The working life

Although it is officially winter, NZ is taking it easy on me to let me settle in nicely. The other weekend Patrick and I went for a day hike and we were treated with lovely weather. We had excellent views over Christchurch and the bay on the other side. Doesn't the water look tempting to jump in?

The weekend after Jill and I went for a long walk along a windy beach, more like winter this time...Jill took some really nice pictures, which of course, I don't have...Jill has a proper job at the moment so we are both thrilled with the fact that her visa got extended. In the meantime, Jill has surrounded herself with Dutch people. Me of course, her boss and her girlfriend has Dutch blood in her. Good on her: the Dutch rule!! (since when did I become patriotic...I'm not, but it is weird to see how many (semi-) Dutch people I bump into).



And how about my job hunting? Well, I am doing my best and I am sure I will find that perfect job. The moment that you have a nice chat with a company and they say 'ahah, your credentials sound great, but you are not a resident so we are not even looking at your resume...' you feel pretty cheated. I mean, being rejected AFTER they look at your resume, ok. But not even taking a glance at my amazing CV...autsj, that hurts. To be honest, it's their loss, but as long as I don't have a work permit it is unfortunately also my loss!
But I do understand; who says I am that committed to stay as I say I am. I know I am, but how do they know? It's Murphy's Law: all those immigrants in the Netherlands who had difficulties entering the country, are now punishing me by making it hard for me to stay in NZ...

But in the meantime my contract at the company got extended so I must be doing something good. It's still ok work, but I would like to use my brains a bit more. I mean, since I have them, I might as well use them!! Customers can be friendly, but you have some weird ones...A tip of the iceberg:
- one lady rang to complain about her bill. She transferred from another company to us 2 months ago and now she had to pay 2 bills of 200 dollars. I looked into the matter and advised that the bills were correct for the services she had. And she was amazed, I quote 'I transferred to you because that would mean I did not have to pay any bills'. When I explained to her that you always have to pay for services no matter where you are, she hung up. I'm sad to say that this person was Dutch. Bloody Dutch, always complaining about money...
- one woman called me a 'silly cow' after I said 'Goodmorning, you're speaking with Maaike' and she kept abusing me till I transferred her to the department she wanted to speak to (I found out later that the abusing kept going even though that person wasn't a customer with us...)
- an old man rang to ask whether our digital TV channels had any sex movies. No hesitation or shame whatsoever, just straight forward...
- one guy went totally crazy when I couldn't find him in the system (he was already annoyed because his phone at home wasn't working). The thing was that he didn't know his customer number (understandable) nor his own phone number (hmmm) and when I tried finding his account with his name, he told me different names 3 times...So he wanted to speak to my supervisor and I was just laughing because he was so ridiculous insane. And guess what, he rang back a week later to apologize...to me...personally. Imagine being in a contact centre and someone rings back a week later just to say ' I was wrong, sorry'. Is that customer service or what?!

My supervisor already mentioned vaguely 'we should keep you'...That freaked me out: I mean, I am more than happy to do a job which isn't within my area and I will do my best for ANY job, but customer service...Naaaaah, not my future career!

Busy bee...

After travelling little bit less than a year, it makes sense that reality hits you. Luckily I have been there before (twice!) so I know how realities feels like(quite soft to be honest).

Sure thing, I miss the travelling, I miss the different cultures, I miss my absolute freedom to wander off whenever I feel like it. But do I want to be a traveller non-stop? No way. And no better place to 'settle down' than New Zealand!


So, busy bee as I am, I'm all organised already. Bank account, IRD number and my precious (yes, I got one too) green mountain which was lend to me by David who I met in Peru. House search was funny: it can take you several months to find a place in the Netherlands, and here it took me a week...I had a look at a few places. One was nice, but the tenants were a bit racial... They were complaining about foreigners, so I looked at the guy thinking 'I'm a foreigner' and then he quickly said he meant 'Asians'. As you can imagine the decision to NOT take that house was easypeasy. So thanks to Patrick who did some pre-arrival search for places to life, I have a nice room in an absolutely luxurious house (2 bathrooms, dishwasher...) with 2 guys, Matt and Hamish. Both lovely and I made them 'stamppot': I guessed that was the only proper way to introduce them to my Dutch side. I also bought a bed via Internet for 100 dollars and I still cannot believe how nice the bed is.

