Very eventful day today.

I was supposed to start work tomorrow, but my boss is out of town until the middle of the month because he's running the NY marathon (and good for him), so I went in today to meet with him before he left. It would have felt weird to start work without meeting with my boss.

I woke up early (4am and then 5am) so I didn't get enough light yesterday to fully shift me over to this time zone. I've been taking melatonin on the first couple of nights I'm over here, and it does seem to help, but that might be entirely the placebo effect. At any rate, I should sleep better tonight. I'm not nearly as exhausted as I was last night at this time, so I'll probably sleep later tomorrow morning.

Since I didn't have to be anywhere in particular this morning, I sat around reading e-mail and Skyping with M and the kids. They were up past their bed times, but at least I got to chat with them. They act pretty damned silly in front of the camera (I'm sure it doesn't help that they can see themselves), and the Older puts on his "I'm nervous" silly voice the whole time, but its better than not seeing them.

I finally went down to breakfast in the hotel only to find out that it's €25 for some French toast and bacon. What a rip-off. I think I actually had wentelteefjes the Dutch version of French toast. It was very good, but not really worth the price. There's a little bakery around the corner that I'll try tomorrow morning.

Breakfast buffets are a bit strange over here. Most hotels seem to have some typical US breakfast foods like eggs or bacon, but they also have fresh tomato slices, cold cuts, and this one had pickled fish. Not what I want first thing in the morning (or at all, really) but interesting to see how different cultures eat slightly different things. I'm not sure how much of this is particularly Dutch, or if Europe in general would have similar breakfast foods.

Anyway, my meeting with my boss was at 12:30, and I had managed to tack on some other introductions for this afternoon as well. I walked over to the office (its about a 20 minute walk) and my new (and initially very comfortable) shoes ate holes in the backs of my feet. Ah well, the price of fashion.

The meetings went well, but I was starting to fade by the end. I realized later that I'd managed to forget to have lunch again (two days in a row).

On the way back from the office (ow, my feet!) I stopped by the train station to buy tickets for the next two days. There are lovely automatic ticket machines that run 24/7, but they only take Dutch ATM cards, Smart Cards (electronic cards loaded with electronic cash), or coins. I wasn't about to have €35 in coins, so I needed to see a human, and I wasn't sure how early the ticket office would be open.

I always seem to have some confusion when I'm buying anything over here. It might be the fact that I don't like to ask stupid questions, and the Dutch are more than willing to let you know when they think you have. Even though the guy behind the counter spoke perfect English, it took me a couple of tries to explain that I needed two round trip tickets, one for Thursday and one for Friday. We got through it without too much trouble, and I stopped by the ATM to replenish my cash. No troubles this time, so I think there must have been a glitch in the computer system while I was in the airport.

I went for a run around the Westerpark after I got back to my hotel. It was a nice little run, even though I took a couple of wrong turns. Add in all the walking, and I've now exercised more in the two days I've been here than I usually do in a week at home. I was hoping this would be one of the benefits of living over here, and our goal of having only one car will help as well.

Dinner was quite good. I found a little Thai place and had a very nice chicken curry. Amsterdam is known as a very international city, and my dinner was evidence of that. There I was in a Dutch city, eating at a Thai restaurant, sitting next to three Spanish speakers, and overhearing some American tell his Dutch friends about his experiences in South Africa. Somehow I found this whole thing pretty cool, and I lingered over my dinner a little more than last night.

One odd little thing about eating in Asian restaurants in Amsterdam (I've seen this now in a Thai place and an Indonesian place) is if you pay with a credit card, they bring the card, a pen and the receipts back to you in a pretty little latched box. I'm not sure why they do this, but I really like it for some reason.

Well, off to bed. I need to be up in time to catch the train tomorrow morning. I should have a cell phone and a new work computer by this time tomorrow. Maybe I'll even have a desk!

The time post may say 1pm, but it's 9pm here in Amsterdam.

