Living at the
other side of the planet from where I was born and raised will always keep my
heart in two places. As much as I love Honduras,
as long as I’ve been here and as adapted as I have become, I’ll always be “from
Amsterdam”.
It is doable, but
hard when I can’t be with family or friends when tragedy strikes or when there
is something to celebrate.
Today Willem
Alexander is crowned as the new king of the Netherlands. And I am not there.
And I can’t decide whether I care or not.
For those who do
not know, the 30th of April is Queens Day in Holland and by far the best celebrated
holiday of the year. Not because the Dutch are overly fond of the royal family
(I think the soccer team throws higher marks), but it is a great celebration
nonetheless, starting in the wee hours of the night before. Children set up the
stalls to sell whatever they have been hoarding for months. People sell pies, sandwiches,
hotdogs, drinks, all preferably orange. Bars set up outside their properties
with dance parties until the wee hours of the morning after. The Vondel Park
is dedicated to children and is probably one of the best places to be. You can
have your face painted, throw eggs, walk on a rope or whatever crazy creative
act or game people come up with each year. Queens Day is not organized by the
government or municipality, but by the people themselves. You can expect the
unexpected, everything goes.
But today is
extra special, because it is Queens Day no longer. For the first time in over a
hundred years we now have a king. And from what I read in the online newspaper and see
on CNN, it has been quite an event.
This is the
second crowning I miss. The last one, when Willem’s mother Beatrix took over
the crown, was on April 30th, 1980. I was ten and excited about
Queens Day (couldn’t care too much about the change of royal power) but was
extremely disappointed and resentful when my parents decided that my mother,
brother and me were going to spend the day at my grandparents on the country
side. The reason was that riots were expected and my dad was for his work
involved in the security preparations. There were riots indeed, but hardly
anything that would have stopped a stubborn ten-year old from celebrating her Queens Day.
Thirty-three
years later I’m missing the crowning again, and as I said, I’m not sure what to
think about that. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know whether I’m
happy or not about having a new king. I know there’re pros and cons, but I
simply can’t come up with something sensible to say.
Oh my God! I have
NO opinion!
That is weird,
because I’m Dutch and the Dutch always
have an opinion about everything. Annoyingly
so! The Hondurans however are usually much less opinionated. Up to a point
that when you want to know someone’s thought, you’ll just get a shrug of the
shoulders.
What do you think
about World Peace?
Shrug.
What do you think
of President Pepe Lobo?
Shrug.
Do you like your
food?
Shrug.
Carin, what do
you think of Holland’s
new king?
Shrug.
Oh my… I’ve
become Honduran after all…
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