I haven't posted anything for a while. It has been quite a year. I now live in Amsterdam, work for Booking.com, and my wife is 8+ months pregnant. After being monumentally disappointed in my native country in 2016, we decided to see what other countries might be interested in two leftist young professionals in the prime of their careers. We really didn't have many qualifications on the country besides that it should be less soul crushing than America. After traveling back and forth to Europe twice in 10 days for different interviews with a skype call to Australia for another in between, I accepted a position with Booking.com in late February. I would have never pictured myself living in Amsterdam, but I couldn't say no to the opportunity to work for one of the largest companies in tourism combined with their amazing relocation support. Five weeks later, we learned we were also pregnant.
Saying goodbye to America and Chicago over the next 4 months was a whirlwind of stress and emotion, compounded by seeing the start of our son or daughter on ultrasounds a few times. It was an emotional rollercoaster telling mom and dad that they were going to be grandparents, and, by the way, we're moving to another country. We ate at all of our favorite restaurants, played as many boardgames with best friends as we could, and packed up and sold all of our stuff. We sold our house (a long an stressful process that I don't recommend to anyone that included too many questions and an emergency roof repair), I ran my car on fumes after running around so much the gas tank hit zero, and I finally got to take the Skokie Swift. We even squeezed in trips to Nantucket for Daffodils and Florida for polo.
A few days later, we got on a one way flight with a couple suitcases and one cat each. Two temporarily unemployed, homeless immigrants with a baby on the way.
The first months in Amsterdam were another whirlwind. New jobs, new foods, new language. Even simple things like connection utilities or finding groceries suddenly took all of our cognitive abilities. We practiced our Dutch, but in your mid 30's, a second language comes slowly. Housing in Amsterdam was a challenge too. There's such a shortage of supply that landlords don't bother with things like flooring or appliances and noisy tourists are everywhere.
Moving to a foreign country has been one of the hardest, most scary things we've ever done. I think everyone should have to experience it. Even with the mountain of support from Booking and our network back state side, it's still been hard. I can't imagine how much more difficult it must be for people fleeing poverty or violence or looking for a better life with nothing but what they can carry. Heck, everyone here speaks English, and it's still hard. I have so much respect, not just our ancestors who immigrated from place to place to give us the lives we have today, but also the immigrants and refugees that politicians are so apt to scapegoat lately. It's a challenge, but it makes us and our international community stronger.
Obviously, being in one of the world's most international cities hasn't been all that bad. The new foods, which are mostly comfort foods and sugary things to put on toast, are a delight. Once we got bikes, the city opened up dramatically. We've also done a lot of exploring outside of Amsterdam, taking trips to The Hague, Rotterdam, Bordeaux, Malaga, London, Oslo, and Copenhagen. At Booking.com, it's been rewarding to work for a company in an industry I love and whose mission and vision I deeply believe in. Despite what people say, the weather has been fine, with summer mainly comfortable, sunny, long days, and fall and winter fairly mild. There is rain, but with a good raincoat and rain pants, it's been tolerable. Our Dutch is slowly getting better.
Oh, and there's the whole side of having a baby here. Unlike many selfish, short-sighted conservatives in America, the Dutch see the benefits of supporting mom's, families, and babies. The representative from the health insurer made the simple point that, "we want happy, healthy babies and children, so we commit resources to it as a country." Healthcare is free for children and good and affordable for adults. Women get 4 months of paid leave. Pregnancy is considered a normal part of life, instead of a medical condition, so fewer doctors and hospitals and more pragmatic care. It's normal and expected for both men and women to adjust their schedules to part time in order to spend more time with their families. Plus, we get a kramzorg - literally a person comes to our house for a week after the baby is born to help us figure out what we're doing and even help with housework.
Looking a few years down the road, the schools are reliably in the top 10 globally and family life is exceptional. There is still a lot of exploring to do and we've yet to host our first visitor. We've given ourselves a minimum of at least 2 years here, so we'll see how it goes, but I worry it's going to be equally as difficult to leave as it is to stay.
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