Schnee, Gluehwein and Sinterklaas kapoentje

So, since last entry I have moved into new WG. It is awesome. After I'd lived here for maybe 3 hours, I was already pre-drinking to go out in Muenster with my new flatmate and his mates. I am being well looked after and I think I fit in quite well. Though I have noticed that living in Germany has made me shy; I spent years learning not to be shy, can't be bothered starting again in a whole nother language. Effort.

This weekend also would've been occupied with fun-filled family time in Koeln with Josie and Charlotte; leider, their flight was cancelled because of the snow, and they couldn't get to Deutschland. This was very sad-making. So Koeln weekend was replaced by standard Bochum night out, followed by Weihnachtmarkt (christmas market) time in Koeln with many language assistant friends. We were going to go out for some drinks, but instead ended up buying a lot of gluehwein and staying at Maria's. Om nom nom.

Here's a picture of the wine-making process...

and an action shot of some of the dancing that occurred the next morning, after consuming the leftover Gluehwein.

The next day, me, Glen and Max found ourselves heading to Dortmund on a secret mission to deliver left-behind golden syrup to a deeply concerned Bertpfeife. We rewarded ourselves with a trip to a chinese restaurant. Om nom.

It was also Sinterklaas, one of my favourite holidays of all. It's a Dutch thing; on the 5th of December (or maybe the night before), children leave out their shoes by the fireplace, and Sinterklaas (a bishop from Spain) comes on a boat, with his politically incorrect friend Zwarte Piet. They fill your shoes with sweets if you've been good, or put you in a sack and cart you off to Spain with them if you've been bad.

There's an accompanying Sinterklaas song, which I'd be more than happy to sing to you, and probably will do at some point in your life, whether you like it or not.

And I had an interesting dream about zombies; that's a story for another time.

Last night I went to Essen with the intention of delivering a t-shirt to Joe Chaplin that he'd left at mine (starting to feel a bit like a courier..), stopping for a gluehwein and a chat, then heading back to Bochum at 8ish. 

At 1am, I was drunk in an irish pub, playing Green Day and RHCP songs on guitar with some enthusiastic old men singing along. I proceeded to share a taxi back to hauptbahnhof with Joe and Kate, who was pretending to the taxi driver that she was Spanish, for some unknown reason.

And I still made it to school the next day. 8.40am, no hangover, and I even recently found a shortcut to school from my new flat, cutting my walking time from 11 minutes to a mere 7. This week has been a win.

Dora.
xxx