And work...Well, that's the reason it took me 3 weeks to write something on my blog. Since it's my first time ever of being unemployed, I dived into job ads in papers and Internet. My friend Jill, who is looking for a job as well, and I are having serious meetings about 'How to get a Canadian and a Dutch a proper cool job' and we send each other job ads (Thank God we are not in the same area!). And thanks to Patrick's friend Julie I have one killer NZ proof-resume.



I started writing cover letters and ringing people. Result: nice chats with friendly people on the phone who all wanted to have my resume, some interesting applications are still 'in the air' (fingers crossed) and at the moment I am working at a contact centre for a telecom company. Answering the phone, talking to customers and helping them sort out their stuff. And you know me: I like it! I think every job has its challenging aspects and within this position I get more acquaint with customer services in English. So far I had one angry(ish) customer who wasn't angry any more after we finished the talk. I don't know whether it was my 'telecom' expertise (I can hear you think 'Maaike, do you know anything about telecom?' Answer is no...) or my 'cute' accent: main thing is that it worked. And how much fun is it to help out a 75 year old lady to work out what the cheapest way is for her to ring her daughter in Australia and her son in the UK? Seriously, I like it!

The only down side is that I have to work on Saturday too. So while the people of the good life enjoyed hiking outside the city, I was working. And writing cover letters...But I'm not complaining; I'm actually happy to work again, yay!

The added pictures are from previous weekend: mountainbiking and hiking with Hannah, Warrick and Patrick...

The Dutch 'me'

The dutch things: the Dom, the canals and my bike for the week. Can it get any more Dutch than that: an orange bike! (with special thanks to Sara!!)















My 2 weeks in the Netherlands involved a lot of eating, drinking and having excellent BBQ's with VIP's from the Netherlands (meet the vibrant Guusje) and Belgium (meet the lovely Eefje). And yes, I must admit I choose that beer because of its name...Am I a 'flierefluiter'?








The main reason of my 'Dutch trip': to see my family (sorry no pictures there...) and friends. My dad always says 'Maaike, you have too many friends': for once I agree because I didn't have enough time to see everyone. So yes many friends and many friends in different generations...Some wise men (Thomas and Jan) who think they are getting older, but I disagree. They also think they are getting wiser... My best friend from university, Catherine and boyfriend Floor who do scary grown-up things like having a mortgage, doing a phd and having a steady job. And last but certainly not least: My good friend Petra with her gorgeous son Toon who I adore (he already likes olives...repect!)

My two weeks have flown by: it was fun, I enjoyed it but I'm happy to go. I will not miss the Netherlands, but I will miss the people who live here. I have started a pro New Zealand PR and EVERYone has said that they will come and visit...

With both feet in the Netherlands...

After an absolute brilliant trip around the world, I am back at the start: the Netherlands. In the last 10 months I have tried to describe what I enjoy about travelling, the countries I visited and the lovely people I met. I have often thought 'damn, I'm the luckiest person in the world' and I'm truly fortunate that I kept thinking that till the end, and to be honest I still think that now. Perhaps this picture of my last weekend in Suriname gives it away: Neirude and I, absolutely enjoying each others company, having fun by wrestling in the grass in Suriname. Ever wondered about true happiness: I definately found it!

So before I start meeting up with everyone, some future frequently asked questions (FFAQ's!)

