Summer in the Netherlands & visit to London

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I left Ulaanbaatar and flew to Amsterdam, with a short stop at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. The original plan was to stay in the Netherlands for three to four weeks and look for a summer-job in Italy or Spain, but due to family reasons I decided to stay longer. I stayed just outside Rotterdam and I have to admit that it felt like being at home because I lived for 6 years in the city. Rotterdam is the second largest city in the country with about 650 000 inhabitants. The city was bombed by the Germans during the Second World War, therefore it has a modern skyline nowadays.I met many friends and acquaintances during my stay in the country, several of them after more than 6 years and several of them appear in my prior blog-entries. I didn’t write about all of them because it’ll be way too much! Of course I met several family members too: uncles, aunts and cousins.

I saw Laura and Selma, the Dutch girls I met in India earlier this year and stayed one night with them in their hometown in the east of the country. It was a lot of fun! I also met Niels, Arjan and Rick; my first room-mates when I arrived in Sydney back in November 2007. I met Niels a couple of times since then, but the other two I never saw them again. We all stayed for the night in Niels’ hometown where we hung out, grabbed food, went out and had beers while remembering the times we were in Australia.
My friend Nina picked me up and took me to the recording of a tv-comedy show of Jandino Asporaat, a Curaçaoan comedian. Another friend of mine, Marvin, picked me up several times to hang out, grab some food and he also took me to the football stadium “De Kuip” for a match of Rotterdam Feijenoord vs. Heerenveen, both teams of the Eredivisie (Dutch premier league). I also met with Narda, a college classmate who also travelled to Curaçao for apprenticeships in 2002/2003. Another person I met, after about 12 years, was Carmen. We know each other from a Curaçao forum where we were active back in the days. A very down-to-earth and nice woman. And I met Nihaila and her daughters in The Hague for dinner, wife of Sendley who I visited in Ukraine back in 2007.

At three occasions I met with other Curaçaoans who love to travel; some I already knew before and some I didn’t. It was always fun to get together and speak about travelling and about Curaçao in general, while enjoying some food and drinks.The group consisted of all types of Curaçaoans: black, white, mixed etc. which was a true display of the Curaçao population which has more than 50 ethnic backgrounds! While all of them live in the Netherlands, the majority wants to go back “home” in the near future which is great and I’ll get to see them more often ;-) They are all very nice and friendly people, what we call “dushi hende” in Papiamento and I’ll definitely going to miss them. A few of those among the group are Jeanine, who I met in New Zealand last year; Deli, a sweet girl who has been following me since 2006 but I met her in the beginning last year for the first time; and Quinlan who hosted me for a few weeks.

I saw a couple of former-schoolmates from Curaçao and we decided to organize a small reunion in Rotterdam. It was on a very short notice but we managed to be 15 people together. First we played bowling and then we had some food at Pizza Hut. We were all schoolmates between 1996 and 1999 in Curaçao, the majority I never met again after graduating from the school in Otrobanda. We made quite a lot of noise in that place, luckily they didn’t kick us out! ;-) It was a very nice and fun day, a lot of laughter and nice memories came back. I was happy to see that everyone was doing well. What made me extra happy is the fact that some come from notorious neighbourhoods with social problems, poverty and crime, but they made it! This is just to prove that your neighbourhood doesn’t determine how far you’ll get in life! I also met with three ex-colleagues from Curaçao of whom two were visiting and one living in the Netherlands.

The moment I decided to stay longer in the Netherlands, I immediately started to look for a job. I went online, checked the websites of employment agencies and searched for job postings in general. A friend of mine, former classmate from Curaçao who currently works and studies in Belgium, sent me a link with a job posting. I applied and was quickly hired after attending an assessment-interview with 9 other candidates. Seven of us were hired.

