Tag Archives: Netherlands

Resident of Love

This week does not really have that up-lifting vibes at all. The weather is really crappy the whole week, raining, cold and grey. And my work seems so dull because I have to deal with administrative tasks a lot these days. Oh well..what am I complaining for? I am healthy, I have a job and go to work every day..so it has been a normal week for me. I even have the time to go to the gym !

Only one thing which is not a part of my routine. This week I will start completing paper works for my indefinite residence permit application! I never wrote this, but it would be nice to write about my story of how I end up in this country in a nutshell.

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I came to the Netherlands for the first time in 2006, for vacation. I was still living in Germany that time. I was looking for a homestay and instead I got a family where I could babysit their daughter and lived in as Au Pair. Then I went back to Germany to sort out the paper works and was really sad because my initial plan did not go well. My initial plan was I wanted to go to Uni in Dortmund but they were not so helpful and I was running out of time and money due to my visa. Thus, I decided if the family in the Netherlands was nice I could stay there for a couple of months or maybe a year to seek any opportunities, before heading back to Indonesia to continue with further study. Well, the family in NL was really great and warm when I came there and they were really serious in having me in their house. So, a couple of months later I moved in to this young and loving family’s abode in the suburb of Amsterdam.

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Chilling in Loosdrecht

It has been quite warm for the last past week, though the wind seems aggressive occasionally, we really cannot complain. We decided to get out of the city last week, and drove to the neighboring villages and found this little castle in Loosdrecht.

The trees started having green leaves and the flowers started blossoming too.

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The castle was built around 1500. The castle has a lovely garden and a small canal or maybe more like a ditch, it is pretty! It will be much prettier in the summer with all the greenery and the sound of birds chirping . It also has a museum and a small cafe with a cute terrace facing the garden. We sat at the terrace and enjoyed the sun..with bubbles and beers :)

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I think this is one of many things I love living here. Finding little castles in villages or little towns I visit. Every castle has an interesting history of ownerships.

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Have a nice weekend y’all :)

The Hangout: April

I thought a few days ago that I’d like to add a new category in this blog, to make it more fun to read and also to give you more info about the Dam and what this city has to offer. I have been thinking of random ideas, and I eventually choose a topic which I will enjoy so much to share it with you. I am a coffee enthusiast and I’ve attempted in describing it in a blog post a while back. You can check the story behind why I love drinking coffee, here.

I share my coffee experience with people who share the same interest; friends, colleagues and acquaintances..and I feel that I should write this information in my blog, so I am able to share it to a bigger public, and why not starting it right here right now. Amsterdam…This little city is a melting pot, an oasis of entertainment and hotspots! There’s always new hotspots in town so I decided to write a modest review which I am going to publish once a month. I will write about coffee shops/bars I like, or a (not so) newly opened coffee shop in town (Be aware: a coffee shop in Dutch means a place where you can buy and smoke some pots :p so in Dutch, a place where you can hang out and sip coffee is a koffiehuis) Perhaps it will be discontinued after a couple of months because in the future, I want to change it with another more interesting topics. For now, I hope you like it.

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Ballads of the Lowlands

Since I am living in the Netherlands, I am thinking to share some great Dutch music or artists in my blog from time to time. To start off, I will introduce you to a bad ass rock chick, Anouk. She is I believe, the most well-known (female) rock singer in NL. She started her music career in the 90′s and has been rocking the lowlands ever since. Apart from her over-exposed / intense love stories, her music is absolutely genius! She sings with her soul, especially when she sings ballads… Respect!He blew off her world recording deal in the US somewhere in 2007, because of her “attitude” .. (I’ve told you she is a bad ass rock chick!). I was not a fan of her music, but soon after I changed my mind :p

Here are some of my favorite songs from Anouk (read: Anuk), a hot female rocker from the lowlands  :

A soundtrack for a Dutch drama movie De Gelukkige Huisvrouw (The Happy Housewife).

A delighted pop-rock song

I just loved these tracks I can play them over and over while I am doing chores :P

This one is sort of a homemade single from her, but it hits Youtube and it goes viral from there. We’ll wait for her to launch the album!