The day turned into a series of mishaps starting with the flight being delayed by 3 hours. Turns out we made up an hour coming into Amsterdam, but not a great start.

Next my ATM card didn't work the first 6 times I tried it, but persistence won out, and I managed to get some Euro. I spent a few minutes on the verge of freaking out (I'm in a foreign country with €10 and $10 in my pocket, what do I do?!?) but in the end I think it was just a computer spaz. It makes me want to hoard my cash though. Credit cards aren't as widely accepted here as in the States, so I need the cash for certain essentials like bus tickets. I've started the process to get a Dutch bank account, but it may take a few weeks. In the meantime, if the card doesn't work again, I'll have to borrow from some colleagues. Something I hate to do, but it will get me by.

I caught a taxi (I had too much luggage to be comfortable taking the train, and they took credit!) to my hotel, but I was too early. There were no rooms at the inn (yet.) So after another two hour wait, I headed back to the desk to find that they'd managed to get me a room just before the hotel computers crashed (finally some luck!!)

I spent a little while in my room checking e-mail and getting things lined up for the next week or two. That was probably a mistake, but we'll find out tomorrow. I did manage to get out on the streets about 3pm, but the sun had started to set, so I'm not sure I got enough light to reset my clock today. Good thing I don't have any appointments tomorrow (yet...)

My hotel is near the central station but closer to the Jordaan neighborhood than I was last time. This is the part of Amsterdam I remembered from my trip two years ago. Lovely architecture, interesting little shops interspersed with houses, narrow streets and generally clean. It also helps that it's the off season, so the city isn't full of American, German and English college students looking for legal pot.

So I spent a couple of hours walking around and soaking up the light and the sights. I stopped back in my room to check the last of my e-mail and headed out to dinner.

Somehow I found this a daunting proposition. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was all of the "culture" guides to the Netherlands I've read recently, but I've been really nervous about going into restaurants here on the last two trips. Its clearly irrational. I did fine on my own two years ago, and I had a lovely time, so what's different now?

Anyway, I forced myself to go into the Koepel Cafe. It's really just a pub, but it went a long way to making me more comfortable with restaurants here again. The waitress was very helpful, the food was good (and too much of it!) and the half a beer probably didn't hurt either. They even took my corporate AmEx (most restaurants do) which will make the expense report that much easier.

On the down side, there was a very affectionate Dutch couple at the next table and it was a smoking bar. Both I could have done without, but even together, they weren't enough to spoil dinner.

Then back to my room to Skype with M. I miss her already, even though it's only been a day for me. Talking with the boys will be hard too, since when I'm going to bed, they're still in school, and by the time I get up, it's very late there. We'll have to talk on weekends I guess. Fortunately, it's only for these two weeks, and then three more after Thanksgiving. Then we'll all be in the same place again with a house and schools for the kids and a car and the beginnings of a routine. I'm sure it will still take us a few months to really settle in, but we'll have come a long way by January, and I'm looking forward to it.

My flight leaves tomorrow about 2pm. With the load of stuff I have to carry on/check, I'll need most of the three hours they recommend for international check-in. I'm going to miss M and the boys a lot, but at least its only for two weeks this time around.

I'll be staying in a hotel in Amsterdam for the first week at least. The initial plan was to find a longer term (read, cheaper) place to stay until Thanksgiving week, but nothing turned up. When I started looking harder at the schedule, I realized that M and the kids would be flying out on the 10th, and we'd want to be staying all together in a hotel in or near Hilversum so we could look for houses. So, I'll probably just extend my stay at this first hotel and minimize the amount of moving I'll need to do.

My first day on the job will be Thursday, but it won't be in Amsterdam. Due to the nature of my work, I'll be splitting time between the marketing group in Amsterdam and the development group, which is about an hour and a half by train further east. I'm not sure how that will work out in the long run, especially since I don't know how much time I'll be spending between the two places, but we'll figure it out. Even if I have to take the train half of the week, it's still easier than the drive I've had for the last three years. With any luck, a cell phone, badge, and new work laptop will be waiting for me there.

