Thuis

Looks like I'm laying down roots here in Holland.  My boyfriend ("vriend") and I have bought a house together.  Heeeeel spannend!!!

Buying a house is something I'd always expected to do at some point in my life, but buying a house in Holland is obviously not something you expect for yourself as a girl growing up in Canada.  Since meeting my boyfriend about a year and a half ago, it became pretty clear to me that I would likely be settling down here.  The initial plan when I moved here was to work at this job for a few years and then head back to Canada.  Then I found myself really loving Holland, and decided that maybe I should open myself up to the possibility of meeting someone here and really making a life here.  And that's basically what happened.

I am so excited to be taking this step.  It is strange though to be buying your first home not in your own country.  First of all, because suddenly you have a lot of financial things to arranged in Dutch (always fun!).  But more importantly, taking this step makes it pretty clear that I am making a commitment to be living my life here for at least the next 5 years or so.  That makes it a little bittersweet....so exciting to be buying a home, but also sad that the home is so far away from a lot of the people I love.  At the end of the day, I'm just thankful that I have a job that allows me to see a bit of the world, live in a beautiful country and buy a house.