Shawn in Dutch @shawnindutch - Tumblr Blog

So, I’m 5.5 years in..

I haven't been posting. My life has gotten pretty normal to me. But, I consistently get communications from Americans who want to use the DAFT.

Life has been pretty good. At first, I was working for my American clients and earning US Dollars. Of course, I was spending Euros and the exchange rate was around 0.8.

Now, the Dollar and Euro are almost identical. But, I have stopped working for clients and instead I have 4 businesses in Europe. I have 3 in the Netherlands and 1 in Belgium. So, things are easier monetarily.

My use of the language is still pretty rough. I'm working on it.. But, not with concerted effort. Most of my effort goes to maintaining my businesses and making sure that my kids have the most opportunity that I can provide.

My oldest is 12 and she graduated from 'basic school' to 'gymnasium' which is essentually an academic high school that prepares students for pursuing advanced university degrees.

My youngest is 6 and she's in basis school. We moved to the NL when she was ~1 year old. So, she's grown up around Dutch and English both. We speak English exclusively at home. When she's out with friends or at school she speaks exclusively Dutch. She still is behind in both languages. But, we're assured that she'll catch up in time and be completely fluent in both. However, since her parents speak fluent English then she'll gain more advanced vocabulary in English than in Dutch. I don't mind.

Politically, we're really unhappy with the VVD and Geert Wilders in general. The world is turning into a consistently uglier place.

Brexit threatens my businesses (which directly bring money into the Netherlands). But, the idea of Geert Wilder's clan constructing something like a Netherlands "NEXIT" would severly damage my businesses.

My partner has finished her statistics master's degree and is not a consultant. She's no longer here under my "DAFT" meaning that she's now allowed to work. With DAFT spouses aren't allowed to work in the EU, only for their own company. But, she was hired as with a work visa so we're more secure than ever.

My partner has applied for her and our two children to gain their Dutch passports. This means rejecting their American citizenship. We feel like this is the best plan for us. We will be able to utilize the web of support that's limited to the Dutch and our living costs will go down slightly.

I'm to retain my American citizenship so that we can migrate freely between the countries. Of course, this comes with a few negatives. I'll always have to pay American taxes. That's not so bad but it's very annoying and requires administrative fees. Additionally, the USA demands bank statements from every account that my name is on.

Anyway, that's enough for now.

I am not a lawyer or an immigration professional. But, I'd be happy to answer DAFT questions if I can. Don't expect an IMMEDIATE response. We can probably be friends.

Have you ever noticed how many interpersonal interactions in Japan are like "speed dates" of set questions? For example, the taxi drivers who have the odd

This lines up with my experiences.

In a week we move to a new home. It's a block away from the school that my kids go to and a really nice seeming neighborhood. It's still very much in the city, which I'm happy about. It's also larger than our current tiny little home.

Here are some old pictures of it.

#utrecht

I don’t know my potential, but it’s becoming easier to see my limitations.

Imagine your situation now. How "on top of things" do you feel? I spent most of my life, up to my mid-late twenties feeling pretty confused by life. As I got to my late 20's things started to make more sense. Perhaps it was my brain finally maturing, perhaps my life experience was catching up to me, or more likely a combination of the two. It didn't actually strike me that I was starting to feel competent until I moved to the Netherlands.

Sometimes, it feels like I spent my first 30 years of life learning enough of the American culture, economy, and government to exploit it. Then, I move to the Netherlands and so much of what I knew seems worthless here. No, it's not that it's worthless. It's more that so much of worth here hasn't been learned yet...

So, I was a guy who was decent in my game. I moved to Europe. Now, I feel like a child on a consistent basis. I'm apologetic and embarrassed where I was maybe fluent or even irritated at the lack of fluency of others. I'm doing good work, but my unique situation regarding my part-American part-Dutch life seems like it will forever draw a divide between me and others. I think that I could be less divided if I simply rejected everything Dutch and performed only as an American.

Sometimes, you only see how far you come when you look back at what you were. It's true that I've come a long way and that I wouldn't want to go back. It's also true that I never really felt at home in the USA. But, I certainly feel like an alien now.

I am beginning to believe that this won't change. Perhaps this is the cost of immigration, at least for me. I'm not like the rest of my family. "Just living" doesn't make me better at Dutch. It just doesn't. I spend my days finding new ways to make money to improve my family's situation and to gain freedom and be rewarded more from my work. When I'm done, I come home and unwind.. I enjoy my family when I can and then I go to sleep and start over. I don't actually feel like I have the luxury of relaxing at all, much less slowing down and breathing in the culture or the language.

