Hiking!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.742608145294.2190324.13306003&type=1&l=782a8cec26

Email to someone who was helping me learn Dutch

I got a job yesterday! I'll be a telemarketer with Tele-Sales Direct here in Den Bosch, and while it is by no means an ideal job at least I'll be getting paid to do something that is only biking distance away! :) Also, Katie, another girl from the HIWC works there too, so we can bike together and spend the day as direct colleagues! I'm actually pretty excited.

So I'll now have less time to work on my Dutch (and perhaps a bit less motivation now that I've found an English-speaking job?) but I definitely still want to work on it.

Thoughts on my new job

I do think it will be useful for a couple of reasons. First, I'll be earning money! Second, if I'm successful at this job, it will show other Dutch employers that I'm a good employee, even if I hope to have nothing to do with telemarketing in the future. It's not a super impressive reference, but any Dutch reference is better than no Dutch reference when looking for jobs here. Third, it gives me a better position from which to look for jobs. I think I'll seem less desperate looking to change jobs while employed than just grabbing at anything that comes my way which I've done now. I would also like to think that accepting this position means that this is the worst job I will have, as anyone else who wants me to accept their offer will have to either pay me more or give me a better job. It feels good to know that the worst case scenario for me in terms of what job I end up with isn't actually all that bad. :) Two months between jobs wasn't so bad actually! It's also really nice that the job is so close to home. I had resigned myself to looking at jobs in Amsterdam and now instead of thinking I might have a crap job with low wages in A'dam, at least I now know that for me to commute all the way there, it would have to be a much better job or much better pay for me to consider it. At least my low paying non-engaging job is right in our town!

Moral of the story, a bad job is better than no job! And I also intend to be the best telemarketer ever. :)

News...emailed to my aunt...

.I'm employed! :) I'm going to be a telemarketer! Haha. Did I mention to you my friend Katie who has a horrendous job? Well I'm going to be working with her! So we can bike to work together! The hours are 9-5 M-Th with a .5hr break each day, and I only have to work until 3 on Fridays. I'll be paid 10E/hr, but with taxes here, I'll only take home 6-7E/hr. It's only supposed to be for 2 months, though Katie has been there longer than that and she was told the same thing. Also, within that two months I can leave at anytime if I give 1-2 days notice, so there's really no reason for me to not take it and therefore be paid while I'm searching for a "real" job. On top of the 10E/hr an additional 8% of what I earn goes toward vacation money, so it's not like I have a certain number of days I can take - I can take as much as I want, but the amount of money the company will put toward it is essentially 8% of what I've earned up to that point, and beyond that it's unpaid. It's nice that I will therefore be able to determine on my own how important vacation is to me and to take what I want rather than be stuck with a certain number of days. Also, they will pay for me for any time I spend at the doctor or dentist (not the fees, but rather for my time while I'm there), and they will pay unlimited sick time, but if I take too much they'll just fire me.

So I'm excited! I'll be calling businesses in the UK.

Emails with my mom about my rejection letters...

I've received so many of these I'm starting to think they're kind of funny. This woman really gave me LOTS of feedback...

Dear madame Hansen,

Thank your for your interest in MVRO.

We will not invite you for the job.

Greetings,

MVRO

Els Korsten

Secretaresse

Mom's reaction: Oh dear. I won't invite her to dinner then!

My response: Yeah, seriously. Wenchity wench wench. I actually laughed out loud when I got that one. At least I know I could write a better rejection letter than she can...
xx

Dishwasher troubles...

The plumber is supposed to come by today "before 2" to take a look at the sink. I hope he can fix it! When you have neither a sink nor a dishwasher, the dirty dishes really start piling up! Our half bath that's on the same floor as the kitchen has a teeny tiny sink that you can barely fit your hands in and it only has a cold water tap, so that's not helpful for washing dishes. The only other sink is upstairs by our bedroom! So it's pretty inconvenient...But, we have all sorts of fun plans this weekend (starting on Thursday!) that will help us take our minds off the sink. And hopefully it will be fixed today!

Another email to Aunty Pat!

Our Groupon lunch was really good. Great value for only 9.50/person! It was super tasty. At the same time there was a Champagne tasting going on, with oysters and caviar and such, but that was 29.70 per person and we didn't feel the need to do that. We just stuck to our original plan and had lunch there. But I bet it was really good champagne! There was also wonderful live music - just one man playing guitar and singing, but he was really good. It was a great afternoon! Next weekend we get to use our massage groupons! :)

Our bad news is that our dishwasher, or maybe kitchen sink, is misbehaving! When we turn on the sink, water comes out from the bottom of the dishwasher and onto the floor! We've emailed the owner, so we'll see what he says. We've never even used the dishwasher! If he doesn't respond by this afternoon I think I'll call him. It's such a pain to not be able to use the sink at all!

Email to my aunt!

Terry's workload is finally more reasonable, though we still weren't able to go to trivia on Thursday, mostly because he got home a little late for it, and then he didn't feel like going out, which is fine. We went out both nights this weekend with new groups of people that we've met in online communities such as InterNations or Couch Surfing. It was lots of fun, and hopefully we've made some contacts we can spend time with in the future!

We're going out to lunch today at 2pm because we bought a Groupon for a restaurant in town to try. It's a 3 course lunch with soup/sandwich so we're excited! It's actually one of the cafes that's on a street that we almost lived on, so it will be fun to try the place for lunch!

Here's what we can expect over Xmas!

Getting excited! This is from one of the websites I most heavily rely on for relocation advice.
http://www.expatica.com/nl/lifestyle_leisure/lifestyle/christmas-in-the-netherlands-116_12287.html

Lots of thoughts to my daddy

This is in response from me to my loving father who was making sure I'm not getting too discouraged about the job hunt and reminding me that the hiring process will pick back up in the new year.

From me:
Yep Yep. I've been told to stop looking until after the holidays. But I've also read articles (I've read lots of advice articles on everything associated with relocation...) that say giving up the job search during the holidays is silly because during this time of year, my competition will all be "at the mall" and also, it's not like ALL people who hire people ACTUALLY take the entire month of December off. If there's a contact to be made, it can't hurt to make it even though it may be a few weeks before the hiring process picks up again! The other thing the article mentioned was that the holidays are also a great time of year in terms of networking, because you never know who you're going to meet at a holiday party! So their advice was to treat everyone like they could have an impact on your future career success, to mind your manners at parties, and to not drink too much! And therefor to accept every social invitation that comes your way! I can do that!!

The other thing the article warned about was not having your expectations set on suddenly seeing a flood of new jobs come January. There really aren't any jobs for anyone right now, including for highly educated Dutch speakers, so I was told while making my rounds at recruiting agencies yesterday. And it was then suggested that I go work in a factory, because there ARE jobs on the production line... Excellent. I didn't jump on that opportunity... Perhaps I should have majored in Assembly Line studies.

