Big City Love

I went into Amsterdam today to run a few errands, taking the train from where I live in the East.  (Actually, due to work on the train tracks, I actually had to drive to Amersfoort first...but that's beside the point.)  I was slightly shocked at how happy it made me to be in a big city for a little while.  I always treat myself to a starbucks drink when arriving, and as I exited Amsterdam Centraal latte with my latte, I thought to myself "heerlijk".  Seriously...I actually thought it in Dutch.  These things have been happening more and more often lately.  Last week while driving, I started yelling at another driver in Dutch.  I suppose it's a sign I've integrated. 

My boyfriend has exactly the opposite reaction to the busy feel of a city like Amsterdam.  He would much rather live in a smaller, quieter place.  That's actually a big reason why we've chosen to live really close to the national forest here (The Veluwe).  I on the other hand, loooooove the convenience of being in a large centre.  There are a million fun things about Amsterdam, but I think what I really enjoy most is that there I can find basically everything I could ever want or need.  The last few years that I lived in Canada, I lived in Toronto and I loved that too.  Toronto has lots of great little neighbourhoods and tonnes of amazing shops and after a few years, I knew exactly where to go for whatever I needed.  I had a favourite card store, clothing store, coffeeshop etc.  Unfortunately, where we live is so small that none of those things exist here.  So today, with my Starbucks in hand...I almost felt like I was at home!   The only thing missing was my Canadian girlfriends.  

Sometimes I have so much respect for Dutch women!  They have this attitude that is just like, "get on with it, no complaining".  As is our usual habit here, I went this morning to the outdoor market and then to the supermarket.  In our new house, we have a little bigger of a fridge and more storage space, so we try to just shop once a week (North American style!).

Today, I noticed something which I remember really shocked me when I first arrived here.  At the grocery stores in Canada, generally the ladies at the check out will pack your groceries into bags for you.  Here, you are generally expected to bring your own bags (which I know is also becoming quite normal in Canada now), but I remember at the beginning being here feeling so rushed to make my payment and then pack my bags.   This was made all the more scary because I didn't really speak the language yet and really had to pay attention to what was going on.   Today, I was doing the shopping all alone....when we go together, we've got the tasks totally assigned...my boyfriend packs everything up and I do the paying (I think this is great!).  It amazed me how quickly I watched the lady after me pack all her stuff in her cart (also all alone).  She was practically done before me.  Someday, maybe I'll get the hang of this too....right?  But this is what I mean about there being something in the culture here that says...just do your thing, get on with it...  Births without epidurals, at home...grocery shopping on the bike, with two kids on it....and no help packing your bags....do it yourself and do it fast!

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. 

Herfst

We're deep into the Autumn here in Holland..."wintertijd" (what we call Daylight Savings Time back home) is here.  True "herfstweer" (fall weather) has arrived and darkness comes early.  Having grown up in Canada, I am used to some pretty harsh winters.  Fall/winter here is different.  I'm used to bright, crisp, cold days.  It can be truly freeeeeeezing sometimes where I grew up, but if there is at least sunlight, I find that ok.  Here, a crisp sunny day is definitely a rarity.  Winter consists more of rainy, windy weather.  The Dutch have a word for the bone-chilling cold that comes from the humid, wet weather..."waterkoud".  I find it to be pretty fitting.


What comes along with this time of the year, is the Sinterklaas craziness.  This catches me off guard every year...suddenly there are kids running around town in their little pietepakken with their black faces, crushed pepernoten all over the streets etc, etc.  Because I haven't grown up around this holiday, I find myself every year being a little taken aback by all the celebrating.  Yesterday there was a parade of marching bands, floats etc. just outside my house and it seemed like the whole town was out to celebrate the arrival of Sinterklaas.  

I need to vent...

One of the things I find the most frustrating living here is dealing with banks and the Gemeentehuis.  Sometimes it can be so frustrating.  I have to psych myself up to go speaking my best Dutch...and then hope that it'll go ok.  Thank goodness I don't have to make these trips so often anymore, but in the beginning there are certain things that need to be arranged: "inschrijving" (registering) with the Gemeente, getting a bank account, etc. etc.  Doing all of that when you don't speak the best Dutch is challenging.


Today I had to go to the bank to pick up some cash money to pay for the car I am buying.  Wat een gedoe!!!  I thought that since I had the cash sitting in my bank account, this would be no issue.  But no, apparently at the bank I use, for larger amounts, you are expected to "order the money" 2 days ahead of time.  This is the problem....you don't know these rules until you come across such a situation...and then you learn.  This isn't the first such surprise which I've had.  In retrospect I always feel stupid for not looking up whether whatever I need is possible.  I often make the mistake of assuming that things will be the same as I was used to in Canada, and that's generally not the case.  Banking in particular can be annoying.  Things that in Canada could be arranged on the spot often take way more time.  I've had to get a new pinpass a number of times because it stopped working, and they then send you your new pinpass in 4 working days (I believe).  Why is this necessary?  In Canada, I would get a temporary pass on the spot and then a replacement a few days later in the mail. 