The job was in The Hague at the “Dutch Automobile Club”. I was hired because I speak Italian, so I mostly dealt with members located in Italy. Members of the organization who go abroad for the summer holidays call us for assistance when their car breaks down. Another department does the intake and contacts the sister-clubs abroad to organize help. If it’s not a minor problem (flat tire, empty battery),the car will be towed to a garage. Then I need to call the member later to ask how he’s doing and to figure out how we can assist him/her further.The garage has to look at the car first and find out what’s wrong with it. Then they tell us how much an eventual repair will cost and how long it will take so we can communicate this to the member. Often we have to organize a rental car for the members. Summer is peak-season and the organization hires about 200 extra people for three months; it becomes very busy and hectic! We also have to answer incoming calls and I didn’t like it because often the caller has a case going already, which I don’t know anything about. There are some cases where I think: “Wow, these people should never go on holidays with their car again”. Seriously, some people should be prohibited by law from doing that. Most of the members I got on the phone were friendly, helpful and nice. But you’ll always have to deal with the arrogant ones who think that they’re the only ones with a car breakdown and “demand” immediate help. I had a good time working there, met a lot of cool people and the atmosphere was great. Everyone was always ready to help each other and there wasn’t anyone who I disliked, not even a bit! I was able to crash at the house of colleagues in The Hague in order to start early the next morning. The first two weeks at the job consisted of a full-time training, during which I able to stay at Menno’s place because he was away for those days. His student-room was located near a major train-station which was perfect. Menno is my ex-student from when I taught Geography for thefirst time back in 2004; he was 15 and I was 21. We kept in touch and now we’re mates. I couldn’t have been more grateful for this,which saved me more than 60 Euro’s by not having to travel between Rotterdam and The Hague every day.


I managed to get a couple of days off in a row and flew to London for 5 days. In 2004 I was in London for the first time. The capital of the United Kingdom has about 13 million inhabitants, making it the largest city in the European Union. They say that if you're tired of London, you're tired of life. London has something for everyone! While I did see some parts of the city, it was mostly a visit to see some people. First I met Natasha after 12 years, a friend of my sister. We went walking around the London Olympic Park and had lunch in that area. I stayed the first couple of days with my Chilean friend Marcial, who I met in Vietnam in 2008 and visited in Chile in 2010. He is living and working in London now. We hung out, spoke about our travels and future plans, went out and had beers. I happened to be there when Chile played and won the final match of Copa America vs Argentina. We were at a bar full of Chileans who obviously went crazy when Chile won this title for the first time ever; and at home because Chile hosted the event. I had dinner with Stephany Francisca, a well-known Curaçaoan girl who finished second during Caribbean Next Top Model in 2013 and first runner-up Miss Curaçao in 2013. She’s studying in London and I found her to be a very easy-going and simple person, down-to-earth and interesting! The last two days I spent with Sam, a British guy who I met in Darwin, Australia back in 2008. He lives in Kingston-upon-Thames, which is just outside London. Of course we went out and had a few beers (but not too many) while talking about the crazy times in Darwin and The Vic, a pub where I used to work. Back in London I met Krupa just one hour before boarding my bus back to the Netherlands. She is one of the girls I met in Hiroshima and we climbed Mt. Misen on Miyajima island. I didn't get to meet my Australian mate Jake in the UK, but he came to the Netherlands and we met in Amsterdam. My German bro, Christian, was in the Netherlands with his family and I went to visit them at a campsite near Alkmaar.



My job in The Hague lasted until the end of August and during the first week of September I was helping a family member who was moving abroad. After that, I stayed for three more weeks in the country and I finally had the chance to relax, focus on myself, start doing research and plan my next trip. Staying three weeks without an income wasn’t an option because I would be only spending. I went to two employment offices and told them that I was willing to do anything, short-term. After a week I found a housekeeping job for 4 hours a day at a “nursing hotel”. Very easy and simple: cleaning, changing towels and sheets etc. for the elderly living there. Another day I had to cycle around the centre of Rotterdam and visit several cafes and restaurants, changing advertisement posters in the toilets. I managed to save a decent amount of extra money for my travels. During those weeks I was able to stay at my bro Quinlan’s place. Even though he has a very small place, he didn’t bother to have me around. We both did our own things and sometimes we hang out together for dinner, a movie, fitness etc. and I joined him and his brother at a soft-ball training. It was awesome to hang out with Quinlan and his brother Tyron and I’m very grateful that he helped me out during those weeks.

I took a bus to Brussels and the train to Leuven where I stayed one night at Queenayda’s place, a former classmate from Curaçao who studies and works in Belgium. She showed me a little bit of Leuven and we had dinner in the city. The next day my flight departed from Brussels airport towards Africa! Looking back at this blog-entry, I'm very happy that I know so many positive and wonderful people . 😊

More on the next blog!

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Comments

[Home and Away]

What an amazing group of friends...
I like that you keep in touch with them over the years.

[Elton]

Thanks Bob. Yes, I do have an amazing group of friends...gotta love them! :)