Friday, September 30, 2005
Looking forward to winter
I have never particularly experienced a ‘real’ winter. What I mean by a ‘real’ winter, is one where the temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius for the most part, and where there is snow and ice for extended periods of time. Now that I’m at Calvin, I will finally be able to experience it for the first time.
I’m looking forward to all the ‘wintery’ things that I will be able to do. I can hardly wait for the snowball fights. I would love to go skating. I’ve played street hockey a lot with my friends in the Netherlands, so I’m excited about being able to try out ice hockey. Another thing I’m really looking forward to is playing soccer in the snow. There was this one time in the Netherlands where it had snowed pretty hard (well, for the Netherlands anyway), and we had soccer practice that night. Most people didn’t even show up because it really wasn’t that likely that soccer practice would go on. But it did, and it was quite possibly the most fun I had ever had at a soccer practice. Soccer is just so much fun on a snowy field.
I’m excited about just lying in the snow; I want to walk, run and slide through the snow. I want to admire God’s creation as it is covered in snow. I can only imagine how beautiful it is going to be. Fall should be exciting in this regard as well. I hope it never gets old…
I’m even excited about the cold of winter. Yes, the cold of winter. It homes feel more homey. There’s a great Dutch word for it; a word that really doesn’t translate well into English. “Gezellig.” It sort of means coziness, friendliness, a nice and quiet atmosphere, brotherliness, and more all in one. What I often associate with the word is picture in my mind of a couple of nice couches and seats around a fireplace in nice, cozy little cottage somewhere in the wilderness. It’s snowing outside. There are people reading, talking, and playing games with each other. Someone is telling a nice story. That’s sort of what “gezelligheid” is all about. And that is probably what I’m looking forward to most this winter. I hope my Boer-Bennink (my dorm), and all of Calvin’s campus for that matter, can be a nice and “gezellig” place this winter.
Calvin’s winters sure are long though, so I do expect to get tired of all the snow after a couple of months. I’ll probably be looking forward to summer by then (we always want something we don’t have). But for now; for now I can enthusiastically anticipate the winter. It’s going to be exciting for sure.