New Chapter in Life

On Feb 24th, I immigrated to Utrecht, the Netherlands, to be with my love, who happens to be Dutch. The process of immigrating may initially seem easy, physically speaking, and it was. I resigned from my job, working for the federal government in Washington D.C., sold all my things, bought a one way ticket to Amsterdam, and here I am. Its that easy.

Mentally, that is another story. Its been a month since I left my old home to come to the new one, and it still has not hit me yet that I really am staying here, and I'm not just visiting. It will catch up with me soon, how much I miss seeing and talking with my friends, those that I saw on a daily or weekly basis back in DC. True, they are a phone call away, but the day to day relationships won't be the same. I have moved many times before, so I know how it works, it is nothing new to me. But above all, this move was 5 years in the making, so that M and I could have a 'normal' relationship finally and end this long distance pain, and be together for good. I'm happy to be here with him in our apartment, but of course at the sacrifice of a lot of things in my life: nearby friends, family, financial income and financial independence, my language, and my 'culture'...but yet, knowing this before hand, I still decided to move, I'm glad that I did! I'm finally together with M!

This blog will share the interesting experiences I come across here in Holland, either with my 'integration' process with the Dutch beauracracy, with the general Dutch public, my general day to day life experiences as an 'outsider'...as an alien, or 'allochtoon' in Dutch. But also, I reserve the right to talk about anything that may arise...travels, food, IKEA, and of course bunnies! We'll see how this blog transforms and takes shape.