My Dutch Dream

Today I got my BSN (burgerservicenummer). Interestingly, nearly all Dutch people still call it the SOFI nummer (old name). Some people don’t have a clue what I mean when I say BSN. So you’re best off just referring to it as a SOFI.
I haven’t yet received my letter in the post confirming my registration from [...]

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Gisteren, inschrijf Ik op gemeente. Yesterday I got registered at the council, at the Dienst Persoons en Geo-informatie office (same road as the Heineken Museum).
It was pretty much a paperwork exercise i.e. I handed over my passport, huurcontract and legalised birth certificate (though you can bring that later, I understand) and they enter all the [...]

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I prefer to call this post Dutch “Ettiquette” rather than “Manners”, you will soon see why.
Anyway, one of the fascinating things about living or even visiting another country is to see how differently things are done. I’m sure you’ll agree and have experienced it yourself.
So something unique I have seen here is when you go [...]

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Having found a place to live only recently, I was overdue for buying some basics and left it too late on Saturday evening. Like in the UK many years ago, shops (winkels) here close around 5/6 on Saturday, are completely closed on Sunday and don’t open again till Monday (late Monday often here). I understand [...]

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Yesterday I bought myself a great bike! I’ve been looking for a while now for a bike and have been so far using a rental one that I obtained from Frederic Rent a Bike, on a week’s rental.
So I looked around and found several small independent bike shops and most of them sell exclusively new [...]

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Something I knew about before landing here was that you can get Dutch
subtitles on TV by simply going to text 888 (ondertitels). It’s intended
for the hard of hearing but I find them really handy to decipher
conversations.
On the other hand, all the English language broadcasts already have Dutch
subtitles and this is also great for learning, as [...]

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I didn’t want to reveal too much earlier, because you never know how things might turn out. But on the accommodation front, I am definitely one-up!
Yesterday I paid my first month’s deposit and first month’s rent and got myself a huurcontract” and set of keys.
Earlier in the day, I had my first viewing which was [...]

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So I landed here 2 days ago and checked into the Stayokay Stadsdoelen on Kloveniersburgwal. Interestingly enough, this is close to Niewmarkt, an area of centrum that I have never spent much time in and to my surprise found to be as lively as, say, Leidseplein. And copious amounts of coffeeshops too which is annoying [...]

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I haven’t written in a couple of months and have been meaning to give you all an update, especially as one reader kindly pointed out to me recently The good news is that I’m off to Amsterdam in 3 weeks and things are more or less going my way. I won’t deny that [...]

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I have been watching a lot of TV and movies recently to improve my Dutch. “How does that work?” – you may be asking.
Well what I normally do is watch English language TV series like 24, Lost and Prison Break. I download the subtitles from NLOndertitels and this is great for improving my grammar and [...]

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