June 9, 2006
Feeling fine, like the hour is mine….
Life is good and I’m feeling like I’ve landed on my feet here - city is easy to get around and big enough to offer everything, yet small enough for you to get know it fairly quick - I feel like I’ve been here longer than just a week or so and have got my bearings for life’s essentials quick and easy enough - I’m kinda used to starting over every six months or so by now - Vietnam for a couple of years on and off, Indo for a year or so, back in the UK for 6 months and now here in Holland - but Rotterdam feels like settling material more than anywhere else I’ve been in recent memory.
.
.
Sure, I’m on my own and know nobody but me, myself - I but I don’t mind my own company and I’ve figured the place out fairly swiftly - there’s a swish supermarket for one day to the next shopping - a wine and whisky world round the corner - restaurant bar shindig within a few minutes walk - a place in which I’m already on my way to achieving local status - I know where the restaurants are, the main bar area, Sandwich shop for morning first thing, the place for English papers, best music shop in town, the gym and of course: the obligatory Irish pub.
.
.
I’m also getting to grips with the lingo - for the nitty gritty of everyday living I’m going to have to learn Dutch - it’s good to make the effort and the locals love that you try - especially when all around seem so fluent in English and it would be easy enough to not bother - but at the end of the day, when you live in a place that seems not too far a step out of the general existence of what you’re used to, you feel like a bit of an idiot when you suddenly can’t grasp the day to day - in Vietnam and Indonesia walking around feeling like a fish out of water was to be expected - it genuinely was a jump to the other end of the world - yet here in Holland, you feel like you’re playing catch up when all that looks, sounds and feels normal doesn’t add up when it comes to the breakdown of lingo.
.
There are the little differences as Jules and Vincent famously discussed - the bikes, the sense of humour, the multitude of snacks, the bikes, the mayo, the little beers, the bagel obsession, the bikes, the zebra crossings that aren’t really zebra crossings, the trams, the way it seems that there’s an attractive woman consistently within 5 metres of you and of course the bikes - lots and lots of bikes.
.
.
The work? getting there, getting there… it’s like there are so many directions to head in but no idea where to start - so I’m getting the basics sorted as far as email, phones and computers go first - finding out the A-Z before getting on to the tricky - one definite plus is that I’m working the Vietnam tea again - sort of the next step of what I started over there - bringing it to a wider audience of buyers - it’s good talking with the friends I made in various parts of the world again - in UK I was in the background and not in the mix of world wide trading - but now I’m involved with everything and everyone all over again and work doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
.
and the girl? ........
.
Anyways - getting late and I’m up at the crack of dawn to catch a train to Frankfurt in the morning - as the sun rises I’ll be heading to Germany and trying to either blag my way into England vs. Paraguay or just hook up with some friends and soak up the football, the big screen, the alcohol and the atmosphere - sure there were a lot of logical reasons for wanting to move to Holland - quality of life, career, money and smiling in the morning - but being next door to the World Cup was definitely one of the main ones as well - COME ON ENGLAND! as really, we’ve all been hurting far too long now....
.
.
Sure, I’m on my own and know nobody but me, myself - I but I don’t mind my own company and I’ve figured the place out fairly swiftly - there’s a swish supermarket for one day to the next shopping - a wine and whisky world round the corner - restaurant bar shindig within a few minutes walk - a place in which I’m already on my way to achieving local status - I know where the restaurants are, the main bar area, Sandwich shop for morning first thing, the place for English papers, best music shop in town, the gym and of course: the obligatory Irish pub.
.
.
I’m also getting to grips with the lingo - for the nitty gritty of everyday living I’m going to have to learn Dutch - it’s good to make the effort and the locals love that you try - especially when all around seem so fluent in English and it would be easy enough to not bother - but at the end of the day, when you live in a place that seems not too far a step out of the general existence of what you’re used to, you feel like a bit of an idiot when you suddenly can’t grasp the day to day - in Vietnam and Indonesia walking around feeling like a fish out of water was to be expected - it genuinely was a jump to the other end of the world - yet here in Holland, you feel like you’re playing catch up when all that looks, sounds and feels normal doesn’t add up when it comes to the breakdown of lingo.
.
There are the little differences as Jules and Vincent famously discussed - the bikes, the sense of humour, the multitude of snacks, the bikes, the mayo, the little beers, the bagel obsession, the bikes, the zebra crossings that aren’t really zebra crossings, the trams, the way it seems that there’s an attractive woman consistently within 5 metres of you and of course the bikes - lots and lots of bikes.
.
.
The work? getting there, getting there… it’s like there are so many directions to head in but no idea where to start - so I’m getting the basics sorted as far as email, phones and computers go first - finding out the A-Z before getting on to the tricky - one definite plus is that I’m working the Vietnam tea again - sort of the next step of what I started over there - bringing it to a wider audience of buyers - it’s good talking with the friends I made in various parts of the world again - in UK I was in the background and not in the mix of world wide trading - but now I’m involved with everything and everyone all over again and work doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
.
and the girl? ........
.
Anyways - getting late and I’m up at the crack of dawn to catch a train to Frankfurt in the morning - as the sun rises I’ll be heading to Germany and trying to either blag my way into England vs. Paraguay or just hook up with some friends and soak up the football, the big screen, the alcohol and the atmosphere - sure there were a lot of logical reasons for wanting to move to Holland - quality of life, career, money and smiling in the morning - but being next door to the World Cup was definitely one of the main ones as well - COME ON ENGLAND! as really, we’ve all been hurting far too long now....
Spo | June 9, 2006
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