You Never Forget How To Ride A Bike

So there I was, lying on the street, clutching my left knee in pain on a busy intersection on one of Maastricht’s main bridges, trying not to feel flustered or helpless. But that was easier said than done. My hair was an utter mess. Sweat had begun to make its way down my back. We…

The Netherlands Will Always Feel Like Home

For the second time this year, I found myself crying on an airplane- something I really should stop doing. This time, it wasn’t because a sense of relief had finally washed over me after what seemed like one obstacle after the other. No, this time it was because the airplane had begun its descent to…

Amsterdam, I Was Wrong About You

I have to be very honest here: I had been trash-talking Amsterdam for the better part of the past five years. Whenever I was asked to give my opinion on the city, I would always reply that it didn’t captivate me quite as much as Maastricht or Den Haag. I would always claim that the…

The Amazing Mini-Eurotrip Race

“You know what looks really beautiful?” Ahmad yelled across the house. “What?” I yelled back from the kitchen. “Amsterdam. I’ve been seeing a lot of pictures and it seems like the kind of place we’d enjoy visiting.” “You don’t say!” I replied, rolling my eyes, as I made my way to the living room where…

What Living in the Netherlands Taught Me

If I’ve learned anything lately, it’s that time flies. One moment you’re getting your acceptance letter for graduate school, the next it’s four years down the line and you can barely remember what you studied or where you lived or who you encountered. Wow, it’s been four years since I moved to Maastricht, a town…

A View to Remember

Sometime during this past week, Facebook and their “On This Day” feature kindly reminded me that I had been back from graduate school for three years! Where did the time go? That’s the question I kept asking myself. As cliche as it sounds, it does feel like just yesterday that I had been going crazy…

Serenity

It’s amazing what a person can find while digging through their phone memory, trying to clear up space for all those planning applications. Like this photo I snapped by the Meuse River in Maastricht one beautiful April day in 2012. That was the one time we took our bikes and cycled for the sake of…

Nostalgia Sucks

You tell yourself you’re not going to think about the time you spent abroad, and instead focus on making new memories and not getting fixated on the what-could-have-beens and the could-have-dones. You avoid looking at pictures of the places you lived and where you went, and while you keep in touch with the people you…

I Didn’t Mean to Be Offensive- The Dutch Edition

A couple of nights ago we went out to celebrate Lily’s birthday. It wasn’t a large gathering and I knew some of the people invited because we always meet for her birthday. Soon enough though, we were joined by a friend of a friend who happened to be from the Netherlands. And I was thrilled!…

The Tiny Lovely Park (That Remains in My Memories)

“Why would anyone want to leave this place?” I smiled and thought to myself at that very moment. I had only learned to cycle a few days before and decided that the best form of practice would be to cycle around the city. I was by myself on my bike, on the Hoge Brug (the name…