Sunday Cat Blogging - 25 April 2010

Here is the little alien getting up close and personal with one of the neighbor's cats.

One of the great things about Holland is having animals close by, whether of the feline variety or the ducks who rule the pond next to the house. It sure beats the scooters and pigeons of Barcelona.

Got me a bike, now what?

Found a great deal on a vintage Sparta bike being sold by a neighbor down the street.

I'm amazed at how light it is and how badly I ride bikes nowadays. I guess that's what happens when the car becomes the main mode of transport at sixteen like in the states. I was actually hoping to get some practice in today, but there's a strong, cold wind blowing. Welcome to life in a northern tropical climate, right?

Sunday Cat Blogging - 18 April 2010

I'm stealing this from Kevin Drum who writes a great blog on US politics.

Say hello to Max...

He once lived at our place until his owners left. The neighbors were kind enough to adopt him, but he still likes to come by and say hello. This was taken this morning in a garden that needs a lot of work!

First Impressions

The Dutch love babies, which isn't what I expected. Before coming, I'd imagined them to be a bit like the English based on their famous directness and an article I read where a man threw a fit in a restaurant over a stroller. I couldn't have been more wrong. Everywhere we go people will stop, smile and comment to our daughter. In fact, they rival the Spanish in their adoration of the little ones as I've heard them called here, although they seem to listen a bit more to the baby and not constantly ask what's wrong when she fusses or worry if she's cold.

Then again, one of the common comments I heard about the Dutch was they could be a bit aloof and even mean. Granted, my contact has been limited, but so far it's been quite the opposite with locals going out of their way to welcome us and make our stay more enjoyable. I've had more visits from the neighbors in two weeks than some flats in which I'd lived years in Barcelona. I do wonder, though, how much of it is due to a certain, let's say, noisy curiosity, similar to the American neighborhood welcoming committee. The country did invent reality TV after all, or so I've been told.

But in general, much of what I'd read or thought would happen hasn't panned out. The infamous Dutch bureaucracy and lack of service that is often cited as negatives by expats in forums and articles has yet to materialize. I was able to get the social security number in one visit even without all the documentation or speaking Dutch, which would have never happened in Spain.

How much of our good fortune is due to luck? Probably, a bit, although I've found people are generally better than they're represented in the media wherever I've gone.  The seven years living in Spain have definitely changed my concept of service, so perhaps the slowness and lack of perkiness of the waiters is less of a shock and more of a norm than a recently transplanted American. I also think living in a medium sized city like Alkmaar rather than Amsetrdam or the Hague makes a difference; there's a bit more of a village feel. Anyway, so far no complaints and nothing but praise.  Hell, the weather's even been decent lately.

Why Holland?

The first question we always gets asked is, "Why did you move to Holland?" Because it has the same last name as me is a bit glib and unbelievable, although it is the reason I first became interested in the country as a child. My attraction eventually grew from egocentric in nature when I moved to Barcelona from my home town of Los Angeles.

Living in Europe, I had the opportunity to travel the country and meet the people, both as fellow expats in Spain and as a tourist traveling los paises bajos. The Dutch, I found, had a certain calmness that was a refreshing counter to the hysteria to which Americans often succumbed and the nervousness which seemed to have the Spanish constantly stressed. Their famous directness reminded me of how my friends and I communicated back home and they had great cheese.

This affinity for Holland was one of the common interests my missus and I shared way back when we met many years ago. A girl from Sevilla, she'd spent time in Groningen studying Dutch and after England, it was her favorite country. Over the course of our time traveling as a couple, we made a point to visit, once sharing a room with Chet Baker's ghost. Still, Barcelona "that great enchantress" as Robert Hughes called her, was our home. And why not? For a young couple there are few better places to be. A beautiful city near the beach surrounded by mountains makes it a great location; the buzzing streets and night life mean there are few dull moments.

The problem was, once we became parents last year, what made Barcelona so great became reminders of a past life. We could no longer spend or summer days under an umbrella taking turns swimming in the warm water, while getting cold beers from the chiringuito. Sundays weren't lounging on the couch day anymore and dinner was always to be eaten at home. Perhaps it's the American in me, but I always saw cities as the place to live before moving to the suburbs when the kids arrived anyway. It's the idea of having a garden, I think.

So once we decided that it was time to leave Barcelona, the question was where to next? The economic prospects of Spain didn't offer a very appetizing future. Even in the best of times, the salaries were low and the hours long, but with the crisis it had gotten worse. The educational system in Catalunya fell victim to nationalistic politics and the only time the people got angry was when they banned el botellon, which was when kids gathered to drink in public places because bars were too expensive.

When we thought about the states I remembered by little cousin saying, "I feel sick if I don't spend money," and why I'd left there in the first place. England, where my missus adored and I spent time as a boy, just seemed so grim. That's when we came up with Holland. Because like Lou Reed said, "I do believe, when you don't like things you leave for some place you've never gone before." Let the adventure begin.