My stomach has been a nest of bees over the last week. It seemed like I'd wake up one morning feeling confident and happy, and there would be some e-mail from the Netherlands implying that all the wheels had come off the bus, or at least that no one could help me clarify what to do next. Then I'd go to bed that night sure that all was doom and gloom, only to find an e-mail the next morning sorting everything out nicely. Its been quite a roller coaster. I'm looking forward to being over there and getting things started. That will distract me from some of the uncertainty that still remains.

On the plus side, several things are clearer than they were. We're now looking at three schools in the Hilversum area. I've sent e-mails to each asking for time to visit when M and the kids will be there. I've also started planning out the specific work tasks for the three weeks between Thursday and when I fly back, so I have a better idea of where I'll be and when. I even know who I'm meeting with on Thursday, but not exactly when.

And yet, there are still ten million things to do. I have to keep my head out of the details as much as possible, or I still just get overwhelmed. My current worries are how to pay for the deposit on our rental over there, what documents will the schools want when we apply for admission, and where will I leave all my stuff when I come back over here for Thanksgiving week. I know that this will all seem like nothing in a few months (the worries I had a few weeks ago already seem like nothing) but right now it's a struggle.

But this too shall pass.

---

I wanted to mention my going away party last Wednesday. The weather was really bad which screwed up traffic, so we only had about half of the people who'd RSVP'd, but it was still very nice. My boss had arranged a few gifts. The first two were small things with our division's logo on them (can't let me forget them, can they), but the next two were something more.

The first was an electronic picture frame loaded up with pictures of the people I've been working with. It was really well done, and it will be nice to have on my desk at work to remind me of where I've been. The last gift was a Dutch bicycle to be delivered over there. It was arranged by a Dutch colleague who really knows bikes. A very nice gift, and something that will really help me fit in.

I was really touched by it all, and it was nice to have a chance to sit and talk with everyone. It's been a great three years there, and I'll really miss them all.

Tonight I had a goodbye dinner with some friends from work. We talked and drank and ate. It was very nice.

Dinner was at a much-too-hip-for-me place downtown, and I spent a few minutes before the others arrived looking over the city. It's a beautiful city, and it really is home. I've lived here longer than anywhere else except where I was born, and M and I have every intention of coming back here after our time in the Netherlands is up. I wonder how different it will look and feel then.

Otherwise, progress moves slowly forward. I've made a list, shortened the list and started knocking things off of it. Being home helps and hurts. I get more done, but it gives me a chance to focus too much on the move. There are still too many things up in the air for my tastes, but I got some insight from one of my co-workers tonight that may help a lot.

One thing I keep forgetting about the Dutch is that they are extremely direct. Direct to the point of not noticing indirect requests. So the typical American "It would be nice if..." or "Could you help me with..." may not get any response at all (especially if its by e-mail). You need something more like "Have a cell phone ready for me when I get there." It sounds like a demand even as I write it.

The problem is, I've been working with "Americanized" Dutch colleagues over here. They've been submerged in our culture long enough that they understand the polite, indirect requests. The people helping me coordinate our move are more typically Dutch. I just need to be more direct with them. My colleague said "be as direct as you can be and you'll still be very polite for the Dutch."

I'm sure we'll adjust, but I foresee problems when we come back and are much too direct for America. But truth be told, I could afford to be a little more direct now and then.

Tomorrow is my last day of work here in the US. It has caught me by surprise somehow. I have all the work I need to do done, and in many ways, I'm ready to go, but it still seems weird to suddenly be leaving. My going away party is next week, but I suspect I'll spend most of tomorrow wandering around and saying goodbye to people anyway.

I'm taking the next week off to work at home getting ready for the bigger move. I don't yet know how much time I'll have here at home to help with the moving process, and I don't want to leave M stuck with the bulk of the work, but I do need to be over there doing my job as well. Fortunately, the movers will pack EVERYTHING for us, so we really just need to decide what we're moving, what we're storing, and what to get rid of.

