Back to the homeland

Greetings to all my readers!

In opening, allow me to put all your anxious minds at ease when I reassure you that I am, indeed, painfully aware at my lack of prowess in the area of communication. By this I mean that many of you may not have realized until this moment that I am actually living in the Netherlands right now and will be until the end of December. This is why it has become one of my chiefest goals for this chapter of my life to improve upon my communication skills and keep the important people (all of you!) in my life up to date with my experiences and situation.

I realize, unfortunately, that it is already October and I have only just begun this narrative of my life, although I have been in the Netherlands for almost a month. Thus, I have much ground to make up!

I shall take the most efficient route and answer some of the most common questions before I begin to relate specific moments, memories, or instances of my life here with the Dutch. We shall save that for another blog post, which will come soon! I am committed, now that I have begun, to keep you all informed! In fact, you shall surely be begging for my silence soon enough, and then I may be allowed to lapse back into my contented silence until you again notice the absence of the noise of my life. But until then, here are some of the facts:

1. Why on earth are you in the Netherlands?!

There are many plausible answers that I might give to this question. One of which might be my Dutch heritage, which I am ever-so proud of (Hup Holland Hup!). However, that is not the real cause of my current location. The cause is coop. My program at University has a coop component, which means that every 4 months from now until I graduate in 2020 I will either be in school or working on a coop. No more summers for me!

During each school term I have to apply for a job for the following term. Through some circumstances which were not, to be honest, all of my intentional choice, I landed a job for HZ University, in Vlissingen Netherlands!

And thus I came.

2. What is your job?

I work as a research assistant in the school's department of aquaculture. What this means is that I am doing an independent research project where I design and perform my own experiments in the goal of finding results and conclusions that are practical and helpful to real life people. My research is specifically related to mussel farming and methods of reducing predation by starfish! It is a very interesting field and I am really enjoying my work despite how busy it is at times!

3. Where do you live?

I live in a small town called Middelburg! It is a 20 minute bike ride (yes, bike ride) to work every day. I bike along a gorgeous canal along with the majority of the populace who also commute to work on their bikes, rain or shine! Middelburg just celebrated its 800th birthday, so Canada's 150 has lost a bit of its glory for me. It is a beautiful town and everything is walking distance from my house, which is right in the city centre! I have been blessed to live in a house of 13 other people who are all very friendly and always willing for an adventure or to simply hangout altogether in our shared kitchen. There are 4 other Canadians in my house (all of them are also Waterloo students interning at HZ) and the rest are mostly students at HZ, although we have a wide variety of nationalities represented among us!

4. How did you manage to get this job?

I know I know. You're all shocked that I managed to land such a job as this, but I really have my Dutch roots to thank for that! All you need to do is start off your interview with a "Goedemorgen" ("good morning" in Dutch) and you will win them over as quickly as I did!

5. How do you like the Netherlands?

Well I can't say I love all the rain, but I have grown used to always having a raincoat with me in the (common) event that it begins to rain on me while biking. In fact, the first time I biked to work I was decked out in full rain gear. In my neon-green backpack cover, splash-pants and of course my bright red rain jacket, I marched proudly through the school full of stylish Europeans who somehow managed to stay both dry and maintain some semblance of respectability.

Besides the rain, however, I love it! Of course I miss Canada and my true home there, but the more I wander these cobblestone streets, the more appropriate the term 'home' is beginning to feel here as well.

6. What has been your greatest difficulty in adjusting to life in the Netherlands?

Honestly? Groceries.

Never before have my grocery decisions been so based upon the imaging on products. Truly. When both brands are in Dutch the shade of the butter or the face of a friendly cow makes all the difference! Either the images, or whatever it seems the majority of persons buy. If the majority of people buy it, it must be good right?

Well, with that I hope to have at least given you a glimpse into my life here in the Netherlands.

I cannot stress enough how I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to stay updated on my life. I am truly blessed at the intentional and genuine love that has been poured into my life from the very beginning! I hope to continue to let that love overflow in my life so that it may form a continuous fountain to transverse the borders of time, ocean, and language.

LOL - Lots Of Love

Briar