Expat Files: Two Years Living In Amsterdam

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Has it really been two years already?! Time flies when you are having fun! Today marks two years I’ve been living in Amsterdam and it feels like quite the milestone!

Whilst there’s been plenty of fun along the way, there’s been some struggles too. Which expat HASN’T had struggles living in a foreign land?!

Struggles of Living In Amsterdam

I’ve had two recurring struggles in my expat life over the last two years. The first, not speaking Dutch. I have taken courses during my time and have apps to learn Dutch but I’m still not fluent. It’s something that I struggle with and something I enjoy when I’m able to speak the language! Hopefully someday I can say I’m fluent.

Although, I think the pressure to speak Dutch plays into my inability to learn as quickly……or something, because wouldn’t you know it – around babies and toddlers I can speak Dutch no problems! LOL

The other struggle has been employment. My first job in Amsterdam took me 6 months to find, and then I did not like it. It is a hard thing to feel that you fit into a new place when you struggle in your daily life – and a job really is central to your daily life!

I now have a new job for the last four months which I really enjoy and I’m finally feeling like I fit. So – it’s taken a while, but I got there! My new job is as the marketing, communications and event coordinator for a food hall in Amsterdam – which is a fun and vibrant place to work and every day is different! And my office often looks like this:

An Amsterdam Engagement

In November my Dutch Hunk and I got ENGAGED!!! The proposal was wonderful – and happened in a special place to us on a special date to us (our first kiss – lol) so I couldn’t have been happier with the biggest surprise of my life!

So – the next biggest thing to ever happen to me/us, will be our wedding! We are currently in the early stages of planning and expect it to happen roughly one year from now! Whilst we are planning (and saving) for our dream wedding – we still have travel planned!

Travel Past, Present & Future

In the last year we really travelled to some fantastic places! Year 2 of life in Holland saw us visit: New York, Phildelphia, Paris and the French Open, Alkmaar, the Englis midlands, Zeeland in Holland, The Lake District, The Algarves, The Hague, Lille in France, Delft, London, Melbourne and Cairns in Australia, Slovenia, Kinderdijk and Gouda!

Year Three in Amsterdam sees our travels continue, with trips planned to Athens & Corfu, the South of France, Rotterdam, Geithoorn, Champagne, and Finland, with other destinations yet to be planned!

2018 Travel Plans for Everywhere Bucket List 

Travel is so important to me, being an Australian living abroad in Europe. So, whilst we are saving up, we always have a separate savings account for our travels! We are fans of The Barefoot Investor for anyone keen to get on top of their finances! Having a savings plan exclusively for travel makes travel something we know we can do – as long as we stay within budget! This gives us total freedom and whilst saving for the wedding, can still live out our dreams and see the world!

Get The Barefoot Investor on Amazon, I really can’t recommend it highly enough! It is written for Australians, however most of the book still is useful for us even though we don’t live in Australia!

Click the Image of the book to buy!
 

Youtube

I’ve recently began creating videos and uploading them to my Everywhere Bucket List Youtube account! I hope they inspire you and others to travel often! I’d love if you subscribed to my youtube and/or gave me a like/comment on one of my videos!

Check out my channel: Everywhere Bucket List Youtube Channel

Dutch Things for Expats

On Friday it is Kings Day – the party where Dutchies and would-be -Dutchies like me celebrate King Willem’s Birthday by getting really drunk in the streets, or in my case, on a boat on the canals of Amsterdam! This will also be my 4th Kings Day!! Make sure you check out my Instagram to see what it’s all about!

Thinking of the Amsterdam canals…. this year I got to ice-skate on them! Yep – they froze over and we went one afternoon after work with out ice-skates and skated ON THE AMSTERDAM CANALS! It’s potentially a once-in-a-lifetime money-can’t-buy experience that I will never forget!

Last weekend we flew our drone (DJI Spark) over one of the beautiful and very special tulip fields! The fields are absolutely amazing and a must for any visitor or expat in Amsterdam!

   

Naked Day Spas are a thing over here. If you’re living in Europe and you haven’t hung out naked all day with a bunch of other naked people, then have you really lived in Europe?! Spa Zuiver in Amsterdam’s Forest is one such place. It’s pretty fantastic and whilst I’m no tree-hugger, I don’t mind getting my kit off all in the name of relaxation. There is this Finnish Sauna there where you go inside as a group, sit there naked, essentially in a circle, and wait for a man who actually has clothes on to come in and start the ‘session’.

What happens next? He dumps hot scented water on the hot stones, and wafts the almost unbearably hot air onto you with a stretched out towel. It actually feels incredible. But post-sauna, you are instructed to drink water and eat orange slices outside naked whilst your body temperature cools down. And so there you are, completely naked, surrounded by naked people, eating orange pieces. It’s one of life’s more bizarre moments – and you should all experience it!

It snowed on my birthday this year. All day. So much so that my entire birthday plans over two days were cancelled. BUT – it snowed so instead, we went outside and played in it! It doesn’t snow where I come from, so to have it snow on my birthday was a birthday present in plan-wrecking disguise.

Life’s High’s and Lows

In year one living in Amsterdam, I lost my grandma. Year two saw my grandpa depart too. It’s taken me some time to reconcile these losses, and sometimes I think my grandma visits me. Maybe I watch too much Long Island Medium…

But as life happens, I also became an aunty this year! My beautiful little nephew brings so much joy to my life and my hunks life that we want to give him a cousin! Yes – the baby clock is ticking for us! But until then, our nephew is king of the babies… and let’s face it… of the family.

Year Two an Amsterdam-er

Life as an expat is exciting and fun, whilst also being difficult and sometimes even draining. But being able to ride my bike down the Amsterdam Canals, live in a foreign place, eat foreign food, and experience a foreign culture all with my fiance makes any of the difficulties worth it for me.

Who knows what year three holds but I’m sure it’s going to be another great year in the books!

 

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