101 Posts and Still Going Strongish

In the spirit of sitcoms, for my 101st post we look back on the best and worst of the first 8 months of My New Dutch Life.

I began my adventure with Seriously Bad Weather which has proved to be the norm here. Isn't it funny how things just seem so novel in the beginning? As the last days of November 2005 passed by in near-total-darkness, I got an initial taste of the Dutch attitude towards smoking, which is to say that they must smoke at all times.

We celebrated the holidays a bit modestly as our furniture hadn't arrived from the States yet. We would have enjoyed the bit of snow were it not for the fact that my bike was stolen on Christmas Eve!

January was all about transition as we barely managed to survive New Years before having to struggle against the vagaries of the immigration system. Forging ahead, I signed up for Dutch lessons and our furniture arrived more or less unscarred by the trans-Atlantic journey. Nevertheless, the theft of B-'s bike, a mere 2.5 weeks after mine, put our mood at an all time low.

February and March started the mood (up)swing as I finally received my residence/work permit. Huge relief as I already had a job. Shhhh. Emboldened, we started to get out a bit more and enjoy our city. We even managed to get out of the lowlands for a road trip to the UK (you read that right).

In spite of my birthday, however, March went out like lion when I got word that I needed a root canal. Bugger that sucked. Boy, was I in for a big one - not only did it hurt like hell, but I got a taste of the infamous Dutch healthcare system.

June marked my final transition to My New Dutch Life when I decided to give up my American job. The hours and situation were just too difficult to cope with. In spite of my efforts to loaf around for a bit, I managed to land a job quite quickly and have been working since mid-July. Thankfully I got a few choice days off when our pal F- was in the area for the World Cup. I'm still feeling bitter about Italy, so let's agree not to talk about it.

I've also developed an obsession with urinals judging from not one or two, but three posts on the subject.

August has been a banner maand as I've been re-integrated into normal office life (will bring you all up to speed on the new job later). Generally, talking to more people during the day helps immensely. A hiking trip to Belgium doesn't hurt either.

So looking to the future, our "big day" is coming in less than a month followed by our two week honeymoon in Tanzania. And if that's not enough, our lease is up at the end of October, and we're seriously thinking about moving North towards (or into?) Amsterdam.

So, uhm, stay tuned and stuff.