Hi blog readers!
We head to Berlin in about two weeks for the Christmas markets, but I thought it might be nice to do a little round-up of what has been going on here.
First off, it’s my FAVORITE time of year again!
All the lights are back in city center! One positive thing about my new commute to work is that I walk home from the train station in the afternoon. Right now, the sun sets about 4:30pm. I’m back in Groningen about 5pm, so the walk home is super gezellig!
And speaking of festive things, Sinterklaas has officially arrived in Groningen!
Tradition (aka: me) dictates that we must go stand in the rain and watch a boat parade. Holland did not let us down this year. It definitely rained, but luckily enough most of it passed by the time Shane, Danielle and I were waiting for good ole Sint.
Shane and I have also started a new hobby – indoor climbing!
We have a nice indoor climbing gym here in Groningen with a pretty renowned 37m (121ft) outdoor tower called Excalibur. We have not (and will not for a while) braved Excalibur, but we did take the beginner climbing course with some friends. It was great and now we’re hooked!
And this was just in time for Shane’s 32nd birthday!
Extra lucky for him, our friend has recently started a cake business!
(If you happen to read this and you live in the Groningen area – if you need a speciality cake check out Sarah at Thema Taart Groningen!)
And lastly, we’ve checked something off our Groningen bucket list. We finally made it to the Groninger Museum.
Confession.
We may or may not have ended up there due to a poor translation on my part.
I pass the museum every day when I walk home from the train station, and in the windows they advertised for an exhibit called “Rijks in Groningen”. Now, in Amsterdam, the main art and antiquities museum is called the Rijksmuseum. I thought ‘Cool! Some things from the Rijksmuseum are temporarily in Groningen!’. What I forgot was that the word ‘rijk’ translates to ‘rich’. The exhibit advertisement I walked past for weeks was not borrowed items from the Rijksmuseum, but about the ‘rich’ of the province of Groningen.
Whoops.
Regardless, the exhibit turned out to be nice, and I saw this chicken on the beach.
So yeah, that’s about it! Oh, and Meatball says hi.
More to come after Berlin!
Tot ziens,
The Shwits 
You can go ahead and add Rachel to the intro list of people who read the blog err’time. 🙂 hahaha. Hope you guys are great and Shane’s bday was wonderful! The cake looked delish!!