These times they are a changin'

Just takin' some time out to put down a few observations of late.
This blog comes slightly out of order, in that I’ve just got back from 2 weeks holidays with the lovely Brett (which I will blog about soon I promise but its looming as a massive undertaking for another day) but I’ve noticed a few things which I wanted to share.


Spring has finally sprung in Maastricht. I’ve been waiting for it for so long because I got here in time to see the trees change from green to autumn colours to deathly black sticks and I’ve been so looking forward to seeing all the leaves and flowers come back. Now don’t get too excited, the signs are only small at the moment – but the promise they hold is making everyone here noticeably more happy. Little daisies are starting to sprout in the green lawns now that they’re no longer suffocated by snow, and rows of yellow or purple flowers are popping up in random clumps in large patches of grass (for example there’s a rectangular sort of section of flowers out the front of our guesthouse building in the middle of a whole field of grass). Japanese blossom trees are flowering and there are daffodils in people’s front gardens. (All of this bodes very well for our planned trip to the Netherland’s largest display of tulips and other flowers up north in about a month’s time).

     

(a taste of the Keukenhof flower gardens - maastricht doesn't quite look like this yet!)

The weather also has pulled its finger out – it got to a whopping 16C yesterday! (although the average has been more like 13C during the day and about 4C at night.) Still, there’s sun, oh glorious sun. It was actually warm in the sunlight, like ‘break a small sweat if you were mildly physically active in said sun’ warm. My new roomie even hauled a chair out on to her balcony (which I don’t think anyone else has used since I’ve been here) to read a book in the sun. And it won't be long before Nakita gets out those shorts she's been longing to wear (and so whinging about) for months! When we first got here all the Aussie gave these Euro wimps crap for ripping off their tops and dining alfresco as soon as the weather tipped above 10C but after months of sunlight deprivation and night falling as early as 4.30pm we know understand. When Brett and I left here 2 and a bit weeks ago it was about 5C, gloves, scarves and hats were necessary. On my return I find I need only wear 2 layers now and I can even get away with cycling without gloves. I don’t even need the 5 pairs of woollen socks I’ve accumulated. Over the last few days I too, like some deprived European sunflower, have begun turning my head to the sun every chance I get (although I argue it is still a bit too chilly to sit outside to eat).

I am most pleased though at the extended daylight hours – it’s now light until at least 6.30pm which means less riding home in the dark. AND its lighter earlier in the mornings which, yep, you guessed it, means less riding TO uni in the dark. All in all the weather over the past few days has reminded me a bit of home, those days between summer and autumn where its no longer beach weather but its perfect for a drive with the window down or a walk on the beach (but not a swim).


However, I am weary not to get ahead of myself. We have had bursts of nice weather before (say a week of 8C days in between weeks of frost and fog) and even during one day the weather can turn – you leave the house without a scarfe, hat or gloves because you think it won’t be necessary and end up coming home an ice cube. So I refused to be suckered in completely. But it is officially spring here and the signs are good for a gradually move back to that elusive European summer I experience for just a few weeks at the start of my trip.



And on another note, I know I've been a bit slack with your Dutch lessons (although I've still been going to mine) so here's some Dutch I've learned:
"Helas pindakaas!" = "that's crap!"
spijkerbroek is the Dutch word for jeans (go firgure)
and a cute one... krumeltjes = crumbs! :)

An overwhelmed Australian abroad...

... that's exactly how I feel at the moment, overwhelmed and accutely Australian. If you read the last post you'll remember it ended in a rant.... well, I must warn you to prepare yourself for another. This not a "feel sorry for me" post or an "I'm homesick" post, but I had to get a few things off my chest - some thoughts that have been building up for a while now.

Firstly, the news from home is just all bad these days. The European and British news services are constantly showing dramatic pictures of floods, cyclones, bushfires back home. First it was south-east queensland drowning after praying for rain, then the far north holding on to its hat as a cyclone the size of Italy (as the euro news points out) bore down, then Perth is suddenly ablaze and finally, as I'm sitting in a pub in Luxembourg, I glance up at the BBC broadcast on silent on the flatscreen and see the headline "Melbourne awash in floods" and bicycles and kids toys floating down the street. I can't imagine how people are feeling at home (and that's half the problem, being so far from it all) but I wonder when our country is going to get a breather. It is all a bit more than an expat can handle at the moment. People here ask about the "unusual weather" in Australia, is my family anywhere near the danger? oh, no? well that's ok then right? But it's not ok - its still my country, my homeland, on fire, under water, being blown away literally. And its affecting a lot more than I realised...

However, as I think about the devastation Australians are facing, the next news item comes on and its even worse somewhere else in the world. When the first Queensland floods happened there were floods in South America which killed hundreds of people and swept away entire villages in seconds... just in case I'd lost perspective. And of course, we hear about such world events at home, but to have it juxtaposed in that way had a completely new impact on me.

Living in Europe has made me receptive in a new way to the impact of world events. There's always something happening somewhere and its usually bad. While I see international news back home, here it's not international, often its nextdoor! And there is something far more sobering and real about being geographically closer to these once merely abstract problems. Conversely there is something harder about being so far away from the problems I know to be very real and familiar back home.

Australia is one country, an island surrounded by vast expanses of water and - eventually - some other islands. Here, I am living a 10 minute walk from a country that wants to ban the burqa, I'm a stonesthrow from the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, the recent terrorist bombing just above my head in Russia, an explosion in Ankara to one side and money problems of countries failing to support their most vulnerable all around. And speaking of, I was also approached the other night by the first homeless person I have met in Maastricht. Apparently here the welfare system is quite good but I still felt a pang of guilt that I, a rich little Australian off glavanting abroad with enough money to be heading out for coffee, didn't spare more than a few coins for this man who was homeless (clearly) but still managed to greet me and hold a conversation in English (the thought struck me that even the homeless in Europe are bilingual... ?!)

Particularly the unrest in Egypt is weighing on my mind tho - its literally always on the euronews channel, live footage of crowds which sound like packed football stadiums yelling to oust a President they've had for 30 years (longer than I've been alive!) and this is the only way they can get rid of him?! And the cost to foreign journalists has brought up all sorts of feelings about the career path I and many of my friends have chosen. These journos - like any I know - are just reporting. Without them, I wouldn't be able to turn on my TV and find out what's going on in a land Iv'e never visited. And there they are, being subjected to hotel room ransackings, harrassment on the streets, knife wounds, even death in the case of one Egyptian reporter. And on top of all that, it seems as though the foreign journalists are being blamed for "stirring up" some of the unrest in the first place. It makes my blood boil honestly.

And the worst thing about all of this is that there is absolutely nothing I can do. I can't put out fires in WA, I can't soak up Queenslands watery streets or its misery, I wouldn't even know where to start with Egypt and giving a couple of Euro to a homeless Dutchman doesn't go nearly far enough. It's enough to make a girl feel utterly helpless ... overwhelmed, as I conceded at the start of this rant. I'm not talking about wanting to being able to control or "fix" things, but the combination of all the above as confirmation that I, that most of us, have such a small impact on the world is only making me more accutely aware of the impact the world is having on me right now.