Speaking of which, I went to a "speed date" career fair today that was pretty good, and we're going to a get-together in Utrecht, organized through an online community I've joined called InterNations that is geared toward "globally-minded people," which I consider myself to be! There are already 48 people signed up to be there! It's a situation in which it would be totally appropriate to network, but I think a lot of people also come just for the social aspect. The profile you create on the website has you put what you're looking for and what you're offering, so it does have a bit of a networking focus, but it's also just to help expats/international people connect with each other. I will definitely be on my best behavior, but I won't be disappointed if I don't get any job leads out of it. I don't want people who are there to be social to think I'm just there to find a job, and also it gets tiresome treating everyone like they might know someone who might give me a job, when I actually just need friends too! Also, I'm not "giving up" my Friday night just to network. If I'm at an event that starts at 7pm on a Friday, you can bet I'm there to be social as well!

I'm not feeling too discourage, but boy is this tedious. I wish I could be all done with this dumb job search, but it's different than anything I've ever experienced before because it's not like a project where I have a goal and I set deadlines and I finish it by a certain time being happy with the quality of my work. It just never ends! Bah humbug! I don't like this one bit! And I don't even feel like it's in my control! Obviously the more I try the better my chances will be, but it's not like I can just DECIDE to be hired. We'll see how it goes...

Why is it so hard for me to find a way to Save the World?? LOTS of people and places need my help, and all I want to do is make a difference because I know I CAN! I'm just being picky about the fact that I need to pay rent too. Pish posh, rent schment. I can't even make donations because I don't know when I'll next get a paycheck. :) 

So I'm not getting discouraged, I'm just growing less pleased with the process, that's all. Thanks for making my employment your Xmas wish. I think it will be mine too. That's a good wish. Terry was complaining about his boss last night (not actually HIS boss, but close enough), and I was complaining that I don't have a boss! We both would probably actually really switch places right now if we could. I think he would be perfectly happy to quit and start the job hunt all over again and be unemployed and not paid for a few months (never mind that this isn't a real thought because that would be crap for his career), but that would require me being able to walk into a job with his salary, which I simply can't do, so we're just stuck! No switching! It's ok, we're helping each other. And you're helping us too :)

Thanks again for your input! Love you bunches!
xx

Update to my aunt

Hi Pat! Glad you like our place! We're loving it. Yes, it is really nice to have friends to do things with, and it's also great that I've been able to make friends even though I don't have a job or another organized way of meeting people!

The good news is that after this week Terry's work is supposed to become much more reasonable. I can't wait for him to not have to work an 80+ hour week!

That interview I thought I was going to have seems to have fizzled out. Once I gave them my phone number they never got back to me, so I don't know what was up with that.

As far as Xmas goes, we're looking forward to a visit from T's parents! They will spend 2 or 3 nights here in our town (at a hotel) and then we'll all spend a few nights in Amsterdam. After their visit T and I will take the train (only 19 Euros!) to Brussels for a couple nights just the two of us just for fun before flying to Barcelona for NYE! We initially were planning on going to Barca because one of my close friends from my South America trip lives there, and then it randomly turned out that Terry's best friend Nick was independently planning on being there on his own, so of course he'll be staying with us. The friend we're visiting, Tamara, lives in a flat with roommates in the city, but all of her flatmates will be gone for the holidays, so she has plenty of free space to offer us to all stay for free! And then it turns out that another mutual close friend of Tamara and me has also decided to come visit us in Barcelona for a couple nights! The friend is Gemma, who I traveled through China, Nepal and India with, as well as through South America - that one is the trip the 3 of us were on together. It's such fun that we've stayed so close after 6 years! I've only seen Tamara once since the trip, and this will be the first time the 3 of us are together since 2005, so I'm super excited! Gem and I will only overlap for 1 night, so we'll have to make it count! Luckily that night is Dec 29th, so we can stay up late on that night, and then go to bed early the next night (the night of the 30th) so we're rested for NYE!

Aachen, Germany Christmas Market and Point of Three Nations Pics!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.734974323534.2189137.13306003&type=1&l=ac8f47d2d9

Life recap to one of my high school teachers

My boyfriend Terry (who I went to college with and have been with for 3+ years now) and I have moved to the Netherlands! Which leaves me unemployed in a country where I don't speak the language, but hopefully I'll be able to find something. The company he works for (Epic Systems based in Madison) transferred us over here and paid the 1250 Euro for my residence permit and everything even though we're not engaged! So we're doing well.  Terry and also I registered at the Dutch City Hall as domestic partners so that I could be the partner of a knowledge worker and be free to live and work here as long as he's employed by Epic and we're together. It's not really a big deal, but it makes me happy anyway.

The move over here was super sudden - we had actually purchased tickets for a year of around-the-world travel in 2012, but Terry's company was so desperate to keep him that they pulled this opportunity out of a hat for us, and reimbursed us the thousands we had spent on air fare. The idea is that we'll be here for a year and then do our around-the-world trip, but Epic has made it clear that we're welcome to stay as long as we want, so we'll just have to reassess at some point and decide how long we want to stay.

Since the move took place only 6 weeks after they suggested that it might be a possibility, I pretty much stopped working out so I could help get ready for the move. And by that I mean do EVERYTHING associated with the move. Terry was going back and forth between the two continents in the month prior to the move, alternating each week where he was working, and with him being that busy I basically gave my 2 weeks notice at work, had my last day on a Tuesday and packed/got rid of ALL our stuff! There wasn't even time to drive our car back to CA. It would have been fun to make a US road trip before heading over here, but instead the car transport was a tag team effort between Terry's Madison-based aunt and uncle driving the car to Denver, and Mom and my cousin Sophie flying to Denver to drive it back the rest of the way. So it was pretty crazy.

So we moved here on Oct 15, but only just moved into our permanent apartment last Saturday, which means we never fully unpacked, and I was looking for apartments and jobs, while trying to file for residency, set up bank accounts, cell phone and gas/electric/water contracts, find health, renter and liability insurance, etc...it just doesn't stop! And back in Madison I was cancelling dentist appointments, setting up mail forwarding and changing our addresses with banks and whoever else, cancelling car insurance.... But now that we're all unpacked and settled in I've felt able to hit the trails again, and I am proud to say that I have gone running for the last 4 days straight in the nature preserve that's a 5 min walk from our door!

A friend from Madison and I also did the WI Tough Mudder this past July which was awesome. If you haven't heard about the event, you should check it out and seriously consider doing it. It's SO FUN! http://toughmudder.com/ One of my UK travel buddies and I are doing the London one in May 2012. Can't wait! These past couple months were the first I've ever taken off from working out besides a bit of time off after a big sporting event or when traveling (which somehow doesn't seem to count), and it was weird to be living a "normal" life just minus working out. I didn't like it one bit!

