We walked to a cafe near our house for dinner. We went in one door and they told us that it was just the fast food/grill door. If we wanted real food, we needed to go through the other door.

So, we went around to the other door. The same person met us there and asked us if we wanted to eat inside or outside. We said in. She put two tables together for us and started explaining the menu to us. Then another employee came over and started talking to the first in Dutch. The first then apologized because she said she didn’t realize that it was almost 6pm. They close at 6pm, so they couldn’t serve us. But, we could go back to the door we were at originally and order some fries or something from the grill.

So, back to the first door again for an order.

Oh, and we got in trouble for standing in the door because it was setting off the door alarm which was annoying in the kitchen.

Overall, I felt a bit more like an inconvenience than like a customer. However, the food was really good!

We need a van and home internet. Those are my two most immediate priorities right now.

To get either one, we need a Dutch bank account (it turns out you can’t buy a car or pay for internet on your credit card here).

To get a Dutch bank account, we need a residency permit.

To get a residency permit, you need to be sponsored by a Dutch company.

Luckily we started this fun chain of events several months ago. Tilburg sponsored us for residency, and we started that paperwork in June. We went to the municipality and got temporary residency permits on Friday. We then immediately tried to open a bank account. Unfortunately, you need an appointment to open an account, and the soonest appointment was today (Tuesday). So, we went in today.

We signed all the papers. Unfortunately, it takes 4 days to process the paperwork. At that point we can transfer money into the account.

However, we can’t use the account for another 5 business days after that.

At this point I’m starting to get a bit anxious. How do we get internet? Water/gas in our names (our landlord was nice enough to keep it in their name temporarily when we moved in)? Cell phones (plans require a bank account)? A van?

Luckily P&D Care knew a little secret: you can apply for most of those things (not the van) once you have applied for a bank account, even if the account is not yet active or funded. They don’t bill you for 30 days, by which time the account is funded.

So, we will hopefully have home internet in the next few days (hopefully they move faster than the bank).

Oh, and the bank is a cashless bank. We can’t deposit cash, exchange money, or withdraw money at the bank. They do everything online and only online, except for open a bank account. That is done in person …

Before coming to the Netherlands, I listened to a “Learn Dutch” audiobook. It didn’t have a ton of vocabulary, but one of the phrases it kept repeating was “de kerg straat”, meaning “the church street.”

I thought that phrase was a little odd to use when teaching a language. There aren’t that many “church streets” in the US. There certainly are here though! Even our little town with a population of 1,100 people has a beautiful large Catholic church with a gorgeous bell tower. It rings the time every hour and half hour, 24 hours a day. Luckily we’ve figured out how to sleep through the ones at night.

On Sunday we went to our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The closest one is in Breda, about 7km (4.3 miles) away.

We had heard that people in Europe weren’t very religious, so we weren’t expecting a very large congregation, but there were actually a lot of people there. We were even more amazed when people started apologizing for the kiwi attendance. Apparently a lot of families hadn’t come because (1) half of the roads in town were shut down because of the Tour de Spain bike race taking place in Breda that day and (2) it was still holidays, so a lot of people are on vacation.

Nonetheless, there were enough people at church that they had to open the overflow. We also heard that they are building a large new building because they are bursting at the seems most weeks. Before COVID they had over 200 people attending every week! Numbers have dropped a bit due to COVID, but attendance is still a lot higher than what we had in Massachusetts.

There was a lot of energy and excitement in the meeting. It was a real pleasure to be there.

One interesting thing is the degree of international diversity in the wars. Most people are Dutch, but there are also a large number of English, Spanish, and Portuguese speakers attending as well. We weren’t the only new family there. Another new family had just arrived from Portugal. They spoke Spanish and Portuguese, but not Dutch or English (although they could understand some Dutch).

So, we ended up with a fun bit of translation going on. Speaking Spanish, the mother of the family introduced their family. I translated what she said to English, and then someone else translated to Dutch. I think most weeks they have simultaneous English and Spanish translation (they only did English this week, likely because people were unable to come due to the race and holidays).

Getting to and from church was an adventure. We still only have the 5-passenger rental car (but there are 7 of us). So, we drove to church in shifts. Linda dropped JJ, Henry, and I off at church and then went back home to pick up everyone else.

Coming home, we were worried about being blocked by race traffic, so I told Linda to drive home and Timmy and I would walk. It was a nice, but somewhat long, 7km walk.

We are very much looking forward to (1) getting a larger car and/or (2) getting bikes.

There are a lot of things that are just a little bit different here. Each one has its own unique learning curve.

For example, our oven is a combination oven, microwave, and grill. You can even do fancy programming, such as “microwave for 5 minutes 5, then bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.” That’s a fun idea, unless you have to learn it through Google translate as you are trying to simply bake a frozen pizza while jetlagged, holding a 9-month-old and having the other 4 kids asking you to explain how the oven works and asking when dinner will be ready.

Another example is our dryer. Our dryer in the US heated the clothing and blew the humid air outside. Our dryer here is a condenser dryer, meaning it captures all the liquid in a container that you have to empty after every cycle. We, of course, went through three days of thinking the dryer was broken before finally learning the secret.

Out final example is keys. At our home in the US, locking the door was a choice. It was almost impossible to accidentally lock yourself out of the house. Here, the door only opens if you put in the key. No doorknob, just a keyhole. So, don’t ever leave home without a key … Ever.

It’s been quite hot the last few days, getting into the high 80s and low 90s. However, most Dutch homes don’t have A/C.

So, we’ve been opening our windows at night. The open windows allow in a nice breeze, but with that breeze comes (a) humidity (it rains almost every day) and (b) flies.

Luckily the spiders seem to take care of most of the flies for us.

