Moving to the Netherlands? 12 things you should know and need to know about life in the Netherlands!

welcome back to soul the soul travels today we are going to cover the 12 things that you need to know and should know before moving to the netherlands because you know what nobody told us next on soul the soul travels [Music] welcome back to soul to soul travels today we're going to go ahead and just take a little bit of a break it's kind of miserable out there so we're going to go ahead and stay in but what i want to do is i want to cover the 12 things that you need to know and really should know uh before moving to the netherlands they're not good things they're not bad things but things that you really need to know some of them are good and some of them you know but these are things that tammy and i had encountered when we moved to the netherlands and we just some of them caught us off guard a little bit but anyways nevertheless let's move on to number one which is everybody's favorite topic here in the netherlands number one okay so the first thing we're going to go ahead and talk about is the weather everybody loves to talk about the weather and there's an expression here in the netherlands i've heard other people say i just never paid mind to it until it actually happens to us and we're now experiencing it and that is when the sun comes out people come out and that is so true uh that is it could rain two or three days in a row when the sun comes out and you want to get out tammy's like let's get outside i don't want to lose this weather let's take advantage of the sun and we're out doing our thing and you go outside and everybody's coming outside everybody's pretty much almost stopping what they're doing to a certain extent and they're going to take advantage of it whether it's a walk whether it's you know just a bike ride whatever it might be they're going to be outside enjoying the park so with that being said we just experienced the storm eunice uh and i experienced something i have never experienced in my life ever and that was tammy and i was windy out i love the wind i love being out in the wind and we were walking down the street and we had just passed and all of a sudden we heard this creek crack and a whole picture window from the top floor framing everything busted out from the wall went down smashed on a car dented the whole roof in the back of the car right in tammy and i are running down the street for our life uh but it is crazy the weather here in the netherlands is crazy and you need to be prepared for it if you are moving to the netherlands mostly rain but you also need to have for those that maybe live in southern california you only really have one set of clothes for all season you have to have winter clothes you have to have summer clothes you need to prepare for the rain it's going to happen so don't let that catch you off guard the weather here is just it's fantastic we have experienced hail rain wind sunshine i mean it's just sometimes all in one day so anyways the weather here you need to prepare for it don't get caught off guard by it uh it's it's a fantastic place to be with the weather sun's out until 10 o'clock at night during the summer time which is fantastic uh so no complaints there on any level but just be aware the weather is something that you need to account for when you come on over so let's move on to number two number two language yeah i don't care what anybody says i'm telling you right now the dutch language is a hard language to uh to learn there's a lot of throat involved in it and some nuances and you know tammy's doing really well i'm not doing that great i mean you know when you can go into a restaurant and i try to order in their language and come to find out i've asked for three eggs to be smashed on my head and a slap in the face at the same time just doesn't go over well but you need to go ahead and make the effort to try to say thank you good night good morning things along those lines there again you'll be surprised how many people do speak english and how many people appreciate the fact that you're trying to say something in dutch uh and you know they're just very appreciative of that so you're not gonna have any problem communicating but please make the effort to go ahead and learn dutch if you possibly can and if you plan on making this a long term stay and you want to go ahead and make your permanent residency here in the long term you're going to need to be able to take a test and communicate in dutch uh with that so there's a test apparently that there's an actual speaking test that you need to be able to communicate with and our next door neighbor is going through that right now and every time we see him and he's from the states he's always speaking dutch and he's always trying he's trying to get it down he's going to be taking his test before too long so anyways uh language tough to learn make the effort at least the very basics and the dutch people will welcome you with open arms that's for sure so let's move on to number three okay so number three and i've written this down right here and this is exactly how i wrote it it is people will park wherever they want so and that is absolutely whether you are on a bike whether you're in a car whether you're driving a delivery truck it doesn't matter whether you are construction fedex ups it doesn't matter you're gonna park wherever they're gonna park that's for sure uh so what we did notice is obviously with bikes bikes are parked everywhere and they will leave them anywhere uh cars uh tammy and i were you know sitting down in a cafe the other day and i was looking across the street and it's like this isn't doesn't look right uh and there's two cars going this way on the same side of the street park two cars going this way on the same side one this way one this way and once kind of drove up on the curb a little bit they park wherever they want to park uh and it's crazy i don't know if they get tickets for it i know that the ticket guy comes around which is a whole another conversation because i thought that those were the google guys but apparently their cars driving around uh giving out tickets or taking pictures and mailing out tickets but nevertheless uh they will park wherever they want to park whether it's bikes trucks cars it doesn't matter so with that being said which is going to segue right into our next one which is going to be number four people are so patient around here it is it's mind-boggling how patient