A New Chapter

Today is my last day at my current job. I have worked here for 6 months which was the lenght of my first contract. I had the possibility to keep working with a prolonged contract but have decided to quit. It is time to try something new.

My job was/is located in Enschede. Enschede is a small city far east in the Netherlands, just by the German border. It takes me 1 hour by train to reach Enschede, but first I have to bike for 15-20 min. Since my work-shifts have been from 09.00 until 15.30 it means I have had to start biking around 07.20 in the morning to make the train and be on time at work to log in to my computer and all the programs. I also arrive home around 17.00 because of the travelling time. This has been one of the reasons for me quitting my job.

But, I am used to travelling and I knew about it before I said yes to the job, so of course it is not the main reason for my decision. Before telling you the main reason I should however tell you a bit more about my job in general: I have been working at a callcenter as a customer service representative and with order-entry. Now, the job itself is perfectly fine, it is very changing and even exciting at times. I did not have the kind of service job where "the customer is always right", in contrary we are and we are allowed to "tell them off", in a nice way of course. You see, the company I have worked for is one of the biggest distributors of electronical components, and most of our business happens online. Once a customer does call it is usually because they have a question about something, or perhaps because something has gone wrong with their order. I am in other words never swarmed with phone-calls, which is nice. Mostly our job is about processing orders, and requests, by email, and phone. Of course the company still wants us to make business and sell more etc, but it is not a company that actively calls up people and tries to sell them things, so there's no need for us in customer service to act all nice and fake. We are tought that we are superior to our clients since we are the ones with the facts and information, and we shouldn't let ourselves get "walked over". So, in many ways, this has the potential to be a very nice job, so why did I quit?

Well, I quit because I, together with one other collegue, have been the starting force to the Scandinavian market, mainly Sweden. The two of us were the first customer service representativers for this region. The company has had Scandinavian customers for long, but they have just recently started actively trying to grow their market there, and we were part of that process. The only problem with this has been that since the market is still relatively small, we have had very little to do. We have been told to be patient, and I have been, but this added up with the long travelling, have just made me realise that I do not feel like I have the patience, or need, to wait for this to grow. The last couple of months have mainly consisted of me sitting in front of my computer trying to pass time every day. Now, a lot of people are now thinking "wow, that  sounds perfect, you get payed for browsing the internet or wasting time in general", well the problems are many for why this is not something to say "wow" about...

• Firstly, I have 3 different browsers to use, but all of them tend to crash frequently (and we are not allowed to update or change anything on our pc's). This limits my possibilities to entrtain myself online by reading articles, browsing websites, etc etc. I also have no possibility to have any sound on, so I can't listen to music or watch videos. (I have however spent some time watching rugby games, but it gets kinda boring without any sound too). 

• Secondly, reading might seem like a good option, and I thought so too, until I had spent two weeks reading constantly for 6-8 hours a day...my eyes and head were not happy and I was coming home more tired than usual. A little bit of reading is of course possible, as a distraction and a pass-time now and then, but the risk is that I miss an incoming email, and don't see it in time to pick it up, and then it goes to another representative and my statistics and "status" gets affected. So that was not a good option either. 

• And, thirdly, a day, maybe even a week, it can still be nice to have nothing to do at work, it's easy to pass time for a short time like that, but after a few weeks, well you kinda run out of ideas of what to do, especially when your possibilities are limited. I have spent a whole week playing different solitare games for instance, but then that got boring. Any game I do play needs to be without flash player in order to not crash the browser, and it might still crash it anyway. 

So, I hope that the reason for my decision is a bit more clear after you have read this. I am sure some people would thrive in a job like this and enjoy it very much, but I need something to do, I need to feel like I am actually working. Therefore, my hunt for a perfect job goes on and a new chapter begins. Now I have to go back to work, or well, find something else to pass my time with, writing this at least killed some minutes ;)

Dutch people love to complain, but hate to take action

If there is one thing Dutch people really enjoy, it is to complain. It is a daily habit of the dutch, they complain about everything from the weather to the political situation. I guess they are not too alone in this, as most people do like to complain. Mainly because complaining somehow gives us a feeling of satisfaction, and can sometimes make the problem seem smaller since we share our complaints with others. But one thing that do make the dutch stand out, at least a bit, is that they almost never take action.

Of course you can't take action against everything you complain about, but the dutch don't even take action against fundamental negative changes in the tax-system or changes that might make their living situation worse. If someone does decide to take action, these people are usually met with, well you might have guessed it, complaints.

For instance; last year the Netherlands decided to take away almost any benefits for studying, meaning that basically everything the student would get from the government would be a loan. Of course this was met with a lot of complaints and negativity, and for once there was actually action taken: some of the students started demonstrating. Great! This is what needs to happen in situations like these. But, what was the response from the common public? Well, they thought the students were greedy, and that the demonstration was uncalled for. One of the most heard responses was "just get an extra job on the side, that's what we did" or "if we could manage it, then they should be able to as well". In other words, the older people would simply come with the excuse that they also didn't have it easy but look at them, they made it through, and so should you. What?! Excuse me, but if everyone would think like this then we would never progress! But lo and behold, this is a very typical response from dutch people: they love to complain, but only about THEIR situation, they do not care about someone else problem, in fact they will even end up complaining about people complaining about, in their opinion, stupid problems.

