One week later

December 13, 2009 - Our first week is completed. We have arranged a lot of official stuff: social insurance numbers, bank account, child benefit, medical care, etc. And all these things bring their own “hurdles”. These hurdles aren’t impossible to take, but do cost a lot of extra energy. Even with my good grasp of the English language, I have to sometimes double check what it is exactly that they require or mean.

Cisco is going to school since Tuesday and is very at ease. His teachers are positive about him, despite the fact that he is very tired at the end of the day. But he is allowed to, it is all new for him too. Fortunately this is a merry period with lots of singing and crafting.

In the past week we have also done some major shopping. We bought all kinds of electrical appliances (washer, dryer, vacuum, tv, iron), which we didn’t take along because of the different voltage and electrical plug. Plus a lot of things we had been able to borrow until now: china, pots, pans, kettle, tupperware, kitchenware, and so on. And to top it off, some furniture to be able to store it and … a Christmas tree!

What we still have NOT accomplished is an internet connection. This bugs us a lot, because internet banking, skype, e-mail, you name it, all depends on that. The problem is that this rental house doesn’t have a landline. So it’s merely a way of installing internet, but first they need to install a landline. The internet provider doesn’t do that, so they need to call another company to have that arranged for. And they are a little slow. There is the option of arranging a mobile internet connection (through a stick in the laptop), but the monthly costs are much, much higher. I guess we just need to be a little more patient.