Personal updates in a couple emails

I'm doing pretty well. I almost cried last night when Terry asked me how I'm doing. Like actually asked, not like, how are you, how was your day. I've just been so focused on him and how stressed he is, that I don't think either of us has actually been thinking much about me! Poor T has averaged 11 hour days over the last 2.5 weeks, INCLUDING weekends. That's CRAP! But I really am doing ok. I'm not discouraged, but rather just impatient to find a job. Which is better.

And to a mom at CLP:
The job search is indeed going slowly, but I'm at least not that discouraged (yet), I'm more impatient really. I may have to revise my commute expectations in terms of time and costs to include Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague in my search, but I'm at least trying for the time being to find something within an hour of home. Surprisingly hard to do...

Job Update- email to Dad's friend

The work visa isn't a problem since I'm the partner of a knowledge worker which qualifies me to work here. I'm still waiting for my residence permit to come through, but I already have my Dutch social security number, bank account and cell phone contract, so I'm well on my way to becoming a real Dutch resident!

The main obstacle at this point in terms of finding a job is location. We're living in Den Bosch which is over an hour from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and even farther from Den Haag. I've known since the beginning that I may need to revise my commute expectations to include these three major cities, but I thought I'd at least try to find something closer to me before committing to the longer commute and higher transport costs, given that there are a couple big cities (Utrecht and Eindhoven) closer to me.

Contacting the US embassy to ask for a directory of American companies is a really good idea that I wouldn't have thought of myself. Thanks for that idea. Do you think the UK embassy would give me similar information? I'm just thinking that that would possibly be another English-speaking lead I could pursue.

Translation is also another really good idea as I actually have experience with that. Spanish-English is obviously easier for me, but I have done the reverse as well.

I'm already part of the International Women's Club here in Den Bosch (the city is a bit too small to have an American women's club), and so far I've made two close friends and found two job leads, one more promising than the other. The one I'm actually excited about is teaching English at a very highly regarded and actually world renowned language institute for adults who want to learn English (and Dutcht, German, French, Italian and Spanish). The clients come for 1, 2 or 3 weeks at a time and they do fly in from all over the world. Terry is learning Dutch there right now, and it's pretty rigorous. His company is paying for it, otherwise it would be way out of our price range. The wonderful thing about Regina Coeli is that they don't require any teaching credentials because they want you to learn their method of teaching. They also want people from all backgrounds so that when a client registers to learn a language, they can pair that person with someone they can relate to. Being a native English speaker, having a degree in Spanish, being willing to learn Dutch, and having been a preschool teacher make me a pretty ideal candidate in my humble opinion, though they're not hiring at the moment, so we'll see what comes of it.

The other opportunity is to cold call companies and try to sell them a forklift...in Spanish...Excellent! :( I actually don't even know the word for forklift in Spanish. In my 12 years of studying the language, it simply hasn't come up.

Thoughts about the Wisconin Recall process and our voting status in an email to Terry's aunt

I know canvassing is one of the worst jobs in the whole world, but I'm actually jealous that you're there and able to be involved! What great news about how many signatures have already been collected! I've always thought that gathering the signatures would be the "easy" part, and that winning the recall election would be the tough part. Are there literally NO candidates to run against him yet? I'm sure you're right about a lot of people having a similar mindset as you in that they will vote for anyone against Walker. I just can't believe no one has stepped up to run against him! This seems like such a great opportunity with a pretty good chance of winning given how many people already hate the opposition! What's Feingold up to these days?? I seriously doubt that many, if any, of the people who sign the petition don't already have their minds made up about who they'll vote for without even knowing who the Dem candidate will be, but the number of signatures required isn't quite the number of votes needed to win, which is too bad. What ever happened with that sketchy republican redistricting?

On a related note, T and I have come to the extremely disappointing realization that we will be ineligible to vote in the recall election! :( In order to maintain our WI residency we would have to say that we're temporarily abroad rather than permanently abroad, and that would require us to pay WI taxes on income we're earning in Europe (well for now what Terry's earning...), which seems like a bunch of baloney. T and I both care a lot about the recall election, but not quite enough to have to file a WI tax return because of it that we otherwise wouldn't have to file. At least we'll get to vote in the 2012 presidential election, which is really the big ticket. I think voting for president is the only thing we'll be eligible to vote on, which is crap as I've always been super involved in elections and done my research and voted on every measure, but I guess I've also never been a legal resident in another country and therefore so little affected by what happens on the state level. Still...more participation would be nice. Oh well.

Reflections on Christmas and an Update in an email to a CLP mom

It wasn't until I was 10 that I admitted that I knew that Santa had "helpers" because I was scared that if I let on that I knew Santa would stop visiting me! It became undeniable the Christmas we spent in Mexico with our whole extended family, and it was super obvious that all the presents were in the suitcases we brought. It must be such fun getting to play Santa! Towards the end my dad started suggesting that Santa might like something a little stiffer than milk to be left out for him. (:

I haven't found a job yet, so I am pretty much looking for one full time. I'm involved with a really great non-profit in the area that is keeping me engaged, but it's just volunteer, and no one affiliated with the organization is paid, so it's not the sort of gig that could grow into a "real" job. But at least it takes my mind off the boredom of sitting home ALL day looking for jobs, and it's something to have on my resume while I'm otherwise unemployed, and I think it will also be great for me to have a Dutch reference, even if I'm not getting paid for all the work I'm doing for them. Here's a link in case you're interested in checking it out: http://www.kalinga.nl/www/english/

Pictures!

http://kvisit.com/azZAY

Part of an email to Terry's aunt Sandy

Besides our new apartment there's not too much to report here. Terry is at language training this week, though he will be coming home late in the evenings for the night before heading back early the next morning. In general he's over worked and super stressed, and he had to turn down a "promotion" which would have basically meant him doing another job ON TOP of the one that is already caused him to take one sick/mental health day so far, so I'm proud of him for being able to say no to that.

I still have NO job leads, but I'm also not that stressed about it. I'm involved with a non-profit in the area and am doing some really interesting volunteer work for them, so at least I'm feeling engaged. Here's their website: http://www.kalinga.nl/www/english/. I'm helping them with grant writing, which is is something I could see myself doing in the future, if I could just find someone who wanted to pay me to do it!!

I'll be starting weekly language classes next week and I'm really looking forward to that. I've made a couple friends in the area so far, and one of them might be in the class too, which would be great. It's basically just a small group (5 people) conversation class at a Dutch woman's house (she'll provide tea, coffee and cookies), and we chat exclusively in Dutch (hard for someone who has NO Dutch skills yet, but hopefully I'll learn fast...), and then she'll give us "homework" like exercises and assignments and whatnot, and she will also help us with anything that we need help with like navigating Dutch websites, reading our Dutch mail, making reservations in Dutch and whatnot. It's only 10 Euro a week! I can't wait!

