THE SECRET IS OUT! EXPAT LIVING IN AMSTERDAM
Well, if you’re a die hard and keep up with my youtube channel, you would know we have a bit of an update for you. No, I’m not pregnant- haha! I know you were thinking it. But it is something we had been thinking about when covid hit, and man, it took us a good long time to come to this decision. It was a tough one.
As I’ve mentioned a few times across my channels, we moved to Amsterdam a little over a year ago with the intent to stay at least 2 years. Once we got here and realized how wonderful it is – we thought maybe 3 years – we even considered buying a place! However, when this virus hit the world and things began to shut down, we had to re-evaluate what the coming months/years would look like for us. As things played out, we found more and more reasons to head home for a good chunk of time. In addition to Ken’s office being closed, his team has also shifted (it’s all good stuff, not bad! thankfully.) and at this point it just makes more sense for us to be closer to home. Not to mention being closer to family during a pandemic, in addition to a few other reasons – it felt like the right choice. So, long story short – we are packing up again and going back to our home town of Vancouver, Canada. At least for now – haha – you guys know we don’t stick around in one place too long.
Without being too dramatic, this really was one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make yet. We went back and forth for what felt like months. Soon it was all we were thinking and talking about and we knew we have to just make up our minds and stick to it. To say I was sad to make that decision is an UNDERSTATEMENT! I was SO sad for weeks after that. I was constantly taking HUGE involuntary sighs – haha! I couldn’t help it. I’ve spent a lot of time looking out our window trying to memorize the cute buildings across from us, taking way too many pictures, and trying to drink in every little bit of the city before we leave. I really thought we had more time here, but what can you do? We just have to ride that wave and be so very thankful we got a year in this beautiful city.
Literally each time we took another step to make the decision more final, I would said WAIT – are you sure this is the right thing to do? Lets go through it again…and Ken would patiently walk me through each bit and piece again haha. It was like every time I thought about how much I loved Amsterdam, I totally forgot all the reasons we had to go home. Booking flights – WAIT – is this what we should be doing? – Giving notice on our apartment -WAIT – are we REALLY REALLY sure???? Ordering shipping boxes – WAITTT DON’T DO IT! hahaha
The feeling of wanting to be in 2 places is a weird one. And because we are lucky enough not to HAVE to make to decision but to have the opinion between the two – I mean, yes we are lucky but man it makes it tough! Even as I’m writing this I’m hoping we won’t regret it.
Having said that, we are SO excited to get home. Like CAN.NOT.WAIT. But now that I’ve had time to let it sink it and had time to get excited about going home, the sad feelings are fading and I’m just excited to get home. Although Amsterdam has been an absolute dream, there really is no place like home. And there is no better feeling than seeing those mountains through the plane window after 9.5 hours in that seat, knowing family and of course little Chico is on the other side. Ken and I both get a rush of endorphins when we see those mountains – it’s the best feeling ever. Instant happiness.
So there we have it. Onto the next adventure. Our time in Amsterdam was cut a lot shorter than planned, but we’re excited to see what comes next 🙂
I also talked about this in my recent vlog on my youtube channel. I always find I get my thought across verbally vs written which is why I tend to post youtube videos more than I blog here, but at any rate – chatting more about it in the video linked below 🙂
Xo, Andrea
Check out a few more recent posts here, here and here!
And be sure to follow along on Instagram and Youtube, where I post everyday Saturday at 9Am PST.
Photos in those post were kindly taken for us by Marissa Joan Ho Photography