* cababarant *

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Merry Christmas!

Here are some belated pictures from our trip to the Christmas market in the caves in the caves in Valkenburg (the Fleeuwengrote), whose history turned out to be more interesting than we expected. Happy Holidays!

Valkenburg (in Limburg, Netherlands) has a series of caves that are up to 1,000 years old in some places. They were mined for the rock within, which was used for buildings in the area. There are about 3 miles of caves under the town.

During World War II, American troops used the caves as a military hospital. Jews in the area also used the caves as a hiding place during the war. You can see American names and places throughout the cave; the soldiers wrote their names on the walls and the dates during which they were there.

The caves have a lengthy history as a hiding spot. There is one area turned into an alter; it was used by Catholics to celebrate mass during the French Revolution. They could not celebrate openly for fear of persecution.

Here is a market stall selling star lamps.

posted by sheryl | 1:57 PM | comments (1)

Friday, December 15, 2006

Hello Manatee!

Here's my submission for Conan O'Brien's Horny Manatee site (if you haven't heard about it, read all about it here). I guess I'll check back and see if it makes it up to the site...

Links
Horny Manatee: www.hornymanatee.com, proudly owned by NBC
NYTimes: So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet

posted by sheryl | 10:21 PM | comments (0)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

A bad slash

Ugh, after spending a few hours not being able to publish on this blog, and no thanks to Blogger, I've figured out the problem thanks to another blogger: Blogger (the interface) added a little slash (/) to its Settings interface-- a slash that won't go away when you save your settings. If you are running into this problem, and experiencing 550 errors when trying to publish, type in a period into the FTP Path field, and your path will be just the way it used to be. No more slash! So once again, I'll be posting.

In the meantime, here's another site that is a great help with Blogger problems:
http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com

posted by sheryl | 8:03 PM | comments (0)

Saturday, December 02, 2006

That time of year

Just when I started thinking it was too surreal to be true, or perhaps that I just imagined it last year, it's Sinterklaas season again! The craziest part of it, of course, is Zwarte Piet, Sinterklaas' helper, the character that gives the Dutch cultural license to run around in blackface for several weeks. It's one of those things that other expats tell you about, and you don't really, honestly believe it until you see it for the first time. (Before that, I guess you can be considered a Sinterklaas-season-virgin.) I don't think it's something I'll ever get used to, but it's fascinating and horrifying all at the same time. (I wrote about Piet last year, which was my first year experiencing this weirdness.) We went down to Delft to get a taste of it once again, and sure enough, there were dozens of Zwarte Pieten running around.

The parade started innocently enough, with a typical marching band... (that's me and the little guy watching)

... then, hello, what's this? Blackface!

... then Sinterklaas, aloof on his horse with one of his 'helpers'.

The little guy (here on Daddy's shoulders) doesn't really know what to think about it, but at least he got some candy. (And yes that's a lollipop. No, my kid is not smoking!)

Links
My take on Zwarte Piet on Cababa.com, December 2005

posted by sheryl | 3:23 PM | comments (0)