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Being a native English speaker in The Netherlands isn't usually a problem. Everyone here speaks English. In fact, they can probably speak better English than many Americans. Where it gets difficult though is with the radio and the printed word. The radio is tough for those traffic reports where they tell you well in advance that if you continue going down the A2 you will be in a world of hurt due to...
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About a month or two ago, Scott Hanselman talked about wanting to build a new developer rig . He worked with Jeff Atwood to come up with a list of components to solve all his needs. My needs are a bit different but the requirements in a PC are fairly similar and I am getting a bit tired of working with my old box (a 2.4 GHz P4) or loading personal projects on my work Thinkpad T41 so I decided to copy...
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The promise is great. Earn your miles on one airline and reap the rewards regardless of the carrier. So when I fly 50,000 or 100,000 miles on United, I should get the benefits on Lufthansa, and the other Star Alliance partners as well. But it doesn't always work out that way. I flew today from Sydney to Los Angeles on United and got bumped up to Business. But the rest of the flight back to Amsterdam...
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Every now and then I like to check out the Visited Countries page to see how much of the world I have covered. Here are my current results. Wow! Now I still have to hit Africa and most of southern South America....and China....oh, India, and most of SE Asia....oh and all those places in the MidEast where my head might not stay attached to the rest of my body....OK, there is a lot to see still.... Go...
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Wow, its been over a week and it has snowed every day since….not all day every day, but each morning I have woken up with a fresh bed of snow on the ground…
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It turns out there is a secret toll you need to pay when you move to the Netherlands. This is a toll they never tell you about until you get the bill. The toll that I am referring to is how much the Customs people are going to charge you in bogus VAT charges. Customs will go through your stuff to verify that you are only shipping household goods and are not shipping stuff to be resold: fair enough...
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This morning I got to Schipol earlier than I had planned…well…actually all of the delays I expected from it being my first experience with public transport around Amsterdam didn’t occur, so I got there on time: 2 hours before my flight. I knew I had wanted to sign up for Privium a few weeks back, so I stopped by the office to fill out the application. Thirty minutes, one form, 110...
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In every city I have ever lived in, visiting good bookstores has always been important. And thus, finding good bookstores is always an important first step. In the Seattle area, I always loved visiting Elliot Bay Book Company, down the street from my first apartment there, as well as the Borders in Redmond Towne Square for one of the better computer sections in town. In San Francisco I visited the...
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Dinner in Amsterdam…well…dinner in the Netherlands…and possibly dinner in Europe in general, is different from dinner in the US. Actually what I am thinking about is dinner out. You go to any nice restaurant in the US and you will get a good meal, service will be quick, and when you are done you get the check. You leave and someone else comes in to take your table for their turn...
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When you spend any time in Amsterdam, you will notice the bikes almost immediately. They are EVERYWHERE. If you drive in the city, half of the time will be spent waiting for the hordes of bikes to get out of your way. If you spend any time in the city, its best to get rid of the car and get a bike instead. So in my first week I decided it was time for me to get one of these too. I asked around on Expatica...
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I am not sure why people do this. They all like to claim that their traffic is as bad as it gets. I was told when I got here that traffic is terrible and that I don’t want to live in Amsterdam and work where our office is in Vianen. When I lived in Seattle, the papers all claimed that the traffic there was worse than any other city in the US. San Francisco liked to complain about its traffic...
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So some might see the complaints I have made in the last few days and ask why bother with making a move? Sure, lots of things suck about Amsterdam and Europe. Customer service is lacking. Dog crap is on the sidewalks. Selection is slim. and so on. But there is so much more to love. Take for instance my walk this morning to the grocery store. I walked along the Prinsengracht, one of the canals here...
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I was told ahead of time by several people that the dutch had never heard of the concept of customer service. Buying anything was generally difficult to do. Today was my first real experience with this idea. When I arrived on Saturday I was told I would have to wait till Monday to be able to get the key for the parking garage I am going to be using. To get this I had to turn in a signed contract at...
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A week or so ago I posted a link to a wakeboarding article. That was in this little pond in front of the RijksMuseum. Here is what it looked like this morning.
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Well, I think I just re-learned the importance of learning Dutch, or at least a few words. The lesson happened in two places: first at Albert Hein (AH), then in my kitchen. Albert Hein is the local grocery store chain. The closest one to me is about two blocks away (a most scenic walk along the Prinsengracht). I actually made two trips to AH this morning. The first was a quick visit when I realised...
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