Sinterklaas

It's 2 days to Sinterklaas!! Our lab decided to take half the day off (unofficially!!! Naughty us... when the cat is gone, the mice come out to play!) to celebrate Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas or St. Nicolaas is like Santa Claus. He is a few thousand years old, and he comes and give presents to little kids, stuffing their SHOES with gifts and such. As a thank you note, kids are supposed to leave carrots for the DONKEY of Sinterklaas. And probably also to attract the donkey to make a stopover at their house. For the adults who knows the SECRET of Sinterklaas, of course we have to help Sinterklaas who is ever so busy, and we help him buy gifts for our friends. And not only that, we have to write a ridiculous POEM to go along with it!!!! Either that or make a SURPRISE like a paper mache or something.

Went and did my Sinterklaas shopping on Saturday. Couldn't think of what surprise to make. I decided to get it over with, and wrote my poem for Maria (whom I'm supposed to buy the gift for). Found a Sinterklaas poem Generator, but realized my level of Dutch is not good enough. So only wrote 2 sentences in Dutch, and the rest in English. I realized to make it rhyme, it's quite difficult to limit myself to the simplest words.... but what to do.... Maria speaks minimal English. Hope she at least enjoy the gift. Got her a Ponche Kuba (www.ponchekuba.com):

Sint en Piet zat te bedenken,
Wat ze Maria nu eens zouden schenken.
Sint asked Piet to call the wind,
“Sun is what she needs” he grinned.
The wind blew and blew and blew,
And Sint and Piet caught the flu.
They sat wrapped in layers of blanket,
Piet says “Why don’t we get her a jacket?”
“We should get her something fun” says Sint.
As he says that his eyes sparkle and glint.
“We’ll get her something close to Brazil,
That she can have after a nice meal!”
And with a red and runny nose,
Piet ran to the shop before they close.
And this present he got for you,
With warm greetings from Sint to you.