My Dutch Dream

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 for a room in an apartment in Amsterdam-Noord. I thought I would be sharing one room of four and sharing with the landlord and a few others in a similar situation as myself. But it turned out to be more of a lodger type tenancy, in a Dutch-Maroc family who were very nice indeed but, besides the fact that I speak little Dutch and they little English (making it difficult to communicate as fellow householders), I felt it just wasn’t for me to suddenly be a part of someone else’s family life, even if they were so kind enough to take me “under their wing”, so to speak.

I left there late and made my way furiously on bike to an apartment near Diemen and just inside the “ring” (ringweg is an orbital road going around Amsterdam centrum). This place I found much better, sharing with a couple of other guys of similar age. Both the area and the apartment are much nicer. And the place is far cheaper than the other one too! Sure, it’s a little further out, but Central Station is a mere 20 minutes away by bike, a nice ride that I have already done many times on this hired bike of mine.

Today I also picked up some basics like bedding (I had no pillow last night, except for a pillow case stuffed with clothes!!) and looked around some bike shops. Basically I need a bike and I’d prefer to get something of Dutch quality that was made to pound around the bumpy Dutch roads without easily falling apart. And yet I don’t want to fork out €400 on a new bike that might attract thieves (although I found out today that insurance is a mere €30 per year).

It looks like you can get a brand new bike for €120 or so but it won’t be Dutch, more likely Chinese. For the same price, you can get a second hand Dutch bike. The problem I’ve found is that hardly any bike shops have second hand bikes. Most of them are new. And yet if you look around the streets, nearly all the bikes are old!

So I’m still looking for a good place to buy a bike because I really don’t want to buy new. I’ve looked at the stickers on the rear mudguards of other bikes and it looks like a very popular place is “M. Costa” or “Costa Rijwielhandel”. Seems like there are a few branches so I will check these out tomorrow I think. This hire bike I have needs to go back on Monday.

Oh yeah, I’ve had some weird shopping incidents today and yesterday. Until now, I’ve interacted well with Dutch shopkeepers, asked about product and discussed other things in half-Dutch, half-English. With zero pressure, everything went fine.

But last night I went to the local Albert Heijn at around 9pm and picked up a handful of things. Waiting in the only queue with closing time approaching and a gaggle of people behind me, I noticed the chap in front of me say “sorry” as he handed over a 10 Euro note after the girl at the checkout had asked for as small change as possible. I could smell a storm coming!

I myself handed over a 20 Euro note. There was a really strange and uncomfortable silence as I just sorta shrugged! Then just mumbled something in English because I didn’t know the Dutch. There was some weird communication and finally she and the guy behind me directed me to the cigarette counter where I was able to get change. It was all a bit weird and left me feeling embarrassed. I don’t really know why. I kinda feel ashamed to resort to speaking English in a foreign country. I’m not sure why because I know there are plenty of English and Americans and other nationalities here who speak not one word of Dutch, unashamedly.

So today I go to a shop (textile-something) and buy some basic bedding. I see the woman in front of me fishing out a load of coins and I sense the same thing about to happen again (coincidence or does this always happen in Dutch shops? Surely the fact that the Geldautomaats here always spit out fifties just does not help!!!). My total comes to just shy of 20 Euros so I whip out a fifty, sensing that this is the perfect opportunity to get rid of one of these (I did have a 20 in my pocket).

When the checkout girl sees this fifty in my hand, she seems to have a look almost of digust! So I tell her, “Ik heb geen andere geld” (not so perfect Dutch for “I have no other money”). That weird few seconds of uncomfortable “nothing” happen again – an impasse. So I suggest “Ik heb PIN…er Mastercard”. So we try out two of my Mastercard credit cards. Remember that these are internationally recognised cards that work all over the world. But guess what, not in this national chain of Dutch shops! Incidentally, I had a similar problem with my VISA debit and my flatmate with his VISA too.

In the end, she took my fifty (turns out she did have change) and gave me my due change.

I definitely want to have more confidence in such sitatuations so I’m going to step up my Dutch studies some more in the next few days.

Oh, look out for photos in my future posts. I realise they have been few and far between since the start of this blog and non-existant since I arrived here but that is soon to change!