- Ever wondered whether quitting your job was the right decision?
Nope. Never ever doubted it, not for a minute. I can highly recommend it...
- What was your favourite country? (Petra's husband Lex was to quick for me: he already asked me that...)
I have no idea. Cliché enough I truly enjoyed every single step of my trip.
- Do you wish you had done something else along your trip?
Nope. For me this trip was excellent: culture, nature, travelling alone and sometimes with friends and a 'Western' break in the middle.
- Did you miss 'home'?
Euh no, but I sometimes wished I could go for a coffee, or have dinner and a nice glass of wine with my parents or friends. But miss...no, sorry, if you do what you enjoy most, it's difficult to really miss something.
- So the one million euro question: what's next?
Well, a holiday in the Netherlands and then back to New Zealand on May 16th where I do have to get 'serious' again and find a job, get a house and some 'normality' in my life. Sounds absolutely scary at the moment, but I know I will enjoy it...till I start dancing in the rain again and decide to put my travelshoes back on!

Het binnenland: ‘the inner country’

Brownsberg
Since I didn’t want to stay in the city constantly while Neirude and Romeo were both at work, I went on some trips.

I went to Brownsberg which is a national park. Great scenery, nice waterfall, but because the rest of the group couldn’t walk that much and 2 of them didn’t like the rain (hello, Amazone, rainforest?) we didn’t do as much hiking as I was hoping for. The views of the Brokopondo Stuwmeer were amazing though: it looks like the forest is ‘breathing’! And this green frog was ‘the catch of the day’!


Matapika
Since Romeo works outside the city he knows heaps of people. One of his patients told him about Matapika where you can see endangered sea turtles lay their eggs on the beach sand and then swim away again. It’s difficult to get there because first you have to cross the Commewijne River, then go through an amazing swamp by tiny boat to finally get to the beach, so most tourists go to the more accessible Galibi.

But of course, Romeo, Neirude and I went to the less touristy Matapika where we camped next to the sea, we swam, we played like kids in the sand and best of all: we saw a Leatherback turtle lay her eggs on the beach during the day which is very rare, because normally they come during the night! The good thing of seeing a turtle during the day is that you can see everything very clear which is truly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The approach of the turtle, the digging, the slimy eggs, the noise and the ‘tears’ of the turtles. And the turtle was a giant…

Raleigh Falls
Last week I went (again on my own) on a truly excellent trip to the Raleigh Falls, a national park as well. The trip to the remote area by plane was absolute terror. Only 3 weeks ago there was plane crash with a similar plane and our flight was filled with turbulence and bad weather…So when we got to the ground, there was group bonding straight away! My group existed out of 3 couples and me, but honestly, it was one of the nicest groups I ever been with. All 9 of us (7 tourists plus guide and the cook) got on really well and we had remarkably deep and interesting talks about work, life in general and happiness, both in Suriname as in the Netherlands.

And we all enjoyed the long walks in the rain, the great views and the lovely waterfalls. We saw tarantulas and cute monkeys (Doodshoofd aapjes: I don’t know the English name), we heard Brulapen (don’t know the English again…) and we met the most dangerous snake in Suriname: the bushmaster. The last one apparently kills humans within 5 minutes and it attacked me and another girl. Not funny and the local guide should have known better than to hit the snake with a stick…Even I know that that is not a smart idea…
And we had a great laugh the final night when the locals played music and we all danced and drank beer. And as ‘slagroom op het toetje’, the next day we had to fly back in a smaller plane than planned. Only 8 people could fit in, so since we were with 9, one person had to sit in front next to the pilot. I knew all 3 girls were terrified of the trip back and of course, good boyfriends as the lads were, they had to sit next to the girls, I was the lucky girl to sit next to the pilot! It was amazing and the pilot even gave me the opportunity to take over the plane. But I didn’t do that: not because of the 3 pair of very jealous eyes of the boys but because of the terrified eyes of the girls…Imagine being shit scared and than this ‘linguist’ takes over…Nah, not a good idea.