I am not used to this at all... I am used to actions being taken even on the small scale. When something changed in school that we students didn't like we would demonstrate, or collect signatures, or hold official meetings with protocols and all and later it would be brought up by a student president. And this was already back in primary school. When there is something big happening in the political world or such then the whole Swedish internet blows up with articles, debates, Facebook-posts that get shared etc. It is noticed quickly that the public is not happy. But in the Netherlands, well, I don't see much of that. Take the current refugee crisis as another example. Among my Swedish and Danish friends on Facebook I see a lot of personal opinions and shared articles and debates from all angles, among my dutch friends I have barely seen any opinions at all, there's perhaps one or two people who have officially made their opinion clear, the rest are quiet or only make small remarks (complaints). I do not see the same level of coverage over the crisis in the media either as I do in the Scandinavian (and English) media. But if you talk to people, or listen to the radio, the complaints are there, as always, but of course, no action is taken on either side of the argument.

Now, as a foreigner, this is actually quite hard for me to live up to. I do love to complain, but I also like to take action, because what is the point of complaining if no action is taken? I see no purpose of it, complaining will only lead to bad feelings if there is no action and change. I am noticing that I actually have cut down in my complaining because of this, and I have started despising people who complain about the smallest things (especially since these small things usually easily could be changed, but instead the dutch just complain but do nothing for it to change). I have become a sour person in some ways regarding this, but I have also become a more content person, at least for the outside person, since I don't voice my complaints as much anymore...but I guess that's what this blog is for, voicing my complaints. Ah, the irony, isn't it lovely?

A well deserved update.

I guess I will have to start by saying that this counts as a re-start of this blog. It never really even got a chance to start in the first place, as I only published one post. I could come up with a lot of excuses for why my blog never fully got to live, but they would all be excuses. But now I thought I might give it a try again. My life is soon changing again, like it did 6 months ago when I got my first job here in the Netherlands, so why not bring this blog into my new life-chapter?

In this post I might as well give you all a bit of an update:
I have now lived in the Netherlands for 9 months, and I am still feeling very new to the country in some ways, and in other ones I feel very much at home. I have spent 6 of these past months working, in a city called Enschede that is about 1 hour away by car or train from where I live. Although this work-experience has been good in a lot of ways, and I have met a lot of wonderful people, I am glad that I am ending my contract in 2 weeks and moving on to something new.

The summer here in the Netherlands was under all critique, but that goes for the whole of northern Europe this year. I have visited NL other years in the summer and enjoyed it a lot, but this year it never fully bloomed.

I went to Sweden for 10 days in the beginning of August to catch up with friends and family and luckily the weather was quite nice that one week. We also had one or two ok weeks in June.

In June we celebrated Swedish Midsummer in the park, all our dutch friends got to experience a little bit of Swedish culture and we had a lot of fun. In the end of August I went with a few friends on a camping-trip over the weekend to the north of the country, Groningen. We were right by the ocean, and although it was nothing compared to the Swedish white beaches, we still enjoyed our time there a lot.

A lot more has of course happened during all these months that have passed, but mainly I have been working and living, time flew by. But hopefully you will soon be able to follow my life a bit more as I will publish more posts (yes I will, I promise this time!)

Until next time!

Spring has arrived!

Welcome to my first real blogpost in my new blog! I've been putting this off for a very long time, mainly because of the fact that I am a perfectionist and a procrastinator, which isn't the best of mixes. 

But anyway here we are. Today I thought I would just do a normal Lisbeth-rambl* about a few everyday things here and there. So, one thing I've noticed is that spring has finally arrived to the Netherlands! And I think I might win the international contest in happiness when it comes to this, haha! No, but seriously, nothing makes my life as wonderful as the end of the dark winter! The nicest part yet, is that in Sweden we don't have this kind of warm spring until mid- to late April, and I am enjoying every moment of it! 

Although, it has been a very Dutch spring, in the sense that we had a wonderful full week of warm spring weather the past week, but then the weekend came and it was like the winter had one last breath. It was so cold and grey and windy...brrr, I was wearing a full winter-outfit with gloves and all on Sunday, watching the rugby-game, and yet I was so cold that it took me hours to finally get warm again. But then, yesterday (Monday) it was sunny and warm again, so warm that on my bike-ride to town it was even too warm for my thin (faux)leather jacket! I was basically wearing a Swedish-June-outfit...in March!!! I'm so happy haha! 

Today I didn't get to enjoy the sun too much as I had a lot of stuff to catch up to on the computer front. But I did enjoy a late afternoon walk with the doggies, still warm enough for a spring jacket even though the sun was setting.

(not our apartment building, but one of its siblings that look the same)

Bobo enjoying the sun, and smells...

*a rambl: a Lisbeth word for rambling; (of speech or writing) lacking coherent plan: diffuse and disconnected

Welcome to My New Blog

Hi, and welcome to my new blog. 

I have had another blog for about five years, but I haven't been that keen to update it during the past two years. Mainly becuase that blog started out as a blog about my work in Spain, and since my life is very different now then it was back then I thought it was about time to start a new "chapter".

This post hasn't been planned out so it's kind of in the style of my old blog: rambling and un-organized.

However, I hope to have more planned blogposts and a more structured look on it all in the future. 

My plan with this blog is to write about my life in the Netherlands. I want to on one side keep my friends and loved ones updated about my life here, but I also want to write about the Netherlands in general from the perspective of an outsider. 

I am not the best writer, nor am I good at taking pictures, or at updating my social media. But hopefully I can still pull something together as a result that will still be acceptable. 

So, please, join me on my "new" hobby that is this blog!