Explosions

Every few minutes - the streets explode with fireworks on and before Dec 31's night of Netherlands nuttiness.

• 68 million Euros spent on personal fireworks this year, without including black market purchases
• 7 million Euros in damages, mostly arson
• Over 800 injuries (loss of eyes, fingers, burns), including two Dutch policemen who had fireworks shot into their van

Every few hours - the building's common front door, shared with my otherwise awesome upstairs neighbor, explodes with her comings and goings.

Every few days - explosions of a more metaphorical kind...

There are intense explosions of longing for:

• my home country
• my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, friends
• exes past and partners future
• actual customer service
• steel-cut oats (seriously - please send some)
• interesting sports
• a shared joke with someone with a shared history,
• books under $15 and bathrooms over 15 square feet (4.52 square meters)
• something besides bread for lunch
• interesting sports
• nature

Laid Back radio guy

Yet these are met equally and regularly with explosions of excitement, exhiliration and new experience, brain-expanding opportunities that come about only via travelling, with almost every day offering a chance to see the world with new eyes and hear it with new ears:

• Portuguese New Year's Eve - cod and 80's music
• a male Indian version of Elaine from Seinfeld ringing in Christmas Eve with completely carefree (and even more completely, rhythm-free) joy
• passionate Italians and dispassionate Dutch
• Australian writing partners and American football partners
• Dutch pastries and red-light pasties
• house parties that always end up as living-room dance parties
• discovering new music from Laid Back Radio from Belgium to Novaplanet in France
• cafes in Amsterdam that are cooler and cozier than anywhere else
• culture and a sense of history that dwarfs North America

Such is the plight of the voluntary expat, so nothing above should be seen as a complaint nor a boast. The trick I suppose is to balance it all out, and find a way to soothe the soul when the corrosive explosions occur.