Babunhol and Bergendal
For my final weekend in Suriname Neirude arranged a trip with her good friends Bernadette and her son Brandon, Ame, Martin and Suzan. We organized the trip while drinking nice wine the week before, Martin and I did the shopping on Friday and we were off to Babunhol on Saturday. It’s a place next to the Suriname River, more inland. The trip to the place was shocking (literally flying up and down) but I managed to sleep the entire drive. When we got there we pitched up our tents and after Neirude and I wrestled a bit in the grass which gave us both an allergic reaction, we ran into the water. We chilled, we chatted, I slept again and we had a nice BBQ and yes more wine…


Early morning we got up to go to Bergendal which is an adventure eco park. Again, we did something I had never done before: we went into the canopy of the rainforest and we went ‘canopy gliding’ (‘kabelbaan’ ) from one tree top to the other and finally we even crossed the Suriname River. It was really cool, Neirude and Romeo even went up-side-down while I went with only one hand to make a video with the other hand…
Next was quite an interesting historical hike. Well, honestly, it wasn’t much of a hike but more talking, but it was really interesting, especially the part about the slaves, the abolishment of slavery and just how things were back then. Bad thing to be Dutch in that time. We also came across a slave cemetery, in the middle of the jungle. Pretty amazing.
And last we went kayaking on the Suriname River. It wasn’t really exciting, but I did enjoy it. We weren’t allowed to swim because of the strong current and perhaps the piranha’s (?) but we went anyway. Nice for the cooling down…

To finish off this brillant weekend Romeo, Neirude and I went for a nice dinner with Romeo's family.

Can it get any better than this? I wonder...

Passionate Suriname…

Now back to the good life. For those who are not Dutch and for those who don’t know Neirude, it’s time for a bit of theory.

Suriname is located in South America but I have noticed that most South Americans don’t know it, together with the rest of the world... It’s part of the Caribbean and it is situated in between British and French Guyana and it’s north from Brasil. It’s tropical, which basically means it’s too hot for me. So I have adjusted to Romeo’s and Neirude’s habits: I drink loads, I take showers almost 4 times a day, I sleep with the fan on, I use factor 45 to protect me from the sun and I just go with the flow.

Back to history. Suriname was colonized first by the English but the Dutch traded New York for Suriname. The Dutch stayed for quite a while and Suriname became independent in 1975. It is interesting to see how much influence the Dutch left behind. The historical buildings in Paramaribo still look very Dutch to me, the official language is Dutch but the more widely spoken language is Sranan Tongo which is, of course, very much influenced by English and Dutch as well. Linguist as I am, I try to understand bits and pieces. If Neirude speaks it slowly, I can understand it, if Romeo speaks it rapidly (which is just normal speed of course), I am lost. Suriname uses the school system they have used since 1975 which includes the Dutch HAVO and VWO, but also the MULO which doesn’t exist anymore in the Netherlands. Nowadays they use their own schoolbooks, but before they used Dutch ones. And how can one forget the massive amount of Dutch interns in Paramaribo…It comes down to ‘if you see a white person, it’s an Dutch intern, and if you see that person, they are mostly blond and on a bike’. How stereotypical, but it’s true. So I am not allowed to cycle, because I’m not an intern…;-)


So how do I know Neirude? Neirude is born in Suriname (she is part Dutch, part Surinaams), but her family moved to the Netherlands when she was 6 I think. Neirude and I were in the same class in secondary school and we became very close friends. We are very different though: Neirude loves pink, glitter, glamour, girly stuff and I don’t. Neirude loves shopping, and I don’t. Neirude always studied really hard, I didn’t (take note of the past tense here…!). Neirude always knew she wanted to become a paediatrician (kinderarts) like her dad, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But all this never stopped us from becoming good friends. We are both a bit nuts (no shocker there…), we like our sports, we love hugs and we both like giving them, we like being active and see and do stuff. And we love teasing each other and guess what, we are both good at it too!
So after secondary school Neirude went to study medicine in Maastricht and I went to Utrecht. When I was abroad, doing what I do best (travel!), Neirude was in the Netherlands. Whenever Neirude was at her second home Suriname, I was in the Netherlands. So we haven’t seen much of each other the last few years, but we always said I should come and visit her in Suriname since we were, well I guess 13. So here I am!
And who is Romeo? Well, Romeo is her lovely boyfriend who I met 2 years ago. But this time I really got to know him. And I think he is even more lovely now. He is a GP (huisarts) and he does great work. He has told me loads of stories about his work and the surroundings where his clinic is. Interesting I might say, so it was very impressive to go to his clinic outside the city. Less important, but definitely relevant: he is an excellent cook. So after these 3,5 weeks we all do what we do best. Neirude saves little children, Romeo saves grown-ups and cooks, and I do the dishes and laundry. Excellent agreement. Mind you, it does feel like I have done a course in ‘medical degree for dummies’ the last few weeks: I’ve learned a lot!

