Where did I go during August? I moved!

So during August I took a month long vacation, which is a pretty long vacation. But I did so because I moved across the world. Specifically, I moved to…

The Netherlands!

I moved to the Netherlands with my parents, to stay here for at least 4 years (because my mom got a job here). It’s not everyday that one gets an opportunity to live in a different country, so I decided to go along with my parents, and now I’m living in Europe.

Our flight was in the middle of August, and we’ve now moved into our new apartment, though because we sold our house furnished, our apartment is still pretty sparse, decorated mostly with unpacked boxes. However a most of the furniture I ordered for my room has arrived, and I’ve spent a lot of time assembling it and arranging it (though I still have some boxes left to unpack haha).

I love it here though! The apartment reminds me of the farmhouse that I lived in as a little girl, because both are pretty old (by North American standards).

Also there are many many cats in the neighborhood. So far I’ve seen 7 or 8 different cats. I used to have a couple of cats, and a dog, but we couldn’t bring any of them with us overseas, so I’ve been missing them a lot, but seeing all the cats and dogs around the neighborhood has been comforting to me.

Also, I never realized just how car-centric North America is until I arrived here. I can’t drive, and have no intention to learn how to drive (trust me when I say I would not make a good driver), so I was pretty much stuck where I was, unless my parents where able to drive me somewhere. Whereas in the Netherlands, because of the way that things are organized, I can walk to cafes, grocery stores, boutiques, hair salons, etc. And anything that’s too far to walk to can be easily accessed by bicycle, bus, or tram. I’m really looking forward to getting a bicycle and riding around the city once I become more comfortable with the street layouts and how the traffic flows.

I think that moving here is also going to be beneficial to my mental health. I haven’t talked about it much publicly, but I tend to be a rather socially-anxious and self-conscious person. I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to go out and expose myself to various social situations and public activities, so I tend to get overwhelmed very easily. This has even extended to my blogging. Despite having published my first post 4 years ago, I still get nervous about publishing blog posts and sharing content online, however having a vacation from it has made me realize just how much I love creating content.

So in conclusion, I’m grateful for the opportunities to push my boundaries, and I look forward to my next 4 years of content creation and European living!