- "But I ate that in the
US. Is that not okay?" And I was like, "What?" It's almost borderline excessive now. Hello and welcome to
A Wanderlust for Life. I'm Jessica, and I'm
an American who's lived in Amsterdam since 2014. And this video is part
of the Expat Life Series. So today, I'm gonna talk
about American things that I now just think are bizarre after living here for so long. Some might be predictable,
others might not. But this is just to give
anybody who's thinking about moving to the Netherlands
an idea of the differences and maybe how it'll affect you. Number one is health insurance. I always hear Americans talk
about European health care and how it's this most amazing thing. And for the most part, I agree, but I also wanna dispel the myth that all of Europe has the
same kind of healthcare. It's very different
from the UK to Bulgaria, to the Netherlands, to
France; you get the point. But here, you do pay for insurance, but everybody has to have insurance. And if you can't afford it, there are ways to help you get it. So that's not problem. You don't pay to go to
the general practitioner. You can choose different
tiers of insurance care. Your max per year is a couple hundred, not thousands upon thousands. You're not gonna go
bankrupt from having a baby, or if you have, God forbid it, terminal illness or anything like that. Basically, we still pay a couple hundred a month per insurance, but the out of pocket
expenses are so negligible that you're really not
scared of going to the doctor or scared of getting a
diagnosis, as far as monetarily. And in the US, I had
pretty good insurance. I worked for the state and despite paying probably the same amount in a premium, I was paying a lot more out of pocket for just like things
that everybody has to do, which was very, very frustrating. So yeah, healthcare here
makes me really wonder why it can't be different in the US. I know that there's lots of reasons, and I'm sure some of
you will comment below. And I'm sure any Dutch watching
this are gonna be like, "No, ours isn't very good," but it's a lot better
that way then in the US. I do hear complaints here about
how the general practitioner won't refer you unless
it's absolutely necessary. And you have to fight for
your rights a little bit more. Not for your rights, but
to move on to the next step if he thinks something's wrong, but they're not really
understanding about it. But I haven't really had a problem. I've had a couple of things that I've talked to my doctor about, and it's never been an issue. So I just feel like if
you're pretty straightforward about it all, you can get help. You just have to get used
to a different system. They're not gonna hand out
pills like they do in the US. Taxes is one of those things that... I'll never quite understand
the American view on taxes. So here, yeah, it's pretty high, but depending on who you are in the US, you might be paying about
the same percentage, and you just don't get as much. So here, when you pay for taxes, you expect a certain level of livability. And that is definitely
true for the most part. And I guess, just the idea of making sure that taxes go to making
sure everybody's okay is like a really good feeling. I get why people in the
US are very anti-taxes. They don't wanna pay for other
people's blah, blah, blah; insert issue here. But ultimately, it's what's
good for the whole of society. And so, that's just something
I don't get anymore. Why wouldn't you pay a
little bit more when you know that you're gonna get all this stuff. I think it might have to do with the trusting of the government, but if you have any comments about that, I'm sure you'll leave
them down below anyway, but I invite you to because
I know it's a nuanced topic, as far as who pays how
much and stuff like that, but also, generally speaking, to do your taxes here is a lot easier. There's not like this
loophole and that loophole. I'm sure there's some, but
it's pretty straightforward, which is really, really nice. So you're not like confused tax time. We still have somebody to do our taxes because they're in Dutch, but most people, they just do their own 'cause it's just very straightforward. If you aren't subscribed yet, and you want more Amsterdam Expat Life or to see European travel
videos, go ahead and subscribe. I'd love to have you
part of this community. And like the video if you are enjoying it and share if you have
anybody who's thinking about moving to Amsterdam. The tipping culture, come on. United States of America, why can we not pay
everybody a living wage? There's all of this pushback as to "It'll hurt these businesses." But ultimately, if you
can't pay an employee a living wage, is it really a business? It's like, "Really?" The tipping culture
here is very different, but in the US, you have to basically pay these people's wages, whereas here, it's a literally gratuities. It's a way to say you did a
great job. It's not expected. It's just nice to be able to give that when you feel like it
was a great experience and not feel like you have
to because those people are depending on paying
their phone bill with it. I got a comment on a video
about tipping in the US. And so if anybody's wondering
if I still would tip properly, as far as an American would
in the US, absolutely. That's how the society is. And so, I do feel obligated to do that. But when I commented 20% is
about the average to tip, people were like, sorry,
one person was like, "10, maybe 15, never 20." So I'm really curious, what do you think the
typical tipping is in the US for a night out at a restaurant? Because I've always been taught 20%. My husband used to work
