Well, it took me 6,5 years to settle in this country.
I moved to The Netherlands on November 2006, after finishing my studies and leaving my home country, my family, my job, my friends and my culture behind...
Many people just don't take the time to stop and think how easy or difficult it could be for someone to do that, but well, I don't care... I'm convinced I'm doing it pretty good, for someone who's life completely changed and started over in a whole new country, new language, new everything...
This month I finally set a point behind it. I became Dutch. Now, I was pretty nervous about that day because it meant the closure of an episode of my life: getting acquainted, but everything went more simple than expected.
Just when I believe I should be leaving my origins behind, is when I feel the most need to relate to people from the country I come from. Now I miss my origins more than ever and I feel that since I closed this episode, I can be free to be Venezuelan again, in behavior and charisma.
The things that changed the most to me when I moved here were:
1.- The weather: from 25/35 to -10/15 degrees celsius.
2.- My friends: suddendly I knew nobody and I noticed it was impossible to make friends here. Everybody was hostile and distant, but polite.
3.- Everything was clean, organized and on time... which I still enjoy.
4.- Here, people save and spend their money in very expensive apparel. But they have only one set clothing that they wear the whole season, so you see them wearing the same everyday. In Venezuela people buy normal/cheap clothes and wear everything different every day...clothes are not to be reused without washing them first.
5.- Driving and stoplights: Omg, they are not for fancy here!, they get respect!.
6.- Fines: for everything you do spontaneusly, you get a fine.
7.- Birthdays: the most idiotic thing, when one person is having birthday and you come to their party, you congratulate every member of the family... (??).
8.- Sexyness: The sexyness here is weird... I still don't get it, but if you were a large decolleté, EVERYONE will look at you, making you feel a filthy whore. They're not used to roundings in a woman's body, they're use to flat boobs which offer nothing to see. Women here don't wear make up and don't arrange their hairs.. and the ones who do that, do it very.... strange.
Now I can close this chapter of recognition and go ahead with living my life, because I know what for these people is normal and what is not. And I don't much care, as long as I keep my boundaries.