Other things we have to look forward to are a Christmas market in Aachen, Germany next weekend (http://www.aachen.de/en/ts/90_festivals_events/90_30/index.html) and then Terry's parents' visit over Xmas!  When they leave we're spending a couple days in Brussels on our own before flying to Barcelona to spend NYE with two of my close friends from my gap year in South America in between high school and Pomona, as well as, randomly, Terry's best friend Nick!

Contact Information!

My new phone number is +31 063 911 5935.

Our new address will be
Waterstraat 8
5211JD 's-Hertogenbosch
THE NETHERLANDS!

:)

Photos from Kauai!

 http://kvisit.com/a34UY

Photos from our Hawaii trip!

http://kvisit.com/ajYEY

A response to my aunt Leslie!

Hello! Yep, our clocks went back as well, but the US doesn't go back for another week or so - I just know it switches sometime while we're in Hawaii.

The problem with a barista job is that I don't speak Dutch! While "everyone" speaks dutch, it's not actually 100% of the clientele that speak Dutch. :( The older generations are particularly hit or miss, and they're the ones who heavily frequent the cafes during the day! Also, then everyone else I would be working with would have to speak English as well, or communication between staff would be pretty poor. I've even heard from companies who operate in English that they won't accept my application because their clientele are Dutch speakers (who obviously also probably speak English too...), but it's just not as professional or efficient to hire someone who doesn't even have basic Dutch - I can't even get by in a coffee shop!

The other thing is that employers are only supposed to hire me if there's a reason a Dutch person wouldn't fill the job requirements - for example if they need a native English speaker. So hiring someone for a position where I should speak Dutch doesn't really fall under that category! :( This is why the last person who came to work at Epic who brought their significant other had to wait 6 months before her boyfriend could find a job, and he was even looking at things like being a dishwasher! :(

Also, there aren't any jobs at Epic. I applied back when I was first looking in Madison for a non-existent travel coordinator position (they didn't have that job opening), but they therefore already have my phone interview and results to my personality test on file and would notify me if their needs "changed" so I feel like if there were an opportunity for me to work with them they would let me know. Also, they would especially not need me for their office here! There are only like 20 people out of 5100 here, and those people are here because they can't do the tech stuff remotely because they have to be on site at the hospital. Nothing I would do for Epic would require that, so the chances of getting a job with them here really are zero. :(

But you're right right that I'm not 8000 miles away from Terry, and I would be even MORE unhappy if I had a perfect job but didn't have him! :) Things will definitely get better - I had a great day meeting the head of the Kalinga Foundation, and it's such a perfect day out that I even enjoyed walking around doing my errands! Anything besides sitting in front of a computer looking for jobs that ask me to please have "hair on my teeth" is just fine by me!

I'm already looking for jobs outside of Den Bosch, but I'm now expanding my search so that I'm applying to NGOs I know are hiring even if I'm not qualified for the position they have available. We'll see where that gets me. The other thing to keep in mind is that we didn't come here to work, we came here to live in Europe and T's job is just the facilitator. So the important part really isn't that I find the perfect job, it's that we're able to enjoy our time here and explore a whole bunch during the year (or more) that we're here! For example, after T's parents go home on Dec 27th, we're taking the train to Brussels and spending a day and 2 nights there before flying to Barcelona for NYE, just because we can! This is really the point of our stay here, and no matter what it'll be a fabulous experience! Plus, with 25 (or more) days of vacation each year, that means that pretty much every other weekend I could take a 3 day holiday! MWAHAHAH! Though obviously we wouldn't do that as it makes more sense to take a week's holiday when Mom and Dad come, for example, but still. :) At best my job will be something upon which I can begin to build a career. Next best would be that I don't hate it, and then if worse comes to worst, at least it will be the enabler for me to enjoy my time in Europe. And in that case you can bet I won't be in the office a minute past 5pm! Hah! :)

So I really have nothing to complain about, I was just feeling a bit down yesterday as it was a pivitol point in my job search when I started applying to jobs I knew I would hate, but also applying to NGOs with open positions that I new I wasn't qualified for, so we'll see which one works out for me!

Thanks again for checking in! It's great to be on your continent! :) See you soon, and I'll see Amy even sooner!!
xx

Email to my aunt Leslie

Yes, I imagine it has been a busy few days, what with a new grandson in the family and whatnot!

I'm doing ok, but am feeling pretty discouraged about jobs :( I've spent 2 weeks now home alone applying to jobs all day long, and all I've heard is that they have no vacancies or that they need me to speak Dutch or that they have only volunteer positions available, which simply isn't going to pay the bills! I contacted every single NGO in the area, regardless of whether or not they had any vacancies posted (because that's what I really want to do...) and have now moved on to looking at super horrendously crap jobs, which are the only ones that require native English speakers! :( One of my friends here is in a similar predicament, and has been here for 5 weeks instead of my 2 and has accepted a job cold calling businesses in the UK to verify their post code. for 8 hours a day. I'm not sure it can get much worse...but she's done at 3 on fridays, and it's biking distance! poop. I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm pretty down about it right now. :( Though I do have an "interview" tomorrow for a volunteer position with a really amazing NGO that allows me to work from home! Here's the link to it http://www.kalinga.nl/www/english/. I'll keep up with this even when I have a job because I would be so totally unhappy without any meaningful work in my life! I've always been super involved and am not going to let up now! And if nothing else, if it takes a while to find a job, it will look good on my CV that I became involved as soon as I got here!

However, I have just the remedy for these job search doldrums coming up on Thursday! A full day spent with my dear cousin, then 10 days on the beach with Mom, Dad and Grandma! It couldn't get much better, or be much more perfectly timed, in fact! And then of course a weekend spent with you guys before being reunited with T! But then...meh. Actually, then it's Thanksgiving and we already have plans with a Dutch/American couple here, and then I have a coffee date with a couple girl friends here that friday, and then we're going to the Christmas market in Aachen, Germany that weekend with that same Dutch/American couple, and also hiking with them! So I have a lot to be excited for, but then I'm not much looking forward to the month of December until T's parents come out for Xmas on the 20th. Oh well.

Thanks for checking in and helping out so much! Can't wait to see you guys!!
xx

How we spent our Halloween!

We went out last night to meet some new people, but no one in the group was dressed up. A handful of people on the street were, but it isn't really a big deal here, especially in the city we were in. Amsterdam apparently has some Halloween parties.

But the night out was super fun. We were out with Italians, Germans, a girl from the UK and a dutch guy. It really felt like traveling even though we were only in the neighboring city!

Christmas Fair and Dutch Generosity!

