Well it’s official, as I announced on Facebook last week, we are returning to Australia to live permanently. I’ve been really needing this and desperate to return home to be with my friends and family again. The culture here in the Netherlands just isn’t for me. I’ve given it a go, I’ve tried it, but I cannot stay because I know I will be miserable here.
I like the food. I like partially the “no sueing” mentality. There’s still a large sense of people having to be responsible for themselves. I like the 120km speed limit and the police not being quite so obsessed about it if you’re 6.3km over the speed limit. I like not having to water the garden (not that I have one). I like the drinking water.
But the things that make it unable for me to cope here is the constant grey cloud that hangs over the place. I don’t like the sense of being cramped and overpopulated. The fact that most of summer isn’t a whole lot warmer than the aussie winter. The fact that it takes around 2-5 years to become close enough to someone to call them a “friend”. I don’t like the sometimes horrendous speeds on the freeways and the lack of regard for the law. Or the really poor medical system at “base level”……. the “huisarts”. I don’t like the obsession with really strict policies when it just doesn’t, or shouldn’t matter…..but then when it does matter there is a complete lack of regard, ie. security in childcare centres.
It’s difficult to list everything, but there’s no need to. I’m going home, that’s all that matters 🙂
I’m getting really nervous now though about all the relocation stuff. Cancelling things isn’t just quite so straight forward here. They want to bind you in for life, and you’re not supposed to move house or die, let alone move countries. But hopefully we’ll get there. Getting pressed for time since it’s less than 1 month now. It’s going to be difficult to give the required notice for all the official departments such as childcare, apartment, phones, cable etc etc.
