Official 'Welkom' to the Neighbourhood!

I had quite a slow day yesterday. I never left the flat all day as I decided to search the internet for English speaking jobs here in Rotterdam. My success at finding opportunities was, shall we say, excruciatingly minor and the process itself felt like I was wading up to my knees through a peat bog. Although it comes as no surprise, my overall feeling from yesterday's search is that it is very hard to find a job here if you don't speak Dutch. I acknowledge the limitations of this 'overall feeling' as it is based on one day's search of the internet and about 5 attempts to drop my resume off at shops advertising vacancies. This process however once again brought about the importance of learning the Dutch language in order to fully survive here (unless of course you're working for an international company - but these jobs tend to be full-time and are recruited from internal pools). It also made me wonder what happens to those who have limited funds upon arrival in the Netherlands and how they manage.

It was only when Pdot got home that I snapped out of my trance with the computer and went to the store to buy groceries for dinner (the recipe included ground meat and peanut butter...it was actually delicious! I swear! Ask Pdot!).

As I walked back I was stopped just outside my building by one of our neighbours. Although I believe the neighbour's position as welcome-representative is unofficial, he welcomed me to 'the Noord' (the North), which is the area that I live in, and gave me a bag that included a portfolio of welcome information (yes, all in Dutch), some fliers for businesses in the surrounding area, some cleaning tools, candies (black liquorice – yum!), tea, pens and pads of paper. I thought it was fantastic! This small offering gave me a sense of belonging to 'the Noord' and made up for some of the day's slow pace. Pdot told me that this neighbour helps out quite a bit in our neighbourhood, especially with the children (in fact as I was speaking with him a couple of little girls were banging on our front door calling to him to fix their bikes, “Mijn Fiets Meneer!”) and during local events that are held every so often in our neighbourhood. Although I wonder if all neighbourhoods are as lucky, this welcome helped establish me as a resident of the area and brought the idea of ‘home’ somewhere closer to the idea of Rotterdam, Netherlands.