I can’t believe it’s been one – yes, one year – since I’ve moved to The Netherlands. In June of 2019, I received the news that I was accepted at the job I had applied to and I couldn’t believe it. I was serious about moving abroad, but I couldn’t begin to imagine the day when I would actually receive a call from HR saying that I had been accepted.
These news changed my life in such a way that, for the rest of 2019, I barely had any energy left to focus on anything that wasn’t moving, adapting to a new life and a new job – far from everyone I loved (except, of course, André). But now, after one year – or, let’s say “one year” (yes, corona, I’m looking at you) I can finally sit down and start jolting about what this huge life change has brought me.
In March of last year I was backpacking around Sri Lanka, carrying my 5kg laptop because I had several interviews scheduled with different people for an unmissable job opportunity … in London. This was because a few months earlier, we had decided that we wanted to leave Portugal. We wanted to have the experience of living abroad, getting to know new people and a new city. Another huge factor was our working conditions in Portugal: they were not the best, and like any Portuguese 20 something year-old, we couldn’t even afford to live by ourselves.
I did all of these interviews in hostels in Sri Lanka without air conditioning, with sweat running down my neck and bugs crawling and flying around me – all of this while trying to keep a very serious posture. I was really giving my best to fulfill my dream.
The interviews went amazingly well, and the feedback was even better than what I expected – but they found a better candidate, and they were so sorry about it. And the reality is this: there is always someone better than you, until you are the best. I ran out of options and felt discouraged – I didn’t want to apply to any company, as I had my own career goals.
Looking for a job abroad while in Portugal was not easy at all, and I did not want to risk going to a country without a guaranteed salary. After this disappointment, I decided that London wasn’t meant to be and decided to look for job openings in other cities. I ended up applying to one job in Amsterdam. A month later, I knew that I had been accepted and my life went into a stir of preparations.
Slowly, we got settled. We got our bikes (and yes, I fell three times on the first month cycling here), explored the whole country, welcomed many friends at our house and have been having lots of fun – at least the amount of fun that corona allows us to have!
Moving here was definitely a huge step in my life. I fulfilled my dream of living abroad, and sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that I made it. I’m happy here and I feel like I’m really living my life and progressing. Amsterdam and Haarlem (where I’ve been spending most of my time now) are great cities – I love the canals, the beach, the beautiful architecture, Dutch directness, cute cafés and freshly baked stroopwaffles. It was definitely worth all the effort and investment of moving here.
But let’s not pretend everything is perfect – bad days exist too, and they have been more frequent since corona. All the uncertainty regarding, well, everything (!) can be very anxiety inducing. Not having been able to see my family for 6 months was also very hard for me, but I was also lucky enough to spend quite some time with them during the Summer. And, sometimes, I do get a little annoyed with the bad weather – well, I’m Portuguese, a summer child.
All in all, I’m glad that we took this step forward and I’m very grateful for everything that everything has been going well. Now, this text took quite some time to write – I guess I deserve a break and a stroopwaffle! 😋
In August, I had to say goodbye to my friends and family. I had never felt such an emigrant in my life – standing at theLisbon airport, with giant suitcases and a tearful face. My friends surprised me and showed up at the airport with two Portuguese custard tarts (pastel de nata) and two Super Bock’s. I hugged my dad and sister and then we passed the gates. On the plane, we took a selfie and said, “here we go”.
We arrived in Amsterdam without a house, and André didn’t have a job. Our first days in Amsterdam were spent on an Airbnb, shared with an IT guy who was a part-time DJ. His bathroom even had disco lights. During the whole first week I suffered from a cloudy mind – everything was unreal to me and I felt like I was living someone else’s life, not mine. Also, the unusual strong heat and humidity didn’t help.
We spent hours contacting different landlords and replying to house rental listings. We were really worried, since we didn’t want to spend all of our savings on an Airbnb!
Lucky for us, we were able to find a house in only 3 days after arriving there. It was the second house we visited – the rent was low, the house was really nice and even had a small yard. It was in beautiful Haarlem, only 15 minutes from Amsterdam Centraal. And since then, we’ve been living here and we love it!
I started my job and I’m still really happy about it – the environment is very multi-cultural and I’ve been able to get to know people from several parts of the world. I’ve also been learning so much, and embracing opportunities that I could’ve never if I never left my comfort zone.
André was looking for the perfect job for around one month. He updated his LinkedIn, got mentored and went to several interviews. He was also studying and coding on his free time, to improve his CV. It was not an easy process, but he ended up finding a job that he really enjoys.
Slowly, we got settled. We got our bikes (and yes, I fell three times on the first month cycling here), explored the whole country, welcomed many friends at our house and have been having lots of fun – at least the amount of fun that corona allows us to have!
Moving here was definitely a huge step in my life. I fulfilled my dream of living abroad, and sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that I made it. I’m happy here and I feel like I’m really living my life and progressing. Amsterdam and Haarlem (where I’ve been spending most of my time now) are great cities – I love the canals, the beach, the beautiful architecture, Dutch directness, cute cafés and freshly baked stroopwaffles. It was definitely worth all the effort and investment of moving here.
But let’s not pretend everything is perfect – bad days exist too, and they have been more frequent since corona. All the uncertainty regarding, well, everything (!) can be very anxiety inducing. Not having been able to see my family for 6 months was also very hard for me, but I was also lucky enough to spend quite some time with them during the Summer. And, sometimes, I do get a little annoyed with the bad weather – well, I’m Portuguese, a summer child.
All in all, I’m glad that we took this step forward and I’m very grateful for everything that everything has been going well. Now, this text took quite some time to write – I guess I deserve a break and a stroopwaffle! 😋