The kids have been pretty excited about the move up until this morning. M was discussing how some of the food might be different over there and the Older had a break-down. He didn't want to move and he didn't want to talk about it anymore. I think it was mostly morning unhappiness, since he was perfectly happy to talk about it later in the day, but its pretty clear that some unhappiness will be involved when the actual move happens.

This week, we talked with EduFax, a company that provides assistance in finding schools for your children when you're on expatriate assignment. We were convinced by them that we should put our kids into an International school (or a Dutch school with an International "wing") instead of a fully Dutch school. There is little concern about them adjusting to the new school now, but since English classes don't start in the Netherlands until grade 5, the kids would be behind in English reading and writing when we come back.

There are only a few International schools around Amsterdam (where half of my job will be) and most of them are full already. So it looks like we will live slightly to the east of Amsterdam in a town called Hilversum. We should know more on Monday when the EduFax people call us back with more information on openings.

We're tentatively planning a house/school hunting trip for M, and possibly the kids, the week before Thanksgiving. I'll plan to fly back here with them then, and spend Thanksgiving week working from the US and doing more preparations for the eventual move.

We learned a lot more about the move this week as well. We're going to be pretty well taken care of, with the company covering all of the moving costs including several I hadn't anticipated. For example, they'll pay for new appliances (the Netherlands is on 240V), they'll pay the difference between blue book and the sale price on our cars here, they'll pay for the rental management of our house here, and they'll pay the difference between the mortgage and the rent.

We feel more and more lucky to have this opportunity. Its zero risk for us financially and the company is providing a decent support network to help us find the things we need. I still feel in the dark about my first few days at work, but I'm sure that will all become clear when I head into the office on the 1st. At least I now have my tickets and a place to stay while I'm over there.

Here are some of the books on the Dutch that I've been reading to prepare for this adventure:

.nl - photography by Ben Deiman & Karel Tomei, text by Martin Brill

This is a lovely book of pictures broken up into sections with themes such as recreation, people and culture. Each section has a short story relating to the theme. The stories are quite good, and the pictures are beautiful.

de bevenkant van Nederland - Holland from the Top by Karel Tomei

Similar to the previous book with more lovely pictures, this time divided by Dutch province. Each section has a paragraph on an aspect of Dutch life such as the Monarchy or recreation. Lovely to look through.

The Netherlands - A practical Guide for the Foreigner and a Mirror for the Dutch by various authors

This is a book of essays and newspaper columns that discuss different aspects of Dutch life. It discusses such diverse topics as politics, economics, art, travel and sports. Its a quick read, and it's good at pointing out aspects of Dutch culture by showing examples of them in everyday life. I really enjoyed several of the essays and I got a rough first feel for the politics of the Netherlands.

Dealing with the Dutch by Jacob Vossestein

This book is focused on working with the Dutch in a business setting. It is written with an authorative air, and reads very much like a how to book. It gives many practical examples from the author's personal experience. (I'm still reading this one.)

The Undutchables by Colin White and Laurie Boucke

This is a humorous look at Dutch Culture, written by two British expatriots who have spent many years living in the Netherlands. It is thick with biting ironic wit which, while it makes for amusing reading, makes it difficult to determine what parts are honest and what parts have been greatly exagerated for humor value. All in all, a fun read, with, I suspect, more than a few nuggets of truth about the Dutch.

---

I found out today that we (M and I) will soon get "culture awareness training." This is a one day class specifically intended to point out the differences between the Dutch and American cultures. I've been through these things before for work, and I find them really facinating, even though I know that these classes can only prepare you for the stereotypical differences. When you're actually meeting and talking with people, individual differences often overshadow cultural differences.

Still, some things that we consider perfectly normal, the Dutch consider rude, and vice-versa. So its best to know what holes to avoid falling into.

I found out some good news and some bad news about legalization.

