Santa Claus or Saint Nicolaas?

The Christmas season has officially started! The streets are decorated and in every store I am treated to a different version of "Santa Claus is coming to town" or about Rudolph with his shining red nose. The radio is daily mentioning how many days to go until the magic Christmas Holiday will happen. The (school)activity list of December is also providing in a lot of nice options to experience and share this season. 

Presentation                                                                                                                      To improve my speaking skills I had the honor to give a presentation in which I was free to choose my topic. Yes: Sinterklaas of course! My first job was to teach them that Sinterklaas has nothing to do with Santa Claus, since (while talking about Christmas) they constantly referred to our Sinterklaas and the black guys. My next job was trying to explain the social discussion that's going on in the Netherlands right now, what is affecting the joy of a very old tradition. And my last goal was to introduce the real Dutch pepernoten;) which I 'd bought in the Dutch shop in LA, specially for this occasion. And they love it!

Visit another American family                                                                                          Michelle, my classmate lives in a homestay and her house mum is a baker. Due to the birthday of our teacher the next day, we got the idea to make him cupcakes at her home. We figured out the recipe in English but the oven seemed not doing well so we extended the baking time. Well, it turned out that the vanilla's all were burnt but thanks to the baker house mum, she helped us out by making an amazing cream. We had to cut off the burnt bottom and to make crumbles of the rest. It became a cake with layers of cream. Honestly, it was better than a cupcake;)  After this adventure she invited me for dinner, a special evening with a small group of the church. So generous! And it was this moment that I saw the largest bag of taco chips ever and such a giant can of cheese sauce like we had to feed the whole neighborhood.

Progress                                                                                                                       We are working in class on a very hard subject: the 3 tenses like the past, present, and future. I've never understood this and I still don't do:(  There are always more options and I'm wondering all the time which one I have to use. My problem is: I think too much and I want to understand the grammar in a logical way but I just have to listen what sounds the best.. By the way, I found out that drinking a cocktail helps a lot to speak fluently haha, no impediments anymore. (This is a new word I learned, cool though?) My vocabulary is increasing and we are learning to use the new words in creative writing. I also made flash cards, like I used to do for my 1st graders and these are very helpful. Maybe, by reading this you can get the impression that I 'm missing my job, the answer is NO, I love to be the student;) Although our test yesterday was horrible...

Gospel Brunch                                                                                                                At the 5th street, just one street ahead is the House of Blues. Me, my classmate and her house mum went to the Gospel Brunch this Sunday, what means: joining a (black) gospel concert while having brunch. Black gospel music gives me so much joy, I m missing my choir, they are in the last rehearsals of the Christmas concerts and I wish I could join them. So this concert made me happy in that way;)

So far, so good! Enjoy the season!

Thanks for your comments, I like it and read them all!