It has been one year since I moved to the Netherlands 🙌
I just survived
Before moving to the Netherlands, I already found a job and a house there. It was kinda lucky so I was not worried about settling down in the country that much. However, not everything went smoothly. Soon I lost the job and started working at a small Japanese restaurant in Utrecht.
At the beginning, I was disappointed but became looking forward to going to Utrecht regularly and meeting co-workers at the restaurant. It was important for me to go to a big city and situate myself out of the town where I live. I started learning Dutch at a language school and have just completed a B1 level. I am far from speaking Dutch fluently but at least became able to handle basic conversation.
As a next step, I have to pass a B1 language exam to keep my residence permit. Also I hope to find a full-time job. Ideally I would like to find a job where I can use my cultural background and international experience but let’s see what I find in the future.
We adopted a cat!
The big news for me was that my partner and I adopted a kitten from our neighbour. She’s called Tofu and has been here with us for about 1 month now. If you are interested in Tofu, please read my blog too.
Some travel plans
We are going to the UK in September to attend our friends’ wedding party. We will travel by ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich. We will then drive to a venue near Stoke-on-Trent. After the wedding, we will go to Wales and camp for a few days. Sounds very exciting. We will visit Bath and Kent then take the channel shuttle from Folkestone to go home.
We also want to visit Japan at the end of the year but we haven’t decided it yet. If we make it, we want to visit Shikoku and travel by car this time. We’ll see.