Unlike the past two Decembers in Edinburgh,spent stressing over exams and being battered against numerous trees en route home across the Meadows thanks to the gale-force winds this year December has been decidedly calm. Even though the Christmas lights are up in Bologna, the huge tree has been installed in Piazza Nettuno and there is a definate festive atmosphere, I'm yet to hear Mariah Carey bellowing about what she wants for Christmas (although this can never be a bad thing!). And although little stalls are popping up on street corners selling amazingly tacky fibreoptic tree-decorations, the festive vibe here is definately different to that which we're used to back home. Admittedly though it's still early, being only December 7th, and apparently it all kicks off after tomorrow which is Festa dell' Immacolata Concezione - so a day off Uni/School/work for everyone and then from the 9th onwards it's officially Christmas, or as they call it around these parts, Natale. Woop woop!
Despite the fact Italians don't officially start the celebrations yet, we Erasmus decided to take matters into our own hands. On December 5th, our Dutch contingent organized a huge party for Sinterklaas, which is celebrated every year in Holland on December 5th (yet bizarrely on the following day in Belgium, according to some Flemish friends)which was great fun. Sinterklaas is a hilarious tradition whereby Sinterklaas comes to Holland (or Italy in this case) from Spain via steamboat, aided by an army of Italian helpers, all called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Kids leave their shoes (or clogs, I assume) and overnight said shoes are filled with sweets, presents etc. If a child hasn't been good that year, instead of being given treats they are instead taken back to Spain by Sinterklaas on his steamboat! It seems also that Sinterklaas parties are all the rage with Dutch students, so obviously we had to have one here... the party was so much fun, so much effort had gone into it which was very sweet. A few days before we'd all been randomly assigned someone else to buy a present for, and we also had to write a poem for said person. Our budget was a student-friendly 5euros, so needless to say many trips to the 99cent shop were made this week! When we arrived at Frouke's flat for the party everyone left the presents in a big pile and were later handed out. When you picked your present from the pile you had to read the poem aloud, then open the present and thank Sinterklaas for said gift. Only after everyone had opened their presents could you guess who was your Secret Sinterklaas. Pretty standard Secret Santa practice, I'm sure you'd agree, though after this things got much more bizarre, and much more...Dutch, for want of a better word! Suddenly Luuk, Misja, Frouke and Julia left the room (Dutch contingent plus token Brazilian who'd organized everything), then after a few minutes there was a hammering at the door and the next thing Frouke, Julia and Luuk skipped in, singing, all dressed as Zwarte Piet and literally showering us in sweets! It was soo funny! They were followed by Misja, dressed as Sinterklaas who sat on his throne and proceeded to judge whether we'd all been "good" enough this year, or whether we'd have to be taken back to Spain on his steamboat. Here's Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet (my friends aren't hideously racist btw, apparently it's all part of the tradition for everyone dressed as Zwarte Piet to black their faces!)
After all that excitement Frouke's flatmate arrived with hundreds of Spaniards (sadly not just off Sinterklaas' steamboat), and all of a sudden our very civilsed small party turned into a full on Spanish fiesta! It was very fun but very bizarre, the flat was full of randomers who nobody knew, whoever was in charge of the music played nothing but absolutely dire 80s tracks, and there was wine being thrown all over the room. Generally it was total chaos! Lots of fun though, until 3am, when all of a sudden the police turned up :s Apparently we'd been making too much noise (not surprising frankly considering the guy from downstairs had come up at 9.30pm to complain that the noise of our chairs scraping on the floor was disturbing him. Ahem. But apparently a full on flat party didn't disturb him until 3am...anyway). Everyone cleared off pretty quickly as you don't really argue with italian police, especially the carabinieri who turned up on Friday.All in all it was a really fun night, but definately bizarre!
The following night I went for dinner at an English friend's flat, where we decided to have our own festivities...which for us meant brewing up an enormous vat of mulled wine and playing Slade, Wham, Shakin' Stevens and all those other great Christmas choons very loudly. I'm sure the neighbours loved us! 
We attempted to make chocolate oranges by melting lumps of Dairy Milk which Phil had been sent in his Red Cross Aid Package of British food (hehe) and it kinda worked, though not quite. Still, at least we tried! Later that eve we managed to project my Bill Bailey dvd onto the wall which was great fun to watch again, though I'm not entirely sure the Dutch/Italian friends quite understood what was going on!
I now only have 10 days before I'm back in the UK for Christmas, and I can't wait! I love being here in Italy but I'm also sooo excited to come home. Not just to see friends and family but also to catch up on the little things I've missed...such as houses with carpets and central heating, bagels, Radio 1 and curry! I have a feeling the next week will pass extremely quickly too as next friday we're going on a ski trip up to Monte Rosa, then we get back on Sunday night and I'll be spending monday and tuesday sorting myself out, ready to fly home on Wednesday (assuming the airlines aren't on strike, which is genuinely a bit of a worry round here :s). And inbetween everything we still have lectures to attend, christmas shopping to do and I definately think a trip to the new ice rink is in order! Good times...
