last few days

well, our network has been down for a few days, so there's probably a lot of catching up I have to do, and likely many things I'll forget to share.
Thursday was staff day, so after a lovely lunch together we cycled to the rink, which took a lot longer than it should have, but it was still fun. Once there Ryan commented, "I've never seen anyone ski outdoors before!" so I asked him what kind of skiing he had seen before, but it seems strange to me to think of indoor skiing, but that's what he said he was used to. I figured they must just do weird things in the desert. Then I looked where he was looking and said "Ryan, they're skating, not skiing!" oh my. and then I discovered that they only have unsharpened hockey skates and speed skates here. And so first I tried the hockey skates, which was not disastrous (I could still spin a wee bit, but two footed not one), but was definitely not what I'm used to. And also due to the wet ice and unsharp blades it was difficult to skate. So I switched to speed skates which is weird because there's and extra decimeter sticking out the front and that took a little getting used to but they were definitely much easier to skate in than the hockey skates. and to walk in them it's good to march. Anyways, it was a lot of fun, and I only fell once, and that was on top of Rala and it's on video. And Marco got to hold girls' hands. So I think overall it was a success. Then we warmed up over hot chocolate which was quite delightful, and then we had pizza and then I went home to bed. The only sad thing was I didn't get to say goodbye to Shanka, and now my twin is back in Georgia (the state, not the country).
Friday...was the hostel night. We did a hunger banquet. The turnout was not as great as we'd hoped and expected, but I think it went really well. It had a good impact on those who were there. I had a fun conversation with a girl from Liverpool, and she and her friend came to Zolder with us tonight, so that was cool. Oh, Nathalie came with me to De Poort this morning and when we left the bridge was up because of Sinterklaas coming, and there were Zwarte Pete's everywhere, and so many people, children, adults everywhere! It took us about half an hour to get through to the other side, haha. But we stopped for a few minutes to see if we could see Sinterklaas, but one of the Zwarte Pete's informed me that he wouldn't be appearing for another 15 (or was it 50?) minutes still and we didn't feel like waiting any longer cuz it was cold!
Ok well, I know this is a short summary, but I'm going to bed now cuz I have a full day tomorrow.