First the good news. We don't need to get the diplomas legalized. This is better news than it sounds like because it avoids even more of the bad news below.

Now the bad news. Legalization is harder than I thought, well, sometimes. Specifically, some states require certification by a county clerk before they can certify a birth certificate, and most birth certificates are certified by a local registrar or health official. Fortunately for us, three of the four states in question are fine with that. Unfortunately, one is not.

Things would be worse if we had additional documents to legalize in that state, since we would be required to get those documents notarized by a notary licensed in that state, then get the county to certify that the notary was legit, then get the state to legalize the document.

I'm not entirely sure what the value of all of this bureaucratic paranoia is, but we're just going with the flow on this one. I suspect this has extended the entire visa process by a couple of weeks or so, but the only way to shorten that would be to fly there and deal with it in person. That's not something I'm willing to do right now, since I need to be finishing up my current job and sorting our stuff to get ready for the move.

Another bit of progress was buying myself a laptop. Yes, work provides me a laptop, but I'm not willing to have my personal life and my work live so intertwined. My company makes it clear that anything on their laptop is theirs including e-mail and software. So, computer games, personal e-mail, and iTunes will be kept on my own machine.

Not much else to tell at this point. I still don't know where I will be living when I get there, but somehow I feel very unstressed about it. Maybe I'm too distracted by everything else there is to do.

I seem to have pushed the right buttons with the bureaucracy since all of my work e-mails today were about the transfer. It feels a little like getting attacked by a swarm of bees, but its better than not knowing. Here's what I found out:

I am going to be a "Knowledge Migrant." It sounds really cool, but it just means that my job pays enough that the Dutch government assumes I wont end up on the dole or taking an important Dutch job, so the visa process is somewhat simplified.

To support the "simplified" visa process, I need to provide just a few documents - specifically, passports, birth certificates, marriage certificate, and highest diploma for the four of us. Oh, and, except for the passports, these all need to be legalized.

Legalization is another "simplified" process to prove to other countries these documents are valid. Each document needs to be sent (along with its special fee) to the Secretary of State for the state that issued it. They stamp it and/or put a special letter with it and send it back to us.

Unfortunately for us, we were each born in a different state. Fortunately, these four states also cover our diplomas and marriage certificate. Unfortunately, we don't have some of the documents yet. You can see getting the visas is going to take a little while.

I was also contacted by the organization that will be moving us from the US, the organization that will help us find a house, and an organization to help us find schools for the kids. I also have conference calls set up with the moving company and the person in charge of the transfer.

I talked with a couple of colleagues that are currently on "assignment." In their experience, I am likely to find myself on a plane in a couple of weeks with no contract, no place to live, and very little other information. But I was assured I would be fine, and I'm sure that's true. Worst case will be to find a hotel (or crash on my transfer officer's desk) until they find me a place to live. The company will pick up the tab and I'll be too busy learning my new job to notice anything else anyway.

---

I promised to talk about our decision process, so here it is:

As I said, when I came home in July with news of this opportunity, M was not exactly enthusiastic. We'd mentally planned for this to happen in 2-3 years, but not now. We've only been living here for 3 years, and we're just starting to feel really settled in our schools and community of friends.

As I mentioned before, the whole things scared the crap out of me, but I knew that if I let my insecurity keep us from doing this, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. On the other hand, I didn't want to force M into moving for my sake, and I told her so.

Unfortunately, what I communicated to M was "its all your decision." Needless to say, this put a lot of pressure on her. She didn't want to be the reason we didn't go, but she didn't want to be forced into it either. Everyone we talked to said "you'd be crazy not to do it," and that just added to the pressure.

This went on for a couple of somewhat uneasy weeks. In a fit of cluelessness, I didn't realize what the problem was until I was describing the situation to a co-worker. She pointed out that M probably felt very alone with the decision and, just maybe, I hadn't intended to do that do her.