An email to our parents:

Just so you guys don't feel too sorry for us being all on our lonesome for Thanksgiving, here's a link to show you where we'll be that weekend:
http://www.aachen.de/en/ts/90_festivals_events/90_30/index.html

We're going with our two new friends, Stacy (from Long Island) and her Dutch boyfriend Joost. She followed him here too, surprise, surprise! I went to the cello quartet concert with Stacy yesterday and then to trivia with both of them yesterday (T stayed in to recover from all his stress symptoms), and they were so generous, they bought me all my drinks and snacks and everything! Joost seems a bit older than Stacy, who in turn seems a bit older than me, and he is running a (seemingly) very successful startup that markets business analytics solutions to local branches of government (don't ask me for more specifics, because I don't have them...), and I think he felt sorry for poor unemployed little ol' me and therefore wouldn't let me pay for anything! I sensed that perhaps the kind of culture exists in The Netherlands where people voluntarily look out for others who (at least for now) are not as well off as they may be. I remember Terry talking about this in Japan too and I thought it was kind of silly that for organized dance team events seniors had to pay more than freshman because it's assumed seniors have more money than freshman (which i disagreed with because not everyone works during college, at least in the US), but I now really appreciate the sentiment that it would be "crazy" for me to pay for gas/parking when it's a piddly amount for them, but everything is really going to add up for me!

So, I like The Netherlands! :) Can't wait for you guys to all come visit!
Miss you all!!

Love, Em
xx

Connecting with Wisconsin

Here's an email I sent to Gene and Sandy Lundergan - the two wondeful fearless leaders of the MoveOn.org Madison Council, of which I was a part. I think it would be more accurate to say that they were the Regional Coordinators, but I can't quite remember...The big day when we can start recalling our @ssh*le governor is almost upon us, and it would have been a very exciting time for me back in WI!

Hi Sandy and Gene! Great to hear from you too! We're SO annoyed we won't be able to sign for the recalls, but perhaps getting the elections schedule will be the "easy" part and then we can still be involved with voting for WHOEVER runs against Walker. I'm assuming he'll be recalled, but that voting in a new Governor would be the trickier part? Do we know yet who would run against him? What's Feingold up to these days??

Will you guys be sure to keep us updated on who/what we should be voting for when the elections come around? It's hard to stay on top of that while living so far away, but we do definitely want to help WI out!! You wouldn't believe how progressive Holland is. I'm sure you already know/have heard, but life here is just fabulous! Gay marriage is something that was over and done with 10 years ago, and now they're trying to make it ILLEGAL to refuse to marry two people of the same sex! That's a far cry for fighting for domestic partnership rights like we're doing back home!! :( Speaking of which, Terry and I are now registered domestic partners! Just for the purposes of my resident permit though. :) It's not actually a big deal for us...

I've already found another organization to become involved in - it's different from the political work with MoveOn, but more closely related to the other non-profit I was doing in Madison. Here's a link to it: http://www.kalinga.nl/www/english/

It works to educate street kids in the Philippines, as well as to engage their parents in educational programs.  It may seem a little random, but it's JUST the sort of thing I'm interested in. It's the kind of non-profit work that would make me want to get up everyday and go to work, but unfortunately this is just a volunteer position with no job prospect associated with it, but it will be interested, engaging, meaningful, rewarding and look good on my resume while I'm looking for a "real" job! :) As a preschool teacher I obviously very strongly believe in the value of educating the next generation if we have any hope of a brighter future, and I don't think there's ANY excuse for even one child slipping under the radar, but this obviously is not a global reality.

I have an "interview" with the organizer in a neighboring city next Tuesday just to talk about how I can help. I'm excited, and hope that we can find something for me to contribute! It's hard not having a social network here - the first volunteer position I applied for wanted me to hold fundraisers amongst my friends, family and colleagues, of which I have NONE! At least not here yet anyway! :) That one was based in my city, called the Kumbatio Foundation, and worked with schools in Kenya. That would have been perfect too, but oh well...

Well best of luck with all the recall efforts! Let me know if there's anything I can do remotely! Miss you guys lots!!

Em
xx

For any other Madisonians who might be reading this, I would also appreciate your voting advice as well! I find it easier just to ask trusted sources then have to go do my own figuring out about what I'm voting on and who for and whatnot. Thanks in advance!! Miss you all!! xx

More info about little Max

Since I mentioned Max I figured I may as well give a bit more info about him and his arrival. This is part of an email I just sent to Terry's parents who have just booked their flights to spend Christmas with us here! They'll be here the 21st-28th! Excellent!

In other news, MY COUSIN'S WIFE HAD HER BABY YESTERDAY!! I am, of course, VERY excited!! His name is Max Patrick Charles Carrington - LOVE the name!! I'm only slightly sad that they took two of the middle names I may have been interested in using for a potential, hypothetical future child - especially since BOTH of my grandfathers were named Charles, as is one of my uncles! Oh well. :) Max came two weeks early and everything went smoothly! How much better does it get?! Max is their first child and my aunt and uncle's 3rd grandchild. Another of my cousins has two girls, so everyone is very excited to have a little baby boy in the family! Unfortunately, Emma's side of the family was hoping for a girl since they already have 3 grandsons, but clearly our side of the family won out! :) I'll get to meet little Max when I'm in London after I return from Hawaii, and am very grateful that I only have to wait 3 short weeks to meet them and see my cousins!


Terry's on his way home from work now as he's not feeling well. He's MEGA stressed and has a headache and feels groggy/foggy. He went in to work this morning to try to make a go of it, but emailed me by 8:30 saying he was coming home :( I'll be sure to take good care of him!

I'm glad you guys have booked for Xmas and that that's (mostly) all settled. Can't wait!

Much love,

Em
xx

I have a new little cousin!

Actually, this post has nothing to do with my new little cousin, but I'm very excited about it and thought I would mention it anyway! :) His name is Max Patrick Charles Carrington, and he's mentioned in the beginning of this message I sent to one of my wonderful aunts who heard through the grapevine"that it is tough not speaking Dutch, not having a job cause you can't speak Dutch, and feeling a little lonely cause the big man has a big double job!" Terry is super stressed right now working overtime for a big build for this one important hospital and ON TOP of that, having to still be responsible for his work at Epic US that they weren't able to wrap up before the move. He's in such bad shape that he considered not even going into work today, but I told him to just go and make an appearance and see how he feels and then come home if he still doesn't feel well. It's only an 8 minute bus ride, so I felt that was reasonable, especially given that he's still trying to make a good (first) impression at the office here!

