Wrapping Up Europe

It’s 8:05pm here in Utrecht. Sitting in the kitchen typing away, listening to Damien Rice. Judy’s cooking dinner to my right. She’s cutting up a bag full of french beans. We’re talking about “typical Dutch.” She talks about this about this quite a lot. But I still don’t really understand what it is. “We keep it simple!” she says, as if there couldn’t be anything more obvious. “We keep our typical Dutch food simple, we complicate other things; but we keep the food simple, delicious.” I’m taking a second to let that sink in. It’s true.

Many things here seem so, so simple. The food, the laws, the lifestyle. Quite straight forward and simple. Everyone follows life as they should, and it all works out. It’s great. One of the very simple rules that is in place here is that you’re only applicable for a residency/work permit if you are 21 years or older. I found that out 3 weeks ago. So then I looked into other ways of getting legal work. I figured that there must be some way, some loop hole. Maybe a student visa? But then I have to go to school full time, and I can only work 10 hours a week. I’d also have to take on more loans. Maybe a working holiday visa? Those are specifically catered to people between 18-25! Turns out that Holland only offers those to citizens of Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. But legalities shouldn’t stop me from doing what i want! I’m Kent! I’m a chef! I’m a damn good one too!! So I went door to door for 3 weeks. Everyday I went into every food establishment I could. The consensus was there same everywhere I went. Restaurants and bars told me I had a great resume, but they simply wouldn’t pay me in cash.

But I didn’t take stop there! I kept going! I looked into everything I could think of, from working in a greenhouse to nude modeling at art schools! They all told me the same thing as the restaurants. Who knew, if you want to be a nude model in Amsterdam, you have to have a social security number!!!

After a while without any real source of income my bills are starting to pile up. Judy’s been supporting me, but that can only last for so long. After all, she just quit her job. So I went searching for ways to get back to the states. I found the cheapest flights I could, and my journey will take me on a train from Utrecht, to Eindhoven airport. From there I’ll take a plain to Dublin. Then Dublin to Baltimore, Maryland. It was the cheapest place I could fly to in the US.

I had an art teacher from Maryland. His name was Ed, and he is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met; not to mention his art of sense of humor! Aw Ed, how I miss seeing you at school. So I figure his home town must be something awesome! AND it was the cheapest place to fly to! And have I mentioned the culinary scene in this city? I mean, if you ever wanna make me weak at the knees, just say Charleston Restaurant, or Cindy Wolf. I’m going to be applying to her restaurant, and we’ll see what happens.

Oh, and did I mention that I’m going to be couch surfing for the first few weeks of my life in Baltimore? I’m going to be using that website to find places to stay while I get on my feet there. After all, I’m not going to have enough money to get an apartment right away. It’s going to be quite a lot of fun! I can’t wait. And that’s what I’ll be doing as of the 24th of March, 2009.

In the meantime here, I’ve been having lots of fun. The other day Judy took me for a tour of the city on her motorcycle. We saw…

Real Dutch Windmills

The Red Light District

And Ended with some coffee

It was a lovely time. And that’s what I’ve been up to.

—-Kent