5 years in the Netherlands
September 22, 2007 at 5:21 PM
by Ashleigh
Me, Seb & Joe at the tramstop near our house a few weeks after we arrived here.
Five years ago today we arrived, rather shell-shocked, in the Netherlands.
Our flight was from Heathrow to Schiphol, which meant waking up at an unearthly hour to take a taxi to be there in time for our flight. Luckily airport security wasn't the same as it is now or we would have had to get up in the middle of the night!
Only Brad had ever been to the Netherlands before.
We had a two and a half year old toddler, a 4-week old baby and a whole lot of baggage.
Back at home in Chelmsford we left our house to be packed up by the movers and our lovely neighbours, Ian and Gilly. (Hi, Gill!)
It was one of the most shockingly difficult things I've ever done.
The naivete with which we leapt into life in a non-English speaking country is, in retrospect, alarming.
So here we are.
Five years down the line and our lives are completely different.
Not better or worse, just different.
Comments
Congratulations on your anniversery Ash. Tim has been here since 1994 (february 13th.... why didn't the moron go to the commune one day later? Men.... and he claims he is a romantic...). He still regularly is in stitches about one of our peculiar habits and will never become Dutch. But he also appreciates some of the wierd Dutch customs and wouldn't want to miss them, which is probabely all you can ask for.
Congratulations! For some reason I thought you'd been here for so much longer - being a Dutch speaker and all. ;) I'll second Barbara on the assimilation bit.
I'm sure moving here with two little babies (and a man!) was so much harder than coming alone. You should be proud!
WOW. You moved to a country you had never been to! Very brave of you that
I can't imagine navigating a new expat experience with a two-year old and an infant and all the post-partum stuff going on.
You deserve a medal!
In a month it will be 17 years for me. Passing 10 years was such a milestone, I never imagined I would find myself coming up on 20 years. I've lived in Amsterdam longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life. It's been a very bittersweet experience for sure, but it was the right decision to have made.
The first 5 years for us were by far in a way the hardest.
Ashleigh,
10 years ago at the start of September, that was us. The difference was we had one 7 week old baby. I too, had never been to the Netherlands before. It was a wonderful 8 years that we had there, and 2 years later, I still feel homesick for Delft and my friends.
To many of the expats, you are now the expert, as most of them move on within 3 years, courtesy of Shell and other companies. Those of us who were with the UN are more likely to stay longer.
Barbara, you obviously have never met the Australians and the Kiwis in The Netherlands, we don't have the option of feeling homesick - it is too far and too expensive.:)
Well, happy anniversary to the family, Ash! You know, in five years, you've assimilated more than any of the other foreigners I've met her. And in the TEN years I've been here, that's a lot of foreigners. You're also the only female friend I've had that's stayed here (other than a German pal who can drive home any time she's hit by homesickness).
It is quite shocking, in hindsight, how blithely and unwittingly we make these huge life-changes, isn't it?
And in parting, I would dearly love to ask what your secret is! You actually look YOUNGER now than you do in this 5-year old picture!
September 22, 2007 6:12 PM