Hup Hup Holland!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first night of our weekly mentor dinner sessions. This week, the mentors cooked a "traditional" Dutch meal for the students - but next week the students will start to cook. We met by the McDonalds (yes there is a McDonald's here, haven't tried the McKrokets yet) and the mentors picked us up by bicycle and we rode back to Jaap's place. All twenty of us crowded into the small kitchen where we enjoyed some stamppot and sausage. Stamppot is a mashed potato mixed in with some sort of green veggie - if anyone remembers what that veggie is I would be grateful! For dessert we had some delicious poffertjes.

I spent the majority of dinner speaking with a really nice pair of Canadians. They are just a few years older than I but were married only one month ago. What a way to spend a honeymoon! Once dinner was finished, everybody, including all the other mentor groups, met in town to have a "Welcome to Holland Party"!!

Everybody had to show their Dutch spirit and wear creative orange and Netherlands flag coloured outfits. Luckily, the girls and I had done some patriotic shopping and found some excellent things to wear. We found large "Holland" boxers to wear as shorts and bought bright orange leggings to wear underneath! With my orange shirt and dyed orange hair I was quite the sight! The best part is, we can all use this stuff again for the Carnivale in three weeks.

At the "LG" as we call it, everyone looked great in their outfits. In fact, there was even a contest to see who had the best outfit. Guess who won?........ ME!! When the three nominees were mentioned, I couldn't believe it! To help me win the title - Susie (one of the mentors) let me borrow her 'authentic' Dutch hat and feather boa. It was GEZELLIG!