When I got home that night, we had a long talk about how we both felt and the good and bad things about the opportunity and how we would probably regret it if we didn't go. For the record, the good things are (in no particular order):

Great experience for the kids
Great experience for us
Chance to learn another language (maybe?)
More vacation = chance to explore Europe
Shorter commute + public transit
Great for my career
Chance for M to work on her projects with fewer distractions
Company will take care of all expenses

Bad things are:

Moving away from friends/family/schools
Hassle moving
Being shaken out of our comfortable rut (wait, isn't that a good thing?)

After that talk, M became the enthusiastic one. We also had a short talk with the kids, and they got really excited about learning a language we don't know yet. I think that will be a good incentive for us to learn Dutch as well, just to keep them from telling secrets in front of us.

As for me, I've gotten more and more comfortable with the upcoming uncomfortable transition. Ironically, I think the bureaucracy helps a bit as it takes the responsibility of control away from me. I just have to follow along like a cork in a river, and that's easier than having the illusion of control. I'm also really excited to start the new job. If only I knew were I was going to be living November 1.

As you might (or might not) imagine, the process of moving your entire family to another country isn't as simple as putting all of your things on a truck and showing up at customs. When a large company is also involved, things can become very complicated indeed.

So far, the process has gone like this:

The boss-to-be sent e-mail to my current HR person. After some discussions with my current bosses, she submitted a form to the "system" that lists things like my current position and salary, my family composition (married + 2), the job I'm being offered, my current and prospective bosses and HR people, and the first and last days and location of my overseas assignment.

The system in this case is literally a computer system that moves the data from person to person along the chain. The form next came to me to check and approve (which I quickly did) and then was sent on to my boss’ boss’ boss (boss^3 for those scoring at home) for approval.

In the meantime, I had started to ask questions. I mean, November 1 is not so very far away, right? Where will I be living when I get there? Will they pay for trips back here for Thanksgiving and Christmas? Will I finally get my own phone? Inquiring minds want to know….

The problem was, who to ask? I knew my HR person, of course, and I’d interviewed with an HR person in Amsterdam. In addition, I’d met the person in charge of picking people to move overseas, and I knew there was some kind of “transfer officer” involved as well, but it wasn’t at all clear. I talked briefly to my HR person and then started by e-mailing the HR person to be.

After a few rounds of “I can’t answer that, but person X can”, I got e-mail from the person in charge of my transfer. She identified all of the people involved in our move (an HR and transfer person in each country and various consultants and contractors for this or that) and carefully explained the process with particular emphasis on the fact that we couldn’t possibly proceed until my boss^3 had approved the form.

[If at this point you feel like you need a program to tell the players, you aren’t alone]

I dropped by my boss^3’s office and asked if she might click that button in e-mail to agree that she was willing to let me go. She assured me that she would before the end of the day. At the end of the day, I got a call from her explaining that she couldn’t figure out how to approve my form and would ask our HR person to come up and help out the next morning. I don’t blame her for not being able to find the right button to push, and if you’d ever used this system, you’d understand why.

The next morning, I stopped by HR to see if the approval had gone through. Apparently, my HR person had gone up and personally pushed the approval button, only to find out later that the form had somehow been rejected. She was calling IT people, complaining (and rightly so) about the system and trying to get the rejection turned to an approval.

Not willing to sit quietly and be processed, I sent e-mail to the person in charge of my transfer (she had stood up, after all) re-asking my questions about living, traveling and calling come November 1. She responded with a long voice message (she ran out the buffer on the voice mail!) re-iterating that the process couldn’t possibly proceed without that approval and she was also sending me another form (also in the system) that I should fill out as soon as possible. Not learning my lesson, I called her back, got her voice mail (surprise!) and re-asked my questions.

I opened the new form and discovered that it needed not only the information on the first form (which needed to be re-entered) but various other things like the purchase price of our house, transfer information for our bank, and our passport numbers and expiration dates. Of course, I’d just sent my passport out for renewal. Fortunately, FedEx had it on its way back to me, but I didn’t have a tracking number.

