A Working Holiday in the Netherlands

Just in case anyone happens to incidentally want to go on a "working holiday" in the Netherlands, specifically in Enschede, here are some handy dandy tips:

1. Do all the stuff you need to do (like get that ridiculous long form birth certificate) as soon as you can.
2. The government building (gemeentehuis) in which you must register yourself is right beside the train station (just north of it). You should go there ASAP cause you need to make an appointment. Fortunately, it shouldn't take too long.
3. Try to pick up a phone (prepaid SIM cards are common) because you'll need to call the IND and get yourself another appointment, in which .. I suppose they will make you a resident. I haven't gotten here yet, but it's an awfully long and complicated process, and it's going to delay this whole BSN number thing. Which is needed for a bank account, which I need to do a lot of things (get my travel card for the train, get paid, etc...)
4. When you get your picture taken for your temporary resident sticker thing, and the person at Costco or wherever you go gives you two, keep one and bring it with you overseas.

I know there will probably be no one who does the exact same thing in a soon enough time range that this is actually applicable (or I suspect such, anyway) but just in case, here is a reference for whoever you are out there! I wouldn't have minded knowing.

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In other news, I finally obtained a bike that I can fit! Barely. The standards for how high the seat should be over here is like... 2-3 inches higher than I was taught as a kid. As a kid, you sit on the bike and make sure your toes touch the ground. Here... it's practically like you stand on the pedal (at it's lowest point, sure) and sit on it. Every time I have to stop, I have to flail around to try and get back up. And it doesn't help that pedaling backwards stops instead of just moving your pedals, so if you get stuck in an awkward position... tough.

Today, I found out that I needed to make an appointment for the gemeentehuis (as mentioned before), which I did in the morning, but made it for the afternoon. Since I knew I'd have to be out again, I went straight to work (4,70 for a round trip, which is only one station away. You can see why I wanted a bike, right?) and... worked. Rather tiredly, I might add. We had a brief company meeting at 1, so I went up a bit early and I watched some of them play foosball. They don't play with engineering rules, and they have a scary amount of power. Not super skilled (well some are, some aren't) but like... the ball flew out a number of times while I was watching.

After the appointment (in which I discovered I had to call the IND and make an appointment and get all that paperwork before I could get my BSN number...) I went to go get a SIM card... and in my mixed-impatience-and-thriftiness I bought a Lebara SIM card (Dutch cheap-o phone company). The dude charged me 10,- euro for it. I'm still not sure if it was justified, since it said "GRATIS" on the outside, which I was pretty sure meant free. It felt like I was being cheated, but I was in no position to argue with him. I guess he needs to make money somehow. Then I wandered around, looking for a place to top-up, and happened upon a market in the city centre. I would have taken pictures, but I was too lazy/encumbered by things.

Bought the top-up at a store kind of equivalent to Shopper Drug Mart back at home, then I made the call (which drained my entire 10 euro top-up, not instilling much confidence here...) and made the appointment. Somewhere in between that, I bought a container of strawberries for 1 euro from the market because it was just too tempting. I need to get some veggies, too; all I eat is bread because it's already prepared and tastes so good in these parts.

Bike hunt continued, and I ended up in a large bike store which had a lot of very expensive bikes. Even the secondhand ones were expensive (which makes sense, because it's a store). My colleagues had recommended buying online, but I didn't want to go through the hassle of a potentially 10 euro phone call, only to find out that the person who was selling it was (1) too tall or (2) not very nice or... well anything, pretty much. Mostly just laziness. It's hard to last long without a bike, in my opinion.

I picked up some groceries and things like that. Now I feel exhausted... my bike still needs some accessories, like a bag and a hard lock, but I'll wait on that for a while.

Feeling like I'm going to crash already >< but I'm actually gonna try to go out and play Frisbee at 8pm. Hurray!


After and through and in all that... Jesus is still Lord. :)

PS The fruit fly multiplied!!
PPS Please leave comments, or if you're not gonna leave a comment, then message me on FB or email me or something. It's lonely here. ^^;

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on faith, food and flying
The thoughts and experiences of a college kid on faith, love and life in pursuit of Christ, the loveliest One, while enjoying misadventures and quests for food, which so happen to take her around the world.
 
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