And what I haven't told you....

We all know it now - with my new nationality I finally have no more visa problems here and, as I keep telling Martijn, I can go live and work in Spain. It is all good. However, there is something I have been sitting on for weeks and haven't written about here.

In March I had a job interview at a university in Amsterdam for a 4 year PhD position.. and I will start in August! The entire application process was odd and the interview was daunting; the position description and vacancy were written in English and my application was in English, but all correspondence I received was in Dutch. I had to ask what language would be used for the interview and it turned out that although I was free to conduct the interview in a language of my choice, at least half of the interview would be in Dutch. I decided to do the presentation and defence in English and the question-answer interview part in Dutch. I only had a little freak out moments in the 2 weeks leading up to the interview.

I have a hard time using, and sticking to, formal Dutch. Usually I can only keep it up for a few minutes and after that I use a mixture of informal and formal pronouns throughout the conversation. Although messy, most people understand and appreciate the effort. Martijn and I spent days addressing each other using formal Dutch, even when other people were around. Martijn was also a great help in practicing the question answer stuff in Dutch.

Accepting the position means a few changes - moving to a city halfway between here and Amsterdam, buying a house/apartment, and only seeing Martijn on weekends (he will stay in this city during the week). The ‘buying a house’ thing, especially in an unknown city, is daunting. The prices are incomprehensible. To make it manageable for me, I have my own little wish (some points are negotiable such as the position of the power points).

× Bathroom with a window

× Sunlight in the house

× Outdoor area big enough for 2 chairs

× Minimum floor area of 80m2

× Power points that aren’t halfway up the walls

× Office/spare-room

× Washing machine not in the kitchen

× Storage space

× Kitchen cupboards not directly above the sink

× (extra) toilet not in the bathroom

× Space to hang or store the bikes

So far we have seen 2 houses from the inside, and about 15 from the outside (looking through windows and peeping over fences). It is weird here. Most properties can only be seen during business hours or after work – real estate agents generally don’t work on Saturdays. You either have to continually take days off or view properties in the dark. I will let you know how the search goes.

I think I have written enough for the April update. The summary:

× Embarrassed myself at a pub quiz (I can’t show my face again)

× Started looking into buying a house in another city

× Lots of going out to dinner

× High-tea Dutch style (high teas are all the rage here)

× Citizenship ceremony

× Meeting a group of Aussies that work at a local linguistics institute

× Working lots of shifts in the bike store

× Counting down the days till I finish my current job