I spent that evening collecting what information I could for the form (“how much do we pay a year on home insurance?”) and spent the next day asking my HR to explain what information they wanted in which particular box. M called near the end of the day with news that my updated passport had arrived and, with that bit of information, the form was ready to submit. As I pressed the button to send it on its way, I noticed my voicemail light blinking…

Sure enough, it was the person in charge of my transfer. She said that although she understood that form 1 was about to be approved, it still wasn’t and now she really needed form 2 as soon as possible so she could put together the complete financial package, and by the way, she was taking Monday off, and it being Friday, nothing could possibly happen between now and Tuesday at the earliest.

I made a point of forgetting the whole thing over the weekend. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that form 1 had not only gotten its approval from my boss^3, but from my boss-to-be and some High Priest of Transfers as well. I’m not sure what happens to it now, since it appears to be complete, but I suppose we’ll find out on Tuesday when I start asking questions again.

I want to add that while this process has been complicated and somewhat frustrating, I’m finding it quite amusing. Its almost as though it’s set up to test if you’re really willing to go, or maybe it’s some big game where you have to figure out which set of buttons to push and how. In any case, I’m not about to give up. I’ll be in Amsterdam on Nov. 1, one way or the other. Worst case, I’ll look up my transfer person over there and sleep on their desk until I get a better place to live.
____________________________

M has pointed out that I haven’t talked about much about how we came to the agreement to go. I’ll cover that in the next post, then hopefully we’ll be caught up a bit and I can keep the posts shorter.

My first set of interviews was in mid-August. By way of unfortunate timing, I ended up with a non-direct flight. That meant that what could have been a 10 hour flight ended up being a 4 1/2 hour flight followed by a 10 hour flight.

Since there was a significant time change, I arranged to fly in two days early to give myself a chance to adjust and be on top of my game for the interview day. I figured I'd arrive the first day and stay up as late as I could. Then I'd planned a few business meetings the next morning, leaving my afternoon free to cope with my inevitable exhaustion. Then up early on the third day for interviews, followed by a flight back on the fourth day (Friday).

The plan turned out pretty well, but I hadn't counted on a few things. First, various phone problems (a topic for an entirely different post) coupled with increasing jet-lag made it difficult to call M as often as I would have liked.

I also discovered that being surrounded by a language you don't understand takes a toll on you after a while. Don't get me wrong, I never had a problem communicating when I needed something (I've had more trouble here at times) and everyone was friendly and willing to help. But when the Dutch aren't speaking to foreigners, they speak (unsurprisingly!) Dutch, and announcements on the train and most of the signs are in Dutch only. Coupled with my growing fatigue and the gray weather, I began to feel like I was lugging a weight around with me. Doubt began to set in. If I couldn't handle a few days in a foreign country, how could I ever manage three years? What was I thinking? By late afternoon of the second day, I was all but ready to call my potential boss and call the whole thing off.

Fortunately, the sun came out and I had a chance to wander around Amsterdam and lighten my mood. In addition, I discovered the hotel was only charging 0.30 Euro/minute to call to the US, so M and I were able to have a nice long talk. After a decent dinner and a good night sleep, I was ready for the interviews.

The interviews went quite well. I found out the job was more than I'd expected, and I quite liked the people I would be working with. The HR person I interviewed with told me they'd probably get back to me by the middle of the following week. Given my company's track record for speed, I figured it would be at least a couple of weeks before I heard anything.

Early Monday morning, I got a call from my potential boss saying that everyone had liked me as much as I had liked them and how soon could I come back for a second round of interviews? I guess they can move fast when they want to.

Schedule conflicts pushed the second round out to mid-September. This time I was able to book a direct flight, but some kind of "congress" was taking place in Amsterdam, and I ended up in a hotel in a business park near Schiphol (the Amsterdam airport). That meant that a trip into Amsterdam involved a 10 minute shuttle ride followed by a 20 minute train ride.

