This year so far as been filled with many surprises, disappointments, and achievements. Neel and I sold everything we owned (furniture, most books, clothes, etc) and brought only our most important possessions to this foreign land.
In less than a year we have made amazing friends and find that with the way the work culture is, our friends have time to hang out on a regular basis! We are able to travel to other countries in a blink of eye. We have spent weekends in Brugge Belgium, Paris, Stockholm, Antwerp, and Brussels. We have had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and from all sorts situations.
In April and May we biked through fields of beautiful colorful tulips. I had just learned to bike on populated streets which resulted in me almost falling into a canal, crashing into bikers in front of me, and me accidently hurting someone trying to carrying my bike up an escalator. At the end we were sweaty, tired, but had an experience of a lifetime. We also made two wonderful friends (Arturo and Vessela). They just like us were a couple who had come to a foreign land and we quickly became close friends.
In June we attended many free musical events all over Den Haag. One of my favorite days of all time occurred on a wonderful Saturday. They had live jazz music on Bierkade. We walked to the canal, bought beer and wine from the many stands that were in the area and sat alongside the canal to listen to wonderful jazz music. These small boats would park 2 feet from us and play wonderful music for 20 minutes, and they would row away and the next boat would come. Later we introduced Arturo to sushi, which he hesitantly tried. That night we heard there would be a huge concert on the Binnenhof (the Parliament building about 5 minute walking distance from our house). They had set up a stage on the water, with small flower candles floating on the water and a seating arena for those who had paid. We found seats on the side, where we couldn’t see the musicians but could easily hear the music. We enjoyed some wine and cookies, and listened to the most beautiful ethereal music I have ever experienced. I wish sometimes my friends could feel what I feel when I hear classical music. I am taken away from my body and see things so clearly and feel love. It is not overly emotional (sad or happy) just peaceful love. The memory of that concert and of the beautiful stage and the sun setting is one I will carry with me forever.
September-November became cold, windy, and rainy here but we were able to steal a couple last beautiful days of the year. One where we even took a blanket, some food, and of course some wine to the beach (Scheveningen) where we sat on large boulder type rocks and watched the sunset. During this time the weight of not finding work was really becoming a load that I couldn’t carry. It is amazing how a job can be associated to your self-worth, I tried staying positive, kept applying to more jobs even though the rejection letter pile grew ever larger (>60 at that point). I even started considering leaving physiotherapie all together and finding something else…
The only other field I could fathom myself working in was nursing, but that would require 4 years of school, passing the Dutch as a second language exam (similar to the TOEFL, for English) before I could even register for the school. And thats what I decided to do, I took the NT2 exam and waited 5 weeks for the results….
The day after my NT2 exam I had my third Holland job interview and didnt really think much of it.. haha. I ended getting the job and started working in a Dutch physiotherapie setting. Lesson learned – never give up on your dreams and listen to your instinct even though it is not always easy to do…