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Our Life in the Netherlands |
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For the most part, we are enjoying the experience in the Netherlands. It seems as if the pace of life is a bit slower than the USA. Back in the States we both worked long hours. Here I get to stay home with the girls and Cita, our new puppy. As a family we are able to spend a lot of time with one another. That's a good thing. I think the adjustment of culture shock went a bit easier for us because I was able to focus on the family while Todd focused on his new job. The shock doesn't happen overnight. In fact the first few months are like a honeymoon. Everything is new and fascinating. But one day, you think what have you done. Why did you leave home for this God forsaken place. When we first moved to the Netherlands, we went through the bureaucratic nightmare of registering as resident aliens. We had to prove to the Dutch officials that we were not married but only living together. To make a long story short, our mothers got letters from the Department of Vital Statistics of Wisconsin stating that no marriage certificates were found under our names. There were no searches conducted for the 49 other states. Makes sense, huh? We also went through the process of buying a house in a foreign country. What an experience. The housing market here is really booming. One has to make an offer immediately or take the risk that someone else seeing the house later that day will bid on it. We chose a house in a village just north of Eindhoven. See our house at the home front page Bicycles are a must in the Netherlands. You can actually get around faster on them then cars. I ride my bike with my six year old daughter, Raine everyday to and from school. I also ride my bike to the market just about each day. The Dutch refrigerators are so small they only hold about one day's worth of food.
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We've
met several buitenlanders (foreigners) in our little town.
We get together often. Some have children who are friends with
ours. We seem to be drawn together both by a common language
and shared experiences of living abroad.
You can see some of our friends by going to our Friends
Page. While
we like many aspects of Dutch life, we are really Americans.
There are subtle differences that almost scream at me on some days.
The Dutch live by rules here. It gets rather maddening at times,
Regals zijn Regals (Rules are Rules).
They eat bland food (However the colonization of Indochina did bring some
spiciness to their plate) The stores all close at 5:00 pm and nothing is open on
Sundays, The Netherlands is a really small country, hence the roads are always
congested and one is always being bumped by others at the market.
But probably the most depressing thing about the Netherlands is that it
rains all the time.
But on the other hand there are some really great things here. When the sun does comes out it is so beautiful. The food is very fresh and of great quality. The baker delivers bread to our house three days a week. The flowers are cheap, plentiful and down right gorgeous. The town of Son has two tennis clubs, soccer fields, horse stables, gymnastics, sauna, and bike paths that are everywhere. There was a swimming pool until last spring when it mysteriously burnt down. There is also a beautiful forest near our neighborhood. We take our bikes through it all the time. Our children are having a great experience. The
Dutch are much more relaxed than Americans when it comes to sex, drugs and other
things.
There are no censors for television programming so porn movies are a norm
after 10:00 pm. There are also the infamous "coffee shops".
What is interesting is that it is legal to smoke but it's not legal to
carry.
But
the greatest thing about living in the Netherlands is the ability to travel
around Europe. And with Todd being a foreign national employee he gets the same
six weeks of vacation a year.
We can easily go to England for the weekend as well as Germany and
Belgium.
We do have a few trips planned this year. You can see past trips by
going to our Adventures
page.
You can also visit other sites on our page |
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