So here's my message to my dear Auntie Katie:

Yay for meeting Max soon!! :) I'm doing ok, and I've actually joined the International Womens' Club here, and I'm going to a cello quartet concert today with one of the younger ladies in the club! Then, this evening she and her boyfriend are driving us to a neighboring town for an international trivia night! We went last week and it was lots of fun. And then this Saturday evening we're going to a different neighboring city in the opposite direction for a newbees night, where they put all people new to the area in groups of 10 to go out for drinks and just chat and make friends! So we're not suffering :) The days are long and tedious, but hopefully my efforts will lead to a job, and I'm also planning on doing NOTHING while on vacay in Hawaii with my parents and Grandma, so I don't mind working hard now so that I can completely unplug while there. Except for checking email once a day to see if I've received any job responses, and of course to skype with Terry! :)

Another message to Emma!

Settling in here is continuing to go well, and having just submitted my first cover letter and resume to an interesting organization, I'm not actually feeling that overwhelmed! I've learned that only 25% of jobs are posted here, and that non-profits do almost all of their hiring directly, so what I'm doing now is finding interesting local NGOs and just writing them about "a position with their organization" even though I have no idea if said position even exists. It may sound like chances are remote, but since I spent ALL last week and today just researching, it feels good to finally have submitting something.

I honestly bet your move to Charlotte is more daunting that our move here for a couple reasons. First, you're moving on your own! Both to Madison and then here I've moved with a best friend and partner, so that's pretty much just like taking home with me! :) Second, you're moving away from family, and believe it or not, I've moved geographically closer to my family in England, who I'll be seeing twice in the next month!!

How does everyone know about meetup?? You're the second person who has recommended it to me! I actually ended up finding it on my own just by looking through expat resource/relocation websites, and it was through a meetup group that we found the trivia night we went to! It's an awesome system, and you should definitely find a group in/near Charlotte to be a part of!! It's awesome and it totally facilitates the relocation process!!

So you would think that I have good skiing options here, but it's actually a 10 hr drive :( I know this because I was talking to a local ski bunny today, and he was like, "It's only 1000+ km!" And I was like...greeaaat... Perhaps that's better than WI, but apparently Holland still has got nothing on CA!! :)

I only care about your 4 weeks of vacation if you use it to come visit MEEEEE!!! Alternatively, I have a friend doing birth right in June-ish, and T and I plan to go meet up with him when it ends and have him show us around Israel a bit. Any interest in joining??

So on top of T just being gleeful about his new-found deportation power, he's taken to (attempting) to demand 50 Euro per week from me as my monthly bribe to let me stay. I think not!! :) I think people here do live together before marriage, so that has nothing to do with the domestic partnership thing. The only reason we're registering is that highly skilled migrants (which T is) can bring their "partners" with them and those partners are granted the same living and working privileges as the highly skilled migrant worker is, but only as long as we're registered domestic partners! Now I should really tell T he has to start paying ME to stay because so long as I'm not employed by the end of the year (which is unfortunately somewhat likely), he'll be able to file his tax returns the same as if he were married in the US and spread his income across two people, so it will essentially look like he earned half of what he actually did! So really, the dom. partnership is just plain useful for him!! :)

Nope, I don't know a Mrs. Coyner, but perhaps some of my Madison friends do! That's cool that Mike knows her! I didn't even know they were giving out such awards at the White House!!

A message to a CLP mom I'm still in touch with!

I do like our new city, the scene is pretty fun and I'm not homesick yet. I've done a lot of extended travel before so this move hasn't phased me yet. The other thing about our new life here is that it's very comfortable with all the usual creature comforts, so it doesn't necessarily feel farther from home (CA) than Madison did. It's when you have food poisoning in a third world country that you feel really far from home, especially when you have no family members or your significant other with you! Also, anywhere feels like home if Terry's here! :) I'll be seeing my parents in early Nov in Hawaii for my gma's 92nd bday, and then again when I go home (CA) in Feb-ish, and then again when they come visit in May, so that's really not any less frequently than when I was living in Madison. And I have 3 cousins and their boyfriend/wives/kids and an aunt and uncle in England who I'm very close with and am seeing at the beginning of Nov and then again mid-Nov, so I really haven't been feeling very far from family at all recently! I'm geographically closer now to any family while living here in Holland than I was in Madison! It will definitely be different spending our first Thanksgiving on our own without any family this year, but I guess that's just another rite of passage. Perhaps we'll find some other people from the US by then to have a Turkey Day dinner with??

An email to a friend at med school in Vermont!

Hey, Laura! Great to hear from you! I can't really believe I'm in Holland either!! :) To be honest, the adjustment really hasn't been that bad. The thing that is most different of all is simply the fact that I'm not working, so I get up in the morning with Terry, and we get ready together as usual, but then he goes off to work, and instead of playing with little kiddos at the preschool, I just sit at home in front of the computer all day and look for jobs and apartments!! :( 

The language isn't really a problem since everyone speaks English, but we are definitely hoping to learn Dutch! We're really good about doing at least one lesson or practice lesson of the Rosetta Stone each day! I really enjoy it!!

Yes, yes, go me for having my new social group be 30-70yo moms! :) I haven't heard anything about babysitting yet, but I did find someone who wants to go to the cello quartet concert with me on Thursday and then to trivia in a neighboring town that evening! She and her boyfriend have a car, so they're going to give us a ride there so we don't have to take the train! Score!! I haven't been in a car in the Netherlands yet!! Speaking of which, it will probably be a loooong time before I drive again having no car over here! Weird!

The apartment search is going ok - we saw a couple places we liked last week, but we can't commit to anything just yet because T's residence permit hasn't come through and you can't rent a place until you're a legal resident with the equivalent of a social security number! So someone else saw both of the apartments we had seen last week which leaves us unsure if they're both still available anymore. It would be ok if they had picked one of them, since we could see ourselves living in either - one was nicer but the other was in a better location, so it would have been a really tough decision to make, so if one of them isn't available anymore then we would just pick the other one! We're also going to see 4 apartments tonight through a different agency, so perhaps we'll like one of those even better! The ones we're seeing tonight are more expensive, but they're nicer and in better locations. We just have to decide if we like it enough to make it worth it. I'm being a bit stingier with how high I'm willing to go for rent than T is. I feel like if we find a place that's good enough and is in a perfect location, then we don't need to spend extra money just because it's nicer when really we don't need the extra space and whatnot, ya know?

T likes his new job, but he's kinda stressed right now because he's essentially doing two jobs at once since the move happened so quickly that he didn't really have the opportunity to wrap up his old work before starting his new work!! :( So to answer your question, yes, it was sort of a last minute deal! His company called him during the end of August to let him know about the possibility and to see if he was interested, and then flew him out for two separate one-week trips and then by the 15th of Oct we had moved! 

