One year abroad

Yesterday it was exactly one year ago that I boarded a plane headed for Beirut, without a return ticket.

So much has happened since then that it feels like much more than just a year, but at the same time it is hard to believe I have been away from Amsterdam, family and friends for a whole year. Not to get all sentimental or anything, but that’s a long time and a lot of gatherings and occasions that I have not been a part of. Four seasons, one Queensday, one Uitmarkt, one Cito toets, one Sinterklaas and Christmas, a ton of birthdays, one whole year of school, I could go on.

Of course, things haven’t exactly been very quiet on my end either. Husband and I became husband and I rather than “boyfriend” and I, moved house three times (Broummana to Beirut to Broummana to Abu Dhabi), saved the lives of two kittens (one of whom now has kittens of her own it seems…!), ate a whole lot of sushi, furnished two apartments, taught each other several swearwords in Dutch and Arabic and all in all had a whole lot of fun. While I am not always delirious with joy about our current country of residence (see previous post), it’s a good place for us to be right now and it’ll only get better. I hope I won’t ever have to say I spent TEN years abroad, but another five or so doesn’t sound bad at all.