It all started in November when we were told they would change the carpets in the corridors of our student house. Each floor even got a chance to pick the colour for their corridor and of course, we didn't want to miss this extraordinary gift of democracy. We could choose between black, dark blue, light blue and red. There were only a couple of us that represented our floor but we all agreed it shouldn't be too dark – as it would make the corridor too depressive - or too light – as you would have to pay too much attention not to destroy it too quickly (highly important in student life) -, so black and light blue didn't even stand a chance. It then became a problem, because the three guys were for dark blue and the three girls for red. Luckily, Vincent showed at the right moment and voted with the female part of the house, so red it was. The guys were still complaining a bit, but eventually they melted or simply gave up.
Those couple of days that there was no carpet, after they'd ripped of the old one and before placing the new one, it was really weird to walk around. The corridor echoed as if you walked in a huge empty warehouse.
When the shiny new carpet finally arrived, the old doubt rose again. The guys found it way too bright, but they came around pretty quickly when they realized it was really soft and great for playing corridor-soccer on it.
Discussing our new red carpet, we came up with an idea we should throw a party in evening dresses walking up and down and posing at the red carpet. By the time we finally picked a date, it was already December, so we wanted to join the party with celebrating Santa Claus (Sinterklaas - 6th December). Although seven people signed in, which was already quite a lot given there's ten of us, we wanted everything or nothing. So we gave it another go and eventually agreed upon a date when everybody, and then really all ten of us, could make it. The D-day was December 22nd. So yeah, what it eventually came down to was a Merry-December-with-all-its-holidays-and-gifts house party.
Maaike was the driving spirit of it all. She sent out invitations, in which she informed us on the dress code, how much everyone should contribute and that everyone was supposed to buy a present. Besides, she put together a dinner menu, bought decoration and was the chef on the D-day itself.
As exciting and wonderful as it was, for me it was also stressful. Because I don't really own a fancy party outfit. So, beside buying a gift, I also needed to get myself a dress and shoes and whatever it was necessary to come across as festive as possible. As you know, this is not really my thing, that's why all the stress. I don't like shopping, definitely not if I have to do it without my fashion-oriented sister, let alone, shopping for dresses and high-heeled shoes. Actually, I needn't have bought high-heeled shoes, but well ... I did. Hahaha.
But first thing first. We started the preparation already around 1 pm when we did the groceries. Then we started cooking and put up the decoration.
By the time everything was done, we (but especially Maaike) were already exhausted. But once we put on our festive garments, we came back to life. The whole thing was simply remarkable. It was most mesmerising to see men in suits and women in dresses, especially Mojca with violet nails in a black dress and extraordinary high heels. We were ravishing!
Unfortunately, the photos aren't that good because the light was dimmed and my camera is really not up to such challenge and if I used flash it wasn't all that nice either, so … my apologies.
So, I guess it's on me to tell you (and on you to believe me) what great food we munched on: tortilla rolls with different spreads and a very tasty shrimp cocktail for appetizer, pork rolled meat with mashed potatoes for main course, and a yummy cheese cake with cranberry sauce for dessert. And yep, we made this all by ourselves under the command of Maaike. It was absolutely delicious!
After dinner we threw dice for gifts. We were each supposed to give out ten euro per gift but you could of course buy more gifts, which most of us did. So we had lots of gifts to choose from. However, the trick was that once you got a certain amount of gifts, they were automatically yours. Once all the gifts were gone, each of us took a paper with a task, for example: change place with the youngest or give your biggest gift to the one that has the fewest gifts and so on. One of the tasks was also to arrange the housemates according to age, where the only thing they didn't have second thoughts about was me being the oldest - at this point, I'm not sure whether to put down a smiley or a sad face, hahaha.
I don't recall what I was so upset about. Was it that at some point I only had one gift or was it all these age-related tasks all night long that I found so frustrating?!
Well, at the end, some ended up with no gifts at all, but then we shared some so there were no hard feelings. On the contrary, we had sooooo much fun. Especially with the gift that Ron got – an inflatable sumo wrestler suit. If I tell you Ron is the smallest and thinnest of them all, you can imagine it was all the more hilarious. That also gave the best photos. And the photo session just went on and on and on.
In the meantime, the housemates that hadn't helped with the preparations, did the washing up. Seriously, everything was arranged so well I couldn't believe it. Neither could Maaike. She must have thanked us like a hundred times for having helped her – which I personally found the only normal thing to do (not the thanking part, I mean us helping her) – and explained she hadn't expected us to be so helpful. Anyways, it turned out to be the best party we've had so far! Wait for my farewell party though!
