In addition to the laundry diagram that Marco found, another old thing that he found was the pro and con lists he and I made back in July 2011 when I visiting. They related to the decision of moving to the Netherlands or him moving to United States.
It wasn’t until September 2011, though, that we made the final decision to have me move to the Netherlands. This was just the first of many discussions about it.
From Marco…
Change.
In November 2008 the world as we knew it changed. The unthinkable happened.
Since then, we’ve been on a crazy roller coaster filled with steps forward and steps back. We’ve slowly climbing up towards the top of the mountain, creating a better place, a better world. No, I’m not talking about politics, but I cannot help but bring up the timeline and make some comparisons.
In late October ’08 I visited Niki and saying goodbye was so hard to do. When I left it was still just as a friend but that changed when we got to talk a few days later. Basically we just said “let’s try this..see where we can go from here”. Or, to tie it in to the political storm at the time.There was change in the air and we said “Yes, we can!”
A lot has happened in those four years, even though it seems like we’ve only made small steps. Back in early ’09 we already talked about our future plans, knowing that if we wanted to make the long distance work it couldn’t be just a simple “boyfriend-girlfriend” thing. We thought ahead, talked about living together eventually and even about family plans (see if each of us wanted kids)
Then for a while there was a little status quo. We knew what we wanted, we didn’t actively work on getting there yet.
Moving to another country (in either way) is a big change and while we believed in it, we didn’t want to rush into anything. Then of course the past year the wheels have been set in motion.
Four years, it seems like such a long time..so much has changed around us in the world. But also for ourselves. Niki went from going to college to working at a college. We’ve gone through a lot together, visiting places, spending time, figuring out the future. Yet in a way it’s just like many say about the Obama presidency the past four years.. “How’s my life different than it was four years ago? How have things improved?”
Well..I say that life definitely has changed for both Niki and myself but in a way it’s all been small stuff. Setting the stage for the big one, the actual move to the Netherlands. And then we can move on with life, move….Forward!
(Yes, I am very pleased with myself that I started with the slogan from 4 years ago and ending with the current one)
Written by Marco…
When I left Niki about a month ago, I took home a (new) pair of her shoes.
We had bought them the day before, and it was one of those “if you let me take them now, we don’t have to carry them in December.”
Yesterday, it amused me to put the shoes next to mine.
And chuckle at how small her shoes and feet are compared to the huge vessels that are my shoes… But why is this do news worthy? Well I’ve already told about how I’m making room at my place..
But this is the first time that I’ve actually was able to place an item in the apartment already 🙂 It’s the first of many items where I have to move over and make room for Niki’s belongings. Well to be honest I don’t believe it’ll be that bad 😉 I mean..how crazy can it be, right? (Famous last wo
As I mentioned a few days ago, I have a new cable box and thus many more channels than I have had in years. Yesterday night I was flipping through the channels to see what was available and I came across a channel called “Euronews” – ch. 103 to be exact.
When I first watched it I felt a bit confused as they just happened to be reporting on something in America (I forget what) although they switched afterwards to Ukraine and other European countries.
After about 10 minutes of watching the channel I began to feel a pang of something unexpected – it hit me that I would be moving to Europe. You know, but you don’t really understand… Keep in mind, when it comes to moving around I have always been pretty easy going. Move halfway across the US with only two suitcases to my name – not a problem. Move an hour and a half north to NY – not a problem.
This really isn’t a problem, either. In fact, I am sort of relieved to feel some sort of negative emotion, be it minor. The only thing that I ever felt conflicted about was leaving my job, but that is mainly because the economy is in shambles these days. So to have some proof that I actually minded even a little bit was nice. If that makes sense…
Today I had two classes for EN112 – College Writing and Research. Last summer, it was decided that rather than trying to introduce the students to the library during their freshman seminar, it might instead be better to introduce the them to the library during their research class. The only issue with that is some students test out of it completely, but those students also tested out for a reason.
I had two EN112s this morning – 8:15 and 9:45. My general outline for these types of classes is to go over how to search the book catalog and how to search the databases for journal articles. The basics – but at this point I’ve been searching the databases for three years, so I am able to add in some of the tricks I myself have learned along the way.
But, like all things, work seems to be a countdown these days. This many days left, this many classes left… etc. I only have 4 more classes to go (2 next Monday, 1 next Tuesday, and 1 the last Monday of October). There’s also workshops (which last until the end of November), but classes by and large are how I see most of the students.
Over the months I have expanded on some of the details I tell the students:
1. “I work Monday through Friday, 8AM to 4PM.” So don’t expect an answer Saturday night…
2. “I am a weird person who doesn’t drive, so I need to leave at 4PM sharp to catch the bus.” So don’t come in at 3:58PM (this hasn’t really happened lately).
