We had our first holiday abroad. The true meaning of expat is starting to sink in. Austin didn’t have Monday off, so we had to celebrate on Sunday. A friend from Michigan (who also lives in the Netherlands, but is Spanish) came up with an idea: sailing.
Austin: It doesn’t feel like Fourth of July to me, unless I’m on the water.
Our stead.
Valk is a traditional Dutch sailing pleasure craft. A group of four of us rented one for the afternoon on Westeinderplassen. It was lovely, but we needed it to be more…. American. Austin bought heinously overpriced Brooklyn Lager and a fifth of Jack. I made a stars and stripes cake (without an oven, it was feat).
My cake.
It was close to being like home. Like any great Independence Day, we learned one VERY important thing: None of us like Jack.
Like maritime museums, ports are kind of our thing. We live very close to the largest port in Europe. Rotterdam is entrance to Europe. It is massive. So we spent a rain splashed afternoon looking at enormous ships and enjoying Heineken from the onboard bar. You know you can rent these boast for parties as well…
Filed under: expat
Austin and I experienced a rare occurrence. The windmill in town was open to the public. There was a choral group performing on the third floor. We make it all the way up to the tippy top. Level 7. Per the visit to the windmill Austin was all about living in a windmill. “Babe, we should totally live in a windmill. How cool and Dutch would that be.”
The windmill was terrifying. The “stairs” aka ladders are so steep that you have to go down them backwards. Even then it would give you the terror of your life. It was so hot inside. However, the benefits of living in a flat country did shine through. You could see everything from there.
Still afraid of heights, as is Austin. “You know. I am glad that we did that, but I no longer wish to live in a windmill.” Now you know.
View of the Station Construction.
We have been in country just under a month and finally we are set up. Let me take a moment to explain Dutch logic through the example of laundry.
We went 3+ weeks without the ability to do laundry. How could this be, you ask? That can’t be right, you say. Let me break it down for you.
In our building you need a laundry card to do your laundry. Said card needs to be linked to a Dutch bank account. To get a Dutch bank account you need a letter of employment and a residency card. To get a residency card you need to apply for one and get approved. That happened before we arrived. However, to get the physical card made you need to make an appointment with the IND to prove your identity with the proper documents and properly verified documents, and to get your finger prints and photo taken. Then the IND mails you a letter to tell you the card is ready for pick up. Then you can make an appointment to set up your bank account.
However, you don’t have a bank card yet. The bank will mail three separate letter each containing a letter in Dutch explaining how you solve their puzzle. Then you can set up online banking. With online banking set up, you can charge you laundry card. Once that card has money on it, you can do your laundry.
Seems simple, you say. Remember that the Dutch always want you to call them the set up appointments. Well, you don’t have a phone. To have a phone you need a residency card and a bank card. If you successfully set up an appointment, it will take at least a week before there is an availability to meet with you. Everything in this country takes at least two attempts before the task can be completed.
Don’t fret. It is all a hilarious story we will tell our grandchildren in the future. Now we have residency cards, bank cards, cellphones, laundry card, health insurance cards and automatically recharging public transit cards. Life is infinitely easier.
In the thick of things, we went to London. Austin had a conference in Bath and a meeting in London surrounding a weekend. It was a lot of nerding out over the clocks at Greenwich and the rich maritime history. The best part was manic river tour we took on our way down to Greenwich from Westminster. The guide was extremely informative. We learned that Wharf is an acronym. Who knew?
The most amazing thing to me was the amount of cranes building highrises. The whole place was under construction. I guess things are back and booming in Europe. Good for me. I seeking a job in the construction industry. Among the crowds you would spy stickers declaring I’m In. At the time, I didn’t know what it meant. The Thursday following our return, I knew beyond a shade of a doubt what it did.
The only other time I have ever lived in a high rise for any period of time was when I was in Beijing. The pollution was so bad that you couldn’t see the building getting built a quarter of a mile away even though there was nothing to obstruct the view.
We have had very bad weather since we arrived. The worst on record. Lowest sun days and most rain since the Dutch started weather records. We thought it was just like this. We thought Dutch were just overly optimistic about what normally really was.
On one particularly dreary day, I looked out our window towards Oude Delft and was struck with the memory of my view in China.
We had a bumpy arrival with a panic at DTW that we would miss our connection in Toronto and everything would be lost. Our fears were for not. This blog is not a platform for complaints, but one for observations on the absurdity life throws at us.
Point and case: our apartment. Austin and I live in student housing. The decision was a no brainer. The place came furnished with a month to month let. We would have a place to land and then start looking for a better place.
We live in 35 sqm, which—for all you imperial lovers out there—is about 375 sqft. It’s small. It’s really small. We have a refrigerator the size of the mini fridge you had in college and a two “burner” hot plate. Kitchen complete. The bathroom? It is like being on ship. When you shower, everything gets wet. We wear shower shoes at home. The place was filthy when we moved in. I have since cleaned it several times. We still get black soles if we walk the place barefoot.
The best and now hilarious part of our home is an extremely Dutch feature: two twin beds pushed together. They come with separate covers. In the night, they drift apart. Every few days we push them back together. The crevasse is a permanent feature of our lives and the punch line of a few jokes
I sent a photo to an old roommate of our situation. Domestication is way harder in Europe, was her reply.
from pacific coast to no coast 