- You're either Dutch,
or you're not Dutch, and there's no in-between. (gentle music) This was our first view of Maastricht. About five years ago, my husband Rob and I came here for a vacation for
a month to the Netherlands, and we loved it so much that
we decided to move here. We sold everything or gave away everything that we had in Australia. And within two months of our vacation, we moved here for good. Maastricht in the
Netherlands is my new home and has been for the last five years. I came here on a skilled migrant visa. And actually I could have chosen to go to any city in the Netherlands. I chose Maastricht because I wanted the real Dutch experience. This is Douwe Egberts. This is Dadawan. This is Bomb Ass Burritos. This is Burgerlijk. This is Luna Rossa. This is Quattro Mori. Moge Tee. The language is a big
part of why I came here. That is actually why I got the job: because I could already speak Dutch. When I told them that it was my intention to eventually get citizenship here, they said that I shouldn't
get to be able to keep my Dutch citizenship and
my other citizenships, which are from the Philippines
and from Australia. (bright music) This is the street that we
lived on for almost a year. We didn't have the best first experience. Our landlady was very judgmental. Essentially, she made it so that it was such an unpleasant experience
that we actually ended up paying 4,500 Euro to get
out of that lease early. This is one of the main
streets of Maastricht. This is where all of the parades happen. So even after we eventually
moved out of our apartment, we would still come back
here to celebrate holidays like Carnaval or Koningsdag, or a variety of parades
that have come by here. We really wanted to celebrate everything that there is to celebrate
in Dutch culture. We did end up buying a new house. A few days later, almost two
years after we'd first gotten into the Netherlands, the tax arrangement that I
was on as a skilled migrant was shortened from seven years to five. One of the best parts about Maastricht is how multicultural it is. It's three kilometers from Belgium and about 30 kilometers from Germany. So walking down the
street, you can hear Dutch, the local dialect of Dutch Maastricht, and also French and German, and a little bit of
English here and there. This is the town hall. This is where I officially
became a Dutch citizen, but it wasn't that easy. I really think that I can feel equally Filipino, Australian, and Dutch. And I don't feel like I have to choose, and whether or not people
agree, I feel Dutch. But it would be nice if they agreed. (bells ringing) One particular incident of note
happened a couple months ago when my husband and I
were just playing Pokemon. And there was a guy that came out, apparently he thought we had
gotten too close to his house or something, but was
very aggressive about it. And that confrontation
ended with him saying, "Well, if you don't like
it, then go back home!" When you do all of these things and you have these experiences, the reality is that you're
just not going to feel like you belong. While I don't regret
any of the experiences that we've had here, I
think it's time to move on. In the next few months, my husband and I will be
moving to another country and we don't know what's
going to become of our house here in Maastricht.
