By Nada Elbohi
I woke up today not to
my alarm, but to the voices of my housemates singing “Happy Birthday” in
English, French, Romanian, and Dutch. When it comes to my birthday, I have
always held high expectations, yet these usually go unfulfilled. Typically,
my birthday passes by and I’m reminded that it’s actually not so different from
any other day. This year, though, was different. If you had asked me a year ago
how I plan to spend my 20th birthday, I would have never imagined
celebrating it the way I did. Even if you had asked me about my birthday right
before we left for Kosovo, I still had my expectation set quite low. This was
the only year in which I was completely wrong (okay, maybe not the only year,
but still).
The
night before was full of celebrations, birthday wishes, (delicious) food, and
cake, which in reality was much fancier than a typical birthday cake. The
morning after was a little less festive as the trip drew to an end and goodbyes
had to be made. While there was no rushing to early meetings at Newborn, we still followed
what had become our morning routine accompanied with a full-fledged bathroom
schedule for seven people. I usually take a little too long in the shower,
messing up the following shower turns, but I think for my birthday everyone was
more lenient with me. I had no complaints or knocks on the bathroom door! We,
the people of Enver’s house, had initially planned to meet at Newborn with the
rest of the class for brunch in an extended celebration of my birthday.
However, since we woke up late and time was running short, we decided to have
some coffee and cake near Enver’s house as the bus was coming by our place on
the way to the airport anyway.
During
the short drive to the airport, I said my goodbyes to the beautiful Kosovo and
to Enver’s house and family, which had already begun feeling like home to me. Once
we arrived at the Pristina Airport, I gauged the reaction of everyone else as
we walked through the doors and waited in a busy line at the check-in desk,
acknowledging the end of our time here in Pristina.
The
day was long, moving from flight to flight. Our tedious trip began with our
departure from Pristina, heading to Basel. At Basel, we had to pass through
security, passport control, pick up our baggage at the carousel, and check-in
our suitcases once again. It was exhausting. To add to the pleasantries of
fatigue, the people at the airport were uncharacteristically unfriendly. First
of all, while I was in the line at passport control, everybody tried to push
ahead of me, repeatedly cutting the line. Second, I’m pretty sure I was the
only one checked for customs because I’m not white and because when the
security officer asked me where I was coming from, I replied, “Kosovo” (i.e.
discrimination 101).
After
our flight was delayed at Basel, we finally landed in Amsterdam at around 11 pm
and arrived at the dorms at about midnight. My birthday was finally over, and I
say finally because it felt unusually lengthy. Nonetheless, I can’t deny that
it was a special day (including/especially the night of June 21st).
It was a birthday to remember: turning 20 in Kosovo with wonderful people and a
day full of restlessness and flights.
Until
next time, Kosovo!
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