in the food industry. That's what he had. Of course, they knew a
lot of people who did, but that was the hope, was 20%, and that's what people usually gave. So I'm really curious what you think. The quality of food
here is very different. We have so many more
rules when it comes to it. There's even things you
can't buy here from the US that you used to be able to because the EU regulations
are so strict about it. And it's really interesting
because you're kind of like, "But I ate that in the
US, is that not okay?" But generally speaking, my understanding is everything from the eggs to the
pre-packaged products, all of it, they are all just more highly
regulated here than in the US. And along that line,
the size of the meals! So here, when I first moved here, I kind of noticed that takeaway.... Not takeaway, but getting doggy bags, having your extras taken home
with you is a very weird thing because they don't tend to give you these ridiculous sized portions, and you're not necessarily
expected to eat it all, but I think the expectation is... It's a size that would be for somebody to eat in one sitting. That's not always the case. And of course, you can
takeaway things here when you're finished. I've never had an issue with that. I have seen on some of the expat threads, people were really confused
because they were looked at like they had three heads, but I've never had a problem with that. But the portion size in the US is so that you can literally order a meal and ask for half of it to be
put in a box when you order, so you can take it home. That's just crazy to me now, but I guess I kind of got used
to that when I lived there, and that was just how it was. And along those same lines, big gulps, and sodas, and all of that, kinda that's more of the culture that sodas you have all the time. Before I even moved here,
I cut back on sodas a lot. I thought they were empty calories. I didn't enjoy the
drinks enough to be like, "Yes, I want that sugar!" (chuckles) I know a lot of people do. And this isn't like hating on that. It's just my personal thing that sodas is so much more of a big thing, part of everyday life in the US, and I don't feel like that's the way here. Maybe wine here. Wine is a lot cheaper here. Going back to the us and seeing
that a cheap bottle of wine is 15 euros is so crazy to me. I remember the first time I
went to somebody's house here, and so I went into a wine shop, and I was asking for help 'cause I didn't know what to look for. And they're like, "What's your budget?" I said, "15 euros." And they were like, "Oh, okay, great! You can get a nice bottle for that." And I was like, "What? Is
that real?" Absolutely. So the cheap bottles are
like four or five euros. We tend to go, for a home,
like eight to 10, I think. We like wine. We like
quality wine. (chuckles) Public transportation in Europe,
in general, is very good. Not everywhere, but in Amsterdam, in the cities, generally, it is very good. And of course, it's flat here, so you can ride your bike everywhere. Whereas in the US, it's a
car centric nation, really. Everybody needs their cars. And that was a big deal. We went through this entire age where the country was
basically built around cars. And that's fine for a time, but then when there's so many people and the population booms and all of that, and there's no real easy way
to get around without a car, then that's really hurting a lot of people that can't afford a car, are
scared to drive, can't drive. There's a million reasons why public transportation is important, but I just love that around here, you generally just don't need a car unless you're going to
specific areas, of course. But even then, we have taxis, so it's not really that big of a deal. Big cars and just the amount
of cars that people have is almost borderline excessive
now, to me, because here, you have to understand, if you see a family of four in a city, they're probably in a bakfiet, which is a bike with kind
of a box in front of it. And you can put like two to three kids
inside, including babies. There's car seats that
go in there as well. Then you'll have one parent cycling and then one parent on another bike. But it's really fascinating to me that people here can
use bakfiets for kids. They can use it for groceries. They can use for all sorts of things. But in the US, it's like you
need an SUV with six seats if you have one child. And so, it's very confusing
to me now because I'm like, "Why do you need that much space?" And, you know, with the
insurance and the gas and everything, it's
just crazy that you need so much space in a car when here they can do it
with a lot less space. But I guess it's also just
about what's available, what's normal, and what you need. The amount of options at
a store is just shocking! When I go back and I go to Walmart, it is crazy how big the
store is, first of all. How many options of chips there are? I think that's the number one thing when expats go back, and they
like to show the chip aisle or the cereal aisle just to
show the vastness of the options that we don't have here. And that's okay, 'cause we
still have plenty of options. We are not hurting for options at all. But just the size and
getting lost in the crowds and all of that is very... Yeah, it's just a lot to take in when you're used to the smaller stores. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you enjoyed the video, please go ahead and give it a like, and if you wanna support the channel, of course, you can
subscribe, share the video, leave a comment down below, or even join our Patreon where you can get exclusive
videos and live streams. All right, I will see
you in the next video. Bye.
