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
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