May 20, 2012
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Back!
We’re back from vacation, and I miss it already. We had such a great time away, the time just flew by! I survived and passed my SCUBA certification…I’m now a certified open water diver! I’m super excited to go on some dives soon…Jamie and I are talking about booking a trip to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for our next diving excursion. The best dive times is July and August, which sort of sucks, because it means we won’t be able to really sightsee while we’re there. We were hoping to combine a dive trip with a few days in Giza and Luxor, as well as a trip to Petra, Jordan and Israel. But, honestly, I have no desire to sightsee the Middle East in the middle of July/August. Talk about HOT! No thanks…I’ll stick with just the dive. We can plan the other trips for later in the year, which Jamie seems to be ok with! I’m so excited…seeing these parts of the Middle East has been a dream for as long as I can remember, especially Israel.
In other news…Jamie should have the results back from his MRI tomorrow. He has an appointment with the neurologist in the morning, so hopefully that will give us some ideas as to what is going on. He didn’t have any trouble at all while we were out this last week, so I’m hoping it has something to do with ergonomics, rather than a musculo-skeletal problem. We’ll see though…I’ll keep you updated.
Otherwise…life is back to normal. We were going to go to London in a week or so, but turns out BOTH of our passports need to be sent off to the consulate: mine to have more pages added, and Jamie’s to be renewed because his expires in August. Definitely won’t get them back in time, which is fine because I’m sort of sick of airports at the moment. I think we’re going to try to take a few local day trips, maybe do some hiking in Germany, over the break. Overall, it’ll be good just to be out of work again. These past few months have been kicking both our asses.
That’s about all for now! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
XOXOXO,
K.
Comments (5)
Welcome back and congrats on passing! Yay!
Let me know when you’ll be in Germany.
Sounds like a great trip… congrats on being scuba certified! Egypt is probably the only country I’m interested in in that area, I fell in love in 4th grade when we studied it in school.
I’m curious, do you have a significant amount of vacation time? I was reading an article about vacation time in various countries and European countries require by law 20-30 days depending on the country. I wasn’t sure if you got to reap those benefits or if your company can offer American benefits since you are American. I’m also super curious about some specific differences in office/daily life, how tihngs are different. I watch house hunters international and I’m fascinated by the differences. Like no AC, showers over toilets, tiny spaces, amazing public transportation, the history/age of the buildings etc. So much more culture it seems as well.
@PennyLumpkins - I do have a good amount of holiday time. I believe I get 26 days vacation, which includes some days that are set (like Christmas Day, New Years, etc.). Plus, a lot of the trips Jamie and I take are over holiday weekends, so we don’t take vacation days out of our allotment. Jamie is on a US contract, so his holidays are put against the Dutch holidays, and then they sort of split the difference. He doesn’t get US holidays off work, but he gets those days to take whenever (if that makes sense). He has 4 weeks of vacation in the US, so he only get a few more by being here.
Office life is definitely different here. It’s weird working for a US company in a foreign country, because the two don’t always mesh. People here are very much 8:30-4:00pm. They leave at 4:00pm…done. Doesn’t matter what is left to do, they’re done. The same is not true of us, however (and part of that could be due to the fact that we’re the supplier and they’re the customer…we’re supposed to work hard)…but overall, I’ve noticed that a lot of European businesses are fairly laid back and less rigid when it comes to think like office politics, dress code, working hours, etc. Maternity leave here is RIDICULOUS…6 months full pay, and it’s super typical for mothers to work part time, so it’s not hard to find a job here for 3-4 days a week only.
No AC is super hard to get used to, I won’t lie. I’m lucky…the NL only has a few weeks out of the year when it’s super hot, so you really only need AC for a week or two, max. Otherwise, it’s mid-70s / mid-80s, breezy…quite lovely! But yeah…I couldn’t imagine living in places like southern Spain and Italy with no AC…no way. The houses here are also smaller and MUCH more expensive for far less size. The house we sold when we moved here would easily be $450k-$600k. We paid less than $150k for the house…the housing market here is just ridiculous. Property is mad expensive, and it’s very typical that your flat/apartment/house is much smaller. That said…they definitely know how to pack a lot in a small space. I’m actually not a fan of big houses any more because I think they’re usually not well designed and there’s a lot of wasted space, which I hate. And don’t worry, our shower isn’t over our toilet. In fact, the toilet is in its own room, with the shower/bathtub in another room. The two will never meet!
The history here…well…can’t beat it. It’s amazing. The old buildings have such charm, the brick roads are nice to stroll along, and the town squares always have great people watching while sipping a drink. It’s nice…I won’t lie. I really like living here, but there are definitely things I miss about the US as well. It’s definitely give and take.
What other questions do you have?! I’m happy to answer!!!
@Miststueck - I will DEFINITELY let you know! Where abouts do you live?? Jamie and I head there fairly regularly, since it’s so close. Plus…job opportunity is there, which I’m about to write a post about!
@One_Sly_Bookworm - Regensburg, about halfway between Munich and Nuremberg