No, I think that if something is going to change it's going to have to be inside myself. Likely, I will just wake up one day and realize that I don't value learning Dutch language / culture as much as I use to. I expect to grasp more strongly to my identity as an immigrant, as an alien entity, and that I will have to give up on some of the hope that I had for myself in adapting to life here.

I don't know how my wife was able to pick it all up so effectively. I don't know where she found the time or energy. My kids, I just take for granted that they're kids and that we dropped them into the middle of Dutch school and boom.. they speak Dutch now.

I'm happy with my life. Every day I appreciate where I am and am happy about my decision. I often say that it's one of the best decisions I've made. But, it's also painful to discover the limits of your capabilities. I don't know exactly what I could do if I had a 'perfect situation' in which to achieve my goals. But, I can see clearly what it's like to hit the wall.

#immigration #isolation

This is a photo from a local buurtfeest (neighborhood party). It was the week of July 4thish and the heat was on. The parents of the neighborhood decorated a square to look snowy and had 15 or so different activities lined up for the kids. In the picture you can see the results of a snow machine shooting snowflakes into the air.

These are put on entirely by the parents in the neighborhood for the kids there. It costs 1 euro per kid (they get a little card with a list of all of the activities). After doing each activity, a checkmark is put next to the name.

At the end of the activity time, there was a puppet show and all of the kids were given popsicles. Afterwards, the kids all picked up potlids and pans and paraded as a unit through the neighborhood banging the lids against the pans and making as much noise as possible. This concluded the event.

All in all, it was a very nice experience. I find it interesting and pleasant that they have so much time available and so much focus on their children.

#utrecht #buurtfeest #neighborhood party

I'm posting this a bit late. But, this was taking in the bar 30 meters from my home. This was taken the night that the Netherlands lost against Argentina in the World Cup.

During the actual game, the entire place was packed and everyone except for me and my friend were wearing orange shirts.

#utrecht #world cup

Whelp, I was a part of my first park barbecue. We got some disposable grills (pictured), set them on the grass, and just lit them up. When they were ready we throw meat on and that was about it.

It was a good time. The park was pretty full of other people doing exactly the same thing, sitting around on the ground with friends, and drinking beers.

Someone drove up a cargo bike with a laptop and speakers and played music in the park. Mounted police mentioned to him that there were complaints and that he needed to shut the music off (I'm not sure who complained, it wasn't super loud and was quite decent to have around).

He mentioned that people were having a good time and asked if he could just reduce the volume. They said ok, and he did. Then, the police stuck around for a while to measure if there'd be any new complaints at the new volume level. When satisfied that the peace was kept, they left.

We ended up picking up at 11:30pm-ish and heading home. For me, it was a 5 minute walk.

#picnic #utrecht #specklapjes

Hello Shawn- Excellent blog by the way, I had a couple of questions I was wondering about. One with your business up and running in the Netherlands what is your tax rate for your business in comparison to the USA? The other question being how do you enjoy the people and culture over there? Is it easy to make friends and go out or are they more reserved to becoming friends with an American? -Thanks, Aaron from Kentucky

There's a bit of xenophobia going around Europe at the moment. Not any more than the USA, really. Some old people may be annoyed that you don't share their culture. But, I ignore such people. This kind of person is the same everywhere.

When it comes to most normal people, they won't care at all that you're an American. As a matter of fact, when I first moved here I was sort of apologetic for being American. What I discovered is that it's weird to believe that they care about your country. They have their own lives and things going on here and they just don't care about the states that much. I actually regularly hear Dutch people say things like, "a country and its people are separate things." (referring to individuals, culture, geography and government)

Neither my wife nor I have had any real difficulty making friends; her in university, me in the software engineering community.

I was curious if you have to start a business through DAFT, or can you buy one through it too. Thank you for all this wonderful info!

I really don't know! Sorry!

Hello Shawn! My husband and I are seriously considering moving his freelance business to the Netherlands with DAFT. I was curious if you could answer two questions regarding this process- 1. How long did the approval process for your business take? I'm reading up to 6 months. 2. While waiting for approval were you able to begin your freelance work? We are planning on hiring an immigration lawyer to help with the process, but these are two important factors to consider! Thanks so much! Amy

For me, it took between 2 weeks to about one month to receive the documents. Technically, you're not supposed to participate in the labor force during this time. I don't believe that if you are appropriately discreet that it will matter. But, I'm no lawyer.

The road in the center of Utrecht where I work. I spend a lot of time here. Anyone who knows Utrecht at all will immediately know exactly where this was taken.

That red awning to the left is the Douwe Egbert's where I sometimes stop for coffee in the morning.

#utrecht #Dom Church