There are more songs from her, but I will leave these as an introduction. I hope you like some new foreign artists from the Netherlands. And maybe in the future I can show some underground bands or singers !

Special Edition: Vijf Jaar in Nederland!

Tsjonge jonge jonge… It has been 5 years ago since I came living in the Netherlands! Het is precies 5 jaar geleden dat ik in Nederland kwam wonen. Time flies. But not that fast though. I still remembered how hard it was when I looked for a job when I just arrived. I am neither native in English or Dutch, or any European languages (except my intermediate level of German, still not a native German). So darn hard to even get a poor-paid jobs because I ‘didn’t speak Dutch at all and Bahasa Indonesia hadn’t and still hasn’t got its own prestigious business market up here! So, it was not an advantage for me being an Indonesian and to show off my nationality in my resume. Boooh. The only good thing for being an Indonesian, every time I came for an interview they would ask how good my cooking skill is! SERIOUSLY?!Nevertheless, I still considered it as a good thing.

I still remember how tormented I was when I learned Dutch at the Uni 40 hours a week and had piles of home works. How annoyed my boyfriend was because I was such a pain in the ass, because I wanted to master the language in a blink of an eye (yeah right, I was delusional) and tortured him with grammar questions. Oh, such a perfectionist I was! :) Exams by exams I went through, and luckily I managed to pass them in less than one year time. All incredible feelings squeezed into one word, INTEGRATION. It was crazy. But still, I am still living in this “kikkerland” up till now. Sometimes, when I bike through the canal or boerderij I need to pinch myself to realize that I am living in this beautiful country!

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Dutch Guys Don’t Flirt, or Do They?

Yesterday I sat on the couch, was sipping my hot boiling green tea and just flipping through an old Dutch women magazine I bought like months ago. There were gossips about so-called Dutch celebrities (whatever..don’t know them don’t care), some fashion insights, skipped them right away, then a bunch of doubtfully shocking stories of a woman who cheated on her partner, etc etc. Totally useless.

But then, I ended up reading this fascinating article written by an American journalist who traded NYC for Deventer. Deventer is a city in the Netherlands, located in the Overijssel province. And it’s far from where I live. She wrote about, the art of flirting.

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Falling Leaves

I was born in November, that made me an Autumn Girl. Though I do not necessarily love Autumn..because it’s usually wet, rainy, cloudy, cold and gray. However this year’s Autumn is miraculously wonderful. We have had nice sunny days, the temperature is mild (between 16 degrees and 12 degrees, but drops to 7-4 degrees in the evening). And I turned 28 a week ago, made Autumn my favorite season this year replacing summer (we shamefully didn’t have fabulous summer, which sucked!). This Autumn’s highlights so far have been..

The move. Finally we found a shelter, a big one! :D

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Si Kutu Loncat

Dulu sewaktu masih kerja di Jakarta, suka gonta ganti kerjaan sampe dijuluki kutu loncat. Alasannya dulu adalah nyari gaji yang paling pas dan kerjaan yang menantang. Ternyata “hobby” satu itu gak bisa lepas dengan mudahnya walau sudah tinggal di benua lain hehe :D .. Sebenarnya enggak pengen aja jadi kutu loncat. Pengennya awet, duduk manis di satu tempat untuk beberapa tahun. Untuk belajar dan mengembangkan diri..Hmm, tapi kalau liat isi Curriculum Vitae nya, jadi manyun sendiri. Duh, kutu loncat bangeeett!!!

Part time jobs nya lebih dari 5 jenis dalam waktu kurun 1 tahun, maklum waktu itu masih sibuk adaptasi sama negri baru dan mulai sekolah bahasa dan ragu mau nerusin ambil studi lanjut atau enggak..Ya sudah, kerja sambilan, biar gak bokek bokek amat dan emang tuntutan perut juga. Walau namanya kerja sambilan sebenernya lumayan banyak juga jam nya.

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Winter Wonderland in The Netherlands

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