(Vincent, Bas, Sven, Jos, Ron)
(Irene, Erica, Maaike, Janneke, Mojca)
Some of us stayed up and talked the night away. It felt so nice and I felt so at home that I had to take the opportunity to tell them how wonderful people they were and how I wished they would also find such great people were they ever to go live abroad. Of course, my quasi-speech was followed by sighs and laughter and comments that they liked me too. As you can see, I'm in good hands.
Those couple of days that there was no carpet, after they'd ripped of the old one and before placing the new one, it was really weird to walk around. The corridor echoed as if you walked in a huge empty warehouse.
When the shiny new carpet finally arrived, the old doubt rose again. The guys found it way too bright, but they came around pretty quickly when they realized it was really soft and great for playing corridor-soccer on it.Discussing our new red carpet, we came up with an idea we should throw a party in evening dresses walking up and down and posing at the red carpet. By the time we finally picked a date, it was already December, so we wanted to join the party with celebrating Santa Claus (Sinterklaas - 6th December). Although seven people signed in, which was already quite a lot given there's ten of us, we wanted everything or nothing. So we gave it another go and eventually agreed upon a date when everybody, and then really all ten of us, could make it. The D-day was December 22nd. So yeah, what it eventually came down to was a Merry-December-with-all-its-holidays-and-gifts house party.
Maaike was the driving spirit of it all. She sent out invitations, in which she informed us on the dress code, how much everyone should contribute and that everyone was supposed to buy a present. Besides, she put together a dinner menu, bought decoration and was the chef on the D-day itself.As exciting and wonderful as it was, for me it was also stressful. Because I don't really own a fancy party outfit. So, beside buying a gift, I also needed to get myself a dress and shoes and whatever it was necessary to come across as festive as possible. As you know, this is not really my thing, that's why all the stress. I don't like shopping, definitely not if I have to do it without my fashion-oriented sister, let alone, shopping for dresses and high-heeled shoes. Actually, I needn't have bought high-heeled shoes, but well ... I did. Hahaha.
But first thing first. We started the preparation already around 1 pm when we did the groceries. Then we started cooking and put up the decoration.
By the time everything was done, we (but especially Maaike) were already exhausted. But once we put on our festive garments, we came back to life. The whole thing was simply remarkable. It was most mesmerising to see men in suits and women in dresses, especially Mojca with violet nails in a black dress and extraordinary high heels. We were ravishing!
Unfortunately, the photos aren't that good because the light was dimmed and my camera is really not up to such challenge and if I used flash it wasn't all that nice either, so … my apologies.
So, I guess it's on me to tell you (and on you to believe me) what great food we munched on: tortilla rolls with different spreads and a very tasty shrimp cocktail for appetizer, pork rolled meat with mashed potatoes for main course, and a yummy cheese cake with cranberry sauce for dessert. And yep, we made this all by ourselves under the command of Maaike. It was absolutely delicious!
After dinner we threw dice for gifts. We were each supposed to give out ten euro per gift but you could of course buy more gifts, which most of us did. So we had lots of gifts to choose from. However, the trick was that once you got a certain amount of gifts, they were automatically yours. Once all the gifts were gone, each of us took a paper with a task, for example: change place with the youngest or give your biggest gift to the one that has the fewest gifts and so on. One of the tasks was also to arrange the housemates according to age, where the only thing they didn't have second thoughts about was me being the oldest - at this point, I'm not sure whether to put down a smiley or a sad face, hahaha.I don't recall what I was so upset about. Was it that at some point I only had one gift or was it all these age-related tasks all night long that I found so frustrating?!
Well, at the end, some ended up with no gifts at all, but then we shared some so there were no hard feelings. On the contrary, we had sooooo much fun. Especially with the gift that Ron got – an inflatable sumo wrestler suit. If I tell you Ron is the smallest and thinnest of them all, you can imagine it was all the more hilarious. That also gave the best photos. And the photo session just went on and on and on.
In the meantime, the housemates that hadn't helped with the preparations, did the washing up. Seriously, everything was arranged so well I couldn't believe it. Neither could Maaike. She must have thanked us like a hundred times for having helped her – which I personally found the only normal thing to do (not the thanking part, I mean us helping her) – and explained she hadn't expected us to be so helpful. Anyways, it turned out to be the best party we've had so far! Wait for my farewell party though!
(Vincent, Bas, Sven, Jos, Ron)
(Irene, Erica, Maaike, Janneke, Mojca)Some of us stayed up and talked the night away. It felt so nice and I felt so at home that I had to take the opportunity to tell them how wonderful people they were and how I wished they would also find such great people were they ever to go live abroad. Of course, my quasi-speech was followed by sighs and laughter and comments that they liked me too. As you can see, I'm in good hands.