So Neirude and Romeo both had to work during the week, and sometimes evenings or weekends. So I was as free as a bird. Romeo gave me the house keys, I got a mobile so they could ‘check up’ on me and I had to learn how to switch on and off their house alarm…Freaky machines, but I managed…And I got to know Nero and Caesar, their guard dogs. Nero is a massive scary rottweiler, but my theory is that they haven’t been raised properly because both Nero and Caesar just want to play with me. Am I not suppose to be a stranger??? So it happened that only after 2 days I called their home, my home too.


I enjoyed myself by walking around Paramaribo, doing the usual sightseeing, going for coffees, go to the cinema and read my book. As soon as Neirude and Romeo got home we did loads of stuff. I met most of the family, from both sides, I met heaps of friends of Neirude who I knew by name, but now I know how they are: and they are a great laugh! Neirude loves going to the gym, so I went along where Neirude’s best friend Bernadette tortured us with aerobic lessons (seriously, one morning I woke up because of muscle pain…). We went bowling, swimming and of course we went shopping and we ate loads of nice food. So finally a country where I am not loosing weight, but gaining it!

Glorious Suriname!

I’m getting slack at the end, I’m sorry. So much to tell, so much to write, but where to start?

Shall I start with the only negative story of my trip? I prefer to tell only the lovely things, so if you see me next just ask me how my trip from Peru via Venezuela to Suriname was like and I will tell you about how I spend the night at the domestic airport in Caracas, alone, by my self, feeling truly unsafe, I will tell you how I solved it by talking to all the security guards in Spanish to make sure they would help me if needed. I will elaborate about the horrible Venezuelan airline Conviasa who ripped me off and moreover annoyed the hell out of me. I will tell you how it feels to be awake for 48 hours, how annoying airport taxes are and how my tired face helped me with the customs when I just didn’t have hat 50 US dollars anymore to pay the 5th airport tax. I will tell you how scary it is when that dodgy airline lets everyone disembark the plane due to technical reasons, 2 hours later they get everyone on again and then during take off (yes, take off) the plane makes an emergency stop and we go back to the airport to disembark again. After another 2 hours we get on the SAME plane to finally go to Porlamar, luckily without any problems, but with an huge delay so I’m afraid I will miss my connection to Trinidad…but of course that plane was delayed for several hours as well, so I could start worrying about missing my connection to Suriname…And did I say I didn’t sleep for 48 hours? And then on all the planes nobody spoke English, so I was doing everything in Spanish, but when we got to Trinidad where everyone speaks English, all the Spanish speaking people wanted me to help them translate everything. And when I finally arrived in Suriname, I could have spoken Dutch to the custom officer because in Suriname the official language is Dutch, but the officer looked at me and said although I had a Dutch passport that he could not understand me. ‘What language are you speaking?’ he asked. And then I realized I was still speaking Spanish with a mix of Dutch words…Being awake for 48 hours does not work for me…

So I was extremely happy, which is basically a huge understatement, I mean it was a glorious event to get to Suriname in one piece and getting the most lovely and warm hugs and kisses from my good friend Neirude and her boyfriend Romeo.