Love-hate relationship with the Netherlands (Part 2)

Oftentimes, I complain about how expensive the Netherlands is. Of course, it will be terribly expensive if we convert the price in Euro to Rupiah. For instance, a meal usually costs 5-10 Euro or approximately 85.000 to 167.000 Rupiah, while in Indonesia, we can get a decent meal in a restaurant for 30.000 Rupiah including ice tea! Hahaha... but, no that's not my point about this high cost. Compare to other countries like Germany, the UK, or Sweden, the price in the Netherlands is significantly higher. Let's start with the cost of housing. In the Netherlands, even in a small town, the cheapest price is 200-300 Euro for a bedroom only. So you can guess how pricey Utrecht as a big city is. Yes, here with 400s Euro we only get a private bedroom only with other shared facilities. But my friend in Germany says that he lives in a dormitory with a quite spacy bedroom for only 200 Euro, and this is the price in Berlin! Furthermore, in the Netherlands, you must have (and pay) a health insurance for the cheapest option is more or less 60 Euro per month. At first, I didn't think this was a problem until I was told by my friend who studied in Denmark that if you have a residence permit in there you are covered by a health insurance automatically with no additional cost! OMG, why NL... why are you like this :(

My lovely small bedroom for 410 euro per month

As someone with rather thin-skinned and mixed with low self-esteem (yeah, I'm sorry), in the beginning, it was horrible to stay in the Netherlands. It was because of the directness of Dutchies in expressing their words and feeling. If they feel it's good, they will say as it is, and if they feel it's bad, they will also say it. It was kinda surprising also when my Dutch classmate was brave enough to ask the lecturer the question "Why we should learn this?". Like, wooow.... great! That question is definitely a nice suicide if being asked to the lecturers in Indonesia hahaha. This directness also comes to the feedback session from the lecturers. When you have a good remark so that it is, vice versa. Lecturers in the Netherlands expect all master students who are accepted in Dutch universities are capable enough to follow the education system. They don't differentiate between Dutch students who already know the system and international students who don't. On one hand, that's a good news, but on the other hand (especially for me) that is also stressing. So, me with new experiences in study abroad always get very honest feedback from the lecturer such as my English is not clear, my words present too much tautology, etc. The feedback will be more direct if it's given after the oral presentation. Although it must be constructive, sometimes lecturers will tell your drawback as it is. So if you don't perform well, don't expect you will get positive feedback too hahaha. But still, the directness of Dutchies is amazing. Well, later I eventually enjoy this habit because I don't need to try to cover up my feeling or no need to worry if people say okay but actually they are not.

Another thing that I don't feel comfortable is the "super-well-arranged" bureaucracy of the Netherlands. It means that their bureaucracy is rigid and sometimes confusing. I think how messy the bureaucracy of Indonesia is inherited from the Dutch colonialism. Although some processes are integrated, (okay let's admit the amazingness of OV-chipkaart as the all-in-one integrated transportation card throughout the country, for instance), some confusing steps still occur in some companies and public facilities. I have an experience how I was pissed off due to this terrible miscoordination. I was about to have a laboratory check-up for my wife and the problem was since my wife didn't have a Dutch insurance, I had to pay the bill. That's okay, no problem at all. But then it became distressing because I had to go to their office which was 30 minutes away by bus from the laboratory. Well, I did go to the office to pay and finally came back to the laboratory. The terrible thing then happened as the laboratory officer said that the financial officer missed a point of payment. Until that point was paid, the laboratory couldn't help me. Sooooo, I went back to the company office only for clarifying that miss *sigh* and surprisingly, the finance officer said that there was no problem with the payment. The point that was an issue for the laboratory officer was actually free of charge! *crying* With very tiredly facing this mismanagement, my wife finally had a laboratory checkup after all this issue was solved.

Having an issue with the bureaucracy could be a disaster

Well, all of these stories don't mean to scare you or hinder all of you who want to study or live in the Netherlands. Like yin and yang, everything has its balance. Although I do complain, I must admit that living in the Netherlands is super comfy. I think what people say about the stage of studying abroad is true. Now, after have been living for a year, I guess I can adapt to and gradually love this country, especially my lovely city, Utrecht! Thank God for this great opportunity, to let me have an experience living and studying abroad. I hope this love-hate relationship with the Netherlands makes me stronger more and more.