Smiles from Miles Away

We have gotten a lot of questions from various people about our move so I thought I would start a list!

How are your jobs transferring? Will you work US hours?

We are going to be Netherlands employees and are both working jobs that way. We will not be working US hours. We have full European jobs and are paid in a euros. I start officially on my European team on April 15 so from the 1st-14th will be working flexible hours as I transition off my US team and on to my EU team.

Will you own a car? What about bikes?

We will not own a car in the Netherlands as it isn’t necessary and would honestly be more of a hassle. Ryan did sell his car in the United States. We are excited to get used bikes when we arrive! People bike everywhere (even in the rain) so we will also we doing that! I am hoping for a fun color bike as I am sure it will be in a LOT of pictures.

Are you learning to speak Dutch?

Hopefully! Ryan’s work has free Dutch classes so we will sign up for those. It isn’t necessary as most people speak English though and both our jobs will be all in English. It will be a fun way to meet people and useful to try to understand the culture more.

What is the COVID situation in the Netherlands right now?

Honestly, COVID isn’t great in the Netherlands right now and Europe in general is quite behind the US for vaccinations. We will be in a pretty serious lockdown when we arrive. Hopefully, things get better soon and we are just so thankful to arrive fully vaccinated. We did get these yellow vaccine passports from the WHO too just in case. Since the CDC is a US organization they aren’t internationally recognized. Not sure if we will need the yellow books, but it can’t hurt to have them.

How long are you planning to stay in the Netherlands?

At this point in time, we guess that we will stay for 2 1/2-3 1/2 years. We both feel like we need to stay 2 years as Ryan’s company helped with so much of the transfer and it is expected to stay at least that long. The maximum on the visa is 5 years, but I doubt we will stay that long!

Did you secretly get married? How are you on the same visa and not married?

Lol we did not secretly get married. It honestly wasn’t as difficult as I thought to become considered “registered domestic partners.” We sent in pictures, plane tickets, etc to prove our relationship and then were good to go!

How can I contact you? Will your phones still work?

If you have an iPhone it will be business as usual with iMessages and Facetime. If you are lame and don’t have an iPhone then Whatsapp is probably best! We are actually able to keep our US numbers while also getting dutch numbers. The new iphones have the ability to have 2 SIM cards.

Let me know if you have other questions!

❤ Melanie