I think as long as he's with Epic we'll be in the Netherlands, and it won't be until he's not working for the company anymore that we leave. We would probably want to take the opportunity to do some more travel in between our next jobs/school before going back to the States, and then T isn't sure if he would look for another job in CA/NYC or apply to business school or what. One other idea is that if at the time T leaves Epic I have a job that would allow me to sponsor T as my domestic partner, then we wouldn't necessarily have to leave the country when he quits Epic. I could keep working and he could go to business school here!! Crazy, huh?!

Another plus of the domestic partnership is that we can combine our income for tax purposes! So if I remain unemployed through the end of the year (it would be nice if that weren't the case, but is unfortunately fairly likely...) then that will do wonders for the tax bracket T is in! It basically cuts his salary in HALF!! 

Glad you like the updates, and apologies for how annoyingly gloating they are at times! I should probably take it down a notch! :) I hope you have a FABULOUS birthday weekend in NYC! We have no idea when we'll be back there! :( We're doing Thanksgiving on our own this year for the first time ever which will be weird, and then his parents are coming for Xmas, so we therefore don't even have a time in mind when we'll be back in NYC! I'm also not sure about when I'll be back in CA! :( At this point I'm thinking maybe Feb-ish. I've got a 92yo grandma there who I want to be sure that I see relatively frequently and I'm going on vacay with her for her bday this Nov in Hawaii, so I figure mid Feb might be a reasonable amount of time to have pass before I see her again, plus I bet it's a great time to get out of the Netherlands!! Although the 19/20/21 of Feb are carnival here which is a pretty big deal, so I definitely don't want to miss that! Especially since they don't do Halloween here and they DO dress up for Carnival! :( I'm determined to dress up in my last year's Avatar Halloween costume and prance around the house in it this Halloween anyway! :)

Well enjoy your bday and the city and CA in Dec! Any chance of a Europe visit from you anytime in the next year?? Summer perhaps??

Em

xx

One more thing about Charlie the Cello...

Yep, I hope I find a cello out here too. They wouldn't have made me buy a seat because back when I went to Greece I invested in a super heavy duty travel case that actually makes is safe to check Carlie through! I of course put some extra padding in there and loosened the string, and then bubble wrapped the entire case and put a pretty note hand written in colored pencil starting with, "Dear baggage handler," and then going on about how the cello is fragile and please be gentle, or something of the sort! :)

Just another update...

Hey T! Good to hear from you!! The apartment search and job hunt are going ok - I'm going to an expat fair on Sunday which should hopefully give me job leads and perhaps apartment leads and ideas for social groups to join. Here's the link in case you want to check it out: http://www.expatica.com/iamnotatourist/

Yep, everyone speaks good English, the only thing they can't understand is my Dutch! :) We are definitely being proactive about finding expat/english speaking groups. On Thursday we went to an international trivia night in a neighboring town and we're planning on going again this week and I've already found another couple who wants to travel there from here who have a car and have offered to take us with them! I found them, well Stacy, through the International Womens' League I've joined. The age group is a little heavily weighted upward for my taste, but I'm sure I'll meet some interesting individuals to spend time with regardless.

The food is unremarkable/international/german/british/belgian, but really not so much american. Terry ordered a "cheeseburger" and it was a little disappointing. I guess you shouldn't expect an amazing experience when you order what your country does best on a different continent! :)

Email to my first friend in Den Bosch!

I'm planning on meeting up with my new friend Stacy (who I haven't met yet) to go to the cello performance on Thursday, and it turns out she's a violist who had been wanting to organize a chamber ensemble here in town but hasn't had any luck! She's also giving me helpful information regarding finding jobs and settling in. Here's my response to her.

I know, I really wish I had brought Charlie the Cello, but it just didn't make sense logistically given how many bags we were already checking through and how much we were already paying in excess baggage fees for the move! :( It would have been SO FUN to be part of a chamber group here, but oh well. If you happen to hear of anyone with a cello for me to play, let me know! :)

Thanks for those links! I am indeed going to have to rely on public transportation for commuting as we're not planning on buying a car while we're over here. I have been planning on checking out those recruiting agencies by the station (I live pretty much right there too...for now at least...) but I'm just polishing up my resume before I go walking into employment agencies. I've become a pro at using Google Translate to put a whole website (almost) into English, so Dutch websites don't even phase me anymore.

I do definitely want to learn Dutch, but given my current state of (un)employment, I'm not too keen on the idea of forking out a bundle of money for classes just yet. I know it would be an investment, but I'm content for the moment with our free bootleg copy of the Dutch Rosetta Stone a friend picked up in Thailand, and possibly a free version of Dutch for Dummies - Terry's dad works for the company that publishes them! He has yet to ask about that though...

I've also joined the Den Bosch meetup group for Dutch language exchange, so hopefully that will give me another way to begin learning the language. That and my gmail and camera are now on the Dutch language setting :)

I also forgot to mention that we went to an International Quiz Night in Eindhoven last night! It was super fun! But the most important thing I took away from the evening was learning how to recognize tap beer vs. bottle beer on the drankenkaart. :)

Charlie the Cello!

In case anyone was wondering about Charlie the Cello, here's part of a response I sent to a friend who I played with in college who inquired about his wellbeing. :)

I guess now that you mention it CA-WI-Holland isn't a particularly common path to take in the first 2.5 yrs out of college, but so far it's been treating us well! I unfortunately didn't bring my cello with me. :( It just didn't make logistical sense given how many other suitcases we were bringing and how much we were already spending in excess baggage fees for the move over here. :( Instead, Charlie the Cello flew safely back with my parents when they visited in Sept and he'll wait patiently there for my return! :) My mom actually broached the subject of if I really need/want him in my life anymore and I SCREECHED at her and told her to never even consider that idea ever again. Even though this is the first time Charlie hasn't been in my immediate possession, I'm confident he'll be in my life FOREVER!!!

Speaking of cellos, it only took me 5 short days of living here to join our town's International Womens' Club and organize an event go to see a cello quartet (yes, 4 cellos) next Thursday! Can't wait!!

Description of Life!

So my best friend, Emma, who is from Boston and who I went to college with, emailed me asking about all sorts of different aspects of our new life over here, and when I got done writing her a ridiculously long email including all the answers I realized that perhaps other friends/family might be interested in hearing those answers too! So below is the email I wrote to her, only slightly revised for this purpose.
Enjoy!

EMMA!! Good to hear from you!! Yes, we did indeed make it safely and it is super beautiful here! A little cold and rainy, but that's ok. We have been enjoying it, but I've also been looking hard for a job :( Not that fun!

