Part 5: Quarantine and Connections

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
— Alan Watts

We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
— Robert Louis Stevenson

I put the key into the door and confusedly turned it three more times over than I thought could ever be necessary until I finally heard the “CLICK.”

“Must be a European lock thing,” I thought.

I pushed my new front door open and was greeted by, of all things, the spicy smell of Indian food. I didn’t know this then, but this would become a very familiar and welcome thing for me in the Netherlands. So much so that I think I might be the only person in the world who associates the smell of Indian food with the Netherlands, but more on that later.

Next thing I knew, I see a head and a smile pop around the corner from inside the kitchen.

My flatmate, or so I guessed.