Unfortunately, the spiders seem to enjoy nibbling on us. We’ve got a lot of spider bites to show for it!

The town streets are different from those in the US. First, they are brick roads. Second, they have a single lane for cars, but often have two lanes for bicycles.

Just across the street is a wonderful little park. I took Adelaide and Henry over there to play. Some other kids were digging a big hole in the sand. Adelaide wanted to help. So, she asked me to use Google translate to tell her how to ask “Can I help you dig?”

Thus, our first conversation in Dutch began: “Kan ik je helpen graven?”

Boy: “Ja”

Adelaide: “Where”

Boy: “Daar” (“There”, followed by some pointing)

And just like that, the Dutch conversation was over. It turns out the boy spoke English, so they talked in English the rest of the afternoon.

We started renting our house on August 7th. However, JJ (age 12) had a camp until August 12th.

For a bunch of reasons, we decided to split our party into two groups. Linda took Timmy (10), Adelaide (8), and Sarah (9 months) on August 10th. I came with JJ (12) and Henry (5) on August 14th.

Linda was amazing! She flew by herself with 3 kids, rented a car (a stick shift) and drove to the hotel. The next morning she drove to our new house to get the keys at 11am, the equivalent of 3am Utah time.

I came with the other kids on Sunday. We told ourselves that it was already Monday in the Netherlands when we left (which was true), so we were at least keeping the Dutch Sabbath day holy.

We were very lucky. There were enough empty seats on the plane that JJ, Henry, and I all got our own rows! I had Henry lay down right after we took off and he slept almost the entire flight (the flight left at 9pm). I was also able to lay down and sleep a bit.

When we landed, Linda was supposed to meet us at the airport to take our luggage. We wouldn’t all fit in the car, so I would take public transportation to the house with a couple of kids. I had even printed off directions with train/bus numbers and times so I wouldn’t get lost.

Unfortunately, Linda wasn’t at the airport when we landed. I texted when we landed. I sent an email when we went through Passport Control. I WhatsApped through customs, and I repeated all three as we stood outside the airport. Nothing. The clock ticked down and I was worried we were going to miss the schedule I had printed, so JJ, Henry, and I loaded up our 9 bags plus a booster seat onto the train.

45 minutes later Linda finally got cell phone service. There was a road closure that Google hadn’t told her about, and apparently AT&T has spotty reception in the Netherlands. So, she made it late to the airport and then just turned around and came home.

The first train was uneventful. The second train started out fine, but the conductor asked us to move our luggage. When it came time to get off, JJ started handing me luggage off the train. Moving it that far meant we weren’t fast enough though, so the doors shut before he got off with the last two bags. I stuck my hand between the doors, but that doesn’t work in the Netherlands like it does in the US. I banged on the doors and shouted to the conductor. A friendly passenger pushed the emergency button and they opened the doors back up to let him off. Phew. Almost lost a child on my first day.

Our third train ride was uneventful and we were almost home when Henry sort of gave up. He just laid down on the train platform. A few minutes later I convinced him to get up and pull his two little suitcases again. Unfortunately, we missed the bus. We literally saw it pulling away as we crossed the street.

Our town is so small that, even with the great Dutch public transit, busses only run once an hour. We were only about 4km from home at that point, but there was no way I could convince Henry to walk that far, especially pulling suitcases.

We tried calling/texting Linda again, but she didn’t have reception. So, we took another bus that would put us only a 1.6km walk from home. Right as we were about to get off the bus Linda called back. I couldn’t talk though, since we were trying to get all 6 suitcases, 2 backpacks, a satchel, and a booster seat off the bus.

When I called back, we had spotty reception. I told her the way we were walking and she said she’d come pick us up. We walked about 500 meters when she arrived. The car couldn’t fit everything though, so we loaded up some suitcases and she took JJ and Henry home. I had almost made it home when she came back and picked up me and the last two suitcases. Part of me wanted to walk the last 100 meters, but the tired part of me won out, and I rode the last little bit.

Finally home. Molenschot, Netherlands.

Tilburg has been a huge help as we’ve been moving out. They sponsored us for residency and they hired a company, P&DCare, to help us find a house, get bikes, etc.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the Netherlands isn’t quite equipped to handle families of more than 5 people, and we’ve run into some difficulties.

First, there are very few Dutch homes with enough rooms to fit all of us. We tried searching for a while, but got nowhere. Luckily P&DCare came to the rescue and found us a home in Molenschot, a town of about 1100 residents.

Residency papers were another matter though. The application system didn’t allow for more than 3 children. I had to contact HR. They told me they couldn’t override the settings, but they could add a second spouse. So, with my first wife, Linda, we are applying for residency for our oldest three kids. With my second wife, Linda, not to be confused with my first wife, also named Linda, but a legally different person for residency purposes, we are applying for residency for our other two children.

So, for future reference, it’s easier to have two wives than to have 5 kids in the Netherlands.

Our final problem is a car. There aren’t a lot of vans for rent or sale in the Netherlands, which made the move a challenge.

One of the best decisions we made on this adventure was to split up the “move out” and the “move in.”

The kids finished school early June. We packed up everything we thought we needed for the next year into our van (we didn’t even use a luggage rack). We put everything else in the basement. Then we drove across the country in 3.5 days to go to a family reunion in St. George, Utah.

We left our house empty for the next 2 months, which is why I’m so late starting this blog. We didn’t exactly want to advertise that our house was empty.

I flew back to Massachusetts at the end of June to finish packing and getting ready for our renters (a wonderful couple who are just starting at UMass). Our friends, the Speeks helped me do some last-minute cleaning. Then I left our home for good! I flew off to Greece and then Spain for work conferences, and then flew back to Utah to be with the family.

We stayed with Linda’s family for a wonderful two months before we flew to the Netherlands. More about the move in the next few posts.