Sweet Potato Gnocchi, The "Black" School, "Kunt u dat herhalen, alstublieft?," And Serving on a Fulbright Selection Panel

Well! Another week, another...week closer to Christmas! Yeah!

Here in Holland, they:

a) Do not celebrate Halloween, although they do have a similar holiday called Sint Martijn. I think it's Martijn. It could just be "Martin." I'm still so far from the ability to spell things in Dutch...Anyway! On Sint Martin (we'll just mix up the spelling, shall we) children go around (apparently mostly in the north of Holland) and sing songs at people's front doors in order to get candy. They don't wear costumes, they just sing. Now, this makes a lot of sense, folks. If you want candy, you should have to work for it a bit. Apparently some old geezers only give out mandarins (that's part of the tradition too), and that is like, not COOL, you know? But most houses give out little candy bars or gummies, just like for our Halloween. The kids learn the songs (some are short, some are long) in elementary school. How cute is that? I wish I could have done that...I know everyone in the U.S. would think I was completely off my rocker, but as a child who loved to sing, I would have relished a holiday where I could go about and sing to my little heart's content, in order to get candy. That would have been, like, my childhood dream. 

b) Celebrate a holiday called Sinterklaas, on the 5th of December. Sinterklaas, if I'm not mistaken, centers on Santa, yes, and his black servants, who I think are called Zwarte Piets (Black Petes). Or perhaps there's just one Zwarte Piet. Regardless, they've caused a lot of hub-bub because, well, they're black. And servants. And it's all a bit confused, but I gather that some people feel this is an under-handed, long-lasting racist thing. You see, when Sinterklaas plays are acted out, it's usually a white Dutch lad in blackface who plays Zwarte Piet. This has caused some (understandable) debate. Zwarte Piet may have been many things before he joined Sinterklaas, including a freed slave, a moor, or a symbol of Odin's ravens. So, the origin may not be bad, but, well, blackface is always a touchy subject.

On Sinterklaas, traditionally you put out a shoe by the fireplace, which Sinterklaas then fills with gifts, much like our Santa Clause putting presents under the tree. Sinterklaas, unlike Santa, only has one white horse, not a fleet of reindeer, and no sleigh. But they do put out carrots for the horse, like we do for the reindeer. Although they don't put out cookies for Sinterklaas. Sad, really. Sinterklaas deserves a snack too!

Many families give presents on Sinterklaas, and not on Christmas. Many of the Dutch people I've talked to about this say that Christmas is more of a day for family and a big meal, etc. It's interesting, because they don't have Thanksgiving, so everything right now is starting to hint at Sinterklaas, from the special cookies in every store (called Speculaas) to the people buying "Kerst" gifts. It still feels a bit early to me, to be buying Christmas gifts, but I've caught the bug, and I'm sure I'll be buying Christmas gifts left and right shortly here. It helps that because Sinterklaas is on the 5th, everyone is really motivated to snag presents now, seeing as the holiday is only a month away.

Last weekend, pretty much the only useful thing I did (it was a kind of lazy weekend) was to make sweet potato gnocchi.

They were really, really good. Basically, it's just sweet potato mashed up and added to flour and kneaded into a smooth dough, and boiled. I froze half the batch and made up the other half, part for eating, and part for snacking on later. So good. After I boiled them, I grilled them in a little bit of olive oil with fresh garlic and sage. So tasty.

Because last weekend was kind of, well, laze-tastic, I vowed to make this week more productive. On Monday, I went to a school in Amsterdam that is termed a "black" school, because the majority of students who attend it are Moroccan or Turkish. I could talk about this subject for hours, but what it basically boils down to is this: The Dutch do not like the giant immigrant population that has grown up under those noses. This immigrant group was originally brought (yes, brought) to Holland in order to do manual labor. The main components of this immigrant group are of the Muslim faith. This has created a current of religious anger - after all, Holland is still a pretty staunchly Protestant country - but there's also a lot of anger over the fact that the Moroccans and Turkish people seem to have no desire to integrate (whatever integration means, and it absolutely changes depending on who you ask...). The immigrants feel the Dutch owe them gratitude for "re-building" their country. The Dutch are frustrated at a group of people they see as users. So, yeah. There are black and white schools here. The black schools have a majority of immigrant children (the children of immigrants, most of these kids are second generation), and the white schools have the Dutch kids. The odd thing is, the immigrant kids I had class with are Dutch. They were all born here, they all have Dutch nationality. But not a one of them would identify him or herself as being Dutch. The separation is so blatant. And so upsetting. The kids themselves were genuine and wonderful, though, and asked a lot of hard, interesting questions. Most of them were Muslim, and so they were very curious about how Americans treat Muslims, and what kind of laws exist to protect Muslims (like, for a Muslim to get a job, etc.). I was very honest with them, and I shared my opinion, and what I felt was a...rough, general opinion for the U.S. The visit was mentally exhausting, but all the better because of it. Who among us hasn't felt the strange...catharsis, perhaps, of having a really long philosophical discussion with someone fervently curious about what you have to say?

