From One NL to Another: A Post About the Mundane

It’s been nearly a week since I said goodbye to one NL for another ((FYI, the Netherlands is abbreviated here as NL, cool wha?)). We are slowly settling into our tiny apartment and making it our own. It’s been one interesting week to say the least, though I refer you to Ryan’s post to read about some of the cooler touristy/cultural things we’ve been up to.

First of all, let me explain how I ended up here in Amsterdam this Fall.  I've really, really, really wanted to come here for a while:

As I suspect most of you know, Ryan and I met in Harlow four years ago when we enjoyed a semester study abroad, fell in love, and learned how great we travel together as a team. Fast forward to 2015: Ryan’s in his third year of law school, I submitted my Master’s thesis on Friday, and we’ve been blessed with adventures since Harlow (both together and separately) that reminded us just how precious our youth is and how important it is for us both to make the most out of every opportunity. So, as early as April 2014, we’d been brainstorming places to spend another semester abroad. Our beginning criteria were pretty broad; we wanted a place where Ryan could get a semester’s credit at the University of New Brunswick, and we wanted an English-speaking location for yours truly should I find myself in need of work. Amsterdam was an easy choice, especially considering Canadians are able to apply for a Working Holiday Permit.

What will I do while here? Well, I’m still excited to figure that out. I officially begin my PhD studies in the Department of Folklore at MUN in September. Fortunately for me, I completed the introductory courses in 2013 as part of my Master’s, making this semester away from campus possible. I’ll be taking one course while here, as well as doing some preliminary pre-fieldwork; my PhD research will focus on L’anse aux Meadows and particularly how tourism and the association with Viking history/culture has influenced the area in the last fifty years. Europe is a fantastic place to begin thinking about some of those tough questions, especially considering there are some really fascinating museums and living heritage sites in the places we intend to travel to. That’s the thing about being a curious perma-student—you can make connections to people, places, and ideas anywhere you are.

Perma-Student in Her Natural Habitat

Of course, part of this semester for us is about experiencing what it’s like to live in another culture. I can only enjoy feeling out of place and disoriented in a place for so long. I’m a creature of comfort and balance and, as such, as soon as I arrived at Schiphol Airport, I immediately began calibrating to my surroundings. I was lucky that Ryan had arrived the day before and worked out all the issues with our apartment and surroundings. My arrival was much smoother and more welcoming! By the time we figured out the tram the next day to Amstelveen city center and shopping area, I could sense that this is one of those places that can easily captivate. And, although we’ve been working towards calibration, there are some interesting observations about the more mundane elements of life here that are as much a part of our story as anything. Hopefully after reading this, you’ll have a better sense of what it’s like to live here thus far. Here is “Kayla’s List of the Incredibly Mundane”:

- Shopping: I’ve learned my new favorite Dutch word is “korting.” Sales, sales everywhere! The shopping thus far has been wonderful and I’ve been trying to drag Ryan to the shopping center every single day. Luckily, we’re a great team: Ryan’s role is as the financial advisor and mine is the physical well-being advisor (he makes sure to reign in my tendency to over-spend and I make sure to reign in his tendency to have us walk distances too far when there are better options!). On our first day here, we made a list of things we’d want to make our apartment comfortable (e.g. a kettle, a clothes iron, placemats, slippers). Some of those things were pretty hard to find—I finally found slippers today after several unsuccessful attempts—which was exciting for me, as I love being on the hunt for something. Less so for Ryan, poor guy. After dragging him to a few stores yesterday on the hunt for a sink plug and a mop, he had had enough and left for home while I spent several more hours in the blissful air conditioned shopping center. Family & dear friends: expect fab souvenirs!

In my glory

 Shop 'til you drop/caffeinate

- Food prices: Not only is the shopping great, so are the prices. For food and drink especially. I am constantly checking out prices of our usual go-tos. Yesterday, I snagged a lovely bottle of red wine for 2.5 euros. Ryan scored margarine for 50 cents. We got a huge bag of apples for less than 3 euros (and a tonne of delicious grapes for 1 euro). These things would be at least double or triple the price at home so it’s a real treat for us every time we go grocery shopping (though we are occasionally unsure of what we’re buying: “ground beef” is a difficult thing to describe to a Dutch cashier who speaks little English). Our new unit of measurement is our favorite things: 10 euros for Ryan is 24 Heineken while, for me, it’s 3 1L bottles of wine (“are you sure that dress is worth 24 Heineken?!” questions the financial advisor as I twirl about in my new favorite department store. Each successive new department store automatically becomes my favorite. According to Ryan, nothing in his closet is worth 24 Heineken to him.)

