God sorry folks I am such a slacker. Busy with a photo exhibit, Crossing Border festival, packing and moving country leaving my job and starting all shitty administration again, de-registering, new Dr's banks etc etc. In between seeing gigs, saying goodbye and driving across Germany and back. You could say I have been busy.
I never thought that I would have stayed in the Netherlands for as long as I did. 10.5 years to be exact. never mind staying in my job for as long as I had, over 7 years for a multi national company. Unbelievable.
But here I am, settling into the English countryside, it is nice to see some hills and green all around especially after living in the city centre of the Hague for the last many years.
There are things I will miss about living in the low countries:
My friends for one. which is strange because I actually only made real friends with a handfull real Dutchies, the rest were actually from other countries and nationalities and all had moved there to try something new or had been brought there with their families years before.
I MISS MY BIKE. No kidding, I used my bike to go everywhere and to do everything. I plan on picking one up here but can imagine I won't be on it as much since there roads around here are down right dangerous to ride on I think.
In a strange way the smallness of it all, getting from A-B was just so easy and without the aid of a car in most cases.
The Health care and employment packages were pretty sweet from where I sat, I guess the bonus of working for a huge corporation.
What I won't miss is the SUPREME RUDENESS I experienced up until the very last day there. I think I figured it all out from a socialistic point of view. If you grew up in a country the size Vancouver Island with 16 million people and lived in a place that is the most densely populated in Western Europe you too would think nothing of pushing someone aside, invading personal space and being generally rude to everyone around you who did not feel your eyes boring into the back of your head willing you to move out the way. Seriously folks an 'excuse me' or 'pardon me' goes a really long way in getting what you need. I actually will not miss that at all. Never mind the general lack of compassion and human understanding such as a elderly or disabled person getting on the tram and not being offered a seat. And if they are it is almost certainly 99% a buitenlander to offers up.
BAD customer service. I mean really bad. It is shocking how bad it can be. and when you get good service you really have to take a step back and thank that sales person for acting like a human being.
I am not saying living here won't offer it's own challenges, I have already experienced the harsh realities of living between a posh town and a not so posh one. I was in the not-so-posh one on Saturday and was correcting people's grammar (in my head). "it's not Got it's Have" as an example. What happened to the English language, people are just so lazy, where have all the h's gone? But It has only been a week so I guess I need to have my own time to settle and not to be so judgemental. Time will tell.
I am sure I will think of more things I will miss about living in the Netherlands, but for now I am also having a bit of culture shock and trying to find my way, on the left side of the road.
I bet if I were to go back to Western Canada now I would suffer similar issues of culture shock.. never mind finding out that my own beautiful city has put a crazy gag order on any citizen speaking his or her mind about the bloody Winter Games. Yes it will cost us dearly and for many years to come, just ask Montreal. But if they were not so games focused and looked at the bigger and badder issues of homelessness and poverty that is rampant in our beautiful city and offered some kind of respite for those once these games have passed on and used the huge amounts of new buildings and resources to help those in need. blah blah blah, someone else has already said it better than I ever could, from Mr. M. Good... always on the ball he is.
There is nothing to be done, at least not for the time being. But don’t forget, when the smoke clears and the numbers come tumbling in, there will be those that will have to be held to account. Doing so is of prime importance, as is remaining dedicated to confronting those disparaging issues that the Olympics have highlighted. If anything, a current has been provided with which to energize people regarding the failures of this Province’s government, this city’s terrible realities, and even our own shortcomings. If, when the world leaves, we can look in the mirror and remember that we’re not as self important as we think we are, then, perhaps, the road to change will see more feet upon it than it ever has. http://www.matthewgood.org/