I also hate being spoken to like I am dumb.  I may be foreign and have a different accent, and perhaps not know how everything works around here...but I am not stupid!  I felt like screaming this at the bank teller today, who insisted on telling me over and over what was not possible, instead of trying to help me figure out how I was going to fix my problem.  Ahh...customer service in the Netherlands! 

Vervoer/Transportation

I accomplished something pretty exciting this weekend...I bought a car!  I've been car-less for the past 2 years and I will admit that I have very rarely missed having a car.  I live about 500 metres away from the NS station in my town and though most Dutch people think it sucks, I've found public transportation in Holland to be generally reliable. The way the town is set up where I live, it's actually easier and quicker to do errands such as grocery shopping with the bike.  Everything is so close by that it actually took me about a year before I even bought myself a bike.  At first I just walked everywhere, and it was actually very do-able.


There were some other barriers that kept me from running out and buying a car.  I find driving in the Netherlands to be scarier than driving in Canada.  This is of course ridiculous, because I am used to driving through blizzards, on super busy 4 lane highways, through downtown Toronto etc, etc....but somehow the narrow streets here with cyclists flying by are scarier for me.  I also wasn't used to driving a car with a manual transmission.  I didn't learn to do that until I met my boyfriend, who such a car.  I found it super scary to learn, which I know is also silly, but  am proud of myself for pushing myself to do it. 


However, when it came time to buy my very own car, I decided it should be an automatic.  Why?  Because I am lazy, and I don't want to be stressing out about shifting gears on the way to work in the morning!  In researching cars, I became aware of the existence of "wegenbelasting" (road tax).  The more fuel efficient a car is, the lower the road tax.  I initially thought the Toyota Aygo would be a good option....they make a car with a quasi-automatic transmission which is "wegenbelasting vrij" (no road tax), but I eventually decided against it.  Instead I will be buying something which has a pretty low monthly road tax payment, but feels a little more solid.  And of course, is AUTOMATIC!  


I'm excited to start driving on Dutch roads in my very own car!

Why I will stay in Holland...

It is pretty amazing to me how quickly a place that was once "foreign" can become Home.  After a little more than two years living in the Netherlands, I am convinced that this will be the place where I spend the majority of the rest of my life working and raising the kids that I hope someday come!  That was never my initial plan, but after being here a year or so and getting my bearings in terms of learning the language and getting settled in my job, I realized that this is a fantastic country, and I could really see myself here "for good".  I think a huge factor which made this process easier was that I learned the language right away.  The first 4 weeks I was here, I took intensive language lessons with a private teacher.  Expensive, but necessary for my work as I work in the eastern part of the country and though I am always impressed with the ability of Dutch people to speak English, not everyone around here can.  That was actually a blessing in disguise.  When people automatically switch to English when speaking to you, it doesn't force you to try and learn.  And simply through listening, I think I picked things up.  I maybe didn't understand all of the words at first, but I could grasp the meaning of what someone was trying to say.  Gradually that improved.  Now I would say I am fairly fluent.  I don't understand every single thing, sometimes have to ask my boyfriend for clarification on some things or ask people to repeat themselves, but I can carry on a normal conversation.  I have to say that making the effort to learn wasn't always easy.  I had days in the beginning where I came home from work so exhausted from speaking another language all day that I couldn't even bring myself to make dinner.  But the effort was well worth it. 


So, after a year or so here, I figured if I had gotten over the hurdle of learning the language, then why not consider staying longer.  I opened up to the idea that if I could find someone with whom I would like to spend my life, then maybe I could stay here for good.  I loooooooove Canada....love going back to visit....miss my friends and family....but there are certain things that I would just never have living in Canada that I can have here.  For example: 4 weeks of vacation as soon as I started working!  When I began my current job, I was informed that I would have 4 weeks of paid vacation per year.  I was pumped!  I mean, who has that right off the bat at a new job in Canada?  I have to say that now that I have been here a little longer, I have found out that 4 weeks is actually the legal minimum of vacation time in the Netherlands.  I was a little disappointed when I realized that people in lower positions in my company have more vacation time.  However, they have been pretty flexible about me taking more time if I need it, so I can't complain!  


The second thing I've noticed that is really attractive to me, is that many people do not work 5 days a week here.  In Canada, it seems to be the norm that both partners work 5 days per week.  Here, it is quite common for mothers to work 3 days per week and sometimes for fathers to work part time as well.  What a genius idea!  I think the Dutch have simply accepted that it is not possible (or not for everyone anyway) to balance a family life and full-time work and actually enjoy yourself.  I love that this is completely socially acceptable here.  


Those are really just a couple of the things that make living here attractive.  In general, I have to say that I find Dutch social policy to be quite logical and fair and that things are quite well-organized.  It hasn't always felt that way.  I know that I occasionally faced some kind of "discrimination" when visiting the Gemeente Huis (city hall) and trying to arrange certain things.  I sometimes felt like people looked at me like I was stupid because I couldn't speak proper Dutch...that is still a feeling that I occasionally have.  In general though, I think the Netherlands is a country that makes things rather easy for ex-pats and I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to come and work here.