Spring has finally arrived!

I will probably be punished for my optimism by another two weeks of freezing cold, but for now spring seems to be here. On Saturday and Sunday it was really nice and sunny and temperatures went over 15 degrees C. It's amazing how fast you adjust to Dutch temperatures; we actually thought it was warm! In Taiwan, we would still be complaining about the cold at 15 degrees ...
The very Dutch Pannekoekenbakker in Eersel

On Sunday, we took advantage of the spring weather by riding our bikes to Eersel, a little village about 11 km from Veldhoven. There, we had pancakes for lunch at one of the many 'Pannekoekenhuizen' (pancake restaurants) of this region. It must seem a bit strange to foreigners that we have pancakes for lunch or dinner, instead of for breakfast or as desert (we do have pancakes -flensjes- for desert as well though). But anyone visiting the south of Holland should try the pannekoeken at least once. They're kind of the Dutch version of pizza. The pancakes in Eersel were delicious and way to big. Good thing we rode our bikes there, so we could burn off at least some of the calories.

We're making good progess on the house. The two upper floors have been plastered, two build-in closets in Emma and Janne's room have been built, we decided on and ordered the floors for the two upper floors, as well as everything for both bathrooms, we decided which floor we want on the ground floor (maple), and which design for the kitchen.

Last week Friday, our Honda CRV from Taiwan passed the final inspection! As of next week, we will be driving our own car again. In the end, it was surprisingly easy to import the car and no changes had to be made for it to be allowed on European roads. It's nice to have something go better than expected, for a change :-)

My job at ASML is still in limbo. I didn't hear back from the person who offered me the position (yet). We'll see if it's gonna work out or not.

We are still waiting for the culture 'shock' to kick in. Of course, we do see differences between life in Taiwan and life here. But so far, there has not really been a shock. We were amazed at the efficiency of all the (local) government departments/agencies. As soon as your register in your town, all relevant government depts seem to be notified. Within four weeks after our arrival, we received notices from social services, health services, vaccination agencies and all kinds of other agencies. Without any effort from our side, we knew exactly what we had to do, where we had to register and what information was required. Truly amazing. Especially compared to what we were used to (as foreigners) in Taiwan. Maybe it's similar here for foreigners, but for Dutch, it's fully automated.

Another difference that we notice is how full everybody's agenda is. Every weekend is filled with activities and trips and we need to plan weeks ahead if we want to visit friends (or family for that matter). We, on the other hand, do not have overflowing weekends. People warned us that that would change soon and that we would be longing back to those quiet first months ... We'll see :-)