3. And sometimes, depending on the class… “I am moving to the Netherlands at the end of the semester, so feel free to ask me any questions before that. My last day is the last day of finals.” (Usually at least a few students say “Awesome!” or similar at that.)
…Today I mentioned point #3 at the end of the class after the professor brought it up. As today’s research topic example was the therapeutic uses of marijuana (with a potential look at legalizing medical marijuana in New York), I did slip in a joke that I was not moving to the Netherlands for better access to drugs. (That got some laughs.)
It hasn’t really hit yet. Today someone from my bank called, and I realized for the 53rd time that I really need to figure out how to close my account from overseas, as I will still have direct deposit checks arriving for another month or so. Little things that I must remember… or more accurately, throw into Outlook as a reminder.
To do at some point down the line.
Next thing to work on: figuring out Dutch health insurance. Actually, I don’t have as much to figure out as I thought. I had mentioned the predicament to Marco and this morning I woke up to a PDF from Oom Verzekeringen (Oom insurance) that Marco had thoughtfully sent to me.
According to their page it seems that the best fit would be Global Visitor Insurance, since in the end this is really just short term insurance until I can secure a residence permit and find a more permanent solution. The page specifically mentions it works until you can get a residence permit, so yay. If anyone over in America is wondering, it’s illegal to not have health insurance in the Netherlands if you live there. I like not getting fined. I am not completely clear if you need it as soon as you set foot in the country, but you definitely do on the day you get your residence permit.
I still remember Marco explaining Dutch health insurance — it’s not tied to your job at all. Which is in some ways nice, since right now my work decides which health insurance is best for the college, and you only have a few tiers of coverage to choose from. There’s usually a lot of grumblings from my coworkers, but I have been lucky enough to not have been turned upside down and shaken so all my money falls out… yet… (some of the stories my coworkers tell me sound like downright highway robbery).
Mind you, I am not a user of health insurance in general. So far under this job I have not used anything from my health insurance, though I have faithfully visited the dentist every 6 months for a routine checkup (dental coverage is separate from health insurance for me).
But I am glad to see it doesn’t seem to be that difficult. Though if you’re an expat with a Dutch health insurance horror story, feel free to share!
The interesting thing is that the closer my move gets, the more I seem to procrastinate. Things were very frenzied in July and August, but it has become a slow simmer…
Things seem to be going slowly, but at the same time quite fast. I only have 9 weeks of work left. Soon we will start scheduling interviews for my position — of the 25 or so resumes we received, we will likely interview 5 of them. It does cause a bit of trepidation, as it does show that people are desperate to get a job and why am I leaving mine again?
But only a bit of trepidation – things will work out. They always do (after I freak out a bit and Marco rolls his eyes and tells me to calm down ;p).
The main things I have to get figured out are related to health insurance, and eventually finding a doctor (huisarts) to go to. The rest just seems to be waiting, although Marco, Roger and I have started to make plans for the December trip when they come to party in New York City and then take me back. The days are slipping past.
So I have made progress since posting the previous blog post about forms and apostilles, specifically for birth certificates and “certificate of single status” (i.e. I am not currently married).
Here is what the “Application Residence Permit without MVV or change of purpose or stay” has to say:
Any official foreign documents about persons that are required for the
application must have been legalised or provided with an Apostille
stamp by the competent authorities of the issuing country. This may
relate to documents such as birth certificates, certificates of unmarried
status (not older than 6 months), marriage certificates, and court decisions regarding adoption and guardianship.
[Note: Some countries require the MVV first, but it is not required of United States citizens.]
Here is what I learned for my situation (for birth certificates and the certificate of single status, both documents with apostilles):
So tonight I was happy to find that the movie Twister was on TBS. A perfect movie to relax to on a Friday night. All I can think about when watching this movie is my time as an undergraduate college student: it would rile up the meteorology students so much if you even mentioned this movie, due to it being so inaccurate. (I just remember them talking about exactly what happens to your body if you are inside a F5 tornado, tied down or not…)
Seen at the Amsterdam Centraal Station [Edit: this is actually at Schiphol airport at a store called “Food Village”, see the comment below]:
On the bottom you can see the Cheez-It crackers. It is one of my current addictions. Sometimes (not often) I also go to the local deli and get some fresh cheddar cheese slices to put on top. I definitely prefer salty snacks. Oh, and yellow mustard, which is thankfully at Marco’s local Albert Heijn.
Number of days (straight) I have studied Dutch: 0. Whoops! Forgot all about it on Friday. We’ll see what I can do about making that a 1 again.
Life in the Hague 