Sooo... It's been a week since we landed in The Netherlands, and we thought it might be a good idea to write a proper update!
We left last week Monday, 19th August. It didn't start well... we found out at the desk that Klaas' ticket was not booked via Malaysia Airlines but via KLM and, therefore, he was only entitled to 23 kg in his suitcase. Well, of course, we had packed our suitcases to their 30kg max, and we were not about to leave anything behind! So we ended up having to pay extra. We're in the process of sorting that out with the travel agent over here, because it was their mistake.
To add to the stress, our flights out of Perth were 1.5 hours late (we flew with Malaysia - their plane left Kuala Lumpur late) which meant that we missed our connecting flight (which was supposed to be a KLM plane). The first flight was not that great. During the 5.5 hours, we had only about 0.5 hours with no turbulence, and the seatbelt lights were on the whole time. Not that much fun! As I suffer from airsickness normally, I had come prepared and had taken my sick tablets and all that before we left, so I was fine. Klaas, on the other hand, didn't handle the turbulence very well after a few hours. When he started to hyperventilate (and I started to freak out) I put on the light for the air hostess. One of them came and didn't appear to be too worried. They told me just to put his seat back and relax. In the end I gave Klaas some of my prescription sick tablets and after about 15 minutes that worked. Feeling so helpless was horrible, and I was very thankful when Klaas started to respond normally again. No thanks to the very unhelpful air hostess.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur and when we got out of the plane there were people standing with signs, waiting with new tickets for us. We were happy to get out of the Malaysia plane into what we thought would be a bigger KLM plane (and therefore less turbulent). However, as we missed the flight, they put us on the next plane to Schiphol, which just happened to be another Malaysian plane. This time, however, was not so bad. There was not much turbulence at all, and apart from being served a second dinner (the smell of airplane food when you feel a bit yuk is not so nice!) everything went well. We landed about 12.5 hours later at Schiphol.
Andries & Andre (both brothers in law) picked us up from the airport. We drove for about 2 hours where we were greeted in Zuidhorn by some of the family. It was great to finally reach our new home, and see familiar faces. However, by this stage I was soooo tired (we only slept about 4 hours on the plane) that I could hardly function anymore. After about 20 minutes of sitting with the family and talking I went upstairs to bed and fell asleep instantly.
The next few days were filled with 'settling in'. We had to go to the Gemeentehuis (we don't really have anything like that in Australia so it's a bit hard to explain) where we had to register me as living in The Netherlands. Only after that can you go to the IND (Immigratie en Naturalisatie Dienst) to apply for a visa. Anyway, Klaas rang the IND after we had been to the Gemeentehuis and organised a time for us to go there (which is tomorrow - Thursday) and they sent us paperwork which I had to fill in. At the moment we are applying for the working holiday visa. This will give us a year for Klaas to find a more permanent job, which we need in order to get the partner visa.
We have also spent many hours sorting out our room at the top of the stairs, where we live now. It was a big job, not only because we had our suitcases to empty, but before we could put anything anywhere we had to clean up the rooms up here. I have attached a few 'before' photos to show what it was like.
Our bedroom. There was a bookcase in the corner, but we moved it out. The stuff all over the beds was from the bookshelf.
Stuff everywhere!! You can also see my veil at the end of the black bed.
The 'living room' - the floor was covered with stuff...
The chairs were also covered...
The finished product you can see in the video below. Watch all the way to the end for een kleine verrassing :P
I'll leave it there for now! This Saturday is our 'second wedding day' and I'll get my hair done again, and we'll put our wedding clothes back on. I'll put some photos up after that so everyone can see :)
We feel very blessed to be in this beautiful country. We know that, for now, this is where God wants us to be. It was extremely hard to leave everything and everyone behind, and we would appreciate your prayers as there are still so many uncertainties. However, we know that, no matter where we are in the world, we have an awesome God, who holds everything in His hands.