It's not logistically hard not speaking Dutch - everyone speaks Dutch, but I feel pretty isolated when I'm waiting in a big long line in the Vodafone store and I can't understand what everyone else is saying or make small chat with them. Another example is when we're on a full train and can't sit together and the seats are facing each other and the WHOLE car (it seems) is having some big conversation and joking around together, and I can't understand or participate in any of it so I just sit there feel like the sourpuss they must think I am! :( So I think my quality of life will improve greatly if/when I'm at least able to understand some Dutch and hopefully can speak a bit too! Epic is sending Terry off to live with nuns for a week (not sure when) as part of his language immersion training. Wish I could go to!! :(

I just don't feel like I did when I was studying abroad in Spain and felt like I could pass for a local sometimes, ya know? But that's ok. If I've got a year or more to live here and I've only been here 5 days, surely I have a lot of improving to do! :)

The house hunting is going well, but it's soooo time consuming and tedious!! We saw a couple places yesterday, and we thankfully we could see ourselves living in either of them. They're the same price, and one is nicer than the other, but the not as cool one is in a PERFECT location, so we may be willing to take that just because it would be SO convenient, but we'll see. We can't make any decisions until T's residence permit comes through anyway (you can't just waltz into a foreign country and rent a place for a year...), and we're seeing 4 more places on Tuesday which should give us some better perspective. The other thing is that ALL the apartments that are going to be available on the 1st of a month are released during the first week of the prior month, so basically everything that's going to be available for Dec 1 will be released in the first week of Nov. This is because leases are written in favor of the tenant here so you can leave anytime as long as you give notice before the first of the month during which you want to leave. So anyone who plans to be out by Dec 1 has to give notice by Nov 1, therefore it's in the first week of Nov that all the new apartments will be posted. I wish someone had told me this at the beginning of my very lengthy search process because I now understand that we're basically getting the dregs of what was posted in the first week of this month. Everyone else has had a whole 3 weeks to snatch up the best places so we're just going through the leftovers right now! That's ok, though. At least I was able to discover that information now so that we're not just super discouraged, and we now have some more options (hopefully) to look forward to!

The social scene is total crap here! Haha, no, it's not that bad, there just aren't any expats I've come across yet which is different international experience for me. There are literally NO expat bars or anything. I've been doing a lot of social networking partly to help me find job leads and partly to just improve our quality of life here, and I'm in touch with the Den Bosch International Womens Club, but the age range is 30-70. When the coordinator emailed me to tell me that to see if it would put me off, I said it didn't at all because I'm SO desperate to get out of the house and have a good conversation with pretty much anyone! Also, perhaps they will be able to help me find a job, or would possibly have kids our age I could be friends with? And she invited me to join a moms and tots group, which I'm obviously not interested in, but that was a perfect opportunity for me to say that I've spent the last couple years being a preschool teacher and that I'm well qualified to babysit should any of those moms want a fun yet responsible adult to spend some time with their kids! With any luck that'll give me some kind of cash-on-the-side income to start out with!

The head of DIWC also put us in touch with a younger-oriented expat "hub" club in Eindhoven which is a 20 min train ride away. Incidentally, it's that city that ryan air and all those airlines fly out of. So each week the hub has an international trivia night on Thursday, so we're going to it tonight! It's not just put on by the club - there are 11 other hub members going, but it's at a bar where like 100 people show up for trivia, so hopefully we'll make some friends! There's also a hub "after party" where we go out for another drink at a different bar after trivia ends, so perhaps that will be a chance to have some more conversation with other hub members.

I was hoping to make some friends here in our town, but that's looking like it's going to be very challenging. I was thinking that having friends in Eindhoven isn't quite ideal, but then I realized that probably most of your friends in NYC are a 20 min train ride away, and also when I'm at home, SF is 25+ min away by train, and that doesn't feel that far away, so perhaps Den Bosch-Eindhoven friendships wouldn't be so bad after all. The other thing making it challenging in terms of making friends is that T works in an office of only like 20 ppl (a far cry from the 5k+ Epic campus in Verona), and he manages like 8 of those people and reports directly to the Epic Europe CEO so he feels funny about the idea of needing to have a difficult conversation with someone about how they're under-performing and then go out and get a beer with them. So until I find a job it's looking like it'll be that expat hub or bust for us!! We weren't even sure we wanted to make the effort to head over there this evening but I really don't want us to get into that habit because then we'll NEVER meet ANYONE!! We're just so used to only needing to walk like 4 blocks to go hang out with friends, but this will be good practice for when we come home and live in a BIG city! :)

Actually, speaking of jobs and expat hubs, they're starting one in Den Bosch, and word is that they're going to be needing people to work for them! That's not exactly the kind of non profit I had in mind, but it would still be helping people (it's also a relocation help center for xpats moving here) and it would be a super fun job and a great way to meet people! Apparently they're not even at the point of posting jobs, but the person who tipped me off to it (the girl who showed us the apartments last night) said she would check into it for me, because she's not even sure if there's a website yet. Speaking of that girl, I was so excited to have someone to walk around with and chat with (even if for like 15 min) that when she was showing us apartments I asked her all sorts of questions including things like, how do we throw our trash away? How do we recycle? In case you're curious, we have to get a trash key from city hall when we register, then you use the key to open these trash contraptions on the street that shoot your trash under ground. And for recycling, you take your bottles to the supermarket, put them in a machine and then it prints a receipt based on the return value of your bottles, and when you buy your groceries you give them the receipt then you get that amount off your purchase! For some reason you can't do that with wine bottles, only beer bottles. Wine bottles there's somewhere else in the grocery store to throw them, and you can't put them in those trash chutes around town.

The other thing about finding a job is that pretty much EVERY job requires a masters, so I was becoming very discouraged! Until...I found out that here you get a bachelors if you do 3 years of college, and the fourth year is a masters! I made sure to verify that they don't just do what we do in four years in 3 years and then their masters programs are all one year - it is actually that if you graduate from a four year university in the States that you have what they call a "masters" which is NOT the same as our masters, so I am, in fact, qualified for all those jobs that I initially thought I couldn't apply to! Yippee! This, again, was all thanks to the girl who showed us the apartments!

One other item of interest is that T and I are registering as domestic partners at city hall on Tuesday! This really isn't a big deal, and it's just so I can get my residence permit, but I also feel like it's not not a deal at all, ya know? I mean, this is as close as some couples can get to marriage, so I feel like I should take it at least a little bit seriously! We already had to sign forms for the Dutch government stating that we're life partners, which also seemed like kind of a big deal to me, but it was just signing something and this is actually registering! Yikes! :) Though T enjoys telling me that it really doesn't mean anything since he'll still be able to deport me at will. Which is true! :( Hopefully that won't happen! :) I'm sure it won't!

Ok, I've typed enough now. Let's just skype so I can hear all about your life. Like I said, I'm around all day every day. I think you're 6 hrs behind me (Eastern Time), so pretty much when you get up or any other time until about 4 your time I'll be on skype so just see if I'm around!! Maybe we can even talk today!! Otherwise, it's the same deal tomorrow. I'll just be around all day!

Thanks, Em, for keeping in touch! Miss and love you so much!!!
xx