel, but she put it in a cake she baked because her sister loves sweets! Mar's sister's husband got his daughter and gave her a book, but put it in a fake book that he made. It was a book about Enna (his daughter's name is Anne) and it was a coming-of-age about a girl who is starting a new chapter in her life and growing up. How freaking cute. Anne-Louise got her dad and made him a stage because he plays the bass and is in a band. In the stage, was a book. Mar's sister got Mar and put Mar's present in a car because Mar wants a new car. I got Mar's mom and I made her a "wonderpan", a pan that can make any food she wishes because she loves to cook. Mar's mom got me. She gave me a vitamin bottle with a note inside it that said "go upstairs." Anne-Louise and I went upstairs and found another present. It was another vitamin tube with another note that read "oops, I meant the waiting room." We went to the waiting room and in the dark, there was this:

A little bit terrifying. It's supposed to be me. Mar's mom wrote a poem about me coming to the Netherlands and living a new life and discovering myself. Reading the poem is definitely one of the highlights of my exchange so far. Inside my present, was a puzzle of a painting from the Rijksmuseum.

I felt really loved. I got so many presents from the family and it was so fun to see everyone open their suprise and read their poems.

-Amelia