our life in the Netherlands

The haylands turned a beautiful purple. The leaves on the tree in the street are starting to change color. The sun is still trying to win the fight with the clouds, in vain. I already burned up the first set of candles. We just finished week three of school. Fall will be here soon.

This week it was eight months ago that we left Austin.
Two-third of the year 2017 have passed. And we lived it here, in the Netherlands.

We traded Austin for Ede.
We traded St. Edwards park for ‘t Wijde Veld.
Throwing rocks in the water for climbing trees.

Were Austin knew just two seasons -summer and momentarily no summer-, here I’ve been fully enjoying a beautiful spring and am eagerly looking forward to our first real fall with the children. But I’ve been missing the summer -unless you’ll call 60-75F and rain (Lots.Of.Rain.) summer-.
We traded three months summer break for 6-weeks off.
We traded university-model-schooling for a five day at school-program.

We traded one-for-all recycling bin for four different recycle piles.
We traded our Mazda MPV for the bike. (Don’t worry, we still got a car.)

It was July last year, on the Humphrey Drive, that we learned that our neighbors’ son had died a whole year earlier. Living on the same street, didn’t mean knowing each other, sharing life. Or that we would hear the ambulance called to their house that year before. Here, on the Albertine Agneslaan, I know the name of my neighbors kids, which school they go to, what they’ll have for dinner and what they watch on TV at night. The windows are wide and open, so all the neighbors know our customs. And flaws, I’m afraid.
When an ambulance is called into the street and arrives with wailing sirens all of us come out.
All the kids in the street will have picnics, bike rides and umbrella parties together.

We traded brisket for hagelslag and fried snacks. And pancakes and poffertjes. (Although Peter does do a good attempt on home-smoked brisket once in a while.)

The pace of life in the Netherlands seems different. Sometimes I feel like I’m running a marathon without an end. (There sure are days when I enjoy a lazy afternoon in the backyard!)
There is more social interaction. As soon as you step into your backyard the neighbor girl might hear you and ask if your daughter can play. Since we’ll do more by bike you are more interacting with people than when you would take your car (and are safe behind the glass wall of your own vehicle). Stores are closer by (on my way to school, which is not even a 10 minutes bike ride I pass at least one grocery store) so we’ll go more often to get the few items we need. Which means: more interaction.
But when you try to get together, you might need to be patient. Want some coffee? “Yes, let me check my agenda. Sure, next month I’ll have some time.” Er, well, I kind of meant right now…
Decorating your house is more a thing here. And keeping it neat. Washing the windows. Cleaning the front door. And keeping your front yard (which is not a piece of lawn, but a well maintained garden!) good looking is from utmost important (for some, luckily not for all, otherwise we would be a little too much the outsiders ;)).

We traded a pretty anonymous life for life close to family. We live in the same city as a few siblings and only 15 minutes from Peters parents. Our kids play with the children of my sisters co-worker and I run into my brother while dropping the kids of at school. My other sister drops by for a minute and Boaz goes for a sleepover to his cousin.

We traded the American dream for Dutch royalty.

We traded a lot. We changed quite a bit. We all grew a bit older. Some of us maybe a bit wiser. But in the end, we stayed us.

Warning: brace yourself, in the coming weeks I plan to write bluntly, biased and big about our four supercalifragilisticexpialidocious kids. (yep, Anna K., Boaz still says it once in a while and I’ll always have to think of you! ;))

95 thoughts on “our life in the Netherlands”

  1. Hallo Jacodien en Peter ,
    We hoorde dat Jacodien ziek is we willen jullie heel veel sterkte en de kracht van onze hemelse vader toe bidden.
    Groetjes Chris en Hencora.

  2. Hallo Peter en Jacodien

    Wij kregen te horen dat Jacodien ziek is !
    Wij willen jullie dan ook veel sterkte wensen. Maar boven al een vertrouwen op onze Hemelse Vader. Wij zullen jullie opdragen in onze gebeden.

    Gr Jan Henk en Jeanne

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