Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s been over 6 weeks now since my return and there’s so much to write about. I’ve decided to change the language of this blog to English so all my friends around the world can follow what’s going on.
A few highlights:
Weather:
First of all, for those of you anxious to know how we deal with the weather after enjoying the tropics for so many years. It’s pretty bad indeed. We probably have the worst summer on record for the last 25 years and we had to turn on the heating several times since our return. Ridiculous ! :-) But it’s actually not that bad (yet). I guess we’ve had so much sun during the last years, we can live without it for some time. That’s probably self-preservation attitude we’re going to need dearly the coming months. But when the sun shines, it’s really beautiful out here. And there are a few good things to the climate too. Things dry faster (towel actually feel dry). You hardly sweat. Hot chocolate simply tastes better when it’s cold outside 
.
Transport:
We do almost everything on a bicycle as is the custom in the Netherlands. To the supermarket (2 minutes away), school of the kids (4 minutes), city center (Leiden..@ 10 minutes, swimming classes of the kids (6 minutes). It’s great. It’s convenient and it’s health. And it’s cheap too because gas is $ 9 a gallon !! We did by a car by the way, a 1999 Volvo V70 station car. Not the best mileage but very spacious (wife, 3 kids and dog, no problem) and since we don’t (anticipate to) drive that much, I was looking for a cheap reliable car. I got this beauty for just Euro 3.500 and it drives great.
As far as public transportation goes, that’s a chapter in itself here in the Netherlands. We haven’t taken the bus yet but did made some train trips. We also got so-called OV-chip cards. It’s a smart card with a chip that you can use on all public transportation in the Netherlands. Let me correct this: without it, you hardly can make use of public transportation or have to go to a lot of hassle and pay higher fees. More on that in another post. With the card, we got a special ‘subscription’ to travel cheaply during off-peak hours while the kids go for free. That way, the regular fares that are quite high actually become quite attractive. You never have to buy tickets again. You simply ‘check in’ and ‘check out’ at the station.
Efficiency
The drive for efficiency here is really astounding and it’s everywhere. The public transport smart cart is one example. But things like garbage collection are another example. Or (online) shopping. And dealing with the government. It’s almost fun here ! So far, my experience is that government officials are better trained in customer service than the private sector ! Coming from Panama that’s exhilarating to say the least. The tax man in particular: these folks are so friendly and helpful, it’s hard to believe. And yes, you can simply call them. Clearly a result of training but even then, we’ve found everybody to be friendly. OK. We’re living in a relatively small village but still, it’s been a very pleasant experience and we were anticipating a much ‘colder’ attitude. Of course after the abuse in Panama, our customer service experience can only go up. This reminds me of the banks here. Their staff is also amazingly helpful, friendly and last but not least, well informed !!! Opening a bank account takes less than 30 minutes, including a debit card. You get a nice folder with all the docs. you need, with all the rates and fees of different accounts. Last Saturday I filled out a form about home mortgages. This morning (Monday) a friendly lady follows-up by phone, takes some data and sets-up an appointment with a mortgage specialists who can even come to my home. Mind boggling!
TV & Internet
Well as far as programming goes, it seems to be the same around the world: the more channels you have, the more garbage you get. Technically it’s certainly better: the quality of the signal, the speed of the Internet (heavenly fast, around 20 MB/s download speed !) but the programming, a lot of silly stuff. And also a lot of really rudeness on TV. It seems to be ‘fun’ for some people to offend other in public and – only God knows why – let yourself be offended. The foul language factor has also increased and it seems some radio hosts/guest just seem to have this uncontrollable urge to throw in a few ‘dirty’ words every now and ten without any context that could possibly justify it.
Anyway, it’s interesting. More to come.. for sure….
