Attitude of Gratitude

Dan on New Year's Day with remnants of fireworks and the recently extinguished microwave

When my old boss and good friend Dan who lives in Australia said he would be visiting Amsterdam for New Year’s I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than here with him. And that is how I came to experience my first New Year’s Eve outside of the USA and in Amsterdam, with all the excitement it had in store.

It started off innocent enough, with some friends stopping by to hang out and swap stories, drink champagne, and eat olieballen (fried donuts) and appelflappen (battered apple rings), both being traditional Dutch treats served on New Year’s Eve. In the background the sounds of fireworks exploding in the street reverberated throughout the apartment.

Dan and I then headed out to a friend’s party on a rooftop terrace to watch all the fireworks at midnight. Not knowing exactly where we were going, we rang doorbells until someone buzzed us up and ended up at a Dutch party where we hung out like old friends even though we didn’t know a soul. Priceless.

Me with our new Dutch friends

Finally, nearing midnight, we did find our rooftop party and the fireworks started in full force in all directions, and continued nonstop for over an hour filling the entire sky with smoke and the streets with litter. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was an incredible thing to experience. The Dutch definitely know how to ring in the new year.

Even though the fireworks hadn’t slowed down, I had and needed to go home because I was jetlagged having just arrived from the USA that morning. Once home, I began my nightly ritual of lighting candles all around the apartment, including in my bedroom. When I finally did make it to bed in the wee early hours of the morning, I was getting ready for bed when I shifted my pillow over just a wee bit too close to the candle and in a split second it was up in flames. My bedroom is still filled with tiny burnt feathers and smells like a campfire days later.

The next morning, when I finally rolled out of bed I was making toast in my microwave/oven. In the Netherlands, many people don’t have stoves/ovens, so they purchase a small microwave that can also act as an oven. I put in the bread and let it cook for a few minutes and reached in to test it when I realized nothing was happening. I checked the settings and started it back up and looked inside when I noticed flames. Not from the toast, but from the oven itself. Seems I was destined to have an explosive day.

As the smoke began to fill my apartment (again!), Dan and I moved it outside, still burning, to avoid further damage. We doused it with water to make sure the fire was out and left it out on the curb. Within minutes, it was taken from the street. No doubt, it has now burned down someone’s house, if not from the problem with the oven then from the water which shorted out all the wires inside.

I’m not one for lighting fires, especially unintentional ones (well, except the time I accidentally lit my friend’s house on fire with her hairdryer, but that’s another story), but I must admit that I found all this very exciting, especially since it all occurred within 12 hours on New Year’s Day. Some people might feel like this was bad luck and proof that the year was off to a bad start. I, however, am not one of those people. I instead see it as a good thing, and a promise of many more extraordinary things to come in 2008. May everyone have as adventurous, electrifying, and eventful a year as I expect to have!