people are uh when we have a truck coming up uh that's either unloading uh whether it's ups or fedex whether it's unloading construction whatever it might be and cars can't get through uh there are four or five cars back there uh they will tell them hey we're gonna be about 15 minutes we're gonna be two minutes we're gonna be a half hour and they will sit right there and they are so patient they don't beat their horn uh it is just the way that it is when people cross the lights uh they wait for the light to turn no matter what if there's cars coming or not they go ahead and they wait people here are so patient when you are in a restaurant in the states you are so used to now now now uh hey i've been sitting here for at least a minute nobody's even acknowledged me that is not the case here in the netherlands in the netherlands uh there's usually a lot of times one person working in the cafe and it could be 15 20 people in there and one person everybody's patient they know that he's going to get around to them and it's just a matter of time so everybody's patient here in the netherlands and if you're a person now now now you got to learn to be patient it's going to happen they're going to get around to you you just need to slow the pace down so for number four people are so patient here in the netherlands and it just causes me to just slow it right down so anyways number four people are patient i love it so thank you very much people of the netherlands and people from the u.s coming over just slow your roll a little bit they'll get around to you learn to be patient if you're not the patient type so but you will be i guarantee it let's move on to number five number five one of my favorite ones and number five i have listed as people are non-judgmental uh and you can pretty much talk about whatever you want to talk about you know whether it's politics religion it doesn't matter but what's what i found very interesting is tammy and i we both love to people watch and people dress so diversely and i'm not talking about uh just colors i mean stuff that they wear just the way that they look uh and the people around they're just so non-judgmental i think i was telling my daughter because she's gonna be coming over and visiting uh later this year is you literally could show up you could be wearing a pink tutu purple tights a crown on your head and one shoe on your foot and nobody's going to give you a second look they're all going to be well i guess that's just the way she dresses so people around here are so non-judgmental so don't be so for the people in the united states don't be so you've got to wear that the best thing or you've got to be wearing the name brand or you've got a match or you don't have to match uh you know what dress how you feel comfortable you'll see how people dress around here and how they look you're going to be stepping out of your comfort zone a little bit that's for sure and yes uh they can pick you right out of a crowd if you're an american coming over trying to dress like an american and there is a little bit of a difference there so dress how you feel comfortable comfortable feel comfortable with yourself and what you're wearing and people around you are going to give you two seconds thought on what you're wearing that's for sure and they're certainly not going to judge you about your conversation whether you love the current president you don't like the current president uh you can talk about that all day long which is very interesting thing because it was just pointed out to me by tammy and i happen to read it that it's against the law here in the netherlands to insult the king let me know about that that's kind of interesting you really seriously you can't insult the king but anyways uh people around here non-judgmental and i love that and i love watching people and how they dress and and how they act and how they appear and everybody around here is just so confident in what they do because they are enjoying life non-judgmental so with that being said let's move on to six number six uh this is the one i wish i had known about before i came over and you people from the us you really need to take point in this one and that is a medication that you can buy over the counter in the u.s a lot of it you cannot get here and one of them is nyquil can't get nyquil here uh you know and for me i've grown up with nyquil i live and die by nyquil but you cannot get it here or things like sudafed or maybe benadryl or something along those lines there but there are a lot of medications over the counter of medications that you can get in the united states that you cannot get here or medications that you can get here but it is by prescription and through the pharmacy but nevertheless i wish that i had known this because i would have taken uh some of it with me to go ahead and have on hand when i was sick because i got really sick when i got here really bad sore throat it was it was really a tough time and nyquil would have gotten me through that a little bit better but nevertheless i wish someone had told me that medication that i can get over the counter in the u.s a lot of it you cannot get here in the netherlands and it's tough to come by they have other substitutes that are not as to me quite effective but that's just to me but nevertheless uh medications uh if you have something you want bring it because the worst that's gonna happen is you brought something over uh and you ran out and you can still buy it over here the best it's gonna happen is you brought it over and you found out that you can't get it here but nevertheless medications over the counter from the u.s a lot of it you can't get here so let's move on to number seven okay so number seven big thing here uh in rotterdam and in the netherlands and that is food and grocery delivery uh you can see the guys all on the bikes delivering food they'll pick you up anything from mcdonald's to high-end food from a restaurant uh but anyways food delivery is a big big deal here in the netherlands uh keeps a lot of kids employed on their bikes and so forth but the other thing is and we just did this for the first time the other day we signed up for picnic and we had our groceries delivered a big concern was before they delivered how were the fruits and vegetables going to look when we got them and what about the expiration date on anything else we had they came through the fruits and vegetables were fantastic uh the expiration dates were far out it was awesome uh it