Rivers & Roads

Hello everyone! Sorry for such a long delay on my blog post, things have been a little slow around here. Winter is definitely starting to settle in, the sun is going down around 4:30 and we are finding it harder and harder to leave the warmth of our living room. But none the less I do have a few fun things to report! We have purchased a few new items, first of course would be Simon's new car which we finally have in our possession! He would like me to correct my previous post and state that the car is a black Mazda and is very nice indeed! This weekend we went to his parents house for a little Sint-Niklaas brunch and it was much more pleasant not having to take the train back and forth. (For those of you who don't know who Sint-Niklaas is, he is sort of the Belgian version of Santa Clause. He comes on December 6th by boat from Spain with his helper Black Pete, who has been subject to lots of racial discussion, and brings all of the nice children presents. The tradition I guess is the night before the children leave their shoe in front of the fire place with a carrot in it and wake up to presents!) Our second purchase is a wonderful new kitchen cabinet. As you may know our kitchen is quite small and there is not a lot of counter or storage space so we have been in the market for a new cabinet that could fit opposite the sink. We found the perfect vintage piece at a second hand store for only 40 euros and it fits perfectly! It really makes the kitchen so much for pleasant to use.
In other news the Gentse Winterfeesten has started! That just means the Christmas market here in gent has begun, there are little huts set up all over the center of the city some selling candy, or gloves, or handmade trinkets others selling bratwurst and hot wine. There is also a ferris wheel and ice skating! It really makes the whole city feel festive and is a good excuse to get our of the house! Also last thursday was Museum Night where all of the museums in Gent were open free to the public from 6pm-1am. We walked to a few places close to your apartment, first to the old fish mine that is now a restaurant and had some nice pieces in it. Then we headed over to the Design Museum which had a great exhibition all about lights. The museum itself is a beautiful old building from the 18th century with a modern addition. In the first floor there are all these spectacular drawing rooms filled with authentic floors, walls and furniture and then for this show they have this huge modern lights or chandeliers which really creates an interesting juxtaposition.
Dutch class is still going well, we recently had our first test in level two and received 17.5/20. We are now starting to learn the past tense which is pretty tricky with lots of exceptions! I am trying to force myself to practice using Dutch more with Simon but it is difficult because we are so used to using english at this point. I have also started up a small knitting project. I figured I needed to have a nice indoor activity to keep my fingers busy in this cold weather. I used the guidance of a lovely youtube video to teach myself how to cast on and now I am on my way to making a semi-attractive scarf! I hope everyone is staying warm where ever you are! Happy Sint-Niklaas!