New Year's Eve

Gearoid and I are lame. We are self-admittedly lame people. We like to stay at home cozy and warm and with each other (most of the time at least) instead of going out and meeting new people and living it up. We’re mostly comfortable with this plan to be lame. Sometimes I rebel and remind Gearoid and myself that I’m still in my twenties (at least for a couple of more weeks!) New Year’s Eve is no exception to our lameness. 

Admittedly, the handful of people we know in Nijmegen were out of town or had plans with their own families. However, even when we lived near friends and family we had lame/cozy plans. Instead of going to a nightclub in DC one year, we stayed home and after I cleaned the fridge out we made sushi and had a Band of Brothers marathon. When we’re with my family, we usually fall into a coma after eating too much Chinese food and wake up for a quick New Year’s kiss before becoming comatose again.

This year was no different. We had planned another Band of Brothers marathon but Gearoid wanted to get work done and I decided to spend the night with Glee re-runs and a pair of socks I was knitting. We ate a special dinner of cheese fondue and enjoyed a couple of our Belgium chocolates before spending the last hour or so of 2011 watching bad comedy roasts of mediocre celebrities.

During the course of the last day of 2011, we had been assaulted with the constant noise of firecrackers beginning at approximately 9AM.  All day children and teenagers ignited firecrackers and to get maximum noise they threw them into trash cans and storm drains. Public postboxes were closed and people taped their own mailboxes shut to avoid delinquents shoving fireworks into them. I don’t want to minimize the seriousness of actual war torn countries, but the constant bomb-like noises we heard gave us a slight impression of what it must be like in those countries. We, fortunately,  knew we were safe but the constant screaming of a rocket going in the air or the sound of a nearby explosion was often  very unsettling. A couple of the explosions were near enough that our windows rattled.

From afar, I thought these were red leaves but then reminded myself that it's winter and the leaves have been long gone. Unfortunately, nobody cleans up after the fireworks and the next day this was a red mush after the rain.

Along with fireworks, alcohol was being purchased by the masses as well as oliebollen (a less delicious version of an American donut- sorry I’m biased). The streets were much pretty people-less with the exception of those responsible for the noise pollution and the destruction of city trash bins. Occasionally an ambulance would rush by and I would wonder if someone had lost some fingers. On TV, the days leading up to New Year’s Eve were filled with public service announcements and local commercials promoting firework safety. Sadly, children with missing fingers were often the stars of these programs.

Now back to the actual New Year’s Eve. We counted down with the small animated man trying to blow out a fuse on TV and gave each other the appropriate New Year’s Eve kiss. We then stepped outside for the free fireworks show. The show wasn’t put on by the town of Nijmegen but rather the people who live here. Our house is on busy road and not embedded in a neighborhood but we’re surrounded by neighborhoods- if that makes sense. We stepped on our back balcony and on four sides were treated to an explosion of colorful fireworks.  Whenever we thought it might be over, it became more impressive. It almost seemed as if the different neighborhoods were competing with each other. At times, the people across the street would shoot them so they were almost uncomfortably close to us. We stayed outside admiring the fireworks for 35 minutes before the cold and our lameness got to us. When we went to bed at 1AM, they were still going strong.

Although I’m not much of a fan of fireworks- despite never being burned or attacked by them, I have an irrational fear of fireworks and fire. At a recent wedding of a friend, I reluctantly lit a sparkler to send her off to married life and then quickly handed it to Gearoid and cowered until all of the sparklers were extinguished. I have no idea when this fear developed because I remember as a child twirling sparklers as if they were batons- I have to say that this firework show was quite impressive and memorable. Sadly, Fourth of July in the States will have to step up the fireworks display to impress me again. 

This is a video Gearoid took of the fireworks from our balcony. We had a longer video but it was too big to post. If you watch carefully, you can see the outline of the church near us.