Amsterdam: living there

Schools

There are two french schools in the Netherlands as weel as one international school with w french section. In Amsterdam, there is a primary school, at la Haye there is the Lycée Van Gogh which has primary and secondar teaching, and finally in Bergen (Noord-Holland, about thirty kilometers north of Amsterdam) there is the international school of Bergen.

Daily life

The Netherlands people, are working a lot but and are working almost continously, stoping only 20 minutes at lunch to get a sandwich (botherham) and a glass of milk (glaasje melk).  At about 17.30, 18.00 they go back home. Usually Netherlands people are nice, are all speaking a few foreign languages, and are very tolerant. On the other side, it can take a while beofre you make some friends, because it's not usual to invite people at home which are not family or close friends since a long time. The best way to encounter and meet others is to go to nice pubs, at least in the large cities like Amsterdam, Utrecht, the Haye etc…

I was amazed (being a wife and mother working) by the fact that a lot of women are stopping to work when they become mothers. The Netherlands mentality is on this point very conservative, kindergarden places are very rare and waiting list can go up to 2 to three year. Concerning schools, studies usually end at 3.30pm.

A women with children who is working is often seen as a bad mother. You get used to it.

Mentality

Superficially nice and open, but very difficult to make friends. The people are usually travelling a lot are is sure to know perfectly the cultures of the countries he visited. Materialist, saving, tolerant, cultivé.

Fooding

Please let's change subjects. No, seriously, the Netherlands cooking does't exist and even the most nationalist of the Netherlands guy will agree. Hopefully, the large towns are full of foreign restaurants of all kinds, from thai to italian, passing through ethiopian. To try absolutly: the indonesian cuisine(Indonesia is an old Netherlands colony) and in particular, the “rijsttafel” or “table rice”: a choice of many meat plates and quite spacy vegetables going with rice, peanuts sauce, etc... A delicious meal. Guide to restaurants in Amsterdam

The cultural side

One nice aspect of living in the Netherlands is that is very interesting. Amsterdam is of course the city where most of things are happening. The more frustrating thing is about the movies, they are very american blockbusters oriented, but concerning the other activities, there is enough to satisfy every tastes, from classic music (see the website of “concertgebouw” ) or jazz, alternative clubs, gay night clubs, museums and art galeries, the many libraries...

The TV

Does TV has a place in culture? A good point with the TV is that everything is in VO or original version. No worries to see Dustin Hoffman or Depardieu speakeing dutch. The TV is received via the cable and there are about 30 channels, 7 dutch ones, 3 germans, the BBC, CNN, MTV, TV5 in french...