Well our sister Deborah's visit came to an end last Wednesday and they spent her last few days in Amsterdam biking around the city and doing, in Patrick's words, "endless amounts of shopping." In the end Patrick was in awe of Deborah's shopping abilities; "she is a mystical shopper, one minute she's standing next to me-the next she's on the second floor way in the back of the store..." He was indeed impressed and enjoyed every single minute he got to spend with her. Being the concerned brother he is, he even road out to the airport with her and made sure she got checked in and on her way. Then he was back to his daily routine of biking around the city seeing all he could see.This past Sunday, Patrick was able to witness the arrival of Sinterklaas (Sint Nikolaas in Dutch)-which is a giant city-wide celebration. Legend has it that Sinterklaas was assisted by many mischievous helpers with black faces and colorful outfits, they are called Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes.) Unfortunately many still take this legend to heart and walk around during the celebration in black face make-up and afro wigs. Thus, Patrick saw the whole thing as simply racist and pompous and was greatly disturbed by the whole celebration. He isn't the first to view this depiction as racist and in 2006 attempts were made to change the "Black Petes" to "Coloured Petes" who are colored blue, red, yellow & green. The explanation for the new "Coloured Petes" was that Sinterklaas's boat had passed through a rainbow along his journey. Obviously tradition is a hard thing to break.
This Tuesday, 11/20, Patrick will be taking his first long distance train journey-when he travels to visit Antwerp for a couple days. Hopefully we'll get a full report on his journey next week.
Enjoy this weeks visual journal and a happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
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