So that was Monday. I spent the rest of the week calling, and re-calling, and calling back again, every parent I could find in the database. Most parents are too busy to be in a study, which they tell me in very rapid, distressed Dutch. As I told one person, it's basically a test of how brave I am on any given day, seeing as I have to repeatedly call people knowing, at some point in the conversation, I will inevitably embarrass myself. And so we come to the phrase, "Kunt u dat herhalen, alstublieft?" Which means, "Could you please repeat that?" And I've had to learn how to say it, over and over, many times to the rapid frustration of the person on the other end of the line. I just keep reminding myself that I have to get 40 participants (I have 11 so far, which is actually brilliant, considering I've only been at this a week and a half) and then I can stop calling. It's like Dumbledore drinking the potion over the locket, except not nearly so dramatic. Or painful. Well, it hurts my pride, but that's not exactly something to whine about...

So, my week was successfully industrious. This weekend I vowed to continue the trend, and so, last night, I had Siri over for dinner. I made Pumpkin Ricotta Baked Pasta Casserole, which might sound gross, but OMG, was it so good. It was delicious - it had nutmeg and ginger and walnuts, and tasted kind of like a mix between pumpkin bread and mac and cheese. I made a lot. I'll basically be eating it for days. AND I AM SO OKAY WITH THAT.

This is the recipe. So delicious. A perfect fall dinner.

 I also made rice krispie treats, seeing as how Siri bought me a box of rice krispies so that I could try this excellent Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Rice Krispie Treat recipe I found, but, alas. The only marshmallows they have in Holland are colored. Pink, to be exact. And so my rice krispie treats came out looking a bit like, as my roommate described it, "raw meat."

They still tasted really good though! Oh, well, you do what you must for the krispie treats of delicious goodness.

Today I went out adventuring, and I got the two lights (headlight and taillight) of my bike fixed (yes, all bikes are required to have a headlight and a taillight), for about 5 euro, which was a really good price. I went to the big open air market we have on Saturdays in Utrecht, and the guy with the bike stall helped me install the new lights and everything.

After that I went to a big Asian grocery store that my roommate recommended. I LOVE Asian grocery stores. I love making Asian food. In this grocery store, they had about ten thousand different varieties of dumplings, and roughly more than a million noodle, rice, and ramen soup package options. I bought a sheet of sticky peanut butter sesame candy, a package of rice noodles (peanut noodles, ahoy!), and a tube of henna, for approximately 3 euro. They had everything in the store, including sweet red bean paste, which I think I will use to make delicious steamed walnut buns sometime soon...mmm. Buns.

I came back home and, my mother would be so proud, spent the rest of the afternoon completely cleaning and clearing the front garden of all weeds and leaves.

Before 1.

Before 2.

 After 1.

After 2.

It looked a little better after I was done. It was a long job, and I was glad when I was finished. Bleh. Yard work is hard! It's good to do, but man, it really takes it out of you, all the bending and lifting and bag-filling and digging. There were also a LOT of spiders. It was a bit hard for me to finish towards the end. Some of the spiders here are VERY big. Apparently harmless, but huge, hairy things. Yeck. And they kept just...appearing, on my pants and gloves and hair....God, I have to stop talking about it, I'm starting to freak myself out again.

In other, happier news, I got myself some brussel sprouts, re-heated some pumpkin pasta, and had a wonderful dinner, finished with a rice krispie treat, and some of the candy that came in my wonderful, handy-dandy care-package from home. What with all the gifts from my care package, and the wine I've been getting from teacher visits, and Siri bringing me presents last night, my desk is starting to look like I've just had Christmas:

Pumpkin, cornbread, tea, books, fruit roll ups, wine, and a ton of candy. Sounds like a wonderful set of things to enjoy in the near future!

Tomorrow, I will be preparing for Monday, when I will be going to Amsterdam to serve on a selection panel for Dutch students wishing to get Fulbright assistance to do their first year of college in America. I am very excited. Their applications and so sweet and full of really good ideas. I am really interested in seeing what the interview feels like from the other side of the fence - being the one asking the questions! I'm supposed to be the U.S. representative, so I will be asking questions about why these people are so interested in going to America. I'm also there to help debunk some stereotypes. For instance, one kid finished his essay with a quote that went something to the effect of, "If someone pulls a gun on you, don't run away, just pull out a bigger one!" Which is a common stereotype about America here - that we all have guns, that they're huge, and that we looooove to use them. I'm not saying a lot of us don't have guns. But still. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about where he got the idea from! Anyway, this is true for a lot of these kids. They all call America the "land of opportunity." I don't want to shoot down that idea, but just as Holland, which is supposedly one of the most liberal countries in the world, has undercurrents of racism and a deep-seated fear of immigrants, so too does America often fall short of its promise to fulfill dreams.

I can't wait to tell you how it goes! I'm also going to a school in Utrecht this Wednesday, and I will be officially scheduling appointments starting Tuesday - Oh boy. Here come the big girl pants. ;)