Volwassen

Today is my brother's, Brian, Birthday. He turned 18 today and is now finally an adult. He got a brand new car for his birthday, A BMW none the less, and he is very happy about it. BUT, here's the kicker, HE CAN'T DRIVE IT YET. hahahaha. My Dutch mom and I have been making jokes all week about how when he gets his car, he will only sit and play in it, because he can't drive it. His driving exam is this week Thursday, and I'm not sure how much time after that he may drive it, but soon I imagine. It is a very nice car I must say. Nice looking car. So today all the family and friends came over and we had a very typical dutch birthday party.

Now, I know I have written a bunch of posts about Dutch birthday parties, but I think I really like the traditional Dutch birthday party. I read a book called the UnDutchables, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before... But one of the things they talked about, is how long the parties go on for. And I must say, they really really do. The author made a joke that you are lucky if you get to leave before 12 pm. Luckily, this party started early afternoon, so most were gone after dinner. The last left about 9 o clock this evening. But dutch birthdays can be described with one word, Gezellig. And unfortunately for us english speakers, there is no such word to describe things. Although this word has translations, cozy, sociable, it's a word that we can't use the way the dutch do. Gezellig means... well it's like having a nice evening with friends. Its social, and enjoyable and everyone has a very nice time. That is gezellig. You say this word when you had a nice time with someone and you're leaving, you say it was 'Gezellig'. And dutch birthdays are just that, combined with being far too long.

Basically, everyone comes over for coffee and cake, which is always a sort of cream cake... I'm not really sure what we'd call it because what they call it literally translates into cream cake. haha. But it's a very nice tasting type of cakes. You usually buy a few, and get leftover cake always. So today, people came early, and just came at various times throughout the day. We had to keep moving furniture around to fit more chairs, but that's just what it comes down to. Everybody sitting together in a huge well, circle short formation just talking and drinking coffee or whatever. And it's kind of a nice tradition I think. You see all of your family and family friends in one time. It's kind of what we did for my birthday but on a much smaller scale and with much less food left over haha.

In other random news I lost my voice yesterday at dinner, and I'm not really sure why haha. And I signed up to give tutoring sessions, so now I have a girl in Havo 4, that I tutor in english once a week during one of my free periods which works out just perfectly. So yeah. I believe that is all of my news for now!!