was our first time doing that and i gotta be honest with you i love it uh i loved it and they give you the time too and you can track the truck now i haven't used any of the others like albert hines or anything along those lines there but with picnic you track the truck they give you a very specific time that they're going to be there i'll say they're going to be here from literally 10 55 to 1108 that type of thing and you can track their truck and when they show up you go downstairs he hands you the groceries you just go ahead and take it on up and it's a done deal really doesn't cost a whole lot more or really anything more than the regular grocery stores except the regular grocery stores that we've signed up for like albert hines they have weekly specials tammy really likes that but food delivery here in the netherlands is is pretty awesome and it's a regular thing and a lot of people i mean a lot of people take advantage of it especially busy people they can get their stuff delivered at the end of the day the beginning of the day they do give you a choice you want it morning afternoon evening that type of thing so very very convenient uh we definitely are going to be taking more advantage of this i didn't think i would like it but boy was i wrong there i love it uh but anyways i can only vouch for picnic because that's what we signed up with but i see albert hines out there i see plus out there uh which are other grocery stores so food delivery gotta love it especially if you're trapped inside or you don't wanna go out uh so once again take advantage of it if you're from the us we did we love it let's move on to number eight yeah yeah yeah eight all right so number eight copy off guard uh and this does not hold true for every place in rotterdam the netherlands uh europe whatever uh and that is but we live in an area that happens to have a lot of college students uh and they like to party uh and the thing of it is people in the netherlands and in europe in general but specifically here uh they like to party starting at around 10 o'clock at night now for me i'm in bed at 10 o'clock that's a late night for me uh but they start at 10 o'clock at night it usually starts with uh conversation uh next thing you know the techno music gets louder uh and the conversations get louder and this is running from about you know nine or ten o'clock at night right to two three four o'clock in the morning the police didn't get called or whatever it might be you learn to sleep with earplugs but here's the thing about it and this is what's really strange and it's never ever uh sunday through thursday it's usually friday night saturday night hardly ever on a sunday i can't think of one on a sunday i don't want to say they're respectful in that manner but you know during the middle of the week they got their studies they're doing their studies but the partying at night it can get really crazy there's an apartment across the way it's really really small uh it can probably comfortably hold uh maybe 15 is a really exaggeration 10 people would would be kind of crammed in there they had a party i want to say it was about oh man it was about two months ago and next thing you know it was during the lockdown time and somebody called the police and all the police showed up and it was basically and it was slicker snot it was smooth they had them come on out and tammy and i happened to get up and see what was going on and they were coming out and it was like 1 2 14 15 28 29 34 and there was like 35 38 people in that apartment and they were all drinking beer and they were coming out and they were very nice and respectful the police basically said you know you're not supposed to be doing this let's move on they all went out they all went to their cars they started walking home went to their rental scooters uh but not a problem somebody calls the police and they show up not a problem uh so anyways uh partying on the weekend at night i'm sure it's that way in other areas of the city as well we just happen to live in an area that has a lot of rental college students so just caught us off guard that's all but anyways so let's go ahead and move on to number nine and number nine is one i miss the most i just really miss it so let's move on to number nine and here we are at number nine this is the one i miss the most now the apartments here are small i mean they're not very big uh tammy and i fit in very comfortably but here's the thing uh i have been for years now and so has tammy been accustomed to sleeping on a king-sized bed right now i believe we are on a double which is just really small for us and last night i you know i was jabbed in the back twice slapped in the face once and she doesn't do it on purpose but at least i don't think she does it on purpose but anyways i miss our king size bed uh and it's just there's no way i mean there's absolutely no way we could get a bigger bed in there even if we wanted to there would literally be this much room between the wall and the other side right there so uh king-size bed if you plan on bringing a bed over uh from the u.s you better check the dimensions of the place that you're uh renting or take a look at take a look at some of the some of the photos that you get on websites when they're renting out places because some of those angles you can look at it and it looks like it's a big bed but they captured a different angle and it's kind of like i only think one person could sleep in there uh so anyways uh number nine i missed the bed i just miss our king-sized bed so much uh but anyways uh it brings me closer to tammy and i love that and i think she loves that too so but anyways let's move on to number 10. okay number 10 is a question that we still get a lot and rightfully so and the question is uh is rotterdam safe especially for the people that want to come specifically to rotterdam the netherlands is a safe place to be rotterdam is a safe place to be with that being said before i even move on i want to say wherever you go in this world i don't care where you are uh you want to throw up your safety net if you feel uncomfortable uh if you don't think it's right for you to be there then it's probably not safe and it's probably telling you that you need to move on and go someplace else as far as that particular spot we have never really felt that here at all tammy walks two or three times a day she's never had a problem she's never been stopped she's never been cat called the whistle that uh it's a safe place to be uh