Halloween in Holland.

After about a day of travelling to Issoudun which led to me almost falling asleep face first into a pizza, and later face-planting onto my bed (completely unconscious to the world), how dismayed was I to find the French had holidays a few weeks later? While some of the assistants living near the South of Britain were delighted to be going home again so soon, I threw quite the tantrum: "I JUST GOT HERE!"
However, I soon saw this as an opportunity to go visit my family in Holland, it's been 4 years since I was last here so it's about time I caught up with them and saw how the little ones had grown.

I wrapped up my week in France by lugging a Jack-O'-Lantern from class to class, doing Halloween quizzes and telling the kids what activities we did in Scotland, such as 'dooking for apples', and saying how it's more traditional to have a neep as a lantern (a "neepy lantern", unfortunately the teacher heard "neeKy lantern" and was shouting this at the class- I didn't have the heart to correct her in front of them all). I then went to other classes and taught them the words to Thriller, played Halloween Pictionary with the younger ones, and got into a bit of a debate with the teacher of one class who were looking for the rhyming words in Thriller- yes neighbourhood and blood sort of rhyme, but as the kids are already saying "bloo-d" instead of "blud" I felt it would lead to some confusion later so scrapped that one. It's more important for them to get their pronunciation right in this case, you can't exactly shout at them that it's pronounced "blud" whilst telling them it rhymes with neighbourhood, which was what she was doing...
Anyway, I had lots of fun and I think the kids did as most of them were throwing their own dance-moves in class.

My Jack lantern- kept him traditional this year. Never getting a pumpkin this size again though, it took HOURS of scooping.

Come Saturday, I was packed and off to the train station in  a flash. I was rather nervous about negotiating Paris alone- I'd avoided it on the way down, preferring to arrive in Nantes, I needn't have worried though- you can hail a taxi just about anywhere if you're not willing to take the metro. However, after being in the middle of France where the weather is somewhat mild- Paris was fucking FREEZING! Ever seen Cool Runnings when they arrive at the airport? Yeah, that was me- just about turning my entire suitcase out to wear everything at once.

For those of you who haven't seen it- you should! No excuses.

After spending some time in Paris sharing pine-nuts with a pigeon (I love plosives), I was sat at a table of 4 with a Dutch family on the train to Holland- slightly awkward, but I was rather fascinated as the mother got out a tin and started stitching small clothes to a doll.

With a bit more train switching, I was soon in Utrecht and receiving a warm welcome from my cousins Sandra and Mary-Jane. There was warm spicy pumpkin soup on the stove, and a Halloween mask and card awaiting me. 

I should say MJ doesn't speak any English yet, but she does understand me perfectly. Also Halloween isn't popularly celebrated here, so this was particularly thoughtful.

I love my British holidays, so it's been great coming here and having the family getting in the spirit especially for me- MJ and I played Nacht op het Kerkhof (Night at the Cemetery) and watched Coraline. We also made Halloween style cakepops:

Then, on actual Halloween, Sandra had guests- an old friend of the family who married a Londoner, and their daughter, so I was delighted to speak to more English speakers! As MJ was away for most of the day, I kept 7 year old Aisha occupied by making Halloween decorations, with some Katy Perry in the background- I was quite appalled to find out that even she didn't really get to celebrate Halloween in London, just pfft! Kids should be allowed to dress up and get high on sweeties... And so should I. 

Aisha proudly presenting our work.

When MJ got back, we watched Monster House and later fashioned some costumes, Mj made a good wee devil:

I then got a call from my parents to go on Skype, I was delighted to see my 3 wee cousins at home were all dressed up for Halloween (witches) and were still buzzing on sweets after doing lots of trick-or-treating. They then proceeded to pull faces at the webcam while telling me how they'd shaving foamed their gran's car... I really shouldn't be so proud of them, the little brats that they are!






On a side-note, it's great being somewhere with lots of water again (being from an island I was starting to miss it), I am delighted by the food here- HARD CHEESE!! The French have lovely cheese, don't get me wrong, I can sit and eat a whole wedge of brie by myself, but I'm missing cheddar something hellish... But Dutch cheese is just as gouda (ah, bad pun), I particularly love the cheese that has cumin bits. And, I had a good chuckle that the Dutch have an expression- doing the cleaning 'the French way' (badly), I'm sure the French would be delighted.