The strange look on my face is of disbelief that these are so cheap

- Bathrooms: By far, getting used to our apartment’s bathroom has been a challenge. Ryan wrote about how tiny and strange it is but the explanation would really benefit from a lady-with-long-hair’s perspective! I’m sure my fellow gals can relate to how important the shower is to us—we do a lot of things in there and have a lot of products! A typical shower for me can take upwards of twenty-five minutes and believe me, I am wasting none of that time. Sometimes a gal’s gotta double shampoo, deep condition, apply a face masque/cleanser, shave, use an exfoliating body scrub, then regular soap. Showering is not a pleasure for me as there’s serious work to get done! Yesterday as I literally sat on the toilet to shave my legs while my hair’s deep conditioner dripped down my back, I thought how ridiculously hilarious I must have looked. Just in time for my bar of soap to slip out of the shower caddy and float along the inch-deep water on the floor to end up, no joke, behind the toilet. Yikes!

On a related note, finding public bathrooms is also a bit tricky. I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis this Winter, a terrible bladder condition that, at best, makes me need to pee urgently and frequently, and at worst, bedridden with excruciating bladder pain. On a daily basis, we’re always on the lookout for the nearest washroom. I always have a 50 cent piece with me because you have to pay to use most of them but, believe me, it is money well spent (the financial advisor agrees)!

Here, the toilet doubles as a leg-shaving accessory

- Cleaning: The second biggest challenge has been figuring out Dutch cleaning products.  On Tuesday evening as I was settling in, Ryan showed me what he had bought in preparation for my arrival. In question was a suspicious bottle of cleaner that had just one small symbol on it displaying a t-shirt, a wine glass, and what looks like a mop. Ryan bought it thinking it was dish liquid. Thanks to Google, we found out it was actually an all-purpose cleaner (kind of like Mr. Clean). Finding dish liquid and laundry detergent we could be confident in was no easy feat. Nor was our first load of laundry! The tiny washing machine and clothes dryer (conveniently located in our floor’s common room area) are labeled in Dutch with no English translations in sight. We put our towels and linens in the first load (lest our “laundry detergent” turn out to be bleach) and clicked START—the only English word—and hoped for the best. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. An hour and a half later, it was still washing. We were convinced our clothes would disintegrate from being washed so thoroughly and took to Google. Turns out the cycle we had it on would have washed for FOUR HOURS—oops! We’ve managed to figure out how to wash for just an hour but I’m still not convinced we’ve found the correct setting.

                           

                           Cleaning products at the grocery store

                           

                            Scary washing machine with three English words

- Biking: We’ve written about the sea of bikes in this place, conveniently providing photographic evidence. Yet it’s impossible to convey to you folks just how common bicycles are!! Every day, I anticipate one of us being struck by one as these cyclists whiz by, enjoying their own traffic lanes and lights. It’s just the way people get around here. We’ve seen people biking and texting, biking with one or more children strapped into bike seats, biking while carrying an impressive load of goods. We even saw a dog hanging out in the basket of his owner’s bike, enjoying the sensation, we imagined, Canadian dogs feel when they stick their heads out the car window. Mostly I love seeing families biking together: fashionable couples and their fashionable children, hardy grandmas and grandpas, school-aged children, and groups of middle-aged men. Every time I see two grown men whiz by enjoying a leisurely bike ride together, I imagine my Dad and his buddy Wade rolling through the streets of Griquet on the way to their garden in Quirpon. It gets me every time. 

"Fresh veggies for the pot da mar, John b'y!"

- People: Lastly, I can’t say enough good things about the lovely Dutch people. They are so helpful, friendly, and good-natured, not to mention how fit and fashionably dressed they are! We really picked the right place to match our demeanors. In fact, we’ve met just one grump since we’ve been here: the receptionist at the IND office. We tried unsuccessfully to make an appointment to get our visas over the phone and decided to head into Amsterdam city center to sort it out. After explaining why we couldn’t continue telephoning to the receptionist, he huffed that we were welcome to wait and talk to someone, but that we would be waiting a long time. We took our wait number ticket and sat down, believing we would be there for the mean time between a trip to the DMV in Mount Pearl, waiting in line to pay tuition at MUN on the first day of classes, and taking the DRL bus from St. John’s to Deer Lake. Lo and behold, I had not even wasted all five lives playing Cookie Jam on my phone when we got to see someone. Go figure, receptionist man. He clearly has spent little time in the other NL.

And so here you are, lovely readers, my long-winded rambles about the more mundane things about living in Holland. To finish it off, be sure to check out Part 2 of a Silly Girl Singing a Silly NL Song in a Really Cool Place (click here)! 

Stay tuned!

xo
kc