and again you know wherever you go you just want to make sure that you're okay but she feels very very comfortable walking around here i feel very comfortable with her walking around i didn't feel that way especially in southern california there was rarely a day that went by that she wasn't catcalled or somebody didn't drive by slowly to try to talk to her or somebody just is just following her that type of thing or she's trying to pretend to be on the phone and ignore them that's standard for southern california that's stuff you need to expect here it's really and we haven't experienced that at all uh thank goodness knock on wood the good lords blessed us with that uh so no problems at all is the rotterdam safe uh yes it really is a lot of different neighborhoods people watch out for each other it's a very diverse city uh and in the united states we're so accustomed to uh looking at other nationalities with skepticism and that is not the case here in rotterdam uh there are a lot of different nationalities here and it doesn't necessarily mean they're bad and they're not but in the united states we're trained to think uh so is rotterdam safe yes we've had no problems at all knock on wood uh it's been fantastic and don't use the safety factor or whether you should come you shouldn't come because it is a good city even if you're a single woman yes it is a good city to come to uh and you will feel safe again safety nets uh always wherever you go uh but you're gonna be safe so i was riding damn safe absolutely enough said about that uh so let's move on to number 11. this ought to this ought to jab out a few people so number 11. number 11. uh here it is there are a lot of people a lot of people here in the netherlands and you need to be aware of this that smoke uh there are a lot of people in the united states that smoke as well but you know what here in the netherlands and there's a lot of older people that smoke but there's a large proportion of younger people that smoke as well in the united states we have been through a big push to go ahead and make people educated and aware of the hazards of smoking uh whether it's shock commercials on tv or just whatever it might be uh here in the netherlands and i think they just banned them a couple of months ago you could still go to cigarette machines whether it's at a cafe at a bar or whatever smoking is really heavy over here and yes people do smoke in the united states and you're going to find it like in southern california it's really kind of frowned upon people tend to go off on their own and smoke if they're going to smoke but there is no smoking inside the cafes there is no smoking in the restaurants like in the states but smoking is very prevalent here uh in the netherlands that's for sure tammy and i are not smokers we don't judge anybody that is i mean that's just their personal preference that's your habit it's a terrible habit it's so bad for your health and we certainly wish you would quit uh but uh here in the netherlands smoking is very very prevalent so you just need to be aware of that before you come over that's for sure so let's move on to the last uh number 12. this one was a tough one for us to get over uh but we did and we came and this is what we found out so let's move on to the last topic number 12. okay so number 12 uh very last one and this was a tough one for tammy and i to kind of get over and just kind of feel our way through it because and that is you don't need a lot of material things over here before we came we gave most of our stuff away we packed up a couple of boxes and i think we have one or two boxes in storage uh that holds some very special momento items uh for us but we have that in storage uh back in the states but 95 easily 95 percent of everything that we owned we gave away or we sold or whatever it might be and you find out real quick uh when you come over here what you need and what you really don't need and the people from the netherlands are not really big into i got to have the best of this i got to keep up with the joneses uh whatever it might be uh they are busy enjoying life not collecting things not doing the look at me uh you know and i'm not saying those things are bad and they're not nice to have that's not what i'm saying but what i am saying is uh when you come over here you learn real quick what you can do with it what you can do without what was really important what was really not important because a lot of stuff that we gave away in hindsight it was kind of like really why were we even holding on to that i don't understand so with that being said materialistic things don't really mean a whole lot over here that's for sure and once again not to beat a dead horse but the people from the netherlands really know how to live they know how to enjoy life they know how to get out and about uh and materialistic things are not a priority with them that's for sure don't let it be a priority with you because there are things that you cannot live without i mean there are pictures that you have had that's great but there are other things ask yourself why am i holding on to this when is the last time i really looked at this what am i going to do with it if i bring it over so with that being said don't get yourself wrapped up into materialistic things just bring over what you need come on over start your life enjoy it and just take time out to just enjoy everything around you and the new life that you have decided that you wanted to start either in europe the netherlands or rotterdam and tammy and i have come so close and to just i don't want to say close have come so much to love rotterdam we really really do it is such a dynamic city with a lot of things going on but nevertheless uh come over enjoy your life uh that wraps it up from soul to soul travels today till next time we'll definitely see you there [Music] you

Channel: Soul to Soul Travels

Views: 37,247

Keywords: moving to the netherlands, the netherlands, life in the netherlands, expat in the netherlands, moving to netherlands, life in the netherlands as a foreigner, life in netherlands, moving to the netherlands from us, moving to the netherlands for work, moving abroad alone, life in netherlands for foreigners, a day in the life in the netherlands, dutch culture and traditions, is the netherlands a good place to live, american expat in the netherlands, expats in the netherlands

Id: pFxFDgPMUJ8

Length: 27min 7sec (1627 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 20 2022