My Dutch Dream

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 I have had doubts and at times my emotions have gone from sky high and full of hope, to very low and not believing it is possible. But at the end of the day, I must give this my best shot and believe that everything will be OK because life is too short to delay this anymore. So here we go:

Language – I know that you don’t really need to know any Dutch to live in Holland, let alone Amsterdam. But I would be more confident if I knew more. Work and other things are a big distraction at the moment but I have pledged to get through my Dutch learning audios, books and a few other tasks I have set myself – starting from tomorrow. Better late than never I suppose. Having said that, my hours of watching TV series with Dutch subtitles has really helped me. I do understand a lot of written Dutch now, I just suck at formulating my own sentences from scratch. Zeker, Ik verstan een klein beetje! Beter dan niks, hé?

Money – looking back to a little over 2 months ago, things are going OK on the money front. Lately I have not been working as much as I should have done. It is just so hard to motivate yourself compared to working in an organisation and having a boss. Nevertheless, I have one source of income that is making me about $1,200 a month which is around €850. I also have a few other bits and pieces coming in from other sources which probably takes it up to €1,000 a month all in all. What I really need to work on at the moment is diversification because if that primary source dried up I would be “up the creek without a paddle”! Savings-wise I don’t have a huge amount but it should be enough for a deposit and upfront rent on a room. I will be initially drawing money from my UK bank account and I am also taking two prepaid Mastercards with me, just in case.

Clutter – I have thrown out a serious amount of crap! When you know that you are shortly going to emigrate and cannot take everything with you and it is costly to ship things then it becomes so easy to discriminate between what you really need and what you don’t! I have thrown out nearly everything and I have rented a self-storage unit to store the few boxes of things that I do want to keep (mainly documents and mementos) – I will be back for them later while I make the initial trip over with a suitcase or two (I think I’m limited to 20kg or so on the flight).

Business – Holland is full of bureaucracy like you would not imagine. The UK is a much easier place to do anything by comparison. I really think this is holding the Dutch back from achieving much more, their choice I suppose. Having looked at all the options, my best bet is to run a regular one man freelancing company. Basically, you must go to the local Chamber of Commerce (KvK) and register and have what is hopefully a formality of an interview. I may also hire an accountant to help me with my tax return.

The Plan – The plan is to land and look for accommodation from day one. Without a place to stay and a “huurcontract”, you can’t register with the council (inschrijven met gemeente), get a BSN (like a social security no.), work or get health insurance. I’m going to be looking for a room (“kamer”) immediately – it will save me some money and also help establish a new social life, besides I’m fed up of living on my own as I do at the moment, especially now that I don’t work in a regular office. I’ll use sites like Kamernet mostly. I’ll stay for as long as it takes to sort this out but hopefully I can wrap it up within a week or two. I think the business registration should be smooth going. My only other consideration is for my medical care. I am currently under ongoing “surveillance” for a medical condition and I need to register with a doctor (huisart) and get referred to one of Amsterdam’s two main hospitals as soon as I have my medical insurance. I’m sure this will all happen in good time but it’s still a concern of mine and will be until it is resolved because it is a potential “show stopper”. I know, I should have more belief and quit being pessimistic!!!

Well that’s that – just 3 weeks to go. Oh, one more thing. Due to this medical condition, it’s a long story that I won’t bore you with but basically I cannot smoke any weed for a month after arriving!! How bloody annoying is that! I have never even been for 24 hours without being stoned in Amsterdam and suddenly I will need to be sober for 30 times as long!! Give me strength!