Christmas in the College

The College of Europe never misses a chance to be European - and Christmas is no exception. The festivities started in earnest on 6th December as we celebrated in Belgian and Dutch style with the visit of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet to the canteen. Sinterklaas - as I was repeatedly told by Belgians - is NOT Santa Claus (even though the word sounds exactly the same, and he is a man in a red costume with a white beard). Apparently this is St Nicholas (but then isn't that who Santa is?), the bishop who cared for children at Christmas. Well, anyway, the Belgians insist he's a different person - because Father Christmas comes on Christmas Eve as well. If you ask me, it's all a big collective denial so they can get twice the presents. Anyway, the weirdness doesn't end there. Sinterklaas is helped by... no, not elves or reindeer... but Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) - you can see him there dressed in yellow. And why is Sinterklaas's helper black? Because he's from Spain. Obviously. So Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet went around the canteen, giving out sweets and telling people to study hard for their exams.

The next installment of European Christmas came on 13th December when the Scandanavians put on a Santa Lucia parade in the canteen. This was really lovely - they all dressed in white and carried candles and sang Swedish Christmas songs - though the men did look slightly ridiculous. The best part was when they sang Silent Night in Swedish and then had everyone join in, singing the song in their own language. This sounds cheesy, but for me that really said what the College is all about - we may not all speak the same language, but we sing the same song. Unity in diversity and all that...

Now it's only 10 days until Christmas and I still have two exams to go! Economics tomorrow, so better get down to it...

update (17/12): after our Economics exam my discussion group went around to our assistant Ugo's flat for dinner.