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luckykaaStill pondering whether I want to stay here after my 3 months are up.
I took the job because it was offered and I hadn't been to Amsterdam before. I'm pleased I did. I'd never been to Amsterdam before. I would have felt like I was stepping backwards if I got a job in England (not so sure about Scotland).
Moving to a new country is tough though. And I wonder if Amsterdam is a good fit. It's exciting and liberal and there's lots of drugs and late night partying. I'm not exactly a wild party animal. If I stay I'll probably be committing myself to at least a year (6 month rentals are hard to come by and shifting stuff from Britain and back again isn't cheap). There are worse places to live for a year, but is this something I want? I have a few issue which make me feel a little dissatisfied.
The main thing is it's hard to meet new people, and I'm lonely! I don't know if this will resolve itself. There's meetup.com and a few others which are nice enough but I don't really find a lot of people I gel with. There are fannish types, and friends have been kind enough to put me in contact with them but they all live a bit far away for a casual visit. There is a monthly SF meetup which I'll go along to but that's not happening for another couple of weeks
For all its charms, Amsterdam isn't where I want to be. Where I do want to be is another matter (Well, Melbourne would be nice but not really possible). I'm limited to where I can be. Places seem to either make it difficult for foreigners (most of the places outside Europe), or hard for English-only speakers (most of the south of Europe). That limits me mainly to northern Europe. Scandinavia has appealed for a while. Certainly would like to give it a go, but there are only about a dozen companies in the region that I can work for (English speaking, C++ or Java), and they're not always hiring. Getting work there requires luck or potentially waiting a long time.
Must do something fun and write about that. This LJ is all getting too introspective.
I took the job because it was offered and I hadn't been to Amsterdam before. I'm pleased I did. I'd never been to Amsterdam before. I would have felt like I was stepping backwards if I got a job in England (not so sure about Scotland).
Moving to a new country is tough though. And I wonder if Amsterdam is a good fit. It's exciting and liberal and there's lots of drugs and late night partying. I'm not exactly a wild party animal. If I stay I'll probably be committing myself to at least a year (6 month rentals are hard to come by and shifting stuff from Britain and back again isn't cheap). There are worse places to live for a year, but is this something I want? I have a few issue which make me feel a little dissatisfied.
The main thing is it's hard to meet new people, and I'm lonely! I don't know if this will resolve itself. There's meetup.com and a few others which are nice enough but I don't really find a lot of people I gel with. There are fannish types, and friends have been kind enough to put me in contact with them but they all live a bit far away for a casual visit. There is a monthly SF meetup which I'll go along to but that's not happening for another couple of weeks
For all its charms, Amsterdam isn't where I want to be. Where I do want to be is another matter (Well, Melbourne would be nice but not really possible). I'm limited to where I can be. Places seem to either make it difficult for foreigners (most of the places outside Europe), or hard for English-only speakers (most of the south of Europe). That limits me mainly to northern Europe. Scandinavia has appealed for a while. Certainly would like to give it a go, but there are only about a dozen companies in the region that I can work for (English speaking, C++ or Java), and they're not always hiring. Getting work there requires luck or potentially waiting a long time.
Must do something fun and write about that. This LJ is all getting too introspective.