This trip, I didn't borrow the cell phone (I didn't have as many connections to make), but I discovered that the hotel was charging 3.80 Euro/min for calls to the US, so M and I still didn't talk as much as I would have liked.

Since my interviews were on the afternoon of the second day, it was critical that I stay up as late as possible that first evening. I traveled into Amsterdam and proceeded to wander around looking at the city.

I guess you look at a place differently when you're considering moving there. On my previous trips to Amsterdam, I had found it very inviting, with beautiful canals, lovely old architecture, and interesting museums and parks. This time, I noticed all of the graffiti, the "beware of pickpockets" signs, and the "coffee" and "smart" shops. I'm sure my jet-lag didn't help a bit.

I ended up buying a tasteless pre-made sandwich in a little market and eating it in a little park down the street. After sitting in the sun for a bit, I wandered further from the center of the city and managed to find the nicer neighborhoods. After a bit too much walking, I found that I still wasn't in the mood for human interaction, so instead of finding a nice cafe or restaurant in the city, I went back to my hotel, ate a slightly undercooked burger, and once again considered calling the whole thing off.

It was surprising to me how the gradual accumulation of small frustrations could build to the point of being ready to throw in the whole move. Phone issues, troubles making change, places that wouldn't take a credit card, and the constant feeling of being an outsider had all added up to the point that I was ready to hop on the next flight out of there. I expect that none of these things will be frustrations after just a few months (or even weeks) of living in the Netherlands, but we'll have to be very careful not to fall into that trap when the actual move comes.

At any rate, I managed to sleep well that night, and the interviews went quite well. I got a few e-mails when I got back implying that I'd gotten the job, but the boss to be didn't call me to give me the official news until the following week. He also let me know that he hoped I'd be able to start in early October, but I pointed out that I still had (and have) a number of things that needed wrapping up over here. He suggested we leave the exact timing to the HR people to decide.

So, my official start date in the Netherlands will be November 1. There is no time to arrange a full move of the entire family until early next year, so I'll have a couple of months of living over there without them.

In the next post, I'll bring you up to date on the bureaucratic process that I'm currently fighting.

Well, by now well into the middle.

I've been meaning to get this started for a while, so there's a lot of catching up to do. The story goes like this:

Early in July, I was informed of an opportunity to move to the Netherlands with my current company. We'd known that this was a possibility for a long time. Part of the reason I had joined the company was because of the potential for an international assignment, but we though it would be at least two or three more years before the opportunity came up.

M's initial response was something like "Not right now!" We had agreed just earlier in the year that this kind of opportunity would be better for the boys if they were a bit older. In retrospect, I don't know now what we were thinking then. The boys haven't really formed the long term friendships that they will in a few years. It just isn't going to get any easier than right now. We decided that I should at least find out more before deciding to say no.

The next step was a phone interview with the potential new boss. He asked that I make sure that my family was willing to make this move before he would bring me over to interview. After all, its an expensive proposition to fly someone to Europe for a week, and he didn't want to waste our time.

Making the decision to be willing to move turned out to be a bit harder than I thought it would be. Moving your whole family across the world may seem like a good idea when its years away, but when confronted with an immediate decision, its a bit more intimidating. In fact, it scared the crap out of me. Truth be told, it still does, but I know that if we'd turned this down because I was a little nervous, that I'd regret it for the rest of my life.

And really, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The boys are just the right age. They'll get exposed to a new culture when they'll soak it up best. Its a great career opportunity for me, and the Netherlands will be a great base for all of us to explore Europe.

Its also pretty much the softest possible landing for an international assignment. The company will take care of all the financial concerns. They really don't want money to be a factor in the decision. The Dutch speak English quite well, so we won't need crash language classes before we get there. The Netherlands is a pleasant country and the weather is mild, if a bit wet. And worse come to worse, our stuff is guaranteed to be shipped back home whenever and however the assignment ends.

So, we decided we were willing to go if the job really was right. And, of course, if they wanted me.

In the next entry, I'll talk a little about the interviews and how the bureaucracy has taken over.