It's funny, Halloween is the time of the year that I get the most home sick. I’m not sure why exactly that is. Maybe it’s because I have so many great memories of Halloween back home: painfully cold nights of trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins with Dad, putting together costumes with mum, high school house parties, the "Spice Girls" era, stealing Kyle's year-old uneaten candy....and so on. Or maybe its because Halloween is essentially non-existent here in Holland, and it just feels like something is, well, missing.
Last night I caught myself bragging to Mo (yes, bragging!) about how "In Canada, everything would be decorated this weekend for Halloween. Shops, restaurants, houses, you name it!" I’m not sure why I felt the need to brag about this fact, as truth be told I was never overly fond of the orange and black theme that decked most places this time of year, but living in a foreign country can do strange things to you...
"Did you hear me? I said, everything in Winnipeg would be decorated this weekend for Halloween!"
Silence
And finally...
"Decorated, like how?"
"Spoooooky. Decorated spooky! Like carved pumpkins, and ghosts in the trees, and witches, and haunted houses!"
"Hmmmm..." He glanced up from his laptop and muttered "um.... cool, I guess".
I’m not sure what I expected his response to be (poor man!).Or why I was even trying to start a quasi-argument about the proliferation of Halloween decorations in Canada, but I managed to catch myself and change the subject before I started down my "Canada is freaking great" speech or worse yet, the "I only live here for you" speech (which BTW isn’t at all how I feel at rational moments). Those speeches tend to rear their ugly heads at the moments I am feeling the most homesick, and apparently Halloween is one of them.
But don’t worry--there is a solution! My company organizes a Halloween bash for English-speakers living in Amsterdam---so I’m going to deck out of work early, and put those final touches on my costume! I’ve managed to rope a good crowd of friends into coming along---‘cause regardless of where I’m living’, I’m certainly not giving up this good ol’ fashion fun!
p.s. just noticed the pic above, appears to have Abraham Lincoln's face in it? Not sure why....but no time to change it. Spooky though, eh?
Paris...What can I say? It was surprisingly painless. No jaw popping incidents, no self-inflicted flames, no knock down overly dramatic situations. Just great food, great company, and great times. Of course there was loads of work, which thus resulted in loads of celebratory shopping, at the completion of this work. And, more than once a day I found myself day-dreaming again about returning, on a more permanent basis, to the city of lights.
I feel at home in France, in a way I never will in Holland. I love the food, the culture, the history, the fashion, the architecture, the film, the people (yes, the people! For all of those who find the French arrogant or rude. I’ve never. Never once. Of course they think very highly of their country, of their culinary accomplishments, of their artists, their writers, their poets. But why shouldn’t they? Isn’t it for all those reasons why literally millons of people flock to France each year? Those who find them rude are perhaps misinterpreting their lack of ability in English for rudeness. But trust me, if you think the French are rude! Hah! Try living in Holland! You ain’t seen nothing’ yet baby!! I digress...)
But above all, I love France’s ever-present "joie de vivre". Nobody seems to enjoy the simple pleasures of life more than the French.
I'll stay put in Amsterdam for now, after all, as Ernest Hemingway once said, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast".
